This article was originally published on September 19, 2019 in Bostonia. By Megan Woolhouse.
Last spring, Academy Award–winning actor Julianne Moore (CFA’83) sat down with a handful of acting students in the lobby of the Joan & Edgar Booth Theatre for a conversation about the craft. In 2018, playwright Martyna Majok, fresh off a Pulitzer win for Cost of Living, met with student playwrights. And Broadway casting director Tara Rubin (CAS’77), one of the top names in her field, treated students to a private workshop in how to audition earlier this year.
CFA students have had many opportunities to learn from some of the biggest names in show business. It’s the kind of exposure that gives students the deep perspective they need to forge successful careers, says Harvey Young, dean of CFA.
“By hearing people’s stories, by learning about those other people’s insecurities, their anxieties, those moments of doubt, it grounds our students,” Young says. “It allows students to see that even when they face adversity, they can still move forward.”
It’s also part of a renewed effort to bring the arts—the experiences Young says make “life worth living”—into more people’s lives on campus and beyond. The arts have never been more central at BU, as evidenced by the new BU Hub requirement that students of all disciplines take classes that satisfy an aesthetic exploration requirement.
And the campus has also benefited from having a locus of high-profile arts activity. The opening of the Joan & Edgar Booth Theatre and College of Fine Arts Production Center at 820 Comm Ave, across the street from CFA, ended the University’s 33-year residence at the BU Theatre on Huntington Avenue. The new complex, funded in part by a $10 million naming gift from BU trustee Steve Zide (LAW’86) in honor of his wife’s parents, has a 250-seat theater, production and costume shops, classrooms, and offices. Next door, at 808 Comm Ave, home of the new and expanded Howard Thurman Center for Common Ground and the 808 Gallery, significant renovations are underway.
And the CFA building itself is in the midst of an aesthetic transformation. Its imposing exterior will be converted into a pedestrian-friendly facade with arched floor-to-ceiling windows that will allow passers-by to peek inside. The Stone Gallery and the movement studio are also undergoing renovations that include a new street-level entrance.
Young, now in his second year as dean, says the investments have helped him further his vision of heightening awareness of the arts throughout the BU community, and in Greater Boston. Any night of the week this past spring, he says, a visitor to the area of Comm Ave just west of the BU Bridge had a host of entertainment options, from strolling between galleries to taking in a musical or theater performance to catching a live event, like a podcast taping, at WBUR’s new CitySpace venue.