Starting with 2023-24, Danville Area Community College will begin putting on two theater productions each school year at the Bremer Center.
President Dr. Stephen Nacco says there have been classes offered, but now students participating in productions during a semester, on stage or behind the scenes, can receive a partial scholarship where they take the class for free; similar to how the DACC Pep Band works.
Nacco says Dr. Penny McConnell from the Adult Education Department will be leading the way. And these will not be DACC only productions. Organizations like Red Mask and Danville Light Opera will be able to get involved.
Danville Area Community College Bremer Conference Center
AUDIO: And the idea is it’s not just DACC students alone. There are community theaters in the area that would love to participate with us. So it’s connecting that and leveraging all these relationships. So it won’t be just DACC students. It’s DACC students learning from semi-professionals and local community people.
The productions scheduled for the 2023-24 school year are “To Kill a Mockingbird” and “Hair.” Dr. Nacco says there’s something about the first of the two that will definitely appeal to those involved in local theater.
Also during the April 27th DACC Board of Trustees meeting, DACC Board Chairman David Harby swore in the new Student Trustee, Decarlo Flagg, Jr.
AUDIO: When you take “To Kill a Mockingbird,” it’s on Broadway. Those community theaters cannot produce those plays as long as they’re on Broadway, but a college can. So there’s their way of becoming part of productions that they couldn’t otherwise do; because it’s on Broadway.
Dr. Nacco says the plan will be for one dramatic production and one musical each year.
