Slashing the budget is an art, not a science

Tufts University has some performance issues. It’s not that Tufts can’t get it up – in fact, the sheer size of Tufts’ membership in groups that encompass all kinds of theater, music and dance is astounding.

However, the performing arts at Tufts are often dismissed as unnecessary or not important enough to invest time and money in.There’s a lack of performance spaces, lack of structure in the organizations that supposedly regulate performing arts groups and a huge lack of funding for groups who want to reach further than, say, Hotung. That’s the impression I got when I came into my TCU Treasury meeting to discuss the budget of Cheap Sox, Tufts’ award-winning improv troupe, and heard that 75 percent of our $2,000 budget was going bye-bye. This wasn’t money that was being spent on travel -- it’s a $1,500 fee for a once a year workshop at a professional improv theatre. Cheap Sox has typically done this workshop in Chicago or Los Angeles (usually traveling on our own dime), but there’s no reason we couldn’t do it in Boston or New York. Apparently, that was too much to ask for from the Senate, so now our budget’s biggest item is “pink bowling shirts.” Meanwhile, there’s $7,000 in the Senate’s budget saved in individual stipends for four elected members in the TCU Senate -- $3,000 saved for the TCU Treasurer alone.

For those of you who did the math, Cheap Sox is sitting on about $500 for a full year of shows in the greater Boston area, including trying to book professional touring troupes from New York and Chicago. Compare that to Mock Trial, whose budget is an insane $13,300 (seriously, go look that up; I don’t know why imaginary gavels are so expensive). I know that a lot of its budget is tied up in travel and will get cut, and I know that they’re not the bad guys in this situation. Still, what Mock Trial will be left with financially is considerably more than Cheap Sox’s budget for the 2015-16 year (if you want to see our new budget, just let me know). Looking at the numbers across the board reveals a huge disparity between TCU funding for performing arts groups and for those like Mock Trial or Model U.N., which has a $14,232 budget. I know we’re all getting our budgets cut, but the arts have consistently been pushed to the side and made the lowest possible priority by TCU.

I bring up Mock Trial because what it does is uncannily similar to what Cheap Sox does -- come into a room full of people and put on a show for them. For some reason, what Mock Trial does is “serious” and “matters,” and Cheap Sox’s shows can be reduced to cheap college comedy. But if Mock Trial is just preparing for a real career as a legal eagle, shouldn’t Cheap Sox be considered training for a career in arts and entertainment?

Hank Azaria and Rainn Wilson were in the same production of "Uncle Vanya" here at Tufts when they were students. Azaria got top billing in the program, while Wilson sat at the very bottom of the cast list. Think about that. The stars of The Simpsons (1989-present) and "The Office" (2005-2013) were in the same play here, and had the biggest and smallest parts in a show put on by 3Ps.Jessica Biel, Oliver Platt, Tracy Chapman, Staś Kmieć, the groups Guster and Timeflies, Meredith Vieira – all these people, and plenty more, stepped into their adult lives and future careers as artists at Tufts.

This is a place exploding with talent of all kinds, and it’s incredible that so many performing arts groups on campus have accomplished so much. Cheap Sox won the title of best improv troupe in New England last year at the College Improv Tournament. Prestigious sketch festivals are inviting The Institute to perform. A documentary about the HYPE! mime troupe was made at Emerson College last year. Two current students worked on the Colbert Report. A graduate student in the Drama Department was a featured player on SNL. If the arts were given more support through funding and infrastructure, rather than largely ignored, Tufts could become a hub for people looking to foster a career of creation. For now, I’m going to do my best by changing Cheap Sox’s name to Mock Mock Trial, and hope that Tufts will start taking our funny a little more seriously.