Erin Fuhr | Echo
Two Taylor alumni came back to campus last spring for Heritage Weekend 2012, and their short visit has made an impact on the student body.
Because of their love of theater, the couple made it a priority to attend "The Curious Savage," a theatre production shown during their Taylor visit April 26-27. Prior to the show, the couple spoke with Tracy Manning, Taylor Theatre director, and asked how much it would cost to offset student ticket prices to drop from $10 to $7.
Manning recalled her conversation with the couple: "I said that I was hopeful that a student ticket price that was cheaper would help more students be able to come and to make it more feasible for more students to participate in the arts here at Taylor."
Taking this potential donation into consideration, the department did calculations based on rough statistics and told the couple how much money was needed to drop the prices $3.
The couple agreed to give that amount and said that they wanted Taylor students know that alumni who loved theater wanted to make theater more available to current students.
"They weren't onstage involved in the theater," Manning said. "They just came to theater, and they loved the way that theater contributed to their liberal arts education. They found it a foundational part of their education at Taylor just to attend the theater, and they wanted more students to be able to do that."
Manning is hopeful that this change in price will motivate more students to come to the shows. "We have people tell us all the time they can't afford to come for $10, and I get that. I hope that it will enable more students to come and see productions; they're getting an awful lot for seven bucks, and they won't get to experience this level of theater when they leave Taylor for this amount of money. . . . So I hope that students will take advantage of the opportunity that this gift enables them to have. That's my hope and prayer."
