By Cameron Enders, Out and About Editor
With the departure of MusicalFare looming over the university, a revival of Creative Minds is being set in motion to keep theater alive on campus.
Creative Minds is a student-run theater organization that is seeing new life thanks to a passionate group of four students.
According to Dominic Hannon, the assistance director for student center operations, the earliest record of the club’s existence was in 2014, with its last official registration with Student Affairs being in the Fall 2021 semester.
“I’ve always been interested in theater. When I came here, I really wanted to put myself out there and do a lot with theater and drama because the town I’m from is not really big, so there’s not a lot of opportunities for me there,” said Alyson Dalton, a freshman childhood education major and Creative Minds’ president.
“I did theater all the way through my middle school and high school, so I was like, yeah, I can bring it back,” Kaity Hersee, a freshman English professional writing major and club secretary, said.
Both Chris Brandjes and Robert Waterhouse, associate professors of theater, have helped revive the club.
“I asked Professor Waterhouse about opportunities near Buffalo for auditions, and he brought up that there used to be a drama club on campus, so I asked him who I talk to about restarting that, and he gave me Professor Brandjes’ name,” Dalton said.
“There’s no reason really it should have become dormant. I think this will be the third or possibly fourth generation of Creative Minds,” Waterhouse said. “It’s a fantastic club, and it’s got a very distinguished history of doing some very good productions.”
The club is still in the early stages of finding more members and solidifying when and where meetings will be held before registering with Student Activities.
“We want it to be open to suggestions, but we had ideas that we want to do small plays and stuff,” Dalton said. “We thought Broadway review would be really good because that way people can come with an idea of something they’re strong in.”
“We had the idea of adapting like a Shakespeare play to be shorter in like 30 minutes or doing something that wouldn’t require a lot of sets and everything,” Hersee said.
The club officers are hoping to host their first official meeting of Creative Minds soon but discovered their previous meeting time during the 11:30 a.m. to 1 p.m. break on Thursdays can no longer work.
“We’re going to have to shift it since the Animation Club has a lot of kids that want to be in our club too, and they run at the same time,” said Hersee.
Creative Minds is open to all students interested in any aspect of theater and performance. Anyone interested should reach out to Brandjes to get more information and be added to the club email list.
“I think there’s nothing to beat the experience of watching live theater,” Waterhouse said. “And I think students who do it get so much out of it. And, they grow so much and develop their own creativity so much; it’s an experience that can’t be bettered.”
Any students attempting to create a new club can follow the guidelines here.