A group of St. Thomas students is organizing a petition to continue the school’s joint theater partnership with St. Catherine University. When the St. Thomas theater department dissolved last year, the administration committed to supporting theater productions between the two universities, but only for the 2009-2010 school year.

According to Amelia Kritzer, former director of the theater department, the administration agreed to support the productions for one more year “to allow theater majors to get the needed experience on stage and backstage.”

The theater department at St. Kate’s is proposing a continuation of the full partnership for all productions and other aspects of theater. The administrations from both schools are currently in the middle of a discussion about whether or not they will continue this partnership. The main concern is whether there is still interest for theater in the St. Thomas community.

Students from St. Thomas’ theater club, Thespians Unite!, are setting up tables at lunch and dinner services this week, asking students to sign a petition.

Junior thespian member Pat Gustafson is very passionate about this partnership and said the group’s main objective is “to show St. Thomas that St. Thomas students want to support us to have this partnership [with] St. Kate’s.”

They have already received over 1,000 signatures from student supporters.

The students working on the petition hope to gather signatures as a testament of desired interest beyond the realm of those involved in theater production. Gustafson said theater performances do not just affect those majoring in theater. In fact, Kritzer says that last year’s production of Macbeth, brought more than 80 St. Thomas students to auditions and represented 30 different majors.

Gustafson also notes that the number of students involved with a theater production is fairly comparable to the number of students who participate on sports teams. Beyond that, the theater productions attract community members and students who attend performances.

Assistant theater professor Teresa Lyons-Hegdahl said that St. Kate’s is “enthusiastically seeking the partnership between St. Thomas.” This relationship, she said, has gone on for almost 40 years, and to see it become a limited partnership would not be keeping with the students’ desires she has witnessed in the classroom and at St. Thomas.

Lyons-Hegdahl believes it is essential to reveal that there is interest, and she supports the students’ efforts to put forth their voice. The experience with theater, she says, “allows students to build professional skills like teamwork, poise, commitment and focus… and it allows for the audience to look through the world in a different lens.”

The large number of signatures already collected demonstrates that St. Thomas students have some interest in theater. The petitioners will continue to collect signatures until the end of the week, before they submit the appeal to the administration.

Tables will be set up during lunch and dinner outside of the main cafeteria on Thursday and in front of the Grill from 1 to 4 p.m. on Friday to collect signatures.

Theresa Malloy can be reached at mall5754@stthomas.edu.