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The marriage between theater companies and universities began about 50 years ago. Most companies were, or at least aimed to be, professional — meaning they paid theater artists to create the productions with the students and possibly teach a few courses. Students gain important educational experience and contacts. Theater artists get gainful employment. It is not an entirely dissimilar model to schools of medicine and hospitals.

That is how Nevada Repertory Company began, at least with the intention, in 1973 and continues somewhat to this day. Jim Bernardi and Bob Dillard, both professors at the University of Nevada, Reno, wanted to build a strong company where students were trained as theater “generalists” and could occasionally work with professionals hired-in for a show or a semester.

The young people coming out of the program had worked in all aspects of theater by the time they graduated and were positioned to feed into resident theater companies. This was a fairly new development in American theater at the time, which has now mostly eroded away, for various reasons, mostly funding. Resident companies provide a core of theater artists with stable employment in one place (imagine that!) where they can work as actors, technicians, directors or designers.

Nevada Rep, even now, according to current UNR Department of Theatre and Dance Chair Rob Gander, espouses a strong company model where collaboration and co-population between all facets of theater-making happen. Though some things have changed, the name “Repertory,” where several productions are mounted at once in a rotating schedule using the same actors and technicians, doesn’t apply. Others remain central — the desire to produce new material, reimagining the art of performance and creating encompassing productions. One other thing that hasn’t changed within Nevada Rep or outside of it: there is no place in Northern Nevada for these newly minted theater graduates to stay and make a living.

By my estimate, excluding teachers and instructors, there are fewer than five people (my count is two, but I wanted to leave room for error) in our community that can claim they make the majority of their living from acting, directing, administering or designing theater. There are slightly more who work as stagehands and technicians at casinos and the Pioneer Center or who are running their own technical theater companies.

Where are UNR and Nevada Rep training these theater artists to go? Are these students contributing to sustainable arts here in Reno, or even in Nevada? Are they staying, or at least returning, to better the public that helped to better them?

Some might see this as a call to cut an unremunerative program. But it is not. It is a call for action from those in defining positions (government, higher education, business) to invest in our arts: as an industry, to support individuals, a quality of life issue to attract new business and to foster economic growth. Nevada Rep may be in the best position.

Chad Sweet is producing artistic director at Good Luck Macbeth Theatre Company.

Originally written for and published by the Reno Gazette Journal.