TDM Concentrators Await Funding for New Magazine

Concentrators in Theater, Dance and Media are seeking funding for a new student publication that will showcase the work of students involved in campus performing arts.

TDM concentrator Sam A. Hagen ’18, who is leading the project, said he hopes the proposed magazine will circulate at the start of each semester and will feature academic and creative writing, design sketches, and news articles.

“I thought it would be interesting to have one piece, one physical item, that you can pick up in the lobby of Farkas Hall or wherever, and it will tell you everything that is going on in Harvard theater and dance,” he said.

While TDM concentrators will compose the staff of the magazine, Hagen said he hopes a range of students involved in the performing arts will contribute.

“Whether it's through the actual performances, production and photography, or the written samples of creative work, the content will come from the wider Harvard community,” Hagen said.

TDM Director of Undergraduate Studies Deborah D. Foster said the TDM faculty committee is “entirely supportive of their endeavor.”

Currently, concentrators are producing content and coordinating the printing of the magazine’s inaugural issue for the start of next semester.

Concentrator Sarah K. Grammar ’18, who is managing the design of the magazine, emphasized the collaborative nature of the project.

“Every concentrator, as far as I am aware, has a hand in it,” she said. “It’s going to be central to our community as a department.”

TDM Chair Martin Puchner expressed excitement about the proposed magazine as a way to record the work done by concentrators and other students involved in theater.

“As anyone who does theater knows, it’s such an ephemeral art form and to leave something that lasts, whether that’s essays, or reviews, or plays, I am thrilled about that,” he said.

Hagen said the TDM magazine will differ from existing student publications through its focus on the experience of students involved in the performing arts.

“The goal of this magazine is to physicalize the experience of theater makers and dancers. It’s not really a comment on or a description of or an analysis of them—it’s a physical embodiment of the work that they do,” he said.

Hagen is still working with TDM administrators to determine how the publication will be funded. He hopes that the concentration will provide most of the funds required to print the magazine, but said the publication’s staff will be applying for grants from the Undergraduate Council and the Office for the Arts.

The proposal for the magazine also lays out an advertising plan that includes soliciting ads from campus performing arts groups.

While the project is stalled until the magazine receives funding, Hagen and Grammar said they are hopeful that the magazine will become a staple of performing arts on campus and the Theater, Dance and Media concentration.

“We’re the first class of TDM concentrators, we are going to establish a record of what we do. It’s going to be a creative project, and it’s going to stay here as long as TDM is here,” Hagen said.

—Staff writer Brittany N. Ellis can be reached at brittany.ellis@thecrimson.com. Follow her on Twitter @britt_ellis10.