The theater department announced this summer the creation of the Brandeis Theater Company, a new ensemble which will become the house company at the Spingold Theater Center. Theater chair Eric Hill, who is also the company's artistic director, said the new ensemble is the second installment of a two-stage process to bring changes to the department. The first stage, which took place during the last academic year, reduced the three-year graduate theater program from 10 students per class year to 10 total and reworked the undergraduate theater curriculum. The company hopes to balance the cutthroat atmosphere of a professional theater company with the limitations of a scholastic program. Hill said that by providing "inexpensive, high-quality theater right on campus, we will allow individuals as well as departments an opportunity to deepen their academic experience."

This season the company will work with other academic departments, including the classical studies and music departments and the Russian literature program. Prof. David Powelstock (RUS) will translate and adapt Nikolai Erdman's The Suicide, which is scheduled to be performed next spring.

The Brandeis Theater Company will also introduce its "Second Look Series," a set of programs to be held during one night of each show's run. The series is designed to give the audience an insider's view on the artistic processes behind each show, providing an opportunity for discussions with actors, directors and playwrights.

When news of the company was released this summer, it caused uneasiness among some undergraduate theater students. Jess Perelle '07 is worried about the impact that professional actors will have casting undergraduates.

"On the one hand, it is extremely interesting to work with [professional] actors," Perelle said. "But I am worried that their availability will affect the types of shows chosen. If the theater department has access to actors of any age or range, they are not obligated to choose plays with parts for young people."

The company, which is not a professional troupe, is modeled after one so that, according to Managing Director David Colfer, it will "give the members an identity, so [they] will feel that they are part of a cohesive group."

The inaugural season of the Brandeis Theater Company will open with Charles L. Mee's philosophical comedy Big Love, directed by Gray Simons (who co-directed last year's production of The Who's Tommy) and assisted by theater major Eli Schneider '06. The season will also include the world premiere of The Two Orphans, a musical written by Brandeis alumna Theresa Rebeck. Auditions for both productions begin Wednesday.