By Ava Walker

While brand-new scoreboards glow in the stadium and state-of-the-art lab equipment hums in the science buildings, the campus theater runs on old lights and crackling speakers. It’s time to address what U of L chooses to celebrate and what it quietly allows to wither. It’s not news to anyone. U of L is neglecting its Theatre Arts.

The Playhouse, the university’s primary performance venue, was constructed in 1874 as a chapel for the Industrial School of Reform. When the university purchased the property, they planned to tear it down, but U of L players insisted on repurposing it.

In 1975, they again sought to demolish the Playhouse to make room for Ekstrom Library, with no plans to reconstruct a play venue. Eventually, it was decided that the Playhouse would be relocated to the island between 2nd and 3rd Street, where it sits today.

Stephan Carpenter is the Performing Arts Event Coordinator, as well as a graduate student studying the intersection of Theatre Arts and Film Studies. According to Carpenter, accessibility is an issue at the Playhouse.

“A student coming to perform at our school for a state conference showed up in a wheelchair,” he said, “and I had to say, ‘We don’t have a way to get you onto the stage.’ The student had to be carried up the steps and put back into her wheelchair.”

The university claimed renovations couldn’t be made due to the Playhouse’s historical significance; however, since it was moved from its historical site, this is not the case. Carpenter hopes that soon the Playhouse will be able to offer better accessibility to its patrons.

Not only are the theatre’s facilities suffering, but also its student opportunities. For thirty years, the Performing Arts Department offered work scholarships that paid students $6,400 per year. $700 came from the Belknap Actors’ Theatre Scholarship, and the remaining $2,500 per semester came from a general theatre scholarship.

However, two years ago, students received less than they were promised. When inquiries were made, Carpenter claims the university said, “the money wasn’t there.” He continued,  “The Belknap Actor’s Scholarship that existed disappeared. $700 per semester for fifteen to sixteen students disappeared. That’s nearly $20,000 gone without anybody notifying the department.”

Because the students signed contracts, the department had to pay them from their own budget. Later, the lost funds were found in the College of Arts and Sciences’ general budget, where the theatre could no longer access them.

“We were told that we were going to need an endowment, and to find rich donors or alumni,” said Carpenter. “The university just said, ‘Sorry, ask rich alumni to fund your program because we’re not going to.’ This shows they don’t care about the performing arts. They care about making money.”

Here’s why the performing arts are so important. Without creative expression, is college the open-minded learning environment it sells itself as? Isn’t suppressing an art medium that facilitates societal discussions defeating the purpose of an education?

MichaelJoseph Barber, an educator and graduate Theatre Arts student, shared his insight.

“Where the country is at, they want a lack of expression and critical thinking,” he said. “At least for me, being a black man in America, art is a pivotal movement. It pushes things forward. To think Martin Luther-King Jr. wasn’t an artist is ridiculous. He knew how to reach people. That was his art.”

U of L must reinvest in its Department of Theatre Arts in order to uphold its philosophy of putting students, not just STEM students, first. This can be achieved through more than executive decisions.

Advocacy can look like attending performances, forming connections and advertising for shows. Revitalizing a program rooted in principles of free speech, open expression and hope is what places like U of L should be fostering. The human voice only perseveres using art as a vehicle.

Ava Walker is a writer for the Louisville Cardinal, as well as a published poet and fiction author (Downcast, 2025). She is an English major with a focus in Professional and Public Writing and plans to have a career in fashion editing in the future.

Photo Courtesy / University of Louisville Photographic Archives