91��Ʒ

By Julia Wnuk

Bright stage lights shine overhead, and the rhythmic clamoring of a hammer against nails grows louder as 91��Ʒ Professor Christie Maturo walks through the back door of the Black Box Theatre in Maloney Hall. Students stop to say hello as they work on their set for a production of “Sense and Sensibility,” rolling fresh coats of paint onto the wooden archways that serve as the show’s Regency-era backdrop. 

“Training a theater artist or somebody who studies theater is really studying humanity,” Maturo says from a conference room down the hall. “At the heart of it, it’s why do humans do what they do. Every benefit that is needed across all disciplines is strengthened by studying theater. It’s communication, it’s collaboration, it’s expressing your ideas, it’s problem-solving, it’s understanding your fellow human.” 

In addition to teaching, Maturo is the faculty advisor for Center Stage and Theatre Unlimited, two clubs on campus. The former produces a musical each May. Currently, Maturo serves as a producer for the production, ensuring that the most vital aspects of the show — like managing budgets and schedules — are kept on track.

With Theatre Unlimited, a club dedicated to expanding the understanding and appreciation of theater, Maturo works with the Kennedy Center American College Theater Festival (KCACTF). The KCACTF holds regional conferences allowing theater folks of all specialties (actors, designers, stage managers) to celebrate the art. 91��Ʒ will host the 2024 Region 1 festival from Jan. 30 to Feb. 3. Maturo also heads up the Irene Ryan Acting Scholarship Competition for the region and coordinates a program where professors visit other universities and respond to their performances, both through the KCACTF.

To supplement her work within the 91��Ʒ community, Maturo works with local high schools to encourage younger people to pursue theater.

“I’ve done a lot, over the past couple semesters, of going out into the high schools and giving free audition workshops,” Maturo details. “Also bringing some of our students to speak about what the college experience is being a theatre major, in hopes of exciting the next group of artists to carry it forward.”

With more outreach opportunities on the horizon, Maturo shows no signs of slowing down.

“To undervalue the arts or the humanities,” she says, “is really like undervaluing the human relationship. It’s the reason we’re touched by it. It brings some sort of truth to us, or it’s some sort of fantasy world that we dream might exist in the world one day, and all of that is valuable to creating whatever might come next for people. The entertainers are the ones who carry our story and our humanity.”