Rome School Feature Form: Make a submission to inform the Rome School community on any events, student highlights, course work projects, etc. you would like featured on our socials. 

This policy was developed to create standards for internships across the Rome School of Music, Drama, and Art.  With the understanding that there will be different types of internships for graduates and undergraduates and among the disciplines, advisers and area heads may require additional assignments or more specificity then what will be listed below, but not less.

Professors of Record for Credit-Bearing Internships

Graduate Level: Area Head

Undergraduate Level: Undergraduate Adviser

If any of these individuals are on sabbatical or leave during the time of the internship, they should assign another faculty member to take their place.

Rules for Credit-Bearing Internships

• The internship is for 3 credits. Students can take a total of two internships for credit for a total of six credits, but only one internship in any given semester. Internships taken in other departments count towards this limit.
• To participate in an internship, students must be in good standing within the Rome School with a cumulative GPA of 3.0 or higher. Exceptions can be made at the bequest of the advisor or area head if the internship is a course required by their specific degree or area.
• Students should not schedule internships requiring them to miss regularly scheduled CUA classes. It is the student’s responsibility take travel time into consideration when scheduling internships.

Criteria for Credit-Bearing Internships

• The faculty adviser or area head believes that the student has a good chance for success and that the work at the internship will challenge the student.
• An internship at the graduate and undergraduate levels should be 140 hours or between ten and fifteen hours a week. The required number of hours can be adjusted with the approval of the faculty adviser.
• The student should identify a direct supervisor who will ensure that the position requirements will be met. The supervisor will track work and attendance and submit an interim and a final evaluation.
• The Rome School Internship Agreement Form, which doubles as the application form for the internship. This should be signed by the student, Professor of Record, and the external supervisor.

Evaluation of the Internship

• Grades on the internship wil be determined by the faculty adviser based on three factors:
  
  1. Grades on assignments as specified in the internship application
  2. Final reflection paper. At the end of the semester, students should write a two-page minimum reflection/self-assessment paper. More pages or criteria may be added by the adviser. These might include keeping a journal, interviews with internship supervisor or co-workers, video of performance, portfolios, etc.
  3. The final evaluations from the internship supervisor. The student should write a response to these evaluations in their final paper that should demonstrate thoughtful reflection upon the feedback offered by the supervisor.
• The Adviser should enter the final grade into Cardinal Station and upload the completed Agreement Form and Reflection Paper onto the students' advising page on Cardinal Station.

This document was developed in Ad-Hoc Committee by Eleanor Holdridge, Marc B. Lilley, Matt Ripa, and Andrew Weaver and with the consultation of Jonathan Monagahn in September of 2021, and based on work that Professor Weaver completed for the Music Management Internship Program.

The Rome School produces six fully realized productions that are funded at the School level. These include two operas in Vocal Performance, two musicals in Musical Theatre area, and two plays in the Drama Department.   The budget for those productions is administered at the School level by the Business Manager and Production Manager.

For pedagogical purposes, it is understood that various departments and areas will need to produce or present additional staged works on the Department/area level, and that these may need some support from the Rome School production department.  Production will call these productions “Studio” productions as they will be developed for pedagogical purposes and be funded at the Department and area levels.  To be able to provide adequate support to these productions without jeopardizing the planning and work on the School-level productions, Production will work with the area heads and/or advisors to schedule the performances at times that work with the School level schedule.  Further, the School can offer area Studio shows the following up to two productions per area per school year:

• One Meeting with Technical Director and production director and area head to brainstorm what the production will require and what would be the best way to serve that production. This will include generating schedules, information on space usage, training on any technology.

• Based on availability with the School season, Studio shows will have access to the Callan Theatre in the Hartke, Ward Hall in Ward, or additional performances within the 2 buildings or other spaces on campus.  Spaces will be painted black and have a rep lighting plot (where/when available).  In the Callan, the rep plot and audience configuration will depend on what is chosen for the School Production season. If the area or Department wants their event in another building outside Ward or Hartke, they should still go through the Production Manager, if they want School support.

• One Prop pull.  The Director of the production or area head can send a prop list to the Technical Director and then schedule one meeting to pull appropriate props. These should be returned within one week of strike. 

• One Costume pull.  The director of the production or area head can send a list of costumes to the Costume Shop Manager and then schedule one meeting to pull costumes from costume storage.  These should be returned within one week of strike. 

• One student Stage Manager who will receive 1 crew credit for 60-80 hours of work.  This means that there may be a week or two of rehearsals where the SM is not at every rehearsal so that the hours work out.  The Department/Area project manager should make the request for the Stage Manager in the scheduling phase, and the Production Office will grant the appropriate crew credit and help identify and assign a student who is in need of those credits.
• Hosting Department is required to coordinate all artwork with Creative Services; the Marketing Team can provide a list of image sizes to request. Create all descriptions and copy and send all publicity imagery and/or supplemental photography to the Marketing Team via the Marketing Request Form. Marketing Team Support outlined as follows: 
  • Nest Event
  • Pryz Screen advertising
  • Facebook Event
  • 2 social media posts (Instagram, Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter)
  • 2 Rome School Post mentions

Introduction / Background

In our mission statement, The Rome School of Music, Drama, and Art commits to the “development of imaginative, disciplined expression in the arts”. We value the shared goals of “uplifting the human spirit” and providing “practical skills in arts production. Artistic expression - be it in the classroom, a rehearsal space, or in individual lessons - can require physical contact
between willing participants. Artistic expression in the theatre demands the exploration of the full range of emotions and actions that happen between and among people in the course of living.

While The Rome School encourages artistic development and the expansion of boundaries, each student must be cognizant of what is and is not appropriate as it relates to physical contact on and off stage. Each student has the inherent right to question any exercise, rehearsal process and/or instruction and each journey a student takes is an individual one, to which s/he has the right. It is thus the work of student theatre artists to expand known ways of behaving in character within the world of a play.

Learning to explore these emotions and actions needs to be in a safe and structured environment. It is the responsibility of the Rome School not only to foster a structured and safe environment, but to prepare our students for professional success in all of our disciplines. This document uses recognized industry standards and sets forth a pattern for physical contact that is recommended for use in all areas of The Rome School or Music, Drama, and Art. We have developed these Guidelines to aid students, faculty, staff, and guest artists as they navigate this essential aspect of our collective work.

All who create art for The Rome School are encouraged to familiarize themselves with the tools created by the “Not In Our House” movements and the Intimacy Directors International.

Not In Our House
https://notinourhousedc.wixsite.com/notinourhousedc/the-standards

Intimacy Directors Resource Guide
https://static1.squarespace.com/static/5e1c12f49383f8245b857d01/t/5f2470bdc8a09c2a6c405251/
1 596223729318/IDC+Resource+Guide.pdf (The Pillars are on page 5.)

Overarching Framework

The exercises that occur in a classroom or rehearsal may involve physical contact such as touching of a student’s body by an instructor for the purpose of example, instruction and/or adjustment. In response to real needs within our industries, the Intimacy Directors International created a clear and concise framework that is both easily remembered and necessarily complex. The core pillars are:

• Context
• Consent
• Communication
• Choreography
• Closure

The Rome School fully encourages the use of this framework. In classroom exercises and individual lessons, the CONTEXT as to why physical contact is necessary should be clearly stated by the instructor/artist. CONSENT must be given by the student artist. COMMUNICATION must be an active part for all consenting persons. In ANY rehearsal - be it for coursework between students or for productions between artist's and student artist's - ALL of the core pillars should be followed. The need for physical contact must be given the proper CONTEXT as it relates to furthering the drama/storytelling. CONSENT by all participants must be obtained.
COMMUNICATION should be open and continuous through the entire process from the first
rehearsal through the last performance and should flow in every direction. The
CHOREOGRAPHY of the physical contact must be carefully planned and, once set, not altered without working through the established framework. When that part of the rehearsal/performance is concluded, it is imperative that CLOSURE be acknowledged. The performers leave the world of the story and re-enter their own life’s boundaries.

It is through parameters such as these that students can learn to discuss, question and create
emotional and physical intimacy and/or violence in a professional manner which can serve them
and their theatrical working relationship throughout their careers.

Patterns of Behavior for Exercises

The acquisition of vocal, physical, emotional and mental awareness on the part of a student requires various kinds of exercises which involve the physical contact of one’s own or another person’s body. Primary points of contact between an instructor and a student include the head, neck, back, face, shoulders, collar, arms, torso, hips, legs, hands, and feet. Such physical contact will be made with the utmost respect for every student and informed by the aforementioned PILLARS (The 5 Cs). If a student feels conflicted, this should be thoroughly and honestly COMMUNICATED during the CONTEXT AND CONSENT phases.

Should an exercise require specific kinds of intimate and/or violent behavior, that information must be made available to the students as soon as is plausible.
These discussions will include:

• The rationale for the exercises,
• A methodology including verbalized definitions of the kind of touching involved,
• Verbalized ways to ask permission to touch,
• Verbalized ways to give permission to touch,
• Verbalized reactions to the way the instructor/student/actor is touching,
• Verbalized reactions to the way the instructor/student/actor is being touched.

Patterns of Behavior for Rehearsals: In-Class, Out-of-Class, in Productions, and Costume Fittings

The rehearsing of scenes in the classroom, for classroom presentation, and/or for a production may require the need for costume fittings, hugging, kissing, and other forms of physical contact.

Using the framework set for herein, the instructor/director will discuss professional ways to approach such work in-class as well as out-of-class rehearsals which will enable the students to talk with one another. This will encourage students to figure out how they want to create the intimacy, as the characters, before actually touching one another. If/when students must rehearse physical contact for in class performances, they are encouraged to have a non-performing colleague present to facilitate adherence to the established framework. In productions, stage management will be present.

The skills which need to be learned for any kind of stage intimacy require a great deal of trust between / among the actors involved in the scene. The instructor/student, faculty, and/or guest director will first discuss the justification for the use of the specific form of intimacy within the context of the class, rehearsal or production. Then the development of the “actions” of the intimacy can be staged “by the numbers” in slow motion and then rehearsed until the specific form of intimacy is at the tempo and with the physical and emotional life needed for the scene or production.

The above delineated pattern is also used to learn any kind of stage fighting, with the development of trust between/among actors being an important part of the work. Again, the instructor / fight choreographer / dance choreographer / director will first discuss the rationale for the use of this kind of fight within the context of the class, rehearsal or production. Most often, then the “fight” is staged “by the numbers” in slow motion and then, little by little, rehearsed until the “fight” is at the tempo and with the physical and emotional life needed for the scene or production. In creating the world of a theatrical production, costumes are an essential element. In the same manner that we individually take care with our personal clothing, the Costume Shop Manager, Costume Designers, and Costume Shop personnel take great care with each and every costume created for or used in the production. Ensuring proper fit, function, and safety with costumes may require a level of personal contact that could be new, unaccustomed and therefore uncomfortable to student artists. At all times the feelings of the actor will be respected, and if intimate touching is necessary, appropriate conversation will precede the fitting on how to maintain the respect and comfort of the actor while accomplishing the necessary fitting of the garment(s). Normal practice is to always have a third person in a fitting. The actor is always asked to talk to those doing their fitting about anything that poses an issue for them personally, relating to both the fitting and the fit
of the garment(s).

This document and the framework applies to all appropriate classes and productions and will be shared and discussed at the beginning of classes and productions.

Structures for Reporting unprofessional behavior

To repeat, while The Rome School encourages artistic development and the expansion of boundaries, each student must be aware of what is and is not appropriate for them. If you believe another individual has engaged in unprofessional behavior or inappropriate conduct you have several options. You can choose any combination of the options or none of the options.

Option 1: Complete Confidentiality

Individuals who want complete confidentiality can discuss their situation with certain persons. For
a list please see https://title9.catholic.edu/get-help/reporting.html

Option 2: Contact 911 and/or DPS

Option 3: Report to the Dean of Students or the Title IX Coordinator

Option 4: Reporting within the Rome School

In some cases, the involved parties may seek to have an open and productive dialogue about the situation. If you do not feel comfortable discussing the situation with the involved individual, there are several pathways to seek resolution within the Rome School depending upon the environment. In an academic environment (classrooms, studios, offices, rehearsal spaces): The following order is suggested. However, if you feel uncomfortable with the individual in a given position, you may advance a level.

• Instructor / Academic Advisor / Trusted CUA Faculty or Staff
• Area Head / Department Chair
• Associate Dean of Undergraduate or Graduate Students
• Associate Dean of Academic Services and Productions
• Dean of The Rome School of Music, Drama, and Art

In a production/ensemble environment:

• Stage Manager / Cast Rep / Trusted CUA Faculty or Staff
• Director / Choreographer
• Production Manager / Producer
• Associate Dean of Academic Services and Productions
• Dean of The Rome School of Music, Drama, and Art

Important Note: Reporting an instance of sexual harassment, sexual assault, or related sexual offenses to a faculty member or other mandatory reporter will require the recipient of the report to notify the Title IX Coordinator and/or Dean of Students.

Initially created by BettyAnn Leeseberg-Lange, May 10, 2006, based on the Touching Policy of the Cincinnati Conservatory for the Arts, 1996. First written by BettyAnn Leeseberg-Lange; presented to the Drama Department faculty at End-of-Year Meetings, May, 2006.
Rewritten by BettyAnn Leeseberg-Lange and Janet Mudd, CUA Equal Opportunity Office Director, Sept. 2006, incorporating faculty suggestions and legal procedures and language.
Updated by BettyAnn Leeseberg-Lange, Oct. 2006, from suggestions made at a special faculty meeting attended by Marietta Hedges, Jon Klein, Jeffrey Sichel and Gary Sloan, and added comments from the MFA Directing students.
Updated with costume fitting information from Gail Beach, Department Costume Designer, Nov. 2006.
The theater world is constantly building upon itself. In the summer of 2021, a new committee was established to update these Guidelines. That committee was comprised of Eleanor Holdridge, Mellissa Flaim, Shanara Gabrielle, Matt Ripa, Pauline Grossman, and James Hampton