A Letter of Thanks to CUNY BA
Curtis Howard (Business of Dance Production, Lehman College ‘22)
Hi, my name is Curtis Howard. My participation in the CUNY Baccalaureate for Unique and Interdisciplinary Studies program has been one of the most life-changing decisions of my life. For the last five years, I have been focused on creating new theatre with the goal of being an Actor/Creative Producer. When the quarantine happened, I saw an opportunity to return to school to first complete my undergrad and then move on to Baruch for a Master’s in Theatre Admin with the ultimate goal of being a Broadway Producer. While I was researching the program at Baruch, I kept getting this notice about the CUNY Baccalaureate program. I wasn’t sure it was really for people like me, so for a while, I ignored it.
One afternoon I decided to figure out what CUNY BA was about, and within the first paragraph of reading the program’s website, I was sure I had found everything I wanted in a degree program. I could customize my course of study in a way that would emphasize its real-world application, which was very important for me. I was excited.
After a few days of research and consulting with my wife, I designed an area of concentration in the Business of Dance Production. I was very fortunate to have found Lehman College as my home campus where I consequently took all my classes. I was even able to group my semesters into themes. Spring 2021 was all about the “Business” part of Show Biz with classes in Business Law, Business Writing, Accounting, and Performing Arts Management (PAM). Each class had a tremendous impact.
My business law professor, Professor Ortiz, ended the class with advice to look at the world with an entrepreneurial eye and mind, “to think entrepreneurially. Owning your own business is one of the greatest feelings in the world.” I took this to heart and I have been viewing the theatrical world around me differently ever since. So far, my adventures have led me to become general manager for the People’s Improv Theatre, and now I am moving into opening my first theatre space next year. Professor Ortiz’s words endowed me with the confidence to reach out and take risks in a very unstable industry.
Dante Albertie’s Performing Arts Management class inspired me to look at my assets, training, and experience and showed me that I am capable of running my own theatre company. Enter: Cowboy Boardwalk and Soup Stone Theatre. Cowboy Boardwalk is my non-profit production company seeded in Dante’s PAM class. Cowboy Boardwalk uses dance as a theatrical device for telling dance stories of dance people where, in addition to dance and choreography, I explore the stories of people involved in dance – people like my old friend and dance photographer, Milton Oleaga, whose extensive dance photography collection was posthumously entered into the Smithsonian. What do these people think of dance; what do they see? Or what was it like to be in a dressing room with Chita Rivera, Rita Moreno, and Gwen Verdon and the stories they might tell or did tell? Additionally, I will be using my graduation thesis to introduce Soup Stone Theatre, my theatrical philosophy based on The Allegory of the Stone Soup. The more people we have participating, the more rich our theatrical soup will be.
I focused my Fall 2021 on the “Show” part of Show Biz. I am currently taking Directing, Playwriting, Choreography/Improv, and Devised Multimedia Production, where I am learning to use cameras, mixers, editing software, and sound clips to integrate into live performances. I was even in the New Student Voices Play Festival, where I had the opportunity to be one of a trio of actors in the first staging of a brand new play. I think it was my best work so far. That experience helped give me the confidence to return to the stage.
With guidance from my faculty mentor, Amy Larimer (Music, Multimedia, Theatre, and Dance, Lehman College), I have challenged myself to apply each of my classes to my thesis concert happening in the Spring. 1) Business Law for agreements and contracts; 2) Accounting for budgets; 3) Business Writing for grant writing and business plan proposals; 4) Performing Arts Management seeded my idea for Cowboy Boardwalk and Soup Stone Theatre; 5) Playwriting, Directing, Choreo/Improv, and Devised Multimedia to create a new show featuring new work seeded in my classes and created in a workshop format. This show will be produced by my production company Cowboy Boardwalk, and it will premiere its brand of Soup Stone Theatre at Lehman Stages in February of 2022.
Not having a degree has been a slight obstacle a few times in my life. I was terrified of returning to school because of the financial burden I’d have to take on as an adult with a 17-year-old child. The financial support provided by CUNY BA, the Smith Fellowship, student loans, and other forms of financial aid provided by CUNY has been essential for me to realize my dream of being an Actor/Creative Producer in New York’s Theatre Industry.
I was also able to find mental health support through Lehman. My life over the last several years has not been easy. My family has experienced several tragedies: cancer, deaths, and more. COVID has left me with friends dead, teachers dead, and others who have disappeared from NYC. The mental health support provided by the whole institution has been integral to my recovery from alcohol abuse, as well as my continuous battle with anxiety. It has even made me a better person with the confidence to deal with my issues with understanding and no shame.
The last two years have been a challenge for me and the rest of the world. We all just experienced unspeakable traumas and an overwhelming loss of life. I believe my time in the CUNY Baccalaureate for Unique and Interdisciplinary Studies program has helped me process and cope, and it has prepared me to return to an entertainment industry that is still reeling from 18 months without revenue. The lessons I have learned and the relationships I am building will allow me to share the gifts given to me with the rest of the world. Thank you, CUNY BA. You have changed my life for the better.
Warmly,
Curtis Howard