Meadows lights up after dark

By Fiona McAlpine

As SMU closes down for the night, the Owen Fine Arts Center is still animated and full of students.

Craig Boleman, the public information officer for Meadows School of the Arts, said the building closes at midnight.

"We have rehearsals and performances until at least 11 p.m. almost every night," Boleman said. "Students use the practice rooms, laboratories and studios to practice their art."

Many students in various departments of Meadows take advantage of these late hours. Alia Khader, a junior violin performance major, is one of them.

"On the nights that I can be, I'm over there, usually until it closes," Khader said. "A lot of times in the afternoons the practice rooms are full, but there are many people in there at night too."

Ben Bascombe, a sophomore studio art major, is pleased that facilities are available to students after normal hours.

"There are multiple studios open, for drawing, for painting. They have sinks in there and solvents to wash out your brushes-even a ceramics studio," Bascombe said. "I can use the printmaking rooms, in and out of class. There's a studio for whatever you need to do."

However, it can be difficult to get the room needed for rehearsal. In the theatre department many student projects are always in development. Kat Campbell, a sophomore theatre studies major, has encountered availability problems.

"It depends on what kind of room you want," Campbell said. "For example, room B450 has a stage in it, people are basically clawing eyeballs out to get it, whereas nobody ever uses the Greer Garson trap room."

However, rooms are available for all kinds of fine arts students to rehearse and practice their art.

"We get a little bit of everybody," Boleman said. "For example, right now we have the 'Three Penny Opera' in rehearsals. With so many events going on and so many people up here rehearsing, [availabilbity] really depends on the time."

Even though the Owens Fine Arts Center is open so late, some students wish it were open later.

"I often actually get kicked out because I've been there too long," Bascombe said. "You're supposed to be out at midnight, and sometimes we push that."

Other students agree that longer hours would be nice.

"If it [the Owen Fine Arts Center] were open 24 hours, we would be up there 24 hours a day," Khader said. "We always hate it, come midnight, when we have to leave. But perhaps it's healthier that it's not open 24 hours a day."

When students have rehearsals and the building closes, they find somewhere else to go.

"We basically rehearse until they kick us out, and then we find a place outside," said Campbell. "Last year I would have rehearsals from 6 [p.m.] to 10 [p.m.], then from 10 to 12[a.m.], then they'd kick us out and we'd rehearse by the fountain until 2 [a.m.].

Though students are allowed in Meadows late, they are not allowed to run free in the building.

"We have building managers on duty all night," Boleman said. "And the facilities office is open the whole time the building is open."