At the end of a long performance last weekend, actors in Sonoma State University Theater Arts department’s performance Perfect Arrangement abruptly froze. The lights dimmed, and they bowed their heads, turning around to face a large painting in the back of the set – which had been a screen the whole time.The words “we won’t go quietly” appeared, as a joint speech played.
All the actors and members of the production team spoke out in quick, simple verses, before each said “we won’t go quietly” at the end. This demonstration referred to the university’s plan to eliminate all performing arts programs, along with athletics, philosophy, art history, geology, and women’s and gender studies. All of the programs affected have been speaking out in their own way for almost two months now, with few changes being announced.
The set of this show was built to foreshadow this, as set designer Theo Bridant revealed that the set was full of hidden elephants – to hint at an “elephant in the room,” referring to how the cuts hung over the show.
Director Ely Sonny Orquiza was vocally upset about the planned cuts. “The Story of ‘Perfect Arrangement’ is about the resilience of a community in a world that tries to erase them,” Orquiza said. “The irony is not lost on me.”
But things are changing. And for the first time since the cuts were announced, perhaps there is hope.
California state legislators met with the university on February 21st and threatened to cut funding if the California State University system could not figure out a recovery plan for SSU. 10 days later, Emily Cutrer sent another email.
“We are committed to advocating alongside you for our legislators to refrain from reducing funding for the California State University system and Sonoma State,” said Cutrer in the email titled Moving Forward.
“Should new funds become available to mitigate the announced budget reductions, the University Budget Advisory Committee – with the addition of an administrator from Athletics – will make recommendations about the use of such funds.”
Faculty Senate Chair and communications professor Emily Acosta Lewis believes the CSU system could be doing more to support SSU.
“The CSU system could absolutely bail us out if they wanted to,” said Acosta Lewis in an interview with the STAR.
Acosta Lewis believes the only reason SSU hasn’t been bailed out yet is because the CSU is attempting to use SSU as leverage to get Gov. Gavin Newsom to take back his recent cuts to the CSU system.
“We’re being used politically,” said Acosta Lewis.
This sentiment is shared by Scott Horstein, the program director of Perfect Arrangement. “We are not convinced this will be our last mainstage play,” says Horstein in a conference with the cast and crew after the performance.
The university is not the only institution seeing cuts made – as the Trump Administration recently laid off thousands of employees from the U.S. Government on the basis of DEI and “efficiency”
The story of Perfect Arrangement itself focuses on a time where thousands were being laid off during the red scare for similar reasons, when anything LGBTQ+ was seen as “undesirable”. The show features two gay couples, who each had a member working for the state department that saw their jobs threatened by the government investigations and layoffs.
“The Relevance within our current political system has really stuck with me,” said Sydnie Crumrine, the actor who played Millie Martindale, a character whose girlfriend was investigated and fired by the State Department in the show.
“In a time where it is dangerous to tell a story like this, it’s so important that we do,” said Bucky Brynjegard-Bialik, another actor who played the antagonist of the show – a man who’s internalized homophobia tore his found family apart. “Queer stories must be told.”
