Lake Tahoe Community College’s theater department will exist for another academic year, but not without substantive changes.

The board of trustees this week decided to pursue a public-private model for operating the actual theater. The college in 2017-18 will put on one production, which will be in the spring. The rest of the time scheduling for the theater will be handled by the vice president of Academic Affairs.

Earlier this school year there was a recommendation to disband the department because it was no longer a viable academic entity.  Shortly after that news became public the community told the board and staff that the college theater program is important. 

From that meeting several people came forward wanting to be on a task force to help determine the future of theater at LTCC and to look at making it more of a community theater, along with opening the facility for other uses. Those participants are still being assembled, with the first meeting of the task force set for February. A facilitator has yet to be named/hired to oversee this process.

Susan Boulanger, who runs the theater department, will have a job through next school year. In January 2018 the board will assess where things are at that time and is expected to make a long-term decision.

Boulanger will be teaching more online classes and her workload will be renegotiated since the number of productions has been reduced by two-thirds.

— Lake Tahoe News staff report