“Perelman Performing Arts Center Street” by Dutch Treat is licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0

The Perelman Performing Arts Center, branded as PAC NYC, is a multi-space performing arts center at the northeast corner of the World Trade Center complex in Manhattan, New York City. PAC NYC is a new home for emergent and established artists in theater, dance, music, opera, and multi-disciplinary performance from New York and the world. PAC NYC strives to build meaningful relationships with community organizations and institutional stakeholders across all five boroughs and throughout the greater New York City metropolitan area.

Bertie Ferdman, a professor of Theatre at BMCC and at The Graduate Center, taught a course in collaboration with PAC –  one deliverable of a much broader collaboration between the two institutions, which includes federal work study opportunities, access to performance lounge for the theatre and music departments, possibilities of free tickets for Intro to Theatre students, paid internships including ushering, and much more! On February 6, 2024, Bertie was interviewed by Angela Elbanna, a lecturer in Speech, Communications, and Threatre Arts, about the partnership between BMCC and PAC NYC.

Angela: What inspired or initiated the idea of forming a partnership between BMCC and the Perelman Performing Arts Center?

Bertie: During the Pandemic, I reached out to Meiyin Wang, Producing Director at PAC, about how BMCC might collaborate with PAC, because of its mission and its physical proximity to our campus. Meiyin loved the idea and very quickly she put me in touch with Jenna Chrisphonte, Director of Civic Alliances, and Bill Rauch, PAC’s Artistic Director. Together, we started brainstorming over a few meetings, along with faculty colleagues Prof. Williams and Prof. Cheng, and soon realized the partnership with BMCC should be established as a long-term collaboration, and bigger than just with the Theatre department. President Monroe saw the importance of establishing this kind of partnership, and the BMCC/PAC Civic Alliance was born. My class, Advanced Theatre Workshop, was one of the many ideas we had discussed of how to involve students at BMCC with the programming and activities at PAC.

Angela: Could you describe the process of establishing this partnership? What were the key steps or stages involved?

Bertie: Like I mentioned above, the germ of the idea began early in the Pandemic, as soon as I discovered how close the PAC building was to our campus, and I wanted our students to feel like they could access the performing arts. The PAC and its leadership team are very keen on making its building and its programming a place where all NYers feel welcome and feel like they belong there. We had numerous meetings about what forms the partnership could take, and very quickly realized this was bigger than simply bringing one group of students to the theater. We knew we wanted the scale to be big and wanted to include everyone at BMCC- including faculty and staff, and students across departments.

Angela: How did you navigate potential challenges or conflicts during the negotiation and collaboration phases?

Bertie: The collaboration was always generating ideas and was always productive and exciting. Eventually the PAC leadership team developed a relationship with BMCC President’s Office and the College Administration since the partnership was on larger scale.

Angela: How will the partnership enhance the educational experience for students at BMCC?

Bertie: The partnership between BMCC and PAC is now an official Civic Alliance. The College Administration office and/or Karen Wilkinson would most likely be the point people to ask about that!

My Advanced Theatre Workshop class- in collaboration with the Perelman- was developed through my professional relationships with Jenna Chrisphonte, Bill Rauch, and Mieyin Wang: and all of them were very very responsive to: coming to talk to my students, putting me in touch with Penny to tour building and backstage spaces with students, and providing free tickets for the class.

Angela: Were there any unexpected positive outcomes or challenges encountered along the way?

Bertie: In terms of my collaboration with PAC- for the Advanced Theatre Workshop class: it was smooth sailing! ALL the staff at PAC were always 100% welcoming!

Angela: How do you envision sustaining and nurturing this partnership in the long term?

Bertie: In terms of the larger scale BMCC/PAC partnership, this is a question for administration.

Angela: What role (if any) did student involvement or engagement play in fostering this partnership?

Bertie: My students in the course were so excited about forging this partnership! They realized that they belong in the world of the arts and have something important to contribute.

Angela: Is there anything you wish you had known or done differently while establishing this collaboration?

Bertie: No! It was all just very exciting!