New plans for UTEP Dinner Theatre season

EL PASO, Texas (KVIA) -The University of Texas at El Paso announced some changes to their 2024 Dinner Theatre season.

One of the major changes is a new funding model.. 

UTEP says the dinner theatre musicals will now be collaborating with the University’s Department of Theatre and Dance.

This change comes after a review of operations found that while the dinner theatre was heavily subsidized by student fees, only about 10 percent of the shows attendees were students and fewer than half of the performers were students.

On Sept. 1, the beginning of the fiscal year, UTEP said it will support musical theater through an additional general revenue allocation of $322,000. 

This amount replaces the amount that previously came from student fees.

According to the UTEP, the total operations budget for the dinner theatre last season was about $1 million and the average ticket sales per production last season was about $95,000. 

UTEP says there will now be greater emphasis placed on roles being played by students as part of the university’s teaching mission.

The university is also searching for a new faculty member who specializes in musical theater to be the dinner theatre director.

The 2024-25 season opening production will be Disney’s Beauty and the Beast on Oct. 11.

Tickets go on sale to the public on Tuesday, sept.10.