Saturday night I had the good fortune of attending the musical 'Hairspray' at the Schuster Center downtown. Now, I love theater, especially musicals, and this one certainly did not disappoint. What a wonderful way to spend a Saturday night!

Afterward, I was thinking I wished a lot of my friends would have been able to come to the show with me, or that we'd be able to do something like this more frequently. But alas, what college kid has the funds to attend a theater performance every month!

I was lucky enough to have run into my Hairspray tickets for free; otherwise I wouldn't have even gone. However, theater is certainly an experience that people should have the opportunity to attend.

Now, you're probably wondering what this has to do with UD students, and well, here it is. I'm talking about campus theater. Students don't have to go to the Schuster Center or Victoria Theatre to see a performance. There are ample resources right here on campus. Some know about it, some don't. And that, to me, is unfortunate.

Right now there are over 20 performance organizations on campus and I'd wager the average student is probably only truly familiar with three to five, myself included. And there are a number of other organizations on campus that hold performance arts events, for instance Campus Ministry's yearly 'Option To...' which is an original theater production written, directed and produced by students.

Recently, Second City came to UD, and Boll Theater was packed. Yet unbeknownst to the majority of UD students, we have our very own sketch comedy and improv club right on campus. Boll Theater also has seasonal shows. Its upcoming production, 'Baby,' plays the last weekend in February and the first weekend in March.

Probably the most involved theater organization on campus is Studio Theatre. Studio has about three weekends of shows a month, typically performed in the Black Box Theater in the Music and Theater building. Still this month, Studio Theatre boasts Full Circle this coming weekend, and it's very own UD Monologues Feb. 24-26.

There's one underlying problem, however, with performance arts on campus. And that is publicity. Most people don't even know this stuff exists, or don't know enough about it to recognize times, dates and club names. On the office of admissions Web site's listing of clubs and organizations, of the over 20 performance-based ones, only three have working links. And organizations like improv club aren't even listed.

Club presidents, chairpersons, officers and theatre lovers, let's get with the program! We have so much to offer our fellow students, but in their defense it's hard to get excited about what you haven't heard about. If UD is going to expand its interest in the arts on campus, we have to start getting the word out.

Let's start taking performance arts seriously here at UD.