When Marquette’s Theatre program celebrated its 100th anniversary — and the 50th anniversary of its home, the Helfaer Theatre — in April, alumni who returned for a day of anniversary programming and an evening dinner celebration had plenty of rewarding career challenges to speak about.
They were Tony and Emmy award winners; executive producers of shows on HBO and Showtime; set, lighting and costume designers for shows ranging from the Oscars and Grammys to the Muppets and Taylor Swift’s Eras tour; actors and directors from Broadway, Chicago’s Second City and Hollywood productions; and faculty members of top theatre departments in New York and Boston.
But just as remarkable as their achievements were the pathways these graduates have taken as artists and as people — and the role of Marquette Theatre and its caring faculty in shaping their journeys.
As Stephen Hudson-Mairet, professor and former chair of the department of digital media and performing arts, emphasized in his remarks to the evening celebration’s 140 attendees, the program grew to reflect the vision of several faculty pillars from its history — particularly Father John Walsh, S.J., from 1951 to 1965, Leo Jones from 1965 to 1975 and Phylis Ravel from 1997 through 2007. Under them, Marquette Theatre became known as a home for serious theatrical training, a nationally recognized bachelor’s degree program preparing artists for the theatre and entertainment industries. More recently, a dedicated group of faculty has worked to continue and renew this excellence, including Hudson-Mairet; Jamie Cheatham, associate professor and head of acting in digital media and performing arts; and Connie Peterson, artistic assistant professor of digital media and performing arts. The evening event also served as a tribute to a more recent pillar of the program: Deb Krajec, associate professor of digital media and performing arts, who retired at the end of the spring semester after 40 years as teacher, director, designer and trusted mentor to generations of students and graduates. (See related story.)
Marquette’s Catholic and Jesuit educational traditions have long made theatre here unique. When they are not honing their theatrical abilities, students in the program study in the university’s liberal arts core with its explorations of philosophy, theology and life’s moral, ethical and spiritual dimensions. They pursue double majors, pairing a focus on theatre with another in, say, history or business. “That really sets us apart,” says Hudson-Mairet. “It makes you a smarter actor, director or designer. It informs everything you do on the stage. And it makes you more employable as an artist.”
And while many of their counterparts at larger university theatre programs are confined to tracks focused on a single facet of performances, Marquette theatre students typically take courses that expose them to theatre in all its dimensions from acting to stage management to the design of sets, lighting and costuming. Under the tutelage of experienced staff or professionals from the Milwaukee or Chicago theatre communities, students collaborate fervently to produce their productions.
The value of these distinctly Marquette theatre experiences came through resoundingly in an anniversary panel discussion held earlier in the day of celebration on the Helfaer stage, where nine graduates of the program reflected on their college and career experiences for an audience composed mostly of current students.
According to actor-director-producer Tim Mason, Arts ‘97, the “great thing about this place and this program was that I could find what my role was in the world of theatre without committing to one thing. I came out of here having put my toes in so many different things. I took a playwriting class. I took a directing class. I directed two productions in the studio. I acted.” In Mason’s case, the “well-rounded experience” he got minoring in theatre prepared him for fulfilling career challenges ranging from acting on the mainstage of Chicago’s Second City comedy company and directing commercials for advertising companies to writing and directing independent films to serving as executive producer of the award-winning Showtime series, “Work in Progress.”
After graduation, Jorge Arroyo, Comm ’96, felt ready to plunge into whatever real-world roles came along — including lighting shows for a Venezuelan dance company as it toured Europe and becoming theatre director at a Milwaukee college prep high school — all because of his wide-ranging college theatre experience. “While I was here, I was running the lightboard. I was sewing in Deb’s class. I was building scenery. I was hanging lights. I learned every job basically, so I was able to discover what my passion was in life.”
Now an assistant professor of lighting design and co-chair of design and production in the theatre department of Boston University, in addition to working as a professional lighting designer, he explained that top graduate programs like his seek students with diverse experiences and the depth that comes from learning beyond the stage. “We don’t look for the people who know drafting, or who know gear. Those technical things we can teach,” he said “Making an artist is the really hard part. So, I think a place like this that lets you do that exploration, that gives you well-rounded tools and the exposure to philosophies and psychologies, that provides a huge benefit.”
Again and again, alumni panelists identified close-knit relationships — and the caring mentorship of faculty members — as hallmarks of the program. Several spoke about going to Krajec’s or Hudson-Mairet’s office during a crisis, only to have them offer advice that proved both consoling and pivotal.
Erin Slattery Black, Comm ’95, has had a successful career as a costume designer, but as a student she was full of doubt. “I was crying in Deb’s office. I thought I’d ruined my life,” she told the audience. By that point, she had given up plans to become an elementary school teacher, but she wanted to know: Was she crazy to think she could make a living designing costumes? “I was from Oshkosh, and this wasn’t something I could do there,” she explained to the audience. Krajec suggested grad study as a step toward making her dream a reality. And since taking Krajec up on that advice, Black has won three Emmy Awards for her work with Jim Henson Studios designing costumes for the Muppets, and mentored students herself as an associate arts professor at NYU’s Tisch School of the Arts.
For those that claimed Ravel as a mentor, her influential advice could take the form of very specific visions for their future. Shortly after graduation, Carisa Barreca, Comm ’02, had scored a role in a professional production in Milwaukee, when Ravel sketched out a more long-range plan. “She said, ‘I’ll tell you what you need to do. I need you to dye your hair platinum blond, go to Chicago and get on Second City.’ That’s what I did, I dyed my hair platinum blond. She was like a little magic angel to me.” Barreca advanced from studying improv at Second City’s Conservatory to becoming a member of the troupe, where she now acts and directs in mainstage productions, still as a blond.
This year John Collins, Comm ’01, was named the next executive director of Chicago’s esteemed Goodman Theatre, but 25 years ago, he was a theatre student struggling with doubts about his ability to make it as a stage artist. One day, Ravel called him into her office and broke her assessment to him gently, suggesting he was on a horse that was stalled and in need of a new direction. “She explained to me that there was a path in arts administration that would keep me close to art and artists while allowing me to use some of my natural abilities,” he recalled in remarks at the anniversary dinner celebration. “You see, this was her gift — she saw into us as a whole person.”
After reading a biography of legendary theatrical producer Joe Papp that Ravel gave to him and serving in a special position as assistant to the artistic director that she created, Collins secured a competitive internship at the Goodman that she suggested. “She believed in me and she pushed me. … For me, that’s the Marquette difference we talk about — this program not only trained us to have the skills and experience to do the work, they also gave us the confidence and sense of self to step out into the world and make something of it,” said Collins, who has spent most of his career at the Goodman and calls his new position “a dream job that I never could have imagined for myself, but Phylis did.”
At the dinner, Hudson-Mairet tied the program’s rich past to its rich present and promising future. Although the pandemic saw a downturn in program enrollment, particularly in the tech areas such as stage, lighting and costume design — “that’s driven by the experiences students have in high school theatre and during the pandemic they weren’t having them,” he says — those numbers are turning upward again. At the time of the event, Marquette Theatre was coming off a successful season, including a sold-out run of the musical “Sweeney Todd,” directed by Cheatham, that generated rave reviews. At a time when higher education is “facing unprecedented financial challenges and programs need to find new ways to attract and serve our students,” said Hudson-Mairet, Marquette Theatre has joined forces with the Digital Media program and is finding new synergies for students under the leadership of Dr. Amanda Keeler, associate professor and chair of digital media and performing arts. “This will be our landscape in the coming years. It may look different, but we believe we can be stronger by creating new intentional opportunities to have our students work on live and mediated performances.”
As Slattery Black summed up in her comments at the evening celebration, the Marquette Theatre tradition is one to celebrate and renew. “For 100 years, students have collaborated on this campus to tell stories that entertain, that teach, that move an audience to laughter — or tears. Stories that challenge the status quo, amplify voices, incite action or call the audience to participate in social justice. … Studying theatre arts takes academic knowledge and activates it as we practice empathy and embody stories that are not our own on stage. What better way to practice the Jesuit principle of cura personalis?
