Maggie's Blog

      I have had the distinct pleasure of co-teaching my last class at Carthage College with Raven Dockery (she/her) on "Race and Gender in American Music Theatre." I have always loved teaching Writing Intensive courses at Carthage because most of the students in my class are NON-MAJORS! There are 23 students in this class (in-person and online), 12 of them are students of color, and their majors are Nursing (over half our class!), Theatre and Music, Computer Science, Psychology, Exercise and Sports Science, Poli Sci, Graphic Design, and International Political Economy. Raven has been blowing their minds teaching the history of the Black Experience in the performing arts for the last 200 years, and we have had some incredible guest speakers the first couple of weeks. Sawyer Smith (they/them), Chicago actor and Choreographer, was our first guest and for over half our students, this was their first experience ever talking with someone who is trans. When I invited Sawyer to ...

      A year ago, I posted this graphic on Facebook surrounded by posts where I bragged about the fancy new masks I was buying from costume designers and wardrobe folks around the country and saving Hyrule from its enemies. I am thrilled that in two weeks, I will be getting on a plane to Associate Direct THE WOMAN IN BLACK at the Spoleto Festival USA in Charleston, South Carolina.     I feel honored to be among the first folks I know to go back to work to do in-person productions with live audiences. It is crucial that we succeed in our safety protocol and I am so satisfied with the COVID-19 protocols at Spoleto. All festival artists have promised to not eat indoors, we will all be masked except for moments where actors are performing or musicians are playing, and our performances will all be outside. The WOMAN IN BLACK pod of 7 is fully vaccinated. We are going to do our best to restore confidence in doing theatre and returning  to the theatre, and I am co...