Under the baobab: Pandemic offers reminders of importance of connections
“Por Los Buenos” — Prof. Manuel Duque
The late Penn State professor and master acting teacher Manuel Duque was the guru in the School of Theatre (SOT) when I first joined the faculty in 1995. Helen Manful, Bob Leonard and I had worked together in the professional world. They drafted me to be a visiting teacher. I was finishing a Broadway gig and filming “Die Hard: With a Vengeance.” The acting faculty, which included Jane Ridley, Richard Nichols, Peg French and myself, dutifully sat at Manuel’s feet gathering pearls of wisdom to pass on to our students. They were road signs for life: “Acting is behaving truthfully under imaginary circumstances.” “Acting is reacting.” “Stay connected.”
Our society, our humanity, is determined by our connections with each other. The pandemic forced us to find new ways to remain connected. Zoom meetings replaced in-person gatherings. Above the masks, we learned to hug each other with our eyes. All things seem to take on greater importance. There were no insouciant encounters.
During this time of reconnecting, reconciliation and recovery we have been blessed with visits from family and other loved ones. Virginia Queen Danford, who we hadn’t seen since I presided over their wedding 16 years ago, stopped by. A 1996 MFA grad from the SOT, Virginia — like many other students over the years — is very dear to us. We were pleased to hear that many of her 1996 class, Nedra Gallegos, Keegan-Michael Key, Tyler Stillwell, Kellyn Meeks, Mike Pollack, Brooke Behnke, Jessica Raab, Gwen Fawcett, Andrew Heffernan, were still in touch with each other, not all. Greg Thomas, the first African American in the SOT directing program, passed away in 2017 after being an associate artistic director at Oregon Shakespeare and having a bout with cancer. Virginia and Nedra are still close as sisters. Peabody Award winning A-list actor Keegan-Michael Key is hosting his own show, “Brain Games,” on the National Geographic channel. Most of the alum live in California but some reside on the other coast in Boston, NYC and Philadelphia.
Virginia also maintains close contact with the 1997 MFA class that included Tyler Burrell, Carla Hargrove, Cynthia Henderson, Heather Landry, director Louis Magruder and Alessandra Paloschi, who has built a major theatrical career in Italy. Tyler is a two-time Emmy Award winner for his work on “Modern Family.” Carla has appeared on Broadway in “Little Shop of Horrors,” and “Hairspray.” Cynthia is the first African American tenured professor at Ithaca College and has received multiple Fulbright Awards. Heather is coming back into the professional ranks after taking a few years off to be a full-time wife and mother. She is working with Louis, who is the producing director at New York’s Broad Horizons Theatre Company.
Manuel taught us to seek the good in the characters that we play, particularly the “bad” guys. Villains are difficult to portray otherwise. We try to distance ourselves from what we believe is evil, therefore we tend to comment on characters instead of seeking their truth. It is an idea rooted in the dramatic arts, yet applies to other aspects of our lives. We should try to seek the good even when we encounter what we believe is evil. It is a difficult concept. What was the “good” in Hitler, Osama bin Laden, Jeffrey Dahmer or (you fill in the name)? Yet if we cannot see any “good” in those we dislike, we cannot respect their humanity. We should continue to struggle for our positions while maintaining civility. Democracy depends on creating a community that encourages conflicting ideas yet finds a way to enable and respect consensus. The way forward is not by winning but insuring that no one loses.
Por los buenos y pura vida.