The Bucket Brigade: ATHE President’s Address, 2013

It is a distinct privilege for me to stand up here today and address you as ATHE’s president. I am honored by the confidence that you’ve shown in voting for me, and if you didn’t vote for me—well, I’m honored to represent you anyway. More than honored, I’m humbled to take my place in a tradition that includes so many great leaders, some of whom are with us this morning: Mark Heckler, Jill Dolan, Donna Aronson, Karen Berman, Suzanne Burgoyne, Steve Peters, and, of course, Bill Doan. Can we have a round of applause for these distinguished leaders?

This is my eighteenth ATHE conference in a row. As some of you may know, the number 18 carries a special significance in the Jewish tradition. It is the sum of the numerical value of the letters in the Hebrew word chai, which means “life.” Now I’m not going to say that ATHE is life, or even that ATHE is my life, but I will say that ATHE has defined, guided, and shaped my professional life since I was a shaggy, smart-ass graduate student. So it’s a special joy to look out now and see so many of the colleagues, so many of the collaborators, so many of my students, so many of the near and dear friends that I’ve met along the way. I went through the conference program book last weekend, and between people I’ve worked with, been on a panel or committee with, shared a drink or a meal with, it’s something like 25 percent of the people here. (And the other 75 percent, I’ll get to you.) And for the grad students and emerging scholars out there, let me add that a goodly portion of that 25 percent are people who at one time or another chose to not hire me or to not publish me, or to not come to my panel. I mention this not to be all “How do you like me now?” (well, maybe it’s a little bit of that), but mostly to say that one thing I’ve always valued about ATHE is that this association reminds me that those of us who are committed to theatre in higher education are not competing with each other—we’re cooperating with each other for a cause in which we all believe. And it’s that cause—to support and advance the study and practice of theatre and performance in higher education—that I want to talk to you about today.

Under ATHE’s bylaws, the president-elect serves a two-year term, so I’ve had a lot of time for people to ask “Why would you want to serve as ATHE’s president? How do you have the time?” By which I understand them to mean, “Why would you do this when you could be out teaching, doing research, and making art?” Here’s what I tell them: “I have a full bucket of water. I drew it from the well to slake my thirst, to wash my hands, to water my plants. But now my neighbor’s house is on fire. What would you do?”

And I say, think of the service given by some of the great figures in our profession: Jill Dolan, who was president-elect of ATHE when I first joined, who brought her considerable critical skills to bear on how we think about our field. Mark Heckler, who was president when I joined ATHE—he’s now president of Valparaiso University, but returns every year to ensure the future of our field by anchoring our Leadership Institute. And think of the late Marvin Sims, who before he was taken from us too early, served as president of ATHE and the Black Theatre Network at the same time. Think about the individuals from the professional theatre: Burgess Meredith, who was president of Actor’s Equity; Arthur Miller, who was president of the literary organization PEN; Jane Alexander, who was chair of the NEA. Now I’m not in that league and I don’t expect...