“I know that some of the most memorable moments I have with students are actually outside of the traditional class—on the stage, and in costume and scenery locations. More lightbulbs go “off” in those locations as students do their own work and make it all happen. I teach my students that our job as designers is to make the characters and scenes of a production come to life—to produce theatre with polish and safety. But ultimately, besides the class lectures and labs, and learning about such life skills as how to use a ladder and power tools correctly, our students learn to produce theatre by doing.

“To attain the confidence in what they know and can do, our students often participate in the New York Arts Program and others, as interns who are exposed to all of the arts. We are told that they are widely considered to be some of the best prepared interns in the program. And when they return to OWU, they can’t wait to tell all of us about what they did in New York, the center of our theatrical world. And many students go back and find jobs in that New York theatre world.”

D. Glen Vanderbilt, Jr., B.A. (cum laude), Heidelberg College; M.F.A., Northwestern University, is Professor of Theatre and Dance at OWU. He teaches stagecraft and design courses at OWU and has designed, directed, or acted in more than 300 productions in professional, regional, and university theatres. He has designed for such prestigious groups as BalletMet, the Cleveland Playhouse, Colorado Shakespeare Festival, C.A.T.C.O., and of course, Ohio Wesleyan!