The opportunity to play a walk-on role when I was a first grader shaped my career choice. Being on stage was the dream that lead me to Carnegie-Mellon University where I earned a Bachelor of Fine Arts in Theatre. During my undergraduate days, I began directing plays and working with costume design.
A one year costume position in the Department of Theatre at the University of California, Berkeley revealed a new idea of career heaven that worked perfectly for my other life roles as a mother and wife. While working at professional theatre jobs in the San Francisco Bay area, I taught theatre courses at Mills College as well as San Francisco State University where I had previously completed my Master of Arts in Theatre. Eventually I earned a Doctor of Philosophy in Theatre degree from Stanford University.
An exciting opportunity to create a theatre department at the University of Wisconsin-Parkside was too good to resist. My career took another turn several years later when I was designated Chairman of the Fine Arts Division. Chairman was another title for the work of a Dean. I held this position for six years at UW-Parkside before assuming the deanship for the College of Fine Arts at Wichita State University and eventually became Dean of the College of Fine Arts at the University of Kentucky.
Throughout my early career I published a few articles in journals such as Theatre Notebook and Shakespeare Quarterly. Prior to my years as a dean, my books titled George S. Kaufman and A Sampler of Plays about Women were published.
When I became Professor Emeritus at the Department of Theatre at the University of Kentucky, I had already commenced a major research project in 2005 related to plays and playwrights concerned with World War One. This topic continues to occupy my interests and I desire to share some of my discoveries as well as interact with others about it.
