Theater Professor and Coordinator Susan Robinson started teaching in 2014. She went from teaching theater to helping out domestic pets that were in need for a good portion of her life. This proved to be a vital decision as it helped her mold her skills and passion with real-life struggles and events that occurred at that stage of her life. Coming back to the theater, she was better than ever before and took on the mantle of being more involved in her community
Q: How was it getting into teaching?
A: “I got into teaching pretty soon after I graduated from college. I had a drama and English degree, and so I started directing plays for various high schools. Then, my high school in Cincinnati, Ohio, did not have a drama director. And even though I wasn’t certified to teach high school, they hired me anyway and got an emergency certification, which meant I was teaching while I got my teaching degree, which is, you know, a little backward, but I appreciated it so I was able to teach at my all-girls Catholic High School in Cincinnati. So that was fun, and direct all the plays. Then, after four years of that, I decided that if I was going to teach, I needed to learn more. So I went to graduate school, and I went to Illinois State University, and I got my MFA Master of Fine Arts in directing because I love directing.. After graduate school, I started teaching at various colleges, and this is my, I think, fourth college, and I’ve been here ever since 2014. So this is my 11th year.”
Q: What is the difference between teaching high school kids versus college kids?
A: “Well, you don’t have parents, like you know, when you cast a high school play, it’s not just the students that are happy or upset. It’s their parents as well who are like, ‘Why didn’t you cast my daughter as the lead?’ And you don’t have that here. But no, I just like there’s more independence with the students. I like, sort of helping them, and like them go on their own way and doing stuff. In high school, you have to pretty much you know,” almost guide them I say. “Yeah, yeah, there’s more of that, definitely.”
Q: While going through all these processes, where did you grow up from?
A: “Cincinnati, Ohio…”
Q: How did where you grew up shape who you are?
A: …Cincinnati is very, sort of, what’s the right word, not isolated, but sort of like people in Cincinnati don’t leave Cincinnati. I’m the only person in my family that has ever left Cincinnati, like they tend to stay in the same neighborhood, in the same place. They don’t go and see the rest of the world. So that’s what I sort of had to overcome, is that fear and that, you know, doubt of whether I could make it outside. But as soon as I left and, you know, went to graduate school, I was like, oh, okay, yes, we can do this. And I’m so glad that I did, because I have a much different perspective on the world than if I had stayed at Cincinnati, for sure. The other thing that I think is an important part of my journey is about 20 years ago, I was teaching…, and I quit, and I moved to Chicago without a job. And I completely stopped doing theater and stopped teaching, and I worked for Paws Chicago, which is animal welfare organization in Chicago. I became the Community Outreach Manager.