The Man Who Brought Me Back To Where I Belonged

My first love is for the Theatre. That doesn't mean I am any good at it, but I love it. As early as three years old, I started my first ballet class. I was a cast member of the touring Broadway company Godspel at the age of four. Lets just say I knew I loved the stage before I knew I loved anything else. So I studied it, with intense determination until I was in high school. I took every class my parents could afford; tap, ballet, singing, acting, you name it. And then something happens in high school, you start to question your self and your talents. You start to notice that for some people creative talent comes so very naturally, and I started to wonder why I had to work so hard at something I loved to do. Unfortunately the answer came a little too easily, I just didn't have what it took...that spark! That special something that makes people stand up and take notice of you. I'm not self loathing, I just didn't have it. I wasn't getting good parts in the school plays; I was getting average scoring when I would compete in performance competitions. Eventually I just lost interest (or maybe confidence).

So I go off to college, open myself up to some new opportunities. Who knows, maybe I will find my calling at last. So I enroll as an elementary education major. Can I just say, this was not a good fit for me. I had zero patience for children, I hated my classes and was getting C's at best. I was somewhere majoring at "partying" and just dropping out. Second semester of my sophomore year I had to take an elective and because I overslept and missed registration the only class left I could take was TE 201 ACTING. It was an advanced course so not a lot of people had signed on for it. That is where I met Ken M.! A jovial, sweet, round, bald little guy who was a combination of John Barrymore and Santa Claus. He started the first day of class with all this meditation and strange noise making and breathing exercises. We had to get on the stage and interact with each other with no format, just improvisation. Following these shenanigans, he unloaded a monstrous workload of Shakespeare reading, research papers, performance requirements...bla, bla, bla. What I didn't realize and come to find out later, Ken M. did this at the beginning of all his courses, to sort of weed through the students that would take his classes seriously and those that were taking it as an easy elective. It worked, because sure enough the following week the class had been downsized by half. Thus began my relationship with Kenny M.

It didn't take but one course with this man that I dropped education and went back to the theatre. He gave me back my confidence, and encouraged me to proceed in this direction. He was so honest and had a way of presenting things to me that told me he had taken the time to get to know me and understand what kind of learner and performer I was. He challenged me intellectually and made me work so much harder than I would have ever expected from myself. Kenny had so much talent too. He could go from a cockney accent dramatic monologue, crying and screaming to a humorous ragtime song and dance in a matter of seconds. He was so smart; he saw things in performances and in plays that I had never even considered. He understood that I questioned my abilities as a performer and got me into directing. He even gave me the opportunity to direct a one-act play, which to this day is one of the highlights of my life. And sure enough, my senior year of college he and a student director cast me as the lead in a play, maybe to challenge me, maybe to scare the @#$% our of me, who cares. I was back on stage.

Ken M. was just one of those amazing teachers that you actually looked forward to seeing even if you weren't in class, I just got a kick seeing him in the hallway. He made me think when I was adamant about not wanting to think. He got me through my senior research and to this day writes all my letters of recommendation. I think he might be the one that got me into American University. He was my advisor and key educator for two and half years. I took every class he offered and still consider him a very close friend. And what's more, he never once gave me an A. I still love him though. He is just the best teacher I ever had.

-- Submitted by: A. Jordan Schuck, American University