NOTE TO READERS: The rest of this chapter and the next three subchapters contain only partial ideas, links and quotes and are still in development. I will return to this writing soon.
I stand here in awe and I am not diminished by your sheen. (Steve)
Respect means to look again
agency
1. Quote Whiz
My colleagues, my students, my former students, my administration, my staff. I stand here in awe because all of you connect me with all of these things that we have done together.
I’ve taken people that outside of the theatre space could not stand to be in the same room together. And, I’ve helped them to see how theatre being the greatest of the collaborative arts, makes it possible for them to exist in that room for that time that it takes to put that show together and to make the best production possible.
And people ask me, why didn’t you go to Darmouth or UMASS Amherst? Why didn’t you follow Jeff? Why didn’t you go to University of Texas at Austin? You know, these places that said “Wow! You’re great! Come here! We’ll give you lots of money. We have all this stuff! But, know what they didn’t have?
They didn’t have you!
(Whiz chokes up, crowd loudly cheers and claps).
There was a guy that almost messed up all of our lives who was involved in the education system here [in Massachusetts] a number of years ago. And, he once said –and he was quoted in the Globe as saying- “why do we need to spend all this money educating bus drivers’ sons?”
And, all of a sudden I realized that it is the very nature of what Salem State College –now University- is. One of its missions was to be there for the people who only had one shot in this state. And, when I met you, the first of you and then the rest of you, as you came along, year after year, I said, “you know what I love about my students? Is that they know that this is their shot. This is their opportunity. This is the place that they can come, where they can feel safe, that they can do this. And that they can achieve whatever it is that they want to do.”
We get to spend that time with you at a time when you are becoming people. When you are deciding who yu are. When you are discovering what it is that you can do. And what you wanna do. And, I have to tell you… that I am so proud to have been a part of that for every single one of you. And, I thank you from the bottom of my heart for giving me that opportunity. Thank you.
2. Distinguish Wendy from me (our paths… make connections to the culture of Salem State Theatre)
3. Describe the horror of the death (Charlie Brown)
4. Describe Pixar and Community Development
5. Describe how others took stewardship (Jesse, Mandi, TJ, PGC members, Kickstarter contributors, Wendy’s friends