Texas Tech University

A Wonderful Ride

Jonathan Marks, D.F.A.

February 27, 2023

Jonathan Marks

Almost a quarter-century.  That's how long I spent on the faculty of Theatre & Dance, and it was a wonderful ride.

When I came there were some wonderful assets – a talented, eager core of students, an idiosyncratic doctoral program, and an ethos of casual interdisciplinarity – but the faculty was a dysfunctional family, warring against each other.  The Dance Department had recently been disbanded and wed via shotgun to Theatre, as its two professors each complained that the other was ruining students' bodies, and so wouldn't speak to each other.  The Theatre faculty wasn't much less antagonistic, so the Dean of Arts & Sciences put the whole kit and kaboodle in “academic receivership,” meaning it couldn't be trusted to run its own affairs was now run by a Psych professor.

For some reason I was told that as the new guy I was expected to help heal some rifts, but first I had to start directing a mainstage show in my first week on the job.  I had no desire to direct any Neil Simon, but the assignment was Brighton Beach Memoirs, and I grew to love it.  Before long I was working with the Dance people; I performed in two ballets under Peggy Willis-Aarnio, and collaborated with Diana Moore and a composition student in Music, Brooks Harlan, on Molière's The Imaginary Invalid as it's almost never done: as it was originally written, as a comédie-ballet.  And I got to translate it too!

Over the years the department stabilized, and even began to thrive.  I had become Graduate Advisor in my second semester, and worked to understand and regularize all its programs, and created the first graduate handbook.  Over time, as the doctoral program really began to thrive, it became the premier destination in the country for Black PhD students in Theatre Arts.  Made me proud.

I had the honor of participating in the founding of the College of Visual & Performing Arts, and in a few years became its second dean, though on an interim basis.  For the better part of two years, I had three offices: my familiar T&D office, one in the Provost's Office – from which I headed the University's first Quality Enhancement Plan: the Ethics Initiative – and the old Dean's Office which, as the former Office of the President, had the only personal bathroom I ever saw at Tech.  Ah, the perks of power!

A Taiwanese student told me that there's a Chinese proverb:  The crafty rabbit has three holes.  I was that crafty rabbit.

I was hired as Head of Directing, but got to teach a range of courses, including in acting, intro to theatre, and theatre history.  I got to teach the first dramaturgy course at Tech, which was a natural for me since I had been one of the earliest dramaturgs in America.  As we grew and the discipline changed, the students benefited from a new hire focused on dramaturgy, and going beyond the paleodramaturgy I knew.

I think I've never been an easy teacher to learn from, but once a student got the knack, my teaching became very helpful.  One of the greatest kicks I get is hearing from old students who still hear my voice in their heads, and quote things back to me that they first heard many years ago.

When I arrived to Texas Tech, there were, I think, eight faculty in the Department of Theatre & Dance, with three staff.  It grew very slowly for a number of years.  One of our chairs announced that we were on the verge of being closed down, or at least so starved of resources that we'd have to eliminate our production program.  Another chair said that new facilities had been in the works for many years, but were basically pipe dreams that none of us would ever see fulfilled.  It sometimes felt a bit grim, but we comforted ourselves with the knowledge that much of what we did was actually valuable; we were the best-kept secret in the American theatre.

So much has changed since Mark Charney became Chair -- and then Director when he got the Department upgraded to a School.  Thirty faculty.  A staff of ten.  Fabulous new facilities.  Students and faculty going regularly around the country and the world, workshops and different modalities of creation popping up all around.  We are no longer a secret. 

There are bound to be some changes I don't get, but it's no longer my time and my place; the world has changed, and so has the theatre.  It always does.

One of the great joys of my career at Tech was that my favorite production was always the most recent one.  It kept getting better and better.

Let me tell you about the last one:  Doctor Love.  I got to direct it, after my retirement, as the first play in the new building.  I took a Molière play that nobody ever does, stripped it down to its scenario, and improvised it with a cast of students who, for the most part, I hadn't taught or known.  It had originally been improvised, with music and dance created for the occasion.  We took the same route – with new music by Casey Keenan Joiner and choreography by Kyla Olson – and created something fresh and new and alive.

That one was my favorite.  The laughter still rings in my ears.