Hi all. It has been great to hear about so many of the exciting projects you are working on. In addition to what I read here, I have met quite a few alumni of the program who are out working professionally or have traveled to see some of the projects current students are working on. Each experience makes it increasingly clear how many good things are happening in your ensemble here at Iowa State and how unique, independent and special the theatre students are that make theatre here.

I met Carrie Taylor in Chicago and got to hear about her work at Chicago Shakespeare and how smart and hard she is working to make a life for her in that theatre community there.

I met her because I was traveling to Chicago to see Michael Brandt’s work with my former students from Detroit (and ended up riding the bus with Chris King, who was going to Chicago for headshots in preparation for his move to Chicago to start his professional career.) Brandt stopped by my office and asked for information on what shows to see in Chicago and what leads I could give him on summer work there. To Michael’s credit, he called that day and ended up not only doing a whole spectrum of production management work but acting in the inaugural production of Naked Theatre’s “See you in the Mourning.” This company just formed and is made up of students from Wayne State in Detroit—all kids who got into lots of trouble with me when I was there. Each came up to me and said how impressed they were with Michael, how hard he worked and how much of a theatrical “Swiss-army knife” he was—a guy how could do anything they asked of him. I think this would be true of most of our students who spend four years working and making theatre here in Ames, since so many of you spend as much time building and preparing shows as you do performing and directing them. Maybe less glamorous of a way to learn, but infinitely more worthwhile, I figure.

I ended up traveling back to Iowa with alumni Jordan Whalen. We spent some time in Detroit together as his MFA training at the Hilberry overlapped with the last two years of my PhD work. It was great to hear about his experiences at the Moscow Art Theatre and the work he was putting into starting his next step—transitioning from grad school to the professional world.

Even though I have only been here a year, I am continuing to meet more and more former students and get to know our current ones better. I’ve met and been so impressed with former students who are at or about to begin graduate training, like Eleanor Kahn and Amanda Mullen, and excited about many of you who are getting ready for a move to a theatre community and starting to work.

That has been the most exciting part of my summer, hands down.

Outside of that, I am in my office most days, trying to type madly in hopes of finishing my dissertation. I play softball with a number of ISU theatre folks on Sundays, and I am rehearsing for a production of “As You Like It” that will play for a weekend at the end of July at the Salsbury House in Des Moines. Colin and Maddie are in the play, Kelly is designing costumes…and Brad Dell beats the hell out of me as Charles the Wrestler.

If you are taking or have taken an acting class with me, I’d love to invite you to come see the show. I think it could be a good learning opportunity to have a discussion on what you see—what’s working, what’s not—especially in the context of the conversations we have in class.

Some of you have gotten into touch with me about trips to Chicago or New York and what plays are playing and what I would recommend to see—please feel free to contact me if you are going and want a scouting report, or if you want to go but need help figuring out hostels and megabus and the like. I’d be glad to help.

Looking forward to reading more what you all are up to and looking forward a great deal to starting back up in the fall.

Best,

Matt Foss