![\"Darcey](\"http:\/\/www.augsburg.edu\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/3\/2012\/10\/engen.jpg\" "\\"engen\\"")
<\/a>\u201cHere at Augsburg, we\u2019re a college that\u2019s open and right in the middle of the world around us, rather than being closed off,\u201d says theatre arts professor and department chair Darcey Engen. \u201cAt the heart of our theatre program we\u2019re always asking, \u2018What can we do academically that affects the world around us\u2019?\u201d<\/p>\nEngen is a 1988 graduate from Augsburg\u2019s theatre arts program. What she learned as a student is what she still considers the department\u2019s strength\u2014that students learn everything about theatre, not just acting. They learn the technical side of lighting, set design, and even things like how to finesse closing the house doors just as the curtain goes up.<\/p>\n
This all comes together as they work directly with professional theatre artists, including the most renowned in the Twin Cities.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey leave Augsburg as artists, not just actors,\u201d says Engen.<\/p>\n
Relationships with theatre students begin before they enter Augsburg and last long after. The department recruits high school students, welcomes them into the program, and mentors them into careers as they become alums.<\/p>\n
Engen has strong relationships with high school drama teachers, some of whom are Augsburg alumni. The theatre department willingly shares technical resources and offers workshops to support local high school productions. As a recruitment initiative each year, Engen coordinates Theatre Connections Day, inviting high school students to Augsburg to attend a production, meet students and faculty, and sit in on classes\u2014and several students eventually enroll.<\/p>\n
Theatre students and faculty become a close-knit community. Engen\u2019s firstyear seminar is a cohort of 15 students who study, attend plays, and learn together.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe push them to their absolute capacity, and they step up to it,\u201d says Engen. \u201cWe\u2019re there with them, all the time, analyzing what they\u2019re good at\u2014and we push them toward what they\u2019re not good at or what they\u2019re afraid to attempt.\u201d<\/p>\n
Engen is continually amazed at what theatre graduates can do. \u201cAlums only four or five years out, together as a group, are producing an entire production of Hamlet\u2014because they know how to do everything.\u201d<\/p>\n
Engen also writes and performs. She was recently on stage with two colleagues in \u201cI\u2019m Telling,\u201d a collaborative story project with performance and song she wrote in which the three of them, from different backgrounds, tell their own stories about the experiences of motherhood\u2014all personal, yet universal.<\/p>\n
Each time she\u2019s on stage, Engen says, \u201cI\u2019m seeing my own identity, both the joy and pains.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
by Betsey Norgard \u201cHere at Augsburg, we\u2019re a college that\u2019s open and right in the middle of the world around us, rather than being closed off,\u201d says theatre arts professor and department chair Darcey Engen. \u201cAt the heart of our theatre program we\u2019re always asking, \u2018What can we do academically that affects the world around <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[40],"class_list":["post-653","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-featured-stories","tag-summer-2009"],"wps_subtitle":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.augsburg.edu\/now\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/653","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.augsburg.edu\/now\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.augsburg.edu\/now\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.augsburg.edu\/now\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.augsburg.edu\/now\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=653"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.augsburg.edu\/now\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/653\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7762,"href":"https:\/\/www.augsburg.edu\/now\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/653\/revisions\/7762"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.augsburg.edu\/now\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=653"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.augsburg.edu\/now\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=653"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.augsburg.edu\/now\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=653"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}