Be Thankful

It’s almost graduation time. I love this time of year. The weeks before graduation are a little like tech week. It’s a scramble. A lot is going on all over the college. During tech week I usually stop and have a talk with everyone about being nice to your techies. Being in a show is important but a show doesn’t happen with actors alone.

Sometimes being faculty we are like the actors in a show. The faculty is the face of the college. The students interact directly with us and their experience will be crafted by the teachers that they encounter. Their experience crafts what they will do when they leave us. But a college doesn’t run on faculty alone.

Running the theatre program puts me in a weird position. I have to interact with all sort of staff all the time. Whether it’s technical services, building and maintenance, marketing, or the business office (not to mention the signatures needed on every conceivable type of form), when I’m in the full swing of production I take up more than my fair share of staff time.

I apologize a lot. I try to remember to say “please” and “thank you” and my favorite phrase “when you get a minute”. The people that help me do my job during the day are as important as the guy running the light board. I’m not sure any of them know it, but I am extremely grateful for what they do.

Graduation is a busy time, for everybody. If you’re college is like mine, you are also in the middle of registration. Be thankful for the work the staff does. The work that helps you do yours. Whether it is the guy who vacuums your office or the lady who mails your checks. A college doesn’t run on just actors. We’re all in this together.