Jeanine Thompson
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Jeanine Thompson has been loaded with large projects both artistically and administratively. Her primary focus this past year was on revising the acting MFA curriculum. Now all of our acting MFA students focus on creating original works.

Also this past fall I was on a much needed research leave. During that time I focused on archiving the works I have created while being at OSU. I created notebooks for the productions of Breaking The Current, Uncommon Clay, Interior Day, and An Evening of Impressionistic Dance (a solo show I took to the Edinburgh Fringe Festival). Included in these notebooks are the scripts, photo and video documentation, directorial notes, and PR. I am also developing notebooks for my work with Marcel Marceau, The Fire Still Burns, and my years of residency work, including my exquisite time in Chile. It is extremely difficult to find time to pull all of these essential items together during the school year. Therefore, it was invaluable to have this time to hunt down my documentation, sift though mounds of paper, and put order to piles of creative chaos.

For the second half of Winter Quarter I was on medical leave. For those of you who contacted me, thank you, and for everyone else ¬please know that I am fine. I was so happy to return Spring Quarter to teach and resume my activities with all of the students, staff and faculty.

This summer offered up a first for me: I wrote my first article and submitted it for publication! Along with PhD student Jen Schlueter and Lesley Ferris, we wrote papers on the topic of devising. Mine was on the historical journey our department has been through going from a traditional MFA acting program to establishing our new acting MFA which focuses on creating original works. Look for it (hopefully) later this year in Theatre Topics. With the encouragement from many, and the helpful assistance from Jen and Lesley, I hope that this will be the beginning of many more articles to come.