{"id":2107,"date":"2012-01-17T15:49:55","date_gmt":"2012-01-17T19:49:55","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www3.arts.umich.edu\/ink\/?p=2107"},"modified":"2012-01-17T15:49:55","modified_gmt":"2012-01-17T19:49:55","slug":"moving-on","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/artsatmichigan.umich.edu\/ink\/2012\/01\/17\/moving-on\/","title":{"rendered":"Moving On"},"content":{"rendered":"

It is with much sadness that I write this blog post.\u00c2\u00a0 Our small, close, family-like department recently suffered a loss.\u00c2\u00a0 Professor Glenda Dickerson passed away this past week, and it is a death that we all feel deeply.\u00c2\u00a0 The theatre department is like a family both in size, love, and relations.\u00c2\u00a0 I never had Professor Dickerson, but the mere principle of losing \u00e2\u20ac\u0153one of our own\u00e2\u20ac\u009d resonates in my heart.<\/p>\n

Professor Dickerson was always a sort of mysterious figure to me.\u00c2\u00a0 I was finally going to have a class with her this semester, but another professor ended up taking that class over.\u00c2\u00a0 I was thrilled to meet this woman who was renowned within the department for her intellect and experience.\u00c2\u00a0 These were qualities I heard generally alluded to but never fully researched until Professor Dickerson fell ill and I found myself searching for what I had missed out on.<\/p>\n

Once I began unearthing Professor Dickerson\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s accomplishments, my remorse over never having spoken to her grew tremendously.\u00c2\u00a0 She directed on Broadway.\u00c2\u00a0 She won a Peabody award.\u00c2\u00a0 She wrote and co-wrote many books.\u00c2\u00a0 Her knowledge seemed boundless, particularly on the subjects of African-American theatre and the art of directing.\u00c2\u00a0 This woman had a varied and successful career that anyone would be envious of and seems to have had the courage, vision, and smarts to back it up.<\/p>\n

For me, personally, Professor Dickerson\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s passing completed the \u00e2\u20ac\u0153cycle of threes\u00e2\u20ac\u009d that death is supposed to run in, all of which occurred in the past week.\u00c2\u00a0 This has led to much reflecting, ruminating, and honestly, steeping myself in art that both comforted me and led to a deeper examination of my relationships and emotions.\u00c2\u00a0 I found immense solace in Jason Robert Brown\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Hear My Song<\/a>\u00e2\u20ac\u009d from Songs for a New World<\/em>.\u00c2\u00a0 My grief was expounded, examined, and ultimately, comforted by \u00e2\u20ac\u0153I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ll Fly Away<\/a>.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d\u00c2\u00a0 I was also able to use my theatre community and my own personal work to help me move on and make good out of so much bad.<\/p>\n

The three people who passed away who touched my life, directly or indirectly, have inspired me to continue on the route I am currently headed.\u00c2\u00a0 Each of these individuals accomplished incredible things throughout their lifetimes, which ranged from far too short to impressively long.\u00c2\u00a0 They faced adversity, stared it in the face, and overcame their personal obstacles.\u00c2\u00a0 I strive to do the same.\u00c2\u00a0 While grief can sometimes be overwhelming, it is important to come to a place of understanding the best we can.<\/p>\n

For me, that comes by pushing through and creating something new.\u00c2\u00a0 Of course a play I write will never replace the loved one I have lost, but by rendering something new I am forcing myself to move on.\u00c2\u00a0 I hope that others in my department will do the same.\u00c2\u00a0 Important and impressive art has emerged from the deepest tragedies.\u00c2\u00a0 Think of Angels in America<\/em>, one of the greatest American plays, which was inspired by the AIDS epidemic and how it affected the playwright specifically.<\/p>\n

There is a great line from the aptly titled song \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Move On\u00e2\u20ac\u009d from the musical Sunday in the Park with George<\/em>, \u00e2\u20ac\u0153I want to know how to get through, through to something new.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d\u00c2\u00a0 I think that \u00e2\u20ac\u0153getting through\u00e2\u20ac\u009d for me both represents the artistic breakthrough that is so desirable in the midst of a project, as well as \u00e2\u20ac\u0153getting through\u00e2\u20ac\u009d the hardships you face to get to a place where you can create again.\u00c2\u00a0 I intend to move on, and I hope to continue the legacy of these people who have touched my life.<\/p>\n

\"Glenda
Glenda Dickerson<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

It is with much sadness that I write this blog post.\u00c2\u00a0 Our small, close, family-like department recently suffered a loss.\u00c2\u00a0 Professor Glenda Dickerson passed away this past week, and it is a death that we all feel deeply.\u00c2\u00a0 The theatre department is like a family both in size, love, and relations.\u00c2\u00a0 I never had Professor […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":35,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/artsatmichigan.umich.edu\/ink\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2107"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/artsatmichigan.umich.edu\/ink\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/artsatmichigan.umich.edu\/ink\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/artsatmichigan.umich.edu\/ink\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/35"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/artsatmichigan.umich.edu\/ink\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2107"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/artsatmichigan.umich.edu\/ink\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2107\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2147,"href":"https:\/\/artsatmichigan.umich.edu\/ink\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2107\/revisions\/2147"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/artsatmichigan.umich.edu\/ink\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2107"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/artsatmichigan.umich.edu\/ink\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2107"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/artsatmichigan.umich.edu\/ink\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2107"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}