After a bit of arm-twisting by Gina Neuerer, the interim chair of the Theatre department, Professor Emeritus Robert MacClennan, also known around campus as \u201cMac,\u201d is returning to Sinclair Community College to produce the winter production of \u201cAntigone.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cMac was sort of taken aback,\u201d said Neuerer when she asked MacClennan to return. \u201cHe said \u2018The greatest job I ever had was retirement, and you\u2019re asking me to come out of it?\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n
Mac, 69, spent 26 years at Sinclair as the chair of the Theatre department before retiring in 1999. Neuerer said Mac was excited to come back to the college for another shot at directing \u201cAntigone.\u201d<\/p>\n
Mac created the Theatre department in his first year at Sinclair in 1973. Though he has been out of the program for a decade, Mac said he has missed only a few shows since 1973.<\/p>\n
\u201cSince I left, there\u2019s been a pretty consistent level of talent,\u201d said Mac of the students and faculty in the Theatre department. \u201cAt this point, their talent pool is extremely high.\u201d<\/p>\n
Mac viewed the \u201cLittle Shop of Horrors\u201d production on Oct. 22 and said he was blown away by the amount of talent in the play.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m really looking forward to working with these kids during \u2018Antigone\u2019 because of the talent level I saw there,\u201d he said. \u201cI\u2019m pumped up.\u201d<\/p>\n
Nearly 20 years later, Mac is sitting back in the director\u2019s chair for \u201cAntigone.\u201d In 1991, Mac received Sinclair\u2019s \u201cInnovator of the Year\u201d award for his efforts in the 1990 production of \u201cAntigone.\u201d<\/p>\n
Full circle<\/strong><\/p>\n Neuerer said she is designing the lights and producing the winter production of \u201cAntigone.\u201d Neuerer also served as the lighting designer and stage manager for the 1990 production when she was a student at Sinclair.<\/p>\n \u201cWorking with Mac was really spectacular,\u201d she said. \u201cThe energy, excitement and passion that he had inspired me. I\u2019d always wanted to be a college teacher and while I was here, I learned a lot from Mac.<\/p>\n \u201cAt that time, Mac was a one-person department,\u201d she said. \u201cHe didn\u2019t have any full-time faculty under him.\u201d<\/p>\n Neuerer said Mac brought in professionals and specialists from around the area to teach students about theatre. She said MacClennan would work 80-100 hours a week during his early years at Sinclair.<\/p>\n Neuerer said Mac impacted her future in a variety of ways.<\/p>\n \u201cI wanted to teach the way he taught, with the passion that he had and the excitement that he had,\u201d she said. \u201cI wanted to follow in those footsteps.\u201d<\/p>\n \u2018Quite an honor\u2019<\/strong><\/p>\n After his retirement, the chair of the Communication department, Lori Zakel, nominated Mac for emeritus status. Mac summarized the honor as the right to return to Sinclair and participate in any activity free of charge.<\/p>\n \u201cIt means that the work you\u2019ve done during your tenure was exemplary and the institution recognizes that,\u201d he said. \u201cIt was quite an honor.\u201d<\/p>\n A great experience<\/strong><\/p>\n With Mac returning to Sinclair as a guest director, Neuerer said the production is a special chance for students in the program to work with Mac.<\/p>\n \u201cThe students and Mac are going to really benefit,\u201d she said. \u201cThe program has changed a lot since Mac left. I think that it will be neat for him to see the growth that we have gone through and I think it\u2019s going to be wonderful for these students to work with Mac.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" After a bit of arm-twisting by Gina Neuerer, the interim chair of the Theatre department, Professor Emeritus Robert MacClennan, also known around campus as \u201cMac,\u201d is returning to Sinclair Community College to produce the winter production of \u201cAntigone.\u201d \u201cMac was sort of taken aback,\u201d said Neuerer when she asked MacClennan to return. \u201cHe said \u2018The […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_active":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_note":"","_exactmetrics_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[3],"tags":[813,1272,814],"class_list":["post-3432","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-tartan-news","tag-directing-chair","tag-joseph-stueve","tag-professor-emeritus"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"cc_featured_image_caption":{"caption_text":false,"source_text":false,"source_url":false},"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p5s3vR-Tm","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sinclairclarion.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3432","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sinclairclarion.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sinclairclarion.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sinclairclarion.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sinclairclarion.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3432"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/www.sinclairclarion.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3432\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3489,"href":"https:\/\/www.sinclairclarion.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3432\/revisions\/3489"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sinclairclarion.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3432"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sinclairclarion.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3432"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sinclairclarion.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3432"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}