Interview with Dr. Jo Ann C. McDowell (conducted by Ronald Rand)
Metropolitan Community College of Omaha´s fourth president, Dr. Jo Ann C. McDowell is the first woman to serve as president of a community college in Nebraska. She was the President of Independence Community College, the first woman dean at a Kansas community college. She taught the first women´s studies course at Pittsburg State, and was the first community college person appointed by the Governor to serve on the Kansas Board of Regents. Dr. McDowell was President of Prince William Sound Community College in Valdez, Alaska, from 1992 to 2004. Upon her departure, she was named President Emeritus of Prince William Sound Community College by the University of Alaska. Dr. McDowell´s many awards include the Governor´s Award for Distinguished Cultural Service, the National Phi Theta Kappa Michael Bennett Lifetime Achievement Award, the Valdez City Council Distinguished Service Award, the Chancellor´s Award for Excellence and the outstanding alumna award from Pittsburg State University and Kansas State University.
Q You´ve had an amazing journey leading you to becoming President of Metropolitan Community College.
A I grew up in a small town in southeastern Kansas and I come from a family of educators. I taught in the psychology department while I was a graduate student at Pittsburg State University in Pittsburg, Kansas. When I graduated from high school I attended and graduated from Independence Community College (ICC). At ICC I had this fabulous English teacher, Margaret Goheen (she and William Inge had attended ICC and shared the great theatre teacher Anna Engelmann). She gave me this great passion and love for the theatre. The torch she passed to me I have worked to pass on to new generations of students.
After completing two graduate degrees I became the Director of Development at ICC and worked with Margaret in her efforts to place Inge´s name on the college theatre and catalog his collection which his family gifted to the college after his death.
In 1979 we wrote a grant to ARCO to catalog Inge´s papers and collection. After the collection was cataloged, Margaret decided we should host a festival to bring attention to the collection. Out of that effort The William Inge Festival was born. Jerome Lawrence (the renowned playwright, who had co-written Inherit the Wind) suggested we honor a playwright each year; he said "Playwrights don´t get enough attention." I have often thought that if someone had paid tribute to Inge in the same way maybe he could have gotten though his dark time and still been with us. At The Inge Festival in 1991 we honored Edward (Albee); that was when I first met Edward. We honored many others of America´s finest playwrights including Robert Anderson, John Patrick, Garson Kanin, Betty Comden and Adolph Green, Peter Schaffer, Wendy Wasserstein, and John Guare. It was a very exciting time. It was during my tenure with the Governor that I was recruited to become President of Prince William Sound Community College in Valdez, Alaska. When I went there I fell in love with Alaska. I thought: "I will do this for two or three years;" I was there for twelve.
When I sent my change of address in ´92 to Edward, he sent me a postcard from Italy which read: "So that´s where you are. Do you want me to come?"
Arco provided me with the first $15,000 grant to make the first Last Frontier Theatre Conference happen just eight months after I had arrived. We began with honoring Edward that year. I stayed in Alaska for twelve years, mostly because of the Conference; I loved the people and the beauty of the state. In 2002 the University of Alaska named a theatre scholarship after me that is given to a theatre student each year. I also received the Governors Arts award in 2004; both were important honors that I am proud of.
Here in Omaha at the 2007 Great Plains Theatre Conference next summer we will be celebrating the fifteenth anniversary of our collaboration.
Q You´ve now begun the First Annual Great Plains Theatre Conference here at Metropolitan Community College.
A I accepted the Presidency here at Metro in 2005. It´s a very large multi-campus college (45,000 credit and non-credit students annually).
The Conference brought together 22 theatre companies, from Omaha, Kansas City, Council Bluffs and Lincoln. I was told that this had never happened in the history of Omaha, that all the University and local theatre companies had collaborated on an event. The Conference will always focus on playwrights, in addition to developing actors, theatre audiences and directors.
The friendship and relationship I have with Edward is the greatest honor in of my life. He is such a provocative insightful brilliant person; he is a genius, and gives back so much. I love him and am so proud that he is my friend.
I have great passion for what the Conference is about. It´s my Midwestern roots; we are passionate about what we believe in. Public service, education and the arts have always been my passion. When Midwesterners commit to something we follow through. It hasn´t always been easy raising money, dealing with the politics—to continue my quest to host a Theatre Conference. But it´s missionary work for me and I cannot ever see myself not doing it. There are not enough of these kinds of events. I regularly hear from playwrights that say we changed their life by encouraging them to continue with their craft, giving them encouragement during all the rejection that they´ve received. I am very proud that the two previous Conferences that I was involved with are still being held. That is a great reward for all the years of work.
Edward deserves the credit. I think of it as a collaboration—a dairy farmer´s daughter with American greatest playwright, interesting isn´t it? Edward always says it´s my Conference and tries to give me all the credit but he is a full partner.
Q What have you learned from building three theatre conferences from the ground up?
A That you want to involve all of the theatre community—to make it a family reunion each year for all the theatre companies. The Great Plains Theatre Conference is not just Metro Community College that made this happen—it´s the hundreds of theatre folks that joined us. There are not enough arts in the schools today, especially when programs are cut, and they usually cut the arts programs not athletics. I like athletics but the arts need all the support we can provide in this country.
I have learned that if you build it they will come, theatre artists are hungry for these kinds of opportunities. There are not enough festivals and conferences that develop playwrights that make people understand the theatre, we encourage them and ignite those fires within.
I have had the opportunity to spend at least a week with America´s greatest playwrights of our time, in Kansas, then in Valdez, and now here in Omaha. That has been my reward for all the years of work. After we honored Arthur Miller in Alaska he invited me to his home in Connecticut several times. I cherish those memories of being in his backyard, with Arthur and Inge Morath. We talked about his plays, the McCarthy trials... He showed me his tractor, an old Schwin girl´s bicycle that Marilyn Monroe had brought from LA, the various posters from his plays from Russia and a table he had built—memories that I will have forever.
We had August Wilson come to the Conference in Valdez five different years; I loved him and his work. What an honor to have spent so much time with August. Edward and I spoke recently about how much lost our theatre family had experienced recently: August, Arthur, Mel Gussow, Lloyd Richards, Larry Sacharow, Jonathan Thomas, Jack Gelber, Joe Chaikin, too much loss to the theatre world. Larry Sacharow and Lloyd Richards were regular attendees in Valdez and were scheduled to be in Omaha this past June. They both contributed so much. We will present a night of tribute to them this year. They were both great personal friends and I can´t believe that they´re gone.
Q I know you taught in Russia, and you were also a national delegate at the Democratic Conventions in the 80´s.
A When I was in college in the 60´s and 70´s, it was an amazing time to be young. We were determined to make a difference and our generation has in so many ways. I would not of been a female college president for 18 years if it had not of been for the changes that occurred with my generation. When I was in Valdez we had a sister school in Russia and I taught there in 1993. I found the Russians amazing, brilliant people. I had the opportunity to meet with different university and government people. The people love literature and the arts, know all the classics, and love Arthur Miller´s and Faulkner´s work. It was a great experience.
Yes, in the 80´s I was a national delegate. I was always politically involved as were my parents. There was a "sea change" in the 60´s. I only wish more young people today had that kind of passion and vision for the future of this country and were a part of the political process, to be engaged.
Theatre makes one think, wakes us up to think about issues. Edward says that good theatre disturbs us, makes us think. I can go to an insightful play and I´m thinking about it weeks later and that´s good theatre to me.
It has been an incredible journey over the past 25 years of involvement with three theatre extraordinary theatre conferences.