Excerpt from the Dayton Daily News
Director, educator and playwright W. Stuart McDowell, who chaired Wright State University’s Department of Theatre, Dance and Motion Pictures for 22 years and directed 26 productions from William Shakespeare to Rodgers and Hammerstein, has announced his retirement effective June 30.
Currently serving as professor and artistic director of the department as well as the Frederick A. White Distinguished Professor of Professional Service, McDowell, 73, arrived at WSU in 1994.
Before his arrival, he was artistic director for Grove Shakespeare in Southern California and was founding artistic director of the Riverside Shakespeare Company of New York City, which he co-founded with his wife, Gloria Skurski. While helming Riverside Shakespeare for a decade, McDowell, a Brechtian scholar, directed Tom Hanks in his New York stage debut.
His relationship with Hanks proved helpful during WSU’s “Rise Shine Campaign,” a campuswide fundraising endeavor in which Hanks served as national co-chair. More than $160 million was raised for scholarships and construction of state-of-the-art performance and gallery spaces for the school.
McDowell “has been a tireless champion of so many artists and educators,” said Joe Deer, who succeeded McDowell as department chair. “He is unafraid of the challenges inherent in big dreams. He lives for his audience and is the soul child of P.T. Barnum, Joseph Papp and Bertolt Brecht. Every Stu production is an event and every event is an opportunity to champion our department."
Looking back on his WSU career, McDowell, whose penchant for spectacle was memorably captured in such productions as “Show Boat,” “Les Misérables,” “South Pacific” and “The Phantom of the Opera,” shared numerous insights.
