The Bradley University Podcast

Chad Lowell, Interim Chair, Associate Professor Department of Theatre Arts

• Bradley University • Season 2 • Episode 8

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Angie Cooksy:

Welcome back to the Bradley University Podcast. We are your hosts. I am Angie Cooksy. I serve as the vice president for enrollment management, marketing and communications.

Ben Jedd:

And I am Ben Jedd. I am AVP of Marketing and Communications.

Angie Cooksy:

Ben, I have been thinking a lot about the fact that we get to do this. And I do think it might be one of my favorite parts of the work that we get to do together.

Ben Jedd:

It's uh both like relaxing and energizing at the same time.

Angie Cooksy:

And it goes so fast.

Ben Jedd:

Yeah.

Angie Cooksy:

Like we start an episode and then it's like, oh, we have to wrap up.

Ben Jedd:

We learn really cool things about people on campus that we just didn't. Would never know. Yeah, absolutely. And we're going to teach overseas at some point.

Angie Cooksy:

We are still working on that. So if you are listening and you are teaching overseas uh anytime and you need somebody to come take social photos to help move luggage, I mean we could write a press release.

Ben Jedd:

It could be really or or we could teach a class. We could teach a class.

Angie Cooksy:

Um I am teaching EHS 120 this semester and it has been so interesting.

Ben Jedd:

Yeah, absolutely.

Angie Cooksy:

I've loved it. Um if you've heard the episodes before, you know that we have a guest on every single show to highlight the amazing people who are in and around the Bradley community. And Ben and I get a chance to just talk to them and learn a little bit about them and their role at Bradley and uh their background and what they get to do. And so we record live in Hilltop Studios, which is in the lower level of University Hall. A really awesome space for our faculty and our staff and our students to have access to technology. I think it's just one of those many places that are available on campus that maybe sometimes people don't know about. So it's been fun to get to showcase it. And our guest today is Chad Lowell, interim chair and associate professor of the Department of Communications and Fine Arts.

Ben Jedd:

Theater, right? Theater, yes. I was trying to find a pen to write it down quick enough.

Angie Cooksy:

So that's Ben, would you like to introduce our guest today?

Ben Jedd:

No, you did a great job, but he's the interim chair and associate professor of the Department of Theater Arts.

Angie Cooksy:

For the record, that is not what Ben put on our thing. But now Chad's gonna tell us that that's not actually right either.

Chad Lowell:

That's not right either. I'm actually the chairperson. It's no no longer internal.

Ben Jedd:

So the website is wrong.

Angie Cooksy:

Ben, do we know somebody who could fix the website?

Ben Jedd:

Perhaps I know a guy that can do that.

Angie Cooksy:

Okay, so this is how our episodes we warned you at the beginning that we have a general plan, and sometimes they go off the rail. So that's how we're gonna start.

Chad Lowell:

We're very used to that in the theater department.

Angie Cooksy:

Okay, so let's restart that of not for real. I think people need to know that this is this is what it is. How life is. This is how life is, and we learn and we grow, and we will fix the website pre potentially today.

Ben Jedd:

And I wonder if it says communication.

Angie Cooksy:

Like Did you just read it wrong and write it wrong?

Ben Jedd:

Well, there's a strong possibility that I just like read it wrong and wrote it wrong.

Angie Cooksy:

Yeah.

Ben Jedd:

But I mean, the interim I definitely got from the website. So, anyways, I'm I'm gonna check that out.

Angie Cooksy:

But also plug for the website. There's it's a work in progress.

Ben Jedd:

Yeah, and by the time you hear this, it will be fixed.

Angie Cooksy:

It will be fixed. So, Chadl, you are the chairperson for the Department of Theater Arts.

Chad Lowell:

That is correct.

Angie Cooksy:

Perfect! Like fourth time is the charm. We got there eventually. Thank you so much for joining the show. It has been so fun to get to meet and to talk to, obviously, not meet, we obviously know each other, but to um talk to people on a little bit different level than sort of the day-to-day things. And so to get started, we'd love to learn a little bit more about your background and your journey to being the chair of your department and kind of what that's looked like.

Chad Lowell:

Uh great. Yeah, uh of course. Um I went to undergrad thinking I wanted to be an actor because that's what I thought theater was, even though I didn't really enjoy acting as much, but I just loved theater so much. And then when I got to undergrad, I learned there's this whole backstage side uh and design. And once I found that, I never turned back. I got my master's degree in scenic and lighting design. Oh, cool. I taught at ISU for 10 years and ran the Illinois Shakespeare Festival as their production manager. And then an opening happened at Bradley, and it was in design and at a smaller, kind of more intimate type of training, which I'm uh a lot more excited about, and came over here in 2011 as their design faculty member, and then last year started uh transitioning into as the interim chair last year and full-time chair this year, and um we're uh very excited about um the the direction we're going. We uh I was handed a department in really good hands, and we're uh taking it to the next level, hopefully.

Angie Cooksy:

Yeah, for sure.

Ben Jedd:

That's exciting. So you've been at Bradley for some time. Uh what do you love about your job and what do you think makes Bradley unique?

Chad Lowell:

Um there's lots of things about it. Uh the things I love about my job is how um closely I get to work with my students. Um the example I always like to share is when I taught stagecraft, so the the construction of scenery and stuff like that, I was teaching it to 52 students. So when we got to the section of learning power tools, we had to do that by PowerPoint. Here at Bradley, it's eight to twelve students. So when we're time when it's time to learn about the table saw, we go to the table saw and we take a piece of lumber and we run it through there. Um and that's for all of our classes. They're very close, very um uh um intimate kind of training. Um, and I think that's what's needed for for theater artists uh to get that really small teacher um uh student ratio um and the growth of the students and the connections that we have is just so much stronger here than I've had at any other institution.

Angie Cooksy:

And I mean, I think we see that all the time. You all just had some some young alumni come back that are doing really amazing things and provide some hands-on experiences for our current students. And so what does that look like for you all? Is not only are you fostering students while they're here, but also I think you guys stay really connected with your alumni after they graduate and are doing some amazing things.

Chad Lowell:

Yeah, we we have such amazing alums and and their love for Bradley is is so true. The uh example you gave was uh Morgan Green, who's amazing. Who's unbelievable. Yes, she graduated about 10 years ago. I luckily overlapped her for two and a half years of her time here. Um, and she contacted me to say, I'd love to come back. And uh, I've got this friend who's a two-time Tony Award Pulitzer Prize winner. Could I bring him along? Could I bring him? Right. So Michael R. Jackson, the uh composer and lyricist for A Strange Loop, who got the Pulitzer and Drama for that and won uh Best Tony for Best Musical as well as well as best score. And Morgan Green came in for a one-night performance and they did a workshop with our students where they got to work. And um, Morgan is um was in the first national tour of Hades Town and was in the original cast of Be More Chill, and is just a go-getter in New York and is knows all these people and connections, and this was just the beginning of our partnership with her. Uh, I have an alum, Andrew Coleman, who is the producer at Stage of St. Louis, who wants to come back. He refuses to take any money from us, uh, any kind of pay or hotel. He says, I just want to come back and uh teach your students about art administration. And so he'll be here in late November.

Angie Cooksy:

Oh, cool. Speaking of teaching, um, what is your favorite class to teach?

Chad Lowell:

My favorite class is the J term in London.

Angie Cooksy:

See!

Chad Lowell:

I told you.

Angie Cooksy:

Somebody can take us.

Chad Lowell:

There you go. Yeah.

Angie Cooksy:

London, we could be very helpful.

Ben Jedd:

What class do you teach in London?

Chad Lowell:

Uh I teach a class simultaneous uh theatre appreciation class, which is a fine arts BCC, uh, as well as a major's level class, so.

Ben Jedd:

Would you like to do a podcast in January with us?

Angie Cooksy:

In London.

Ben Jedd:

In London.

Chad Lowell:

I would love it. Absolutely. Figure out the time change. Absolutely. And I'm in. It's I mean one of the reasons we're going to be able to do that.

Angie Cooksy:

We could bring this to you. Yeah, we will bring this to you. In London. Oh, that'd be perfect. Even better.

Ben Jedd:

Yes. And we'd be happy to teach a class if you needed us to.

Angie Cooksy:

But we we bring very little to the table there.

Chad Lowell:

But just to see these students like lives being changed by being in probably the theater capital of the world is is amazing. You know, it's do you want to be on campus and hear and learn from one of our some of our best teachers, or do you want to go to London for two weeks and experience theater? We go to Stratford upon Avon, we do three backstage tours. We typically go to six different uh productions, walking tours of the city. I mean, six different museums. It's it's an awesome experience. That's fantastic.

Ben Jedd:

Um what uh what would you so there's a million different choices a senior in high school can have if they want to go into theater, right? What would you tell a student that is choosing between Bradley and other schools why they should come here?

Chad Lowell:

Well, one of the things that I think we do uniquely, I think uh most theater training programs are gonna have the courses that you need. For sure. You know, if you're in design, you have these sequences, if you're in acting, you have this sequence. Uh one of the things that we add to this is we add a year of professional development so that students coming out of our program are not only have the training and the skills, but they understand how to navigate the industry. Uh so our acting students, for example, one semester will learn on how to do pick the right type of audition material that best suits them, meet with casting directors, directors, uh, agents, uh, learn about headshots, uh, learn about how to land an audition. Um, and then in their senior year, they will put together a demo reel that we send out to all these different casting agencies, and our students are already getting calls for auditions before they graduate as opposed to um the schools I've been in in the past, where you've got the skills, but then you have to start learning the networking portion of it.

Angie Cooksy:

That's super cool. On that note, I think on that thinking kind of earlier on rate, I'm sure there's sometimes you have a parent in your office that's like, is my kid really gonna get a job after graduation if they go in in the theater field, right? And they uh they need help kind of understanding the trajectory. And what you just shared, I think is so interesting and valuable. How do you talk to families about their students being in the theater?

Chad Lowell:

The easy answer is very honestly, it is a difficult business. It is not a business where you're gonna come out like uh I just we just started an entertainment engineering uh uh degree, which hopefully we can talk a little bit about later, where you're coming out guaranteed a job. Most theater students are gonna come out, and I'm very honest, you're gonna have a second job until you kind of um make the connections and and work up to it. Um but our students are doing well. Um over the fat last five years, every single one of my junior or senior production students have had a paid internship over the summer, and every single one of them over the last five years have had a job within the theater within three months.

Angie Cooksy:

Wow.

Chad Lowell:

Our numbers are small, but 100% is 100%.

Ben Jedd:

Absolutely. Can you talk a little bit? Uh you mentioned the engineering theater program. Can you can you give a little bit of background on that?

Chad Lowell:

Uh yes, uh the the background is I've been working on this degree for 13 years, and and it's here, and we're two months into it. So I'm very excited about it. It it started with uh an old friend of mine who was working at Cirque du Soleil, and I said, and I started here at Bradley, and I was like, how can we partner together? And then it has developed over time. Um Entertainment Engineering is the fastest growing field in the theater. It's the technology is moving faster than the training, and so um starting salary right now is about is on the low six figures. I've been teaching for 25 years and I don't make six figures, and I'm thrilled that our students are doing that. Um, but we're also the one of the first five programs in the country that offer this new major, and we're the only one that's based in engineering and undergraduate only. So it's it's very exciting. I had a student intern this past summer who was on Broadway figuring out the engineering for the car from Back to the Future to fly around the theater and Back to the Future, the musical on Broadway. So these are real internships. These uh we have a class that goes out and studies with Cirque du Soleil backstage every other year. We'll be going uh this March, uh, taking 10 students, and um and we're very excited about uh before it was even announced, I had five majors uh ready to put their name on the uh major, so we have that, and uh we're working with a great marketing department here uh to uh really um make people aware of what this even is. I mean, the industry is so new that people don't even know what that means. But this is you know, Cirque du Soleil, Disney. This is what flies pink around the arena without any ceiling.

Angie Cooksy:

Which is also like the coolest show.

Chad Lowell:

Yes. Oh my gosh. And she's apparently super fearless. They they whatever the max the uh gear goes, she always says take it up 10% more.

Angie Cooksy:

Oh well, that's a little terrifying, but like that's somebody like an entertainment engineer that needs to know how to do that.

Ben Jedd:

Yeah, and the reason no, you can't do that.

Angie Cooksy:

You cannot do that.

Chad Lowell:

But the in you know, the reason why these positions pay so much, you know, as a lighting designer, if I make a light queue that's not quite right, that moment may not look perfect. If an engineer makes a mistake, people die.

Angie Cooksy:

Yeah. Oh, yeah.

Chad Lowell:

And uh again, there's so few people in this industry, the average person is working 80 to 90 hours out of necessity. Sure.

Angie Cooksy:

Wow.

Ben Jedd:

So to kind of transition really quick, um Bradley's gonna have a new show here coming pretty soon, right?

Chad Lowell:

Yes, we're very excited. Uh we are opening into the woods on November 7th. I'm so excited. I already have my tickets. I know, it's gonna be fantastic. Yeah, get tickets quickly. They're gonna they're gonna go quickly. We already have a sold-out performance, so uh we only have seven more to go. So and they are uh they're filling out. We just had our fall break recently, and the stack of uh online tickets were huge. So we're we're very excited about it. This is also the first show with the entertainment engineering, so we have a 20-foot diameter fully automated turntable that'll be a part of the show. Uh, and it's also the launch last spring of our new musical theater minor. So we decided in our department uh if we're gonna launch these two amazing new uh Go big or go home. Go big or go home. And so this is a production that is a university-wide production. Um, with our faculty and staff and students, we're we're in the low 40s and there are 75 people working on this show. So it is a university uh endeavor, and we're very excited about half the cast that are non-majors. Oh, wow.

Angie Cooksy:

Yeah, well, and I think that's one of the things that maybe is a little bit kind of unsung about about your department is the opportunities that are open to all students on campus and that they don't have to be, you know, any one particular major. Obviously, we would love for them to be theater majors, but they can be any major and have that that passion and get involved behind the scenes or in front of the scenes or on the stage. And I think that's really cool.

Chad Lowell:

Absolutely. We encourage any student who has an interest in theater to stay involved. We can have you be involved in as little as uh uh an hour a week up to being the lead in all the hours uh of a major show, and um, that goes for productions, that also goes for classes until the senior year sequence, all of our classes are not major blocked. So wow, uh any student could be involved with theater as much or as little as they would like to be.

Angie Cooksy:

I do want to go back to, you know, you were talking about Into the Woods and how cool of a show bringing this to Bradley is. Can you give people some behind the scenes of like how do shows get selected? We do a number of productions a year. Obviously, that depends on the year, I presume, but what goes into making the schedule for a year?

Chad Lowell:

It's very challenging because there are so many masters that we need to serve. But obviously, the number one master is the education of our students. So we we start with our senior class, and what is the last few shows that they need, and then what do the juniors need to get ready for their senior year and and and down the line there? Um, obviously, ticket sales have to be something that we consider. Um, but even more than that is variety of genres. So we want to have people um of our students and patrons to see a musical, a Shakespeare, uh a modern play, uh, a comedy, a tragedy, and and kind of getting a rotation over what we consider a generation in a university campus of four years of the time of a student, uh, as much variety as possible. And then the last major master that um is near and dear to my heart is social awareness kind of uh things. You know, we we are on a on a on a university campus, so um using the arts to better society and uh better uh the world that we are a part of and to uh comment on things so uh super proud of our production last spring of John Proctor as the villain, uh, which was a strong Me Too movement uh piece that connected Arthur Miller to the Salem with Trials to the Me Too movement so brilliantly and um and and such important messages. Uh we also did a um voices from Ukraine when the conflict started, which was all plays written by Ukrainian playwrights in Ukraine since the conflict started. Uh and the most powerful one, uh surprisingly, was about five pets that the owners never came back from war. And there was something about taking it away from the humans that made it more human. Yeah. Uh and then all the proceeds for that was donated to the uh people of Ukraine.

Ben Jedd:

So, Chad, um what's something people may not know about you or your Bradley experience?

Chad Lowell:

Um that's a hard one because I'm a pretty open book. Uh this is like the answer from everybody really. What you see is what you get from me. I mean, I'm you know, I I I love the philosophy, you know, if you always tell the truth, you don't have to remember what you said uh kind of person. Um so I yeah, I'm not sure how to quite answer that.

Angie Cooksy:

Um is there anything maybe so we've had we learned about a bridge national champion on the show recently, or we've had a cowboy. We've had what are some things like so anything even outside of work, maybe is there something you have an interesting hobby or anything that people might not know?

Chad Lowell:

I'm really into cycling. I I got my first century ride in last year. So that was that was exciting. Uh um I have a tortured sports life. I'm a Metch Jets Knicks fan. That's uh bummer. Not something to brag about, but it is something unique. I'm a White Sox fan, so NG barely watches a major league team. So right, yeah.

Angie Cooksy:

So you know my thing. Uh I live with three Chicago Cubs fans, so I I think that's actually worse for my life. It's painful. Um as we kind of wrap up, one of the questions that we ask everybody on the show is, you know, we talk a lot about what makes Bradley special, and and people often talk about all of the other things and and don't necessarily give themselves enough credit um in their role in all of that. And so one of the things that we ask is in your role in or outside the classroom as a chair, whatever that looks like for you, what is it that you are unapologetically exceptional at?

Chad Lowell:

I would say I I don't take no easily. So when I'm passionate about something and want something to happen and I get a no, I will respectfully keep pushing and and and find that. And I think this entertainment engineering is a good example of that. That it was often thought of. There's no way you're gonna be able to put this together at such a small school. And I was like, no, we can do it and we can do it really well, and uh and I think we're doing that.

Angie Cooksy:

That's awesome.

Ben Jedd:

I think that perseverance is really important for your students, so that's great. Yeah, absolutely.

Angie Cooksy:

Is there anything you would like to share or add that maybe we didn't ask you or that you would want people to know?

Chad Lowell:

I'm just gonna plug the show one more. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Uh we open on the uh 7th and run two weekends, uh Friday through Sunday, uh this for the first weekend, uh 7:30 curtains, um two o'clock matinees on Sundays, and then we'll run through the 16th, um, ending on a uh a matinee on that Sunday as well.

Ben Jedd:

November 7th through the 16th. That's right.

Angie Cooksy:

Uh well, thank you so much for coming on the show. We will get your title fixed on the website. And um this is really just the coolest part of what we get to do. And I know I said that at the beginning, but getting to hear about what is happening every day on our campus for our faculty and for our students is why we are all here as a university. And so um, as always, this is the Radley University Podcast. If you'd like to come on the show, reach out. We would love to have you. And thank you everybody for joining us.

Chad Lowell:

Thank you. Thank you.

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Angie Cooksy

Host
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Ben Jedd

Host
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Chad Lowell

Guest