Dr. Fenn is a sage of theater. Second semester of my freshman year of high school, I took his class, "Foundations of Theater", and I still consider it one of the best classes I've ever taken. It gave us a vocabulary from which to start talking about theater. I look back on it now and think that perhaps he gave us information in a way that was too black-and-white... or at least, now, I know teachers and students and even I might dare to disagree with what he said. But then, we accepted it as absolute truth, I think because we needed something to hold onto in this crazy world we were entering. I still remember talking about the four genres of a play (comedy, tragedy, melodrama, and farce), and different styles of theater (naturalism, selected realism, romanticism, expressionism, absurdism, theatricalism, formalism). I found those notes a while ago and thought, "Wait... WHO TEACHES FORMALISM IN HIGH SCHOOL?!?" Dr. Fenn. He told us that the goals of theater were to entertain, communicate, and educate, and we wrote those down and put that as an answer on tests. I don't think I know anyone else who has the guts to state, "This is what the goals of theater are," without saying, "in my opinion" or "for me" or anything like that.
At first, I was intimidated by Dr. Fenn. I was a musical theater major, which meant he wasn't my department head and I hadn't had much interaction with him my first semester. That second semester, though, in addition to that class, I was in the production of Our Town he was directing (Baseball Player Number 2). I was totally afraid of him, the severe-looking old man who puttered around the school humming. ("As Time Goes By". Always, always, always "As Time Goes By".) Early on in Foundations, Dr. Fenn was talking about drive, and how important drive was. I think there was a Sophia Loren quote involved. And suddenly, he said, "One person who I've noticed has a lot of drive is Colleen." He proceeded to describe my drive to the class, to me. I'd never thought of myself as particularly driven or passionate, I thought everyone felt the same way I did about theater... and Dr. Fenn hadn't known me for that long and was already commenting on my drive? And I will say it was that moment where I started to have the courage to follow that love.
I found out soon enough that Dr. Fenn was not nearly as severe as I thought he was. Secretly, he was eight years old. He wore a princess crown with the rest of my Playwrighting/Directing class as we cast our one acts. He has been known to say, "COOOOOOOOKIE!" Once, he very seriously stood before an audience of people and said, "One of the greatest human fears is the fear of looking stupid in front of others." He took a pause and then said, "OOOOGHABAGHOEAAGREGAAAA!", shaking his arms all over the place. He then composed himself and continued with, "Now that we've got that out of the way..."
Dr. Fenn retired a year after I left ARGS. Secretly, Becker and a bunch of students and alumni planned a surprise Dr. Fenn tribute at that year's International Thespian Society awards ceremony. Becker emailed me, asking if I would compile/direct a reading of selections of plays that Dr. Fenn directed while at ARGS. Fresh out of PHTS first year I said, "Of course!" There were selections from Spoon River Anthology, Tartuffe, Twelfth Night, Arms and the Man, Our Town, A Raisin in the Sun, and Member of the Wedding. We put it together quickly, with alumni reading, and during the performance, a surprised Dr. Fenn sat in the back, chuckling at jokes only he understands. He came up to me afterwards and gave me a huge hug, and said, "Those were some good plays, weren't they?" His love for plays is so strong, so apparent in everything he does as a theater artist and teacher, and I think actually is one of the reasons I'm such a text-based director. Almost every time I've gotten feedback on anything I'm involved in, particularly as a director, someone says, "I heard the text so clearly," and I think part of that is actually Dr. Fenn's influence on me. His love for plays is infectious.
The last time I got an email from him, he was pleased at how well things were going for me and ended his email by saying that part of the reason they were going so well was because I "never lose sight of the great goals of theater, which are to entertain, communicate, and educate." As if those three words had not been the mantra for four years of high school. He never let us lose sight of them, and even now, even being away from Dr. Fenn's teaching both in space and time, even now when I healthily challenge things that are stated as absolute fact... I must admit that I agree with him. I know plenty of people who would disagree with them, particularly on the "entertain" bit, but thinking about it... I think that's it.
One of Dr. Fenn's traditions was the 11 o'clock number. This was the "don't tell the freshmen, let them be surprised" thing of the drama department. During the (very boring) school awards ceremony, at the point where the audience started getting restless, Dr. Fenn would dance. Ridiculously. Ballet. Irish step dance. Hip-hop. Just to have fun and wake us up. Once Becker came onto staff, they would have a dance-off. Becker has an undergraduate degree in Ballet. Dr. Fenn always won.
The final 11 o'clock number was caught on tape. Dr. Fenn milked the audience, and Becker pays tribute. Then Dr. Fenn plays with Becker's arm? I don't know what that's about.
Title of the entry from a senior tribute from my year, mostly to Dr. Fenn. That section was called, "Fenn's bringin' sexy back."
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