BFA Graduate Erin Baird
July 09, 2007
by Christi Courian
"The world's mine oyster," wrote William Shakespeare over 400 years ago in "The Merry Wives of Windsor." In the modern world of Shakespearean studies, Southern Oregon University graduate Erin Baird will be joining its elite ranks when she arrives at Mary Baldwin College in September.
Baird completed her Bachelor of Fine Arts from the Department of Theatre Arts in June, with an emphasis in performance and a minor in Shakespeare Studies. In the fall, she will start work on a three-year Master of Letters/Master of Fine Arts in Shakespeare and Renaissance Literature in Performance program at Mary Baldwin College in Staunton, Va. This is the only advanced degree in Shakespeare Studies in the United States. She also received a graduate assistantship from the college.
She was first introduced to Southern Oregon University and the Oregon Shakespeare Festival through SOU's Center for Shakespeare Studies. "Erin's success is especially gratifying to me because she came to our campus as a high school student while participating in our visiting groups program," said Alan Armstrong, Director of Shakespeare Studies. "Our program provides classes to 3,500 middle- and high-school students each year."
Armstrong's standing as a senior scholar for the National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) National Summer Institute for College and University Professors equipped Baird with extensive opportunities to develop her specialty in Shakespeare Studies.
"In my Shakespeare Studies courses, I show photos of the working replica of the Blackfriars Theatre located at the American Shakespeare Center (ASC), which is affiliated with Mary Baldwin College," said Armstrong. "Dr. Ralph Alan Cohen, who co-founded ASC, teaches at our NEH Institute and I teach at his."
Baird was invited to be a student assistant for the 13th NEH National Summer Institute held in Ashland in 2005. "While Erin drove vans of participants to plays, set up classrooms, and other tasks," Armstrong noted, "she was also able to take part in our workshops and to sit in on classes with internationally-recognized Shakespeare scholars, like Ralph Alan Cohen."
The following year, Baird applied for a summer internship working at the Oregon Shakespeare Festival (OSF), then at Shakespeare's Globe in London. "My letter of reference practically wrote itself. Erin had excelled both in my classes and in her NEH institute assistantship, which anticipated the kind of work she would do for OSF Education Director Joan Langley and for Patrick Spottiswoode, the Globe Education Director with whom I had recently worked in London," commented Armstrong. "The Mary Baldwin College program is a natural next step for which Erin's SOU experience has prepared her well."
Baird was the dramaturg for SOU's Theatre Arts production of "Romeo and Juliet" by William Shakespeare in 2007. She also appeared in SOU productions of "The Philadelphia Story," "Ghosts," "Entertaining Strangers," and "The Water Engine."
"Mary Baldwin College's graduate program is exactly what I was looking for," said Baird, "It's a mixture of scholarship and stagecraft."
It's also a pinnacle which Baird reached with the support of a top Shakespearean scholar based at Southern Oregon University. In the world of Shakespearean scholarship, Baird has indeed grasped the timeless narrative of the Bard.
