Presented by Timothy Ortmann
Who was Anne Thurman? Anne was a force of nature. She was a tireless educator, a pioneer of creative dramatics, and a first-wave feminist. She broke barriers, moving from her work as an elementary school teacher to a full professorship at Northwestern University. A smoker, a drinker, a nudge, and for a long while, the conscience of the Illinois Theatre Association.
Anne was the type of feminist who wasn’t really worried about moving Feminism forward. I don’t know if she ever thought about it. She was too busy moving it forward with how she lived life each day. She managed to be in the right place at the right time for her career. And I suspect it didn’t hurt that she was likely completely underestimated by the men around her, especially early on.
She was also there at the right time for others. She nudged and pushed the rest of us to do things. She was a pain: coercing you to do things. This was especially difficult to hear since she was typically right: you should do it. She always said that to be a professional and a professor you needed to have something to profess. You needed to get out and have a professional presence. Be a joiner. Do things. Get others to do things! And, of course, be an excellent educator; she had no patience for anything but top-level educational performance.
That is what makes Kristen Mackie an ideal fit as this year’s award recipient. She has certainly “done things”!! She has been tireless day after day, year after year, decade after decade. We’ve seen it over the years through her work at ITA: as the Illinois High School Theatre Festival head of Exhibits, head of Workshops, head of Play Selection, and as Secondary rep to ITA. She's done it as Vice President and as President of the ITA. She’s led the theatre festival as its Executive Director. It’s little surprise that she is a past ITA Award of Honor recipient.
And, she was an all-state producer; a two-time all-state tech director. And twenty years ago she was the all-state director of her extraordinary and unforgettable production of Ragtime. She brought many students and productions to the festival regularly. She blazed the trail for Illinois in bringing multiple productions to Scotland with the American High School Theatre Festival. There have been countless students, colleagues, and theatre professionals whom she has led and mentored through her many varied roles!
Mentoring is often done on the fly, without even knowing you're doing it. I remember in the mid-90s … showing up at a high school to respond to a play that was being submitted for theatre fest consideration. I was still relatively green at the whole play-response process. There were three of us there: myself, another relative newbie …and Kristen. Kristen put us at ease immediately. We were reassured that we’d be fine. And we could sense that if we weren’t, she would be. So all was good: these kids would have a good experience. That's what Kristen did for so many of us – and for her many students over the years. Starting at Catherine Cook Elementary School, the Latin School, Marillac, and then for 38 years she worked tirelessly as a speech, drama, and English teacher; theatre director, box office manager, tech director, lighting designer, and often as costumer. She really was a one-woman band. She would rehearse after school and give the kids a dinner break, while she ran to Home Depot. And she built sets in the evenings. She was incredibly grateful, on those select occasions, when she had extra grown-ups in the mix to help mount the productions. But very often she didn't.
It's the kind of work ethic you don’t really see today. Maybe it was a little bit foolish to do that to herself. It certainly was unreasonable of others to expect it of her year after year. But she wanted to do something special for her students. Call it what you will, and you’re likely right. … I call it noble.
Like Anne Thurman, she was a warrior, and she just kept at it. If anyone questioned what a young, female, artsy teacher was capable of, Kristen was there to blast their expectations out of the water as decades of young Catholic women at Mother Guerin witnessed the creative force and tireless influence of Kristen Mackie. And as the years passed and Guerin went a bit – and then completely – co-ed, the young men got bowled over by those lessons as well.
After her quote/unquote retirement from Guerin Prep, Kristen continued the good fight as she picked up the mantle from Jerry Proffit at Roosevelt University's fast-track program, designed to further the teaching and directing skills of high school (and jr. high) theatre teachers through a masters-in-directing program. Kristen coordinated that program: hiring teaching artists, mentoring a generation of theatre artists and educators, challenging folks who don't always wish to be challenged, and being challenged by those who wanted to raise the stakes! She fought for the program’s standards even through the pandemic. Kristen did what she always did: against all odds, she pointed the light through the proverbial tunnel – with the pandemic and through a changing educational landscape. But Kristen was battle tested. She had worked against the odds in her beloved Guerin Prep with an ever-shrinking Catholic school enrollment and a school philosophy which all too often seemed to take the nuns’ vow of poverty to heart – all the while fighting day-to-day as a tireless advocate for the Arts.
Any student who has ever had Kristen will attest, she was a joyful force. And you will often hear them attest this on the streets of Chicago: “Miss Mackie, Miss Mackie!” They're everywhere!! They are everywhere, coming out of the woodwork to thank her. And also, “Hey, Kristen” which is the introduction to the mantra you hear from a generation of high school teachers who are grateful to her for her leadership and mentoring at Roosevelt. She left Roosevelt behind, but she hasn’t stopped.
She is the first one to say, “Hey ,can I lend a hand; let me know if you need something.” She was very helpful to me at Niles North when I was without a tech director; she was instrumental in seeing us through a tricky time. And that was while she was working at Guerin full time. Maybe that’s why it seems so easy to her now to continue to do a “little bit of” free-lance work, as she assists other would-be one-woman-band theatre teachers.
A couple minutes ago, I asked, “Who was Anne Thurman?” Anne was such a huge presence, that years after her passing, I still feel like I should ask the question in the present tense. Her energy and spirit are still with us. Not just because Anne was bigger than life. But because, as a mentor, her energies are still present in those she mentored, paved the way for … and nudged. Who is Anne Thurman? Well, today, Anne Thurman proudly lives on with our latest recipient of this prestigious Award: Kristen Mackie.
