Who: Michael Lincoln, Artistic Director/Head
School: Ohio University
City: Athens, Ohio

What should candidates look for in a training program? And what unique qualities do you think candidates would find in your program?

Candidates should be looking for a program with primary and secondary mentors with whom they foresee a close working relationship. All of our programs provide “A Bridge to the Business.” We do that through rigorous training to professional standards, excellent guest artists, external opportunities (including Tantrum, our professional summer theater) and opening doors through strong internships. We cover all the specialties in theater with roughly 50 graduate students and 130 undergraduates in 11 degree programs. We are demanding but humanistic and recognize that everyone needs a connection to the natural world, which is why I think the photo including my dog, Frankie, our building mascot, illustrates our program well.

What has been your favorite production and why?

That’s a difficult question to answer because we produce something every year that I love, but perhaps my all-time favorite was our production of Sarah Ruhl’s Eurydice. That production combined the kind of gritty landscape that we love in our productions with gorgeous poetic text in collision with some truly outrageous moments. The production inspired wonderful work from everyone involved, including senior faculty, graduate students and undergraduates.

What are your favorite things to do off-campus in your free time?

For a small university town, we are lucky to have an incredible “art house” movie theater as well as touring productions of all kinds in the campus road house. Because so much of our time in theater is in dark spaces, I love to be in nature when I’m not working and Athens is a gorgeous little town that provides a natural environment every day. I lived in New York and LA for the first 25 years of my career and I much prefer Athens!

How do you commute to the university? Do you feel like students need a car or is there sufficient public transportation/is it a walking city?

I live a mile from our campus building (and my backyard is woods) so I could easily walk, but I drive because Frankie comes to work almost every day and would make the walk take far too long. It is a small university town, so it is easily walkable, but there is good bus service if you need it. Most graduate students have cars, but some do not and manage well without.