Marjorie Hayes: Directing tomorrow's entertainers

For Marjorie Hayes, theater is more than a profession. It's a passion.

A California native, Hayes is an associate professor in the Department of Dance and Theatre Arts and has been at UNT since 1995. However, she started acting in high school. She received her bachelor of fine arts degree in acting from the California Institute of the Arts and her master of fine arts degree in directing from Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh.

While working as an actor, she landed a part in a movie-of-the-week, and that experience showed her how frustrating acting can be.

She called all her friends to let them know she got the gig, but unfortunately, Hayes did not get much time on screen. The experience made her face the fact that acting was extremely competitive and Hollywood was only looking for specific types of people to cast in major roles.

"That experience was one of the reasons I began concentrating on directing," Hayes says. "Calling my family to let them know I had the job was the best part."

Hayes' directing work also began picking up at about the same time she had her movie-of-the-week experience, so she decided to put all of her energy into directing.

Hayes says that, as a director, the need to share the human condition honestly and completely in her productions is paramount.

As a director who teaches, she enjoys developing students' perceptions of the "three-dimensional space called the stage" and encourages them to delve deeper into themselves.

"Actors must speak from a personal, honest truth," Hayes says. "In theater, we take snapshots of everything, not just the good times."

Hayes says she prefers the stage to the screen because the stage is "a visceral art form, alive and sensual," as opposed to the screen, which she says is "a frozen, voyeuristic art form."

She has acted and directed extensively in Europe, and she directed professionally for Circle Theater in Fort Worth, where her production, The Food Chain, was named one of the top 10 productions of 2000 by the Dallas Morning News.

In 1998, Hayes was a Fulbright Scholar to Poland. She will return in August as guest artist of the Gdansk International Shakespeare Festival.

When looking back at her career choice, Hayes thinks that if she had not gone into theater, she might have been a lawyer.

After all, she says, both the theater and the courts examine human behavior in our society.

"I'm sure my father would have preferred me to have been a lawyer," she says. "But theater is sexier."

BY ANGELA KOLENOVSKY kreese@unt.edu

Other featured articles in this issue:

• UNT community pays homage to slain vice president for development
• Legislature OKs salary increase
• Forney named merchandising and hospitality management dean
• USA Today picks TAMS grad for academic team
• High traffic expected for races
• Historian presents new view of D-Day invasion
• UNT 2000-01 retirees
• Welch Foundation awards $705,000 to UNT researchers
• UNT Staff Council reps elected
• New Eagle Express ID cards are now available
• UNT study: Back alleys lower home values
• Faculty Senate elects officers

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