On Wednesday Feb. 19, alum Alison Ewing returned to Millikin for a “talk-back” with the students of the Department of Theatre and Dance.
A graduate of ’96, Ewing is currently involved in the national tour of “Flashdance The Musical,” and in the past has been seen in both the Broadway (Studio 54) and national tour productions of “Cabaret” as well as a vast variety of other credits. Before joining the tour of “Flashdance,” Ewing recently completed a two-year national tour of “Mama Mia.”
During the hour-long session, Ewing discussed the many aspects of professional theatre life, scaling from technical questions about theatre unions to curiosities about living situations while on-tour. In addition, she spoke about the many different opportunities outside of the stage, including film opportunities and voice-over work.
Among those who attended were senior musical theatre majors Jessica Benson and Sean Doherty.
“One of the biggest things that I took away from it was hearing her talk about, yes, have a plan and a dream, but there are many different avenues your career can take,” Benson said. “It’s just cool hearing how she has all kinds of different work outside of theatre like voice-over work film. I think it’s a good reminder to keep your mind and options open and you never know what else you could fall in love with. Also she’s like the perfect example of like a really well balanced individual. Like career, home life, health.”
Doherty said, “[The session] just opened up a whole lot of life options as opposed to just strictly theatre options, like taking care of herself and keeping a home life and living in a place that’s not New York but still working everywhere,”
As two students who will graduate this spring, Benson and Doherty discussed how the talk-back helped to prepare them for their approaching professional careers.
“Someone asked what the most important thing she took away from Millikin was, and she said just being a normal human—kind and thoughtful, which is great,” Doherty said. “The shocker is that there are so many people out there that aren’t. When you get into the city don’t think ‘all of these people are my competition’, think ‘all of these people have had different experiences that I can learn from’ and you might just grow as a person instead of shutting them all out.”
Although this was Ewing’s first visit back to campus since her graduation, both of the students stressed the importance of sessions such as these in theatre education.
“I just think it’s great that Millikin is increasingly bringing in more and more alumni,” Benson said. “What I continually learn from all of them is about the experience; you just go do it and you make mistakes that are part of your journey.”