One of the two best teachers I ever had left for Mazatlan, Mexico. Over the course of conversation he informed me that the second of the two aforementioned teachers is currently living in Portland, Oregon.
sigh.
It is truly the end of an era. For me, ASU and for Danny Irvine.
My sophomore year at Arizona State University an older student I had done some projects with asked me to be in a piece he was putting together for his final in his directing class. At first I said I was too busy, but he insisted, so I did it. It was a fun piece and after a few weeks of rehearsal we presented it to the class. After our presentation the professor came up to me and said he enjoyed my work and wanted me to come to his office hours the following day.
The next day I went to his office and he asked if I had already registered for the next semester. I said I had not, but that I had my appointment with Marie Faye (my advisor) right after my appointment with him. He said "good" and told me I needed to take his class and that I would need an override at this point. He wrote one out, handed it to me and said he looked forward to the following semester.
When I got to Marie she saw the override and went to go clear it with Danny, to make sure it was legit. She informed me that his class normally required an audition, and that it was one of the more in-demand and faster-filled acting classes at ASU.
When I told all of this to the friend who directed the final project, he was completely unsurprised. He just smiled and told me that was the reason he had been so keen on me being in his piece. He had done it to bring me to Danny's attention, knowing that Danny would take me under his wing. Good friend.
So that was how I met Danny. I went on to take three semesters with him; two acting classes and a directing class. We appeared together in a local production of Arsenic & Old Lace where I first met the second teacher I mentioned, David Vining.
I got along great with David and I mentioned to him that I was interested in taking the voice classes offered at ASU and that I had heard that the beginning level teacher was not worth taking, but that I wanted to take his classes. Like with Danny, David whipped out an override and got me skipped up to his class.
He obviously had lot of faith in me in writing the override, because I had to do what amounted to an entire semester's worth of catch-up work in the first week or so. Apparently there is a lot to learn in the 100 level voice class. Mostly phonetics stuff, but that takes a lot of practice to make stick.
Anyway, after teaching me volumes these two men wrote me two glittering letters of recomendation. They both made me cry. Just a little.
It's sad to see them go. ASU's theatre department will never recover from the loss. Honestly, I've talked to people that are still there and it won't be the same for quite a while.
To Danny Irvine and David Vining I owe a lot. Thank you both. For everything.
BTW Unfortunately, I could not find a picture of David Vining. If anybody can point me in the right direction, I would greatly appreciate it.
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