P15
March 2013
P14
March 2013
If
Claude Pensis
were the type to take a bow and
bask in the applause – and he most certainly is
not – then now might be an opportune time.
Consider how the last three years of his life’s work
have gone. In that span, he has been the engine
driving a spectacular revival of the arts at Grand
Canyon University, and evidence of the renewal is
everywhere you turn these days.
• Ethington Theatre, dark for four years during
an arts program hiatus, has come alive with more
than a dozen productions since the fall of 2010,
everything from Shakespearean classics to Gilbert
and Sullivan musicals to Chekhov’s “The Cherry
Orchard,” which was presented in February.
• The Music Department, long a source of
pride for the University, has collaborated with
the Phoenix Symphony in bringing “Handel’s
Messiah” to campus twice and also has
performed Mendelssohn’s challenging oratorio
“Elijah,” along with a host of well-received
seasonal choral concerts.
• Dance and digital-film programs are thriving, and
a pep band was an instant success this year. GCU
now has an improvisational comedy troupe, a
student-run
“second
series”
of
theatre
productions and a program in graphic design;
none of those three existed before last year.
It’s one thing to oversee such sweeping change – but
quite another to insist that all of it be autographed
with excellence. Yet that’s what Pensis has done, and
continues to do, as dean of the College of Fine Arts
and Production. “Good enough” are words you’ll
never hear him say.
Those who know him best aren’t surprised that the
quality has come quickly. It’s why they came to GCU
in the first place, eager to roll up their sleeves and
re-engineer the arts program into something better
than what it was before.
Assistant Dean
Bill Symington
, who has known
Pensis for more than 10 years, signed on as the
Theatre Department’s scenic designer after 16 years
in a similar role at Arizona StateUniversity. He teaches
classes in design and stagecraft at GCU, working
alongside his students in a mentor/apprentice model.
“I was in a position (at ASU) where everything I was
doing was accepted and no one was really pushing
me to be better,” Symington says. “When you work
with Claude, he tries to make the shows the best they
can be, and that inspires and motivates you. He’s
concerned about everyone’s input, but at the end
of the day it’s about making the work as good as it
can be.
“He’s a quiet, shy guy, but he knows what he’s doing
and what he wants. This is someone who will ask you
to do something new, something better. ... And he’s
as hard on himself as he is on anybody.”
– by Doug Carroll
Michael Kary as the Major-General was a highlight of “The Pirates of Penzance,” which
announced the return of theatre to campus in the fall of 2010. Photo by Jak Keyser
Claude Pensis’ 30-year tenure at
Grand Canyon ranks second among
faculty and staff at the University.
Photo by Darryl Webb
Last December’s performance of “Handel’s Messiah,” conducted by Michael Christie of the
Phoenix Symphony in GCU Arena, involved a choir of 200 voices. Photo by Darryl Webb
“Beauty and the Beast” was one of two one-act operas presented last October, with the Beast
represented by a huge, six-person puppet. Photo by Darryl Webb
Claude Pensis has rebuilt GCU’s fine-arts program
– and he won’t rest on his success
Curtain Caing
2010-11
“The Pirates of Penzance”
“All in the Timing”
“Inspecting Carol”
“The Comedy of Errors”
“The Frogs” (at GCU pool)
2011-12
“You Can’t Take It With You”
“Dracula”
“Amahl and the Night Visitors”
“A Midsummer Night’s Dream”
“The Boy Friend”
2012-13
“Much Ado About Nothing”
“Comedy on the Bridge” and “Beauty and the Beast”
“A Christmas Carol”
“The Cherry Orchard”
“H.M.S. Pinafore” (April 12-14 & 19-21)
3 seasons of Ethington ex ceence
Pensis, 55, arrived at GCU seeking something new – and found
it. Fresh from a master’s degree program in stage direction at
the University of Wisconsin, he showed up for an interview in
August 1982 in a three-piece wool suit that he refused to take off.
(He still got the job.)
“The spirit then was as it is now,” he says of the University. “It was
infectious. It got me here, and it’s what I’m still here for.”
As chair of what was then called the Department of Theatre
and Drama, he initiated the five-production Ethington
Theatre Series of three plays, one musical and one opera,
hoping to build a program that was as good as the ones he saw
up close in Wisconsin, first as an undergraduate in Oshkosh
and then in Madison.
This year, he has directed three of Ethington’s four productions
to date.
“Early on (in college), I started thinking about directing, primarily
because I wanted to say more than I could as an actor,” says Pensis,
who studied the violin and photography and played four sports
while growing up, discovering theatre as a high school senior.
“You have to ask, ‘Why are we putting on this play, and what do
we have to say?’ Get a bunch of theatre people together and
you’ll find they are driven by something, and that’s ultimately to
reveal some sort of truth.”
Alumnus
Michael Kary
, who went on from GCU to an acting career
and is now a theatre instructor at the University, says Pensis has “a
keen sense” of the big picture.
