'Cherry Orchard' marks theatre professor's retirement

After 33 years at IU, Professor Howard Jensen is retiring. Chekhov's "The Cherry Orchard," which opens Friday at the Ruth N. Halls Theatre, marks his farewell production for the Department of Theatre and Drama.\n"(It is) the greatest play in the last 150 years, and you might as well go out with a play you are incredibly passionate about," Jensen said.\nJensen's love of theater has been a lifelong passion that started when he was a child.\n"I got the acting bug before I even went to grade school and have been in love with theater ever since. I really love that it is live and it only exists in that moment that it is happening, and then it is gone," Jensen said. "There is just something about live actors communicating on stage that cannot be re-created anywhere else."\nJensen decided to follow a career path in the direction of his passion. \n"I knew I wanted to do two things when I grew up: One was teaching, and one was acting. I have a feeling that my mother put teaching in my mind. Because she went through the Depression, she saw that all of the people who kept working were school teachers," he said.\nFollowing these dreams, Jensen earned his Ph.D. from Wayne State University and accepted the position as chair of the acting program at IU in 1972. He held this position until 1999 and greatly shaped the Master's of Fine Arts programs in the department during his tenure, his colleagues say.\nJensen actually only planned on coming to Bloomington for one year, but he enjoyed Bloomington enough that one year turned into 33. Jensen recalls his many turns in the director's chair for some of the best plays ever written as his favorite moments at IU.\nJensen directed more than 35 productions while at IU, as well as shows at the Oregon Shakespeare Festival, the Alabama Shakespeare Festival and the Utah Shakespearean Festival.\nJensen was a founding member of the Tony Award-winning Utah Shakespearean Festival. The Festival, about to celebrate its 40th anniversary, named Jensen as one of the 40 "illustrious persons who have illuminated our lives."\nAfter his retirement, Jensen will again return to the Festival to direct Marlowe's "Doctor Faustus," for which he made a script adaptation. \nJensen plans to continue directing after his retirement from IU.\n"I hope to freelance direct in professional theaters around the country," he said "I will also consider getting back to acting professionally, since I have not acted since 1996."\nJensen said while he will miss guiding students and watching their progression through art, retirement will bring a release of pressure and an opportunity for more travel.\n"Theater can sometimes be really quite nerve-wracking," Jensen said. "When you have classes to teach, meetings to attend and a play to direct, the days can get quite long."\nMembers of the Department of Theatre and Drama said they will miss Jensen immensely.\n"Theater is a collaborative enterprise, and Howard is able to bring out the best in fellow artists," said Jonathan Michaelsen, chairman of the department. "His spirit of enthusiasm and depth of knowledge has been an inspiration to generations of students and colleagues." \nThe great work Jensen has accomplished has not been ignored. While a member of the IU faculty, his work has been honored several times. In 1989, Arts Indiana declared Jensen a "state art treasure who has achieved international, national and regional recognition outside of Indiana during the years 1979-1989." In 2002, Jensen was recognized as an outstanding teacher and was awarded IU's Trustees' Teaching Award.\nProfessors within the department said Jensen well deserved his award.\n"Howard Jensen is one of the finest teachers, and definitely the most talented director I have ever personally known and worked with," said former student and current professor Ronald Wainscott. "When I was a graduate student here in the 1970s, I performed in four of his productions, and in those rehearsal periods I learned more about the acting and directing process than from any other director or teacher I encountered before or since. He has been a mainstay of this department and we will miss him sorely. In fact, he can never be truly replaced."\n-- Contact staff writer Liv Cole at olcole@indiana.edu.