When Donna Clevinger takes the stage at Mississippi State University, she’s not just directing actors. From robots performing in Roman comedies to 3D animations reviving Roman tragedies, Clevinger is finding new ways to blend traditional arts with modern technology.
“I am not here to train students to be actors or technicians,” Clevinger said. “I am here to give a foundation for students with many majors a chance to do research and explore beyond what they thought their lives might be here and to go places that maybe professors don’t have the opportunity to do.”
As the senior faculty fellow in Shackouls Honors College and a professor of communication and theatre in the College of Arts and Sciences, Clevinger has spent more than a decade at MSU exploring ways to integrate the arts with students across all majors.
“It’s really exciting to see that the students are willing to get out of their box and their respective area and see where their imaginations will take them in their own creativity,” she said. “… That’s arts integration at its best.”
But her passion for art integration began long before stepping foot at Mississippi State.
“I was 3 years old,” Clevinger said. “My mom put me in dance. That’s my greatest love, and then of course theater. … I always wondered why things were the way they were, and why couldn’t I learn math through a song? So I would make up a dance to remember multiplication.”
Initially, she thought she’d follow in her parents’ footsteps into a STEM field. That is, until she agreed to walk her roommate to an audition for a school play at the University of Kentucky.
“We got there and there was nobody to read for a part that the director wanted to be read, and he asked me if I would read,” Clevinger said. “I said ‘I’ve got to study for my test.’… He said, ‘If you walk down and read this part, it will change your life forever.’ And I closed my book, I stuck it under the seat, and I walked down that aisle into my future.”
Clevinger changed her class schedule almost immediately, and at the urging of her mother, she earned her teaching certificate.
She went on to teach in five states, leading departments and courses that spanned everything from business and teacher education to theatre and film.
Clevinger came to MSU in 2007 as dean of the Meridian campus and joined the Shackouls Honors College in 2012. She developed Classical Week during her first year, an event that combines a classic Greek or Roman production with academic presentations.
What began as an outdoor production with just 47 people seated on blankets has grown into a packed event at Bettersworth Auditorium, drawing more than 550 attendees this year.
“I thought we were doing pretty good with blankets and (attendees) eating their dinner out on the lawn to watch the show, and then things had to change,” Clevinger said. “It got hotter, the bugs got worse, but the audiences came and they cheered us on.”
‘It’s all about imagination’
Moving indoors has allowed Clevinger to think more creatively about integrating new technology with ancient productions.
This year’s Classical Week production of the Roman tragedy Thyestes, for example, saw 2D and 3D animations swallow the walls of Bettersworth Auditorium.
Along with the two students from the College of Architecture, Art and Design who created the animations, none of the 21 student actors were theater majors.
Last year, Trinummus, a Roman comedy, featured three robot castmates who performed alongside a full student ensemble.
“It’s a big deal to take 2,000-year-old plays and bring them to life for 21st century audiences to be wowed by, and that’s what I want my students to experience,” Clevinger said.
Last semester, Clevinger also taught the first interdisciplinary course of its kind at MSU: A Human, a Robot, and a Stage. The collaboration between Shackouls Honors College and the Department of Computer Science and Engineering saw the creation of seven student plays in which costumed robots took center stage.
“What I enjoy most of all is working with the students and letting them know you can do active research in the arts as well as the sciences,” Clevinger said. “… And it’s just wonderful to be able to know that it’s okay if you’re an engineer, that you can come over and participate.”
For Hays Romano, a junior political science and Asian studies major, this kind of cross-disciplinary collaboration has been eye-opening. Romano has performed in every Clevinger production since his freshman year.
“I think that Dr. Clevinger putting in the effort to gather students from all different disciplines and all different walks of life leads to a great amount of intellectual diversity in the cast, and diversity breeds innovation,” he said. “I think you see a lot of that in her shows, whether that be through integration of technology or just the way she’s able to adapt these ancient plays and bring them to a modern audience.”
Clevinger isn’t sure what’s next for her work at MSU, though she knows she isn’t done.
“You never know what Donna Clevinger’s going to come up with,” she said. “… I’ve been at this for a long time. I don’t know when I’ll spring that leak and say time’s up. I don’t know. Things will happen when they happen.”
And as for the future of arts integration, Clevinger sees no end.
“Keep on keeping on,” she said. “… This integration, this coming together to make things possible for … wherever you stand. … It’s all about imagination. You’ve got to be able to imagine it. You’re never too old to have wonderful experiences and you’re never too old to think of another way of doing something that might enhance somebody else’s life.”
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