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Catherine Albers, associate professor of theater arts, recently
told the John S. Diekhoff Distinguished Graduate Teaching Award
Committee that like scientists in their labs, each new play or
production is an experience where actors make discoveries about
character and about themselves.
She also explained that her teaching philosophy shares a commonality
with the medical profession as it is driven by the Hippocratic
Oath that doctors take-"First, do no harm."
 "I'm
in class every day. I expect my students to laugh, cry, scream
and run this huge gamut of emotional experiences. It is very important
for them to know that the classroom is a safe place that when
all is said and done and class is over, they can walk away and
be fine," Albers said. "I must earn their trust by creating a
safe learning environment."
The response from graduate students was to present Albers with
one of the two Diekhoff Awards given during the Graduate Studies
diploma ceremony May 19. In 1995, CWRU's undergraduates honored
her with the Wittke Award for undergraduate teaching.
Albers teaches at the undergraduate, graduate and professional
levels.
At the graduate level, she is responsible for teaching "Audition
Lab," "Acting" and "The Business of the Business," a course that
Albers designed to keep actors focused on what they need to know
to survive in this precarious profession. She also advises and
coaches students who may have special requests such as making
a voice-over CD or coaching some of the acting students with their
multiple roles, like in Shakespeare's Measure or Measure
at the Cleveland Play House's Brooks Theater.
Albers started a professional acting career after receiving her
B.A. in English, theater and education from Illinois Wesleyan
University and her M.F.A. in acting from the University of Minnesota.
She has been a full-time faculty member since 1990. She draws
from her professional experiences in teaching.
Her current professional credits include the voice-over behind
local COSE (Council of Smaller Enterprises) radio and television
ads as well as the voice giving instructions on the Internet site
Doc by Web. She has also done several voice-overs for industrial
films, used by companies in training employees or promoting their
businesses. She recently had the lead role in Dobama Theater's
production of Wit, a play about a woman dying of ovarian
cancer for which she was nominated for a 2001 Northern Ohio Live
Award of Achievement in the arts.
Albers notes that the tough part of being an actor is that you
might have to die every day on stage as she did, then go home
and lead a normal life. How does one do this and be happy? Her
answer is acting technique. As a certified teacher of the Michael
Chekhov technique that involves a psycho-physical approach to
acting, Albers explores with her student how to use their bodies
in developing the character and relaying information to the audience.
"Friends remarked that I would literally grow smaller as I was
dying in Wit," Albers said. This was the result of employing the
Chekhov technique in such a way that she seemed to shrink in size
as the cancer progressed. She notes that many well-known actors
use this method, such as Anthony Hopkins, Gregory Peck and Anthony
Quinn.
"Acting is one of the toughest businesses in the world," Albers
said. While other professions moan about the lack of job opportunities
in the "down-scaled" economy, Albers points out that "actors always
live in a down-scale economy."
"I know what their lives will be like. I cannot give them anything
less than 150 percent in order to prepare them physically and
psychologically for what they will encounter. For three years,
in this M.F.A. acting program these graduate students own me,"
she added.
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