Drama, Theatre and Dance Professor Meghan Healey, (left) a sought-after costume and scenic designer for productions in New York and nationwide, in discussion with student Henry Cheng.<\/strong><\/p>\nPerhaps it\u2019s no surprise that Meghan Healey was one of those kids who \u201cwouldn\u2019t get out of the dress up corner at school.\u201d At five years of age, Healey even auditioned for and was cast in a production of St. George and the Dragon<\/i> for the Shakespeare Festival of Virginia.<\/p>\n
Despite that early imprinting on stage, Healey recognized that \u201cI didn\u2019t want to be a professional actor.\u201d<\/p>\n
By the time she left Emory, where she had originally planned to become a lawyer, Healey was still smitten with theatre. A course in stagecraft led to a \u201ccomplete epiphany,\u201d Healey recalls. \u201cI knew this was it.\u201d<\/p>\n
Now Healey is sought after as a costume and scenic designer for productions in New York and around the country. \u201cI see on many different levels,\u201d she says. \u201cIt\u2019s the puzzle piece as a whole.\u201d<\/p>\n
One of her recent projects, Subterraneo: A Cruel Puppet\u2019s Guide to Underground Living, <\/i>which was featured in the New York Times<\/i>, uses puppets to translate Dante\u2019s Inferno<\/i> to the New York City subways. Healey enlisted Queens College students to help collect some of the subway stories she uses.<\/p>\n
Teaching is as important to Healey as her other professional endeavors.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019ve always had the belief for every generation of artists to nurture the next generation of artists,\u201d notes Healey.\u00a0 \u201cI\u2019ve always had young assistants. I find teaching incredibly rewarding. It\u2019s a constant source of inspiration. Teaching can rejuvenate your own passion; for students, everything is new and exciting.\u201d<\/p>\n
Healey also believes that students do better not being in a conservatory, but in a liberal arts college like Queens.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s important that artists be in the world and have other interests,\u201d she says. \u201cI strongly prefer to teach students who are not in a conservatory. They\u2019re more curious, they\u2019re interested in a lot of things. They\u2019re more well-rounded artists.\u201d<\/p>\n
Book she recommends: <\/b>The Empty Space<\/i> by Peter Brook. \u201cIt\u2019s a different way of thinking of theatre as an art form, not as entertainment, but as sacred space. I ask all my students to read it.\u201d<\/p>\n
Artist who moves her:\u00a0 <\/b>\u201cMy favorite artist is Mark Rothko. For many years I saw pictures in books and didn\u2019t understand. A decade ago, MOMA did a retrospective in chronological order and I saw how much power there was in a simple canvas painted red. I felt his emotional journey.\u201d<\/p>\n
<\/b><\/p>\n
Surprising fact: <\/b>\u201cEven though I work in the high arts, my favorite kind of movie is animal horror, like Jaws 3<\/i>.\u201d<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
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Name: Meghan Healey Title: Assistant Professor Department: Drama, Theatre & Dance Degree(s): M.F.A. in Design for Stage and Film, NYU, Tisch School of the Arts Contact Information: Phone: 718-997-3192 Office: Goldstein Costume Shop\/Colwin Hall 410 Email: meghan.healey@qc.cuny.edu “What you don\u2019t put on stage is as meaningful as what you do. There\u2019s a constant choice of […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":22,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"on","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":""},"page_category":[],"wf_page_folders":[137],"class_list":["post-1223","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.qc.cuny.edu\/communications\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/1223","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.qc.cuny.edu\/communications\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.qc.cuny.edu\/communications\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.qc.cuny.edu\/communications\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/22"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.qc.cuny.edu\/communications\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1223"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/www.qc.cuny.edu\/communications\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/1223\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1874,"href":"https:\/\/www.qc.cuny.edu\/communications\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/1223\/revisions\/1874"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.qc.cuny.edu\/communications\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1223"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"page_category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.qc.cuny.edu\/communications\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/page_category?post=1223"},{"taxonomy":"wf_page_folders","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.qc.cuny.edu\/communications\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/wf_page_folders?post=1223"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}