By DAVID DUPONT
BG Independent News
Michael Ellison’s 23-year journey as a BGSU professor of theater is nearing its end.
As a teacher, choreographer and director, his tenure at the university is bookended by a rousing comedy, “A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum” in 1999, and the high energy morality tale “Pippin,” which is on stage this weekend.
There’ll be a reception for Ellison on stage after Sunday’s 2 p.m. matinee.
Closing his career at BGSU with “Pippin” is fitting, Ellison said. “’Pippin’ is about a search for meaning and a meaningful life and a life that’s completely fulfilling. I believe that’s a journey that we all have a potential to be on. … For me, this human journey can be so overwhelming because there aren’t any guarantees because it is a journey, and it’s unfolding. … We get to choose, not everything, but we get to make choices. There are always consequences, but there are always choices, I believe.
Ellison continued: “Honestly, it’s one of the things I love about teaching acting. I believe the elements that make for a powerful actor are elements of life. It’s about breathing, about being the present in the moment. It’s about taking things one at a time, about making discoveries. Those are all tools for living. It’s about choosing. It is about committing yourself to something, and it’s about taking your journey.”
That journey started for Ellison as a child in Texas. “I had all these emotions as a kid that I didn’t know where to channel,” he recalls. Then in his second month in the school, “a wonderful teacher” signed him up for speech tournament in four events – Bible reading, declamation, storytelling, and poetry. He won the storytelling and poetry events.
“That I really succeeded in something got me hooked.”
He went to Trinity University in San Antonio with the intent of being a high school English and theater teacher, but decided instead to become a college drama teacher.
That and his training in transformational energy and body work, set him on a journey as a teacher, director, dancer, actor, and practitioner that took him to all corners of the country and beyond.
He danced in a Las Vegas-style revue, sold merchandise for the original production of “Rent,” traveled the country directing shows and doing transformational energy workshops.
Ellison, 69, has lived in Arizona, Rhode Island, Pennsylvania, Oregon, Los Angeles, and New York City, in a pattern of moving every two or three years.
He settled in Minneapolis to do his doctoral studies at the University of Minnesota.
His doctoral dissertation at the University of Minnesota took him across the country to interview 147 “triple threat” performers who combine acting, singing and dancing. “It took forever, but it was an amazing education.” He also taught at the Minnesota State University, Mankato.
After getting his doctorate, he thought he’d found his direction, and it wasn’t teaching theater at a university.
Ellison was presenting transformational energy workshops at University of Arizona where he had gotten his master’s degree, at Arizona State University, and had more workshops scheduled in North Dakota, Minnesota, Boston, New York, and Delaware.
Transformational energy and body work, he said, “is about tuning into energy and seeing where energy is blocked and assessing people to whatever degree they are ready to release the energy that’s blocked. … It’s very intuitive.”
Ellison uses a variety pf approaches. “It’s really about the mental body, the emotional body, the spiritual body, the physical body, the energetic body ,” he said. “It’s really about tuning into all those levels.”
He wondered: “What if my life is doing freelancing?”
Then on New Year’s Day 1999 he got an email from Ron Shields, chair of the BGSU Theatre Department. The university was seeking a “transformational hire” to launch a musical theater program. Ellison had been recommended by a former Mankato student, who was now (and still is) on the BGSU faculty, Brad Clark.
Noting the word “transformational,” Ellison thought: “That’s appropriate.”
This could have gone two ways. He could have responded that “I just decided what I’m going to do with my life” and it’s not teaching at BGSU. Or “that was close,” but this is the offer I should pursue.
Instead, he did neither. “Let me stay open and see,” he decided.
Ellison sent BGSU unofficial transcripts and the letters of recommendation he already had.
“Then everything fell into place.” The four-day engagement in Delaware fell through so instead he traveled to interview at BGSU. Two of his letters came from former Mankato students now on the BGSU faculty, Kelly Mangan, scenic designer and prop master, and Clark, whose expertise is in puppetry. The third was from Nancy Cutler, with whom he’d worked in North Dakota and, unbeknownst to him, was a BGSU graduate.
“Everything just lined up.”
He took the job. “I didn’t know how long I’d be here. I never would have expected I’d be here for 23 years.”
In that time, Ellison has directed one show pretty much every year, as well as choreographing operas directed by Shields. He also appeared as the Mysterious Man in a production of “Into the Woods” directed by graduate student David Sollish. “That was a lot of fun.”
During the pandemic, he directed two virtual shows, “Ordinary Days” and “Theory of Relativity,” which were done as a hybrid of live theater and film.
Ellison’s favorites among the productions he directed at BGSU include “Children of Eden,” “Spring Awakening,” and “Chicago.” The latter was the first musical staged in the Donnell Theatre. “It’s a great stage to work on. … The stage is so big but the space feels intimate. We’re very grateful,” he said.
Now with university retirement looming, Ellison is ready to continue his personal journey.
He’s written a book, “Being Magic: A Journey to (W)Hole-ness,” illustrated by Bowling Green artist Melanie Stinson. He describes it as “a fictional fantasy self-help book.” His first priority after retiring is getting the book published.
He’s also posted 50 breathing meditations on Facebook and is working with a friend to turn those into an audio book.
These projects make it the perfect time to start a new chapter. But before then Ellison has more work to do on campus.
“Pippin” continues through Sunday’s matinee.
“I love the show ‘Pippin.’ It’s a very fun show and often Pippin can get lost in that mix,” he said. The Broadway revival “is brilliant” with high-flying acrobatics and magic tricks. That can obscure the heart of the show.
“The job of this show is how do I keep the focus on Pippin because his search for meaning is so incredibly important to me. He tries so earnestly to try to make his life work. His journey is discovering that nothing is as it appears from the outside.”
After “Pippin” wraps up its run Sunday, the show will go on for Ellison.
On Friday, April 15, he’ll present “Michael Ellison Cabaret: Once Before I Go.” (The performance is sold out.) He’s taking some voice lessons from colleague Geoff Stephenson to prepare.
“I’ve never done a cabaret before,” Ellison said. “It seems appropriate. It is a challenge.”
