Forging Her Own Path in the Arts

September 10, 2017

“I know if I’m involved in theatre, I will be making the life I want to live.”

Megan Lovely ’19 has been certain about her college major since her junior year in high school. “I have adamantly declared that I wanted to go to college to pursue a double major in English and theatre,” she says.

When she arrived on campus, the first thing she did after dropping off her bags was walk down to Ace Morgan Theatre. Lovely sat in the darkened theatre and pictured all the shows she would be a part of on that stage. She imagined diving in to theatre at Denison right away.

“Instead I waded in slowly,” she says, drawn in many directions by the myriad opportunities Denison offers. And that works just fine for Lovely.

“I learned that, unlike a more linear path, there is no one path to follow in the arts to ‘make it.’”

It’s a little bit of wisdom she picked up in the fall of 2015 when several Denison theatre alumni came back to campus to talk about their careers. The symposium, Making a Life in the Theatre, was organized by theatre faculty who created events that encouraged casual conversation between alumni and students. It’s the kind of programming that’s possible thanks to donor support for the arts at Denison.

“Own what you do,” advised theatre alumna Tara Demmy ’10 during a panel session. “Set goals for yourself … and don’t apologize for being an artist.”

Lovely was inspired by her words and continues to pursue her passion for theatre at Denison, bolstered by the support of the college’s performing arts donors and alumni. “I know if I’m involved in theatre, I will be making the life I want to live.”