For someone with close to 30 years of theatre experience, Eric Edson’s relationship with the stage could probably best be defined as a tragic comedy.
As a student at Rogers High School, he was “dragged kicking and screaming” into auditions for the school’s production of Little Shop of Horrors. Years later, he drove his sister, Lindsey, to an audition at the Dunes Summer Theatre where he was then “roped in” to tryouts. He even made a quasi-appearance in "Bye Bye Birdie" back in 1977 - but only because his mother was three months pregnant with him.
So when Marquette Performing Arts recently announced Edson will be in the director’s chair for the longest segment of its fall offerings, it was fair to wonder if the second-year mathematics teacher had turned over a new leaf.
Was it the byproduct of months-long soul searching coming out of the pandemic?
Had he been inspired by a recent production in the Chicagoland area?
What exactly was it?
“(Marquette Performing Arts director) Amy (Crane) emailed me asking if I wanted to be involved. I didn’t respond, but she wrote back later to tell me I’m doing it,” Edson deadpanned.
His dry sense of humor may go over some heads, but his well-rounded education is no joke.
“Art is a lot of math. A lot of people can draw intuitively, but composition and drawing involve a mathematical process. You can almost quantify all art. It’s just an expression of numbers,” he observes.
Edson, who teaches both standard and honors geometry and algebra, represents that rare fusion of right-brained and left-brained individuals. When he’s not guiding students through polynomial equations, he’s sketching comics. He’ll paint a set for a community theatre production one day, and ponder a mathematical proof the next.
He earned his bachelor’s degree in - all of things - anthropology from Purdue University West Lafayette. Later, Edson acquired a certificate in comic book illustration and storyboarding from The International School of Comics Chicago. Prior to his arrival on 10th Street, he worked with the Boys & Girls Club of Michigan City as a group leader.
The one area of study where Edson knows his limitations? Law.
“I can’t argue to save my life,” he said as Kristen, his wife, and fellow Marquette mathematics teacher, feverishly nodded in agreement.
Edson will direct “Cut”, a multi-layered meta comedy by Ed Monk beginning November 11th when Marquette Performing Arts parts the curtains. He’s just the second Marquette teacher to warm the director’s chair, joining former mathematics teacher Kathleen Callahan.
Amy Crane will direct “A Game” by Dennis E. Noble, a “pseudo commentary on society” the theatre director describes. A familiar voice within the Rudy Hart Theatre, Anthony Holt plans to direct “Paper or Plastic?”, a comedy centered around a teenager recently hired as a cashier at a grocery store.
“My favorite part is seeing the progress and hard work of our actors over the two months of preparation,” Holt said.
An Evening of One Acts will open on November 11th and run through November 13th. Further information will be forthcoming.
