User:Melchior2006/BHobgood

Burnet M. Hobgood came to Urbana in 1975 to lead the University of Illinois Department of Theatre, where he also ran the doctoral program until 1991. Earlier in his career, Hobgood founded and led theatre programs at both Catawba College in North Carolina and Southern Methodist University in Dallas. In 1970, he served as president of the American Educational Theatre Association and later became the dean of its College of Fellows. While college theatre programs for years had been largely focused on productions, Hobgood sought to strengthen their academics and make them more professional, aiming to create programs that emulated what students would encounter in the industry. Among the students he taught over the course of his career were acclaimed actress Kathy Bates and Academy Award–winning director Ang Lee. He has left a lasting legacy as an influential force in theatre education.

https://www.chicagotribune.com/news/ct-xpm-2000-12-15-0012150388-story.html

Edward Charles Mabie came to the University of Iowa in the summer of 1920 to serve as Acting Head of the Department of Public Speaking

George Pierce Baker, Alexander Drummond, Thomas Wood Stevens Papers, John Gassner.

Burnet M. Hobgood, 78, who built drama programs at two colleges before taking over the theater department at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign in 1975, died Monday, Dec. 11, in Provena Covenant Medical Center in Urbana after a stroke.

Mr. Hobgood was a dynamic instructor who taught and directed for more than 40 years. His former students included actress Kathy Bates, known for her roles in the movies "Primary Colors," "Titanic" and "Misery," and Ang Lee, director of "Sense and Sensibility" and "The Ice Storm."

Mr. Hobgood's son Laurence, a Chicago jazz pianist, said that when his father took the stage to direct, "he was outside of himself."

"He was studying what amounted to a problem that was before him: how to make this a flowing event that is the best thing it can possibly be with the people I have," his son said.

Mr. Hobgood believed that college students' experience in a theater department should emulate the industry they would encounter after graduating. He made entrance into the programs he oversaw competitive and the classes rigorous, his son said.

He worked hard to make the programs successful.

"He had so much integrity and he had so much energy," his son said.

The son of missionaries, Mr. Hobgood was born in Africa. The family moved to Kentucky when he was 8. He studied at Transylvania University in Lexington, Ky., before joining the Army during World War II.

After the war, he completed his degree at the university and pursued two master's degrees in theater from Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland. He graduated from Case and moved to North Carolina to start a theater department at Catawba College in Salisbury. In 1957, he married his wife Jane.

After obtaining a doctorate from Cornell University, Mr. Hobgood took on the task of building a theater department at Southern Methodist University in Dallas.

College theater programs for years had been largely focused on productions, and Mr. Hobgood sought to strengthen their academics and make them more professional, his wife and son said. A University of Illinois dean sought him out, and in 1975, he moved to Urbana to head the theater department.

Known by many as just "Hob," Mr. Hobgood led the department for the next 11 years and ran its doctoral program until 1991. After retiring that year, he continued to consult with students doing independent studies.

Mr. Hobgood also edited a collection of essays on teaching theater titled, "Master Teachers of Theatre: Observations on Teaching Theatre by Nine American Masters." He served in 1970 as the president of the American Education Theatre Association and later became the dean of its College of Fellows.

In addition to his wife and son, Mr. Hobgood is survived by another son Brent McLean; a daughter, Cali Hobgood-Lemme; two brothers, Benjamin Clay and Christopher; a sister, Newell Hobgood-Martin; and four grandchildren.

Books
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Articles

 * The Mission of the Theatre Teacher.

Editor of Anthologies

 * Master Teachers of Theatre: Observations on Teaching Theatre by Nine American Masters, Foreword by Earle Gister