In this episode we chat with new faculty member Lindsay Rae Taylor, who joined our department as Assistant Professor of Performance in the fall of 2021. Lindsay shares her background, her areas of specialization, and the work she'll be doing for our department—including directing Romeo and Juliet for our spring season, which we'll talk more about with her in a future episode.
In this episode we chat with new faculty member Lindsay Rae Taylor, who joined our department as Assistant Professor of Performance in the fall of 2021. Lindsay talks about her background, her areas of specialization, and the work she'll be doing for our department—including directing Romeo and Juliet for our spring season, which we'll talk more about with her in a future episode.
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From the Department of Theater & Film at the University of Mississippi, this is Stage & Screen.
Katherine Stewart
Hello everyone, welcome back to Stage & Screen.
Katherine Stewart
I'm your host Katherine Stewart and my guest today is Lindsay Rae Taylor who joined our faculty this fall 2021 semester as an assistant professor of performance. This short conversation was a great introduction to Lindsay and her background. Her areas of specialization, and the work she is doing for our department. So let's get to it.
Katherine Stewart
Here's Lindsay.
Katherine Stewart
Good morning, Lindsay.
Katherine Stewart
How are you today?
Lindsay Rae Taylor
Oh, I'm so good I'm so good.
Lindsay Rae Taylor
Uh, yeah everything everything is great how are?
Katherine Stewart
You I'm doing great thank you, thank you.
Katherine Stewart
I'm very glad to hear that.
Katherine Stewart
So you are brand new to this department.
Katherine Stewart
This semester
Katherine Stewart
If you wouldn't mind just tell us a little bit about yourself.
Katherine Stewart
I'd love to hear about your background and where you came from and how you got into theater.
Lindsay Rae Taylor
Alright, so uhm yeah.
Lindsay Rae Taylor
I mean uh theater sort of came to me.
Lindsay Rae Taylor
I guess when I was nine years old and I was cast as a Lana ladybug.
Lindsay Rae Taylor
Uhm, in a play called going buggy and then I think I was hooked.
Lindsay Rae Taylor
So it was about how we shouldn't kill bugs and you know it had a pretty pretty deep deep message there.
Lindsay Rae Taylor
But yeah, so I.
Lindsay Rae Taylor
And and then I you know, I continued to to act my way, sort of.
Lindsay Rae Taylor
Through high school.
Lindsay Rae Taylor
Uhm, I was a little bit more into dance for a while, but I I definitely come.
Lindsay Rae Taylor
I started doing a lot of community theater. Like most I I my my story is pretty standard. I would probably say become but yeah, I I, you know kind of worked my way through community theater when I was in high school and I was a part of a youth theater and my my very tiny town of Anderson SC which is where I grew up. And a director that I worked with.
Lindsay Rae Taylor
We were doing a production of into the woods and I was playing little Red Riding Hood and I was having a great time and she said, you know, do you do you?
Lindsay Rae Taylor
Would you think about doing this?
Lindsay Rae Taylor
As a like going to college for this and it never even occurred to me that that would be something you could do.
Lindsay Rae Taylor
I was thinking about I might be a lawyer, I might.
Lindsay Rae Taylor
I don't know what I I would.
Lindsay Rae Taylor
I would also make a terrible lawyer.
Lindsay Rae Taylor
I just want to say that, so I'm really happy I.
Lindsay Rae Taylor
Didn't take that path.
Lindsay Rae Taylor
And so then I started thinking about it really seriously.
Lindsay Rae Taylor
And it was kind of it was it became I was involved in a lot of different things and then theater became the constant.
Lindsay Rae Taylor
And so I started dropping other.
Lindsay Rae Taylor
Things off and theater became my my my true love and so I decided to go to college.
Lindsay Rae Taylor
So I went to.
Lindsay Rae Taylor
I went to New York University to that issue of the arts and where I received a BFA in in acting and I studied at the Stella Adler Conservatory.
Lindsay Rae Taylor
While I was there, I really wanted to live in New York and so that kind of all worked out.
Lindsay Rae Taylor
I also really wanted to have a Conservatory training with liberal arts.
Lindsay Rae Taylor
Education as well.
Lindsay Rae Taylor
So so anyway you was a purf.
Lindsay Rae Taylor
Bright spot for me.
Lindsay Rae Taylor
Uhm so I yeah.
Lindsay Rae Taylor
So I I I loved my time there and I loved living in New York and during which time I also went to the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art for a semester, which is kind of where I started to really focus on classical theater and mainly Shakespeare.
Lindsay Rae Taylor
And so when I graduated I really wanted.
Lindsay Rae Taylor
Hopefully connect with a classical theatre company and and really kind of work my way through the Canon, which is sort of what I did, so I I finished in when I finished when I graduated from from NY You I started working with the Aquila Theatre Company, which was a.
Lindsay Rae Taylor
A theater company
Lindsay Rae Taylor
That, I think is actually toured to Oxford.
Lindsay Rae Taylor
A few times and has.
Lindsay Rae Taylor
May be performed at the Ford Center.
Lindsay Rae Taylor
I'm not, I'm not.
Lindsay Rae Taylor
Totally sure on that. I wasn't with the company when they when they did that but but I finished working with them in 2007.
Lindsay Rae Taylor
But I started working with him as a as an intern, so I.
Lindsay Rae Taylor
Was playing small roles.
Lindsay Rae Taylor
And I was sewing costumes and doing all of that and then I.
Lindsay Rae Taylor
Uh, I got my Equity card through them and I started touring with them and I was taking on lead roles in the company and I became an associate artist with them and classical theater really became my my.
Lindsay Rae Taylor
My real passion.
Lindsay Rae Taylor
So I I did that for about 7 years.
Lindsay Rae Taylor
We toured all over the world we went to.
Lindsay Rae Taylor
Europe and uhm oh gosh.
Lindsay Rae Taylor
It was, it was a really.
Lindsay Rae Taylor
Fantastic time and then I'm.
Lindsay Rae Taylor
When I finished that I.
Lindsay Rae Taylor
Kind of got back to New York and I wasn't sure what I was gonna do.
Lindsay Rae Taylor
I was lucky in that I had booked work as as a young actor.
Lindsay Rae Taylor
I was playing a lot of young roles.
Lindsay Rae Taylor
You know, Juliet and Lila and Hermia and all of these kind of Miranda and The Tempest and.
Lindsay Rae Taylor
I was I was kind of their.
Lindsay Rae Taylor
I don't know resident ingenue I guess. I hope that phrase is going away.
Lindsay Rae Taylor
I hope we're in a new time where that that doesn't where that type doesn't exist, and I think that's where we're headed, but at the time it was very much that way and I sort of started to age out of my type so I stopped.
Lindsay Rae Taylor
I worked with some other companies.
Lindsay Rae Taylor
Aquila, actually we had a a show on Broadway.
Lindsay Rae Taylor
We were on the new at the new Victory Theater, which was a true highlight of my time with the with the company.
Lindsay Rae Taylor
Uhm, but when I left I felt I was hoping to continue acting in New York and I booked some things but it was turning into one gig a year and it's just not enough to sustain myself.
Lindsay Rae Taylor
So I was doing all the things you do in between and waiting tables and a lot of teaching artists work, and then that's sort.
Lindsay Rae Taylor
Of where I started to.
Lindsay Rae Taylor
Develop a love of teaching.
Lindsay Rae Taylor
When I worked with Aquila, we also did a lot of workshops.
Lindsay Rae Taylor
So I had a little bit of experience with it, but I really started to hone in teaching with something that I was becoming more and more excited by.
Lindsay Rae Taylor
And so I thought about going back to school to get my masters.
Lindsay Rae Taylor
And at the time my husband when I was thinking about this, he actually.
Lindsay Rae Taylor
Got a job?
Lindsay Rae Taylor
In South Carolina, working at a university there and I decided that I would go with him.
Lindsay Rae Taylor
I would leave New York, but I kind of went out kicking and screaming and said.
Lindsay Rae Taylor
I believe, and I thought I'm not done.
Lindsay Rae Taylor
I'm not done and so, but then when I left I kind of got to South Carolina, which is as of course.
Lindsay Rae Taylor
As I mentioned, is where I'm from. We didn't move back to my tiny town. We were living in Columbia, SC and I decided I would go back to school to get an MFA and directing. So I went to the University of South Carolina.
Lindsay Rae Taylor
Uh, my was an older student. I can't. I went back at 37 and I'm calling out my age but but I yeah I went back at 37 and I graduated when I turned 40 and I directing with something that terrified me.
Lindsay Rae Taylor
But I thought it would help my teaching.
Lindsay Rae Taylor
I was also trying to navigate my career in a different way.
Lindsay Rae Taylor
Take on more of a leadership role, kind of really discover what kind of artist I wanted to be and directing really fulfilled that in in so many ways so.
Lindsay Rae Taylor
When I left school I I've spent some time adjunct ING and guest directing.
Lindsay Rae Taylor
And I was really hoping to secure a full time position so when I saw the posting for for this job at at the University of Mississippi, I was thrilled.
Lindsay Rae Taylor
I was also thrilled that they were interested in somebody that might want to teach Shakespeare, and it just and might want to direct.
Lindsay Rae Taylor
A plan so it all kind of came together, so that's.
Lindsay Rae Taylor
Kind of how I got here, yes?
Katherine Stewart
Wonderful welcome.
Lindsay Rae Taylor
Thank you, I was kind of lightning maybe.
Lindsay Rae Taylor
That's more than on it, but.
Katherine Stewart
No no no no.
Katherine Stewart
No, that's perfect.
Katherine Stewart
That's perfect.
Katherine Stewart
OK.
Katherine Stewart
So what, uh, what are you teaching this semester?
Lindsay Rae Taylor
So this semester I am teaching I'm I'm teaching intro to acting Theater 110 and I'm also teaching business for acting and auditioning for Theater 316.
Katherine Stewart
And what would you say are some hallmarks of your teaching style?
Katherine Stewart
Or what kind of experience can students expect to have in your classes?
Lindsay Rae Taylor
Uhm, so you know, in my classes it's a very.
Lindsay Rae Taylor
You know it's a.
Lindsay Rae Taylor
It's a such a collaborative room and I I do look to them having come to teaching a little bit or full-time teaching collegiate teaching a little bit later than some of my colleagues.
Lindsay Rae Taylor
I think that I I look to the students to teach me.
Lindsay Rae Taylor
As well, and particularly in, I think about this business class and as well, and actually the entire class as well, that it's our industry is changing so much in terms of diversity, inclusion, acceptance, and I just I feel like we're in a really exciting spot right now with the way we're recognizing.
Lindsay Rae Taylor
The flaws in the industry, and so I'm learning a lot because it was very different when.
Lindsay Rae Taylor
I was.
Lindsay Rae Taylor
When I was doing my training at NYU you you know I kind of felt like if I didn't leave class crying I wasn't getting my money worth.
Lindsay Rae Taylor
And and so I'm trying to incorporate getting rid of that culture in in the classroom and and understanding that it doesn't have to be painful to to be to mean something.
Lindsay Rae Taylor
So my my class is very very interactive.
Lindsay Rae Taylor
I mean, we're up on our feet a lot.
Lindsay Rae Taylor
We play lots of games, it's the.
Lindsay Rae Taylor
Intention is to have some fun well.
Lindsay Rae Taylor
While maintaining focus of course and and getting the job done, but that it's it's my.
Lindsay Rae Taylor
Hope that students leave the class feeling a little bit lighter and and a little bit.
Lindsay Rae Taylor
Uh, and uh, but I I do, you know, I think that yeah, interactive is is a is is how we, how we work.
Lindsay Rae Taylor
I mean I I like to to listen.
Lindsay Rae Taylor
More than I like to.
Lindsay Rae Taylor
Speak, which is not really.
Lindsay Rae Taylor
If you're getting right now, but, uh, but I do.
Lindsay Rae Taylor
I do feel like I I learned from from them, I I try.
Lindsay Rae Taylor
To think of.
Lindsay Rae Taylor
Myself as a more like an older, wiser student and not an art.
Lindsay Rae Taylor
And if you take my class and and you know this fall and then you take it again next fall, you might find a completely different.
Lindsay Rae Taylor
Syllabus because I'm ever changing it and based on what I learn every time I teach.
Katherine Stewart
It so yeah yeah yeah.
Katherine Stewart
Are there certain experiences that you had, either as an undergrad or in grad school, or as part of your professional?
Katherine Stewart
Theatre work that are important to you to incorporate into your teaching.
Lindsay Rae Taylor
Yeah, I mean when I.
Lindsay Rae Taylor
When I did my.
Lindsay Rae Taylor
Uh, when I worked with Aquila for for that with that company, for for such a long time it was a kind of.
Lindsay Rae Taylor
All in all, the time you know we were there for, uh, it was a very organic process where the where the actors as a company we had a.
Lindsay Rae Taylor
Always in choices that were made in the production and I loved that it sort of, you know, gives the actor a lot of agency which is not always the case and I felt like it really started to shape.
Lindsay Rae Taylor
Me as a director as well, and even though I had no thought of directing at the time, it really I now the things that I incorporate in my classroom and then also in a rehearsal.
Lindsay Rae Taylor
Room are definitely things that I've pulled from from working with that company and the kind of.
Lindsay Rae Taylor
That my voice mattered, and that what I felt about the character, what I felt about the story we were trying to tell.
Lindsay Rae Taylor
So I definitely try to to pull things that we did within rehearsals with that company into the classroom and into the shows.
Lindsay Rae Taylor
I direct yet.
Katherine Stewart
Nice well, so Speaking of directing and I know we haven't really officially announced this yet, but it's not top secret and I don't want to talk too much about it now.
Katherine Stewart
'cause I'm going to want to get you back on the.
Katherine Stewart
Show to talk.
Katherine Stewart
Exclusively about this, but you will be directing Romeo.
Katherine Stewart
And Juliet.
Katherine Stewart
For us right now, Shakespeare is an area of specialization.
Katherine Stewart
Are there any early thoughts about that?
Katherine Stewart
So you can share.
Lindsay Rae Taylor
Well, you know, I really want the I, you know I want it to feel modern and I I'm, you know I've been thinking about why this story is relevant.
Lindsay Rae Taylor
Why tell this story now?
Lindsay Rae Taylor
And I you know, I do think that we're in this.
Lindsay Rae Taylor
If it's a story that is about love, hate, and fate, I feel like we're kind of all in that as a society right now that the that those topics are are certainly.
Lindsay Rae Taylor
Relevant and then I always think about.
Lindsay Rae Taylor
You know why?
Lindsay Rae Taylor
I keep telling this story.
Lindsay Rae Taylor
We know how it ends.
Lindsay Rae Taylor
The prologue sets us up, tells us exactly what's going to happen, so you sit there as an audience member and going I don't know.
Lindsay Rae Taylor
Like why did they just tell me everything?
Lindsay Rae Taylor
And then of course we all know it so well.
Lindsay Rae Taylor
Most of us have read it at least in high school, and have seen productions of it I'm sure.
Lindsay Rae Taylor
So I'm going you know, how do you?
Lindsay Rae Taylor
Why do we keep telling it and and I think about you know it's a it's a it's a it's a sad story well it's a comedy before it's a.
Lindsay Rae Taylor
Or it's a tragedy, but I it begins light and of course we we all know how it ends and so I just have I keep coming back to this like we have to keep telling it because I guess the message is not.
Lindsay Rae Taylor
Coming through so I'm so I'm I'm interested in this sort of cyclical nature of it, the that it's and this idea of ritual and how we're not ritual is what we're missing right now with COVID and not being able to be in spaces together and not, I feel like in theater is so much about ritual.
Lindsay Rae Taylor
And we're doing the show in Fulton Chapel, which is of course loaded with UM.
Lindsay Rae Taylor
I don't know ghosts I.
Lindsay Rae Taylor
Hear and.
Lindsay Rae Taylor
I don't know it's it has a lot of history to.
Lindsay Rae Taylor
It and I.
Lindsay Rae Taylor
Yeah, I think about.
Lindsay Rae Taylor
I think about that.
Lindsay Rae Taylor
Uhm, I won't.
Lindsay Rae Taylor
You know, give too much away 'cause I, I know we'll talk more about this later, but I've had a cast the cast list just went out yesterday of 10 actors, 10 storytellers, and it will definitely be a, you know, it's a very pared down version 'cause there's so many characters in the show, but we've kind of narrowed it down.
Lindsay Rae Taylor
There's some characters that are.
Lindsay Rae Taylor
They're not in it that I've rolled into different tracks, and so it'll be a kind of all hands on deck.
Lindsay Rae Taylor
Uhm, actors.
Lindsay Rae Taylor
Uh, with this idea of fate that, like you know, props arrive to people and that it's it's all about storytelling as a group.
Lindsay Rae Taylor
It's a very.
Lindsay Rae Taylor
It's going to be a very ensemble piece, likely very open handed with actors on stage likely the whole time.
Lindsay Rae Taylor
Uh, contributing to the story and I'm just trying to inspire us about like we will get ritual back.
Lindsay Rae Taylor
We will be back together.
Lindsay Rae Taylor
We will tell stories again.
Lindsay Rae Taylor
We'll be in spaces and and then it.
Lindsay Rae Taylor
Of course the beautiful message about if we could just love instead of hate how much stronger we would be.
Lindsay Rae Taylor
As a as in our culture.
Katherine Stewart
Well, sounds wonderful.
Katherine Stewart
I can't wait until we get further along in the process and we can have a longer conversation about it.
Katherine Stewart
I will absolutely.
Lindsay Rae Taylor
Work here, yes.
Katherine Stewart
Yeah yeah wonderful.
Katherine Stewart
Well thank you so much Lindsay.
Katherine Stewart
This has been fun getting to know you a little better and chatting with you and yeah again, welcome to the department.
Katherine Stewart
We're glad to have you.
Lindsay Rae Taylor
Thank you so much.
Lindsay Rae Taylor
I'm so thrilled to be here.
Lindsay Rae Taylor
Uh, I just keep pinching myself.
Lindsay Rae Taylor
I just
I can't believe that this is my job.
So wonderful.
Lindsay Rae Taylor
It's it's it's.
Lindsay Rae Taylor
It's very special to be here so thank you for.
Lindsay Rae Taylor
Being so welcoming.
Katherine Stewart
OK, again that was Lindsay Rae Taylor, brand new assistant professor of performance and director of our spring production of Romeo and Juliet, which we will talk about more in a future episode. Coming up, we'll have more interviews with new faculty members as well as a few with the people involved in our fall productions. So stay tuned, and until next time, this is Stage & Screen.