If all the world’s a stage, and all the men and women merely players, then Kaitlin “Kait” (Finegan) Glenn (’13) has a leading role, with the Cabrini community as a supporting cast.
Now theater director and an assistant professor in the English Department (teaching performing arts) at Cabrini since July 1, Glenn directed shows and served as an adjunct professor for two years prior.
“It truly just fell in my lap,” said Glenn. “I was starting a master’s program at Drexel. I was helping with the production Dr. [Thomas] “Doc” Stretton [EdD], who ran the program for years, was directing because I was back in the area, just to put a portfolio together for grad school. After that show, he retired.”
Glenn ended up with a contract to direct, ultimately directing You Can’t Take It With You, How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying, Edgar Allan Poe: Tintinnabulations, and Legally Blonde while adjunct teaching. With her leap to full faculty in the fall semester, she’s picked up teaching a full class load and running the entire theater program.
A theater buff her entire life, Glenn always wanted a career in the performing arts. What she didn’t know is how big a role her Cabrini experience would play in doing so.
“My parents are very interested in theater, as were my grandparents,” said Glenn. “I don’t really have a memory of not ever being interested in theater. I grew up in a house where show tunes were always playing. I have probably seen everything that has ever been on Broadway. We went to Broadway an excessive amount. I was lucky to grow up knowing that this was what I wanted to do.”
Her love of theater was cultivated further in her time at Cabrini.
“I was overwhelmingly involved [with the theater program when I was here],” said Glenn. “Dr. Stretton was—is, still—a very dear friend of mine. I was in three productions my senior year and my capstone was a one-woman production of Emily Dickinson. I was president of the Alpha Psi Omega, the theater honor society; I was as involved as you could have been.
“I knew that I was going to leave school and work in the realm of theater, but I didn’t know what aspect I was shooting for at the time.”
Immediately after graduating, Glenn attended the American Academy of Dramatic Arts, a conservatory in New York City that trains students to become professional working actors.
“I truly dove in headfirst. I moved to New York, I went to auditions, I went to this conservatory. My time at Cabrini gave me the confidence to go do those things, and try and go a little bigger,” said Glenn.
“When I was running around New York and trying to get auditions, I remembered why I love it so much,” said Glenn. “It’s not about trying to be famous or trying to win a Tony one day, it’s about experiences and helping others grow. When I came back and was helping Doc, I watched the way he worked with the students. I remembered how much I love doing it just for the sake of putting on a show and working toward the students’ talents and building their confidence.
“I tried different things in theater—I worked with professionals, I worked with the administrative side of things—and it led me to knowing I wanted to work with students.”
For Glenn, both theater and Cabrini are about kinship.
“I loved the close-knit community, both in theater and Cabrini. I left with a very close relationship with my professors. I really love that about Cabrini. I have friends that leave huge schools and they have no connection to people. I always felt like I could come back and still be a part of what was going on.”
Not only did Glenn return to Cabrini and pick up where she left off, she’s more involved than ever, and is ready to take the program and coursework to new heights. In partnership with Andrew Owen, PhD, Assistant Professor of Sociology and Criminology, and Abel Rodriguez, JD (’01), Assistant Professor of Religion, Law, and Social Justice, Glenn is participating in Spectacle, Cabrini’s film, media, and theater Living and Learning Community. She wrapped up production of Rumors in the fall semester, and is hard at work developing The Addams Family, the theater’s spring production. Along with the English Department, she’s helping to build the theater minor, growing the courses while maintaining the core requirements. She’s hoping to one day start a dance workshop at Cabrini (headed by Michelle Filling-Brown, PhD), and is looking at the possibility of hosting a children’s theater camp during the summer, with Cabrini students as workers.
“Theater is one of those things that not only means so much to me from growing up, and I have so many memories from it, but theater itself, live art, is really important for our world and our culture,” said Glenn. “It teaches so much about history and different cultures, and it’s something that’s so universal—theater is performed all around the world. I think it’s something very special, that you can re-create a whole world and a whole story, live on stage.”
As magical as Glenn finds theater, she still acknowledges the difficulties. “It’s such a difficult path,” said Glenn. “That doesn’t mean that it can’t be done and that people don’t do it, but it’s very competitive. It can be really cutthroat. That can be really challenging for students. It can be hard to dedicate your whole life to something and then find that you don’t know what to do with it, in a way.”
Regardless, it seems the cutthroat nature of the industry hasn’t been able to break the Cabrini spirit.
“At Cabrini, it’s about creating a community and a family,” said Glenn. “My students now, especially, they work so hard, and they just love what they do. They’re supportive of each other. That was something I was missing and forgetting while I was sitting with 200 other girls that look exactly like me for 12 hours waiting to sing for 30 seconds.
“Cabrini is a smaller university,” said Glenn, “it shouldn’t be too difficult to find something that you can enjoy being involved in. Get involved. There are so many groups and clubs and societies and activities on campus, there are so many opportunities to do things on campus to make your time here better. When you get involved in more things, you meet more people and you make connections, and that’s what you take when you graduate.”