Georgia College Professor Dr. Caitlin Powell Rekindles Love for Theatre
By Melanie Beal
Senior Liberal Studies Major
Playing the role of a player queen in “Hamlet” allows Dr. Caitlin Powell to explore a field that she has always had a great love and respect for.
Powell is currently an assistant professor of psychology at Georgia College. She attended Drake University for her undergraduate degree. She was a double major in History and Psychology and minored in English and Spanish. From there she attended University of Kentucky to complete her graduate degree. Powell’s dissertation focused on jealousy and she used Shakespeare’s “Othello” as a reference because of the many different layers of jealousy portrayed through the play.
Her mother’s background in education played a large role in inspiring her to become a teacher. She also had a lot of positive experiences with many of her academic advisors throughout her undergraduate studies.
“They (her academic advisors) really helped ‘turned the lights on’ in terms of the way that I approach the world, and I really wanted to give back a little bit to a community that has given me so much. I see it as a way to pay it forward. To be able to take the eye opening experience that I had, and to maybe pass that along to other people,” Powell said.
Powell enjoys Shakespeare plays even more because the classic themes portrayed through his plays are still applicable in modern times. Many of these themes relate to her focus of study, “Hamlet” being one of the plays containing these themes. Her field of study in psychology focuses more on the aspects of the perceptions of morality, what is right and wrong, notions of jealousy, and behavioral motivations.
“It is always interesting to sort through issues like character motivation, drives, and personality. Because of my background, I often study these issues, and exploring them with my character is an interesting application of psychology. I enjoy developing my character’s back-story even if it is something the audience will never see,” Powell said.
Theatre was a second nature for Powell growing up. She grew up in a family with heavy theatre background. Her mother is the artistic and education director of a children’s theater, and her father is an actor and composes musicals. This background in theatre provided Powell with the opportunity to work on set designs and construction by the time she was 13 years old. She received almost a kind of apprenticeship through her parents’ experience.
“One of the things that my mom did when I was little, was she would have a lot of the classics, including Shakespeare’s plays, summarized or presented in picture book form. We knew all the stories of the main plays of Shakespeare, and the language was something that I really got used to,” Powell said. “My mom would read me Shakespeare plays for bedtime stories sometimes, and I got very comfortable and familiar with the language.”
Powell appeared in several plays as a child when her mother needed her to fill in for certain characters, but she really developed her passion for theater in high school. She participated in one-acts for competitions and had roles in several plays. Her first chance to play a role in a Shakespeare play occurred when she landed the role of Helena in “A Midsummer Night’s Dream,” which she recalled as one of her favorite roles.
“I think [acting] really is a little bit of a rush, in that, you know which lines you are supposed to say and you know which lines the other person is supposed to say, but live acting is a different experience than, say, film acting,” Powell said. “It is a slightly different dynamic each and every time. Random things can happen, somebody can completely drop a line, somebody can not show up for their scene when they are supposed to, and that tension is something that I find exhilarating.”
While acting is a fun and challenging hobby for Powell, her real passion is backstage. She worked with the technical aspect of theater in high school and continued to pursue it through college and graduate school. While in school she was a paid stage manager for multiple theaters and worked for the crew that unloaded trailers for shows on tour.
“I have a deep and abiding respect for theater tech. They are kind of the unsung heroes because you don’t ever see them, and if they do their job right you don’t realize they exist,” Powell said.
Her greatest challenge about having the role of a player queen is making sure she is communicating her character to the audience the way she wants them to perceive her character. This character is different from her personality, which makes this communication a little more challenging.
