You don’t allow other important things to get in the way of getting the production because those kids are on stage on their own and need the best support you can give them. LYN DUTSON Professor Emeritus Mesa Community College Mesa, AZ https://www.lyndutson.com/ From a formative age, Lyn Dutson was interested in theater, costume design, and the history and direction of the theatrical arts. Influenced by her grandmother, one of the earliest teachers in Pennsylvania, Ms. Dutson attended Arizona State University, earning a Bachelor of Arts and a Master of Arts in 1966 and 1967, respectively. During her collegiate studies, she focused on English, drama, theatre and costume design, and volunteered in the theatre department at her alma mater. At the inception of her career, Ms. Dutson served as a lecturer at Arizona State University in Tempe, Arizona, between 1967 and 1968. For the following 40 years, she dedicated her time as a professor of theatre at Mesa Community College in Mesa, Arizona, until attaining emeritus status in 2010. Throughout her career, she has directed over 80 productions and has been a prolific costume designer. While teaching at Mesa Community College, she served as faculty senate president, faculty senate president-elect, and faculty senator. As a testament to her success, Ms. Dutson received several accolades. The recipient of the Faculty Service Award from Mesa Community College in 2007, she earned the Arizona Theatre Alliance Award in the category of educator and educational theater program in 2000. Likewise, she earned the Excellence in Theater Award from the Kennedy Center American College Theater Festival and was named Distinguished Woman of the Year by the Maricopa Community College District in 2008. How have you navigated disruptions in your industry to remain a top professional? I hunkered down and kept doing what was needed, trying to re-educate others about what must be done. One of the differences between what I was doing in education and what everybody else at the community college was doing was my job was not a three-hour-per-week teaching job. I had to explain the difference between the two, why they existed, and what the university professors did differently if they did anything differently. I had to explain to people that in my job, they show a production, which we did a minimum of four times per year; we had to do research and, in effect, publish what our research entailed. That's as much work as publishing an article in
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