On Thomas Turgeon, a consummate teacher with "street cred" as an actor:

"In typical Turgeon fashion, not only did he not let any of his students fall through the cracks, he also inspired us and made us feel important, no matter how small our parts were. I ended up throwing myself into creating a character for 'chorus woman number six,' and as I did so, everything they had been trying to teach me for a year in 'Baby Drama' ['Introduction to the Theater'] suddenly sunk in. It was a huge jumping-off point in the development of my craft as an actor."
--Elizabeth Rosengren '97

"My most memorable classroom moment at Kenyon was in a theater history class taught by Tom Turgeon. Tom was lecturing on the Commedia dell'arte and suddenly broke into the lazzi of the fly. A lazzi is a little piece of dramatic action, a comic bit. In mid-lecture, Tom started following an imaginary fly around the classroom with his eyes. It started as a small annoyance and climaxed with Tom chasing around the room, red in the face, utterly absorbed in trying to squash the bothersome fly. Besides sending all of us into hysterics, it was the kind of teaching moment when everything comes together--the word was made flesh. It was a . . . mesmerizing performance. Simple and silly as it was, it remains for me a pure example of what live theater can do. It also reminded all of us that the really bright guy up in front not only knew what he was talking about, he could also do it. His street cred jumped dramatically."
--Robert Davis '81

"'Turgeon' should be the response one gets when you type 'dramatist' on Google. He allowed his plethora of theatrical knowledge to reveal itself with both pleasure and dexterity."
--Damian d'Entremont '99

"Pound-for-pound, the man had more energy in his little finger than I could ever hope to muster on a 'good' day. What an inspiration! He asked us to go beyond the superficial answer or approach and find the essential meaning of a characterization or statement, whether this was an acting class or theater history. Professor Turgeon's classes were always like a big treasure hunt, going from clue to clue to find the ultimate prize."
--Tameron Thornton Kugler '82

The Turgeon Chair

In addition to winning the Trustee Teaching Excellence Award, Tom Turgeon was honored at Kenyon's campaign kickoff on June 1, with the announcement that the College was creating the Thomas S. Turgeon Professorship in Drama. The endowed chair was funded by a number of Turgeon's former students.

Do you have feedback on this page?