{"id":418,"date":"2017-10-09T20:30:02","date_gmt":"2017-10-09T20:30:02","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.macalester.edu\/160-the-words\/steve-yoakam-directs\/"},"modified":"2024-08-19T15:17:06","modified_gmt":"2024-08-19T15:17:06","slug":"steve-yoakam-directs","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/www.macalester.edu\/the-words\/march-2016\/steve-yoakam-directs\/","title":{"rendered":"The Words, March 2016"},"content":{"rendered":"

Stephen Yoakam ’75 directs The Clean House<\/em><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

By Kevin Xiong ’16<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

This past February, Stephen Yoakam \u201875 directed The Clean House<\/em> for the Macalester College Theater and Dance department. He was raised in Bloomington, Indiana and studied English and Theater at Macalester. Following graduation, he became a prominent figure in the Minneapolis theater scene, appearing in more than 75 productions with the nationally renowned Guthrie Theater. As a Ruth Easton Guest Artist for The Clean House<\/em>, Stephen directed his first Macalester play.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

After completing his degree in 1975, Stephen worked various jobs in his hometown\u2014doing construction, working on a dump truck, and baling hay. He wasn\u2019t sure if he wanted to pursue acting but felt that it was on the horizon. His classmate Jack Reuler \u201875 started Mixed Blood Theatre in 1976 along with several friends, and Stephen joined for the second season in 1977. \u201cWe were lucky we did theater and just kept doing it,\u201d he said. Stephen started working for the Guthrie six years later, and since then, he has continued to be involved in the theater community.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Stephen is fond of his English Major from Macalester\u2014especially when it comes to Shakespeare, the Romantic poets, and the Victorian writers. He went into his acting career with a wealth of literary knowledge, and it has helped him conduct research for roles. \u201cMy major in English has been an incredible resource for me in my theater career,\u201d Stephen said, \u201cI see my English major and theater major as equal parts of my life. One is not better than the other.\u201d He is thankful for his education at Macalester, and recalls having incredible English professors who supported his theater aspirations.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In directing The Clean House <\/em>this semester, a 2004 play by Sarah Ruhl, Stephen enjoyed working with the students, whom he called \u201cstudent artists.\u201d He praised the diversity of the cast, which included theater and non-theater majors. According to Stephen, playwright Sarah Ruhl has a strong voice in women\u2019s literature and is \u201cone of the great writers in American Theater.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Stephen was grateful for the opportunity to return to Macalester as a director. He also attended the English Department event, Appetizers and Alums<\/em><\/a>, where he shared about his experiences with the Twin Cities theatre community of Mac grads, the “Macalester mafia.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI\u2019m very happy to be back at Mac,\u201d he said.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Stephen Yoakam ’75 directs The Clean House By Kevin Xiong ’16 This past February, Stephen Yoakam \u201875 directed The Clean House for the Macalester College Theater and Dance department. He was raised in Bloomington, Indiana and studied English and Theater at Macalester. Following graduation, he became a prominent figure in the Minneapolis theater scene, appearing in […]<\/p>","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"parent":415,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-418","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.macalester.edu\/the-words\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/418","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.macalester.edu\/the-words\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.macalester.edu\/the-words\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.macalester.edu\/the-words\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.macalester.edu\/the-words\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=418"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.macalester.edu\/the-words\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/418\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8431,"href":"https:\/\/www.macalester.edu\/the-words\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/418\/revisions\/8431"}],"up":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.macalester.edu\/the-words\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/415"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.macalester.edu\/the-words\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=418"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}