2008 Woodie Awards
Patenaude's final bow
Seth Gorenstein
Issue date: 3/30/07 Section: Arts and Leisure
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Theatre Arts Professor Jim Bazewicz identifies Drew theatre more as a "family" than a department. Students spend hundreds of hours together flexing their creative muscles, and they do so in a cooperative spirit that builds intense friendships with each other and faculty. Alumni return to welcome reception at May's annual DUDS Ball. Students call professors by their first names.
So when tragedy strikes this small, tight-knit department, it hits hard.
A loving adviser, a demanding professor and a cherished friend will never again grace the Dorothy Young Center for the Arts Theatre Wing. Theatre professor and Chair Joe Patenaude played all of these roles during his time at Drew, and though the curtain closed on his life, his presence is having a sustained encore from the students, alumni and faculty of the Drew theatre family.
For 21 years at Drew, and for two years as chair of the department, Patenaude blended into the Drew theatre department's community and stood out as one of the department's most paternal-and honest-figures. "He was a father of the department," Parsigian said. "He knew every single theatre person by name."
Commenting on how Patenaude's funeral was standing room only, Theatre Professor Dan LaPenta was pleased-and not surprised-to see such an outpouring of support for his colleague. "The real grief with the students is the loss of not only a mentor and teacher, but friend," he said. "The outpouring of alums, their affection and grief, was large."
"There were just rows and rows of Drew people [at the funeral], and it was everywhere in between-people who are married in the real world, to freshman," sophomore Maddy Parsigian said. "We filled up that church, and it was so great to see the family that Joe created."
Patenaude's brutally candid critiques were known not only throughout the department, but throughout the high echelons of campus. "I have frequently sat next to Joe at Black Box productions and noticed that, afterwards, student directors often approached him to ask for a review of the performance," President Bob Weisbuch said. "Joe was a tough critic, frank as could be. But I could see that the students could take the criticism because they knew Joe was on their side. They knew that he demanded a great deal of them-because he loved them."
So when tragedy strikes this small, tight-knit department, it hits hard.
A loving adviser, a demanding professor and a cherished friend will never again grace the Dorothy Young Center for the Arts Theatre Wing. Theatre professor and Chair Joe Patenaude played all of these roles during his time at Drew, and though the curtain closed on his life, his presence is having a sustained encore from the students, alumni and faculty of the Drew theatre family.
For 21 years at Drew, and for two years as chair of the department, Patenaude blended into the Drew theatre department's community and stood out as one of the department's most paternal-and honest-figures. "He was a father of the department," Parsigian said. "He knew every single theatre person by name."
Commenting on how Patenaude's funeral was standing room only, Theatre Professor Dan LaPenta was pleased-and not surprised-to see such an outpouring of support for his colleague. "The real grief with the students is the loss of not only a mentor and teacher, but friend," he said. "The outpouring of alums, their affection and grief, was large."
"There were just rows and rows of Drew people [at the funeral], and it was everywhere in between-people who are married in the real world, to freshman," sophomore Maddy Parsigian said. "We filled up that church, and it was so great to see the family that Joe created."
Patenaude's brutally candid critiques were known not only throughout the department, but throughout the high echelons of campus. "I have frequently sat next to Joe at Black Box productions and noticed that, afterwards, student directors often approached him to ask for a review of the performance," President Bob Weisbuch said. "Joe was a tough critic, frank as could be. But I could see that the students could take the criticism because they knew Joe was on their side. They knew that he demanded a great deal of them-because he loved them."
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