Professor brings a little drama to Fanshawe students

Fanshawe professors are known for infusing their classrooms with their industry experience, and John Dolan, former co-ordinator and current full-time acting professor of Fanshawe's Theatre Arts program, is no exception.

Dolan stressed the importance of working in the field and remaining in contact with the people who will get his students jobs in the future. “It's all those contacts that get us work, that's what got me work when I first started. It wasn't that I auditioned and got something, it's that somebody knew somebody who knew somebody who had seen me at school and worked with me,” he said.

Dolan recently auditioned for CBC's Republic of Doyle, and while he didn't get the part, he will be appearing in an upcoming episode of another CBC program: Murdoch Mysteries, which he worked on in the summer. The director for Murdoch Mysteries called him back to audition for Republic of Doyle. Dolan recalled it as an amazing experience, all up until the middle of the audition. He had transferred all his belongings to his audition clothes before going in, weighing down his pants: “Just as I was about to start this scene, I said to the casting agent, ‘My pants were about to fall down.'”

“To me it was a real lesson on when you're an actor in a room or any person anywhere to just acknowledge what's happening always and not worry about it,” he said. Being present in the room allowed him to move on, get back to his audition and take back the room. Dolan recalled the rest of the audition as joking with casting directors and putting everyone back at ease.

While many of his students have recognized him from popular shows and theatre productions, Dolan knows you don't need to be part of something big to make great work. “This is possible everywhere. It's possible at Stratford, It's possible in London, Ontario in a small room called studio C on a Thursday,” he said.

He continues to work in his field and bring in his knowledge and experience back to his students, but working with his students also allows him to take experience back with him to roles. “I've learned more about acting in the eight years I've been here from the students that we're working with than I have than plays I've been in,” he said.

“Each person's path needs to be discovered, and we need to give them the support and space to do that, because then it lasts forever, rather than me carving what I think your path is,” he added.

Dolan had been the coordinator of the Theatre Arts program for seven years, but this year he stepped back so he could teach acting full-time, as well as pursue more roles.

A lot has changed since Dolan was hired. “The students never complained; we had no bathrooms, we had no offices, we had no phones, we had no toilets ... and we just did our work.” The campus quickly accommodated the program and upgraded building studios, a black-box, and rooms for the students and faculty in Citi Plaza in downtown London.

The Theatre Arts program will be receiving another major upgrade as it moves to the corner of Dundas and Richmond Streets in January to the Howard W. Rundle Building.