Photo by Orin Zyvan ’04

Mic Parker ’10

classics - theatre

Hometown: Jacksonville, Arkansas

How Reed changed me: I came to Reed with a massive emo hair swoop and an acute mistrust of public transportation. My world has expanded ×100. I’ve learned that nothing is simple. That we live in a world intimately and inseparably connected by technology, and that this connection changes how we view ourselves. That there are such things as black holes and that they are terrifying. That theatre has a purpose, and that purpose is to remind us that the sky can still fall on our heads.

Influential book: The Aeneid! Virgil is a genius. He incorporates the past (Homer), the present (Augustus), and dozens of complicated characters into a work that is truly epic, universal, and wonderfully encyclopedic.

Cool stuff I did: Hiking up Mt. Hood, directing two wonderful shows (I Have Tasted Air Above the Clouds and Waiting for Godot), sleeping in a giant pile of stuffed animals in the student union, walking in the rain everywhere and not caring. Shoestring Theatre. Drag Ball!

Advisers: Prof. Nigel Nicholson (classics) and Prof. Kate Bredeson (theatre)

Thesis: A Meaty Cracking Shock: Spectacles of Violence in Ancient and Modern Theatre

What it’s about: Rome was a violent place. Our modern world isn’t any better. My thesis is about what violence means when it is put onstage, the way directors and audiences often react, and how we use violence as an ideological or therapeutic tool.

What it’s really about: Why Quentin Tarantino is so dang popular.

Scholarships, awards, financial aid: Financial Aid—yes. Also an Adler Scholarship and an Opportunity Grant for thesis research!

What’s next: Theatre! All day and all night! I have an internship with About Face Theatre in Chicago.