When art becomes a verb

By Jared M. Swain
Baltimore Watchdog Staff Writer

No one took Donald Hicken seriously when he said he wanted to get into theatre in high school. He was a football player and most saw him as a jock.

“I asked the guy in charge to join…but he thought it was a joke,” Hicken said. “I had to sweep the junior class play to prove it.”

More than 50 years later, Hicken is retiring from the Baltimore School for the Arts, where he has served as the head of theatre since its opening in 1979.

During his tenure at BSA, Hicken has directed multiple plays, including Romeo and Juliet, Curse of the Starving Class, Our Town, his own adaptation of The Wind in the Willows, and the world premiere of Chalk by Al Letson (co-commissioned by the Baltimore Theatre Project).

In 2006, he founded BSA’s international exchange program, which brings students from England to Baltimore in the fall and BSA students to England in the spring.

Hicken also made himself a successful and in-demand professional theatre director in Baltimore. He directs shows at Everyman Theatre, where he plans to continue his work after his retirement from BSA at the end of this academic year.

“I just have a fire in my belly about theatre,” Hicken said. “Art is a verb. Not a noun. If it’s a noun to you, well, you’re in big trouble.”

Hicken said his most interesting part of theatre is the process.

“I think if you have a process that has integrity, you will have a good product,” Hicken said.

He credits his knowledge of process to his late wife, Tana Hicken, who was widely acknowledged as one of the finest stage performers in the Baltimore-Washington region.

“I learned about process because I was in her process,” Hicken said. “I helped her learn her lines…I got to see her play and develop many roles. I saw what acting was in its purest form.”

The BSA theatre program has been the high school alma mater for some of today’s prominent actors. Shalita Grant, the first-ever BSA alumnus to be nominated for a Tony Award, Jada Pinkett Smith and Tupac Shakur have all been students of Hicken’s.

“I wanted Tupac to take his art more seriously, but he was really talented. Same with Shalita…and Jada is a really talented artist. And now she has the resources to generate her own great projects,” Hicken said.

Although Hicken takes prides in the program that he and his colleagues have built, he said that there’s more than pride when it comes to seeing his students grow.

“It’s very satisfying that people can come out of a place like this, grow and continue to do very important work,” Hicken said.

“This training really brings you into an immersive world,” he continued. “To have a program that lets you examine emotions, know how your mind works…Alumni say ‘I found who I was here’ and if you can find that out, you’re gold.”

[pullquote]To this day, before every performance I do, I say to myself, “Donald is with you.” — Nicole Daniels[/pullquote]Nicole Daniels is one of those alumni. She graduated from BSA in 2010.

“‘Prepared’ would be an understatement in speaking of how Donald has influenced my life both during and since BSA,” Daniels said.

“To this day, before every performance I do I say to myself, ‘Donald is with you,’ because it’s true,” Daniels said “To this day I think of his, and all of my acting and voice teachers’ training as I work as an actor even six years later.”

BSA alumna Emily Richardson, class of 2011, said that Hicken is one of the best at making strong connections.

“He was a very influential teacher,” Richardson said. “We wouldn’t just have class, we would have conversations. He always said, ‘One of the best things we can do as people is to listen.’”

For his production of The Glass Menagerie (a co-production of Everyman Theatre and Round House Theatre), Hicken received the 2000 Helen Hayes Award for Outstanding Director of a Resident Play and the Helen Hayes Award for Outstanding Resident Play.

“It cracked me up that we won because we were going up against big names,” Hicken said. “But it didn’t really matter after that. I have mixed feelings about awards.”

Hicken is, however, a fan of the Tony Award for Excellence in Theatre Education, an award he was a finalist for in its first year in 2015.

“I think it’s a great idea to include an award for educators,” Hicken said. “There are things an educator gives you that you can carry with forever. Education works if the teacher is excited about their subjects.”

Hicken’s final play at BSA, The Beggar’s Opera, runs May 4 through May 14. The school is conducting a national search for Hicken’s successor. He offered some advice to whoever takes his place and to every student.

“Do what you’re passionate about. Play your strengths. I had the luxury and it was wonderful,” Hicken said.

“There are no shoes to fill.”