‘Office Hours’ with Wendy MacLeod

For the playwright and professor of drama, it’s difficult to differentiate the personal from the professional in her cozy Hill Theater office.

By Ryan E. Smith | Photos by Simone Martel ’27
Date
Wendy MacLeod

James Michael Playwright-in-Residence and Professor of Drama Wendy MacLeod ’81 P’15 ’17

The office of Wendy MacLeod ’81 P’15 ’17 on the third floor of Hill Theater feels like an extended genealogy. It tells the story of her biological family, yes, but also her Kenyon one — both of which are tightly intertwined.

Scattered around the room are photographs of her husband, Associate Professor of Art Read Baldwin ’84, and landscapes he’s painted of New Hampshire, where they spend their summers. There are pictures of their sons, too, Foss ’15 and Avery ’17.

MacLeod views a painting by her spouse, Associate Professor of Art Read Baldwin ’84, whom she met as a student at Kenyon.
Reminders of family members and professional forebears mingle throughout the office. Among them is the desk name plate once used by MacLeod’s father, who worked for the Central Intelligence Agency. 

They’re all graduates of the College — MacLeod left Gambier in 1981 and returned to teach in 1990 after earning a master’s degree from Yale — but her other ties to Kenyon are given nearly equal billing in the decor. 

There’s a picture of the late Harlene Marley H’05, a legend in the drama department who was the College’s first female tenure-track faculty member, and another of the late James Michael H’78, whose students spanned Paul Newman ’49 H’61 to MacLeod and whose name is memorialized in her title.

The office itself, which MacLeod moved into in 2008, previously belonged to her former teacher and mentor, Thomas Turgeon P’89,’93 H’08. In a peculiar architectural quirk, it is accessible only after walking through the Reading Room in Hill Theater, where she teaches playwriting. Once inside, though, it is warm and inviting with hardwood floors; a couch and generously cushioned chair; and light pouring in through windows on the south and west sides. 

MacLeod's office is full of inspiration, whether it's the bookshelves full of plays or pictures of her predecessors, like the late Harlene Marley H’05.
The office once belonged to her former teacher and mentor Thomas Turgeon P’89 ’93 H’08. “I remember talking to Tom when I was a new professor. I would come in here after a lecture and get his thoughts.”
MacLeod keeps art photographs to help with writing exercises. “If somebody were given a card, what kind of play would that inspire? I sort of collect images that are evocative in some way.”
Above MacLeod’s desk is a poster from the Dutch production of her play “The House of Yes” and a calendar for the Knox County Dog Shelter, where she volunteers. 

MacLeod doesn’t do much of her creative writing here, but evidence of it is inescapable. Rows of plays — lots of them, written by herself and others — line her bookshelves, within easy reach. There’s a statue from a production of “The Water Children” and a poster on the door from her most recent work, “The Portable Dorothy Parker,” which she adapted and directed for an October student production.

Her dog, Posey, was named for a friend, but MacLeod added the last name “Parker” — after the actress who appeared in the film version of “House of Yes” — when American Kennel Club registration required a second name.
A picture on MacLeod’s desk shows her (seated, second from left) as a graduate student at the Yale School of Drama with theater luminaries including August Wilson and Athol Fugard when their works were being performed at the Yale Repertory Theatre.
The bookshelves are filled with plays — written by herself and others. “It really helps me just to have plays to scroll through and remember different playwrights and plays that might be good for them,” MacLeod says.
MacLeod’s office is uniquely situated so that visitors must first walk through the Hill Theater Reading Room. “People just thought this office made sense for me,” she says. “It was right next to where I teach.”

Among all the memorabilia, photos and meaningful trinkets — each with their own story — one’s eye can’t help but be drawn to the movie poster above the couch that is framed by a string of lights like a marquee. It’s for “The House of Yes,” MacLeod’s dark comedy that was made into a 1997 film starring Parker Posey that won a Special Jury Prize at the Sundance Film Festival.

Conspicuously missing from the office, these days, though, is a different Posey — MacLeod’s silver Labrador retriever. (Full name: Posey Parker — long story.) “She’s not a chill dog,” MacLeod said. “When I brought her to class, all she did was chew on things.”

“My opinion about interior design is that it requires layers — the objects build up layers of experience — and it is not just a space that looks nice, but that suggests the history of a person,” MacLeod says.  

“Office Hours” is an occasional series that highlights faculty and staff members through their work spaces.