{"id":46585,"date":"2022-11-13T21:39:41","date_gmt":"2022-11-14T02:39:41","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogarchive.utc.edu\/news\/?p=46585"},"modified":"2022-11-18T08:20:47","modified_gmt":"2022-11-18T13:20:47","slug":"curtain-call-first-stage-role-has-romeo-and-juliet-actor-feeling-privileged","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogarchive.utc.edu\/news\/2022\/11\/curtain-call-first-stage-role-has-romeo-and-juliet-actor-feeling-privileged\/","title":{"rendered":"Curtain call: First stage role has \u2018Romeo and Juliet\u2019 actor feeling honored"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Maegan

Maegan Whitlock, left, as Juliet and Bronwyn McEwen as The Nurse in the UTC Theatre Company\u2019s production of Romeo and Juliet. Photo by Angela Foster.<\/p><\/div>\n

In 1990, when she was 25, Bronwyn McEwen enrolled at the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga as a theater major.<\/p>\n

\u201cI had two major goals in life,\u201d she said. \u201cThe biggest was to be a wife and a mom, and the second was to be an actor.\u201d<\/p>\n

She quit nine months later to marry Warren McEwen. Goal one: Check.<\/p>\n

Their daughter Mary Catherine was born four years later. Goal two: Check.<\/p>\n

Acting never left her mind, though, and in spring semester 2022\u201432 years after she left college and at the age of 57\u2014she returned to UTC to finish her degree as a theater major.<\/p>\n

Goal three: Check on the horizon.<\/p>\n

In her first acting role ever, she is playing The Nurse\u2014a vital role\u2014in the UTC Theatre Department\u2019s production of Shakespeare\u2019s \u201cRomeo and Juliet.\u201d<\/p>\n

The production runs at the UTC Fine Arts Center\u2019s Dorothy Ward Theatre from Nov. 15-19.<\/p>\n

\u201cI just feel privileged to have this be my first experience,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

Anne Swedberg, associate professor in the Department of Theatre, has been McEwen\u2019s instructor for three courses\u2014Acting 1, Theatre History 1 and Voice and Body. Having McEwen as a student has been \u201ca great pleasure,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

\u201cShe is curious, eager to learn as much as possible and enthusiastic about everything she undertakes,\u201d Swedberg said.<\/p>\n

Undertaking acting seems a natural fit for McEwen, who is almost electric in her energy level\u2014whether talking about her past, present or future.<\/p>\n

Although being a wife and mother was No. 1 on her goal list, the acting bug came first. In 1982, months after graduating from Chattanooga Christian School, she spent eleven months searching for fame and fortune in Los Angeles.<\/p>\n

\u201cI was young and na\u00efve, and I thought, \u2018I\u2019m just gonna show up over there and they\u2019re going to say, \u2018Oh yes, we want you.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

No one said that, although she did win a car on \u201cThe Price Is Right.\u201d<\/p>\n

Dejected, she returned to Chattanooga. Five years later, despite feeling too old for college, she enrolled as a theater major at UTC.<\/p>\n

A semester and a half into her college career, she met\u2014or re-met actually\u2014Warren McEwen. They had met a year before in a Bible study for singles in a friend\u2019s home but didn\u2019t click, she said.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn fact, we had zero interest in each other.\u201d<\/p>\n

A career accountant and now a lecturer in the Department of Accounting in the Gary W. Rollins College of Business, he earned a master\u2019s in business administration at UTC in 2018.<\/p>\n

Along with her husband, her second daughter\u2014also named Bronwyn\u2014graduated with a business administration degree from UTC in 2018. Their youngest son Jack plans to graduate in December with his BA in finance.<\/p>\n

Will, their oldest son, earned bachelor degrees from the College of Charleston in finance and economics. Mary Catherine plans to graduate in the spring with a bachelor’s degree in psychology from an online university.<\/p>\n

As for her, she hopes to graduate in 2026 and has concrete plans afterward.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe goal isn\u2019t to just have fun here in school and get my degree, which is important,\u201d she said. \u201cBut the whole goal of it is to learn how to act and then be able to audition for things.<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t want to be 70 when I graduate.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cRomeo and Juliet\u201d<\/strong><\/h4>\n

Performances will take place at 7:30 p.m. on Nov. 15-19, with a 2 p.m. matinee performance on Nov. 19.<\/p>\n

Tickets can be purchased through the UTC Box Office in person, by phone (423-425-4371) and by visiting the UTC Theatre web page<\/strong><\/a>. Tickets are $12 for general admission and $10 for students (with proof of student ID) and seniors.<\/p>\n

Location: The UTC Fine Arts Center is at the intersection of Dr. Roland Carter St. (formerly Vine St.) and Palmetto.<\/em><\/p>\n

Cast<\/strong><\/p>\n