Meghan O’Hara She/Her | MA ’12, PhD ’17 | English Education and Outreach Coordinator at the Grand Theatre By Maatini Kaneshalingam Meghan O’Hara always knew that she wanted to obtain a PhD in English. When she was in high school, she had a conversation with her parents about career options and her dad brought up the idea of being a professor. After she learned the details of the job and its requirements, she was instantly hooked: “I liked the idea of having the PhD,” she explains, “that was incredibly appealing to me.” With that goal in mind, Meghan would embark on a new academic journey. She completed her BA at McMaster University, pursuing a Double Major in English and Comparative Literature before diving right into her graduate studies. Meghan was drawn to Western because of the strong scaffolding and support system within the Arts and Humanities program, as well as several of its renowned professors – many of whom she would go on to work with. Although she always knew that English was her way, a year into her PhD she found herself with a new area of interest: Theatre. Fortunately, her background in English suited the change very well. She was able to study Theatre as an audience member would, and it allowed her to take on a theoretical point of view rather than doing a practical acting study. Her topic of research for her Dissertation focused on answering the question of ‘liveness’ and what makes theatre ‘live’. In order to find her answer, Meghan had the amazing opportunity to travel to different cities, both in and outside of the country, to watch various performances. She noted one play in particular, Sleep No More, organized by immersive theatre company Punchdrunk, which was a version of Macbeth, describing it as “[Happening] across an entire building [that] you [can] walk through. It was so cool!” After wrapping up her academic journey of 10 years, Meghan was faced with a problem that many students will go on to experience: doubt. Throughout most of her academic career she focused on becoming a professor. Going into graduate studies, she knew that it would be challenging to make her way into a professorial job, and as she was finishing her PhD, she knew the tides would not necessarily be turning in her favour. “I had a real think about what I wanted my life to look like outside of my career,” she explains. “I thought about potentially moving
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cities multiple times in the next couple years… at the time I was like, ‘I’d love to be a professor, but I don’t know if [it still] fits.’” Despite not getting her top career choice, her passion for Theatre gave her another path. “I had always thought to myself that if the prof thing doesn’t work out, an amazing second option would be to do something with education in Theatre – but I had no sense that it was actually a job!” As she applied for multiple jobs that summer, an opening for an Educator and Outreach Coordinator popped up at the Grand Theatre in London. With her interest piqued, Meghan waited a full month after applying before hearing back from them. Not only did she love the sounds of the position already, but she also felt a great connection with the interviewers. A couple of days later, Meghan received the exciting news. In her current role as an Educator and Outreach Coordinator, Meghan is in charge of planning and executing the educational programming at the Grand Theatre. One of the programs she is in charge of is the High School Project, a program where the Grand puts on a professional level production at no cost and invites 75 high school students to participate. Both performance students and backstage students get trained by Meghan and her team to do various tasks in order to put on a successful show. This year in particular, due to the outbreak of COVID-19, the Grand Theatre had moved their High School Project online. Though they could not hold an in-person show, Meghan and her team made the program accessible to students by formatting it similar to that of a course. They taught students about the entire theatre production process, and invited a new, diverse group of individuals into the program. Along with organizing programs for youth, Meghan also writes editorial articles that appear in the house programs for many shows in addition to managing pre- and post-show talks. Though Meghan is focused on her career at the Grand, her initial interest in teaching is not out of the question. “[I] would love to come back and teach a one-off course related to my interests,” she says. “Western has this non-profit management program, and since I’ve spent three years working at a nonprofit, I thought it’d be really cool to combine the academic part
of my life with the industry part and teach people about that.” Meghan loves teaching and truly values her role as an educator. “I’ve come to really love the theatre industry… I started my grad work as an outsider and now that I’ve seen the inside, I enjoy what that makes possible for me to do.” Meghan has come a long way from her former student-self, but as the progressive and goal-oriented person that she is, she continues to strive to reach new heights. She hopes the next steps in her career are to move into an advanced version of her current job and taking on a higher leadership position. Whether it be at the Grand Theatre or a different company, Meghan’s goal is to create new programs and further the connection between arts institutions and community. As a word of advice, Meghan urges students to carve out space for personal goals and needs. “It’s doing a disservice to yourself,” she shares. “That’s such a problematic viewpoint because we all need leisure time.” To students who are ready to enter the work field, Meghan notes that, “There are a huge number of skills that you learned which are valuable and applicable in the workplace.” Students face many uncertainties throughout their entire academic journey, but it won’t stop there. Going forward, there will be many changes, and like Meghan has experienced, being open to opportunities and flexible to change goes a long way. “You don’t have to lock yourself into anything,” she says. “Nothing has to be decided at any point, and you can always change your mind whenever you decide you want to.”
It was an absolute pleasure to get to know Meghan and learn about her academic life and career. Many students can understand the feeling of not knowing which direction to go at end of their undergrad. After speaking with Meghan, she made me realize that there are multiple opportunities out there (some that appear unexpectedly) and that it is never too late to change your decision. Meghan’s determination is awe-inspiring and reminded me that when you stick with your goals and believe in yourself, you can climb any mountain ahead of you.
Maatini is a fourth-year English Literature and Creative Writing student and likes to paint in her spare time. She has been creating an itinerary of all the cities and countries she will be travelling to after the pandemic.
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