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Excellence in Education
ANITA “JO” LENHART Professor and head of BFA in Performance with the Department of Theatre & Dance
UofM PROFESSOR Anita Lenhart, known affectionately as “Jo” to her peers, doesn’t seek out an “it factor” when training the next generation of stars. She creates “it” in her students through countless hours devoted to perfecting a performance with knowledge gleaned from decades of experience acting, directing and singing.
Over the years, Lenhart has performed in nearly 60 productions ranging from operas to musicals to comedies and dramas in a variety of theatrical venues. She has won awards for directing in both the college and professional/community divisions of Memphis' Ostrander Theatre Awards. Her most recent directing projects — including “King Lear” for New Moon Theatre, “As You Like It” for Theatre Memphis and “Bad Jews” for Circuit Playhouse — have all been met with critical acclaim in both the Memphis Flyer and The Commercial Appeal, as well as multiple award nominations and subsequent wins at the Ostranders.
A native of Louisville, Ky., Lenhart got her start in acting with The Young Actors Company of Louisville at age 15, working under Jon Jory, the son of the legendary actor Victor Jory.
“In theater circles, (Jon Jory) is basically our version of Steve Jobs,” she said. “He brought a huge renaissance in playwriting back to the country in the 1970s.
He was an amazing man and fond of experimental theater projects.”
In 1975, one of Jory’s experiments was to launch a professional troupe of young actors to tour the city and surrounding counties with a bicentennial show. He launched a citywide search for talent, with Lenhart among the 10 young actors chosen.
“At the time, I had done 4H talent shows and state fairs because that’s what you did in those days when there was no America's Got Talent or American Idol," she said. “That was my first real opportunity to perform.”
By 16, Lenhart regularly performed in front of more than 200,000 people. She credits her time with The Young Actors Company of Louisville for inspiring her to pursue a career in classical voice, as well as musical theatre.
“At the time, it was one of the premiere resident theaters in the world,” Lenhart said. “That theater is so important in American live theater history that it was really a career-maker for me.”
Lenhart’s multidisciplinary approach to theatre stems from her wildly varied on-stage career that includes stand-up comedian, live disc jockey, Shakespeare and clowning.
“Those last two are actually more similar than you might realize,” she said. “I know how to use a nail gun and a router and how to build sets. I can also hit the F above High C in Queen of the Night Arias by Mozart.” As an instructor, Lenhart is a teaching artist, bringing relevant and current professional experience and knowledge into the classroom at every opportunity with an emphasis on skill building and realworld application of talent.
“I think the very finest teachers in the classroom are the ones that are actively engaged in their professions and remain up to date, relevant and can prove that they can actually do what they’re teaching,” she said. “We have many excellent examples at the UofM, and not just traditional artists. We have professional architects, chemists and engineers that bring that field experience that really lights up the classroom.”
Much of Lenhart’s style as an instructor revolves around the practice of a modicum of different acting tricks or, as they’re more formally known in the syllabus, “competencies.” Unusual exercises, like practicing polyphonic vocal toning to emit three different types of sound at once, are par for the course with Lenhart. In fact, this particular exercise came in handy when crafting vocal soundscapes for the three witches associated with a certain Scottish play.
“As a director, anything that I’m going to ask an actor to do, I need to be capable of myself,” she said. “These exercises are just some of the things you sit around and explore as an actor.”
MARCIN ARENDT
Assistant Professor of Violin with the Rudi E. Scheidt School of Music
EXCELLENCE IN EDUCATION Highlighting the impact of outstanding faculty members of the College of Communication and Fine Arts O NE DOESN’T NEED MORE THAN A CURSORY GLANCE at Rudi E. Scheidt School of Music professor Marcin Arendt’s instrument of choice to know that he’s serious about his work. Arendt performs on a Jan van Rooyen original custom violin modeled after Giuseppe Guarneri del Gesù's “Carrodus,” and uses a bow that was handcrafted by the award-winning bow maker David Forbes. “The bow in particular is a fine instrument and one that is perfectly balanced for my playing,” said Arendt. “I remember talking to David when he was making it for me. I tried out many different bows with him, finding out exactly what I liked and what I didn’t.” The violin has a similar story. Arendt opted for a powerful, yet subtle ringing sound in contrast to the popular Stradivari model of violin’s decidedly more salient tone. “It has the look and feel of an old instrument,” said Arendt. “It was made in 2010, but you might guess it was from 1743 at first glance.” Since coming onboard as a visiting professor in 2014 and subsequently accepting a tenure track full position in 2016, this attention to detail and respect for tradition has shaped Arendt’s teaching style and approach to weekly meetings with his studio class. “A lot of my classes tend to be one-on-one or small groups, but even in the larger classes I model my teaching around the Socratic method, making sure that the students are very much part of the learning process,” said Arendt. Arendt currently works with more than two dozen UofM students who are enrolled in the Rudi E. Scheidt School of Music’s violin program, with around 15 under his direct tutelage. According to Arendt, effort typically outweighs innate natural talent when it comes to excelling in the University of Memphis’ music program. “We look for teachable spirits,” said Arendt. “If you’ve got the work ethic and the will to learn, we’ll do our best to show you the path.” A native of Poland, Arendt immigrated to the U.S. and lived in Illinois and subsequently Florida at a young age along with his family just as the country’s tumultuous Solidarity Movement began. The son of an organic chemist and researcher, Arendt chose to pursue a career in music in his early teens, picking out the aforementioned custom bow at just 18 years old. Following a stint as concertmaster of Colorado’s premiere conductor-less string orchestra, the Sphere Ensemble, and the featured violinist with the nationally touring crossover-fusion band FEAST, Arendt came to Memphis to perform with Iris Orchestra. Arendt would eventually take the reigns as community involvement coordinator and orchestra manager with Iris Orchestra while accepting a full-time position at UofM. “It’s hard to put my finger on what makes Iris so special,” he said. “There’s an equality among the different players that I haven’t seen elsewhere, and that builds a great feeling of comradery.” In addition to the strong sense of family and quality of musicians associated with Iris Orchestra, Arendt said the community partnerships forged during his time with the organization, now run by his wife Rebecca, are among the greatest experiences during his time there. “I feel good that I was able to be in a leadership role, but I love that I am able to do more on-the-ground stuff like going to different schools,” said Arendt. One of Iris Orchestra’s early partners, the Memphis Oral School for the Deaf, provided Arendt with the unforgettable experience of working with hearing-impaired children who had just received cochlear implants to explore listening skills with the tool of music. One of Arendt’s most memorable recent concerts came in the form of a three-violinist solo with the Memphis Symphony Orchestra (MSO) alongside Tai Murray & the MSO’s concertmaster, Barrie Cooper. The trio performed a piece by Christopher Brubeck which presented a fusion of jazz, classical and Celtic music, with Arendt providing the jazz.
JOY V. GOLDSMITH Professor of Communication Studies with the Department of Communication & Film
JOY GOLDSMITH knew the important role that caregivers play in everyday life well before she founded the University of Memphis Center for Health Literacy and Health Communication.
In 2002, Goldsmith’s sister, Janet, was diagnosed with a rare form of cancer. Goldsmith acted as her caregiver in the nine months leading up to her sister’s death later that year, shuttling her back and forth between Georgia and MD Anderson cancer treatment facilities in Texas. At the time, Goldsmith was studying to earn her PhD as a theatre director.
“After that experience, I didn’t really care about theatre anymore,” Goldsmith said. “I just wanted to figure out how some of it could have gone better for us.”
In the months following her sister’s death, Goldsmith’s thoughts were often preoccupied by what-ifs surrounding her sister’s suffering, thinking of how things might have gone if she and the many providers had taken a different approach to her sister’s care.
“If they would just come out and say, 'You won’t survive this. You will live well for a few months, but it will get very painful and hard,’ we would have known,” she said. “Then, the central question becomes, ‘How do you want to spend this time that you have left?’”
Goldsmith credits the nine months she spent caring for her sister for instilling the drive to pursue an understanding of the
impact of patient and family choices and rights, as well as the roles of the various players involved in the healthcare field.
“No one ever told us the cost or how you never really get over it,” she said. “My sister had 26 clinicians and it never came up among a single one. She was 34 years old, a reverend and associate pastor. She was unquestionably a great person.”
In 2013, Goldsmith joined the UofM Department of Communication & Film with a recognized research program examining communication and illness, specifically in the context of chronic and terminal illnesses.
“When I came here, my focus was on oncology and palliative care, and that’s still at the core of what I do,” she said. “But health literacy has given me the chance to learn about lots of other health challenges facing the community.”
Goldsmith came to the UofM seeking more clinic involvement in her daily work life, as well an opportunity to make a difference in Memphis.
“Memphis has significant health inequities and challenges, so it’s a great place to take on an unending series of projects,” she said.
Health literacy describes a patient’s ability to understand, find, enact, make decisions and communicate about health care. That ability is based on interactions with providers, family, community and health systems. In essence, it is not just the patient’s ability, but instead the experience of understanding and decision-making that is informed by everyone involved with that patient.
“People hear literacy and automatically assume it’s about reading,” Goldsmith said. “Health literacy is about more than words; it’s really about conceptual understanding. If someone doesn’t really get it, even if they understand the language, there will not be good health outcomes.”
As part of her day-to-day, she meets with medical administrators, community health workers, patients, family caregivers and other research partners in Memphis and across the country. Local community partners include Le Bonheur Children’s Hospital, Friends for Life, Caregivers Respite, Shelby County Schools, CareMore and many others.
“My job is different every day and I work with many, many different partners across the healthcare spectrum,” she said. “So I have a window into the stakeholder experience from multiple stakeholder positions.”
While health literacy often deals with more complex concepts such as medication adherence and disease progression, often the most important health literacy issues are the practical ones like the amount of parking spaces at the VA hospital, the readability of facility signage or usability of patient portals.
“The patient and caregiver, they have nothing to do with things like that, yet they can be victimized by having minimal access to resources before they can even get in the door,” she said.
