Bloomsburg University faculty and students lost a valued player this summer that cannot be replaced. Professor Michael Collins, a longtime professor in the Theatre Arts department, died unexpectedly of a heart attack on July 17, 2009. Collins was an active member of the Bloomsburg University and Bloomsburg Theatre Ensemble, where he was a director, playwright, and performer.
Michael graduated from Macon High School in Macon, Missouri in 1971. A Navy journalist, he spent worked for “Stars and Stripes” while stationed on Guam. He went on after the war to receive his Bachelors degree in Communications (Theater) from Truman State University in 1981, and a Masters in Fine Arts in Performance (Directing) from Purdue University in 1984.
From 1989 until 2009, he was a Professor of Theatre at Bloomsburg where he worked with and mentored countless directors, actors, designers, and stage managers. Michael began, along with other professors from BU and Lock Haven University, a theater and English student program in London each summer as a part of a study abroad program.
His accomplishments were many, including fifteen productions with nationally recognized Bloomsburg Theatre Ensemble, some being King Alonso in The Tempest; Mr. Rice in Molly Sweeney; Stipan/Ivo in Ambition Facing West, a world premiere; Ed in Defying Gravity; Antonio in Twelfth Night; and several roles in The Laramie Project. He served as Artistic Director of Robidoux Resident Theatre in Missouri, producing almost twenty productions, directing thirteen, before moving to Bloomsburg. Michael was also a part of the artistic staff of Chicago’s Goodman Theatre, assisting on American premieres of Glengarry Glen Ross by Pulitzer Prize-winner David Mamet, Hurlyburly by Tony Award-winner David Rabe (directed by Mike Nichols), The Road by Nobel Prize-winner Wole Soyinka, and The Moscowteers with The Flying Karamozov Brothers.
For Bloomsburg University, Collins has directed nearly forty productions. In addition to the student-written originals and his own adaptations, he has also directed a variety of plays such as Measure for Measure, Twelfth Night, Cabaret, The Hot l Baltimore, The Boys Next Door, After the Rain, Reckless, The Rimers of Eldritch, Prelude to a Kiss, and many others.
Most recently, Michael was featured in the Electric Theatre Company and Queens Theatre in the Park premiere of The Men of Mah Jongg by Richard Atkins.
Many students loved and admired Michael as a teacher and a mentor. “I had the privilage to be directed by him, take classes from him, and work for him,” says senior Abby Parker on his memorial website. “He had a the ‘rawr’ of a lion with a heart of pure gold.” Senior Kate Hughes remembered his definition of “acting” as "Acting is taking action to fulfill a need, truthfully, under imaginary circumstances."
In his life, Michael was a diehard St. Louis Cardinal fan, a greatly appreciated and respected leader, director and teacher. His wife, whom he would have celebrated their 30th wedding anniversary with this past August, Cindy McBeth-Collins, and their son Quinn Collins, and daughter Caitlin Collins survive him. Other family members incluede his father Bob Collins, two brothers, and several nieces and nephews.
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