Greg Monahan

Born in Kentucky to an academic family (my father was a professor and a dean), I suppose I was genetically predisposed to the academic life.  I came to Eastern as a professor of history in 1986.  The only “theatre” I had done up to that time was to dramatize a single historical character in my classroom.  It was Mark Kuntz, a theatre professor and contemporary of mine at Eastern, who first bamboozled me into playing a small part in his very first production at what was then Eastern Oregon State College (Dr. Jacobs in “Whose Life Is It Anyway?”)  I caught the bug and went on to play character parts in “The Imaginary Invalid,” “The Lady’s Not for Burning,” “Working,” “The Tempest,” “Born Yesterday,” “The Miser,” “The Man Who Was Kitty Hawk,” “Cyrano de Bergerac,” “Dancing at Lughnasa,” “Move Over Mrs. Markham,” “A Flea in Her Ear,” “The Taming of the Shrew,” and one lead part in “Lion in Winter.”  My experiences in theatre and the classroom helped me to decide also to take some of my historical characters public, and I have performed in Oregon and California as Christopher Columbus and George Washington.  I have always believed that great teachers must also be great performers and have, therefore, regarded my experience on the Eastern stage not only as a lot of fun, but also as an opportunity to hone my skills as a teacher.