Senior Shimer College Faculty Member Eileen Buchanan is retiring this May. She will direct her final Shimer performance, a dramatic reading of Shakespeare’s Twelfth Night, at 7 pm on Friday, February 28, 2014, in the IIT Tower Auditorium. Faculty member Aron Dunlap is composing the music for it.

Buchanan’s service at Shimer College spans 47 years. She has served in a number of administrative positions including as Dean of the College, Director of Development, and taught core courses, electives and the senior capstone course (Integrative Studies 5 & 6) primarily in Humanities. Buchanan has also served as Director of the College’s Theatre Program for most of these years. In addition, Buchanan’s husband, Dave, is a Shimer graduate and former faculty member, and two of her daughters are Shimer graduates.

As Director of Theatre, she has directed both classical and modern drama, including authors and texts that have been part of the College’s Core Curriculum: Aeschylus, Shakespeare, Chekhov, Beckett, and classical and modern versions of Antigone. In addition, she authored a guide for high school teachers on Sophocles, supported by the Illinois Arts Council – “Antigone: Texts and Contexts” – which has been distributed worldwide through the internet.

RSVP here.