Spotlight on Alumni: Yvonne Duque ('95 M.F.A. Acting)

Yvonne Duque, who attended undergrad at Texas Woman’s University, with a major in theatre and a minor in history, had several different grad schools to choose from after attending URTA auditions. Feeling a sort of kinship and connection to Manuel Duque (no relation) and upon the advice of a professor from undergrad, Yvonne arrived at Penn State in the fall of 1992 to pursue an M.F.A. in Acting.

Now a teacher in her own right, Yvonne reflects back on her time in Helen Manfull’s Theatre 100 company. She started her own version of that in the high school where she teaches, pairing the studies of the English department with the work of her theatre class to bring those works to life. She has her students creating and building masks and using them to express themselves, a passion she first discovered in Jane Ridley’s class. Her influences continue with the teachings of Richard Nichols and, like others from this era, the many words and phrases that came from the teachings of Manuel Duque.

Yvonne’s experiences at Penn State also influenced her long career in non-profit theatre. Her first job after graduation was with the National Players, a touring company out of the Olney Playhouse, playing 33 states in 10 months and serving as truck driver, actor, workshop coordinator, and everything in between.

Next, she would go to Detroit, where she co-founded a small theatre with fellow Penn State graduate Keegan-Michael Key (’96 M.F.A.), called the Planet Ant Theatre Company. Setting up in a small coffee house, the company did a play, The Praying Mantis, as a fundraiser for an independent film that Keegan was working on. A few days later, the owner of the coffee house approached them, saying that he was interested in turning the space into a theatre. Through a huge effort and the work of many fellow artists, a 50-seat black box theatre was born with Yvonne as the founding artistic director. Planet Ant, focusing on education, improvisation, and creating a space for the arts, still exists today.

At the same time, Yvonne was also working at Mosaic Youth Theater in Detroit, a non-profit children’s theatre, in another tie-in from her time at Penn State, where she had worked with Joann Leonard creating theatre with children.

Looking to return to Texas, Yvonne interviewed for the executive director position at Artes de la Rosa (then called the Latin Arts Association), a cultural center dedicated to preserving, promoting, and interpreting the art, culture, lives, and history of the Latino community. Though she did not get the job, Yvonne was asked to stay as part-time staff to get a newly renovated theatre up and functioning. She did just that, and when the new executive director arrived, Yvonne was hired on the same day as programs coordinator. One of the tasks at hand was to form a Latino theatre company. The youth program was modeled after Joann Leonard’s MetaStages program at Penn State, putting up shows with the youth in just a few weeks.

The work did not go unnoticed. In 2006, Yvonne and one of the students were invited to the White House to receive the Coming Up Taller Award and meet First Lady Laura Bush. Her organization was the only group from Texas that year. Now known as the National Arts and Humanities Youth Program Awards, the Coming Up Taller Awards recognize arts and humanities programs that foster young people’s intellectual and creative development.

During her years with Artes de la Rosa, Yvonne brought in artists from Mexico and conducted many workshops and partnerships with the schools, produced plays, created original works, and had a touring company that traveled around Texas and beyond. After having her daughter, Yvonne left the non-profit world and started teaching full time at a junior college while keeping her connection with Artes de la Rosa by serving on the board of directors.

Having spent the bulk of her career in non-profit work and in so many facets of the work of Artes de la Rosa, it was hard to consider leaving, but with her daughter getting older, she returned to teaching at a middle school in Fort Worth. Looking back, Yvonne says that while the four years spent teaching at this school were the hardest thing she had ever done, they were also the most rewarding, preparing her to understand what it really meant to be a teacher.

She moved on to teach at a high school in Dallas, where, in 2019, the school was hit by a tornado, displacing the entire school. The tornado took more than the building. It took everything that was inside, including her Penn State memorabilia, her portfolio, and other things that she and her students had collected. She had just started teaching make-up design and mask making. All of it was gone. She notes that she was able to recover her Penn State diploma and her photo with Laura Bush. With just two days to prepare, the entire school moved into an empty middle school learning center. The theatre students, who had lost homes and belongings of their own, were now in a converted science lab and dealing with the displacement. All of the work that the students had been doing, including a Latino children’s play meant to share with the elementary school, just stopped.

Because teaching is so many things, the recovery process happened in the classroom. Yvonne and the students did a lot of journaling and reflecting: writing about what they are grateful for, creating comic books of the events that had happened, dealing with the loss of material things, painting, crafting … “all of which is theatre,” according to Yvonne.

While teaching in a pandemic was hard, the tornado was harder.” -Yvonne Duque

To this day, the staff and students of Thomas Jefferson High School are still displaced, but a new school is being built and will include a theatre, a costume shop, and a black box space. It is expected to be completed in the next year.

In talking with Yvonne, it is clear that she throws her passion for theatre into everything she does with the students. An assignment at Penn State in Jane Ridley’s class to tell a story while wearing four different masks sparked a love of mask-making and mask performance, which has peppered her entire career. A summer intensive mask workshop at Dell’Arte in California, where she learned to make masks early in her career, fueled this passion. Earlier this year, her students performed A Commedia Christmas Carol with masks and created masks for a spring carnival.

Yvonne says that the students love the masks, and this semester they worked with a guest artist learning about archetype masks in the Mexican culture carnival procession. They have done their own designs with neutral masks, coming to understand that there is a story in these masks. These masks allow them to express themselves and help them to open up. Using her skills learned in non-profit theatre, she has written and been awarded three grants for her theatre department.

Today Yvonne expresses herself through her students – and always with her is Manuel Duque and his love and passion, which she says, “you can’t help but to let into your own DNA.” She remembers him saying, “Yvonne, what are you doing? What are your doings?” The passion from the people that have influenced her will always be with her and in turn, she hopes that her passion carries over to her students.

It seems to have carried over to her daughter, who last year played Ariel in Little Mermaid Jr. She has discovered choir and theatre class and dreams of performing on Broadway.

The passion has carried on.

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Interviewed by Allison Lee (‘95 B.F.A. Stage Management), current president of the School of Theatre Affiliate Program Group.