Meet Eric Hagen | Program Facilitator and Theatre Maker

We had the good fortune of connecting with Eric Hagen and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Eric, why did you pursue a creative career?
I decided to pursue a career in creative arts for selfish reasons. I like to be in a creative environment, working intuitively and energetically toward a final “product” that entertains others. In all honesty, I also liked the attention and accolades that came with a career centered on public performance.

Over the years, however, this changed. What became most engaging and exciting to me was watching others experience discoveries or push themselves in new, creative ways. I no longer got the same excitement from performing myself. Instead, my greatest joy is working closely with established and amateur artists, attacking performative work with rigor and bravery, and seeing the accomplishment others feel when they finish a rehearsal process.

Can you open up a bit about your work and career? We’re big fans and we’d love for our community to learn more about your work.
I teach Shakespeare. I teach Shakespeare to people who do not have the same opportunities I have. Currently, I lead a Shakespeare discussion series at several assisted living centers across San Diego County. Older adults do not have ready access to educational opportunities. Even those in well-resourced communities. I started the Bard Babble program in these communities to provide in-depth, intensive, but accessible educational opportunities for these adults. Thus far, the response has been terrific. There is a great well-spring of experience and curiosity that goes untapped because there are so few educational programs that go into these living centers. Bard Babble seeks to change that. We go in-depth on some of Shakespeare’s most challenging works to provide a sort-of crash Master’s level analysis of the play and its content.

In addition to the Bard Babble program, I am a member of the Old Globe’s Reflecting Shakespeare team. This is a small group that goes into various incarceration facilities to offer rigorous and comprehensive Shakespeare training with a performance and written component. The participants of this program do a months-long dive into a Shakespeare play. They break it apart, discuss it, analyze it, and learn the narrative. They are then assigned roles and spend their months rehearsing the play for performance. They couple this Shakespeare work with weekly reflection writing. We bend Shakespeare’s stories toward the participant’s life experiences. This encourages them to draw parallels between their experience and the experiences of the characters in the play. While this is never made explicit, this serves to have the participants reflect on themselves and their past without making the work overly therapeutic. If something therapeutic happens, fine. But the point is to build empathy and understanding for ourselves and those around us by immersing ourselves in these stories and characters.

My work has developed from my training as an actor. I really planned on being a Shakespearean actor and trained to do exactly that. However, as I amassed experience, I learned that my creative art is not necessarily doing the performance myself. Instead, my art is making these works accessible and engaging for those who are not familiar with them. My art is helping them with that journey while also pushing others to express themselves creatively through discussion, writing, and performance.

If you had a friend visiting you, what are some of the local spots you’d want to take them around to?
I would immediately take anyone visiting San Diego directly to Ocean Beach. We’d get a fish taco and a burrito at Mike’s, before spending time by the water. You can’t come to San Diego and not go to the beach.

I also take any visitor to South Park for some vegan food from Kindred.

We’d also have to go to Flinn Springs to eat at Grand Ol’ BBQ.

Aside from where we would eat, we would definitely get to Balboa Park in hopes of finding a great cultural event in progress. We’d also just walk through several of the stunning neighborhoods in San Diego. Kensington, Normal Heights, North Park, and South Park are all gems.

I also love going to the desert. So, we would definitely pack up and get out to Borrego Springs or Palm Springs for some insane sun exposure, good hiking, and the quiet that you find inland.

Who else deserves some credit and recognition?
I want to shout out Erika Phillips, the Arts Engagement Program Manager and manager of the Reflecting Shakespeare program at the Old Globe in San Diego. You never know where your mentors will come from. I only knew Erika obliquely before joining her team at the Old Globe. She has fast become one of my dear friends and an immensely influential part of my life. She built a wide-ranging program basically from scratch with her partner, James Pillar. Together, they have changed the lives of hundreds of people across Southern California. Neither one would readily admit to that. I have seen, however, people radically change their living situations because of the work they do with her. She is a hero who does her work because she enjoys it, not because it makes her heroic.

Image Credits
Courtesy of The Old Globe, Photography by Richard Soublet II