Today we’d like to introduce you to Diane Hill.
Hi Diane, we’re thrilled to have a chance to learn your story today. So, before we get into specifics, maybe you can briefly walk us through how you got to where you are today?
I’ll start with the now. I’m currently living the dream in Michigan as a free-lance, professional actor (which means I work all over the place) and a Producing Artistic Director at Theatre NOVA, a nonprofit professional theatre in Ann Arbor. But how I got to where I am now is a much longer story. I started with my initial degree in music from the University of Michigan in Voice and Piano, which led to teaching music in public schools. But as I found my passion for theatre growing, I received a Masters in Theatre, also at U of M, and I eventually taught both music and drama at Ypsilanti High School. Then I received my Ph.D. in Theatre from Wayne State University and began teaching at colleges. I originated the drama degree at Oakland Community College and enjoyed teaching at that level, but I was always yearning to perform full-time. Eventually I decided to refocus…not retire, and I started my own professional theatre company in West Bloomfield: Two Muses Theatre, a nonprofit theatre whose mission was to provided opportunities for women in theatre. I loved every show we did, and we were very successful until we lost the space we were renting in our fifth year. Once I shut Teo Muses down, I immediately moved on to be a Producing Artistic Director at Theatre NOVA in Ann Arbor, whose mission is to present new plays. Here I have been able to feed my passion for acting in contemporary plays.
Alright, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
Finding my way to here has been a long journey, and there were definitely some struggles along the way. I mentioned losing my space in West Bloomfield. But before that, I lost my professional partner and co-founder–one of the Two Muses. Everything was great with this partner until it wasn’t, and when they decided to quit, they took our major donors with them and eventually sued me and Two Muses. But we made it through that, and we survived the huge amount of work it was to move an entire theatre to another space. However, when I discovered there just wasn’t enough potential audience in Waterford, Michigan (using the Monster Box space there), I threw in the towel. So I was grateful to find another home in Ann Arbor, but the biggest struggle I encountered there was a pandemic which shut us down in March of 2020. We survived by producing Zoom plays, and the learning curve on the technology of presenting plays via Zoom was steep. We opened again to the public in September of 2021, and now the challenges had to do with the audience: navigating social distancing, masking and vaccinations. After performing in the first two shows of our comeback, I left Theatre NOVA for three years, during which time I acted with several different theatre companies and helped another theatre professional open a new theatre in Walled Lake, Michigan. Now I’m back at Theatre NOVA, loving the people I’m working with and hoping to rebuild our pre-COVID audience.
Thanks – so what else should our readers know about your work and what you’re currently focused on?
What sets me apart is my versatility. I’ve built a career that spans teaching music and drama, acting, singing, directing plays and musicals, choreographing, producing, music directing, and choral conducting. I move fluidly between these roles, which gives me a broad creative perspective and allows me to understand a production from every angle. Most of all, I cherish the collaboration with other artists, where individual talents spark off one another and create something larger than any one of us.
We’d be interested to hear your thoughts on luck and what role, if any, you feel it’s played for you?
Luck shows up in surprising ways. I’ve had good luck that opened doors and bad luck that closed a few—but even the tough moments pushed me to become more resourceful and resilient. I see luck as the spark, but the work I put in decides what happens next.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.diane-hill.com/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/diane.hill.5876
