Cathy Thomas-Grant Stages Her Final Musical Production After 31 Years of Teaching at Seaver College
Cathy Thomas-Grant, an esteemed professor of theatre at Pepperdine University, is set to stage her final student musical production after 31 years of teaching and directing. The Light in the Piazza will serve as the finale to Thomas-Grant’s storied pedagogical and creative career—all of which has been spent in service to the Seaver College community.
“I've grown up on this campus,” said Thomas-Grant. “This place has been a part of my family for nearly 50 years.”
Thomas-Grant’s story at Pepperdine began long before her theatrical career at the school. In fact, she represents the third generation of her family to serve the University. Her grandmother, Roxie Thomas, acted as the director of the University’s Word Processing Center at the original George Pepperdine campus in South Los Angeles as well as at the current home of the institution in Malibu. Thomas-Grant’s mother, Martha Thomas (MA ’80), held a faculty position in Pepperdine’s English department, and her father, Robert Thomas (MBA ’90), was the dean of student affairs who recruited the first class of 800 undergraduates to the University’s coastal campus and oversaw the construction of its Drescher Campus and faculty housing.
While her family planted deep roots within the Pepperdine community, Thomas-Grant’s three-decade tenure at the institution exceeds all of her ancestors. She started her career as a staff member in Pepperdine’s IT department, where she helped digitize institutional documents. Already an experienced professional actor holding a master of fine arts, she was invited by the faculty to teach theatre classes while working as a staff member.
This arrangement did not last long. With an obvious talent and passion for helping young people develop in the classroom, Thomas-Grant was asked to serve as a full-fledged faculty member after just a few years. Since then, she’s held every position within Seaver College’s Fine Arts Division, serving as a program coordinator, a divisional chair, the director of the University’s Edinburgh Program, and finally as a divisional dean.
“Cathy has always been a deeply effective and caring member of our faculty,” said Lincoln Hanks, the current divisional dean of the Fine Arts Division. “She has always held our students’ well-being at the center of her work, but that tenderness was matched by a fierce commitment to professionalism.”
Thomas-Grant claims her chief goals as an educator and director were to instill both a sense of discipline and play into her students—attributes meant to serve them long beyond the stage. Under her supervision, undergraduate performers were required to show up early to nightly rehearsals with their blocking and lines memorized. At the same time, she encouraged students to take chances, have fun, and even fail in the process of trying to learn and understand their respective characters.
Thomas-Grant used the theatre to help shape students
By striking a balance between directorial professionalism and caring mentorship, Thomas-Grant impacted countless Pepperdine students and alumni.
“Cathy Thomas-Grant opened her whole life to her students, colleagues, and fellow artists,” said Christopher Collins (’02), a former student of Thomas-Grant and a current Seaver College faculty member. “Her directing talent, combined with mentoring and commitment, cultivated actors, giving them a chance to reach their peak performance. There are hundreds of students and alumni who are forever grateful for what she has done. I loved taking her classes, performing in her shows, and working alongside her at Pepperdine. She is the absolute best.”
For Thomas-Grant’s final act as an educator at Pepperdine, she is staging a student rendition of the six-time Tony Award–winning musical The Light in the Piazza. This celebrated production centers on a mother and daughter vacationing in Florence, Italy, and explores the theme of love from a number of different perspectives.
To stage this renowned production, Thomas-Grant collaborated with faculty members from across campus and subject matter experts from across continents. She relied upon Brittany Corbucci (’06), an assistant instructor of Italian studies at Seaver College, to help her students grasp and fluently speak the Italian language. Moreover, Thomas-Grant enlisted an Italian language and cultural director straight from Italy to help instruct students on their physicality and nonverbal gestures.
Over the course of months, student performers worked with Thomas-Grant and her various helping hands to perfect the show. Despite the meticulous and sometimes arduous nature of rehearsal, the longtime theatrical stage director cited these moments as the sweetest of the production, because they gave her the chance to help young people grow. Now, as she anticipates the show’s opening night, Thomas-Grant hopes all the energy and effort poured into The Light in the Piazza will help theatregoers develop a sense of empathy.
“It's my hope that by addressing issues of the human heart, as untidy as they are, it opens people up to see somebody else's point of view and allow it to be—even though they don't agree with it,” she said.
The Light in the Piazza opens on Wednesday, April 8 and will run at Pepperdine’s Smothers Theatre through Saturday, April 11. The production will mark Thomas-Grant’s 54th theatrical production at the University. Throughout each of the many theatrical ventures, the Seaver College theatre professor explained that one thing has remained consistent: her favorite part of the job.
“Working with my students on performance,” Thomas-Grant said. “They have so many incredible stories to tell, and they are such incredible human beings.”