Alumni & Student Stories

Scoring a goal: She finds personal growth at Antioch

Madeleine Oldham
Whole Systems Design

When she began work on her master's degree, Madeleine Oldham was riveted on developing the skills to launch a women's ice hockey league.

"There's a big difference between women's hockey and men's. It's not about winning and losing. It's about camaraderie and community," she describes.

There's no doubt hockey is a big part of her life and has been since she was 13. When she leveled with herself, though, a different career goal emerged. Her day job — as well as her bachelor's degree from Pitzer College in Claremont, Calif. — was in theater.

"Antioch offers an opportunity to give yourself permission to think deeply about why you're doing what you're doing, then put it into practice. Unlike a lot of schools, Antioch forces you to look inside yourself rather than just get it done. It really is about personal growth," Oldham says.

"Antioch offers an opportunity to give yourself permission to think deeply about why you’re doing what you’re doing, then put it into practice.""I had to ask myself, 'What am I really good at?' I had to write about what interested me. I began to see the reason I had been obsessed with theater since I was 8. But I was afraid of failing."

It's Her Own Path

So what changed this outgoing woman in her early 30s?

"Frankly, I never thought I’d go to graduate school. Yet, if I hadn't been studying whole systems design, this wouldn't have happened. Someone phrased it this way: Say your passions are geology, math and romance novels. This degree helps you combine them and create a path that wasn't there before," she says.

Oldham's path is all about communication combined with her social skills, her love of theater and what she calls her "wanting-to-know brain." A job as literary manager opened in a local theater where she was doing administrative work. She knew it was the right fit and she got the job.

In May 2003, however, she was laid off. In Seattle, all but one theater had closed their literary offices because of budget cuts. By then, though, Oldham knew this was the perfect career for her, had some experience doing the job and saw how her Antioch degree program offered an opportunity to apply a systemic approach to theater.

Studies Relate to Her Job

She landed a job as literary manager and associate dramaturg with Baltimore's Center Stage, which has a $2 million endowment just for dramaturgy. In her job, Oldham explains, she scouts for scripts, keeps an eye on what other local theaters are doing and frequently is at the heart of the Maryland theater's focus and vision as well as its organizational development. She gets to know working scripts inside and out and researches information for actors and directors. That information might be as simple as how people greeted one another in the 1850s — certainly not a kiss, but was it a handshake?

"The questions are so random and I love that," she says with a wriggle of her nose and a big smile.

And what about hockey?

"I wouldn't have moved to Baltimore if they didn’t have women's hockey. I realized I need hockey. It brings together women of all ages and fills a huge void. Now I've decided to make a documentary film about why that is," she says. A wanting-to-know brain rarely rests.