Personally Speaking/“Is His Head Worth a Hat?” – William Shakespeare

by Alex Gruber ’18 (Residential Life)

I’m still a fairly young alum but by chance I’ve already been given a surprising variety of parts to play at St. Norbert. So it was a little ironic to find myself cast as Rosalind in SNC’s production of “As You Like It.” Shakespeare himself cast male actors in female parts and the plot of “As You Like It” in fact turns on Rosalind’s clever disguise as the boy shepherd Ganymede. It was a role that gave me the chance to work, laugh, and learn again with the college’s gem of a theatre department. If you’re in the cast, you help construct the set. If you’re in the crew, you participate in acting exercises. If you’re an alum, a staff person, a faculty member, or – like me – all three and involved in the production, you engage in dialogue (scripted and unscripted) with students and make the words on the page a reality on the stage together. Whoever you are, you do all this in an environment of mutual respect and sincerity in which every person is seen as playing an integral part. In short, the theatre department practices the communio preached and nurtured by the Norbertine order for 900 years.

By grace, I have already been cast in five named roles at SNC and each has given me a different lens on the many departments and many more people striving to understand and realize communio. 2014-18, my primary role was that of student, and in that role I saw professors and staff members (and especially Michelle in Ruth’s!) pour thought and care into their support and formation of my peers and me. I studied communio explicitly as a research fellow for the Center for Norbertine Studies, heard it preached during Mass at Old St. Joe’s, and sought to model it as an RA for honors students in Bergstrom and service-learning students in Michels. Writing for, editing, and leading the St. Norbert Times reinforced the importance of pursuing and discussing the truth in establishing an atmosphere of trust, even – especially – when the truth is uncomfortable and challenging.

In August 2018, I flew to Boston for grad school and simultaneously settled into the role of an SNC alum. My own ongoing care for the college did not diminish the inspiration I felt as I saw the new generation of students also living into its ideals and mission. I thought I would continue as an alum when I flew back to Wisconsin in May 2020 with my master’s in theology and no great aspirations apart from the hope of not contracting COVID-19.

An email from the Killeen Chair in June offered me a new part to play, that of a researcher and writer on the history of the Norbertine order in northeastern Wisconsin. Then, in July, came an audition for instructor of the Communio & the Norbertines course. In September, a callback for the brand-new role of quarantine/isolation student liaison literally called me back to campus, specifically to a comfortable suite in the Kress Inn. And this semester, I’ll serve as an area coordinator in Housing. Each role had its own personality and goal, but each still impressed on me the importance, challenges and gifts of attending to those on the margins, committing to substantive dialogue and building unity through – not despite – diversity.

In May 2021, the Kress Inn reopened its doors to the public as the college’s safety protocols and the country’s vaccination drive saw a decrease in COVID-19 cases. Settled in my new apartment, I was happy to continue acting as the Q/I liaison in the fall semester and reminding students in quarantine or isolation that they are valued members of this community. I’ve gratefully taken up the role of instructor again, too, this time for introductory theology. First-year students need a good deal of stage direction. The experience of assisting these students to read the scripts of Scripture and theological texts and also understand, grapple with, interpret and respond to these lines has been invaluable. My hope has been to give these students space to rehearse the deep thinking, honest dialogue and just action that will enable them to live out the mission of St. Norbert College during and long after their student years.

My personal play, like that of every other person in the world, went wildly off-script in 2020, often leaving me frustrated, disappointed or confused. Still, I cannot help but give thanks as I enter the new scene each day brings. This prolonged pandemic improv has not ended in tragedy but rather brought me back to the colorful and compassionate cast and crew of St. Norbert College. As educator, liaison, scholar, and alum, I have received the gift of approaching communio – and my own self – in multiple roles. I do not always feel worthy of the hats I have worn in this community, but I strive to wear them humbly, gratefully, justly. Whatever parts I’m offered in the future, I will strive to connect distinct perspectives in mutually respectful and enriching dialogue so that all at SNC may better understand and teach our values by word and example. 

March 17, 2022