By Vic Cox

When theater director Judith Olauson retires from UCSB’s Dramatic Art Department this coming June, she will depart on neither a whimper nor a bang, but rather on a cat’s meow.

Culminating 30 years of teaching, directing, and performing with “By the Bog of Cats,” an Irish drama laced with black humor, seems appropriate to her: “It’s a juicy project, just wonderful,” says the senior lecturer with a smile. “I love Irish plays, and I’m having fun.”

While “Bog,” which opens on March 3, is the first work by contemporary playwright Marina Carr that Olauson has presented, she previously directed Brian Friel’s “Translations” and “Molly Sweeney;” Sean O’Casey’s “The Shadow of a Gunman;” and “The Playboy of the Western World” by J. M. Synge.

However, she almost chose “Hamlet” as her swan song. Learning that Carr had accepted a short campus residency on the department’s Michael Douglas scholarship changed the senior lecturer’s mind. Though familiar with some of Carr’s plays, “By the Bog of Cats” was not one of them. A colleague whose judgment she trusted suggested “Bog,” and when she read it Olauson was intrigued by the fact that it was loosely based on Euripides’ “Medea.”

“Set in a contemporary Irish context, and written by a brilliant, young playwright who would actually be here, well, I couldn’t let that opportunity go by,” said Olauson.

As an actress trained in the Stanislavsky system, Olauson says she learned directing “by watching others, and doing it” after she arrived on campus in 1976 to teach acting. She originated the History of Acting course for the department.

A founding member of the UCSB Theatre Artists Group, she has played characters as diverse as Sarah Bernhardt (“Memoir”), Goneril (“King Lear”), Mrs. Warren (“Mrs. Warren’s Profession”), and Amanda Wingfield (“The Glass Managerie”). “Gradually, my passion for directing edged out my passion for performing,” she recalls with a smile.

She has taught and directed UCSB students over the years in a wide variety of genres, including musical theater, like “No, No Nanette;” Shakespeare’s comedies and tragedies, such as “Much Ado About Nothing” and “Romeo and Juliet;” and contemporary plays, such as “A Raisin in the Sun” and “Blood Knot.”

“I call myself an actor’s director,” she says. “I want to open doors for the actors, see them move forward.”

The net effect of her background, she added, was that she listened to her student actors and learned to trust them. “Educational theater keeps you aware and current, with students always wanting to charge ahead,” she noted. “But I respect that, and love their energy.”

Retirement means moving to Provo, Utah, with her husband, Leonard Tourney, lecturer in the Writing Program, where they already have a home. Olauson expects to direct and teach directing classes at Brigham Young University, continue raising her favorite breed of dog, the Bouvier des Flandres, and “probably do some educational work for the (Mormon) Church.”

She had lived before in Utah for a total of 10 years, during which time she earned her Ph.D. in drama. She met and married Tourney 10 years ago. The Bouviers predated her marriage, but fortunately for him Tourney grew to love the shaggy behemoths almost as much as Olauson. Currently, they have two dogs, but, she said, “If it were up to me, I’d be raising these dogs forever. They’re real gentle giants, and a great diversion from the theater.”