By: Carolina Alcala/Contributing Writer
The day had just begun and students were sipping coffee as a man in a dangling burgundy shirt, dark denim jeans, boots and a smile walks into the room.
Michael Yawney rubs his full head of salt-and-pepper hair as his eyes look eager to engage in conversation.
Yawney, an assistant professor of directing, playwriting and theatre history at the University, has written several plays, including “1,000 Homosexuals.”
But his biggest challenge every day is to confront his bashfulness.
“I’m really shy,” he said as he tucked his head under his arms like a turtle. “I’m not good with self-promotion. It’s been a really big obstacle for me because I can’t go out there and say ‘I just came up with the next big thing!’ Even if I did it’s a job for me and it’s not something I do naturally.”
Some of his students disagree.
“There is never a dull moment with him,” said Jason Caceres, a bachelor of fine arts student in the theatre program. “He speaks about every subject that he teaches with such passion that it is actually an inspiration to sit and listen. He is one of the most encouraging teachers I have ever had to this day.”
Given his past, that may come as no surprise.
“Growing up poor has really affected the way I deal with certain things,” Yawney said. “You know, growing up in poverty made me happy to just be able to do what I’m doing.
“I never thought I’d leave New York. I spent 20 years of my life there and I’d never thought I’d move or learn to drive a car, but here I am.”
Yawney is always working with his students, trying to get them to think out of the box so that their work on the stage becomes a tangible experience for the audience. He wants the viewers to be able to feel, taste, smell, hear and see each emotion the actors go through.
“He’s a really smart guy and well trained,” said Wayne Robinson, associate professor of acting and dancing. “But I think what defines him is his ability to create an atmosphere where everyone feels comfortable, where everyone feels creative and is able to work.”
The professor likes to keep himself busy and always has. That’s where he got his positivity despite his hardships.
“I know that things aren’t forever, whether they’re good or bad,” he said. “So, I think you just have to go through things knowing they will change. You have to just do and things will happen.”
Yawney knew he wanted to be involved in the visual performing arts since he was a child. He went from scene designer to actor to writer and director.
“I remember when I was a little boy, I would play with little toy cars and give each one a story,” he said as he motioned his hands on the table as if he had cars in them. “I mean, I don’t know if every boy did that when they played, but each car had its character. I know now that what I was doing was directing them.”
The artistic man who thought he would have to work in something like retail to make a living has spent his entire career doing what he loves, right out of high school.
He got into the “Experimental Theatre Wing,” a four-year professional training program at New York University, where he graduated with a bachelor of fine arts. He then went on to graduate from Columbia University, where he earned his master of fine arts. Yawney got work within two weeks of graduation and started his own theatre company, Dock, with some classmates.
“It was a fast-paced production company and it actually survived,” he said.
Yawney moved to South Florida to deal with family issues and began handling finances at Coral Gables Theater. He later got a teaching job at New World School of the Arts and became a full time professor at FIU shortly thereafter.
“He’s a genius. He’s literally a human theater encyclopedia,” said Kassandra Escandell, one of his former students at the University.
The playwright enjoys writing about things he doesn’t quite understand. “1,000 Homosexuals” was inspired by Anita Bryant’s anti-gay crusade of 1977, which prompted legislature to ban gay adoption.
“How can this woman think she’s right? How does she convince herself that she is a morally driven person when her actions and thinking are so corrupt and morally bankrupt? I like to write about things like that because it helps me understand,” he said.
Yawney is currently writing a play about an underaged girl dating a man who is old enough to be her father. On Nov. 20, he finished directing “The House of Spirits,” adapted by Caridad Svich.
Yawney continues to be the humble kid with a dream who grew up in New York. “A young lady once showed me the Gap [retail store] payroll and I thought to myself ‘if I were working there, I’d get paid more, put in less hours and have a much more comfortable life,’” he said.
“But it just wouldn’t be right. It’s not for me. Nowadays, we struggle between money and the soul. We just need to do what’s right.”
This story was researched and written for JOU 3300 Advanced News Writing taught by Dr. Fred Blevens in the School of Journalism and Mass Communication. You can see this and other class work by going to The News Wave.
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