Additional reporting by Brian Addison.

Cal State Long Beach (CSULB) professor Joanne Gordon knew she wanted to pursue a career in acting at the age of three but it wasn’t until she was in her adolescent years that she discovered the world behind acting, that of directing. Gordon, who grew up in South Africa while also completing her undergraduate and masters there before heading to UCLA for her doctorate, has accumulated a myriad of accolades to showcase for her success—from the Polly Warfield Award from the Los Angeles Drama Critics, bestowed onto the Cal Rep company under her direction, to being recognized as one of the world’s leading scholars on Stephen Sondheim.

For all her contributions to the rich history of CSULB theatre, decades of creating art with students has led her to acknowledge that it was the teacher-student collaboration that infused her with the most pride.

Gordon has worked in the California State University (CSU) system for roughly 30 years, with almost all of them being with CSULB since she landed at the university in 1989. With a feted au revoir last year, she stepped down Chair of the Theatre Department after a decade-long tenure. Even after her goodbye, the hankering of wanting, nay, needing to teach overrode the idea of actual retirement in favor of teaching and directing part-time at CSULB.

“I love the culture and the ethnic mix. I love the students at [CSULB],” Gordon said. “In general, I love the CSU students because they don’t feel entitled, many of them are first generation, and when they discover theatre, they hunger it.”

With Gordon’s resume of success, it wasn’t surprising to hear that during her tenure at CSULB she received an offer to become the department chair for a theatre program at another prestigious university. Despite the offer, Gordon said Long Beach gave her what she has always loved and, without much hesitation, shooed the idea away.

“Long Beach gave me what I wanted: the sun,” Gordon said. “I grew up in South Africa so I love the sun. Climate does mean something to me… I felt that my political activism in South Africa was fulfilled in my art at the CSU. I didn’t even look job-wise—I loved it once I was here.”

Some may feel like a career in teaching theatre isn’t as impressive as being a doctor or engineer, but it was a dream come true for Gordon.

“It’s a dream in many ways because growing up in South Africa, it’s not like we didn’t know how awful the situation was or how politically inpatient we were,” Gordon said. “But we dreamed of a different world. When I lived there, Nelson Mandela was still locked up, so there wasn’t ever a dream of change. That made coming to the U.S. was a dream come true.”

Beyond the pilgrimage alone, the vast, diverse mix of students at CSULB alone is fulfilling enough for her. The campus’s 30,000 undergrads—with over 36% Latino and over 23% Asian-American alone—provide Gordon with an eclectic palate of young minds to both work with and learn from.

“It’s huge dealing with American students in 2014 in comparison to when I was growing up. It’s a never ending delight to me because I grew in an apartheid,” Gordon said. “It meant it was strict serration… to be on campus in California in 2014 with a multicultural, multiethnic, unself-conscious mix, it’s a never ending joy to me.”

Directing and teaching has always been on the forefront for Gordon, even at the expense of the time she spent with her daughters; drive, after all, has a cost when children become entangled on the balance beam that is one’s professional life versus personal life. But she said she’s ready to give her grandchildren the attention she wasn’t able to give to her daughters.

“I was driven and I focused so much on my attention to work and art that to a large extent, I think my children suffered,” Gordon said. “Now in semi-retirement, I have two grandchildren around the corner and I’m ready to make up a lot of what I didn’t have when I was younger… but women can’t have it all, and that’s the honest answer and sad reality.

“I think it’s important that for so many years as head director that my students have a strong female and role model to look up,” Gordon said. “I talk about my children and even though I spent many hours at work, both turned out into magnificent, strong women. It worked out in the end, but I think being a strong woman is still very difficult.”

A strong woman indeed. Gordon was also the Artistic Director for Cal Rep—the theatre repertory that is made up entirely of CSULB’s MFA actors and actresses—she has and continues to publish various works, she’s directed a multitude of plays in the U.S. and in Europe, and even befriended Charles Bukowski’s widowed wife and stepdaughter thanks to the direction of her 2005 production, Love, Bukowski (not to mention her B.S.: Bukowski.Sondheim production in 2012).

Regardless of it all, Gordon’s drive and passion toward the art has transcended toward her students.

“I had a really clear vision of what I felt was important [during my time as department chair], but the thing i’m proudest of are my students from the theatre department who didn’t want to graduate because they were so happy,” Gordon said. “I have thousands of students throughout my 30 years… I’m so grateful that I’ve had the career I’ve had.”

Gordon has recently directed a cast of CSULB undergraduates to perform in Merrily We Roll Along to kick off the production season at CSULB. The performance tells the story of a Hollywood big shot, Franklin Shepard in reverse chronological order.

Opening night of Merrily We Roll Along is on October 3 and the production will run until the 12th. Tickets are $15 for general admission and $12 for seniors and students with a valid ID. For tickets, call 562-985-5526 or click here.