Dr. Patrick King named Fulbright Scholar, will research musical theater in Spain

During a summer in Barcelona, Spain, the idea began to grow. 

Lake Michigan College Theatre Instructor Dr. Patrick King was visiting his partner, voiceover artist, and director Jenny Beacraft when he became fascinated by the musical theater of the region. 

"My research area is musical theater in a historical context," King said. "Catalonia is one of those regions with its own identity within, and they would say separate, from Spanish culture. There is a home-grown Catalan-language musical theater scene that is incredibly popular but, like popular musical theater in the United States, is often critically and academically ignored. As a historical researcher, it seems that the plays people want to see that may seem trivial in the moment can really tell you a lot about that culture." 

In August, King will spend the 2024-2025 academic year in Barcelona at the Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona (or Autonomous University of Barcelona), researching Catalan musical theater as a Fulbright U.S. Scholar. 

The competitive and prestigious Fulbright Scholar Program awards more than 1,700 fellowships each year, enabling 800 U.S. Scholars to go abroad and 900 Visiting Scholars to come to the United States. Fulbright Scholars raise the profile of their home institutions to establish research and exchange relationships and gain valuable international insights. Fulbright Scholars then return to their home institutions to share their experiences with students and colleagues. 

"The whole mission of Fulbright is this cross-border understanding and the ability to learn from other cultures and bring those ideas back here," King said. "I think it reflects well on Fulbright that they want community college scholars to be in the mix. They know our work is teaching, and we don't often have time for research and writing. It is a credit to them that they recognize the importance of community colleges in the ecosystem of academia; that we do matter." 

The Autonomous University of Barcelona, which has a theater studies program within its Catalan department, will serve as the host institution for King during the research project. King will work with professors, historians, and other theater professionals to learn more about the current and historical Catalan musical theater scene. He expects to work with Dagoll Dagom, a Catalan theater company founded in 1974, who will be staging the Catalan musical "Mar i Cel." 

"I describe it as their 'Les Misérables,'" King said. "It is a big spectacle that has been on and off for decades. Dagoll Dagom, the theater that produces it, says that this is the last time they will stage the production, so being able to look at that production as it is being staged at a time when Catalonia is really in flux feels like an important cultural moment." 

King holds a doctorate in theater history and performance studies from Tufts University and an undergraduate degree in theater from Northwestern. Before teaching at LMC, he was a graduate instructor at Tufts University and guest lectured at Rutgers University. His previous research has been published in the peer-reviewed journals Text & Presentation and Puppetry International and presented at the Mid-America Theatre Conference, the Center for Humanities at Tufts, and the American Society for Theatre Research. 

"I hope that this opportunity also shines a light on the possibilities that our students have to make leaps like this themselves," King said. "Being a student at a community college, it can be hard to imagine with broad horizons. I want them to see this and have that perspective that we are in conversation with the world."