Annette Masson

ASSOCIATE EDITOR EMERITUS, MICHIGAN

Contributions to IDEA:
Benin 1 | Bulgaria 2 | Chile 4 | Chile 5 | Democratic Republic of the Congo 1 | Gabon 1 | Iceland 2 | Iceland 3 | Slovakia 1 | Slovakia 2

Obituary:
3/24/1956 — 8/13/2017; Annette Masson, age 61, from Ann Arbor, MI; a professor of theatre at the University of Michigan School of Music, Theatre & Dance, passed away at U-M Hospital on Sunday, August 13, following a brief illness. She was surrounded by her family from Saskatoon, in the Canadian province of Saskatchewan where Annette grew up on a farm with three brothers and two sisters in the midst of wheat and canola fields and prairies. Annette received her bachelor of education (English and music) from the University of Saskatchewan in 1978. She left after college, never really looking back, and lived in many places: Calgary, London, San Francisco, and Berkeley, stopping long enough to receive a master of fine arts (theatre education) from Boston University in 1991. In London, Annette studied with Patsy Rodenburg, famed British voice coach, author, and theatre director at Guildhall School of Music and Drama. Voice and speech became her passion and she sought out many other coaches to perfect her craft. She taught as a guest artist for the Western Australia Academy of Performing Arts, as a visiting professor at Michigan State University, and on faculty with the American Repertory Theatre at Harvard University. She was associate director of the Drama Studio for London at Berkeley in California. Annette spent the last 24 years teaching in Ann Arbor. Over the years she was vocal director for countless young actors in University Productions. Her fundamental exercises were not only Annette’s hallmarks, but also became her legacy for every actor who studied with her “Physically, Annette succumbed to a rare and aggressive form of cancer, but her indomitable spirit never gave up,” said Priscilla Lindsay, chair of the Department of Theatre & Drama. “It lives on in her many, many students. We shall miss her terribly.” A Memorial is planned for September 13th at 6:00pm in the Lydia Mendelssohn Theatre, in the Michigan League on Main Campus of the University of Michigan. Reception will follow in the Power Center Lobby.