In which Sara pretends to take the Onion seriously as an excuse to praise a favorite professor

So, apparently, the theater department at my alma mater has become more nationally recognized since I graduated. I was never a theater major, but I tended to hang out with a lot of theater people and managed to appear in a couple of shows and take a few classes. My Shakespeare professor, Robert Ball, was very demanding but also one of the best professors I had who had a lasting, positive impact on my life.