The Art of Teaching

The university press office called first thing Monday morning.

Is this the Stella Theodoulou who produced “Riders of the Purple Sage”? (the cable TV movie)

Yes, the woman answered.

And the same Stella Theodoulou who teaches at Cal State Northridge?

Yes, she said. After all, how many Stella Theodoulous could there be?

Only one. And she has the unlikely dual career of political science professor and film producer--a pairing that made for a busy January. Her third book, “AIDS: The Politics and Policy of Disease,” a collection of academic articles, was published, and the film that she was associate producer for, “Riders of the Purple Sage,” debuted on Turner Network Television on Jan. 21.

Around CSUN, Theodoulou hadn’t made a big deal of her Hollywood work--the phone call from the university relations employee came only because he happened to notice Theodoulou’s name on the movie credits. At the end of last spring semester, Theodoulou had finished grading final exams and then started pre-production at TNT the next day.

The combination of professor and producer is not so odd once you realize that Theodoulou sees everything--including movies--as political.

Theodoulou said she’s not trying to push her own political agenda. The goal of every class she teaches, every book she writes and every film she wants to produce is simple: Make people think. Hold whatever opinions you like, she said, but know why you have them and be able to support them with a thorough understanding of the issues.

Theodoulou, 40, grew up in Cyprus and fell in love with movies at an early age. She would watch movies from the 1940s and 1950s on TV with her mother or in the open-air theater on the island. Even after she went off to England to study political science and law, and later to America for a doctorate, she saw up to three movies a week.

These days, her TV room looks like Blockbuster Video.

Theodoulou’s transition from film buff to producer accelerated in 1990 when she met actress Amy Madigan. Madigan, speaking in the same rapid-fire pace she used in “Field of Dreams,” said she immediately liked Theodoulou’s Social Democratic politics.

“She’s really opinionated. Really smart. Really funny. And that’s a great combination,” Madigan said.

The two became friends and formed a business partnership. When TNT approached Madigan and husband Ed Harris about producing and co-starring in “Riders,” it seemed natural that Theodoulou be part of the project.

Her communication and organizational skills proved invaluable on the tight 29-day shoot, which included multiple locations, period costumes and stampedes.

“Unless Stella had been on board, I don’t know that we could have pulled it off,” Madigan said.

The adaptation of Zane Grey’s 1912 novel, “Riders of the Purple Sage,” which airs through Friday, makes pointed statements about the status of women and organized religion, she said.

In fact, it was so politically charged that Utah authorities agreed to issue a film permit only after producers agreed to remove all references to the Mormon church.

“Riders” isn’t your standard western. The story centers on Jane Withersteen--played by Madigan--a single woman who is pressured to marry by church elders who don’t think she can run her ranch without a husband. For many viewers, the story is simple melodrama. But to Theodoulou, it’s classic Machiavellian politics: using anything--including religion--to get what you want.

“What I see in a movie and what the person next to me might see [are] totally different. And I love that because we can talk about it and debate,” Theodoulou said. “And as a political scientist, I love to debate.”

She is worried by recent attacks on the entertainment industry by politicians, most notably presidential candidate Sen. Bob Dole (R-Kan.).

“To blame Hollywood, or the film and television industry, for the decline of America, I think, takes some blame away from the politicians who have not made public policy in the interest of supporting the moral infrastructure of this country,” she said. It is politicians, for example, who decide how much money to spend on education and health care.

Equally distressing to Theodoulou is how politics can eliminate tolerance of criticism, a fundamental ingredient in any debate. “That’s what democracy is about, it’s about debate” she said. “But if we start to legislate and censor what people see and what people read, then we’re getting into very dangerous ground.”

The students who fill her classes to capacity every semester know all about her love of debate. She is a powerful lecturer, drawing students into arguments and making them defend their positions.

Graduate student Henrik Minassians, 33, has seen her in action in five courses. She stirs people up, he said, and can easily shift between far-left and far-right points of view. “You have to prepare to be able to defend your arguments,” he said.

Talking about Theodoulou, students, friends and colleagues seem to fall back on the same two phrases: “She knows her stuff” and “She’s very demanding.” As a result, Minassians said, there are two types of students in CSUN’s political science department: those who avoid her classes if possible, and those who try to take every class she teaches.

Gloria Guevara, 28, was among the latter. Now in a doctoral program at USC, she swore that she would drive back to her old campus to sit in on an AIDS policy class if Theodoulou was teaching.

“There are professors who teach,” Guevara said, “and there are professors who inspire.”

Sitting in the house that she restored in Hancock Park, Theodoulou expressed concern that she might be viewed as an aspiring producer who is a professor only for a steady paycheck. To the contrary, she said, no film would make her give up teaching.

In fact, former political science department head Eugene Price said her teaching actually benefits from her work outside. The breadth of her interests translates into a distinct perspective in the classroom. In her hands, he said, even the most abstract political theory can take on a “real-world” application.

“If she weren’t so down to earth . . . I think students would say they’re in awe of her,” he said.

She is an ideal faculty member, he said, always willing to take on a class that she’d never taught before. He also calls her articulate, well-read, worldly and “not your run-of-the-mill pedant.” He stops himself for fear of sounding like a Hollywood agent.

“The only thing she doesn’t like is to teach early in the morning,” Price said.

That’s because she often starts writing at 11 p.m. She currently is working on a textbook on health-care policy. She is also developing another film project with Madigan, a dark comedy called “Mother’s Day.” Finally, she’s fine-tuning a new class that she hopes to teach next semester: “Film as a Political Medium: The Portrayal of Prejudice.”

Surprisingly, Theodoulou shows few films in her classes. For example, she used “Body Parts,” a documentary on the black market for transplant organs in her class on Latin America. “When she shows a movie, it’s very relevant,” said Guevara. “It’s not because she doesn’t want to lecture.”

She doesn’t mind, however, discussing popular films to make a point.

“Movies are the common denominator among so many of us.” With one undergraduate class, she said, “I spent a whole hour talking about ‘Forrest Gump.’ Maybe half the class hadn’t kept up with the reading, but they had all seen ‘Forrest Gump.’ ”