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(03/19/20 5:00am)
The following letter was sent via email to members of the Senior Leadership Group (SLG) on Wednesday, March 11. A list of SLG members is available here. The list was also shared with the college’s commons deans, heads and coordinators, whose names can be found here, as well as the Student Activities Office and the Office of International Student and Scholar Services.
Parts of this letter have been lightly edited to comply with The Campus’ style guidelines.
Dear President Patton, Dean Taylor, Provost Cason, members of the SLG, and commons deans,
We are afraid.
As the International Students’ Organization Executive Board, we are distressed about the impact the administration’s decision to evacuate campus will have on the international student population. Although we come from over 74 countries and territories and distinct cultural backgrounds, the recent developments have united the international student community through the fear that we will be disproportionately affected if requested to leave Middlebury.
First, we want to assure you that we take your requests to find alternatives to staying on campus seriously. We acknowledge the reasons motivating the college’s decision, and we are doing everything in our personal capacities to come up with reasonable plans.
However, the decision to evacuate Middlebury poses an inequitable and disproportionate burden on us. While the college has been supportive in offering financial assistance to traveling, there are other serious concerns about our living conditions beyond Middlebury. For many of us, Middlebury is a sanctuary and the most reliable provider of housing, dining and resources that ensures our wellbeing. In addition to our support networks being hundreds to thousands of miles away, they are not all able to accomodate us at this point. Some of us do not have homes to go back to, and many others depend on their incomes from Middlebury to support their families.
Sending us to other students’ homes instead of our own does not address the core of the problem. Instead, it transfers the college’s responsibility to look after us to third parties. It is unfair to shift your commitment to house, feed, and support us onto the families of our friends and other members of the community. It is unreasonable for the college to impose on them the financial burden of indefinitely — or even temporarily — supporting and sustaining us. If financial support is being made available for traveling, the question remains whether international students will be awarded a living allowance for the periods during which they are asked to be removed from campus. We urge you to consider how the college has brought many of us here on scholarships precisely because of our considerable needs and disadvantages. Our situation requires special consideration.
While we acknowledge that much of what is happening is beyond the college’s control, we urge you to consider how domestic students are generally not similarly affected by being sent home as we are. We feel wary of making decisions on returning home or committing to stay in the United States when little is known on how travel restrictions will evolve over the coming weeks. We look to the administration for assurances that there are plans in place to assist the relocation of international students from their domestic hosts should the school decide not to continue the semester, and to support their decision to return from abroad when invited back.
Additionally, whereas the CDC has not issued domestic travel restrictions, travelling internationally poses a higher risk to our own health and to the health of those around us. In requiring that we leave campus and financing our travels abroad, the college exposes us to contagion. Beyond our personal health, there are concerns that, due to being potentially exposed to the virus during high-risk travel, international students would not be as easily reintegrated to the college community. Again, we urge you to consider that the decision to evacuate us has severe implications that may not be present for other people requesting to stay.
We request that you situate your reviews on stay approvals around the pressing needs of international students. We are not residents of this country, we do not have far-reaching access to support networks here and we do not have assurances of being able to come back should things deteriorate.
This is an unprecedented situation and we call on you to consider our cases in a caring and understanding manner. Some of us have already been denied stay on campus and many of us are frightened by the prospect of having to scramble for alternatives as the college turns us away. We urge you to be lenient and considerate as you review our applications and work thoroughly with us before requesting our departure. We call Middlebury home, and we are confident you will not overlook our plight in these trying times.
We call on you to:
Compensate for the financial burden of leaving campus by covering not only travel expenses, but considering living allowances for the duration of leave, particularly for students who have exceptional financial needs;
Accommodate students who are not able to return to their home countries and those who would not be able to reenter the United States due to travel bans or visa status concerns;
Acknowledge the unfairness of transferring the college’s responsibility to provide housing, dining and resources to international students onto other students’ friends, families, and communities;
Seriously evaluate the health and contagion risks posed by requesting international students travel through long distances and major transportation hubs to and from home;
Recognize that a lack and distance of communication — though not the intention — breeds an environment of anxiety and fear where students are panicking because they feel unsupported and lost;
Understand that Middlebury College is a sanctuary for many international students who cannot return to unstable or hostile conditions in their home communities.
Signed,
The ISO Executive Board
Arthur Martins '22.5, Masud Tyree Lewis '22, Kelly Zhou '22, Claire Moy '22, Monique Santoso '21, Husam AlZubaidy '23 and Ariana Popa ’22
(05/02/19 10:00am)
Highly educated, environmentally conscious and athletic are some of the adjectives that students at Middlebury commonly use to describe their fellow peers.
This data can be found at Unigo, a website for high school applicants to review college profiles, statistics and scholarships used by over 1.6 million students across the world. The website also showed that these are the same adjectives that students at Bowdoin College, Tufts University and Colby College use to describe their peers.
So it is no surprise that the Zeitgeist survey revealed that Bowdoin, Tufts and Colby were among the three top institutions over which students chose Middlebury.
LIBERAL ARTS EDUCATION
Almost half of the overlap institutions are identified as liberal arts schools. Furthermore, 27% of institutions were one of the eleven schools in the NESCAC, of which Middlebury is a part.
CLOSE ENOUGH TO VISIT HOME ON BREAKS BUT NOT WEEKENDS
High school students wonder how far too far is for college and for Middlebury students from the Northeast, Middlebury is the ideal distance: close enough to go home for breaks, but not for weekends.
According to the latest college profile in Fall 2018 by Middlebury’s Office of Assessment and Institutional Research, 16% of students hail from New York, with Massachusetts trailing close behind with 14% of students. In-state colleges offer shorter commutes, which may be reflected in the locations of the schools many students applied to. More than half of students, 61%, hailed from the Northeast.
(05/02/19 10:00am)
Zeitgeist results show that roughly 80 percent of students would enroll at Middlebury again if given the choice. On average, students of color are 15 percent less likely to express that sentiment than their peers.
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The “Campus Climate Assessment” released last week by the Office of Diversity, Equity and Inclusion showed that more than one-third of students disagreed with the statement that the college creates a positive atmosphere that promotes diversity among staff and students.
“There is such an emphasis on quantity, how many people come and get in from this background or the other, without actually looking at quality in terms of financial aid that is provided to students,” said an student anonymously in the report. “There needs to be more serious thought in how to measure the quality of their diversity instead of just the quantity as quantity are just numbers on a website.”
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Another potential source of student dissatisfaction is the lack of suicide prevention services and other mental health services provided to students by Parton Center for Health and Wellness. Earlier this year, The Campus received an anonymous message that shed light on the lack of counselors at Parton and the difficulty that exists with getting an appointment. Parton will be addressing this shortage in the coming Fall with the JED program that will restructure the counseling center’s hours to increase student access.
The Commons system proved to be another area of student discontent, with only roughly half of students in the Zeitgeist survey expressing satisfaction. The college’s recent How We Will Live Together project, which aims to reimagine the system, found that this discontent stems from the lack of interclass interaction that creates an isolating environment, especially for Febs, who are often placed into upperclassman housing.
Zeitgeist data also revealed that students lack confidence in the decisions made by college administrators. Along a similar vein, less than half of Middlebury students expressed satisfaction with President Laurie L. Patton. Controversy surrounding guest speakers including Charles Murray and Ryszard Legutko has characterized Patton’s career at Middlebury College, although sentiments from the recent controversy are not factored into the survey results.
Of all categories asked, students appeared to feel the most indifferent towards the SGA. Roughly 35% of students reported neither feeling satisfied nor dissatisfied — the highest proportion of neutral views in the series.
STUDENTS SATISFIED WITH DIVESTMENT, CCI, DINING HALLS
By contrast, students expressed strong levels of satisfaction for the February vote by the board of trustees to divest from fossil fuels and enact the Energy2028 plan — the culmination of years of student advocacy.
This divestment decision was triggered by a student-wide referendum sponsored by the SGA last April, in which 79% of students expressed support for divestment. A faculty resolution in November passed with over 90% support.
More than half of Middlebury students are pleased with the Center for Careers and Internships, which provides resources from resume building to LinkedIn professional headshot events to break trips to Silicon Valley and Wall Street.
Over two-thirds of students expressed satisfaction with dining services, undoubtedly a major factor in student happiness at Middlebury. Dining halls sported the second highest level of satisfaction in the series, trailing closely behind Divestment efforts.
*Editor’s Note: These approval ratings were submitted before the Legutko controversy and reflect students’ opinions before those events.
(04/25/19 9:59am)
Before the production began, director Stephanie Miller ’20 spoke to the audience crowded inside Hepburn Zoo. Along with the kind reminder to silence our cell phones and pointing us toward the exits, she cautioned us to recognize the play’s content of addiction, sexual and physical abuse, death and self-harm. This weekend marked the premiere of “The Violet Sisters,” a play written by Gina Femia.
The old staircase leading to the Zoo was plastered with headlines from October 2012, giving the audience a harrowing picture of what happened during Hurricane Sandy, a Category 3 Hurricane that caused nearly $70 billion in damage and took the lives of 33. Pamela and Samantha, portrayed by Toria Isquith ’19 and Kaitlynd Collins ’19 respectively, lose their father in the hurricane.
It begins in the torn-up living room of their house, where Pamela comes in rushing to make it in time her father’s funeral service. As her older sister Sam learns that she has returned after eight years in California, the two begin to bicker.
While their fight ensues for almost three-quarters of the play, the audience is also given glimpses into how the characters behave when alone. Older sister Samantha commits acts of self-harm, using cigrarettes for more than just smoking, while Pamela worries about her marriage to an abusive partner who is upset about her sudden departure while they were on vacation. This is followed by a series of events that, despite rising tension between the two, sheds light on how they each play a part in the other’s healing. The play highlights how family, at the end of the day, is crucial in shaping who we are and who we wish to become.
The relatable circumstances that the two sisters struggle with — relationship issues, self-esteem worries and uncertainties about careers — make us ask ourselves how far we are willing to go and what we are willing to give up to pursue our dreams, questions that individuals may struggle with throughout their lives. The play is effective in demonstrating how we often jump to conclusions about those around us, without giving them a chance to tell their entire story.
Miller, who directed the show for her 500-level directing work, echoes this sentiment.
“In terms of my artistic vision, maintaining the authenticity and truth of these women, women in the real world was the most important to me,” she said. “These are truthful women in a real world, there is nothing hugely theatrical about the characters or the world they live in.”
The performance was not only authentic but also deeply complex.
“I’ve only been in one Zoo performance before,” said Toria Isquith ’19, who did this show as her 700-acting work. “You become so much more aware of all the things happening outside of your performance, namely the design, the production, the management. It can be pretty overwhelming. However, working on “The Violet Sisters” and occupying this multidimensional role has been an incredibly powerful learning experience. Other projects seem so much more doable now that I have accomplished this massive, complicated project with so many moving parts.”
“The fact that Sam and Pam did not ultimately get the closure the audience wants them to helps the audience recognize those moments in their own life and work to resolve conflict and respect one another, rather than leaving things as they are, broken and unsettled,” Miller said.
With its sharp humor and sometimes painfully relatable storyline, “The Violet Sisters” implores the audience to look at their own relationships and their values, thinking about what truly matters in the grand scheme of things.
(04/18/19 10:00am)
Human trafficking is a universal issue, not just one which happens in developing countries. On Tuesday, April 9, Middlebury’s Stop Traffick Club presented a panel which educated the Middlebury College community on some different perspectives on human trafficking, with local, academic and global takes on the issue.
The panel, titled, “Breaking the Bonds of Modern Slavery: Perspectives on Human Trafficking,” included Darlene Pawlik, sex trafficking survivor and now advocate from New Hampshire, Sarah Stroup, Associate Professor of Political Science at Middlebury and Princy Prasad, grant writer and graphic designer for Nomi Network.
The panel was moderated by Madeleine Tango ’21.5, president of Stop Traffick who stated that the panel was “crucial to engage the campus community on the imminent dangers of trafficking, its causes and what students can do to fight against modern-day slavery.”
Treasurer Spencer Royston ’21 said that “human trafficking is an issue that is so hidden from our daily lives, and government agencies are not doing enough to see this as an important issue in terms of the laws that are currently in place.”
He believes that as a campus, we should be addressing this issue more fervently, as human trafficking is a million-dollar industry. He added that panels like these are platforms that empower survivors to tell their story and support them, as well as organizations that are doing more for them like Nomi Network, a partner of the Stop Traffick Club at Middlebury.
The panel began by explaining human trafficking and its various manifestations, from sex trafficking, to organ trafficking, to labor trafficking. The issue roots itself in the action of harboring and transporting human beings with force, promise or coercion.
Prasad shed light on how the problem is deeply rooted in culture in countries like Cambodia and India where child marriage and the caste system are still in place.
“If I send my daughter off, then they will be someone else’s problem,” Prasad said. “This is a cultural mindset that prevents girls from having their own freedom and rights.”
“It is the fastest growing commercial enterprise today. However, since it takes so many shapes, governments often miscalculate the numbers of how many victims there actually are,” Pawlik said.
The panel also discussed the role of globalization and fast-fashion in the growth of the human trafficking industry. The growing demands of the fashion industry in keeping up with changing trends create an increased need for a greater supply of clothes production, and globalization has made outsourcing of labor incredibly easy for businesses.
Nonetheless, it is important for consumers like us to be conscious of where our clothes come from. Pawlik and Prasad asked the audience to use the mobile application “My Slavery Footprint” when going to a store to purchase goods. Moreover, they acknowledged the issue of choice and how it truly is a privilege to be able to be mindful of what one purchases, knowing that those who live in poverty do not have the choice of choosing what is consciously-made over what is cheap.
“Anyone anywhere can be a victim of human trafficking,” Pawlik said. She called on college students and their ability to be conscious of and fight against human trafficking, which can start by calling out stores and companies that may not be complying with ethical standards of production through social media such as Twitter and Facebook. Informed activism through connections with local organizations is also a step in the right direction to take action.
In the end, Professor Stroup highlighted the importance of law enforcement in seeing and recognizing that trafficked persons are victims and not criminals, so as to promote a more conducive environment to combat human trafficking in a hyper-local level.
To learn more about human trafficking, attend Stop Traffick Club’s weekly meetings at 6 p.m. on Tuesdays in the LaForce Lounge.
(04/11/19 9:59am)
The way we deal with the death of a loved one makes for an incredibly personal narrative. After the passing of her beloved brother Carl, playwright Paula Vogel found her own unique way to let the world know how dear he was to her, by writing a loving tribute and political statement through a play titled “The Baltimore Waltz.”
This past weekend, Seeler Studio Theatre was transformed into the thrilling set of “The Baltimore Waltz” for the first of two Spring term faculty-directed shows. Directed by Associate Professor of Theater Cláudio Medeiros ’90, the 90-minute production ran evening performances on April 4 through 6 and one matinee on April 5.
Originally written as Vogel’s response to the 1988 death of her brother Carl, who died from complications due to AIDS, the play takes place in Johns Hopkins Hospital in Baltimore, Maryland, where Carl (Alexis de la Rosa ’19) has a terminal illness, and Anna (Madeleine Russell ’19) imagines a trip the two never took. This fantasy of Anna’s takes the audience with her and Carl on a quest for a cure — but instead of her brother being the one ill, it is Anna. In her fantasy, she suffers from the fictional and terminal ATD (Acquired Toilet Disease), which she is said to have contracted by using the bathrooms at the elementary school she teaches at.
On this quest, Anna is driven by the hedonistic pleasures of museums, luxurious brunches and casual sex with as many men as possible. Assisting the pair on their journey is the mysterious Third Man (Kevin Collins ’20 and Ryan Kirby ’22) who takes up many roles in the play, from a lust-driven waiter in Paris, to a mad Viennese doctor who swears to cure ATD by having his patients drink urine.
The play explores how the pair’s European idyll is broken by Carl’s death and the tragic revelation that the entire play was simply Anna’s valiant fantasy to keep alive her brother’s spirit, when she could not save his life. Their final dance, the Baltimore waltz, was danced under a disco ball, a true symbol of the times.
The production’s choice of music sets the play in a particular space in time. From ABBA to Dutch and German tunes, the songs evoke the experience of the siblings’ lives in the ’80s and their romp through Europe.
Forty years later, the themes in the play remain relevant. “I was surprised to learn about how little people on the campus knew about the AIDS crisis and the scale of the Act Up movement,” Masha Makutonina ’21, who stage managed the play, said. “This play sheds light on how important it is to not only realize the tragedies of the past, but also give a voice to communities that are deeply hurt and are continued to be targeted even today.”
“The tragedy of losing someone close to you is a theme that is very universal,” Makutonina added.
Although there were only four actors on stage, this production had a large team behind it. In addition to Russell, de la Rosa, Collins and Kirby, the production team was comprised of director Medeiros, lighting designer Stephen Chen ’19.5, stage manager Masha Makutonina ’21 and assistant stage manager James Peacock ’21 and dramaturg Travis Sanderson ’19.
Because the production was faculty directed, it was able to realize the “wildest of ideas,” said Makutonina. Sanderson presented the cast and crew with research background on the AIDS epidemic through findings and the Act Up documentary, and the production team chose their props, costumes and lighting design based on references of the book from the film noir, “Third Man.”
“Even the smallest details, such as the hats worn by the Third Man, and the pillows on set, had to be exactly right,” Makutonina said.
Recalling the moments spent in the rehearsal room with his crew, Director Medeiros said that the play has given him two very special gifts: “a destination for my affections and the realization that I must be an alchemist of my own losses.”
(11/15/18 10:58am)
As human beings, we are always balancing risks, personal gain and a commitment to our values. A willingness to look our personal failings in the face is especially needed in present-day Washington, where recent administrations have aggressively prosecuted whistleblowers, and governments conduct broad surveillance and respond to dissent with increasing militarization. The kind of incisive analysis we need was put on display in “Havel: The Passion of Thought.”
The Department of Theatre and Dance presented the series of five plays by Václav Havel, Samuel Beckett and Harold Pinter from Nov. 1 through Nov. 3. The show featured Kevin Collins ’20 as Vanek and was directed by Professor of Theater Richard Romagnoli.
“This was also an especially special show and rehearsal process since it is Professor Richard Romagnoli’s final semester teaching at Middlebury,” said Ashley Fink ’18.5, who played Vera. “I know we were all honored to be a part of his last show before retiring.”
The evening began with “New World Order,” a short play by Harold Pinter which, according to Romagnoli, was chosen to “show the protagonist’s journey coming into a full circle.” “New World Order” shows Collins in an interview room, minutes prior to his interrogation by two officers, Des, played by Ian Hanson ’21, and Lionel, played by Jacob Morton ’21. The officers discuss, in bullish tones, what they intend to do with the third man, who is blindfolded. What they intended were acts of violence and abuse to not only the man himself but his wife and family, representing the forms of torture that many dissidents had to take while fighting against communism to restore the basic rights of its citizens.
Referred to together as “The Vanek Plays,” the next three pieces focus on Havel’s alter ego, Vanek, a person whose own presumed moral purity inspires his fellow characters to justify their moral breaches. People — his friends as well as employers — play up to him, trying to win his absolution with favors. The plays were initially banned in Czechoslovakia and only premiered in Prague on the week of Jan. 13, 1990, when Havel became president of the Czech Republic.
In the first of “The Vanek Plays,” Vanek is working as a laborer in a small Czechoslovak brewery, which Havel himself did, and is called for an interview with the brewmaster, played by Will Koch ’21. Though the two chat in a friendly manner, it is later understood that the brewmaster is a die-hard bureaucrat, tempting Vanek to take an office job in return for Vanek to furnish him with reports of Vanek’s own political activity. Surprised, Vanek explains how he is not willing to report about himself.
“In each of the plays,” Romagnoli said, “the status quo is represented by the others who condemn him [Vanek] for his apparent indifference to their needs. They all need him to affirm their individual choices of non-involvement, therefore, mitigating their guilt.”
The second play, titled “Private View,” finds Vanek in the bourgeois household of a married couple, Michael and Vera, played by Galen Fastie ’20 and Fink respectively, who have fled the Czechoslovak nation during the Prague Spring and survived with their flamboyant riches. They have decorated their apartment with luxurious goods, and their clothes are that of an affluent American suburb. Vanek, in comparison, looks shabby. With ridicules and jokes that rise to surrealism, Vera and Michael attempt to present how beautiful their lives are to their “best” friend. Vanek is initially quick to be pleased; however, when the conversations veer off to his family and his wife, he becomes resistant.
Perhaps the most affecting of the plays was “Protest,” when Vanek visits his friend Stanekova, played by Madeleine Russell ’19. Stanekova is a former friend and novelist who has given up her art and her honor, fearing oppression and jail time. She meets Vanek in attempt to publish a protest against the arrest of a young neo-reformist. When Vanek provides her with a signed petition that he had previously drafted, she refuses to sign the petition believing that it was the righteous thing to do. Prior to getting to that decision, she uses convoluted logic that turns every positive into negative to assure herself of the rectitude of moral abdication. She also later receives a phone call and apologizes to Vanek for collaborating with the government for his later imprisonment.
In the initial plays, Stanekova was a man; however, under Gail Humphries Mardirosian’s thoughtful direction, Stanekova was created to mirror the interactions and utter the same lines as the men. This is important as we see a woman in the role of a government collaborator in a male-dominated political field, a change that Romagnoli took account of while directing the play.
Romagnoli chose “Catastrophe,” a play by Samuel Beckett, to end the show. “Catastrophe” was written to honor Havel and according to Romagnoli, “the extended context is unified by the protagonist [Havel]’s presence and ironically, demonstrates the consequences of principled actions taken in a totalitarian state.”
Although Havel’s plays were written about the powerlessness that he felt in a time of political oppression and how to live a life in service of the truth in the context of 1970 Czechoslovakia, his message is an apt one for any era.
(09/27/18 9:57am)
“Why should we want to know a stranger when it is easier to estrange another? Why should we want to close the distance when we can close the gate?”
Poignant and pertinent in today’s climate, such are the questions Toni Morrison poses in her latest work “The Origin of Others,” on which Middlebury’s 2018 Clifford Symposium is centered.
Beginning Thursday, Sept. 20, the Symposium engaged the college community in conversations about, as Morrison writes, “the human project — which is to remain human and to block the dehumanization and estrangement of others.” Among the many thought-provoking discussions on race and the nature of American racism was an arts performance of an adaptation of Toni Morrison’s 1983 short story “Recitatif.”
The play discusses the story of two girls who become friends despite their different backgrounds. The work featured script adaptation and direction by Michole Biancosino ’98, choreography by Christal Brown and original music score by Matthew Evan Taylor.
In her book “The Origin of Others,” Morrison discusses how “writing non-colorist literature about black people is a task that is both liberating and hard.” It was her attempt to “de-fang cheap racism, annihilate and discredit the routine, easy and available color fetish, which is reminiscent of slavery itself.”
As the lights in the Mahaney Center for the Arts Dance Theatre dimmed, bodies of dancers fluidly moved on stage, each not knowing what race they stood for until the narrator, Starr Kirkland, pointed them out one after another.
At one point, the girls ran for shirts that Kirkland held. Blue shirts represented one race while red, another; nonetheless, it was never fully articulated which color signified what race. Perhaps this was because Morrison intended to “eliminate color altogether, using social class as the marker.” The rapidness of the motion, along with its randomness and lack of choice, portrayed to the audience how privileges, namely race, class and belonging, are merely the luck of the draw, and one does not have any power over the background one comes from.
Over the course of 40 minutes, the audience was taken to St. Bonny’s orphanage, where we met two girls, Twyla and Roberta. The scene was particularly striking, as it elaborated on the different reasons that the two ended up there, thus shedding a light on the social classes to which Morrison alluded. However, despite their racial and social differences, abandonment brought the two children together. Twyla mentioned that her mother “danced all night,” while Roberta discussed her mother’s sickness.
Throughout the play, their respective races were never mentioned. We learned only that the two girls came from different backgrounds. When they were placed together in a room, Twyla resisted by stating, “Mother won’t like you putting me in here,” which shows the important role families have in reinforcing stereotypes and how stereotypes of difference are perpetuated in the U.S. from the smallest circles, our parents.
As the show progressed with a dialogue between the two girls about their mothers, the audience realizes that Twyla has difficulty coming to terms with and telling others about her mother’s occupation of “danc[ing] all night.”
After interviewing some of the performers and audience members about what “dancing all night” meant for Twyla’s background and identity, the answers generally pointed to her working as a prostitute.
Martin Troška ’21, a member of the Dance Company of Middlebury, said that the replies evoked the “stereotypes of people and what they were exposed to depending on the environment they grew up in.”
Over time, the audience was introduced to Maggie, a girl who is mute and lacks the usual cues that let one know if a person is culturally “black” or “white.” Thus, the two girls impose a different racial marker on her, based on their feelings about her as a victim.
“The phantom of Maggie that constantly reappeared was particularly strong, as it symbolized how some individuals, due to their disabilities, can escape the norms and labels that society placed upon them,” said Masha Makutonina ’21.
The play involved a progressive timeline of Twyla and Roberta. Yet what stood out is that despite their maturing, the scenes played out the same way they did when they first met, which underscored how individuals are affected by the events of the past.
Morrison included many aspects of “differences” in the play, including race, disability and socioeconomic background, which everyone in the audience as well as the performers could identify with, despite the show not mentioning them explicitly. The author believes, however, that “most readers insist on searching for what I have refused them.”
(05/09/18 11:53pm)
Last weekend, the Middlebury Theatre and Dance Department presented “Fifth Planet,” the Senior 700 acting presentation of Eliza Renner ’18 and Connor Wright ’18. Katie Mayopoulos ’18 directed the play as part of her Independent 500-level Theatre Project.
The piece was written by Pulitzer-Prize winning playwright David Auburn and was published in his book “Fifth Planet and Other Plays” in 2002. Since its premiere at Beowulf Alley Theatre in Tucson in 2008, the play has been staged by many production houses across the country.
“Fifth Planet” explores the story of two observatory workers, Veronica (Renner ’18) and Mike (Wright ’18). The show is staged on a hill and the scenes move from non-communicative dialogues between the two to an unlikely friendship blossoming from their love for the stars and the discoveries that the cosmos hold for them. Despite their initial setbacks, the two finally turn to each other to find comfort in their lonely lives.
“This play reminds us that while we may be literally star-struck by the cosmos above us, perhaps what is most deserving of our attention are the people around us,” Mayopoulos said,
Indeed, the production not only showed the importance of exploring the unknown but also showed the audience the need to explore human relationships deeply, no matter how familiar we consider them to be.
The play begins with Mark, a janitor for the observatory, setting his telescope on the top of a hill. It is then followed by quick darkness, signaling the ending of the scene. These initial scenes of Mark, solitarily standing on the hill, peering over his astronomy books are then followed by quick encounters of a busy Veronica, on her way to work at the observatory. The two only begin to exchange words after the fifth scene, when Mike looks at her confused, to which she says,: “I’m on my way to work.”
Over the span of 65 minutes, this initially awkward relationship progressed into a friendship with its fair share of fights and misunderstandings. An arrogant Veronica and a misunderstood Mike clash when he loses his job due to her lack of trust in his abilities and her overestimation of the abilities of her other colleague and friends.
As the show progresses, Veronica begins to trust Mike, acknowledging his efforts to track down an unknown object as exemplary, a 180-degree flip from her first comment about his inability to understand the stars as he lacks a graduate degree.
Auburn includes many aspects of a working experience in this play that are often pushed aside. Veronica grapples with her lack of recognition as a female scientist in the male-dominated field of astrophysics while Mike faces the difficulties of marriage for an unemployed man. These narratives are relatable for many individuals across working contexts.
“Through the play, Auburn implores that individuals constantly revise their opinions as he contends that ‘you have to track something to know what it is.’” Mayopoulos said.
Aside from the relatable storyline, the set of “Fifth Planet” was indeed a marvel. With lights attached to strings that glittered as stars and differently elevated circles that symbolize a hill, Grace Zhang ’18 showcased a masterpiece for her 500-level Independent Project in lighting.
“Fifth Planet” demonstrates what unlikely friendships arise when we take the time to communicate with people outside of our comfort zones. This play reflects how admitting our mistakes and swallowing our pride helps mend broken lives as well how one friend can become a source of comfort and light through life’s perils.
(04/26/18 1:00am)
On Thursday, April 19 through Saturday, April 21, the Hepburn Zoo Theatre transformed into Sarah Kane’s “4.48 Psychosis,” widely thought of as her suicide note, for Roxy Adviento’s ’18 senior work and Stephen Chen’s Intermediate Independent 500-level lighting project.
The play was Kane’s last and its initial production began posthumous at the Royal Court in 2000. In 2016 an operatic adaptation commissioned by the Royal Opera and written by British composer Philip Venable was staged at the Lyric Hammersmith.
The play is sequenced in elliptical fragments, fractured and emotionally lacerating, portraying a mind on the brink of a suicidal episode, raging against physicians who do not (and will not) understand. However, it is more than just Kane’s last play. It is also, according to Adviento, “about a universal pain and it’s varying intensities shared among us all. It’s a fight for sanity and an overwhelming need for genuine connection.”
Unlike a conventional play, which includes scenes and acts to demonstrate its transition, the progression of this play was demonstrated through “-------“. Adviento explained that it was this lack of transition, characters and stage direction that drew her in to direct the play for her senior thesis.
The play begins with Caleb Green ’19 sitting through a psychiatric meeting. He looks distraught and in pain, yet still is bombarded with questions. The play progresses to tell a story of four people, playing the various parts of a single character with blurring lines of reality.
Over the span of 75 minutes, the characters deal with contemplations and discussions of suicide and lack of hope. Although the play lacks strict narrative and timeline, desires of the depressed mind come to surface. The longing for love and understanding and the lack of them from society take a toll on the characters’ life. They seek solace in different channels from religion to medication to love, yet fail in finding it.
“4.48 Psychosis” represents a time in her life when Kane was in her depressive state, a time when the brain’s chemical imbalance peaks, when she was visited by depression as well as sobering clarity. The pain emulates a striking journey inside a beautiful but tortured soul. It was saddening to see that irrespective of the treatments she received, she was beyond help and had made up her mind on suicide.
“This play is more than about the ongoing abyss of misery and sadness,” said costume designer Mary Baillie ’18. Undoubtedly, the lyrics and dialogue of the play were carefully weighed and added a lyrical effect to the play. The action of sharing clothes of the characters symbolically represents not only “the same person and her distinct identities,” said Baillie but also how the way that individuals grieve is so codependent.
The most jarring scene was perhaps the end, where the characters reveal their determination, not to get better, but to commit suicide: “Please don’t cut me up to find out how I died, I’ll tell you how I died, one hundred lofepramine […] slit, hung, it is done.” However, this is contrasted with the last line of the play: “please open the curtains.” This line could be seen as the production opening the curtains at the end to allow a new play to take to take the stage. It signifies how in the broader context of our lives, we need to be able to find positivity in the face of depression and dependency.
The show’s leaflets contained a poem by Mary Oliver, entitled “Wild Geese” for a different perspective, offering audiences advice on how to live a worthwhile life. Irrespective of the loneliness that one faces, one simply needs to look outside to see that nature, a living entity, encompasses them and that they have a place amongst everything in this world, no matter the troubles that come with finding it. Overall, this play functions as not only a critique on mental health and its institutions, but also a reminder to find hope in struggling times and to remember that the world around us is still welcoming, even in bleak situations.
(04/18/18 11:18pm)
Had the entry fee for the 2013 Pulitzer Prize competition in music had been more than $50, Caroline Shaw might not have become the youngest person ever to win the prestigious award. Thanks to the Rothrock Family Fund for Experiential Learning the the Performing Arts, Annie Beliveau ’18 and Tevan Goldberg ’18, Middlebury College students had the opportunity to perform, discuss and get inspired by Shaw during her two-day residency in April 10-11, 2018.
During her time at the College, Shaw gave a talk about contemporary classical music, her journey through music and her group of talented classical musicians, Roomful of Teeth, a Grammy-award winning vocal ensemble. Shaw began her talk by playing her score, “Partitia for 8 Voices”, her composition for the Pulitzer Prize and “Passacaglia”, which included spoken word from Sol LeWitt and his points on the wall as well as vocal cords combined together in symphony. She proceeded to explain how her group always performs amplified as it allows them to create combinations of sound that would otherwise not be possible, along with the fact that it “made them feel like rock stars.”
On discussing her work with Kanye West, she describes how he asked her to map out a piece on his grandmother’s death, which later became “Say You Will,” a minimalistic piece that fuses classical orchestra, the work of Shaw, combined with West’s electric sound. The piece was written by Shaw while she “was sitting down in her grandparent’s place and tried to replicate the peacefulness of the river she was watching.” As Shaw delved into her origins of music, she expressed her love for the violin, an instrument that audiences could see she had a deep connection to and mastery of.
Being a classically-trained violinist since her childhood, her musical inspiration came from hymns, church choirs and her family. Currently, she plays the violin with the American Contemporary Music Ensemble. Nonetheless, her music still reflects an attachment towards classical sounds of the opera and low bass voices in a choir.
The question: “What are the things people around the word are doing with their voice?”, is one Shaw is continuously exploring through her art and her vocal group, Roomful of Teeth, was mainly founded to study the different vocal techniques from around the world.
Shaw’s characteristic ability was to empathize and connect with her audience through her music and her presence. Through her charismatic dialogues with the crowd, she performed a vocal fry experiment that involved pulse register, creak, croak and pulse phonation with the audience in Axinn 229 in The Donald E. Axinn ’51, Litt. D. ’89 Center for Literary and Cultural Studies at Starr Library.
This ability was further displayed during her concert, where Shaw showed immense mastery of classical composition and musical ability through her interactions, violin performances, and her ability to play electronic music through a mixer and a keyboard. “Electronic music is something I am still exploring and learning,” Shaw said, “It is a lot easier to execute as opposed to writing score.”
Shaw, dressed in a modest stripped shirt and jeans, captivated the full-house in Robinson Concert Hall on Wednesday Apr. 12. As the lights dimmed and the audience resonated, she opened the concert with different vocal tones and symphonic voices on an electronic keyboard. The performance was accompanied by student voices while Shaw mixed electronic music on her sound mixer board. Following the act, she explained how the songs she was going to perform was a compilation of new and old.
She performed her song, “Stars in my Crown,” a buy-buy song, where she mixed different hymns, melodies and lyrics from pre-existing musical pieces. The song was a highly personalized piece that she wrote for her friend in Vancouver about wide horizons and clear skies. The melody of the piece was accompanied with the violin, which she played sans bow, in a delicate manner while singing to the lyrics. The piece was deeply moving and spoke of her journey with the Lord.
Shaw was a joy, finding every opportunity to connect with her audience, through her magnetic delivery of her pieces as well as by making them sing alongside the music through a ‘repeat-after-me’ technique. The beauty of her improvisation showed her musical prodigy and as a choir leader would, she directed the audience, with the help of two Middlebury students, to a musical symphony of togetherness and synergy.
Synergy was correspondingly displayed in her piece with Matthew Taylor, Visiting Assistant Professor of Music in Middlebury College. Shaw was the voice to Taylor’s trumpet, her notes included gasps, popcorning and laryngealization, a technique used when pronouncing sounds with a constricted larynx. The performance seemed like a conversation, a dialogue between two individuals trying to get to know each other through music.
Without a doubt, Shaw’s pieces were highly connected to her life and choral experiences. Although she played across instruments, she was most comfortable with her violin, her first instrument, which she played with or without a bow.
A native of North Carolina, Shaw began playing the violin at the age of two. Her passion followed her to receive a Bachelor of Music in violin performance from Rice University where she graduated with a Watson Fellowship before going on to receive a master’s degree in violin from Yale School of Music in 2007. She then entered the PhD in composition from Princeton University.
In the end, Goldberg ’18 was right when he described her as “very forward-looking, very actively playing and composing and works in different genres.”
(03/22/18 1:14am)
Carolyn Barnwell ’07 came to speak on Thursday, March 15 in the Franklin Environmental Center at Hillcrest. Her presentation, “Visual Storytelling for Science and Conservation Impacts,” was part of the Environmental Studies Colloquium and focused on how scientists and conservationists can translate their data into stories to capture the attention of broad audiences.
Having found her love for storytelling in Ethnographic Methods, a course within the Sociology-Anthropology department in Middlebury, Barnwell used her college study-abroad experience to help farmers in Thailand break into the American fair-trade market by journaling and videotaping them and handing out video copies of her encounters to organizations in the US. Following her success in this field, Barnwell graduated in 2007 with a B.A in Human Ecology from the Environmental Studies department. Upon graduation, she continued to pursue her passion for environmental advocacy through the Thomas J. Watson Fellowship on climate change impacts and responses in the Pacific and Indian Oceans. In 2011, she joined National Geographic as an Associate Producer for the Science and Exploration Media Team and has dedicated her life to helping scientists tell their stories about global and local issues in creative and empathic ways.
Barnwell structured her presentation around the notion that scientists and conservationists often focus their work on statistics and figures that are incomprehensible to the general audience, creating a lack of attention and empathy on environmental topics that affect the greater public. Barnwell believes that in order to create successful communication, scientific stories need to have “empathy, engagement and focus.” She adores the quote, “Communicating science is as important as practicing it” because it captures her belief in the connection between science and storytelling.
Convinced that storytelling is an engrained human ability that allows us to pass on narratives from one generation to the next, Barnwell captured the audience by mentioning that telling stories excite the same hormone, oxytocin, in an individual as falling in love.
However, in order to do so, one needs to be effective in reciting the story and mentioning dry facts will not cut it. To test this out, Barnwell tried two exercises with the audience. First, she mentioned facts about the world’s melting glaciers, followed by another story of her personal experience in Iceland with vivid descriptions of the magnificent mountains and the sea that enchanted her. As her story had no jargon about the polar ice caps and tapped into the human ability to empathize, she believed it was more impactful.
Empathy, to Barnwell, is the ability to meet the emotions of another. Creating stories that empathize often triggers action from audiences. If explored through the lens of a single person, stories tend to be more effective than when generalizing about group events.
In addition to empathy, Barnwell discussed how important it is to focus on concepts for a broad audience. In fact, she said that National Geographic uses a strategy of ensuring that all their scripts are understandable to 12-year olds.
In a world with shorter attention spans, videos and stories need to be concise and precise, as the idea is to capture the audience’s attention and inspire them to search for more knowledge after having watched the video. She presented two videos, the first about the efforts to protect the natural landscape of Gabon and the other on the preservation of the Arctic seas. The former was captured by fellow National Geographic conservationist Mike Fay, whose work created a comprehensive database that they shared with Gabon’s president, leading to the creation of 13 national parks in Gabon and U.S. funding to protect the Congo Basin.
“Through visual storytelling, one can provoke action,” Barnwell said. “Science based conservation cannot have an impact without storytelling. Empathy and focus need to be used to bridge science to a story.” Barnwell believes that one of the most effective ways to do so will be through virtual realities, a system that various conservation groups have been trying to promote for future efforts.
(03/08/18 2:43am)
In the Robison Hall at the Kevin P. Mahaney ’84 Center for the Arts on Wednesday Feb. 28, a burgeoning audience waited impatiently for cellist Sophie Shao and her extraordinarily talented friends. Shao’s group, comprised of violinists Nikki Chooi and Carmit Zori, violist Paul Neubauer and pianist Orion Weiss, took the stage with their respective instruments as the hall applauded. Sans introduction, the group took their place and harmoniously began with the soft tones of Joseph Haydn, “Trio in E-flat Major, Hob XV:29” and the audience slowly fell into a musical trance.
Shao and her friends Chooi and Weiss, delivered a powerful rendition of Haydn’s trio with rhythmic yet sharp and intense notes to exude a work full of character and humor. Violinist Chooi was most expressive, his controlled poise enchanting the audience as he moved to the strings of his violin. The audience smiled in delight, most of them closed-eyed throughout the performance, as the increasingly elaborate piece moved further and further from the mock-simplicity of the original. As the music shifted down from major third to B major, the audience relaxed from the calm energy of the music.
As the song drew to a close and the next began, Zori and Neubauer took the stage for the “Piano Quintet, H.49” by Frank Bridge. The piece was a muscular, four-movement work, with a huge piano part, brim full of musical ideas, but rather unwieldy and certainly lacking the refinement and elegance of Bridge’s mature chamber works. This performance was a four-part series with musical ingenuity, brisk tempo and staccato tunes that included a cello-piano duet which Shao and Weiss carried out gracefully. According to audience feedback, it was the sort of music that could “heal a broken soul.” The flowing piece was contrasted with a quick ending that earned resounding applause from the audience for its zest and marvelous execution.
Unlike other artists who describe the songs, impact and meaning to the audience, Shao and her friends did not make any interpretations at the start of any piece. Although unusual, I enjoyed the technique as it let the music mean whatever the listener thought.
This mysterious allure was perhaps most reflected in the group’s final performance: Piano Quintet No.2, Op.81 by Czech composer Antonín Dvořák. The piano was the main instrument in the theme and Weiss’ fingers slid and glided across the Steinway with fantastic precision. Accompaniment by the strings was minimal and transparent through the second movement and as the pieces drew to a close, the tempo picked up once more, rushing to an exuberant close. he audience resounded in a much deserved standing ovation.
Having played at the college for the 13th time, it is without doubt that Shao is a favorite among the Middlebury community. Series Director Allison Coyne Carroll described her as “always being a pleasure to work with, a consummate musician, and a special friend to the series.”
Through the multiple reverberating standing ovations Shao and her friends receive annually, it is without question that we will see her grace Robison Hall again in the future.
(02/22/18 2:35am)
On Friday Feb. 16, 25-year-old Grace Kelly enchanted the campus with the passion of an old soul mixed with the dynamism and energetic movement of youth. She dressed in patterned leggings, a crop-top and her signature highlighted hair to matches her electric personality. She was joined by her quartet of pianist David Linard, bassist Julia Pederson and drummer Connor Kent.
As the lights dimmed and a full house applauded her greetings, she picked up her saxophone and began to dance in sync to her notes and the keys of her fellow performers.
Kelly started with an upbeat jazz rendition that paired well with the exuberance with which she welcomed the audience, shared her feeling of connection with the Robinson Concert Hall, and noted how grateful she was that her parents drove from Massachusetts to watch her perform.
She sang the lyrics of her songs, “Count on Me” and the title track of her new album, “Trying to Figure It Out”, with the passion and honesty of an individual who wants internal and worldly peace in a world filled with doubts, heartbreak and terror. Her magnetic delivery of the songs kept the audience swaying silently, clicking their fingers along with her and smiling at her lyrics.
Kelly said that her songs are about “people coming together and strangers becoming friends.”
As she moved into another personal song with music from the comedian Charlie Chaplin, I began to empathize with her. This song was of a lighter quality and softly carried her the performance forward. The sensitivity of her voice as she talked to individuals who “needed more light today” was joined only by the chords of Linard’s piano.
“Her ability to connect with the audience, irrespective of their life experiences and age makes her special,” a community member said.
Without a doubt, Kelly’s influences are as extensive as her musical repertoire. From the zesty tunes of “Lemons Make Lemonade” to the smoothness of a ballad dedicated to her father, the audience was absorbed in her delivery, spirit and vitality. To send her audience home dancing, she played high strung notes. She came back by popular demand to close with a tune familiar to all, “You Are My Sunshine.”
A resident Bostonian, Kelly grew up in a family of classical musicians and attended Berklee College of Music. After touring Europe extensively over the past year, she asked that the audience stay tuned for her 11th album on PledgeMusic that she will be broadcasting online. The music she hopes to write is about the people who inspire her and all her supporters.
In an effort to bring jazz to a younger audience, Kelly launched a new weekly video series called “Grace Kelly PopUp” on social media in February 2017, which has already racked up over one million views.
After the many standing ovations Kelly received on Friday, she held a jazz workshop for the budding jazz musicians of the college the following day.
“Follow your passion and chase your dreams relentlessly,” Kelly told the Middlebury students on attendance.” It was a sentiment her parents often told her and it continues to animate her artistic life.