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(09/24/14 2:38pm)
In honor of the endless technological innovations that shape the way the College community communicates, learns and engages, the 2014 Clifford Symposium centered on the theme of “Transforming the Academy in the Digital Age.” On Sept. 18 and 19, distinguished visiting scholars and faculty members of the College held discussions and gave lectures on the cultural, economic and social shifts caused by rapidly advancing technologies, focusing on the effects those shifts have on the academic community.
The Clifford Symposium’s culminating event on Friday, Sept. 19, “Of Water and Ice,” was a dynamic presentation and performance by New York City producer and intellectual Paul D. Miller, also known by his stage name, DJ Spooky, That Subliminal Kid.
Born in Washington, D.C., Paul D. Miller studied philosophy and French literature at Bowdoin College in Maine. Soon after, he began recording singles and LP’s under the stage name ‘DJ Spooky, That Subliminal Kid,” derived from the ‘spooky’ sounds of the hip-hop, techno and ambient music styles he samples, as well as the character The Subliminal Kid in William S. Burroughs’ 1964 novel “Nova Express”.
The performance explored DJ Spooky’s multidisciplinary study of Antarctica through stills from his 2011 text “The Book of Ice,” audio and visual samples of the uninhabited continent’s climate and algorithmically generated musical patterns based on climate data collected and processed in a temporary studio on his trip.
DJ Spooky is at once performer and intellectual, meticulous and improvisational. His focused attention is not just on creation, but the process of how artistic form is conceived through cultural influences and samples of previous works. Professor of Film and Media Culture Jason Mittell explained that this rare and unique combination of talents and interests proved to be a perfect fit for this year’s theme of “Transforming the Academy in the Digital Era.”
“It was really challenging to come up with an artist who would both speak to how digital technologies are transforming their artwork and have an intellectual foundation of that,” he said. “There aren’t many of those, so when my colleague [Assistant Professor of Film and Media Culture] Louisa Stein said that she’d just seen this artist who showed video and audio work and talked about the concepts of remix and digital manipulation and all the various social and cultural issues and creative possibilities of that, I said, ‘Wait a minute, he would be the perfect person!’”
DJ Spooky and his management team pitched a variety of performance options for the Symposium, including a DJ dance party rave or a lecture featuring the academic side of his persona, but the winning pitch, incorporating a variety of mediums from his study of Antarctica, provided a combination of both of these with an added environmental twist.
“For me, what was so appealing about this was, first, that it’s touching on an academic area of research that is obviously very important socially, but also very prominent here at Middlebury, talking about climate change and environmental studies, but also that he’s doing it not from a scholarly perspective, but from an artistic perspective,” Mittell said.
DJ Spooky began running through photos of his trip to Antarctica on his iPad. DJ Spooky’s ‘lectures’ in between songs would be better described as dynamic conversations in which the artist shared the sources of his inspiration and information while providing engaging, efficient examples of the intellectual thought processes of his work.
Using his iPad as the facilitator of the multimedia presentations within the performance, DJ Spooky showed first-hand how digital technologies have truly transformed access to content and tools never available before, making it possible for anyone with technological access to add to this new era of open creative expression.
The performance stimulated the senses through sets of juxtapositions. DJ Spooky engaged in discussion about his music, connecting each work to its intellectual basis before spinning each dynamic, throbbing track of music that will never be created in quite the same way again. This completely digital, revolutionary use of iPad technology and apps stood in stark contrast to the violin player standing on the other end of the stage using a 9th century instrument to both augment and combat the musical motifs of each piece.
DJ Spooky’s motivations for delving into a project steeped in discussion about climate change are connected to his goals as an artist.
“I grew up in a family that was very intensive about information, and my idea was that art and ideas are never separate from social justice or change, so climate issues for me are a part of that,” he said. “One of the things that really blew my mind was just how people are on autopilot about climate change and consumerism, so I feel that arts can help people reimagine and reframe what’s going on. I’m an avant-garde oriented artist, I’m not mainstream and I have no desire to be mainstream, but I do think that you can make room for new styles and new voices and new approaches, which are needed more than ever.”
By setting up a studio in Antarctica, DJ Spooky wanted to explore a way for electronic music to respond to climate issues and examine humankind’s ever-changing relationship with the vanishing arctic poles. By using the urban landscape as a sound tool, DJ Spooky remixed sounds generated from the most remote place on the planet to resemble styles that typically come out of the city like hip-hop and electronica. The first tune he performed, ‘Antarctic Rhythms,’ began with Jason Bergman, a Barnett, VT violinist who performs with the Vermont Philharmonic Orchestra.
All of the musical selections sampled at the performance came from the free DJ Spooky app, which the artist constantly referred to and worked with as his only performance tool. Designed in collaboration with Musicsoft Arts, the app allows users to sample tracks from their devices’ music collection or SoundCloud and use sound mixing features on the app to sample from other works and create original pieces. Downloaded over 25 million times, the app’s popularity is a testament to the prevalence of remix culture and the desire for more innovative technological creative outlets and tools.
Every musical sound and remix of the night came directly from DJ Spooky’s deft use of the app, which was entirely visible to the audience through a large screen projector. During each song, audience members absorbed audial information and the live visual of the violinist playing each of DJ Spooky’s coordinating compositions, the projection of the app in use in the middle of the stage and DJ Spooky at his iPad playing as an improvisational, reactionary force to the preordained violin compositions.
Though violin and iPad are not traditionally paired together, as soon as each performance began, it was remarkable how well the two instruments worked together. The audience, too, made up in equal numbers of both academics and students, buzzed with an electronic excitement at the end of the first song.
Citing one of his favorite filmmakers, Georges Méliès, DJ Spooky pointed to sampling and remixing in the short 1900 film One Man Band, in which Méliès transposes an image of himself seven times in the same shot, each version of himself with a different instrument. This time consuming process had to be spliced and crafted by hand, and is one of the earliest examples of a sampling and remix, a concept that pervades current discourse on artistic innovation.
DJ Spooky explained that every song is fundamentally comprised of loops and layers drawn from sound selections, motifs and elements, emphasizing that music is not something that should be played the same way time and time again, but instead should be revisited and reinvented.
DJ Spooky worked with quantum physicist Brian Greene on “The Book of Ice” to map the sounds of ice as data points that could be mathematically entered into software to generate algorithms of how ice actually forms. Calling this middle ground between poetics and science a form of ‘geek hip-hop,’ DJ Spooky compared patterns present in snowflakes as very similar to patterns that form in genres of music. Within “The Book of Ice,” QR codes unlock hidden data about climate change and the mathematical ice data that went into each piece of music.
In the four other songs he performed throughout the night, the distinct musical sounds and motifs made more and more sense as DJ Spooky explained a new kind of literacy based in the ability to record and recognize patterns in any form of life. While viewing a snowflake at high resolution, the motif matching the snowflake’s data patterns rang true throughout Wilson Hall, and only seconds later, the violin joined in the pattern in a slightly transposed way.
“[DJ Spooky] embodies this hybrid between the analog strings and the digital iPad, and the fact that digital is not just a gimmick but rather the form of the music where the sound generation is tied to the content of the piece,” Mittell said. “This is a perfect summation of what digital technologies can do to transform artwork and cross the boundaries that I think very often feel rigid between creative practice and scholarly research.
Nobody owns the ice, and one of DJ Spooky’s messages during the performance was that open systems allow anyone to remix. He enthusiastically encouraged those in the audience to download his app, listen to and remix any of his music and embrace the digital age’s open flow of information. The artist's work can be explored at www.djspooky.com and www.djspooky.com/antarctica.
Both students and academics attending the performance seemed impressed by the innovations of DJ Spooky’s imagination. His abilities as a DJ alone recommend him to the collegiate setting, but his added intellectualism made him a perfect candidate to fit into all aspects of campus endeavors.
“I think this is a wonderful approach to the topic, and I’m really optimistic that after all the various ways of thinking and disseminating ideas and exploring new possibilities that the lectures and workshops generated over the two days, the artwork of DJ Spooky will make you say ‘Wow, this is what you can do with all this,’” Mittell said.
(09/18/14 1:04am)
At the end of last semester, the artists behind The Storytold Project were gathering momentum to debut a revitalized and reorganized organization at the start of the fall term. As promised, the program is now taking flight with a new, user-friendly website, faculty advisor and ambitions to expand the project as a vehicle of campus-wide artistic collaboration.
The mission of Storytold is basic and fundamentally loyal to the Project’s initial foundation – students submit one or two sentences outlining a story they want to read, and in return receive personalized stories, delivered in weekly installments, created by Storytold’s narrative team.
Ben Mansky ’15 had been ruminating over a way to expand his love for narrative storytelling for years.
“I’ve always been interested in storytelling in a whole variety of ways,” he said. “I grew up around not just books, but plays and video games, as well. I figured there’s no better opportunity to try and start something like this than now, so when the idea struck me for a way to have a story that is truly your own, that you not only want to read but that you have a personal attachment to, I knew that that was an opportunity that didn’t yet exist. So I thought, ‘Why not?’”
Over the summer, Mansky performed logistical troubleshooting to improve the accessibility and efficiency of Storytold. After creating a more concise and engaging website, genre specifications were added to the story request form, allowing students to choose up to two narrative categories, ranging from historical to thriller to comedy to fantasy. This additional request narrows the focus for both the student desiring a story and the artists at Storytold while still allowing imaginations to run wild.
When requesting a story at www.story-told.com, students can choose to receive their narrative in installments ranging from one to ten weeks as opposed to the 20 week option available last year, with each installment anywhere from two to ten pages. Stories can be privately delivered to a student’s mailbox or publicly posted on the project’s website for other students to read.
“The shortened length of each request is more manageable for our writers to take on during the year, as is asking for more specific plot bits instead of just something wide open,” Mansky said. “Maybe eventually we’ll be able to open that up more, but as we keep recruiting, we’ll keep it specific.”
In addition to fundamental formatting changes, Mansky also accomplished his goal of finding a faculty advisor for Storytold. Visiting Assistant Professor of English & American Literatures Kathryn Kramer will lend official credibility and advice to the group while allowing student ideas and creativity to remain at the core of the project.
“Mostly I think we’re trying to take this into our own hands as a student run project, for the students, by the students, but it’s going to be really nice to have [Kramer] as a resource to tap into as a presence in the creative writing department,” Mansky said.
Though the idea of Storytold is steeped in simplicity, the breadth of work and student collaborations that can result from the project are intricate and endless. The acquisition of artists across mediums will eventually allow the publication of stories with visual, interactive and even theatrical components.
“Because it’s really applicable to all different art forms and media, hopefully we can collaborate with radio theater, some of the literary journals and some of the other arts around campus,” Mansky said. “To be able to develop relationships with other student groups that are around would definitely be the primary goal once we’ve been established as something that exists on campus.”
Recruiting and managing student schedules have been the biggest difficulties in establishing Storytold as a prominent student organization. Though two students interested in contributing to the project graduated in May, two writers currently remain on the team for this year.
Interested writers, illustrators and graphic artists are encouraged to attend Storytold’s first meeting of the semester tonight, Thursday, Sept. 18, at 8 p.m. in the LaForce lounge. To be a part of the Storytold team students can also apply at www.story-told.com or by emailing apply@story-told.com or bmansky@middlebury.edu.
“There’s always the question of why is this something that we would want or need, and that’s something that I’m sure plenty of people might think in relation to a project like this, but I don’t think that will be a roadblock or a problem,” Mansky said. “It always has been and will be a labor of love for us.”
Eventually, Mansky would like to see Storytold expand beyond the College as a service available to anyone with access to the Internet.
Three stories are currently available to read on www.story-told.com, and students are welcome to start making requests now.
At its very core, Storytold is a new forum for students to exercise their skills in narrative storytelling. What sets the project apart is the opportunity for interaction, allowing students to request, write and read stories that were crafted from idea to finished product by students. Storytold is trying to redefine the creative part of creative writing, banishing the isolation of writer and page to allow an innovative, personalized brand of narration that has never existed on this campus before.
(09/10/14 8:03pm)
As students prepare for a new semester, silent competitions between textbook retailers intensify.
New book sales at the College Store declined 23.8 percent between 2012 and 2014, while rental profits rose 123.2 percent during the same two-year period. Sales of used books increased by 12 percent, which can be largely attributed to inflation.
Collegiate retailing is a $10 billion industry. But with the explosion of online textbook vendors in the past decade, the College Store faces increasing competition to entice students to shop on campus. Big online retailers include Amazon, which collected an annual revenue of $5.25 billion in book sales alone. Amazon and Chegg, an online textbook vendor, boast $1.1 billion in publicly issued shares, promise up to 90 percent off the list price of textbooks and offer free shipping on many orders. The runaway success of sites like Amazon and Chegg have even prompted brick-and-mortar store Barnes & Noble to start its own textbook rental business in 2010, promising an average of 42 percent off text- book list prices to compete in the market.
Roksana Gabidullina ’16 turned to Amazon for a price break on textbooks because she had already shopped with the online retailer before she started her Middlebury career.
“I do shop online for books, and the reason is purely financial,” she said. “Bookstore books tend to be really expensive, although sometimes, you do find books that are cheaper in the bookstore than online. If I choose to buy at the school, it is because the books are cheaper and instantly accessible. Renting is sometimes less expensive, so I do that in- stead.”
With online retailers advertising significantly lower prices for items available with the click of a mouse, declines in new book sales at the College Store have prompted new efforts to both lower prices and recycle profits back to the student body.
While some college bookstores are owned by chain giants like Barnes & Noble — which controls 636 collegiate book shops nationwide — the College has independent ownership over its bookstore. Books can therefore be obtained from a wider variety of publishers, and prices are lowered without permission from a higher corporate office.
All profits from the College Store are distributed to the College’s General Fund.
“The entire Middlebury budget is $300 million,” Vice President for Finance and Treasurer’s Office Patrick J. Norton said. “Any surpluses from any operating unit go to sup- port various Middlebury commitments.”
These commitments include recruiting and retaining faculty, funding students’ financial aid, and constructing, maintaining and renovating the College’s academic, residential, dining and athletic facilities.
As a small brick-and-mortar business, the College Store faces some costs that simply do not exist for online retailers.
“We [the College Store] have a higher cost of labor,” Store Manager Georgia Best said. “There are three full-time people and one to two part-time people devoted to the process of ordering, receiving and setting up textbooks and pulling and packing to return overstock. Our freight cost was over $40,000 this past fiscal year.”
The cost of this manual labor and shipping must be incorporated into the cost of the textbook.
The Store purchases textbooks from publishers at a discount of anywhere from 20 to 45 percent off suggested retail, which are then sold to students at the original suggested retail price, translating into an average profit margin of 23 to 24 percent for the store.
“If we make a change, it is to lower the price,” Best said. “On a national level net priced textbooks are sold at a 25 percent margin. Here at Middlebury any text that is $100 or more net cost has a 20 percent margin.”
Online retailers like Amazon can occa- sionally sell books below cost, or for less than the original purchase price. This benefits the buyer, but is not a sustainable strategy for a physical bookstore.
“There are reports that Amazon has never made a profit selling books,” Textbook Co- ordinator Dean Leary said. “Recently it was reported that Amazon as a whole makes only less than a penny in profit for every dollar of sales.”
At the College Store, items like clothing, miscellaneous merchandise and school supplies carry a higher profit margin of 35 to 50 percent to account for lower textbook profits.
The College Store promises for each student enough copies of the required reading— new or used. Since used books are a hot com- modity both in the bookstore and in the larger market, the competition among the colleges for these used books are stiff.
“If a title has just been published there aren’t many, if any, used on the market,” Best said. “We compete on a national level with other colleges and universities for used books, and the later the order from faculty, the less likely we’ll get used copies. We try to buy back as many as we can from students.”
In an attempt to entice students with competitive prices, the rental program allows the purchase of books for one semester at about 54 percent off the retail price.
“For rentals, we partner with a wholesaler that guarantees us a certain amount for each book at the end of the term, which allows us to offer it at a reduced price,” Best said.
A quick price comparison: this semester, a Biology 140: Ecology and Evolution textbook, Tangled Bank: Introduction to Evolu- tion, is being offered at a used rental price of $32.50 and a used purchase price of $60.00. The new purchase price of the book is $80.00 compared to the $42.50 charge for a new rental copy.
The availability of a book for rental depends on the wholesalers’ offerings.
Trying to sell the book back to the store is a game of supply and demand. The frequent publication of new editions makes many relatively new textbooks obsolete to the College Store or wholesalers if faculty members request the newest edition or the wholesalers are trying to move only the newest product.
If a book is being used in the next semester, students can recuperate about 50 percent of the purchase price through the buyback process at the store. If the book is not being used, the student may receive a less lucrative wholesale value for the book or try selling the book at another time.
In comparison, customers typically recuperate about a 60 percent return when selling back a textbook through Amazon, 65 percent with Barnes & Noble and up to 85 percent on Chegg.
eBooks are also available to students at 40 to 45 percent off of the suggested retail price, but the option is not as popular, with less than 20 eBooks sold at the College Book- store last semester.
A Spring 2014 study by OnCampus Research showed that only 10 percent of students prefer an electronic textbook, for reasons ranging from ease of use to the ability to sell a book back.
At the College Store, items can be returned by the Friday of the first week of classes with no questions asked for a full refund on a bookstore gift card. After the first Friday, textbooks are only returnable with proof of a dropped class.
Online retailers like Amazon and Barnes & Noble offer free shipping on orders from their warehouses over $35 and $25, respectively. Chegg charges a flat $3.99 fee per order when they aren’t offering free shipping promotions at the beginning of the semester.
Additionally, Barnes & Noble has a 14- day return policy, and Amazon and Chegg ac- cept returns within 30 days. Chegg pays for return shipping, but the customer is responsible for this fee at Barnes & Noble. Amazon will fund a return shipping fee only if the return was a result of the company’s error.
Shipping typically takes anywhere between three and 14 days from online retailers.
“Shopping online is not for ease because shipping often takes some time, and I’ve had experiences with going through the first weeks of classes without books,” Gabidullina said. “I’ve also only tried to sell one book back to Amazon, which was not easy. I only received a tiny fraction of the price I was selling it for, which is the reason I don’t sell online. I have a lot of books still on my desk at home.” Individual sellers on Amazon forfeit a 15% commission, a $1.35 fixed closing fee and 99 cent selling fee per item.
“Since Amazon charges an annual fee plus a percentage of each title sold to use their site for selling books, they are making money off a book they aren’t shipping,” Best said. “They are then allowed to take a smaller percentage off the publishers net price than we [the College Store] are.”
The College Store implements its own programs to recycle profits back to the stu- dent body and entice customers. An estimated 75 to 80 percent of the student body uses Panther Points, a program that allows students to redeem points earned by making purchases at the Store for gift cards, and in 2013, students redeemed 692,000 points.
In addition to the Panther Points Program, the College Store started a raffle four years ago to benefit student groups.
“We partner with a company that has a program called ‘One Planet Books,’” Best said. “For every box of books we send to them they give us $10. These are books that have no value either to used book wholesalers or online vendors. The books come from students who donate them and from the recycling center. The money that we earn from these books is donated to SGA groups that sign up for the drawing. Since we started we have donated almost $3,500 to different groups.”
In addition to textbooks, the College Store aims to be a one-stop shopping destination for students, offering supplies, clothing and a Mac Store selling Apple computers at educational discounts. In recent months, the store acquired a Boots makeup kiosk, and this semester they are introducing a scarf kiosk, rack of posters and an increased selection of dorm supplies to provide students more of an incentive to look to the College Store for a convenient and complete inventory of products.
Though the store cannot lower their textbook prices to be as competitive as online retailers like Amazon, Chegg and Barnes & Noble, loyalty programs and personalized services are just some of the ways the College Store is trying to compete.
Leary cites three reasons why he thinks students should shop at the College Store.
“Amazon does not offer true cost prices, so it’s easy for people to make decisions with less than best long-term outcomes, there are efficiency and environmental savings of mass shipping to one distribution point and the competition may not offer the same working conditions and compensation as the College,” he said.
In the future, competition from online retailers will likely only increase, forcing changes in sales techniques from all sides. It is hard to say which method for buying textbooks is the best, but retailers are fighting for students’ business, which, in the end, can only benefit the student by offering more options.
Image: http://www.witherbysonline.com/iStock_Books.gif
(09/10/14 2:32pm)
Every year, the College’s prestigious and innovative arts programs provide students the opportunity to watch, discuss and create moving works that have the potential to inspire scientists and artists alike. This year, a variety of impressive milestones will be celebrated across many departments, indicating the strong impact the arts have had, and will continue to have, on the College community.
Ten years ago, the Department of Music’s Carol Christensen and Town Hall Theater Executive Director Doug Anderson started to produce Broadway musicals during J-term. Now in its 10th anniversary year, the J-term musical is a hit with both students and the larger community. Last year’s production of Les Miserables included over 60 students and tickets sold out only hours after going on sale. This year’s show, Ragtime, is aiming to be equally as impressive. Set in 1900 in New York City, the musical cleverly intertwines the stories of Jewish immigrants on the Lower East Side, the upper-class residents of New Rochelle and the people of Harlem.
The musical features a clash of cultures and musical styles, and requires about 50 actors and 20 musicians that are able to participate in the show for Winter Term credit. Auditions to participate in the musical, which will be staged at The Town Hall Theater in late January, are Sept. 11 from 7 to 9 p.m. and Sept. 12 from 5 to 8 p.m in Room 221 of the Kevin P. Mahaney ’84 Center for the Arts (CFA). A sign up sheet is available outside of the Music Department office on the third floor of the CFA.
Also this weekend, the Middlebury College Activities Board (MCAB) is organizing the S.O.S. (Start of School) Festival in collaboration with the College’s radio station, WRMC, and Middlebury Music United (MMU) on Sept. 12 and 13. The free festival will take place on the green in front of Voter, starting at 7 p.m. on Friday, Sept. 12 with Iron Eyes Cody, a student band known for unique instrumentation and vocal arrangements comprised of Evan Allis ’15.5, Renn Mulloy ’15.5, Mark Balderston ’15.5, Rob Shaw ’16, and Noah Stone ’16.5. Burlington native Caroline Rose and San Francisco duo TV Girl will follow in preparation for the headlining Delicate Steve. The following day, student group Milk Chocolate, or Innocent Tswamuno ‘15 and Mohan Fitzgerald ‘14, will open for a line-up of acts including Modern Diet, Poor Remy and Vunderbar.
The Performing Arts Series is celebrating its 95th season with an impressive line-up of internationally acclaimed music, starting with the Grammy Award-winning Takács Quartet’s take on Hayden, Debussy and Beethoven on Sept. 26.
“The opening concert of the Performing Arts Series by the Takács Quartet is one of the most exciting events of the fall,” said Director of the Kevin P. Mahaney ’84 Center for the Arts Liza Sacheli. “They are a world-class ensemble, truly one of the best on the planet, and Middlebury is lucky to enjoy a long friendship with them. I bet it [the concert] will sell out.”
The Belcea Quartet, under the leadership of Romanian violinist Corina Belcea, will again enchant audiences with their widely acclaimed playing of Mozart, Brahms and Schubert on Oct. 15. A free concert by The Jupiter String Quartet on Nov. 15 ensures that the world-class entertainment typical to the Performing Arts Series is available to the entire community.
To celebrate the 30th and final season of Series Director Paul Nelson, cellist Sophie Shao will perform Hayden, Brahms and a new piece composed by Associate Professor of Music Su Lian Tan in honor of the retiring director on Dec. 5.
Tickets to all Performing Arts Series events are $6 for students, and first-years are eligible for one free ticket. More ticket information can be found at go/boxoffice.
The Middlebury College Museum of Art opened their fall exhibition, Visual Weimar, 1919–1933, on Tuesday, Sept. 2, displaying a dynamic collection of paintings, drawings and etchings indicative of the German Weimar style. Otto Dix, George Grosz and Kathe Kollwitz are only three of the prominent artists featured in the exhibit who captured the trauma, devastation and suffering of post World War I Germany. Urban landscapes and portraits considering human mutilation, starvation and poverty, as well as the quest for mass entertainment, give the viewers a glimpse into a society torn between participating with and criticizing the rise and reign of Adolf Hitler. The exhibition will close on Dec. 7.
The first of two other fall exhibitions is Hyper! Works by Greg Haberny, which features culturally and politically critical pieces with media ranging from melted crayons to Band-Aids, and will run through Oct 26.
Picturing Enlightenment: Tibetan Tangkas from the Mead Art Museum is an exhibit showcasing 18 recently cleaned and repaired Tibeten Tangas from Amherst College’s Mead Art Museum that have been inaccessible to scholars and museum visitors for nearly six decades. Professor of Art History Cynthia Packert will give the opening gallery talk on Sept. 12, and the exhibit closes on Dec. 7. Admission to the museum is free.
A special double exhibition in the Kevin P. Mahaney ’84 Center for the Arts and Town Hall Theater by Middlebury-based painter Kate Gridley, is called Passing Through: Portraits of Young Adults, and is running now through Oct. 26.
“It [the exhibit] features stunning, lifelike portraits of young adults ages 18-25, roughly the same age as Midd kids,” Sacheli said. “Psychologists have recently identified a new stage of human development and defined it as a key time for individuals to claim their voices and form their identities. The paintings are riveting, and they’re also accompanied by ‘sound portraits’ and two special talks on Sept. 26 and Oct. 24.”
Contemporary playwright David Freeman’s heartwarming comedy Mendel, Inc., is the first of two faculty shows presented this semester by The Department of Theatre. Directed by Professor of Theatre Richard Romagnoli, the play follows a Jewish family’s pursuit of the American Dream in 1920’s New York City and will be staged Oct. 31 to Nov. 1 in honor of the 60th anniversary of Middlebury Hillel.
The second faculty show of the semester, Vampire, is a brash and gregarious play penned by British playwright Snoo Wilson which will be directed by Professor of Theatre Cheryl Faraone. Staged Nov. 20 to 22, the piece dramatically and intellectually changes setting throughout, roaming from Victorian England to World War I to a punk dominatrix presiding over a biker’s funeral.
Students participating in the College Choir, directed by Associate Professor of Music and Director of Choral Activities Jeffrey Buettner, are presenting an ambitious array of work after returning from their Summer 2014 tour to Berlin, Prague, Leipzig and Vienna. On Oct. 3 and 5, the Choir will join the Opera Company of Middlebury in presenting a staged concert version of Verdi’s timeless tragedy, La Traviata, at the Town Hall Theater, and on Nov. 20 the group will join three other collegiate Vermont choirs and a professional orchestra as a part of the Vermont Collegiate Choral Consortium. The annual Lessons and Carols for Advent and Christmas concert will take place on Dec. 7.
Many other musical student groups promise to have an exciting fall semester, including the African Music and Dance Ensemble, which will present an interactive Nov. 18 concert featuring instruments as varied as bow-harps, gourd shakers, ankle bells and thumb pianos. A few days later, The Sound Investment Jazz Ensemble will showcase their fall repertoire of contemporary jazz and big band era music on Nov. 22, and the College’s Community Chorus, directed by Jeff Rebach, will perform their fall concert on Nov. 23.
Every Saturday throughout the semester, free acclaimed foreign and independent films are shown in Dana Auditorium at 3 and 8 p.m. as a part of The Hirschfield International Film Series. Highlights include Inside Llewyn Davis on Sept. 13, a raw exploration of a struggling folk musician in 1960’s New York City, a biopic of Hannah Arendt on Oct. 4 and the 2013 Italian film The Great Beauty on Nov. 15, which follows an aging playboy after he receives a surprise on his 65th birthday.
The community will have the opportunity to view the kick-off of the Dance Program’s season on Sept. 18 with a collaborative concert featuring choreography by Middlebury Dance Chair Christal Brown, University of Vermont Dance Chair Paul Besaw and their one-time mentor, Professor Emeritus Jan Van Dyke of the University of North Carolina in NC Dances VT. Emerging student choreographers will showcase their work at the Fall Dance Concert on Nov. 21 and 22 under the direction of Christal Brown.
Student works of studio art in a variety of mediums will be on display in the Johnson Building throughout the semester. From Oct. 26 to Nov. 6, Pinhole Photography will feature black and white photographs crafted through direct contact with negatives and exposed through cameras of the students’ own construction and design. Other works include ceramic and oil portraits Sept. 2 through 12, large-scale drawings Sept. 26 to Oct. 3 and silkscreen prints Dec. 1 to 9.
Whether viewing a student creation or listening to a world-renowned artist, members of the College community have a unique opportunity to engage with such a wide variety of mediums and talents. As the College celebrates a range of artistic milestones this year, students from all disciplines will have the chance to participate in the next evolving era of creative achievement.
(05/07/14 3:24pm)
On May 1-4, the Middlebury Community Players staged John Cariani’s 2004 play Almost, Maine, a series of nine interlocking vignettes about a group in the northern reaches of Maine who haven’t quite yet organized themselves into an official town. The work recently surpassed A Midsummer Night’s Dream as the most performed play in American high schools and this local production connected college and high school students with residents of thirteen surrounding towns.
Show director and Middlebury native Kevin Commins has written screenplays for 11 made-for- television movies, enjoying the luxury of writing for Hollywood from the comfort of the Green Mountains. As he introduced the show, he explained that even as people get more cynical, there is still a huge appeal to watching a baby laugh or a cat yawn, and that sentimentality will always have an appeal.
The subtitle of Almost, Maine is “A Romantic Comedy for anyone who has ever loved, hurt, laughed or believed in magic,” and the scenes ranged from the charming to the funny to the heartbreaking, covering first loves, lost loves and love that springs from the most unexpected places. One by one, each scene introduces characters somehow connected to this almost town in the far north of Maine, gradually building on each other to form a realistic picture of the social interactions of a small, isolated area.
The only College student acting in the production, Nolan Ellsworth ’17, opened the play as Pete in the prologue, appearing again in the interlogue and epilogue to exemplify the nervous joys and embarrassments of taking a friendship to the next level.
“The most challenging thing was that most of my scenes were silent, and a lot is going on but there’s nothing to say,” Ellsworth said. “It was hard to learn to treat the actions as if they were lines and tell the story that way.”
Ellsworth, who is from a real town in Maine, participated in a local community theater company in high school, and after watching one of their productions over spring break, he was interested in finding a similar experience in Middlebury. By chance, Ellsworth saw a blurb in the Campus advertising auditions for Almost, Maine and decided on a whim to go the next day.
Coincidentally, Ellsworth had taken a workshop in his home state with Cariani, who is active in New England regional theater productions and travels to see productions of Almost, Maine whenever possible.
Ellsworth also participated in the First-Year Show this fall and noted some differences between the collegiate and community acting processes.
“It seems like in College theater, it’s more on edge and structured, and talking a lot about characters and writing down facts and intuits about characters that you draw from the script,” he said. “With the Community Theater, it was not springing from such a place of how you teach theater academically, so it’s different in that way. I feel like the idea of theater here [at the College] is to teach you about theater, which is awesome, and then the idea of theater in the town is more to give something to the town and create a piece of art for and by the community.”
Audience favorites included “They Fell,” a scene in which two best friends, Chad and Randy, lament over recent bad dates as they enjoy a couple of cans of beer and sit on the frozen lake. To everyone’s great surprise, Chad falls over as soon as he stands up, declaring with shock that he just fell in love with Randy, and hilarity ensued when Randy, despite protestation, started to experience similar difficulty staying upright, leading to a sequence in which the two men try and fail to walk away, each time falling to the ground at the sight of the other.
In another light-hearted yet touching scene, “Seeing the Thing,” Dave attempts to communicate to his snowmobiling partner, Rhonda, that he loves her, and gives her a painting that expresses his feelings. Rhonda is opposed to the match and cannot understand what is depicted in the painting, but eventually Dave manages to break through Rhonda’s walls and they kiss, eventually deciding to take things a step further. This is, however, northern Maine after a snowmobiling expedition, and the pair’s hurried motions to remove their clothing is hindered by their layers of coats, vests and long underwear. At the end, the painting is revealed to be a heart, closing the show with, yes, sentimentality, but also a tinge of poignancy.
Cast member and Vergennes resident Ark Lemal works for his own computer repair business, MAC IT, and is the consulting Apple technician at the College Store. He most recently acted in MCP’s Four Beers, his first role with significant dialogue and a unique acting challenge due to the part’s request to sit for the entire play.
“I started theater as a form of vocal therapy and also to get over the fears of communicating publicly, and it has been a terrifying and exciting journey into that,” he said.
Lemal’s character in Almost, Maine, a repairman named East, finds a tourist camping in his yard and immediately and inexplicably falls in love with her.
“It’s about all these different aspects of love and relationships, the challenging and the endearing and unexpected and magical parts of it, and there’s a delightful use of magical realism in it,” Lemal said. “It’s a great show because of the magic of it, and it’s something everyone can relate to.”
Many scenes dealt with heavier subjects, such as “This Hurts,” in which a woman named Marvalyn accidentally hits a man at the laundromat with her ironing board only to discover that he cannot feel pain. The man is, in fact, so consumed by things that can hurt him and things he should fear, that he hasn’t really been living at all, and his conversation with Marvalyn is the first step on his journey to opening himself up to the pleasures and pains of feeling.
Some scenes featured conclusions that seemed almost too improbable, like “Sad and Glad,” which followed a man named Jimmy in a bar as he reconnects with a former flame that is having her bachelorette party. She notices his tattoo, a misspelling of ‘villain’ as ‘villian,’ but at the end of the scene Jimmy discovers that his waitress’s name is – wait for it – Villian. I think I would be more accepting of this if Villian was an actual name or if I believed that a man would want a “villain” tattoo after hurting a girl, but the acting and staging of the scene were sweet and oddly realistic.
“I think it’s hard to find the sincerity and truth because it’s meant to be honest and real and not just overly sentimental, and I think that we were able to find the humanity in it,” Ellsworth said.
My home in far northern Vermont, too, is very close to Canada, with industries like logging and agriculture and activities like ice fishing prominent in everyday life, and I was pleased with the realistic portrayal of both rural people and the way they spend their days. It is so easy, and indeed, common in popular culture, to characterize small town, northern people as uneducated or unsophisticated, but Cariani, who grew up in Presque Isle, Maine, a locale with similar coordinates to his fictional town of Almost, clearly understood how to make these characters real and multi-dimensional rather than stereotypes. Getting to know the eccentricities of each character is one of the great pleasures of the play, and each of the actors brought a unique understanding to their part that colored their characters into life.
“My favorite part has been slowly getting to know the cast and laughing with them at the show that we’re in,” Ellsworth said. “In the last few rehearsals, it was great to sit in the audience with everyone and watch each scene as it went up and laugh with everyone and share this great experience.”
I’ll admit that as I was watching the show there were some moments which struck me as too literal or overly sentimental, like the woman who carried her heart in a bag because it was broken or the woman who lost her shoe only for it to inexplicably drop from the sky. But in the hours since I’ve left the world of Almost, Maine and re-entered the more cynical realm in which people may keep to themselves amidst schoolwork and technology (myself included), I’ve remembered all of the wonderful little things in the play that are still ringing true. No, everybody in a small town doesn’t know everybody else, and there are wonderful little hangouts like the Moose Paddy that everyone goes to because it’s the only place to go, and sometimes it really is necessary to wear twelve layers of clothing because it is that cold. We hurt people we love and we hurt people with ironing boards. The characters of Almost, Maine are humble, relatable, and they gain their strength from their relationships with each other, even if they falter along the way. People need people, Cariani seems to be saying at the most basic level — people who will give us a chance and listen to us and allow us the time to see what may have been in front of our faces all along. And he reminds us of that through scenarios that are so improbable that they feel like they just might happen, because sometimes that is the way life works. Perhaps that sounds sentimental, but that is the world Almost, Maine offers. And it is nice to visit the not-quite-real world of Almost for just a little while.
(04/30/14 11:04pm)
Throughout the past semester, brightly colored posters calling for writers, illustrators, graphic designers and “any other interested parties or persons” have graced bulletin boards across campus on behalf of “The Storytold Project”, a student initiative born out of The Old Stone Mill. While many may be familiar with the posters, the details of Storytold itself are perhaps less known. The premise is simple — students submit an idea, however vague or detailed, and the Storytold artists deliver a customized story in one of a variety of mediums in regular installments.
The imaginative and ambitious endeavor began with Ben Mansky ’15, who had been exploring alternative methods of storytelling through avenues like the interactive services Inform and Storynexus, radio drama and fictional blogging.
“The idea for personalized storytelling as a service hit me last summer — I wanted a way to get out my creative impulses while doing something productive,” Mansky said in an email. “Writing to a prompt can be fantastic exercise, so I figured, why not get the prompts from other people, and then give them the results? That’s when I first made the Storytold web page.”
The website grew to a service on campus after Mansky applied to be a tenant at the Old Stone Mill, an off campus venue that provides students the space to create almost anything they can imagine. During his time as a tenant, Manksy formed valuable creative and entrepreneurial connections with other artists at the Mill and realized that his idea had artistic support and sizeable interest, prompting him to expand.
“I couldn’t handle every component of the project myself, so I asked around, starting with people I knew and gradually working outwards to posting in Facebook groups and asking professors to notify their classes,” Mansky said. “As people have joined the team, new possibilities have arisen. We don’t just have writers, we also have an amateur calligrapher, a graphic designer — all of these skills people bring to the team allow us to grow in new directions and tell richer, more fully-realized stories.”
So far, three stories are on Storytold’s website, ranging in format from fantasy fiction to journal entries to instant messaging transcripts. Students can request that their stories appear in anywhere between one and twenty installments and Storytold also offers the option for stories to remain confidential and anonymous.
The decision to publish the stories in chapters stemmed from a desire to adapt to the busy schedules of students, catering to an audience that is more likely to read smaller stories at one time. Writing a serial also allows the artists at Storytold more flexibility in composition and experimenting with different media while regularly including cliffhangers that entice readers to come back for more.
With so much reading material available in print and digital formats, it might be easy to question why a service like Storytold needs to exist. Manksy believes that the personalization of his initiative sets it apart.
“Everyone wants something that was made just for them. On top of that, everyone has ideas, some of them creative ideas that might never become more than a fleeting daydream. Students can search online, go to a bookstore or go to a library and find a huge number of books on a huge variety of topics. With Storytold, they can ask for the story they want to read, a story that might not exist on the shelves of bookstores — or at least, a story that they may never find.”
Though there has been a lot of curiosity around the project, a lack of writers and need for more pointed publicity caused a halt in the project in recent months. Mansky plans to restructure and revive Storytold next semester with improvements.
“Because we had a dearth of writers this semester, we put requests on hiatus, but now, as word is getting out, our base of writers has grown two-fold. We’re preparing a publicity campaign for the fall semester of next year.”
Mansky believes that Storytold offers its writers a unique creative fulfillment that may not be available in a classroom setting.
“Practically any writer will tell you that imposing some restrictions on where a story can go can be an extremely helpful exercise. Writers can decide what they’d most like to pursue, and the installment system gives them variety in their prompts. It also means that they don’t have to write the next Great American Novel every week — no Middlebury student has time for that. For our non-writers, it provides an opportunity to hone their skills for an appreciative audience while supporting a project that they find interesting.”
Ultimately, Mansky would like to expand the service beyond the College by accepting requests from anywhere around the country and world. As of now, he has his sights set on making Storytold a student organization by writing a constitution and finding a faculty advisor to give the service more recognition and legitimacy on campus.
Although Storytold is not currently accepting story requests, Mansky is actively searching for interested artists to join the team for next fall by applying at go/storytold or emailing him directly at bmansky@middlebury.edu.
Artwork by Tamir Williams
(04/23/14 3:17pm)
Now in its fourth year, The Middlebury Bach Festival is aiming to offer its most diverse and ambitious program to date when the inaugural festival’s guest scholar Christoph Wolff returns for a three-day extravaganza of events April 25-27.
Students, affiliate artists, faculty and professional musicians from the community and the greater New England area will join Wolff to celebrate the music and influence of 18th century German Baroque composer Johann Sebastian Bach.
Wolff, former Adams University Research Professor at Harvard University and recipient of an Honorary Doctorate from the College in 2012, is one of the most prominent Bach scholars in the nation, and his second visit to the Festival is representative of his involvement in the early planning stages of the popular annual event.
The Festival’s organizers, Associate Professor of Music and Director of Choral Activities Jeffrey Buettner and soprano, voice teacher and Director of Music at the Congregational Church of Middlebury Jessica Allen, were inspired to create the Bach Festival after participating in an American Choral Director’s Association Bach conducting symposium.
“Jessica, my wife, and I left that event and it was simple, really,” Buettner said. “She said ‘We should have a Bach Festival in Middlebury,’ and then we were going to Leipzig anyway to see their Bach festival, and we thought we’d try and make an appointment with Christoph Wolff at the Leipzig Bach Festival, which he directed, and he said that he was interested. Suddenly, we had a guest, we had an idea for some music, and things took off from there.”
Allen and Buettner have been looking for an opportunity to invite Wolff back to the Festival since his participation in 2011, and the scholar’s recent retirement from Harvard and the Leipzig Bach Festival allowed for a rare scheduling availability.
Before Wolff gives a lecture as a part of Saturday’s events, cellist Sophie Shao and violinist Soovin Kim will open the Festival on Friday, April 25 with a program of the unaccompanied works of J.S. Bach for cello and violin. Both musicians have connections with the area, as Shao is frequently featured in the College’s Performing Arts Series and Kim directs the Lake Champlain Chamber Music Festival, but both have also been acclaimed on the world stage. The concert is at 8 p.m. in the Concert Hall of the Kevin P. Mahaney ’84 Center for the Arts, and tickets are $25 for regular admission, $20 for faculty, staff and other affiliates with an ID and $6 for students.
Three free interest sessions continue the Festival on Saturday in the Concert Hall.
“Our interest sessions are more diverse than we’ve perhaps had in the past,” Buettner said. “We have two different instrument families covered in those sessions, and then in the afternoon we hear a talk that contextualizes the Bach piece itself, so it’s a very broad appeal. This time, only one of the sessions really frames the concert, and the other two draw interesting sounds and technique from the instruments in the orchestra. In that way, the Festival has expanded a bit.”
The first 10 a.m. session, ‘Unaccompanied Bach: Bach’s Solo Works for Cello and Violin’ is offered by the previous evening’s performers, Shao and Kim, and oboist Cheryl Bishkoff will follow at 11 a.m. with ‘Demonstration of Oboe, Oboe d’amore, English Horn, and Oboe da Caccia in the Music of J.S. Bach.’
At 1:30 p.m., Wolff will be talking about the Saturday evening Festival concert piece, Bach’s Ascension Oratorio, and its context in ‘From Christmas to Ascension Day: J.S. Bach’s Unique Oratorio Cycle.’
“We performed the Easter Oratorio two years ago and the Christmas Oratorio will probably be two years from now, so it’s a terrific topic,” Buettner said of the lecture. “It’s timely and useful in terms of our Bach Festival on a larger scale, just as Bach was thinking about music in a larger context. We often admire that Bach wrote a piece with a complicated and sophisticated architecture, but that expands further into groups of pieces over months or even in an entire year he thought about a comprehensive musical concept, so it’s philosophy and theology and intellect as well as musicianship.”
Two free events follow in the afternoon in anticipation of the evening Festival Concert, including a carillon recital by Middlebury College carillonneur George Matthew, Jr. at 3 p.m. at Mead Chapel. Classical guitarist and College Affiliate Artist Eric Despard will provide patrons of 51 Main with music by Bach and other composers from 6 to 7:30 p.m.
The culmination of Saturday’s events comes in the form of the grand Festival Concert at 8 p.m. in Mead Chapel, opening with Antonio Vivaldi’s four violin concertos The Four Seasons featuring violin soloist Katherine Winterstein.
The Vivaldi violin concertos were chosen for their audience appeal and because they are most often heard as sound bites, not performed live. The cyclical plan of the seasons and the sense of renewal also corresponded thematically to the renewal found in the Ascension Oratorio.
Each concerto is written to capture the sounds and ideas of the season it represents, and Vermont Public Radio commentator Linda Radtke will narrate with poetry, potentially written by Vivaldi himself, which draws the audience’s attention to these ideas.
Bach studied and transcribed Vivaldi, so including the pieces provides greater insight into the context of music at the time.
The Four Seasons will be performed in a somewhat unorthodox manner, with one player taking on each orchestral part rather than a soloist and a large orchestra.
“It’s an intimate setting and you can really hear the inside of the score,” Buettner said. “Also, that performance features a student. It’s a professional ensemble with the exception of violist Matt Weinert-Stein ’14, and it’s a great opportunity for him to play all by himself with a professional ensemble.”
Buettner will conduct the College Choir and festival orchestra as they perform Bach’s Ascension Oratorio. Four professional vocal soloists, soprano and College Affiliate Artist Carol Christensen, alto Linda Radtke, tenor Adam Hall and bass Stephen Falbel will join the ensembles for the major work.
“I’m excited for the audience to hear our really remarkable guests and to hear the Vivaldi and the Bach Oratorio side-by-side and feel the exciting impact of those pieces,” Buettner said. “For the students, I’m excited for them to perform their piece and then hear the Vivaldi beside their performance and sense that excitement and energy that the music carries. I think that when we hear something that is related to what we do, we can be more excited about what we’re doing.”
Tickets to the Saturday evening event are free for students, $10 for faculty, staff and affiliates with ID and $12 for the public.
Throughout the four years of the Festival, over 90 singers and 30 instrumentalists have participated, creating a unique blend of repeat performers and new musicians every year.
“We try to find something new and interesting that comes out of this idea of Bach, which has a tendency to become ‘Early Classical Music’ in quotations, like a genre,” Buettner said. “The piece itself is not necessarily different from previous pieces, but the point is we will find other things about the Festival that bring out something new and fresh. This year, that’s the idea of renewal and connecting what the texts are talking about.”
At the Sunday, April 27 concert at 3 p.m. in Mead Chapel, the College Choir will sing some of the selections they will performing for their May 27 to June 9 tour to Berlin, Prague, Leipzig and Vienna.
Since the students are participating in a concert tour to Europe, they will be singing primarily new North and South American music compositions, with the addition of folk music from a living Ukrainian composer. The concert will start with the Collegium, a smaller ensemble composed of four Choir students and Buettner, singing three early Baroque selections thematically connected to the ideas of rebirth and renewal emphasized in the previous evening’s concert. The rest of the program includes the selection of material for a European audience that represents the College with international and contemporary American aspects.
Buettner, who conducts the College Choir, has been helping to plan the tour for at least three years, and he has visited the tour sites twice in preparation for the trip. Since the last major Choir tour to San Francisco in 2011, an endowment for touring was established to help lower student contributions toward the cost of the 2014 voyage.
Some of the highlights of the trip will be singing in Berlin with the Berlin Cathedral Choir, performing with a guest choir in one of Bach’s churches, Saint Nicholas, in Leipzig and visiting Saint Peter’s Church in Vienna.
“We are all excited to take this music that we have been preparing and go sing it, and that’s it,” Buettner said. “No homework, no schoolwork, no impending deadlines. Without the pressures of everything else in life, we get to experience another culture and sing, and that’s a liberating and edifying feeling.”
Also on Sunday, six area congregations, including the Champlain Valley Unitarian Universalist Society, Church of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary, the Congregational Church of Middlebury UCC, Memorial Baptist Church, St. Stephen’s on the Green and the United Methodist Church of Middlebury, will feature the music of Bach in their Sunday services.
Buettner attributes the growing success of the Festival to its ability to capture the interest of audience members on different levels.
“There is certainly a performance excitement around having a weekend of concerts, and there is also an appeal to the event to people who care and think about music and culture,” Buettner explained. “Then, simply, in attending the performances there is a beauty to the music. That’s a description of Bach’s compositions – they appeal to our intellect and they appeal to our emotions, and that’s something that we keep in mind for every festival that we plan.”
More information can be found at go/bachfest.
(04/16/14 8:37pm)
A group of 11 students have been combining the rigorous time commitments of staging a theatrical production with the unique challenges of acquiring a new language in the Spring term course FREN 306: Study and Production of a Play, and the culmination of their work will be presented Apr. 18 and 19 at 7:30 p.m. in the basement of Le Chateau when they perform Le Malade Imaginaire (The Imaginary Invalid) by seventeenth-century French comedic playwright Molière.
The diverse cast hails from Burundi, Morocco, Senegal, Japan, France and the United States, and these 11 students taking the course for credit are joined by nine students tackling technical and behind the scene roles in lighting, costumes, make-up, set design and administrative work, as well as advising from this year’s French assistant, Charlotte Prieu.
Molière, the stage name for Jean-Baptiste Poquelin, polished his comedic abilities as an actor before he began writing plays, and he was popular with French aristocrats and Parisians for both his acting and his clever way with words. He is known as one of the greatest masters of comedy in Western Literature, and penned classic works such as Le Bourgeois Gentillhome (The Bourgeois Gentleman) and the final work before his death, Le Malade Imaginaire.
Produced in 1673, Le Malade Imaginaire is a three act play originally performed with dance sequences and musical interludes that follows hypochondriac Argan and the romantic affairs of his daughter, Angelique, while heavily satirizing the dependence on doctors who, at the time, depended on methods such as enemas and bleeding to purge the body of impurities.
“In selecting a French play to perform before an audience of primarily non-native speakers, I give preference to works that allow us to take full advantage of non-verbal means to complement textual meaning, including the use of gesture, intonation and other visual and acoustic cues,” Professor of French and Director Charles Nunley said. “Molière’s theater, and Le Malade Imaginaire in particular, is geared toward such adaptation. Molière’s farcical approach to theater, moreover, is an invitation to experiment. He invites us to step outside the ‘sameness’ of everyday life and immerse ourselves in the richness of human experience. Such exploration is enhanced by the fact that the language Molière uses is that of seventeenth-century France which often comes across as delightfully strange to the modern ear.”
Aissatou Gaye ’16 is from Senegal and will be studying abroad in France next semester. The course perfectly filled her 300 level French language requirement.
“I came across this course and I didn’t think twice about it,” she said. “Theater always captured my attention and I couldn’t resist the possibility of diving into it for a full semester.”
In Le Malade Imaginaire, Gaye plays Toinette, a compassionate, intelligent and sassy servant of Argan and his family, acting as a central figure connecting father, daughter, doctor and stepmother. Playing the role has challenged Gaye to completely step outside of herself.
“Although I can identify with a number of similar traits in the sense that she really wants to help out, I find her energy and motivation hard to embody,” she said. “She adds a certain dynamism to every scene in which she appears and given my somewhat calm and shy nature, this is quite challenging.”
Though some students from outside the class were recruited to assist in specific technical aspects of production, all of the enrolled students are involved in virtually every aspect of the presentation.
“I would say that each participant brings specific competencies to the production,” Nunley said. “For example, one student with experience in vocal performance has created a wonderful duet to be sung a cappella in the second act by the play’s two young lovers, Angélique and Cléante. The hats worn by the doctors in the closing burlesque scene were created by a group of students with, to say the least, a vivid imagination. I continue to be amazed by the energy and resourcefulness students bring to the play. I find it difficult to keep up with them!”
The necessity for lightning-quick, radically different costume changes has proven difficult, and at least four quick-moving stage hands are needed to assist equally fast actors in smoothly making the physical transitions.
In addition to evening rehearsals, screenings and improvisational exercises, students enrolled in the course have studied the application of Molière’s comedy from many perspectives, including examination of French philosopher Henri Bergson’s 1900 essay on laughter and Eugène Ionesco’s exploration of fear of death in his 1962 absurdist play, The King is Down.
Ultimately, Nunley believes that the College’s invaluable opportunity for students to study French through theater is an extremely useful way for learners to critically engage with their new language skills.
“There can often seem such a difference, at least in perception, between the acquisition of language proficiency per se and the acquisition of tools for thoughtful engagement with literary texts,” he said. “I believe the collective undertaking of a theatrical production in French can be effective in dispelling such perceptions.”
Students like Gaye agree that the theater possesses a magical quality of teamwork and critical thinking.
“Acting is fulfilling and energizing and it gives you the platform to connect with your partners on a level that you wouldn’t otherwise,” Gaye said. “My classmates and professor have made this experience rewarding for me.”
Seating is limited, so theatergoers are encouraged to arrive early.
(04/11/14 7:09pm)
Following the highly anticipated J-term production of Les Miserables, members of the College community will have another opportunity to enjoy a popular piece of musical theater when The Middlebury College Musical Players (MCMP) presents their Spring Term musical, RENT, at the Town Hall Theatre on Apr. 17-19.
As a contrast to the faculty-assisted J-term show, MCMP is in their eighteenth year of presenting completely student designed, directed, acted and produced musical theater, and currently puts on two musicals each academic year. Recent shows have included City of Angels, Midd-Life Crisis and Man of La Mancha, and this spring production employs the talents of fifteen student actors, five orchestra musicians, and a production team comprised of Assistant Director Sally Seitz ’17 , Music Director York Kitajima ’15 and Director Jack DesBois ’15.
DesBois joined MCMP in the fall of 2012 when he acted and assisted in the lighting design of City of Angels, and the student of music and theater so enjoyed the experience that he returned to direct the spring 2014 show.
DesBois and MCMP President Erica Furgiuele ’15, Vice President Hannah Johnston ’15.5 and Treasurer Annie MacPherson ’16 collaborated to decide which musical to stage.
“While City of Angels was a really great show, it was relatively unknown, and because of that we did have trouble finding people to get involved with it,” DesBois said. “So, this year we decided that we would choose a popular show, and we decided on RENT, partially because this is my first time directing and I wanted to do a show that I was already familiar with. As it turns out, that’s been quite helpful.”
Additionally, RENT’s even distribution of male to female roles proved helpful in combating the typical scarcity of female roles in musical theater.
Eight main characters comprise composer and lyricist Jonathan Larson’s rock musical adaptation of Giacomo Puccini’s 1896 opera La bohème, following a group of impoverished young artists and musicians as they struggle to live and create in New York City’s Lower East Side under the shadow of the 1980’s and ‘90’s HIV/AIDS epidemic.
RENT experienced a meteoric rise to fame after premiering at the New York Theatre Workshop in 1994, eventually moving off-Broadway where it was a massive hit, especially with younger generations, and won a Pulitzer Prize for Drama in 1996. In that year, the show debuted on Broadway and catapulted into national attention, winning the Tony Award for Best Musical and eventually becoming the tenth-longest running Broadway show in history at the time of the production’s closing in 2008. RENT also includes the classic Broadway anthem “Seasons of Love,” which crossed over to enjoy success on pop and rock charts.
The original Broadway production served as the launching pad for many now legendary Broadway performers, including Taye Diggs, Adam Pascal and Wicked and Frozen star Idina Menzel. These individual successes are just snapshots of the greater legacy of the musical, which lives on in a 2005 film version featuring most of the original cast, a live taping of the final 2008 performance and national tours and subsequent productions in 46 countries around the world in 24 languages.
DesBois’ history with RENT includes a viewing on Broadway and creative participation in multiple productions. This familiarity has allowed DesBois an ease with the material that inspires original interpretation.
“One of the ways I’ve tried to put my stamp on the show is by giving it a kind of rough-cut feel by having no curtains,” he said. “This is typical for the show, but usually when there are curtains, the actors will be hanging out behind watching what is going on onstage, and we’re still going to have those actors hanging out there in complete view.”
The breathtaking, refreshing rock melodies and complex characters of RENT have allowed the musical to endure almost 20 years after its New York premier, and the themes of community and friendship amidst hardship make the show accessible even to those who usually do not identify as fans of the musical theater genre.
“We recently had our first music rehearsal integrating the band and the cast, and when they came to ‘Goodbye Love,’ there was this really great moment when all the voices were singing, and I realized that this really is going to happen. These surreal moments are happening more and more,” DesBois said.
Health struggles threatened to set the production back after DesBois was forced to take J-term off for sick leave, but Kitajima ran music rehearsals to avoid losing time, priming the cast for upcoming blocking sessions when DesBois returned in the spring. Further health events caused more cancellations just before spring break, but the musical has managed to stay on schedule with only a week left until show time.
DesBois’ passion for the material that has consumed his life in recent months is palpable.
“RENT is one of those shows that is very close to my heart, and the themes are so universal and uplifting that I feel that you can’t come away from this show not smiling,” he said. “The cast is great, the music is going to be amazing, and it’s going to be a really good quality show.”
Tickets are available through the Box Office and at go.middlebury.edu/measureinlove, and are selling fast. Each of the three performances on Apr. 17-19 will be presented at 8 p.m. at The Town Hall Theater.
(03/13/14 1:43am)
On Friday, May 9, the Middlebury College Activities Board (MCAB) will welcome Brooklyn-based alt-indie band Matt & Kim to perform the 2014 Spring Concert. Due to student demand demonstrated through online surveys, the concert will be held outside, weather permitting, most likely in the space between the Johnson Memorial Building and Battell Beach. The set-up will mimic the Spring 2011 Guster concert, which featured a mobile stage on a tractor-trailer facing College Street.
Vocalist and keyboardist Matt Johnson and drummer Kim Schifino have crafted a unique, recognizable style, cultivating an exponentially growing fan base.
“I would call them peppy alt rock, indie rock, even percussion piano pep,” MCAB Concert Committee co-chair Nick Mallchok ’14.5 said. “They’re very high energy with a lot of foot stomping.”
After releasing their self-titled debut album in 2006, Matt & Kim gained many indie fans through live shows, eventually progressing from basement venues to larger festivals like The Siren Music Festival in New York, Lollapalooza in Chicago and Bonnaroo in Tennessee. Now promoting their fourth studio album, ‘Lightning,’ the band enjoys national recognition, with many songs featured in commercials, television programs and video games.
“I think they’ve been well received as an outdoor artist,” said MCAB Concert Committee co-chair Camille Kenny ’14. “I know that they played Live on the Green, which is a free concert series [in Nashville]. I had so many friends who said they were great outdoors, so I think that their vibe and their genre is definitely conducive to a happy crowd.”
Matt & Kim’s second album, ‘Grand,’ was recorded in Johnson’s childhood home in Vermont, and the band began the promotional tour for their most recent release in Burlington, indicating a familiarity with the area that many other artists cannot claim.
“I’m a big fan of these guys, and I’ve seen them once before at Bonnaroo in 2011 and they had a huge crowd,” Mallchok said. “Kim, at one point, got up and crowd surfed standing up, which was really fun to watch. She’s very energetic, and I wouldn’t be surprised if there’s a little bit of spectacle involved, maybe some surfing of the crowd and a lot of interaction between artist and audience.”
Matt & Kim are perhaps known equally for their music and the way they illustrate their work in music videos. Their 2009 video for ‘Lessons Learned,’ a single off of their sophomore album, features Johnson and Schifino stripping nude in Times Square on a cold February day. It has garnered almost three million views on YouTube and earned the band a Breakthrough Video MTV Music Video Award.
The concert will be free of admission and open to everyone.
(03/12/14 3:46pm)
The College’s Performing Arts Series will continue its tradition of bringing world-class artists to the community tonight, March 13, when the Elias String Quartet presents a free formal concert of Beethoven and Kurtag pieces.
The inspiration for the group’s name is taken from Mendelssohn’s oratorio, ‘Elijah,’ which is the German form of Elias. The quartet, which met in 1998 as first-year students at the Royal Northern College of England in Manchester, has quickly risen to the top of the classical music scene. Officially formed in 2004, the group gave their North American debut at the Concert Hall in March 2012 and soon after performed a sold-out, highly acclaimed concert at Carnegie Hall, cementing their place as an international force of vibrant musicality.
Chamber music aficionado and Professor Emeritus of Political Science Paul Nelson is in charge of chamber music programming at the College. After hearing about the Elias String Quartet from the agent of accomplished international pianist and frequent performer at the College Paul Lewis, Nelson decided to seriously consider adding the quartet to the Performing Arts Series program.
“He [Nelson] has an impeccable ear for rising talent,” Associate Director for the Performing Arts Series Allison Coyne Carroll said. “Professor Nelson reviewed the impressive list of premier chamber music venues they had played and awards they had won, gave the Elias a thoughtful listen, and then booked them to perform here in March 2012. Based on their stellar performance that evening, and audience response, Professor Nelson booked them to return this season.”
Violinists Sara Bitlloch and Donald Grant, violist Martin Saving and cellist Marie Bitlloch have garnered numerous accolades throughout their career together, including a residency as a part of BBC Radio 3’s New Generation Artists’ scheme in 2010 and the 2010 Borletti-Buitoni Trust Award.
It is through the financial support of the latter award, which aims to help outstanding young musicians develop and sustain international careers, that the quartet has been able to embark on their newest, most ambitious tour: The Beethoven Project. Beginning in Feb. 2011, the group endeavors to play all seventeen Beethoven string quartets as a cycle over four years, and will play Beethoven’s Quartet No. 4 in C Minor and his second “Razumovsky” quartet at their concert at the College.
Born in Germany in 1770, Ludvig van Beethoven is remembered as one of the most famous and influential composers of all time, crucially figuring into the transition between Classical and Romantic musical eras.
“Beethoven’s music holds a revered place in music history, and his works are often genius and complex,” Carroll said. “And despite their complexity, which is quite astonishing when you consider Beethoven’s failing hearing, there is also something very approachable about his music. There are very humanistic, reflective moments that can draw you right in.”
Though he is perhaps best known for his symphonies, concertos and sonatas for piano, Beethoven’s string quartets remain a beloved part of the Western music canon.
Beethoven’s Opus 18 was published in 1801, consisting of six string quartets. Widely considered to demonstrate his total mastery of the classical string quartet as developed by Haydn and Mozart, each of the six pieces contains four movements. It was not until 1806 that the three “Razumovsky” quartets, also referred to as Opus 59, achieved publication. Of this trio of works, the Elias String Quartet will be playing the four movements of Quartet No. 8 in E minor. The remaining eight quartets were published from 1809-1826, and the later works are thought to comprise Beethoven’s last major, completed compostitions.
In addition to the Beethoven selections, the quartet will present “Officium breve in memoriam Andreae Szervánszky” a work written in 1989 by Gyorgy Kurtag, a contemporary Hungarian composer born in 1926 with over 50 major compositions to his credit.
“Generally, when the majority of a program is by one composer (in this case, Beethoven), ensembles will choose other repertoire that either complements or contrasts,” Carroll said. “The Elias chose the latter when programming Kurtag. The Elias is also an ensemble committed to performing works by living composers. During this season, when much of their programming was written between 1795-1826, I’m sure the quartet also enjoys the opportunity to vary their rehearsal and performance works.”
A free lecture and demonstration by the Elias String Quartet planned for the afternoon of Wednesday, Mar. 12 about the Beethoven Project was cancelled due to Winter Storm Vulcan.
Between now and early May, the quartet will play sixteen concerts in locations ranging from Maine to Texas to England to Austria, transitioning from university performance venues to concert halls of international prestige throughout the tour. A complete documentation of “The Beethoven Project,” expected to be completed in 2015, can be found at www.thebeethovenproject.com.
The concert is presented as a part of a decade-long collaboration between the Performing Arts Series and the Institute for Clinical Science and Art, through which the Institute provides complete funding to present one or two high-profile string quartet concerts free of charge each year. This gift is made in memory of F. William Sunderman Jr. and Carolyn Reynolds Sunderman.
The free concert will begin at 7:30 p.m. in the Concert Hall of the Kevin P. Mahaney ’84 Center for the Arts tonight, March 13.
Artwork by NOLAN ELLSWORTH
(03/05/14 10:18pm)
The 2013 Steve McQueen film “12 Years a Slave” won three Oscars at the 86th Annual Academy Awards earlier this week, including the coveted Best Picture prize, after taking in an impressive $128 million at the box office worldwide. This critical and financial success has dramatically revived interest in the source material for the film — the captivating 1853 memoir of the same name dictated by Solomon Northup to writer David Wilson.
Solomon Northup was born a free man in 1808 due to a New York state law dictating the freedom of any child born after July 1, 1799. His haunting narrative begins in 1841 Saratoga Springs, New York, when two men from Charlotte, North Carolina convinced Solomon to play his fiddle in a circus with them in Washington, D.C. Upon arriving, the men drugged Solomon and illegally sold him into slavery, starting a brutal twelve year nightmare.
“He thought he was going to be away for just a few weeks in D.C., and his wife, who was cooking in Sandy Hills, New York for the summer, didn’t get a note, and he didn’t send her a letter,” said Associate Professor of History William B. Hart. “He probably thought he was going to be back before she got back to Saratoga. It didn’t take twelve years for her to hear from him, but it took twelve years for him to return.”
Wilson and Northup drafted a copy of the memoir in three months, and in 1853, the text sold 8,000 copies in its first month of publication. When the publisher discontinued publishing in 1856, it had sold 30,000 copies.
The text was re-discovered by two Louisiana historians in the early 1960’s, and the memoir is now used by the College in courses in History, American Studies and other departments.
Despite this familiarity with the text, a recent acquisition by the Middlebury College Museum of Art has revealed a surprising real-life connection between the College and Solomon Northup. Though the movie depicts an upstate New York shopkeeper as the man who rescues Northup from his living nightmare, the memoir reveals the rescuer to be Henry Bliss Northup, a prominent upstate attorney and member of the Middlebury College Class of 1829.
Late in the summer of 2013, the museum received notification that two direct descendants of Henry Bliss Northup, Elizabeth Marsland Hay Haas and Jennifer W. Smith, were interested in donating two portraits, one of Henry and the other of his wife Electra Taylor Northup, to the College. The paintings had been in the Northup family’s possession for nearly two centuries.
In honor of “12 Years a Slave”’s nine Oscar nominations, the museum held a reception for interested faculty, staff and students on Feb. 25 to unveil the two portraits and hear Hart discuss the film, the book and the lives of both Henry Bliss Northup and Solomon Northup.
The portraits were last professionally conserved in 1946, and Director of the Museum Richard Saunders initially hesitated to bring more alumni portraits into the College’s collection.
“They [the portraits] were going to be costly to conserve and I knew nothing about the story of Solomon Northup and “12 Years a Slave,” Saunders said. “Then a few weeks went by and someone was interviewing Steve McQueen, the director of the film, on television, and he was standing next to Brad Pitt, and I thought ‘Oh, my goodness, what?” So, instantly, it went from knowing nothing to really being interested in the story and the whole idea. I got a copy of the book from the library and it became clear to me that Middlebury had to have these pictures.”
The portraits arrived at the College late in the week prior to the unveiling, and they rested facing the wall as Saunders told the group of gathered attendees the history of the acquisition.
“Normally we wouldn’t show the public pictures in this condition,” Saunders said. “We would have them conserved.”
The museum is a member of the Williamstown Art Conservation Center in Williamstown, MA, where the paintings are currently undergoing the process of cleaning and restoration. Upon revealing the portraits, Saunders pointed to some discoloration and darkness, explaining that they will be much brighter.
The paintings are, however, incredibly detailed portraits, and when the restored acquisitions return to the museum, Saunders will pursue his hypothesis that the artist is early-19th century Albany, New York portrait painter Ezra Ames.
Born in 1805 in Hepburn, New York, Henry Bliss Northup enrolled at Middlebury College in 1825, studying a typical course load of Greek, Latin, theology, law, mathematics, philosophy, history, chemistry, mineralogy and geology. In 1829, the year Henry Northup graduated from the College, Solomon Northup married Anne Hampton, and they later went on to have three children, who are depicted in the memoir and the film. Henry Bliss Northup married Electra Taylor, the subject of one of the portraits, in 1830. They raised seven children, though none survived their father.
Henry Bliss Northup pursued a career in politics, holding positions as District Attorney of Washington County, NY and as a member of the New York Assembly. He eventually ran for the U.S. Senate in 1852, though he lost that campaign.
It was in 1852 that Solomon Northup convinced a carpenter in Louisiana to write three letters for him, and they eventually made their way to Saratoga and into the hands of Henry Bliss Northup. Although Henry initially delayed in responding to the letter because of his run for Senate, he traveled to the south in December of that year with documentation of Solomon’s freedom. After conferring with state legislators and one senator, they all agreed that Solomon had been wrongfully enslaved, and Henry and Solomon began their journey back to New York.
In the memoir, Solomon constantly refers to Henry Bliss Northup’s role in regaining his freedom. He describes seeing Henry Bliss Northup at his moment of rescue in detail.
“As my eyes rested on his countenance…the perfect memory of the man recurred to me, and throwing up my hands towards Heaven, I exclaimed, in a voice louder than I could utter in a less exciting moment, ‘Henry B. Northup! Thank God — thank God!’”
It is supposed that Solomon Northup passed away around 1857, and Henry Bliss Northup died in 1877.
Hart hypothesized that the film changed the identity of Solomon Northup’s rescuer so as not to confuse the men’s last names. In the late 18th century, Henry Bliss Northup’s great uncle owned Solomon Northup’s father, linking the two men in a way that prompts historical misunderstanding.
“Many master descendants and slave descendants, if they lived in the same area, might stay in touch and recognize and honor each other,” Hart said. “In this case, the Northup’s were a rather well-to-do family, and I think there was an ongoing paternalistic relationship between Solomon and his family and Henry Bliss and his family. I think the director [McQueen] was probably afraid that it might confuse the audience. If the rescuer had the same last name as Solomon did, then viewers might think that Solomon’s master had come to secure him, which we know was not the case.”
Hart is hopeful that more can be discovered about Henry Bliss Northup, especially about his time at the College.
“We don’t know if he read Solomon Northup’s memoir, but I’d like to think that he did,” Hart said.
The restored portraits will be on display at the museum sometime next fall.
(02/26/14 11:18pm)
The dedication of a new Steinway concert grand piano brings President of the Julliard School, Dr. Joseph Polisi, to the Kevin P. Mahaney ’84 Center for the Arts on Saturday, Mar. 1 for a public lecture on “The Arts, Education and the Human Experience.” Awarded an honorary Doctor of Arts degree from the College in 2010, Polisi has served as the sixth president of the prestigious conservatory of dance, music and drama for 29 years, establishing a revised curriculum with an emphasis on the humanities and the liberal arts.
Polisi’s history with the College started decades ago. He worked at a summer festival at the University of Vermont in Burlington, frequently making trips to Middlebury to shop, dine and tour the College. His wife, a French teacher, was well aware of the prestigious language programs at the College and his daughter eventually attended a Language School program at the Vermont campus over the summer. Upon receiving his honorary doctorate, Polisi became better acquainted with the President, his wife and the Middlebury community.
“I’m very honored to be asked back to inaugurate this new instrument,” Polisi said.
Polisi looks forward to discussing the lasting positive impact the new piano will have on the College in years to come, as well as exploring the relationship between conservatory and liberal arts study. Julliard’s 600 undergraduate and 300 graduate students thrive in the world renowned Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts in New York City, but Polisi sees many possible connections between his school and Middlebury’s rural community of around 2,500 undergraduates.
“I’ll be talking about the value of the study of the arts in the context of a liberal arts education, but also how the arts are an important part of the fabric of our society,” Polisi said.
In 2005, Polisi wrote The Artist Citizen, discussing the responsibility of the artist to present their art to communities around the world and to make people understand the importance of the arts in any environment.
“I’m very passionate about the idea that within the context of a liberal arts environment like the wonderful program at Middlebury that students, faculty and administrators understand how the integration of the study of the arts and the appreciation of the arts on campus can really enhance the entire environment, not just the artistic environment,” Polisi said. “People who can participate in a serious digestion or understanding of the arts really are more empathetic, more involved in their own society and more able to have a positive influence on everybody in their communities.”
An accomplished scholar of music, public policy and the arts with two books to his credit, Polisi is also a successful bassoonist with a solo recording of 20th century bassoon. In addition to holding three graduate degrees in music from Yale University, Polisi also has a Bachelor’s degree in political science from the University of Connecticut and a Masters of Arts degree in international relations from Tufts University. Frequently speaking on issues of arts and education, Polisi has founded many programs that focus on mentorship and the importance of an interdisciplinary education. In 2006, he helped to found the Carnegie Hall/Julliard Academy, a program designed to prepare post-graduate musicians to be leaders in the arts and education.
“I’m always speaking to our Julliard students about their sense of mission and their need to really be effective advocates of the arts once they get off stage,” Polisi said. “The performance is one thing and that’s extremely important, but then they have to be active as missionaries, so to speak, for the arts.”
President Polisi’s free lecture will take place on Mar. 1 at 4:30 p.m. in the Concert Hall of the Kevin P. Mahaney ’84 Center for the Arts. An evening concert will take place at 8 p.m. on the same day.
The concert will be a festive celebration of the new instrument featuring performances and discussions from several members of the College community. Audience members will first be shown a short film describing the selection of the piano at the historic Steinway factory in Queens, New York.
The Steinway model D concert grand piano arrived at the Concert Hall of the Kevin P. Mahaney ’84 Center for the Arts on Nov. 26, a gift of the Ray, Meredith and Nathaniel Rothrock ’12.5 family in honor of President Liebowitz and his wife, Jessica. The 9-foot, 990 pound piano will reside in the Concert Hall for use by faculty, students and performers participating in the College’s Performing Arts Series.
Chair of the Music Department Greg Vitercik is excited about the new musical opportunities created by the piano.
“It opens up a sound world that is simply not available on the instruments any of us encounter in daily life,” Vitercik said in an email. “And that new sound world offers a range of expressive and coloristic effects that cannot be produced on lesser instruments, as well as possibilities — and challenges — of control that only exist at the rarified level.
In January and February, President Liebowitz sent out a campus-wide email inviting students, faculty and staff to register for ten minute slots to play the Steinway over the second week of J-term and the first week of the spring term.
Steinway enjoys the reputation of being the concert piano of choice around the world, with each instrument containing over 12,000 parts and taking over a year to manufacture by hand. A selection committee of concert soloists Richard Goode and Paul Lewis, Middlebury Affiliated Artist Diana Fanning ’71 and Gwendolyn Toth ’77 traveled to the legendary New York factory in late October, testing five potential candidates that might suit the acoustics of the Concert Hall.
Nathaniel Rothrock was an active participant in theater, musicals and the College Choir in his time as a student.
“Middlebury actually approached us about acquiring a new piano,” Rothrock said. “The old concert piano in the hall was close to 15 years old, maybe more, and the school had decided that it was time to get a new one. We discussed it and decided to help fund the gift. As we thought about it, we realized something important. President Liebowitz and his wife, Jessica, who is a concert level pianist, have been and continue to be huge supporters of the performing arts at Middlebury. So with the proviso that the piano be named in their honor, we decided to make the gift.”
The concert will showcase the piano’s versatility by presenting a unique mix of genres. Cameron Toh ’17, Shannia Fu ’17, and David Heschel Liebowitz, all students of Fanning, will perform works by Barber, Debussy and Satie, while Gwendolyn Toth will present early keyboard pieces by Beethoven. Affiliated Artist and Director of Jazz Programs Dick Forman will pair with Felix Klos ’14 to play jazz selections. Bass/baritone Rothrock will close the program with songs by Schubert, Lerner and Loewe and Sondheim, accompanied by Associate Professor of Music Jeffrey Buettner.
Vitercik thinks that both performers and audience members will benefit from the high quality craftsmanship of the Steinway.
“We have a long record of bringing some of the finest pianists in the world to our stage, and to have an instrument of this quality will allow them to perform at the highest level of their artistic potential,” he said. “Audiences, too, will experience an unparalleled richness, subtlety, and expressive range in those performances.”
The concert will be followed by a reception in the Mahaney Center lobby. The event is free but requires the reservation of tickets through the Box Office.
The community has an excellent opportunity to hear Dr. Polisi’s lecture and watch the combination of arts and education in action at the concert celebration of the new Steinway piano. The dedication marks what is sure to be just the start of many years of enjoyment for the College.
(02/19/14 9:38pm)
Let’s talk about vaginas. Or, rather, let’s talk about The Vagina Monologues, a student produced play performed on Valentine’s Day in the Hepburn Zoo.
Writer Eve Ensler ’75 wanted to start a taboo conversation about female genitalia, and she started interviewing women about their views on sex, relationships and violence, compiling a piece that is ultimately a celebration of vaginas and femininity as well as a movement to stop violence against women. The monologues themselves are endearing and whimsical, heartbreaking and powerful, enlightening and shocking. Inspired by interviews with over 200 women of varying ages, ethnicities, nationalities and sexual experience conducted over two decades, the play reveals tales of feminine oppression, liberation, discovery and shame by discussing that most elusive part of the female figure: the vagina.
Premiering in 1996 at the HERE Arts Center in New York City, The Vagina Monologues also enjoyed a limited run at the Kevin P. Mahaney ’84 Center for the Arts in the same year. Eventually gaining popularity through a word of mouth campaign, the play has been performed at Madison Square Garden and was featured in an HBO television adaptation.
Traditionally performed around the country on Valentine’s Day, the productions usually benefit rape crises centers and shelters for women. All of the proceeds from Middlebury’s production were donated to WomenSafe, an Addison County organization working toward the elimination of physical, sexual and emotional violence against women.
Director Rebecca Coates-Finke ’16.5 became involved in the production through discussions about staging the play with fellow Chellis House Monitors.
“I volunteered [to be director] kind of on a whim,” Coates-Finke said. “I’ve had a solid amount of experience working on shows in the Hepburn Zoo and I’ve worked closely with so many directors I wanted to try my hand at it. Also, I’d never seen The Vagina Monologues and that seemed so wrong.”
One of the first monologues, “Hair,” perhaps says it best. “Vagina” is not an enjoyable word. As the piece points out, it sounds more like a harsh medical instrument than a revered part of the body, and saying it in any context will undoubtedly provoke squirms and blushes of embarrassment from people of any age or gender. The Hepburn Zoo was packed with male and female audience members from ages 18 to 65, and Coates-Finke began the show by informing the crowd that hearing words like “vagina,” “pleasure” and “clitoris” throughout the night did not constitute an emergency. These are words that do not appear in everyday conversation, but The Vagina Monologues aimed to, at least for a few hours, create a forum for open dialogue about a part of the body that has so much effect on women, and indeed, men, but is rarely acknowledged or discussed.
“When Eve Ensler wrote the Vagina Monologues, she tore away the stigmatizing silence surrounding women’s vaginas,” wrote Coates-Finke in the Director’s Note of the program. “She gave a voice to thousands of stories and empowered thousands more to spread them. In this moment…we are adding ourselves and our stories to the many that have come before, and the many still to come.”
As Coates-Finke noted, the show began with a piece written and performed by Jiya Pandya ’17 based on interviews with every member of the cast. Aptly named “The Period Monologue,” Pandya breathlessly exclaimed her 12-year-old excitement at becoming a member of the exclusive ‘club’ of womanhood only to discover that the implications of this transition involved serious mental and physical pain, confusion and maturity. The choice to begin with an original, relatively relatable monologue successfully eased the audience into the rest of the play.
Four narrators, Katie Carlson ’15, Akhila Khanna ’17, Marium Sultan ’16 and Helen Wu ’16.5 provided contexts for each of the monologues, discussing the origin of each piece and adding statistical information when necessary.
Dana Tripp ’14 sat down as if she was about to get a haircut in “Hair,” but she wasn’t talking about the hair on her head. Looking pointedly at the audience, she explained her husband’s request for her to remove the hair around her vagina and her subsequent embarrassment and physical pain. The cheating husband insisted that it would save their relationship, and even a female marriage counselor agreed that everyone must make sacrifices, but in the end Tripp’s character decided that the hair was there for a reason and that it is a personal decision for each woman. The audience was nervous, shifting and looking around for other reactions, but Tripp’s captivating delivery of the monologue successfully captured the attention of the spectators, leaving everyone wondering what else to expect.
In each interview, Ensler asked, “What would your vagina wear?” and “If it could speak, what would it say?” and the responses are peppered throughout the piece.
Two ensemble presentations near the beginning of the play aimed to provide a sampling of responses to these questions. In the second, more memorable piece, the women paired up and formed – what else – visual vaginas, hands stretched up and together and bodies curving inward. As each pair recited a phrase that vaginas said, their bodies moved outward and inward, ‘lips’ opening and closing as the words were spoken. Nervous laughter and squirms were rampant throughout the audience.
Fourteen women comprised the cast of the production, all dressed in black with a few key red accessories. The play included students from many majors united by their interest in feminism and portrayals of the female body. Seven of the actors were international students, a much higher percentage than is usually present in theater productions on campus.
“I’m proud of the women I’ve worked with—or I guess inspired would be a better word,” Coates-Finke said. “They are amazing, brave and bold, and they took risks without hesitation, even though for many of them this type of theater and/or these kinds of conversations are new and can be kind of intimidating.”
Adara Wicaksono ’17 acted the story of a woman in her 60’s who had never experienced an orgasm and only referred to her vagina as her “down there.” In “The Flood,” she recounted with nuanced pain and regret an encounter with a handsome young man from her adolescence, haltingly revealing that she had unwillingly flooded the seat of his car after their first kiss, prompting his judgment and her decision never to enter into relationships again. She remembered with glee her dreams of ‘Marlon and I,” in which she and Marlon Brando went out for dinner dates only for the restaurant to be flooded with water, fish and Marlon’s good friend, Al Pacino, swimming by. The embarrassment and longing caused by her natural bodily reaction was heartbreaking, and raises questions about why women (and men) are so afraid of vaginas.
Lorena Neira ’17 sported pink pajama pants as the rest of the cast circled around her, enraptured by her tale “Because He Liked to Look At It.” The audience was equally enraptured by Neira’s subtle use of humor and insight as she described Bob, an ordinary man who was not smart, interesting, funny or handsome. He was the most ordinary man she’d ever met, she explained, until their chance meeting led to a revelatory bedroom experience. Bob, it turned out, was ordinary in every way except that he wanted to look at Neira’s character - not her face, she soon discovered, but to really look at the essence of her – her vagina. Initially uncomfortable, Neira eventually described her most powerful and connected sexual experience through acceptance of her vagina’s existence and appearance.
Sarah James ’17 recounted another story of empowerment in “The Vagina Workshop,” in which she described her experience at a class full of women as they lay back on mats with mirrors, looking at their vaginas and eventually finding their clitorises.
While this may sound like the most uncomfortable workshop ever invented, James delivered the monologue with a gentle seriousness that distracted from the awkward nature of the class. For James’ character, finding her clitoris (“I’ve lost it! I’ve lost my clitoris!”, she exclaimed at one point to her instructor) reconnected her to her femininity and allowed her to embrace her vagina.
In deciding to incorporate multiple players into a dramatized rendition of each of the monologues, Coates-Finke created a more visually engaging theatrical experience, capitalizing on the vivid textual material and individual talents of each involved student. They also broke the mold with these innovative staging decisions, as the play is traditionally presented as a series of “single-actor-on-stage” monologues.
“The play was a little hard to grapple with at first. It’s usually done very informally with women just sitting on chairs to deliver their monologues, ” Coates-Finke said. “I didn’t want to do that because I didn’t like that from an artistic or aesthetic standpoint, and I wanted the women in the cast to be a constant and active part of every moment in the show.”
In perhaps the most lighthearted monologue of the night, Maeve Grady ’16.5 portrayed “The Woman Who Liked to Make Vaginas Happy,” describing her transition from a corporate tax lawyer to female dominatrix, strutting across the stage in red heels as she described the feeling of empowerment stemming from making women moan. As she culminated her monologue, each of the cast members rested back on their hands, facing away from the audience, each demonstrating one of the many moans classified by Grady, prompting the biggest laughs of the night. A few of the linguistically describable include the Jewish Moan—Oy, oy—and the Irish Catholic moan—Forgive me, Father!.
Positioned as a stark juxtaposition, Sandra Markowitz ’16 recounted one girl’s traumatic experiences from ages 5 to 16 in “The Little Coochie Snorcher That Could.” Markowitz described a familial rape that caused her to want to hide from her sexuality forever before detailing her “salvation” at age 16, when she was seduced by a powerful, 24-year-old woman who gave her such a positive sexual experience that she felt “healed,” though she never saw the woman again. This monologue originally included the line “If it was rape, it was good rape,” which was removed from later versions. Is it more heartbreaking that she was only able to start the healing process through another form of abuse, or is it a relief that she was able to again confront her sexuality? It is for the audience to decide.
Coates-Finke thinks that though the play is performed from a female perspective about the female body, people of any mature age can benefit from a viewing.
“Male-identified, male-bodied people do not belong in this play because it addresses oppression affecting female-identified people with vaginas,” Coates-Finke said. “But men should be feminists; men should support gender equality; men should seek solutions, and so this play is important in that it is educational and eye-opening for anyone to see. I love that this play is extremely sex-positive and body-positive. A lot of time is spent discussing the ways that our bodies do not function or look the way we want them to, and no time is spent talking about the awesome things they do for us—like sex!”
Celeste Allen ’16 burst onto the stage to confront a word with a mostly derogatory connation, “Cunt.” At the beginning of the performance, she unbuttoned her black dress shirt to reveal a tank top falling above “CUNT” spelled in red tape above the area it described. Bracing and cold, the word is almost more uncomfortable to say and hear than vagina, but Allen’s alternating rapid and slow patterns across the stage, fluid arm movements and smooth, relaxing voice worked to change that. By the end of the performance, the word did not sound as harsh or jarring. The monologue revealed that a word is only as embarrassing or crass as it is made out to be.
Jingyi Wu ’16.5 closed the show with a performance of “I Was There in the Room,” a monologue penned by writer Eve Ensler about watching her grandaughter’s birth. As Wu poetically described the opening and the motions of the vagina in childbirth, the rest of the cast formed a half-circle in front of her, each woman leaning against the cast member in front of her. As the birth progressed, the circle began to move, waving in and out until Pandya made her way, sitting on the floor, out of the middle. This piece of dance added a powerful layer to the monologue, prompting even more thought about what childbirth really means for the female body.
Talking about the vagina is uncomfortable. Actually, even writing this article was uncomfortable. The Vagina Monologues asks why society is so scared to talk about this part of the female figure and invites women to open up about their own relationships with their vaginas. In sharing their stories, they connect with audiences around the world while bringing attention to the abuse and pain suffered by so many. It’s supposed to be uncomfortable, but Coates-Finke and the cast and crew of the College’s production tackled the task with grace and depth by adding choreography and personal experience. The audience laughed, squirmed and was forced to think, at least for a little while, about a subject that is usually completely ignored, which, in my mind, is a recipe for a great night at the theater.
(02/12/14 9:31pm)
The Town Hall Theater presented its eighth J-term musical, the legendary Les Miserables, to four packed crowds Jan. 23-26. This collaboration between the Town Hall Theater and the College Department of Music showcases well-known vocal and theatrical talents as well as student actors and singers from a variety of other academic disciplines. The intensive nature of J-term allows students from any department the opportunity to focus their undivided attention on the production of a fully staged musical in just three weeks. The results have proved wildly popular, with tickets to all four performances of Les Mis selling out on the first day of sales.
Full disclosure: as a musical junkie, Les Mis is one of my top five favorites. After countless hours spent listening to various cast recordings, one attempt to read the English translation of Victor Hugo’s original 1,500 page novel (currently paused at page 372) and a viewing of the 1998 dramatic adaptation with Liam Neeson and Geoffrey Rush, the music and story of Les Mis are extremely familiar to me.
The musical is one of the longest running in history and has been seen live by an estimated 65 million people in 42 countries, not to mention the millions of new viewers first exposed by the highly-publicized 2012 Hollywood production featuring Hugh Jackman and Anne Hathaway. Following the life story of Jean Valjean, an ex-convict who finds redemption through faith, honesty and hard work, Les Mis discusses heavy themes plaguing revolutionary France, such as prostitution, rampant crime, political unrest and poverty. The over 20 major and minor characters and extended timeline surely present any creative team with a unique challenge when adapting Les Mis.
As I took my place in the audience, I was excited and a bit nervous to see how the College would contribute to the long list of productions.
There is a brief, electric moment in a theater when the lights dim as the murmur of the crowd makes way for the tuning of the orchestra. Violins and violas play their final practice notes before the conductor raises her arms, and the audience takes a collective breath, waiting for the first measure to prompt the opening scene. In Les Mis, this anticipation of the unknown made way for the male members of the ensemble singing the first notes of ‘Look Down’, each sporting a prison uniform as they worked together to pull an off-stage ship. This scene also introduced the tense relationship between the main character, Jean Valjean, and Javert, the strict and intimidating police inspector who spends his life searching for the escaped Valjean in order to exact the justice he thinks is deserved.
The nine principal characters were excellently cast, with Quinn Bernegger ’13.5 tackling his last role at the College with nuance and determination. As the lead, Bernegger was required to be on stage for almost every scene, and his clear, powerful tenor was extremely well-suited for the wide range and emotion of song necessary to play the ex-convict turned honest man. The intensely emotional ‘Bring Him Home’ and ‘Who Am I’ were understandably met by rousing applause. Bernegger conveyed the heartbreak and morality of Jean Valjean through his advanced ability to shape words and music into an expression of complex character.
An imposing Javert appeared in the form of Mike McCann ’15, his height and black inspector costume combining beautifully with his strong vocals to create a believable antagonist to Valjean’s reformation. Especially powerful was ‘Javert’s Soliloquy,’ when McCann conveyed the inner turmoil of a man who realizes that his unfailing reliance on the morals of the law is no match for the genuine compassion and honesty of Valjean.
A few key props cleverly positioned on the grid of metal pipes at the back of the stage addressed the issue of conveying the many scenes and locations of Les Mis, allowing for the illusion of even more action off stage. A stained glass cross and a clock were just a few of the many props placed on the grid to indicate a change of time or place, and old doors were positioned in the second act to build the battle barricade between the on-stage revolutionaries and the off-stage French soldiers. Risers remained in the same U-shaped position throughout, allowing more opportunities for depth and travel without additional scenery. At times, the stage seemed incredibly sparse, sometimes only sporting one or two objects, but the smart blocking and captivating, colorful costumes allowed for the minimalist set design.
Evann Normandin ’14.5 played Fantine, a factory worker shunned by society and forced into prostitution to raise funds for her daughter’s care. Eventually selling her luscious locks for money, Fantine’s tragic downfall is captured in the iconic ‘I Dreamed a Dream,’ a song that reflects on the hopes of youth erased by the harsh realities of single motherhood and working class life in 1860s France. Fantine’s death and request of Valjean to care for her young daughter, Cosette, dictate the direction of the plot for the rest of the musical. A fan of Les Mis since she was 11, Normandin said that playing Fantine was a dream come true.
“She is such a complex and tragic character, and I enjoyed the process of pushing myself and being pushed and directed by Doug to find ways to let go of myself more in each rehearsal,” she said. “It was emotionally draining to play a character who falls so deeply into despair, and to access those emotions every night in rehearsal and then eventually performance definitely took a toll. She’s a character who is very much a victim and reacts to the often abusive treatment she receives, but the challenge for me was finding moments of strength, especially in ‘I Dreamed a Dream’ which is much more interesting for me when it doesn’t stay on one emotional note.”
Indeed, Normandin brought the sorrow and despair of Fantine alive in her short time on stage before her character’s death, her skilled voice cracking appropriately with emotion as her character declined physically and emotionally.
Costume designers Danielle Nieves ’10 and Krista Duke ’15 crafted exquisitely detailed, visually stunning costumes that provided an excellent complement to the powerful music of Les Mis. From the silver buckles on Javert’s police uniform to the garish floral print on Thenardier’s pants to the intricate rouching and layering on the prostitutes’ dresses, details propelled the costumes from good to phenomenal.
Adam Milano ’15 used his experience as a member of the Otter Nonsense Players comedy group to inject laughter into the occasionally somber themes of the musical, prancing onto the stage as the crooked innkeeper in ‘Master of the House,’ and delivering the complicated, quick lyrics of the song with ease.
Dana Tripp ’14 proved the perfect pairing as the innkeeper’s wife, showcasing strong vocals and comedic timing as she proved her wit and intelligence while lamenting her position as the partner of a lousy criminal. Together, Tripp and Milano formed a well-loved pair, garnering a rousing cheer from the audience as they took their final bow.
The 24 members of the ensemble added immensely to the work of the principal characters, contributing to the gorgeous harmonies of ensemble songs such as ‘Lovely Ladies,’ the whimsically choreographed ‘At the End of the Day,’ and the central ‘One Day More.’ The high quality performances were telling of the exceptional talents of each cast member.
Adding even more to the polished product was the subtle presence of the orchestra, comprised of twelve student and community musicians and conducted by Hannah Rose Rommer ’08.5. The sweeping, enchanting melodies of Les Mis are the backbone of the piece, some themes repeating many times throughout the show to tie specific events or characters together. The orchestra was relatively small but powerful, adding a captivating layer of dimension.
As the second act progresses, Fantine’s daughter, Cosette, grows into a beautiful, refined young woman under the protection of Valjean, and her innocence and foray into first love were captured by Julianne Wieboldt ’14, whose high soprano voice easily met the challenges of the score. Cosette falls for a brave young revolutionary, Marius, played by Thomas Scott ’15. Scott’s understated, soothing voice matched well with his character, who must grapple with the death of his fellow revolutionaries after finding his ‘one true love.’
Watching the young lovers from the sideline is Eponine, daughter of the low-class Thenardiers who has known and loved Marius for some time. Alyssa Dillon ’15.5’s smooth, wide-ranging voice portrayed the heartbreak of unrequited love beautifully; love and regret combined in songs ‘On My Own’ and ‘A Little Fall of Rain,’ in which Eponine dies in the arms of her beloved, comforted in her last moments by Marius’ proclamation of platonic affection.
Not to be left out is Mohan Fitzgerald ’14, whose powerful vocals and expressions lent themselves nicely to Enjolras, Marius’ best friend and brave proponent of the revolution.
Eryn Diehl, Lillea Isham and Tyler Giorgio were excellent as young Cosette, young Eponine and Gavroche, the three children’s roles in the musical. All three displayed high levels of professionalism and talent as they sang of hopes for better days and showed maturity beyond their years.
Normandin, who is a double major in Theatre and English, notes that the J-term production experience is distinct from a typical semester-long schedule.
“I’ve been exposed to theatre that makes me think deeply and critically for an entire semester in faculty shows,” she said. “The J-term musical has been an entirely different experience in terms of the somewhat universal appeal of Les Mis and the expedited work schedule. We work so quickly that sometimes you’re still finding important moments in dress rehearsal, and that freshness can be exhilarating.”
Director Doug Anderson, Music Director Carol Christensen and the over 60 involved students presented a fresh, engaging adaptation that proved equally accessible to long-time fans and first-time viewers of the 25-year-old musical. Les Miserables is full of death and despair, but ultimately has grown in popularity because of its messages of hope and strength in the face of adversity. Middlebury’s adaptation was ambitious, powerful and ultimately, a huge success. In my mind, there is no question as to why the J-term musicals have proven so popular after watching Les Mis.
(12/05/13 3:15am)
The Department of Theatre and Dance presented an ambitious, large scale production of David Edgar’s Pentecost, an enviably clever play combining high art and international relations in an exhilarating exploration of culture and the past and present value of art on Nov. 21-23.
Edgar, one of the most prolific playwrights of the post-1960s British generation, wrote Pentecost in 1994 as part of a trilogy of plays discussing negotiation in Eastern Europe.
“I wanted to posit a different way of looking at culture, a model which acknowledged that all cultures are fundamentally hybrids, which grow and develop in response not just to the urge for continuity but the exigencies of change,” Edgar is quoted as saying in the program.
In the first act, the audience was welcomed into an unidentified Eastern European country, shortly after the fall of the Berlin Wall, as national art curator Gabrielle Pecs, played by Tosca Giustini ’15, and proper British art historian Dr. Oliver Davenport, portrayed by professional actor Jeffries Thaiss, discussed Pecs’ belief that she had discovered a piece of art that could elevate her small, unnoticed country onto the world stage and completely alter European art history.
The painting was gradually revealed through a series of complex and masterful set manipulations; at first only visible through the removal of a few bricks, it was then completely covered for most of the first act as it was prepared for removal and restoration.
Edgar established the multiplicity of language from the start with Pecs and Davenport discussing colloquialisms alone before being joined by a confident and often humorous cast of supporting characters who revealed – in multiple, sometimes overlapping languages – their own, often selfish, reasons for wanting the painting’s preservation or removal.
Thaiss and Giustini set the tone of the play from their first enigmatic lines, Giustini overflowing with energy as she masterfully delivered copious amounts of dialogue in an Eastern European accent.
Halfway through the first act, Assistant Professor of Theatre Alex Draper lit up the stage as stereotypical ‘arrogant American’ art historian Leo Katz, carrying an equal amount of confidence and assumption to ferociously deny that a work of any importance could be found in such an ‘insignificant’ country. What ensued in the remainder of the act was an engaging battle about the painting’s identity, removal from the church and final destination.
Professor of Theatre and director Richard Romagnoli explained that the investigation and exploration of the painting was his main reason for choosing the play.
“The significance of the painting is very moving and cathartic for me,” he said. “I’m hoping that audiences found one way or another into the play, but I think the weight of the painting itself is one way that could be useful for everyone.”
Throughout the play, 12 languages were spoken, giving the audience a true sense of what it feels like not to fully understand, often having to guess from body language, just like the English-speakers on stage, what a character was saying.
Draper noted that the dialogue proved to be one of the most difficult parts of the play.
“There’s a script, but just like in music, not all of it is played at the same volume or focus,” Draper said. “We had to figure out, if four people are talking at once, which happens a lot, what dialogue the audience needed to hear as the featured solo and what was backup.”
Just as the audience started to feel comfortable with the complex debate surrounding the painting, Edgar hit the audience with a shocker at the end of the first act. Katz, Pecs and Davenport were suddenly taken hostage as a multi-cultural group of refugees seeking political asylum burst into the church and demanded entrance into the countries of their choice.
Draper beautifully portrayed Katz’s remarkable and subtle personal transformation, ultimately handling the stressful situation much better than the usually calm and understanding Davenport, who nervously requests insulin for his diabetes and only intensifies the situation by infuriating Yasmin, the refugee leader played by Mari Vial-Golden ’14.
As the refugees realized that the painting on the wall may be even more valuable than their human prisoners, their individual stories came out. Full of pain, misery and in some cases, hope, the stories sparked sympathy in the hostages and the audience, despite constant threats of violence and ever present weaponry. The refugees interpreted each other’s folk tales and made music, showing that they were really not that different from their hostages, even as they threatened the painting and their prisoners.
Draper was moved both by the actors around him and the transformation of his character.
“The last ten days of the rehearsal and through the performance, somebody else would just floor me at a different time in the play,” Draper said. “In the performance, the actual stories of individual refugees for me, Leo Katz, became a whole lot more substantial and weighty than I had originally realized.”
Indeed, each actor embodied their character so strongly that I honestly forgot I was watching a play.
“Those who auditioned were just the best – they were curious, they were eager, questioning, tentative and reticent,” said Romagnoli. “They began to embrace the work so thoroughly and entirely while not losing the sense of reticence, but having enough confidence as a company that they were doing the right thing as an individual in the context of the collective. The student’s capacity to rise to the challenge and meet it so totally is what it’s really about.”
Part of what made Pentecost so impressive was the sheer size of the cast. The group, one of the largest companies in theatre department history, consisted of 28 students, professors and professional actors, as well as many professional crew members including a fight director and scenic painter.
Romagnoli and Draper sang the praises of the collaboration between professional and student actors.
“It’s a great combination,” Romagnoli said. “The professional actors are a great influence by example because they are the embodiment, with respect to their talent and their career journey, of where many of the students who wish to pursue acting can be. It’s one thing to be taught by a professional actor in an acting class, but that same person in a production teaches very differently and the whole educational process is much more intuitive and inductive.”
Draper agreed that the rehearsal process is an invaluable tool to all involved.
“The students will try our suggestions right away, and in that way, the adults need to remain students,” Draper said. “At the same time, the students need to be always learning to be proactive and at certain times to fight for what they think is the right thing to be doing in that moment because there comes a time when the actor knows more about their character than the director.”
Unlike many other theatre department productions, Pentecost boasted a heavy representation of the abundant international community on campus, and only two of the characters in the play are native English speakers.
Anis Mebarki ’15, who played Raif, an Azeri refugee, is from Algeria and speaks seven languages. Mebarki chose to act in Pentecost because it spoke to a part of his religious identity in practice and theory.
“The idea of the politics of asylum and migration and civil war is a very significant part of my family’s identity,” Mebarki said.
Mebarki went on to say that Pentecost holds a unique relevance with political and historical education for the whole community.
“One of the students at the lunch preview said ‘So, how was it for you to be part of a play that exhibits a sort of reality that is so distant from what we as Middlebury students know and do and experience?’ and I said, ‘No, there are a lot of people at the College, including myself, who did witness a sort of post-Socialist transition, at the end of the Cold War a transition into civil wars and the like, and I know for a fact that there are others,’” Mebarki said. “I think Pentecost helps make it a more pertinent reality for the audience members, and I was frankly just surprised that people assumed that we all come from this shared, safe, sheltered experience which is not the background we all had.”
The problem, as the play escalated to its finish, was that only four of the refugees were eventually given offers of freedom. The hostages were clearly moved by this denial of the refugees, and by this point, the audience was too, watching on the edge of their seats as the refugees became understandably angry.
The truly moving scene in the play came as a shock. Yasmin moved to torch the painting when suddenly, loud sirens sounded and three commandos broke through the wall of the church, forever destroying the painting, then opening fire as the theater got pitch dark. Each shot of the machine guns pierced through the dark, sparks illuminating tiny spaces on stage as screams rang out and the loud sounds of violence echoed heavily through the space.
As the lights turned back on, Pecs, Katz and the audience had to swallow the fact that the refugees were subject to unspeakable violence when they, despite their threats, never harmed anyone or anything.
Part of Pentecost’s complex message is that so much can be lost in translation, whether it be in a simple conversation, the verification of a painting’s identity or a life-or-death hostage situation. Katz and Davenport must learn how to survive in a situation where English is not the primary language, and Edgar uses his own artistic expression to convey that art has a unique and profound power to unite and divide.
Starting with a fascinating script, Romagnoli, Draper and every other member of the cast and crew crafted a thought-provoking, riveting production through strong individual efforts and a rare collective cohesion, creating a play that will last in the minds of the audience well into the future.
(11/20/13 11:27pm)
In response to criticism that he could only write for men, playwright David Mamet penned the farcical “Boston Marriage” in 1999, following two Victorian era women as they explore their relationships with each other and the people who surround them. The play enjoyed a Nov. 14-16 run in the Hepburn Zoo, delighting audiences with its careful presentation and razor sharp wit.
Members of the audience may have been expecting a scene out of a Jane Austen novel when they walked into the Zoo, greeted by Victorian furniture and harpsichord music playing overhead. Many were happily surprised by the vibrancy with which they were greeted over the next 90 minutes. The senior acting work of Christina Fox ’13.5 and Meghan Leathers ’13.5, turned the play “Boston Marriage” into a comic piece, examining relationships between gender and class through a fresh, playful lens, engaging the audience from the first quip to the final bow.
After much deliberation, Fox and Leathers departed from typical theater department productions and the roles they have filled in their time at the College to chose a play recommended to them by Assistant Professor of Theatre Alex Draper.
“It’s hard to find a comedy featuring two female protagonists that aren’t full of angst or misery,” Leathers noted. “The leads in this play are fantastic – they’re exciting and great and strong and absurd, and it’s been really challenging and fun to play with.”
“Boston Marriage” is built around the protagonists’ dynamic dialogue. Anna, played by Leathers, is the narcissistic, impossibly witty mistress of a wealthy man and a friend of Claire’s, acted by Fox, a woman visiting to tell the news of the new love of her life – a young woman. The emotional and physical tension between the leads is instantly recognizable, Anna sporting her lovers’ family heirloom emerald necklace, touching its garish size to reinforce its representation of all she has acquired. The necklace proves to be the key to the development of the plot, Claire’s lover stealing away to Anna’s residence only to find her father’s necklace sitting on a strange woman’s neck. Both women are potentially ruined financially and socially, and they turn to each other for comfort and complaining.
Anna and Claire are in a Boston marriage, a term used to refer to two single women living together in Victorian times with possible sexual implications. They curse each other’s faults, often likening one another to some sort of farm animal, only to be driven together by moments of affection and desire.
The two women are delightful to watch, with members of the audience jealously wishing that they too could join the action. The deliciously wicked gleam in Fox’s eye as she counters Leathers’ practically perfect comedic timing, along with Leathers’ revelling in the depth of her character, delivering line after line of complex, nuanced dialogue, is truly a treat for the audience.
Mamet does not give Claire as many bracingly funny lines, and in the wrong hands she could appear to be a weaker, more subservient version of Anna, but Fox breathed vibrant life into Claire with a graceful, realistic subtlety that revealed her character’s power over the duration of the show.
The only other character who appears in the play is Anna’s maid, Catherine, who finds herself in her own difficult situation as she must grapple with the possibility of pregnancy and the power that men hold over women in Victorian society. Charlotte Michaelcheck ’15 quickly became an audience favorite, charming with her character’s accent and tendencies for emotional outbursts (as well as, I suspect, Michaelcheck’s extremely expressive eyebrows and facial expressions).
Though the Irish – no, Scottish – maid has intimate access to Anna and Claire’s lives, in many respects she holds, like the audience, the role of an objective viewer, separated by class, nationality, and her love for men. Seemingly oblivious and occasionally rendered incompetent by nervousness, Catherine surprises the audience and the women she serves with an unassuming, profound wisdom that even the clever and confident Anna and Claire do not possess. These bits of wisdom interrupt a role that, if possible, provided even more comic relief to the play than the two characters already displayed.
Indeed, some in the audience were simply giddy in anticipation of the next laugh, gasping between breaths and nervously waiting for one of the three characters to continue the comedic rhythm.
Costume designer Elisabeth Harmor ’16 provided Leathers and Fox with beautiful wardrobes, supplying them each with two intricate Victorian period outfits, as well as accessories for a game of psychic dress up that did not disappoint.
Overall, the show had a vitality of spirit that radiated into the audience.
Director Jake Schwartzwald ’14 has been following Fox’s and Leather’s thesis play production process since last year, first agreeing to direct another play that the pair had selected before transitioning to “Boston Marriage” this semester.
“We sought Jake out because we knew we wanted to do a comedy and Jake is a comedian and we knew he could work with us and guide us in that comic spirit,” Leathers said.
Indeed, Leathers, Fox and Schwartzwald enjoyed an ease in each other’s company over casual lunch that transferred into a fluidity of performance onstage. It takes a lot of effort to appear at ease, and Leathers, Michaelcheck and Fox performed gracefully and naturally under Schwartwald’s direction.
The audience responded so well to “Boston Marriage” because it made them laugh, and after they finished laughing, they realized that Anna, Claire and Catherine were more relatable than first appearances may have allowed.
“Though this play is so different from Mamet’s other works, it’s very much the same in dealing with wealth, appearances, personal gain and the emptiness that can create,” Fox said. “There is timelessness to romantic relationships and the competitiveness within them.”
“Anna and Claire are competing for and with each other,” Schwartzwald succinctly noted.
“Boston Marriage” speaks to lives left behind and sacrifices made to search for better days, whether one is leaving a homeland to serve wealthy women or rejecting passion for a female friend to find financial security in a man. The audience left satisfied, connecting with each of the characters through their humor and pain, relating to women seemingly worlds away.
Some of the plays put on by the theatre department are thought-provoking, disturbing, subversive and puzzling, and those plays need to be shown to an audience of college students that may not usually be exposed to that certain brand of theatre. It is important to also remember that sometimes people go to plays to at once forget their troubles and be reminded that they are not alone, and that this is equally important, as “Boston Marriage” showed. As Anna sagely notes, “We must have a pie. Stress cannot exist in the presence of a pie.”
(11/06/13 9:42pm)
The Department of Theatre and Dance celebrated Halloween with a presentation of Caryl Churchill’s Vinegar Tom, a subversive tale of witchcraft and female power running from Thursday, Oct. 31 through Saturday, Nov. 2.
Audience members entered the Seeler Studio Theatre in the Kevin P. Mahaney Center for the Arts to find they would be sitting “in the round,” a wooden circle in the center of the stage with seating on all sides. Quotations projected onto two walls of the theatre exemplified harsh opinions from throughout history about the weaknesses of the female sex, thought to be naturally wicked simply because of differences in biology. Though the play follows behaviors that lead to accusations of witchcraft in one rural town, show director and Professor of Theatre and Gender, Sexuality and Feminine Studies Cheryl Faraone noted that the play grapples with a much larger issue.
“It’s a play about the control of an assault on women,” Faraone said. “I think that unfortunately this is an issue that has come to the forefront today.”
“History has not moved on; the removal of the gibbet is merely cosmetic,” she added in the show’s program.
Churchill’s play follows the loose young woman Alice, played by Christina Fox ’13.5, and her mother Joan, acted by Erica Furgiuele ’15, two unfortunate victims of the times, falsely accused of witchcraft by a middle class couple after things start to go wrong on the couple’s farm. Though there are only four minor male characters, they hold the power over the women they encounter. Margery, portrayed by Meghan Leathers ’13.5, thinks she is driven mad by the women she knows, not acknowledging that her abusive husband may be the one pushing her over the emotional ledge. Susan, a friend of Alice played by Chelsea Melone ’15, is wracked with guilt and eventually also accused of witchcraft after she aborts her baby with a potion, impregnated by a man and forced to explore the extent of her control over her body. Betty, acted by Shannon Fiedler ’14, runs from the possibility of marrying a wealthy man she does not love, only to be convinced and brainwashed that she will only be safe from accusations if she submits to the life she so despises.
Faraone was also enthused about her dedicated ensemble.
“This is a very strong group. Some are seniors, some are brand new to me,” Faraone said. “I’ve been incredibly fortunate with these students. Their commitment to the play and its ideas has been absolute, and they take what Churchill has to say seriously. There is a lot of talent and a lot of smarts on that stage.”
Interspersed throughout the show were six songs composed by musical director and Affiliate Artist Carol Christensen, performed in three part harmony by singers Caitlin Rose Duffy ’15.5, Joelle Mendoza-Etchart ’15 and Dana Tripp ’14. The singers offered a stark visual and audial juxtaposition to the 17th century dress and speech of the play’s primary story, confidently strutting around the stage in modern day black cocktail dresses and colored tights and presenting intricately arranged, upbeat jazzy tunes. Despite this contrast, the lyrics of the songs soon proved to correlate with the themes of the main plot, discussing everything from the struggles of being a wife supporting a family to aging to a woman’s medical control over her body. Faraone, who has previously collaborated with Christensen, was extremely pleased with the musical director’s vision.
“She absolutely gets the juxtaposition of music and lyrics that shows the narrow lenses through which women are viewed,” Faraone said. “The songs are entertaining and a big contrast to the rest of the show.
Fielder worked as an actor, choreographer and dramaturge for Vinegar Tom for her senior work, drawing on previous dance experience to bring the harmonies alive.
“I think my favorite aspect of Vinegar Tom might actually be the singers,” Fiedler said. “The music is absolutely beautiful, and the stark contrast between the upbeat melody and the dark lyrics forces the audience to really confront the issues at hand. Because the singers are contemporary, it also makes the audience acknowledge that the issues raised in the show are not just problems they had back then, but, unfortunately, issues that we are still dealing with today.”
Near the end of the play, in a particularly uncomfortable scene, Matt Ball ’14 entered the stage as Packer, an accomplished witch hunter known for his ruthless treatment of witches. As Packer laid each suspected witch on an elevated platform and viciously prodded them for a sign of the devil, the intensity of the piece heightened to an extremely uncomfortable level, many in the audience forced to look away as the women’s legs were opened. Indeed, the scene should be unsettling, showing the subordination of Packer’s female accomplice as she justifies his actions and raises him to the level of a saint.
Faraone’s decision to stage the production in the round was brilliant, allowing for a range and depth of motion impossible to achieve with a typical 180-degree view. Characters emerged from all four corners of the stage, cleverly moving around the circle to give each audience member a unique view of the action. Actors and singers communicated directly to the psyche of the audience, hugging the edge of the circle and making eye contact with spectators. A ladder leading to the balcony seating area of the theatre maximized the spatial possibilities of the show, allowing the actors to move horizontally and vertically to present the tale.
Fielder, besides acting as Betty and Kramer in the play, performed all necessary research about the time period, treatment of women and witchcraft, communicating to the cast how each of their characters may have actually behaved or felt at the time.
In the end, it is not the actual hanging of the witches or the emotional torment coursing through the women’s minds that is the most disturbing. In the final scene, two females appear as Kramer and Sprenger, two real men who wrote The Malleus Maleficarum, or “The Hammer of Witches,” in 1486. This text, one of the most famous treatises on witches, challenges arguments against witchcraft’s existence and instructs magistrates on how to identify, question and convict suspected witches. The statements in this text came to be widely recognized as truth at the time. Fielder read the text in preparation for the play.
“It was a crazy experience to read it and find out what people really thought of women back then – their fear and the circular logic of finding out a woman as a witch,” Fielder said. “For example, if a woman has a spot on her she is a witch, but if she doesn’t have a spot she can still be a witch. They basically made up the rules so that anyone accused of witchcraft could be hung for a witch.”
The actors, wearing tails and top hats, boldly asserted the reasons why women were more likely to be witches, listing the flaws of the sex and blaming women for all the wrongs in the world. They insisted that “cunning women are worst of all,” capable of greater wrongs.
This scene, coupled with the projected quotes from the beginning of the play, drove home the notion that prejudice against women has been all too real throughout history.
In the trio’s final song, “Lament for the Witches,” the singers hauntingly ask “Where are the witches?” before tauntingly answering, “Here we are, here we are.” Many characteristics of witchcraft in the play, such as heightened sensitivities, independence from men or individual intelligence, are very much present in women today, forcing women in the audience to ask if they would have been considered a witch just a few centuries ago. Faraone points out that women accused of witchcraft were generally those on the edges of society, displaying some fatal sign of difference.
“These were mostly single women struggling with poverty and age who found a scapegoat through witchcraft,” Faraone said.
Many left the theater having enjoyed the production, but feeling deeply unsettled by the theme. The entire ensemble did an excellent job of grappling with the difficult ideas of Churchill’s work, each actor sporting a British accent and a clear determination to make the play all it could be. In the end, they presented a cleverly designed, well-acted spectacle that left the audience with as many questions as answers, and oftentimes, those are the best plays of all.
(10/30/13 10:54pm)
At the age of 20, most people are still thinking about what they want to do when they “grow up.” This is not the case with up-and-coming musician Chancelor Bennett, who is by no definition ‘most people.’ Better known by his stage name Chance the Rapper, the Chicago born hip-hop artist is riding his growing momentum on The Social Experiment Tour, which stops at the College on Nov. 2.
But the concert created as much controversy as excitement, centering around an initial lack of tickets and an ongoing uproar over perceived misogyny and homophobia in his lyrics. In response, the administration asked Chance not to sing the controversial lyric “slap-happy faggot slapper” of "Favorite Song" or use any homophobic terms during his entire performance. According to Dean of the College Shirley Collado, Chance agreed to these terms.
Releasing his first mixtape, 10 Day, after a ten day suspension during his senior year of high school, Chance soon garnered 80,000 downloads and the attention of Forbes magazine, which featured 10 Day in their ‘Cheap Tunes’ column. This growing recognition landed Chance a spot opening for fellow rapper Childish Gambino on tour, and spurred further collaborations with rappers Hoodie Allen and Joey Bada$$. Acid Rap, Chance’s second mixtape released in April of this year, has already achieved 250,000 downloads and catapulted the rapper into wider national recognition. Featuring other artists such as Twista, Vic Mensa and Action Bronson, Acid Rap received critical acclaim and a BET Hip Hop Award nomination for best mixtape, landing him a spot on the famous Lollapalooza festival.
Will Brennan ’16 grew up in Chicago and attended school just a few train stops away from Chance’s school, Jones College Prep, learning of the rapper’s huge ambitions through mutual musical friends.
“He and other rappers on the Save Money label like Vic Mensa were making singles and dropping mixtapes left and right,” Brennan said. “But when I left Chicago I had no idea that Chance would make it as big as he has in recent months.”
The Middlebury College Activities Board, or MCAB, chose the fall concert because of demonstrated student interest in more rap and hip-hop and Chance’s up-and-coming potential, according to MCAB President Elizabeth Fouhey. Chance’s music was relatively well known on campus before his appearance was announced, discovered through the internet or on WRMC. Will Brennan started playing Chance on his own WRMC show because of the home connection, but became a much bigger fan after the release of Acid Rap.
“His jazz harmonies and electronic beats made a really interesting combination that I had never heard before,” Brennan said. “I didn't know what to think of his squawkish noises at first, but I realized it was a part of his playful nature as a musician. I think Chance makes music that is ultimately true to himself and more importantly true to the environment in which he surrounds himself in Chicago.”
Brennan was not the only student impressed by Chance’s distinctive sound. Adam Benay ’13.5 is a huge fan of Chance, listening to Acid Rap every day this past summer.
“I was getting so into him,” Benay said. “I heard a rumor the first or second day of school that he would be coming, and I was thrilled. Kid Cudi came my first semester and this was a nice capstone.”
When MCAB announced Chance the Rapper as the fall concert, needless to say, many people on campus were extremely excited. In an all-student email on Sep. 23, MCAB revealed the Nov. 2 concert date, announcing “Tickets on sale soon,” and directing people to look to Twitter and Facebook for more information. MCAB decided to advertise the event solely through their Facebook page and on the Middlebury Box office website, leaving many students without tickets. Late in the day on Oct. 14, the campus buzzed with news that the tickets to the concert had sold out, leaving many scrambling and willing to pay well above the $12 ticket charge to obtain a highly sought after ticket.
Fouhey explained that the organization decided how to advertise the event at MCAB executive board meetings, brainstorming for electronic advertising alternatives to the all-student email, which has in recent years experienced a push for limited use.
“MCAB made an online status which was shared by dozens of students on MCAB in the hopes that it would reach all corners of campus,” Fouhey said. “We thought that with the excitement on campus and word of mouth, the ticket release information would spread throughout the student body. Our standard procedure is to release the tickets and then do an advertising push once they have been put on sale.”
Benay, who had not ‘liked’ MCAB on Facebook, was one of the students shocked to discover that he had missed his opportunity to purchase a ticket.
“There was a huge portion of people who fell through the cracks,” Benay said. “I found person after person who said ‘What are you talking about? When did the tickets go on sale?’”
Due to uncertainties regarding the Memorial Field House construction, MCAB booked the concert in the McCullough Social Space, which only allowed for 600 tickets to be sold. In addition, the event was limited to students only and each ID holder could only purchase two tickets.
Many students may not be aware of the multi-step process involved in bringing an artist to Middlebury, including the important role of a middle agent to assist in communicating with MCAB which artists fit the desired genre, dates and price range. According to Associate Dean of Students JJ Boggs, bringing a desirable artist to rural Vermont for the right price is no easy task, and the MCAB committee decides which of the suggested acts fits the College.
“[MCAB has] a challenging job, and they have been criticized in the past for hosting unpopular shows,” Boggs said. “They are simultaneously trying to meet student interest, manage their budget responsibly, offer a variety of programming, and at the same time, consider ‘what might the social ramifications be for Middlebury College?’”
The problem with MCAB’s marketing strategy, according to many students, is that not every student is on Facebook, and even those who are may not check their accounts on a regular basis. At the time of the sale, MCAB had a little over 1,100 followers in a student body of 2,500, many of which were alumni. The organization had previously used posters and emails to advertise concerts and many criticized the decision to publicize through social media accounts that students had to join and actively use to be notified.
Fouhey acknowledged that the ticket release issue is a learning experience for MCAB and that the organization never meant to cause the dissatisfaction resulting from the social media marketing idea.
“We understand the frustrations of students about ticket sales,” she said. “It was never our intention to limit or restrict who would know about the ticket release information. We fully acknowledge that we could have done a better job navigating this ticket release. We will certainly learn from this mistake, and in the future we will look to broader methods of communication.”
Boggs reacted to an impassioned letter from Benay, first published on middbeat, and other general student concerns over the way the ticket sales were handled, quickly taking action. On Friday, Oct. 25, Boggs sent out an all-student email announcing that the College was able to secure Nelson Arena, and that more tickets would be made available for purchase soon due to the larger venue. The move to Nelson was motivated by safety concerns, as administrators realized that McCullough did not have the capacity for the crowd or the extensive set and entourage that travels with Chance.
“The real hero of this story is JJ Boggs,” said Benay, pleased with this outcome. “People are reasonable here and it’s very reassuring to know that things can get done.”
Lyric Controversy
In the email, Boggs also referenced student concerns expressed over the perceived misogynistic and homophobic language in Chance the Rapper’s lyrics. But for students like Luke Carroll Brown ’14, Co-Chair of the Community Council, limiting the lyrics and song choice was not enough.
“I think we can all agree that violent homophobia and misogyny are clearly out of bounds and have no place on this campus,” Brown said. “Multiple songs on Acid Rap depict actions that are in clear violation of our community standards, a reality that should prohibit Chance's presence on campus. This performance is especially upsetting in light of the recent hate-letter that managed to combine homophobia with the threat of rape against a student at this college; at a time in which our community should be finding ways of making maligned groups feel safer, we instead chose to hire an unabashedly homophobic singer to perform a concert.”
“The Concert Committee co-chairs and I were completely unaware of the content in question when we booked Chance,” Fouhey said. “The concerns over some of the lyrics were brought to our attention last Monday, Oct. 22. I do sincerely apologize. We never intended to hurt anyone.”
Besides Brown, the controversy has sparked a debate from a variety of other opinions about discussing homophobia on campus and applying community standards to artists visiting the College.
SGA President Rachel Liddell ‘15 said that Chance’s content is disrespectful and offensive to many students on campus, but worries that talk about completely canceling the concert would have crossed a line from concern to censorship.
“I find the content offensive, yet I respect the right of others to tell me things with which I don't agree,” Liddell said. “I don’t want people to be censored. I think that saying ‘bringing Chance to campus condones homophobia’ is an overstatement.”
Liddell further explained that if the concert had been canceled, Middlebury still would have been obligated to pay Chance for a show that never happened. She also believes that the debate resulting from the controversy is a positive outcome, asserting that, “the concert will spark the conversations people wanted to have.”
Boggs added that a complicated conversation took place when considering what to do about the concert.
“Right now we don’t have criteria for evaluating these kinds of decisions. Our struggle was to figure out how to be compassionate and effective allies amid all the complexity in a short period of time. We have a lot to learn from this situation, and we need to figure this out together,” Boggs said.
Collado personally spoke with Chance’s management, requesting that the artist leave homophobic lyrics out of his performance.
“[Chance] is aware of our concerns and our plans for an engaging and honest community forum,” wrote Collado in an email. “[Chance’s manager] said he understood and respected our request and that he was looking forward to being on campus and performing for us.”
Cailey Cron ’14 appreciated the censorship of the lyric, but feels that the controversy should be channeled to discuss a larger campus issue.
“If a lyric is missing, it’s not going to matter unless we seize the opportunity to have a conversation about homophobia on this campus,” Cron said. “Chance will come on Saturday and then on Sunday he will leave. This is not about Chance the Rapper. What we need to fight is blissful ignorance. Chances to address homophobia have come up twice in the past few weeks, and as a campus we need to talk. I’d like to see the administration take a strong, public stand against homophobia. I’m at a loss as to why that’s controversial.”
Benay disagrees with the idea of canceling the concert.
“Of all rappers, Chance’s stuff is way more about drugs and how hopeful he is about his future, and he has lyrics about anti-violence.”
While Benay disagrees with Chance’s use of the word ‘faggot’, he thinks that the compromise between Chance and Collado is reasonable.
“It sort of bums me out that he uses that word, but the idea that he would not come just because of that is sad especially because MCAB hit it out of the park in terms of choosing an act this time.”
To address this issue, Boggs announced that at 7 p.m. on Monday, November 4 in Axinn 229, Student Activities and MCAB will be hosting an open forum to discuss how decisions are made about all kinds of possibly offensive art forms at the College. The forum aims to allow candid conversation about the application of community standards to artistic expression and how they should affect choices about who is invited to campus. MCAB also hopes that this conversation will help to better inform the student group’s decision making in the future.
Forum
Cron does not think that the controversy should revolve around two groups of students pulled to join one extreme opinion or the other. “We’ve created a false choice between having performers violate community standards and censoring all dissenting opinion,” Cron said. “I hope we can use the concept as an entry point to a far more important conversation that has to do with us as a community and the relationship between the student body and administration. It is a hard conversation to approach if the administration hasn’t publicly stated its commitment to protecting and welcoming the queer community and concerns.”
Boggs has high expectations regarding the potential impact of the forum.
“I hope that while we wrestle with these issues, we can commit to listening carefully, act in ways that foster inclusivity, and bridge the divide that’s happening right now,” she said. “Knowing that this is just an initial conversation, I’m hopeful we can both show support for students who feel marginalized and influence MCAB’s work in positive ways.”
[CORRECTION: An earlier version of this article, as well as that in print, stated that "the administration asked Chance not to sing Favorite Song." This was incorrect; they asked Chance not to sing the lyric “slap-happy faggot slapper” or use any homophobic terms during his entire performance. ]
(10/09/13 9:16pm)
Filling Nelson Arena with pure, raw and powerful vocals, Angelique Kidjo asserted her musical abilities from the first spine-tingling note of her Oct. 3 concert. Backed by a band from international origins that included guitar, bass, bongo and western-style drums, the Beninese artist and philanthropist brought a unique mix of African-inspired songs and profound wisdom to the Middlebury community in an unforgettable night of music, dance and joy.
Angelique Kidjo has that rare kind of energy and charisma that instantly fills a room with warmth and light. Wrapped in a dress of bright colors and patterns, Kidjo confidently sang her first inspiring songs, exhibiting her energy through dancing across the stage, spinning, swinging her hips and kicking her feet with every note. At first, the audience seemed unsure of how to respond to the cheerful mix of funk, Afro-pop, jazz and soul that encompass Kidjo’s distinct musical genre. The crowd swayed to Kidjo’s powerhouse vocals, increasingly warming to the artist as she sang her undeniably catchy songs.
Throughout the show, Kidjo also sang covers of songs that inspired her as a child, citing at the John Hamilton Fulton Lecture the previous day that she admired Nina Simone, Aretha Franklin, Bob Dylan and particularly James Brown, who partially inspired Kidjo to learn English. In the fireside chat style discussion with Professor of Music Damascus Kafumbe, Kidjo discussed listening to Brown.
“I thought, ‘this is grooving too much for me not to learn the language!’,” she said.
Kidjo’s English and knowledge of at least six other languages were showcased impressively, each song increasing in energy until Kidjo all but demanded the audience to dance.
As the night progressed, something magical happened. Kidjo welcomed the audience into her heart, and they responded by welcoming her into theirs. Kidjo’s humble openness and honesty were first apparent when she stopped between songs to thank the many people who have touched her life, especially her father, who she credited for helping her get where she is today. Kidjo’s father allowed her to attend school and gave her the choice to follow her passions, a rare opportunity for girls in Africa at the time.
As a UNICEF Ambassador and founder of The Batonga Foundation, Kidjo works tirelessly to empower girls with the gift of health, education and choice. Kidjo credited her microphone as her “weapon of mass loving” and discussed the stupidity of making judgments about other humans based on color.
“Brain has no color. Wisdom has no color,” she said.
As I watched Kidjo blend her music and philanthropy on stage, I was again reminded of her talk the previous day. There, she captivated the audience with colorful personal anecdotes about her childhood in Africa, life in France, 30 years living in New York, her inspiration and maintaining her career. Kidjo offered wise words about her home continent to the audience of students, faculty and staff.
“People think Africa only has one story to tell,” said Kidjo. “We Africans have to learn to tell our story because we are blaming others for telling it for us.”
As Kidjo’s energy radiated from the stage, she painted a picture of an Africa full of sadness and hope, hardship and resilience, and community efforts for positive change. Kidjo conveyed the marvelous multiplicity and diversity of the continent she loves.
The mood of the concert changed when Kidjo asked the audience to sing along to the chorus of her song “Afrika” before descending the stairs into the crowd, stopping at regular intervals to interact and dance. The audience responded enthusiastically, screaming lyrics they had learned only moments before while dancing comfortably with Kidjo as if she was an old friend.
When Kidjo shimmied back onto the stage, she elevated the audience a step further by asking every person close enough to join her on the platform. I felt myself leaping on stage and taking my place parallel to Kidjo, facing the audience. I looked out into a sea of hundreds of faces, differing in age, race and color, but united in their expression of awe and respect for the woman who so easily erased boundaries and manufactured joy. Kidjo welcomed President of the College Ronald D. Liebowitz’s young son Ezra to stand with her, bending down to his level and singing “Happy Birthday” to him, accompanied by the enthusiastic audience.
For the rest of the concert, Kidjo put her trust in the audience’s ability to help her spread happiness and hope and make sure every person in sight was dancing. Focusing particularly on the children, Kidjo allowed herself to step out of the limelight for much of the end of the concert, welcoming an all-out dance party that was equally enjoyed by those on stage and those in the audience.
Professor of Dance Christal Brown stepped into the spotlight, as well as Liebowitz, who enthusiastically clapped to the beat. The dance off, featuring Kidjo’s bongo drummer, excited so much energy, so much happiness, and so much raw life that everyone momentarily forgot their troubles and simply joined together, a part of what Kidjo calls “the human family.”
Angelique Kidjo reminded us how lucky we are, gave us the gift of hope and joy, and challenged us to do the same for others. Though she sang in multiple languages about a continent on the other side of the world, Kidjo had every member of the audience dancing and having the time of their lives by the end of the night. After the lights went up and Kidjo and her band exited following the dance marathon, the majority of the crowd lingered and yelled for one more song, which Kidjo honored by returning to the stage and singing a Rolling Stones cover. The audience held on to Kidjo and her music as long as they could, showering her with love until she was no longer visible.
As I filed out of Nelson Arena, I felt slightly different then when I had entered the space. As an audience, we had whole-heartedly celebrated the power of life and, if only for a few hours, had our faith in humanity restored.
Stepping out into the cold October air, I realized that I had been walking next to Kidjo’s guitarist, Brooklyn musician Dominic James, who introduced himself enthusiastically and handed me a business card.
“It was great, it was great. I got 45 minutes of sleep, but it was great,” said James, beaming as people realized who he was and crowded around to shake his hand and tell him how much they’d enjoyed the concert. Many students, including Gabbie Santos ’17, lingered outside Nelson long after they exited the arena, still excited by the experience.
“I loved the energy, especially when she came off stage,” said Santos. “That was really special.”
With unparalleled grace and talent, Kidjo will live in the hearts and minds of those who witnessed her remarkable performance for a very long time. Kidjo left the Fulton Lecture with inspiring words.
“Be proud of who you are,” she said. “If your dream is not big enough, stop talking about it. Fear is what is holding us back. We can be whoever we want to be.”
Indeed, Kidjo’s life and career are marked by a passionate fearlessness that embodies the aspirations of many students, and we would all be wise to carry her advice with us as we forge our own paths.