2008 Woodie Awards
Theater Denied Its Due
Zach Mancher
Issue date: 11/15/07 Section: Commentary
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To teach is to do a praiseworthy deed. It is admirable to impart your knowledge and wisdom onto a younger generation with the hope that your pupils will one day have ideas, discoveries and achievements that will surpass even your own, and eventually bring them greatness. For this, I am, as a student and member of the Colgate community, extremely grateful. But the recent actions of a few of the faculty from the Humanities division have not followed this honorable mission.
Tuesday, Humanities faculty members banned the Student Theater Company from using the Ho Lecture Hall for their production of Ira Levin's comedic thriller, "Deathtrap." They did this because they said that the set, which was stored in one back corner of the room, was an eyesore, and was distracting to their classes. The set was rearranged and covered over in a white cloth in order to try and appease the aesthetic senses of the English department to no avail. The division rejected the set remaining in Ho for any length of time barring the actual shows, despite the fact that the set would take several hours to put up and take down every night. They did this even though the Humanities division, as it includes both the English and Theater departments, should support live theater on campus. Instead, it is attacking Student Theater with this decision.
But this story starts long before Tuesday morning. The show, as a vision of director senior Jon Cornfield, was officially born in the Masque and Triangle general meeting last April. With Student Theater already not allowed to perform in the best of the available spaces on campus (Brehmer Theater and the Chapel), the venue is an important part of any proposal. In recent years, Student Theater has been forced to improvise and use less than ideal spaces such as the Ho Lecture Hall, Lawrence 20, and Little 107. Cornfield's vision was to use the characteristics of the Ho Lecture Hall to transform the hall into the home of playwright Sidney Bruhl, inviting the audience into his living room to witness the theatrics. To this end, the set was designed by junior Allie Geiger, a theater major with a concentration in scenic design. It was designed over the course of the semester as an independent study class advised by Professor Marjorie Kellogg in order to embody the vision of the director. Geiger ingeniously incorporated not only the ambience of the room, but also the windows and center French doors as characteristics of the Bruhl house. This show and set were not just built with Ho in mind, but rather specifically designed to fit and even blend into the surroundings of the venue.
Tuesday, Humanities faculty members banned the Student Theater Company from using the Ho Lecture Hall for their production of Ira Levin's comedic thriller, "Deathtrap." They did this because they said that the set, which was stored in one back corner of the room, was an eyesore, and was distracting to their classes. The set was rearranged and covered over in a white cloth in order to try and appease the aesthetic senses of the English department to no avail. The division rejected the set remaining in Ho for any length of time barring the actual shows, despite the fact that the set would take several hours to put up and take down every night. They did this even though the Humanities division, as it includes both the English and Theater departments, should support live theater on campus. Instead, it is attacking Student Theater with this decision.
But this story starts long before Tuesday morning. The show, as a vision of director senior Jon Cornfield, was officially born in the Masque and Triangle general meeting last April. With Student Theater already not allowed to perform in the best of the available spaces on campus (Brehmer Theater and the Chapel), the venue is an important part of any proposal. In recent years, Student Theater has been forced to improvise and use less than ideal spaces such as the Ho Lecture Hall, Lawrence 20, and Little 107. Cornfield's vision was to use the characteristics of the Ho Lecture Hall to transform the hall into the home of playwright Sidney Bruhl, inviting the audience into his living room to witness the theatrics. To this end, the set was designed by junior Allie Geiger, a theater major with a concentration in scenic design. It was designed over the course of the semester as an independent study class advised by Professor Marjorie Kellogg in order to embody the vision of the director. Geiger ingeniously incorporated not only the ambience of the room, but also the windows and center French doors as characteristics of the Bruhl house. This show and set were not just built with Ho in mind, but rather specifically designed to fit and even blend into the surroundings of the venue.
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