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News From The Chair
by Tom Bloom, Chair, Associate Professor, Scenic Design
tab4p@virginia.edu
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 Tom Bloom |
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The following is a transcription of Tom Bloom’s comments at Drama’s graduation ceremony.
I'm excited to report that plans for the thrust theatre addition to the Drama building are picking up momentum. William Rawn Associates, Architects Inc. met in early May with a planning group comprised of various university offices and stakeholders in the project to outline the scope of the project. As it currently stands, construction is scheduled to begin sometime early 2011! The theatre will be named the Ruth Caplin Theatre, honoring the wife of Mortimer Caplin (College '37, Law '40).
Coinciding with the expansion of Drama is the naming of the arts precinct of Grounds for President Casteen and his wife Betsy Casteen. On April 16, 2010 the Board of Visitors adopted a resolution naming the arts precinct area the Betsy and John Casteen Arts Grounds. Buildings assembled in the arts precinct currently consist of The University Art Museum, Fayerweather Hall (Art History), Campbell Hall (Architecture), the Fine Arts Library, Drama, Ruffin Hall (studio art), and the Band Rehearsal Hall. http://www.virginia.edu/uvatoday/newsRelease.php?id=11180.
On May 23 Drama graduated 18 majors, 8 minors, and 10 Dance minors. Following is the text of my comments to graduating students and their families:
This past Fall term, as the Drama Department prepared for an extensive academic program review, one of our colleagues had the bright idea to post on the wall of this building's second floor, where faculty offices are located, a "free expression board" - a place where students could record for all to see their personal vision statements - objectives that they believed the department should embrace.
Responses, as one might imagine, ran the gamut...from the sorts of courses we should offer - to the kinds of plays we should produce. Many of the comments were relevant and thought-provoking - but also some of the postings could be characterized as - vision light - here are a few of those:
Offer Advanced Norwegian Flute Theatre Seminar
"More Shrines to Betsy Tucker"
"I just want to dance"
...and my favorite....
"Cadillacs for Grad Students"
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Comments turn into actions - and actions leave behind legacies. And no doubt that some of the visions inscribed on a hallway bulletin board by members of this class may eventually help define this department's academic mission.
But I would add that even though "Cadillacs for Grad Students" might boost our enrollment - not sure that it'll ever be part of our vision or mission statement.
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Vision! - Parents - you know all about this - things hoped for and things yet to come. Four or five years ago a vision for those things hoped for began with a simple question directed to your graduating high school student:
"...where are you going to school?"
- and now four years later another question is asked of your college graduate - "What are you doing after graduation?" Parents - no doubt in the past couple of months you've often fielded this question - and - I can relate - because my own son also graduated from UVa today - in History.
If you were at all like me, the run up to this day was filled with recollections of the highs and lows that my student experienced these past four years, - - - which started with the receipt of "the letter" or email announcing that your son or daughter was accepted into the University. Many of you, I'm sure, remember that day well - I know I can as we waited for our son to come home from practice, watching through the front window for his reaction as he pulled the UVa Admissions letter from the mail slot. Even though it was the "thick" letter some doubts still persisted for us - "what if" - as we simultaneously prepared ourselves for a celebration or to act the role of consoling parents if the decision contained in the letter wasn't favorable.
Well, the moment proved to be anything but disappointing - and was summed up by our son proclaiming that -"...this is the best day of my life." ...and I'm assuming that you met with similar responses from your son or daughter as they soon set out upon a 4 year course of discovery - filled with some the best experiences that they will have in their lifetime - but along the way they've also come to grips with some unpredictable, shocking, and upsetting experiences.
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When our students entered college they, for the most part, were uncertain of their future - 4 years have past and perhaps not much has changed for many seated here face uncertainty, once again.
An article by writer Mark Edmundson recently appeared in the May 2, Sunday Opinion section of the New York Times entitled The Pink Floyd Night School. Edmundson, who also is a professor in UVa's English Department, has a lot to say about vision in this article as he recalls the question he posed in 1974 to numerous fellow graduates to be -
"...so what are you doing after graduation?" - many responded saying - ...not much, ...just going to take things slow, hang out...
- and for that time, 1974 (ah, I know it well) those were the answers you were supposed to say. ...and Edmundson took these to heart - "wandering around" for 5 years - - eventually finding himself working stage crew at Roosevelt Stadium in Jersey City, doing set up for rock groups like the Grateful Dead, Alice Cooper, and Queen. But one show in particular that he worked on, the Pink Floyd concert, took on a special significance years after the event.
Edmundson recalls that Pink Floyd wanted a parachute-like white silken canopy inflated with helium to float above the stage during their show. Inflating the canopy, floating it up, and teathering it to the stage was fairly simple - but reeling it in during the show's strike was another matter because no one, he recalls, could locate the release valve in order to deflate the helium-filled cloud. After several failed attempts to ground the cloud that went on well into the early morning hours, the crew chief - Jimbo - (who according to Edmundson looked like a good-natured Viking) cut through the ropes tethering the helium filled canopy to the stage, releasing it to the wind. All watched, says Edmundson, "...as the canopy rose into the air and began to float away - like a gorgeous cloud, white and soft. The sun at that moment burst above the horizon and the silk bloomed into a soft crimson tinge while [the crew] stood on the naked stage watching the silk roof go up and out, wafting over the Atlantic. Some of [of the crew] waved."
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The theatre, like a Rock concert, is a collaborative effort - each member of the production team has a specific responsibility - and the stage crew's responsibility in Edmundson's story was to reel-in the helium cloud, fold it up and securely store in wooden road boxes. Theatre artists - theatre people - like the rock stage crew workers are not only responsible to the work, but also to the audience - to a community, to a society...
Recently Betsy Tucker asked her Senior Seminar class - "...what is an artist’s responsibility to her/his society? ...Here's what one student writes:
We’re all very different, and I believe that, if asked we would all offer different perspectives on what art consists of; what makes one an artist and what responsibilities come with artistry.
I wish I knew a better way to conclude this thought, but ... I will say, it was incredibly tempting to simply answer that the artist’s responsibility is to foster something akin to happiness –something that comforts us, that helps us make sense of the world in a positive light, no matter how dark things may actually be – to find that light and hold onto it, both for themselves, and also to share with others. Of course, I really know that this is not what all art is or is about; but part of me wishes it were.
I wrote back to the student asking for a little clarification of this last sentence - "Of course, I really know that this is not what all art is or is about; but part of me wishes it were." ...and here's the response:
...I see some art - some theatre - as being uplifting, while some can be outright saddening, and some of what is in that sentence is honestly my personal preference for the former over the latter. I guess the point is, either way, as an artist, I see it at least as my goal - and perhaps, part of our communal responsibility as artists - to work towards the positive, to inspire something better. It's my wish for myself, my wish for the world.
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Mark Edmundson writes that recently he asked "the question" again - what are you doing after graduation - but this time to his UVa students who answered with plans for law school, med school, grad school or business - research grants in China, or a well-paying gigs teaching English in Japan. And I have all confidence that those UVa students will "...work towards the positive and inspire something better." But Edmundson asks, -"Aren’t they deciding too soon? Shouldn't they hang out a little, learn to take it slow?
...but regardless of whether their journey be slow or resolute - our presence here today acknowledges that these students to my right hold the vision of things hoped for - and things yet to come.
... "Cadillacs for Grad students???"
(May 23, 2010)
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