More Bits and Pieces

1. I took several students to the NYSTI board meeting at the Capitol yesterday. Aside from the disappointing outcome, we discussed what, if anything, was learned from watching our public servants in action. One of the students was frustrated that Larry Schwartz, who Governor Paterson handpicked as Chairman of the NYSTI board, referred to Artistic Director David Bunce's remarks as 'drama'.

Whenever someone who works in the theatre asserts themselves, rationally or not, their behavior is dismissed as 'drama'. When used this way, the word both ignores anything meaningful that was presented and subtly derides the profession as practiced. I don't like it, though I suppose I'm being dramatic.

If a politician asserts herself, it can dismissed as 'rhetoric'. Could a supermodel's complaints be seen as 'posturing'? A doctor may have 'poor bedside manner'. A policeman? A minister?

2. Grades are in, the college is closed for the holidays and plans are being laid for the next semester.

• Sage's new Dean of Education, Lori Quigley, has put together a great lecture series that I will be looking forward to, beginning with Tom Porter, author and Mohawk Indian Chief.
• Dr. David Salomon in the English Department will be bring British Poet Laurate, Carol Ann Duffy, to campus in April.
  
• Our Creative and Performing Arts Department will be producing The Heiress and Seussical.
  

More to come on all of that...

3. Happy Holidays to all. It can be a tough time of the year, but I hope everyone finds comfort in family and looking forward to the future. It's funny...I look forward to Christmas all year long and then get within two days of it and am not sure my mind, body or spirit will hold out. Still, I'm going to make it. Best wishes for 2011.

The State and the Arts

I spoke with Senator Roy McDonald at the Troy Farmers' Market today and discussed my concerns about the imminent closing of NYSTI and how it will affect Sage. Understandably, he explained the financial disaster that our state is now in and how he is in triage mode--helping to fund essential services like health, safety and education.

Of course, I take some exception to word "essential", but if I were to call the arts "essential to the human spirit" it would probably necessitate a collective eye-roll from my readership. Still, in my mind no two human services are alike or without their worth--comparing an art gallery to well-baby clinic is like comparing paintings to babies. I can't imagine a world without either.

The senator told me that these are hard times and that 900 state employees are being laid off. I replied that 15 of them work at NYSTI. He also gently explained that he doesn't understand artists and academics, but that he has to live in a real world with serious troubles. I am aware that is code for something, but as both an artist and academic, am probably not equipped to understand it. I have heard Rush Limbaugh say similar things on his radio show, as if artists and academics live in some alternate universe where rising gas prices, devastating taxes and the chaotic state of our government doesn't affect us. If only I could live in that rarefied world.

I guess I admire Senator's forthrightness, but would still like to live in a country where the arts mattered more to our government officials. FDR understood that providing employment to artists during the Great Depression was essential to the nation's spirit. Winston Churchill knew it was important to keep theatres open during the attacks on London in WWII. Both of these great leaders lived in scarier times than we do now. Even Lyndon Johnson observed that, "...the arts and humanities get the basement." Ask anyone at SUNY Albany in Theatre or Foreign Languages if that is true.

Speaking of London, I am about to take 20 students to study theatre there for two weeks. Their government-supported arts are affordable and of excellent quality, which makes the UK an essential destination spot and their arts an essential economic force. Can you imagine a London without the National Theatre or the Royal Shakespeare Company?

Maybe the NYSTI ship has sailed (though I hope not), but when this recession is over, we will still have hospitals, firemen, unions and a state government for all. I doubt that the arts will have fared as well. The cuts in funding by Mayor Jerry Jennings to Park Playhouse, Capital Repertory Theatre and other companies are appalling and will certainly cripple one of the organizations this year. Whether our leaders see it or not, artists pay bills, provide service, vote, live and die in this country. When a politician says that they support the little guy, they should know that includes artists.

To quote playwright Arthur Miller (eye-roll everyone), "Attention, attention must be paid."

NYSTI's A Christmas Carol

Blogging continues to take a backseat to directing. I have been working on NYSTI's production of A Christmas Carol and my extra time has been at a premium.

There has been a strange energy during this rehearsal period, probably due to the fact that NYSTI is not named in the upcoming state budget and is now running out of funds. A Christmas Carol could very well be the organization's final production. Since the departure of Patricia Snyder in April, over the half of NYSTI's staff has left or retired. Though their workforce is downsized and those remaining are covering many jobs, I have been impressed with the staff's adaptability. NYSTI has had to grow leaner and meaner. Change has empowered the company members and it is sad that their rebirth coincides with their being on life support.

The future seems bleak, though there are bright moments. An intern-organized talent show fundraiser sold out the Meader Little Theatre last weekend and may be repeated later in the month. A group of concerned citizens has formed to begin fundraising efforts for the company. Finally, The Record has graciously offered to profile the show in a three-part series leading up to the official opening on Sunday.

What does NYSTI's possible demise mean to Russell Sage College? In a word, much. The company has been generous with both shared materials, teaching and opportunities for our students. Because of NYSTI's training, Sage is able to turn out highly skilled and competent theatre professionals. Indeed, several alums have been hired to work on A Christmas Carol, plus we have twelve current students onstage and behind the scenes. Access to a company like this is a great learning experience for our majors and Sage is committed to maintaining professional theatre opportunities on our campus. At best, I hope it will be NYSTI. At the very least, I hope it will be NYSTI in another form (probably minus the NYS).

For now, we have A Christmas Carol and I can't wait to see the special magic that the school audiences will bring to tomorrow's performance. It's that energy--honest, unjaded and bright-- that will be missing in Capital Region if NYSTI folds.

When Theatre Overlaps (or from Vietnams to the Victorians)

I have been a bad blogger lately--overcommitted, as usual. I am opening A Piece of My Heart for the Sage Veterans Week 2010 on Thursday and have began today rehearsing NYSTI's production of A Christmas Carol which opens in December. This week of overlap involves twelve-hour days of straight rehearsal, but on a snowy morning in November, who would want to be doing anything else?

Other events for the Veterans Week 2010 can be found on the website: www.sage.edu/veterans. The scope, ambition and creativity of the week really serves to show what Sage does best: collaborating with each other and the community to produce quality artistic, therapeutic and educational offerings.

When I get back to directing one play, I will get back to blogging. There is a lot to say about NYSTI and A Christmas Carol. Like the Dickens' tale, let's hope that the past, present and future align to bring the company the salvation it deserves. More on that later.

Do come see A Piece of My Heart this weekend. Mention that you read about it on my blog and you are eligible for five dollars tickets. Call 244 - 2248 to reserve seats. I hope to see you there.

The Feminist Play

"I'm not a feminist, but..." are words that you hear often at Russell Sage College. I expected something different from a women's institution, but when you teach you have to meet the students where they are and begin from that point. My colleague Leigh Strimbeck knows this well and explores these issues with honesty and theatricality. Her "devised" theatre production (created by her and the cast) of MIRROR MIRROR looked at body image and the media and WAITING FOR JOE used Beckett's framework to examine cyberbullying.

I just got back from a preview of her latest creation, appropriately titled "I'M NOT A FEMINIST, BUT..." The play looks at the question, why do young women reject feminism as a label, though desire equality with men on every level? It is a paradox that often leaves me scratching my head, though I have to remember that I am an approaching middle-aged white male who, statistically, will make more money than women and deal with less gender discrimination in my career. So who am I know to know about this question?

The evening is a vaudeville of songs, skits and dances that addresses different points of view on the same topic. A series of interviews with women ages 20 - 60 captures the ebb and flow of the feminist movement, a now-you-see-me, now-you-don't panorama. The "Feminists Gone Wild" have a man-dog on a leash and a roving eye for straight girls. "Ghosts of Feminists Past" examines the three waves of the feminism and the spiritual linkage of Alice Paul and Betty Friedan to women of today. My personal favorite number is performed by a scowling troupe of tap dancers to "Mother of Pearl" by Nellie McKay. The comic lyric refrain of "feminists don't have a sense of humor" plays dissonantly against the angry, frustrated dance that never blossoms into joy. It makes me feel sad to watch it.

I suppose that in-between place is where these students live, somewhere in the middle of being told what they should be and wanting just "to be". We ask our students to be "Women of Influence" at Russell Sage College and maybe they struggle with not wanting to appear too assertive, too unladylike or even, too bright. It is an understandable dilemma when our media floats words like man-hater, femi-Nazi and makes other gender distinctions daily about our female politicians, sports figures and business leaders. That is why I am proud that Leigh and our students are looking at the topic and deciding what to do with the word. How do we honor the past and move towards a non-issue?

Call 244- 2248 for tickets and information.

SAT No More

REPRINTED COURTESY OF SAGE COMMUNICATIONS

THE SAGE COLLEGES DROP TESTING REQUIREMENT

By a wide margin, the faculty of The Sage Colleges on Friday voted to no longer require standardized testing for their undergraduate applicants to Russell Sage College and the Sage College of Albany. This change will be effective immediately.

“This is in keeping with the faculty’s view of a Sage education,” said Dr. Terry Weiner, Sage’s provost. “We believe our educational philosophy and practices should be reflected in our admissions policies.

“The SAT continues to be a less reliable predictor of first year performance or success in college compared to high school GPA and class rank. Our own studies at Sage have confirmed this. We continue to rely on our assessment of the whole record as the best way to assess students ready for Sage,” according to Weiner. “In this time of economic distress students should not have to choose between expensive cram courses or tutoring for these tests, or worry about losing ground in the competition for college admission.”

Bob Schaeffer, Public Education Director of FairTest notes that “Fortunately, more and more colleges have recognized the folly of fixating on the narrow, often biased, information provided by standardized tests and moved toward test-optional admissions.” Surveys by FairTest show that schools that have made standardized tests optional are widely pleased with the results. Many report their applicant pools and enrolled classes have become more diverse without any loss in academic quality.

Sage already utilizes a “holistic” approach to student evaluation: academic preparation – rigor and achievement – is the most important factor followed by recommendations and students’ personal profiles.

“Our approach to selecting students is very similar to the way students choose a college: we look at many factors, keep in mind a student’s background and interests, and assess the match between that student and Sage. No one factor is a ‘driver,’ it is the sum of the whole,” according to Sage’s vice president Dan Lundquist. “If a student wants to submit test scores we will be happy to receive them, just as we want to learn about their accomplishments and goals. But if a student doesn’t submit scores we won’t assume anything, just as if they don’t tell us about a hobby. We don’t guess about what’s not in the application, we focus on what’s in an application.”

Bits and Pieces

1. I attended a great reading last night by Elizabeth Brundage, a novelist and creative writing instructor at Sage. Her new book, A Stranger Like You, looks at power and gender in Hollywood. I got a very dark sense of the story from her reading, which also weaves terrorism and the stoning of women into the plot. It also uses the elusive "second person" narrative, which I hadn't been exposed to since English 101.

I went to the reading last night because I have to miss author Nicholson Baker, who is speaking at Sage next week. For more information on that reading, go to:

http://www.sage.edu/newsevents/events/?event_id=280087&date=2010-10-07&view=monthly

2. Peter Pan has opened and is playing to packed, enthusiastic houses. I am attending this weekend, but only barely got a ticket myself. The musical has been extended by one showing and will now close on October 8. For more information on Peter Pan, go to:

http://www.sage.edu/newsevents/events/?event_id=281036&date=2010-10-01&view=monthly

While I'm on the topic of theatre, NYSTI opens The Miracle Worker on campus this weekend. It features the talents of several Sage students and alums, plus the NYSTI directing debut of friend, John Romeo. It is an amazing story about the power of education to make a difference in the lives of others--don't miss it.

3. I'm preparing a talk on "Assertive Communication" to present for the New York State Bar Association in October. I feel very confident about spreading the message of assertive communication, but what is embarrassing to me is that I don't always practice it. Where do you lie on the scale of communicators: the passive communicator, the aggressive communicator or that dreaded combination of both, the passive-aggressive communicator?

I am certainly learning as much about myself doing this research as I am going to teach to others.

More later...