I teach to go to meetings

I used to think my job was to teach, but now I think I teach to go to meetings. The meetings begin at 8;00 or 9:00, are shoe-horned in between classes and don't stop until 5:00 or 5:30, but many things are eventually getting done.

In General Education, we have combined a first-year Women's Studies course with English Composition. The collaboration of classes involves a Women's Studies and English teaching duo that further coordinates with another first-year course, in say, Nutrition, Psychology, Statistics or Climate Studies. The teachers and students in these courses make up a Living/Learning community, where we hope that by sharing curriculum and ideas, students will look for and find connections across disciplines. It involved a lot of planning, thus meetings.

Our Russell Sage College Curriculum Committee approves new courses and the changes to existing courses. We meet once a week. Our goal for the year is to continue the overhaul of general education at Sage. We have had the current curriculum in place for over 15 years and while we have piloted new programs, we have yet to formally make major changes. Students now take a "Chinese menu" of courses--two from natural sciences, two from social sciences, four from humanities and various cross-cultural and capstone courses. Our charge now is to look at what skills we think all students should cross the stage with at graduation and use that for our foundation of courses.

It only involves getting the input, buy-in and then approval of the entire Sage faculty. Simple, right? We'll see...after many more meeting.

Our Theatre department's new Theatre Institute at Sage is shaping up plans for the year. Meetings are being held to discuss making the Institute a resource for the entire campus. NYSTI was a great resource for our department, but did not often collaborate with the wider Sage community. We think it is important to begin sharing resources and ideas with departments like Education and English, to integrate and appreciate each other's work. All it takes is meetings to get it done.

So why am I blogging at 6:00 a.m.? I have one class and four meetings today. Add grading to that and maybe lunch and there won't be time for blogging later. I teach to meet.

So What Have I Missed...? (Part One)

Since last blogging I have bought a house and had a daughter--both activities seemed to occupy a lot of my spring semester. If I were a better blogger, what would I have reported?

Middle States Re-accreditation

When I got into academia, Middle States sounded like something from J.R.R. Tolkien--an underground world where an alternate society or civilization existed alongside our own. It turns out (alas) that Middle States refers to the academic accrediting body that visits Sage every ten years. It is not made up of gnomes or folklore folk, but a volunteer team of professors and administrators that examine every aspect of the college community. The volunteers read Sage's lengthy self-study and then meet to discuss the results. Meetings are held with faculty, students, administrators, coaches, committees, maintenance staff and trustees--no stone is left unturned.

It is a high stakes effort to really look at institutional strengths and weaknesses and prove to the accrediting team that the college is capable of continued success. A large number of faculty and staff worked for nearly two years on the self-study, which is Dostoevsky-like in length and detail--a real saga of Sage history, past, present and projected-future. Those who wrote this tome deserve immediate tenure, year-long sabbaticals or at the very least, a steak dinner. Due to their efforts, Sage passed with many "commendations" and only a short list of "recommendations" and "collegial suggestions"--all of which are beginning to be addressed by the Sage community.

I attended several of the meetings and learned how helpful it is to have total strangers both confirm what you already know and illuminate aspects you may not have thought about. The most ringing reminder from the committee was to continue investing in the women's college mission, where Sage's unique history sets us apart from other institutions. While many women's colleges continue to go co-ed, it will be interesting to see how this challenge is addressed at Sage.

What else have I missed? Next blog...Tenure at Sage.

Hello (New) Theatre Institute!

The creation of the Theatre Institute at Sage has been well-covered by local media, including this very paper:

http://www.troyrecord.com/articles/2011/03/03/news/doc4d6e922eb12d0599082500.txt?viewmode=fullstory

To add to that news, it is good to report that work on the endeavor continues well. An open house over the weekend yielded a great number of parents, students and teachers interested in the program's offerings. The Saturday training school will begin next week with a stage combat camp to run during the April spring break. Auditions were held last week for two touring productions that will go into local schools during May and June. Finally, an advisory committee has been organized to help the Institute plan for the future.

All good news for now. Look for the opening of Seussical next week, which will be playing through the middle of April with morning school performances.

In a world where nothing seems to happen too quickly, the good will and support behind the Theatre Institute at Sage has been a sudden pleasure.

The Heiress Collaborative

Do you ever get tired of the sound of your own voice? I know that students get tired of mine. It's often when I close my mouth and allow the students their say that some very exciting learning begins to happen. Swallowing my pride, I decided to apply the same principle to directing and turned over the responsibility to the cast of The Heiress.

I did hedge my bets a bit, casting myself in the production so that I still get an occasional say. The process is new to me and imperfect, but we are finding our groove. The cast began with an entire week of discussion around the table, analyzing the text and characters to the point where we were nearly all on the same page. Together we also trimmed the script to keep its length under two hours. We are working on a three-quarters thrust stage, so each cast member is an "extra eye" on the seven scenes of the play, working with me to make sure that the staging reads to all members of the audience. Administratively, the cast worked with an artist on the poster design and put together a youtube video promoting the play. We are also collectively responsible for running lights and sound, assisting with costume changes and load-in of all physical aspects of a show, like a self-contained unit.

The Heiress is a perfect play for this experiment. It has a cast of nine, which usually gives us just enough people working behind the scenes while others are onstage. Were it a musical or more complexly structured piece, the collaboration may not work, but The Heiress is relatively simple and straight-forward. It has only a single set and two acts and falls into that category of play where it seems that people just stand around talking. It's definitely a challenge making that type of play seem active and the students are learning a lot about storytelling.

Leaders are definitely emerging on all fronts. Several people have stepped forward as strong directors, while others enjoy the more administrative and technical aspects. All are pulling double duty as actors, which for me has been personally stressful. As a director, your brain is wired to analyze and control the action, but as an actor you must let go and just allow yourself to be in the moment. It's not a comfortable combination, a tightrope of sorts, but a situation that I am definitely learning from. Sometimes the collective voice feels like too many cooks in the kitchen, while at other times it yields some very fresh results. Again, it is a tightrope walk for us all and one of the first situations where I find myself giving notes to (and getting notes from) others actors.

The Heiress opens Wednesday, February 23 - Sunday, February 22. For more information, go to www.sage.edu/capa.

Sage in London

As mentioned by fellow blogger Bob Goepfert, Sage is in London. Our department is offering "Arts Immersion", a course that sends students to shows, concerts and museums all over the city. The students have really committed themselves to seeing everything. For instance, yesterday two students did a Thames River ride, the Tower of London, St. Paul's Cathedral, Greenwich and a show at the National Theatre. Those attractions alone could be enough for one trip, but that is how zealously students have approached their trip.

Every student has shared different highlights. The Crown Jewels have been a favorite. Our show at Shakespeare's Globe has had many mentions and the visit Westminster Abbey is way up there. The shopping on Oxford Street, Regent Street and Portobello Road has been popular. Students have been quick to note the bloody, lurid history that makes its way into most attractions. Ancient murders, tortures and ghosts are very salable to tourists in the 21st century.

As for myself, I have been gorging on theatre. London is a mecca for, if not quality theatre, then quantity theatre, with diverse options. Some highlights and lowlights are:

• Hamlet--Slick, imaginative Shakespeare set in a modern day surveillance state. This production is part of NT Live and will be broadcast in the U.S.
• King Lear--Stark, clear production with a beautiful, heroic performance by Derek Jacobi. Again, this will be part of NT Live--don't miss it.
• Men Should Weep--A neglected feminist classic from 1937 that looks at the effects of poverty on a family living in the slums of Glasgow. Heart-breaking and surprisingly funny.
  
• Oliver!--An eye-poppingly, sumptuous production that covers serious flaws in the material. A terrific performance by Griff Rhys-Jones as Fagin.
• Fela!--A musical that looks at corruption in Nigeria through the concept of a nightclub show by activist musician, Fela Kuti. Part of NT Live.
• Seasons Greetings--A bleak sitcom of the Christmas we have all suffered through with our families.
• The Master Builder--An arty production that is both overblown and underwhelming at the same time. Some of it is the play, which is later, more obscure Ibsen, but it could still benefit from more heart and less mind.
• The Invisible Man--An all-around good time with amazingly clever illusions that had to work close-up.
• Hansel and Gretel--A dark opera with a cooler full of dead children. Chilling and fun.
• Winter Wassail--A presentation of ancient songs and spoken word at the Globe Theatre to ring out the old and ring in the new. A very fresh way to bring on 2011.
  

Other mentions include: The Country Girl (dull), The Rivals (lazy) and Deathtrap (a guilty pleasure that soon wears thin).

War Horse gets its own mention because it does what the best theatre should do. It presents the human condition through imagination and complete trust in the audience. In it, we see the best and worst of ourselves and the horrors and the love all around us. The play is a simple children's story, but works on many levels, appealing to many demographics. The stagecraft is rudimentary and ingenious all at the same time. When it comes to New York next month, don't miss it.

Seeing so much good work leaves you jonesing for your next fix. I don't know when that will be, but have enjoyed taking advantage of the theatre London has to offer.

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.

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.

Celebrating Constitution Day

Back to blogging. I'm beginning to discover what my students must feel like with rehearsals, classes, meetings and then, a paper to write on top of it all. Blogging was easier when school was not in session, but Sage is now into its third week of classes and beginning to pick up steam. Very soon, freshman students will be collectively hit with the enormity of their work load (so will faculty) as the honeymoon period is almost over and assignments begin to pile up.

Before the blitz begins, our entire first year class met yesterday for a Constitution Day town hall meeting. Organized by the English department, the Living-Learning communities and the WORLD (Women Owning Responsibility for Learning and Doing) program, the meeting is an opportunity to acquaint students with specific aspects of the Constitution, then to have an open microphone session for them to discuss those aspects with an experts panel of faculty. Yesterday's panel included Provost Terry Weiner, and Dr. Stephen Schechter and Dr. Pamela Katz, from History, Law and Government. The event was moderated by English department Chair, Dr. David Salomon.

The discussion focused on the 14th Amendment, which covers the rights of all citizens born in the U.S. The students turned out to be very curious about illegal immigration and why the government has failed to adequately enforce it's own laws. Some of the highlights of the student discussion included:

• The physical act of rounding up 11 million illegal immigrants and sending them back home would be a disaster of epic proportions.
• Information about immigration policy and amnesty proposals put forth by George Bush, John McCain and President Obama.
• An idea to eliminate closed borders all together and re-appropriate enforcement funds to education, health and fighting terrorism.
• That government should punish the powerful businesses that employ illegal immigrants and not the disadvantaged individuals themselves.

There were of course no easy answers. One student wisely said she would vote with candidates who addressed the problems humanely and realistically, allowing for the problems we have already allowed to escalate. Another topic of discussion focused on free speech and flag, Koran and book burning. It was generally agreed that if we live in country with free speech laws, then there will occasionally be things we don't want to hear, or see set on fire.

Two representatives from the New York Times Reading Program (another first year initiative) were in attendance and impressed with Sage's town hall approach to Constitution Day, raising provocative issues then allowing students free expression. My colleague in WORLD, Dr. Sybillyn Jennings, calls it the "pedagogy of voice", that is, giving the students a place to speak aloud the ideas that they are developing. Without too much horn tooting, it is something we do well at Sage.

Peter Pan on Page and Stage

Peter Pan is coming! The Creative and Performing Arts Department will present the classic musical September 24 - October 3. Rehearsals are now into their second week, there are upward of forty theatre majors and children from the community involved, and yes, they will fly. The production is being directed by Professor Michael Musial, Chair of the department.

Hearing the music and the excitement around the department got me thinking about the Peter Pan phenomenon. The story celebrated it's centennial several years ago and with a major new 360 video production now touring the West Coast and aiming for ours, it only seems to be gaining in popularity.

To get at the "why", I spoke with Dr. Tonya Moutray, who is an Assistant Professor of English at Sage. Dr. Moutray did her doctoral work in English Literature, studying all-female communities in eighteen- and nineteen-century British literature. She has also pursued scholarship on J.M. Barrie and Peter Pan.

DB: What interests you personally about Peter Pan?

TM: I became personally interested in the story once I started analyzing gender roles. As a boy’s adventure tale, I did not find it appealing as a child or a young adult. Peter is fascinating because he is a bit evil, I think. His naiveté is a front that allows him to do what he wants. Cocksure and narcissistic, Peter is primarily focused on his own pleasures, whether dueling with Captain Hook or creating imaginary adventures with his animal friends and the lost boys. I have written about the Freudian subtext implicit in Peter’s psychosexual developmental history which indicates that he is incapable of forming strong attachments to other people. That part of him is broken. While Peter never has to assume adult responsibilities, Wendy grows up. I find her narrative tragic. The Disney film and, indeed, Barrie’s text, relegates Wendy to the role of housekeeper and mother in Neverland, struggling to keep Peter’s interest from Tiger Lily and the Mermaids. I find Wendy’s struggle indicative of the roles many women continued to inhabit into the 1950s. Wendy’s decision to go home, to grow up, and to create another life is laudable; however, that she allows her daughter and then grand-daughter to “spring-clean” Peter’s home in Neverland only furthers a cycle of abandonment and loss.

DB: What should I know about Pan/Barrie that I can't find in Wikipedia?

TM: Wikipedia doesn’t address “why” Barrie’s play (and later, novel) became such a cultural phenomenon in the first half of the twentieth-century. Peter Pan is not merely a magical character whose wily adventures entertain audiences; his story is also about loss and abandonment. Peter reports that he left home as an infant. When he tried to return, his mother had put bars on the window and a new baby had replaced him. In the end, Peter decides to forgo the Darlings’ invitation to live with them, leaving Wendy behind. British audiences in the teens and twenties were drawn to the idea that literature can preserve childhood. They likely took this tale to heart after the atrocities of WWI. Thousands of young men lost their lives, never to return home again. If he is one of these “lost boys,” Peter can’t return really, because he is dead.

Another historical backdrop to this story involves colonial expansion. In spite of signs that Great Britain’s colonial endeavors were failing in the interwar years, plenty of sons, husbands and fathers took off for the colonies, many of them leaving families behind. Neverland is a kind of colonial outpost with its own native population. One chapter of the book is entitled “The Great White Father,” a reference to Peter’s role in Neverland.

The other major reason, I think, that Peter Pan has had an impact culturally, is that his sexual orientation is ambiguous. Traditionally, women and girls have played the character of Peter in stage productions, furthering this ambiguity. While he performs boys’ roles, he prefers, ultimately, to be in the male company of the Lost Boys rather than in a nuclear family. While his sexual orientation may be in question, the fact that he never grows up means that his representation can suggest all sorts of cultural anxieties about deviant sexuality without giving anything away. Certainly in the wake of the Oscar Wilde trials, the public found a “safe” receptacle for these anxieties in the figure of Peter, a boy saved from the tragedy of having to face the afflictions of the adult world. Indeed, as I argue, the figure of Peter Pan pops up in a variety of other fictions by writers such as W. Somerset Maugham and Evelyn Waugh, both of whom were homosexual and, like Barrie, made boyhood into a kind of fetish.

DB: How has the message of the story changed over the century? Has that been influenced by the different mediums of storytelling?

TM: I think the multiple film spin-offs have kept the tale alive for many American children while watering down some of the central concerns of the narrative: What normative roles are young men supposed to take on in contemporary society? Remember, Peter does not want to go to school or take on a profession. Why isn’t Wendy as free to choose a life of adventure? What is she sacrificing and gaining? The question now is how to make the tale “new”; how to keep it relevant in contemporary society. I think that current readers may forget about its historical backdrop and the array of cultural anxieties that made the play and novel resonate so powerfully.

My thanks to Dr. Moutray for her insights. I will continue to blog about Peter Pan as our Sage production approaches.

Good News at Sage

From the world of good news, the Sage community was informed yesterday that Russell Sage College has moved into the first tier (rank 131) of “Best National Liberal Arts Colleges” as ranked by U.S. News and World Report, 2011 Best Colleges. Sage College of Albany was included in “Best Regional University (North)" and Russell Sage College was also listed in a feature of “A+ Schools for B Students,” touting schools where students with potential grow and thrive.

Sage also appeared in Forbes’ America’s Best Colleges report published earlier this month. In the listing of the 600 best colleges in the U.S., Russell Sage College is listed at number 408. (SUNY Albany is listed at 410)

The criteria for selection are important gauges of how we are doing our work. For instance, according to Forbes, the ranking is designed to help undergraduate students evaluate things that many believe are important criteria when selecting a college:

• Do students enjoy their classes and overall academic experience?
• Do graduates succeed well in their occupations after college?
  
• Do most students graduate in a timely fashion, typically four years?
• Do students incur massive debts while in schools?
  
• Do students succeed in distinguishing themselves academically?”

Happily, we do these things well--but I could have told you that. I don't how the news of our rankings will be disseminated, but with luck, it should help with recruitment and fund raising in the coming year.

Best wishes to all those beginning school in the coming week. If you're in academia--Happy New Year!

Directing Santa Fe

You know you've been teaching for a long time when a former student calls you up and offers you work. So has been the case with me and blogging has had to take a backseat for a few weeks.

Samara Neely-Cohen, a former student of mine from a summer camp in Colorado, is in her second year as Founding Artistic Director of the Santa Fe Theatre Festival. Samara has always been in my top-ten of favorite students--wickedly smart, talented and wise beyond her years, Samara is on her way to making her mark on the world. She has now put together two seasons of challenging plays that employ the talents of theatre artists from New York, Los Angeles and Santa Fe. It is a passionate, ambitious company, probably still finding its identity, but grounded in practicality with plenty of long-term goals. The season opened last night and if the enthusiasm of the audience is any indication, this Santa Fe company is here for the long haul.

I was brought in as a replacement director for Danny and the Deep Blue Sea, by John Patrick Shanley. It is a gritty and lyrical play--a sort of precursor to his screenplay, Moonstruck. With less than two weeks of rehearsal (and Samara in the cast) we are readying for our opening tonight. The production has the added bonus of a visit from Mr. Shanley for a gala event next weekend. I will be back in Troy and have to miss that excitement, but told the cast that if Mr. Shanley likes the production, to tell him that I'm brilliant and if doesn't like it, explain that I was only the replacement director.

Whatever happens, I will cherish this experience of working as colleagues with someone who I started teaching when she at 16. I've really been able to see the educational process come full circle here in Santa Fe, where things I taught Samara were learned, utilized and now, are being taught by her.

www.santafetheatrefestival.org

Buchman Cool

My faculty office is on the second floor of the Schacht Fine Arts Center. Abrasives wizard Elmer Schacht gave the generous gift towards this building, but for some reason his beneficence did not extend to the air conditioning. Schacht is an inferno this week.

To escape the blaze, I have moved to a "satellite office" across campus. Buchman Pavilion was built in 2001 with lead gift from Natalie Buchman. Constructed in an age much closer to the apocalypse, Buchman Pavilion is swimming in air conditioning. The room has a gracious, open ambiance, a centerpiece glass dome surrounded by columns and the Russell Sage College seal jig-saw puzzled into the tile floor. There is a scattering of sofas, tables and chairs, with a convenient coffee bar serving Starbucks.

The space is cleverly designed to connect three or four buildings--Sage Hall (a dormitory with a bistro grill), the classrooms of Gurley and Walker Halls and even the back of Bush Memorial. This officially makes Buchman a hub through which you must pass, a central location for coffee, dining, seeing others and being seen. Additionally, it faces a walking mall over what used to be Ferry Street, before the underpass. A vista of glass opens the possibility for even more people watching as Sage employees pass on the mall between First and Second Street--into the library, into the copy center, into Science Hall and out of public safety.

It's a wonder I can get any work done in Buchman at all.

A friend of mine noted that college campuses can be intimidating to "civilians" who may feel that dining halls, academic theatres and lecture spaces are hard to find, that the overabundant energy of youth can create a microcosm crowding out interested seniors and others. If so, this is a shame. Buildings like Buchman Pavilion have a lot to offer in a community like Troy. Coffee and pastries for ladies who lunch, a respite for frazzled clerks from the courthouse and a comfortable rendezvous spot for those who need one.

Today, I blog, I chat, I eat and I drink, in comfort. Thank you, Natalie Buchman.

Post Script: Maxine, my canine office mate and friend, passed away on July 2.

Maxine

I went away to visit family for a week and returned with a vicious head cold that has had me in bed for three days. My mind and body have not really been at Sage, but I still wanted to offer some thoughts.

To keep this entry Sage-related, I have to say that I'm worrying about the health of my office mate. She was diagnosed with bladder cancer in December and, as the prognosis promised, is not getting any better. I haven't mentioned that my office mate is an eleven year old Scottie dog named Maxine. I have had the privilege of bringing Maxine to work with me nearly every day for eight years. She greets every student at my door, snoozes on the couch while I teach and begs food from me when I eat at my desk. It a routinized life that seems to suit us both.

Maxine is a great mascot for each production I direct. She attends all rehearsals, but sits quietly while the cast works. When the humans go on a ten minute break, she goes to work--howling greetings, pattering around the stage floor, basking in the enjoyment of the company. Maxine is a real show dog, toe nails for tap shoes and a slick black coat.

I'm not sure I have an identity on campus without Maxine on lead. She gets all the greetings and I get the crumbs. I'm somewhat shy, so am very comfortable with this set-up. Maxine, my platonic wing-dog. It's been this way for eight years and we've fallen into a "Marley and Me" type of existence. Unfortunately, we all know how that story ends. This is where my mind is today. For now, I'm grateful for Maxine's time on the job and the friendly world she's opened up to me just by taking me along.

Defender Boot Camp

I'm spending a week away from the Sage campus and am up the hill at RPI, where I'm on faculty for the Basic Trial Skills Program with the New York State Defenders Association. The program pairs experienced trial attorneys with communications coaches to teach public defenders about both trial and client-centered practice.

This is my third summer with the lawyers and I learn as much about acting from them as I did from my best theatre professors. More than that, I learn why public defenders desperately need such a program. Most are in counties or practices that have them overtaxed with clients and under-resourced for the work they are expected to do. Under such circumstances, the idea that we are "humans defending humans" can go out the window and our state defense practice can turn into a machine. This week endeavours to teach active listening, empathy and trial advocacy to amazing young lawyers who take back new skills to the damaged system within which they practice.

This "lawyer boot camp" is the brainchild of Jonathan Gradess, Executive Director of NYSDA. Jonathan is a mastermind at pedagogy, team-building and the timetable. He is simply one of the best leaders I've ever known. The week is a continual process of fine-tuning, to get the program to the highest caliber it can be. Jonathan enlists amazing trial attorneys and communications coaches from the Capital Region, New York State and beyond. Cessie the mitigator is from Troy; Jamie the retired P.D. is from Chicago. Joy the acting teacher is from Los Angeles; Henderson the trial attorney is from North Carolina. And the list goes on, all professionals who give a lot of time and energy to training our next generation of public defenders.

By the end of the week, the students have picked mock juries, delivered opening and closing statements, practiced cross examination and direct, plus listened to lectures, practiced in communications labs and participated in group discussions. The twelve-hour days are exhausting, but the commitment is inspiring. They all go home tomorrow, hopefully energized and changed for the better. I'll be in my acting classroom this year, maybe staging horrific dramas like they see everyday in real life. Knowing their stories and their struggles deepens my understanding of the human condition when presenting it. In that way, an artist can be a public defender. Call it understanding at an arm's length.

On tenure

I am going up for tenure and promotion in the fall and spending the summer putting together my file for review. This process involves both information gathering and analysis, then reflecting on that information to make my case to the review committee. The stakes are high because if you don't get tenure, you are asked to leave the institution. If you do, you have a job for life--in theory.

This process puzzles people outside academia, who are not given the same assurance of job security. Tenure can be a tool to recruit and maintain excellent faculty, but it can also make it impossible for the institution to shed themselves of faculty who are under-performing. I knew a tenured faculty member whose favorite coffee mug read "I'm dead wood, but they can't fire me." Smug as that seems, he happened to be a very good professor. I've seen all examples and believe that faculty with sufficient passion and egos continue to achieve long after tenure.

The American Association of University Professionals (AAUP) sees tenure as necessary to protect academic freedom, but remember Ward Churchill? He was a tenured faculty member at the University of Colorado who ignited national ire by declaring that the technocrat workers in the World Trade Center were "Little Eichmanns." Whether or not his status gave him the right to say that, tenure did not protect his job after the the Governor of Colorado called for his dismissal.

So note to self: if tenure is achieved, at least keep your nose to the grindstone and remember it is your job to provoke deep thought--maybe even in a Churchillian manner. For now, I'm sifting through eight years of Student Opinion Surveys and looking at my competence on a one to five scale. These surveys are a student's final gift or revenge, as I get to disclose the glorious and shameful in the pursuit of job security.

Blogging Insecurities #1

My greatest insecurity in starting this blog is my shaky grammar. Grammar was a course I bluffed my way through starting in the seventh grade. I did not love the instructor or the rigidity of the subject, so only passed, and that is what my grammar skills are today: only passable. Writing terrifies me. Would you believe that to get an M.F.A. in acting, no writing is required? Script analysis and make-up application are essential to the degree, but writing is not.

I can only timidly grade student writing, but am still offended by egregious errors. I think if you are going to make writing mistakes, proofread carefully and then make the same mistakes and misspellings consistently. Of course, texting has certainly affected the way students write. R U LOL @ dis? OMG--reeeeeallllyyyyyy? Shakespeare played fast and loose with the English language and brought it to great and lasting prominence, so maybe that is what the texting generation is doing today: revolutionizing language, but with technology. As someone who encourages rule breaking in learning, I appreciate that. Still, we all need to be competent at the rules before we break them and that is where students often trip up.

I always defer to Dean Sharon Robinson on this subject. Besides her administrative duties, she is an English professor and teaches a course called "Perfect Grammar" which motivates students to call out everyone on their imperfect grammar. Dr. Robinson practices what she preaches. She is an elegant speaker and once glared at me in a curriculum meeting for dangling a participle. She believes that simple clarity is the point of good grammar, but notes that issues of class and snobbery are often how people are judged when they misspeak. I asked for a quick grammar lesson to include with this blog. Here are her thoughts:

Most egregious written errors:
* Thinking that "however" and "therefore" are conjunctions that may be used like "but" or "so"; they may not.
* Misuse of the semi-colon. The semi-colon separates two sentences related in content (except for the lesser use, to separate items in a list when individual items in that list contain a comma).
* Making plurals with apostrophes. We do make possessives with apostrophes. All those yard signs that say "The Smith's" are wrong. I can barely stand to talk about apostrophes.
* A lot IS ALWAYS TWO WORDS (unless of course one means "allot," i.e., distribute).

Most egregious spoken errors:
* Subjective vs. objective pronouns: Mary gave a lovely vase to me husband and me (not "I"). If you wouldn't say "Mary gave a beautiful vase to I," then don't use it just because someone else is a co-recipient.
* Lie/lay: We lie down; we tell our faithful dogs to lie down. "Lay" is either the past tense of "lie" (I lay down for a nap yesterday at noon) or a different verb altogether (Lay your books down on the table).


Thank you, Dr. Robinson, for the tips and this handy reference website: www.grammar.quickanddirtytips.com. Hopefully, this blog will be my opportunity to clean up the mess I started in seventh grade and write in fear no longer.