Eight Days A Week: End of Senior Year

On Monday this week I handed in my last paper as an undergraduate and completed my studies at Saint Michael's College! What a day! Over the past few weeks things have been wrapping up: Appetite, my independent study in Shakespeare, other senior sem shows, and classes. With senior week partially underway, it's hard to accept that soon we will all be leaving for good.

Appetite

The first hurdle was Appetite. I've written several posts about it, but not since the show closed. The second week went well and the play was well-received by the community, especially parents over Family Day weekend. I was pleased to hear praise and constructive criticism of my design from various mentors in the area, and also to have my family see the play and enjoy it (especially the Angry Birds scene!) I think everyone involved learned a lot of lessons, sometimes frustrating ones, and I hope the next devised theater process is different and rewarding.

My independent study in Shakespeare took a lot of work. I wrote a paper over the course of the semester, supplementing it with images of past productions. My focus was the Ghost in Hamlet and how various productions represented it (looking at technical elements like scenery and lighting) and how that changed interpretations of the Ghost. The Ghost has had much religious meaning throughout the centuries, and every small change applied technically (like the development of electric lighting, for example) has had an effect on how people see the Ghost. It is very easy to light the Ghost in a way that makes him purely evil or in a way that makes him seem heaven-sent. I decided that the most important part of the Ghost was ambiguity, since Hamlet's uncertainty of whether the Ghost is good or evil is a struggle the audience shares and has to think about for themselves, and so to keep the questions in the play universal the most important thing is to keep the Ghost a mystery. With all the technical developments today, it can be easy to skew the image of the Ghost one way or another, so I also wrote about how otherworldly is not necessarily good or evil. We have a tendency to fear what we do not understand, though, so a production that approached the Ghost in this way would have to be very careful. It was a big relief to hand in the finished product, and I learned so much in this research that I don't mind what grade I get.

Other classes required plenty of work as well: a term paper for my Tolkien & Medievalism class, in which I considered Tolkien's theory of sub-creation; an exam, manifesto, and exit interview for senior seminar; a finished costume piece for my costumes class. I also worked on a senior seminar show that wasn't the mainstage-- a student-written and directed show called Notes, a piece about a music teacher and student, for which I designed scenery. Another senior showcase piece called B for Baby was a big success, passionately (and successfully) tackling the often uncomfortable issue of people with special needs. The Drama Club end-of-the-year picnic and also the department's senior banquet were really nice as well. It is great to have these rewarding, relaxing events after all the work this year!