Wyn Caudle
Arts & Entertainment Editor
On the weekend of Feb. 1, the Department of Theatre and Dance hosted four senior I.S. performances. Each senior project was performed for two nights, with two of the performances occurring back-to-back on Thursday and Saturday evening, and the other two held on Friday and Sunday evenings.
Anti-Fascism and the Dance: Analyzing Early Pieces by Graham by Eleanor Boomhower
Eleanor Boomhower’s ’25 piece opened with her in the middle of the stage as Henry Mattison ’27 sat on the side with a drum. He played a rhythm and Boomhower began moving in small but precise motions that indicated she was stretching. These movements, the audience later learned, were techniques pioneered by American choreographer Martha Graham. After a demonstration of a few different dances, Boomhower discussed their I.S in a short presentation, which focused on three of Graham’s anti-war pieces critiquing the rise of fascist regimes in Europe.
Graham’s pieces premiered across the late 1930s and were titled “Chronicle,” “Immediate Tragedy” and “Deep Song.” Boomhower explained some of their research on the pieces before showing clips of the dances themselves. As Boomhower shared about the pieces, the audience learned about the activism within the dances and how war influences art.
As an audience member watching the piece and learning from what Boomhower shared, I could see how Graham’s work was meant to be “artistic interpretations of physical conflict[s],” as quoted from Boomhower’s director’s note. The videos shared of the pieces had both fast-paced dance as well as slower, more calculated moments. The movement shown by Boomhower, in the beginning, was rhythmic and repetitive, lulling the audience into a sense of security in the movement correlated with the drum following the pattern of the more fast-paced work. I enjoyed the beginning of the piece a lot due to this choreography.
Overall, Boomhower’s piece brought attention to Graham’s dance teaching methods, the significance of her anti-war pieces and how dance can be a form of protest in its own sense.
Jenny and Joey are Getting Married! by Morgan Hunter
Morgan Hunter ’25’s I.S. piece was a comical short play telling the story of Jenny, played by Kaniya Page ’28, and Joey, played by Joseph Russo ’26, a couple who wants to get married. When the two main characters arrive at the church on the day of their wedding, they find it closed, and multiple comic characters, played by Anna Whiting ’26 and Jayden Sloan ’28, end up chatting with the two in pairs. For reference, a comic character typically refers to a character that makes people laugh. In the case of Hunter’s I.S. there was a joker character as well as other exaggerated stereotypical comedy characters.
From two travelers to a queen and her knight — these interactions that the comic characters provided brought up new issues that Jenny and Joey had not realized they were struggling with. Each scene builds the tension of the play reshaping how Jenny and Joey view each other, leading them to question their desire for marriage and their relationship with each other on a deeper level. The two have an honest conversation for the first time in the play — they both share what they care about without trying to please each other. The story ends ambiguously, leaving the audience unsure if Jenny and Joey will get married or if they will split up.
The play was performed as a script reading, with the actors positioned in a semi-circle facing the audience. Throughout the piece, a narrator (Leo Walsh ’28) sat off to the side, speaking aloud the stage directions.
Hunter’s piece was a commentary on the uncertainty of commitment and the lingering doubts that people may feel in their lives. The piece works to bring focus to not just the main characters but also to the side characters and the ways they engage with the others on stage.
An American STEW by Mareece Love
“An American STEW” by Mareece Love ’25 took the form of four short plays written by both Black and white playwrights, each with commentary on the American experience. The plays were “A Streetcar Named Desire” by Tennessee Williams, “Long Day’s Journey Into Night” by Eugene O’Neill, “Death of a Salesman” by Arthur Miller and “Raisin in the Sun” by Lorraine Hansberry. Each story was told by two actors on stage, one being Love and the other switching among different students.
The excerpt from “A Streetcar Named Desire” features the characters Stella Kowalski, played by Emma Gann ’28, and Stanley Kowalski, played by Love. In the scene, Stanley is arriving home and questioning Stella about the business that went on at the house while he was gone. It is implied that Stanley drinks frequently and does not treat Stella well.
The second scene, an excerpt from “Long Day’s Journey Into Night,” depicted brothers Jamie Tyrone (John Daoud ’25) and Edmund Tyrone (Love). In this vignette, the brothers discuss their futures while also talking about the complexities of caring for their sick mother. Each of the four scenes was punctuated by narration from “Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom,” a play on Black life in 1920s Chicago written by August Wilson.
A scene from “Death of a Salesman,” featuring Biff Loman (Basil Keck ’28) and Happy Loman (Love), comprised the third scene. The scene, set late at night, saw the two brothers talking about the differences between their dreams and their current lives. The two wished to leave their lives behind and open the business they’d dreamed of since they were kids, but could not due to life responsibilities.
The final scene, an excerpt from “A Raisin in the Sun,” depicted an emotional conversation between young married couple Ruth (Ariana Goodwin ’26), and Walter Younger (Love). The scene is a commentary on the struggles for economic and social prosperity that left many Black American families with burdensome life decisions to make.
Love’s I.S. uses theatre to take real moments from American lives and showcase them in flashes to the audience. These flashes of single scenes left me wanting to know more about each of the stories depicted. As I was watching the play, I found myself startled by the scenes and confronted with some moments of American reality that I had not considered before.
Changing the Ending: A Celebration of Disabled Stories by Greenhouse Clark
The final I.S. piece was by Greenhouse Clark ’25 and examined accessibility within a dance space and the stories of disabled performers. Kathleen Tyrel provided American Sign Language (ASL) interpretations of all dialogue for the audience for the entirety of the show.
Clark’s piece featured four performers, including himself. It began with Oka Morales ’28’s story about the healthcare system as told through movement. She had a scarf that was utilized in her choreography by fighting with the cloth to remove it from covering her face.
The next dancer was Li Winner ’27, whose dance focused on struggles with the ability to complete tasks that are important to them. Salem Amato ’27 took the stage next; their dance focused on feelings of discomfort within their own body and how that has impacted their interactions with the world.
In between each dance, the dancers performed a group movement where they raised their arms in rolling motions to the sky before coming back down. After this, the lights came on briefly to give the audience and dancers a chance to stretch, move or do whatever they needed to prepare their bodies and minds for the next part of the performance.
The final individual dance, performed by Clark himself, was a commentary on their own struggles with chronic illness, as well as its effects on Clark’s everyday life. There was a final moment where all of the dancers came together in movement before forming a group pose.
After the show, Clark answered questions regarding their piece and provided some information about Tyrel, the ASL interpreter. As a whole, Clark’s I.S. examined the ways in which disabled people’s stories are told and experimented with providing accommodations within a performance setting.
Each of the four seniors’ performances uniquely demonstrated themes and messages, allowing different degrees of audience interpretation.