Play links performers with women around the world
The 30 female cast members of The Vagina Monologues won over audiences at the Palace Theater with moving performances that showed the beauty, hilarity, and hardships associated with being a woman.
    Eve Ensler originally wrote the racy and witty Vagina Monologues after interviewing 200 women across the world about their sexuality. More than 10 years later, it is an Obie Award–winning production that has been translated into 45 languages and performed in 120 countries.


Emily Ha ’09 performs during The Vagina Monologues at the Palace Theater.  (Photo by Luke Connolly '09)

    Angie Chapman ’10 directed the all-student cast after successfully directing last year’s shows. “I realized how much The Vagina Monologues coincided with a lot of things for me — my progression as a woman and becoming empowered,” she said.
    The shows created a connection between performers and audience members that went beyond the Palace stage. “Because it happens both on campus and around the world, it creates a more global perspective,” Chapman said.
    And the production supports women in ways beyond awareness. Proceeds from the Colgate performances went to various women’s charities, including the Syracuse Area Domestic Violence Coalition and Liberty Resources’ Victims of Violence Freedom Fund in Madison County. A percentage also went to help women of the Democratic Republic of Congo, who are the main beneficiaries of this year’s celebration of V-Day, a global movement founded by Ensler to end violence against women and girls. “The concept [behind V-Day] is that we’re going to keep fighting until the violence stops,” explained Chapman. “We need to keep the initiative going.”
— Brittany Messenger ’10

Three alumni Just ASK what if?
P. Case Aiken III ’06, Adam Samtur ’06, and Matthew Kagen ’07 didn’t set out to start a theater company; they just wanted to produce a play from soup to nuts and see what happened. Now, under the production company Just ASK (Aiken, Samtur, Kagen), the trio is enjoying the success of their first show and seeing how long the applause lasts, one production at a time.
    The idea to produce Anyone for a Threesome was born over a dinner conversation. Although they all have theater experience, this was the first time they would write, direct, and organize a play. “We thought, worst-case scenario, we put on a show and no one comes, but at least we could say that we did the show; and best-case scenario, we get a couple of reviews and get our name out there,” Aiken said.

A scene from Sans Deus — a one-act play written by P. Case Aiken III ’06 and directed by Matthew Kagen ’07 — which was part of the production Anyone for a Threesome.  (Photo by Matthew Brogan ’05)
    Each wrote one of the three one-act plays and directed. Aiken pulled some strings with his theater contacts to arrange for Threesome to be at the Red Room in New York City’s East Village. Leading a cast they had never worked with before, they also had the opportunity to “get to know some great New York theater professionals,” Kagen said. And they got a helping hand from some Colgate friends: Sydney Rais-Sherman ’07 (prop and stage manager), Matthew Brogan ’05 (set designer, lighting designer, and light-board operator), and Stephanie Wortel ’06 (house manager).
    Running every Monday night in December, the first four shows sold out, so they added two more shows. Those also sold out, to the point where they were turning people away at the door. “We didn’t think we would do nearly that well going into it,” Samtur said.      
    Threesome did get a couple of reviews — on NYTheatre.com and Offoffonline.com — that indicated that the play could benefit from some tightening, but that the young directors showed promise. “The reviewers thought we had potential and that our artistic direction was interesting,” said Kagen. “We also got some constructive criticism, which was nice to hear because it will help us get better.”
    “This was our chance to do it ourselves and really lay ourselves out there for all the harsh criticism in the world,” Aiken added. “We really wanted to see what stage we were at and where we could go. The fact that we were received as well as we were is amazing to us, and it’s a great jumping-off point.”
    To get even more honest feedback, after each show they invited the audience to join them and the cast at the bar downstairs, to share their thoughts on the play.
    Just ASK is now working on their newest play, What(’s) Happen(s)(ed)(ing) in the Elevator, which opens May 23 at the Red Room. “If this proves to be as much of a success as the previous show, this would be the sign that we should keep going,” Aiken said.
    Setting the stage for Elevator, in March they put on One Night Stands, a similar event to the one Samtur co-created at Colgate that involves a series of short plays. The event was a fundraiser for Elevator and gave them the opportunity to workshop a few of the scenes.
    The trio is taking each successful production in stride. “We’re keeping our goals small,” Aiken explained. “If we have the success, great; but we don’t plan on having a sold-out show for everything we do. We’d much rather be reasonable and have our expectations exceeded.”
    “The main thing I’ve learned from this is to make your own opportunities,” Kagen said. “I think it’s really important to find what you love to do and just do it.”

Alumnus exhibits Passover illuminations
Artist and sofer (scribe) Rabbi Matthew Berkowitz ’93 worked on his collection Passover Landscapes: Illuminations on the Exodus for a four-year period after being commissioned by a couple to create a family Haggadah (the book that is read the evening of the Passover seder that recounts the story of the Exodus of the Israelites from Egypt).
    The collection includes 24 paintings, 3 intricate papercuts, a Haggadah, and a book of commentary. The limited edition portfolio is on permanent display at the Jewish Theological Seminary of America, where Berkowitz is a senior rabbinic fellow. It was also acquired by the Judaica Collection of Yale University, and has been on exhibition at New York City’s Yeshiva University Museum and the James Francis Trezza Gallery.

Matthew Berkowitz’s Maror: The Subtle Descent to Enslavement, Passover Landscapes: Illuminations on the Exodus (c) 2006  (Courtesy of James Francis Trezza Gallery)
   Maror: The Subtle Descent to Enslavement illustrates the narrative of the Israelite descent to enslavement in the shape of the leaf of the bitter herb, which Jews eat at Passover to remind themselves of the bitterness of Egyptian slavery.  Berkowitz explained the illumination’s detailed symbolism: “When the Israelites first came to Egypt (the story of Joseph), they prospered and were a successful minority. Then, according to the first chapter of Exodus, ‘a new king arose who did not know Joseph,’ and he slowly began to enslave the Israelites. So, the large figure represents this ‘new king’ and the large Hebrew words are Pithom and Ramses, the cities that the Israelites were compelled to build for the Pharoah. Also pictured are the Egyptians casting the first-born males into the Nile. Further down, Moses’s mother places him in the basket, and then he is saved by the daughter of Pharoah. Finally, the descent to slavery is shown at the bottom.
    “The background is the original Hebrew of the first chapter of Exodus, which gradually transitions from light blue to dark blue, conveying the notion that slavery did not happen suddenly to the Israelites — rather, it happened so gradually that they didn’t realize it until it was too late.”
    Berkowitz is currently residing in Jerusalem, where he is teaching, writing, painting, and working on a project that explores the nexus between Jewish learning and the visual arts.


Preview



Claude Cahun, Untitled Self Portrait,
c. 1930, Silver gelatin print
Purchase of the Gary M. Hoffer ’74
Memorial Photography Collection Fund

Remember? Photographs Before Digitization
Picker Art Gallery
May 12 – Nov. 15, 2009

Digital photographs are ubiquitous on the Internet and counted in the billions, and this show reminds contemporary viewers of the allure of original photographic prints produced by laborious processes in the darkroom.
    This exhibition of approximately 90 daguerreotypes, albumen prints, and silver gelatin prints from the mid–19th century to the present day offers an overview of art photography in Colgate’s holdings. Canonical masters such as Edward S. Curtis, Berenice Abbott, Claude Cahun, Brett Weston, and Lee Friedlander are among the artists represented. The exhibition demonstrates how each photograph, by tracing light, embraces its roles both as a record of the visible world and of artistic expression.

For information on other arts events, visit www.colgate.edu/arts

Open mic



On Beauty
As students — with paintbrushes in hand — looked at blank canvases, members of the Colgate Christian Fellowship (CCF) asked them, “Where do you see beauty in the world?” and “How do humans contribute to or detract from that beauty?” The 24 participants in the Open Canvas event, sponsored by CCF, were invited to reflect on those questions and, through painting, respond.
    The resulting artwork, including this piece by Lindsay Shepard ’12, was exhibited on the brick walls of the Barge Canal Coffee Co. in Hamilton in February. Of her painting, Shepard said:
    “This country was built on great deeds and ideals. There are opportunities here not found anywhere else in the world. Unfortunately, I also think our nation has become disconnected from important values and many of the responsibilities that come with power; however, change is always possible.
    “I juxtaposed symbols of destruction and self-servance with the playful image of a child. This painting is a reminder of our responsibility for the future and of our faith in the youth. It lies in the promise of hope, and where there is hope, the spreading of peace will always be possible. As it says in Isaiah, ‘The wolf also shall dwell with the lamb, and the leopard shall lie down with the kid; and the calf and the young lion and the fatling together; and a little child shall lead them.’”

— Brittany Messenger ’10