101st Technical Commando Brigade, Ann Arbor, MI

Working in Theatre can be dirty, hard work, long hours and lots of fun.
Always looking for some stress release we are always joking among ourselves, having parties and poker games and each year while I was at Michigan someone made T-shirts for everyone.
Based on one of the teachers sayings, and a T-shirt he had, the T-shirt that was made my first year was red and said in big type “ Blow Me Dogface” with “Survivor of Winter 1979” below it.
One day we were all told to wear it to that teacher’s class who topped us all by having the original under his sweater.

The T-shirt from my second year was in the Michigan school colors of Maize and Blue.
I still have it, although it is a bit too small and fabric is a bit thread bare as it has been washed few too many times.
What did it say? See below:

We would wear them whenever we needed a boost after working long hours and I would forget that I had it on when I would next door to “Olga’s Death Gyros” for lunch.
I would get some odd looks from the “normal” or civilian people outside of the Theatre building.
“Olga’s” had the worst coffee in Ann Arbor, at least according to Dick Block one of our design teachers.

In August of 1980 I submitted my thesis with set, lighting and costumes designs for Marlowe’s “The Jew of Malta”.
Included with my 60 page paper were several light plots, working drawings, set renderings, costume plates and other related materials.

Set Rendering and Light Sketches

After the faculty reviewed the work I had to go in for an oral review and defend my work.
All of the other MFA students would always wait outside the room to see how you did.
The first question from everyone when I came out of the room was that they wanted to know what designs I had to redo.
I was very proud to tell them the faculty accepted all of my design work and all they wanted were a few changes and corrections in my paper.

Costume Plates

When I get all of my thesis scanned and posted online I will let my blog readers know.

College was now done for me and it was time to go back to Long Island and begin a new phase in my life.



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