Brockport Alumni, part 1 of many

Current projects have kept my away from my blog for a while, but fear not as I still have a great deal to write here.
Recently we had four successful alumni from the 1970’s come back and give a talk about their work in Hollywood.
These guys were students at Brockport before my time but after 29 years of teaching I will of course run into some of my former students from time to time.

Stu Krieger ’73, William Fichtner ’78,  Paul Pape ’74, and Jesse Goins ’74

http://www.brockport.edu/newsbureau/1597.html

I was working with my student the next day when two of the alumni stopped to walk around the theatre a bit more.

We talked about what was going on at the college today and I was able to show them a few posters I had from their days here at Brockport.

My favorite part of the visit was when asked to take a photo with me, just like you see when somebody runs into a famous person on the street.

Most times it is not an arrange visit like Friday’s but just an unannounced surprise.
Just this semester I have seen and half a dozen alumni, a couple each from the 1970’s, 80’s and 90’s.

Recently I ran into a guy from almost twenty years ago in Wal-Mart with his two kids.
He had taken my stagecraft class, I think he was an Art major, and went on to have several different professions but after being a general carpenter and now is building guitars.
He said he learned the basics back in my stagecraft class and when he was looking for a new career path the skills he had learned in my class helped him choose his new path.
I know that I do not turn out master carpenters from my class, but it was nice to hear that he felt what he did learn helped him transition to his new career.

Of course many students graduate (or drop out) and I never see or hear from again but I am always surprised by how many I do hear from.
The alumni always seem to appear in groupings over the year: around Christmas time or during the summer when they are vacationing and just happen to stop by.
Some do make special trips just to see what has happened since they left.
Many have come by recently because we have gone through a major building renovation and they want to see the changes.

A few years ago we did have an alumni come back and he performed his one man show and talked with a group of current students about working in NYC for the past twenty five years.
I will have pleanty more stories about my former students in the comming blogs.

My current project is Wait Until Dark a play we did here as part of our summer season over twenty years ago.

http://www.brockport.edu/newsbureau/1590.html

I will be returning back to the re-telling of my days working in NYC next and how it was that I came to work in Brockport.