Plays, Parties and Beer

The forth play of my first year at Brockport was The Country Wife.

It was the biggest and most complex set of the year and it offered some challenges and I enjoyed working it.

It was a big unit set with some smaller set piece that rolled or flew in to change the scenes.

The Country Wife, 1983

One item I built myself was a large 4 x 8 window that came out well, looked good onstage and became a frequently used item in our scenery stock.

Almost 30 years later we still have the window and it was most recently used this past year in the set for Black Comedy.

The Country Wife window re-used in 2011

Also a part of the set were three signs cut out of ¼” ply that represented various shops that were supposed to be on the stage.

Two of the signs, a shoe and beer mug, were mounted on the scene shop wall until the recent renovations and I saved them and hope to put them back up along with a few other pieces from the past.

Images of the signs will fellow soon.

There were plenty of other that kept me busy that first year; teaching classes, music events and numerous student productions.

Harlequins, the Student Theatre group, did a production of Happy Birthday Wanda June by Kurt Vonnegut.

Like too many other student shows over the coming years, they used too much scenery and platforms that were too high for the Lab Theatre.

I have tried time and again to advise the student designers about what will work in the Lab, but most of the time they want to do it themselves and do not want to listen to experience.

Over the years there have been a few very nice student sets that worked well and fit nicely in the Lab Theatre, but not too many.

When I was first hired I was just the Technical Director so I jumped at a chance to design the lighting for one of the senior projects and helped on many others as well.

I did not mind working on the music events except when a concert was planned for the afternoon right after the night we struck a big set.

It was a bit tuff working until 2:00 AM or later, having a strike party and then coming in early the next day to set up for a music concert. 

My first year at Brockport the drinking age was still 18 and drinking was an important part of all cast and strike parties.

Within a year or two the drinking age was moved up to 21 and we no longer could have a cooler of beer onstage for when the strike was over.

It was always a celebration of another production coming to an end, not about people getting drunk.

Strike parties have a long tradition in Theatre but things change and we could no longer have alcohol on campus.

Yes, drinking still goes on at student parties but I have not gone to one in a long time.

Unlike K-12 teachers, most college professors do not take any classes in how to teach.

So that first year I had to figure it many things out fast; how and what to teach, how to run college crews and probably the hardest thing - What was going to be my relationship with the students?

Boss? Friend? Big Brother? Teacher?

It is different today when I am almost 30 years older than most of my students, but back then when I was just a few years older than most of the students and often would run into them at local bars or at parties.

Because there was no rule book I had to figure out my own rules and guidelines but I knew enough that I would not date any of my students.

I know that I made a few mistakes, but that never stopped me from flirting and having fun.

But nothing would be wrong with dating a student who graduated before I came to Brockport or was a Theatre major at another college.

It was good that I did have some non-Theatre friends (the Deadheads and others) as it was impossible to live in town and not run into some of my students.

I did not try to hide from my students and often would have a good time hanging out with them but there always was that little thing in the back of my head that kept reminding that me that I was now an adult and was expected to make the right choice.

Being an adult, oh well.

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