My 1st Year at Brockport Done

In addition to four department plays and two summer arts productions I had plenty of other events to keep me busy my first year at Brockport.

Harlequins, the student Theatre group, produced two plays and there were at least six senior project productions that year.

My first year at Brockport was also the last year of the Music Department and I helped on a number of their large concerts and several senior recitals.

My level of involvement varied on these events but I often choose to do more than I was required to.

I was happy to design the lighting for one senior project because it had been over a year since my last design and helped build the set for another play.

Over time I learned to let student do more for themselves, but have always tried to be there help when needed and to prevent problems when possible.

There would be plenty of changes over the years.

Of course the student population is always changing with students coming and going; some stay just a semester and others never seem to leave.

There would also be many changes in the staff over the past 30 years.

One of the Theatre professors left at the end of my first year to become a Dean at another college and we hired Dick St. George to take his place for the next year.

As I started my second year at Brockport it was nice that I was no longer the new guy.

I was eager to take what I had learned during my first year, make some changes and hopefully do a better job the next year.

The productions during my second year were bigger and offered many more challenges than those of my first year.

The plays for the 1983-84 season were: Androcles and The Lion, The Diary of Anne Frank, Threepenny Opera and Cat on a Hot Tin Roof.  

Stories to follow.

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9/11 - Ten Years Later

On a sunny Tuesday morning ten years ago I was watching the Today Show as I was getting ready for work and saw the first reports of a fire at the World Trade Center.

Just a few minutes into the report I saw a plane hit the second Tower live on TV and like most others watching that day I knew that the World as we knew it had just changed forever.

Things happened fast that day and by the time I got to work the Towers had fallen, the Pentagon had been hit and Flight 93 had crashed in Pennsylvania.

Just before noon we got word that the State was closing down the College and all State Buildings and everyone was sent home.

Like most people I watched the TV reports for the rest of the day and tried to figure out what had happened and what was next.

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Too many people were lost that day and I found out a few years later that I had once met one of those heroes thirty-five years ago while I was still in college.

He was the twin brother of one of my friends and I enjoyed a few beers and some laughs with him during a visit to Buffalo. 

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Please take a minute to remember him and all of those who we lost on 9/11.

Geoffrey E. Guja

Age: 47

Hometown: Lindenhurst, N.Y., USA

Occupation: Firefighter, New York Fire Department

Location: Ground, World Trade Center

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