Androcles and the Lion

Our second production in the fall of 1983 was Androcles and the Lion directed our new faculty member Richard St. George.

A Children’s Theatre play would not have been his first choice but he had been assigned it and did a nice job.

I do not remember why but the set was designed by our Costume Designer Susan Tucker.

To add to the fun the play was to tour to local schools in addition to several performances at the college.

The design was fairly simple why a raked platform that had poles on each side with a cable running across so that curtains with different painted scenes could be used.

Actors would hide behind the backdrops and jump out from time to time during the play.

There were also several trap doors in the platform that were used to hide props and a few foam cutout scenery/props were used.

The platform is still in our basement storage area and it was used for at least one other play.

I kept it because of the method used to build it was a variation of the old parallel platform frames and it is very different from the standard 2x4 platforms that we use most of the time.

Adam Lazzare was teaching a large section on Introduction to Theatre with close to 200 students and being the nice guy I am, I offered to help grade some of the critiques.

Okay, so Adam was still the Dean back then and I thought it would be good for me to be helpful.

Anyway one of us, and I do not remember who, found a critique that was not like the others.

Yes from time-to-time we would find people who copied each other’s work but this one was unique.

The student had copied a 1946 New York Times review of the play for his critique.

His defense when confronted was: “You told us to do some research”

I do not remember what happened to the student but I am sure he was not expelled for cheating.

Adam was a very popular teacher here at Brockport when I came in 1982.

Often on the first day of class he would walk into the large lecture hall in sun glasses and a trench coat, fire off a blank gun and run off.

He said that he wanted to expose the student to a “Theatrical Moment”.

Not something that would go over well today.

He was the Dean for a few years and then stepped down and was our department chair for a few more years and retired in 1991.

I invited me to his house for Thanksgiving one year after hearing me talking with his secretary that I did not have any plans and was not going back home to Long Island.

Being young and not knowing any better I brought some cheap wine as a gift.

He was not insulted but chose to open a 100 year old bottle of Madeira he was saving for a special occasion after dinner instead of the Gallo swill that I had brought.

The tree planted in his horror after his last production at Brockport still stands in front of the Tower Fine Arts Center and is now taller than the building.