Graduate Student Trustee Candidates Discuss Platforms
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Multimedia Department
· Saturday, April 16, 2016
![Each summer, San Francisco streets are crowded by tourists armed with traveler's checks and cameras. They come in droves, hailing from locations across the globe with their friends and families in tow. I was surprised then, that just a little over a month ago while sitting on a San Francisco bus, I overheard an English couple discussing what they called America's fundamental lack of culture; their conversation breaking only to snap photos of the city through the dirty windows of the bus. I wondered why, if America has no culture, no flavor, why they had come and what they were taking pictures of. Granted, in the grand scheme of things, America is a young nation composed of a multiplicity of peoples and landscapes, giving us our own unique and vibrant culture. But of all of the artists, musicians and literary figures this country has produced, perhaps none has captured and preserved a distinct American Culture like playwright Tennessee Williams. Currently, the Cornell Department of Theatre, Film, and Dance is producing one of Williams' most compelling scripts, the Pulitzer Prize-winning Cat on a Hot Tin Roof. The current production is very different from the acclaimed 1958 film and even various other stage productions, as Director David Feldshuh is quick to point out. The script for this particular show is a synthesis of Williams' earlier version of the play and latter editions which were edited for content due to the show's use of profanity and its somewhat controversial subject matter. Feldshuh explains, "Williams wrote various versions, but he championed the original his entire life ... there are elements of the primary script [in this production], but there are some differences. The original's got more bite." Cat on a Hot Tin Roof is a complicated story riddled with familial rivalries, extreme sexual tensions, economic conflict and man's seemingly inescapable will to survive despite his inevitable mortality. It's no wonder, then, that when Williams' original script hit the stage in 1955, it was met with equal shares of praise and skepticism. This is the story of a large and prosperous Southern family. Brick and his wife Maggie, played by Jeff Blagg '02 and Jess Heley '02, respectively, are a married couple living on the family plantation. Their apparent inability or unwillingness to conceive a child is the subject of much gossip and speculation among the other family members. Brick has fallen into an alcoholic depression following the death of his best friend, Skipper, an event that is cast in an obscure light throughout much of the show. The role of Brick's father, Big Daddy, is played by Brian Russell. The entire action of the play takes place over the course of a single evening, the night of Big Daddy's 65th birthday. However, the celebration is short lived as Big Daddy and Brick attempt to have an "honest" conversation. The following scenes are ripe with conflict and emotion. The play deals with the troubling results of dishonesty, even when presented with good intentions. The play deals with greed. The play deals with sexuality and social standards. The play deals with death and the fear of death. In short, the play is not merely a representation of any one theme, but a thought-provoking examination of a variety of conflicts. As in life, the play's predicaments are not black and white, not as clear-cut as we might like. The various tensions and strains are multi-faceted, complex. The first thing you're bound to notice as you enter the Kiplinger Theater (located in the Schwartz Center for the Performing Arts) is the show's set, designed by Andrew Mansfield. In combination with E.D. Intemann's lighting scheme, the stage is transformed into a Mississippi plantation home. Prior to the opening of the show, pale light falls in bands across a wooden floor, painting the various furniture items in rich yellows, light blues and soft whites. The main acting space is bordered by three large neoclassical columns, and a single wall that houses a door located upstage, marking the set's rear border. The result is a feeling of suspension, as if the audience has broken through the theatrical convention of the "fourth wall" from a multitude of directions -- as if we're seeing the action of the play from several perspectives at once. There's nothing quite as spectacular as leaving an art exhibition, putting down a poem, finishing a novel, or exiting a theatre and feeling changed as a result of what you've experienced. This is the kind of rare production that one would expect to find in an international city at some acclaimed playhouse. To put it plainly, this show is a gem, as engaging as it is entertaining. And as for an American culture, well, there should be no question; it's on display right now thanks to Director Feldshuh, his talented cast and diligent crew.Archived article by Nate Brown](https://snworksceo.imgix.net/cds/01b96993-ac88-4e17-87ef-280f160f43a0.sized-1000x1000.?w=1500&ar=16%3A9&fit=crop&crop=faces&facepad=3&auto=format)
![Following in the footsteps of Jane Goodall and Toni Morrison MFA '55, Dr. Oliver Sacks, a neurologist and noted author, will visit Cornell for the next week and a half as an Andrew Dickson White Professor-at-Large. Sacks will be on campus from Sept. 9 through Sept. 20 and as a Professor-at-large, is considered a full member of the Cornell faculty. At any time, 20 Professors-at-Large come to enliven the intellectual and cultural life of the University. Best known for his books Awakenings and The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat, Sacks will hold two lectures and participate in several classes, which will cover a broad range of topics, during his visit. Sacks, who "comes across as a very warm, compassionate and literary individual," according to Gerri Jones, administrator of the Andrew Dickson White Professor-at-Large program, will participate in the freshman writing seminar, Comparative Literature 133, Expressing the Inexpressible: Literature and Art at the Extremes, in which students read his work on deafness, Seeing Voices. Although not all his books deal with science and disease, "[Sacks] has a way of enlivening science," said Roald Hoffmann, the Frank H.T. Rhodes Professor of humane letters and of chemistry, who is Sacks' faculty sponsor. "He's also one of the great science writers of our times," Hoffmann added. In addition, Sacks will discuss the portrayal of abnormalities and monsters in Greek mythology in a classics course and participate in cognitive neuroscience and clinical neurobiology classes. He will also visit plant science and veterinary college laboratories where he will be shown an animal model of color blindness, among other things. "He has many interests. That is why he makes such a great Professor-at-Large," Jones said. According to Hoffmann, there were plans to have Sacks visit additional departments, but his schedule could not permit the adjustments. "He's an extremely popular person," Hoffmann said. Sacks' visit will begin with a Cornell Cinema showing on Sept. 9 in Willard Straight Hall of Awakenings, an Oscar-nominated movie starring Robin Williams and Robert De Niro. The movie is based on Sacks' book Awakenings, which depicts how he treated the survivors of the worldwide outbreak of "sleeping sickness," an epidemic that lasted from 1916 to 1927 and left the survivors in a catatonic state. Using the Parkinson's drug L-dopa, the patients were "awakened" in the summer of 1969 after decades in a semi-paralytic state, but eventually relapsed. At the showing of the movie, 100 tickets will be distributed for a lecture on Sept. 13. At the Sept. 13 lecture entitled "Neurology and the Soul: The Real 'Awakenings,'" Sacks will discuss his real work with the patients who suffered from the "sleeping sickness" in Statler Auditorium at 7:30 p.m. and will include a showing of the original "Awakenings," a 40-minute documentary made for British television in 1973 but never show on American television. Students and general audience can pick up additional tickets at community centers and at the Clinton House box office. On Sept. 20, Sacks will lead a colloquium entitled "Uncle Tungsten: Memories of a Chemical Boyhood." The colloquium is open to the public and will address the subject of Sacks' soon-to-be-published book, a memoir describing his childhood love of chemistry. Born in London, Sacks received his medical degree at Oxford University. In the early 1960's, he moved to the United States where he is clinical professor of neurology at the Albert Einstein College of Medicine, adjunct professor of neurology at the New York University School of Medicine and a consultant neurologist to the Little Sisters of the Poor and at Beth Abraham Hospital. Sacks received several prizes and awards, and is a member of the American Academy of Arts and Letters. His work has been translated into 22 languages.Archived article by Luke Hejnar](https://snworksceo.imgix.net/cds/6db57a8d-c499-43f3-8b53-ce66fee06cde.sized-1000x1000.?w=1500&ar=16%3A9&fit=crop&crop=faces&facepad=3&auto=format)
