The Fall semester is ending and the first half of the Oberlin arts season is winding to a close. As usual, the Oberlin campus had a steady flow of events spread over the course of four months. Many people contributed to the multitude of innovative works. Arts events drew larger crowds than the poor Yeomen did. What was rare this semester was the amount of excellent work being done. One can take in a music event at the Conservatory, theater at the Little Theater or a pop show and walk away satisfied. But it is not often that one leaves an event on campus and be transfixed. When it happens though, the feeling is superb. Here, collected for perusal are the best art events of the season.
THEATER
A rather quiet semester for Oberlin theater, the productions that did stand out were all marked by outstanding ensemble acting. The season began extremely early, with senior Chris Niebling's production of James McClure's Lone Star. The play, set in Texas over one long night, concerns the lives of three yokels: Ray (junior Matt Van Winkle), Roy (senior Will Alexander) and Cletus (junior Gabriel Carleton-Barnes). Michael Barthel, in his Sept. 17 review, pronounced Lone Star to be "simply stated, one of the funniest plays to be produced at Oberlin in quite some time. What makes it particularly rewarding is that it becomes neither traditional theatrical farce nor simply a staged version of a television sitcom. It is a play chock full of junk - food, cars, backseat sex, fights, crickets and of course, beer."
Van Winkle continued his look from last semester at David Mamet's work, with All Men are Whores. Having successfully directed Mamet's Oleanna last year, Van Winkle took on a minor work with Whores, and carried it off to rave reviews. The campus was buzzing. The production proved to be more than just a provocative title. "The themes here are big: death, time and sex," declared Liz Harlan-Ferlo in her Nov. 19 review. "Mamet's major premise is the inherent struggle between biology and emotion. Mamet also plays with the ideas of public and private, and Van Winkle's production picks up on this." The performance, composed of three monologues performed by junior Patrick Mulryan, sophomore Adam Marvel and senior Emily Farrell, was at times harrowing, quite funny and utterly honest.
One has to be utterly nuts to take on an honors project. On top of a full class load, seniors are responsible for an entire independent project based around their discipline. For theater honors, the goal is the direction of a full evening's play. One has to be even crazier to take on the most verbally sophisticated of contemporary playwrights in the English language, Tom Stoppard. Yet even if Patrick Hughes' production of Travesties was not smooth, the ensemble cast was. Energetic just might be the understatement of the year when describing the work done by Hughes's company. Together the performers in the sprawling three-hour production took an admirable stab at a tough script and achieved a number of genuine laughs.
Anchored by the uncanny look-alike performances of sophomore Roger Barker as Dadaist founding member Tristan Tzara, senior Greg Pierce's lilting James Joyce and freshman Ben Stuber's fiery yet earnest Lenin, the ensemble made Stoppard almost a madcap affair. Who ever thought back-stabbing librarians singing burlesque could be so amusing?
VISUAL ART
There were many high points in the visual arts this semester. Art was not localized to just museum walls, and this only served to strengthen the pieces on display.
One of the loveliest things to occur this semester was the refurbishment of the Allen Art Museum. A beautiful Cass Gilbert Italianate building, accented with terracotta roofing, the museum underwent a substantially large refurbishment which included the raising of the ceilings and the redesign of several light sources. The overall result was that the museum became a lot airier.
Also at the Allen this semester was the inescapably intense Utopia and Alienation: German Art and Expressionism. Curators Stephan Jost and Marjorie E. Weisman did a fine job of culling an exhibition displaying three distinct themes: portraiture, the nude, as well as self-image and modern life. In his thoughtful review from Sept. 17, Colin Booy mused that "the pieces in the show are a glimpse of the subliminal underpinnings of a culture in dramatic and violent change. Not a safe place to be, perhaps, but a necessary and revealing one."
As far as art leaping off the walls, there is no clearer example than Conor Durand's senior project, (in)famously known as the box. Durand collaborated with alumna Elizabeth Kautz to create a true piece of political art. For a week, Fisher Hall was host to an eight-foot by eight-foot sized wooden box that incarcerated a new "prisoner" every twenty-three hours. The entire gallery was painted white, with light visible just where the bottom edge of the box met the floor. Behind a wall was a video monitor hooked up to a camera trained on the mock prisoner. An utter juxtaposition, the work was both unsettling and vaguely holy.
Some of the best art on campus was literally on the campus. As it has been for the past couple years, student silk-screened posters are some of the best art being created. Vitalized by the extraordinary Pinc Graphics Co. of a year ago, new posters seem to pop up daily. From the jitterbug-inspired "Swing Dance" poster of just a weekend ago, to the arts-and-crafts themed "Bike Co-Op Grand Opening" print from late September, student-printed posters continue to bring bursts of color and sexy, eye-catching imagery to walls, halls and even the occasional stalls. Fisher Hall was home to many of the prints earlier in the semester, when the gallery presented a display of former silk-screen students' works from years past.
POP MUSIC
The pop music on campus was entirely ho-hum this semester, yet two touring act managed to shine through; one polarizing, the other jamming.
First up was the divisive Magnetic Fields. The New York-based quartet performed their unique hybrid of ballad-show tune-pop ditty-whine. Essentially vocalist Stephin Merritt's show, the Fields gave Oberlin a not-always-polished but never less than fascinating foray into their gargantuan new collection, "69 Love Songs." Love-them-or-hate-Oberlin by Concert Board, has cornered the market on the moody ballad. May we all weep passionately into our beers as they continue to create over the-top gems.
On the other end of the spectrum was Toshi Reagon. Crowed Ben Gleason in his November 12 review, "the crowed had little choice but to relinquish their chairs. Bopping her head like a mighty bass drum pedal, when Reagon's voice boomed, it was not hard to understand why she drove the show." With her band, the Righteous Ones, Reagon gave the audience a warm, folksy sound reminiscent of the best of Neil Young and Tracy Chapman.
CLASSICAL/JAZZ
Some wonderful events occurred this semester, many of which are prime examples of truly progressive music. Much of the best music being made at Oberlin is quite progressive. Susie Ibarra and Asif Tsahar are an engaging duo from New York City. She is an Asian percussionist as well versed in the Javanese gamelan as she is in the more traditional instrumentation of jazz drumming. He is an Israeli expatriate who accompanied with ferocious honks from a baritone saxophone and the lovely and mellow-toned bass clarinet. The music this married couple made was not always easy to listen to, but running through it was a consistent degree of musical conversation, pacing and excellent improvisation. Ibarra and Tsahar are ones to watch.
In a more traditional vein came the recital of soprano Dawn Upshaw. Upshaw's voice is, to use the cliché, lark-like. And her performance in Finney proved just what a song bird she can be. Opening the program was the beautiful Schumann lieder. Highlights included a set of contemporary American songs by young composers, and the glowing warmth of Broadway tunes by Vernon Duke. With magnificently sensitive accompaniment by Upshaw's long time accompaniest Gilber Kalish, Upshaw demonstrated what true professionalism and craftsmanship sounds like.
Always keen to experiment, conductor Tim Weiss has chosen the Oberlin Contemporay Music Ensemble's repertoire with care and love. Weiss and his group continues to expand the direction that the group travels in and is not shy to program challenging music. With everything from Harrison Birtwhistle to Steve Reich being performed, the concerts are always intriguing. The ensemble certainly lives up to the "contemporary" in their name.
Finally, the students of the Conservatory should be applauded for the many ad hoc recitals given this semester. Some of the music was the most exciting stuff to be coming out of the Conservatory. Despite departmental bickering and threats of boycotts the musicians forged on, creating impromptu performances and reminding us of the true reason these musicians came to Oberlin.
Copyright © 1999, The Oberlin Review.
Volume 128, Number 12, December 10, 1999
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