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COLLEGIATETIMES He’s got next

wednesday february 25, 2009 blacksburg, va.

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SALLY BULL/SPPS

Point guard Tyler Lewis drives and defends as Forsyth Country Day School Furies loses to Greensboro Day School 49-40 on Feb. 17.

COULD THE FUTURE OF HOKIE HOOPS REST ON 15-YEAR-OLD BASKETBALL PHENOM TYLER LEWIS? ALEX JACKSON

ct sports staff writer As the school day comes to a close in Lewisville, N.C., 15-year-old Tyler Lewis packs up his things and leaves his last class of the day at Forsyth Country Day School.

With a bag full of books attempting to weigh him down, Tyler tightens his straps and resists, walking outside where he’ll meet his father, Rick Lewis, to make the daily 45-minute trip home.

Tyler climbs inside the passenger seat of his dad’s car, relieved he is finally done for the day and is asked a question that he may just need to get used to.

“Where do you want to go to school, Tyler?” his father says.

While the same question was asked of Tyler just months ago while he was deciding between private or public high school, the question posed in his direction now regards a higher level of learning.

Tyler Lewis is just a freshman in high school.

While it may be too early to judge his grade point average, his season averages of 12 points, 5.25 assists, 2.9 steals and just 2.2 turnovers per game on the basketball court are undeniable.

Undeniable — at least to the likes of Virginia Tech, Auburn and UNC-Charlotte which have already offered Tyler a college education and a spot on their rosters when he graduates in

2011.

“I think it’s kind of cool that all these schools are already looking at me,” Tyler said.

He currently plays point guard on the Forsyth Country Day varsity basketball team, which finished its regular season with a 21-7 record; a team recently ranked No. 3 in the North Carolina Independent High School Athletic Association.

He’s been playing at the varsity level since seventh grade.

Bob Gibbons, the editor and publisher of the All Star Sports Report, has covered the college basketball recruiting process for 32 years.

In his time on the job, Gibbons said, “(Tyler’s) got probably the most advanced abilities I’ve ever seen for a kid so young and so small.”

Rusty LaRue, Tyler’s coach and the athletic director at Forsyth Country Day, played basketball at Wake Forest and spent several years playing on the professional level both overseas as well as in the NBA. LaRue was a member of the Chicago Bulls when they defeated the Utah Jazz in the 1998 NBA Finals.

Needless to say, LaRue’s playing career allowed him to witness some of the greatest guards in basketball history, including Michael Jordan and John Stockton, firsthand in that year’s finals.

“Tyler’s a smart kid and understands the game,” LaRue said. “Even when he’s not scoring a lot and doing some of the flashy things, he’s such a solid player.”

Rick Lewis described his son as a “coach on the floor. He has unbelievable basketball skill level. But the thing that really separates him from everyone else is his basketball IQ.” LaRue ageed and said “He’s a coach-onthe-floor type of kid as far as understanding concepts and seeing the play before it happens.

He’s got a really true point guard mentality from that perspective.”

Gibbons acknowledged that it might be early to discern what kind of player Tyler will be in college, but still sees the young teen as an exception to the norm.

“When you see an underclassman make the plays that Tyler Lewis can make, you naturally focus on him,” Gibbons said. “Even though it confounds you that gosh, this kid is only class of 2012. You think: What is he going to be four years from now?”

Now, with eyes on him at all times, Lewis may face the same question on a daily basis for the next four years.

As they pull out of the main entrance at Forsyth Country Day, Tyler thinks for a moment, looks at his father and responds with a tired, “I don’t know.”

“What do you mean you don’t know?” his father asks.

“I just want to go somewhere where I can play and have fun,” Tyler says.

Rick Lewis founded Carolina Flight Basketball in 2002. In its first season, Carolina Flight Basketball had just one team: a nine-andunder squad that happened to win the North

Carolina AAU State Championship.

As the years went on, the program grew.

In 2004, Lewis’ 11-and-under Youth Basketball of America team, led by Tyler himself, won the league’s National Championship.

In just under seven years of existence, Carolina Flight Basketball has captured 17 state championships, including six at the AAU level.

While Carolina Flight Basketball had risen as an organization, Tyler had risen as a player.

Today, Tyler is one step away from having his name stitched on the back of a major Division I basketball jersey.

Some things, however, still remain in his way, despite the fact that he has already been offered residence hall room keys and a free education from three Division I schools.

“The biggest thing we always hear is, ‘He’s a freshman. He’s 5’10”, 145 pounds,’” Rick Lewis said. “Everybody talks about how he’s too little and is he going to grow?”

Gibbons said it plainly: “He’s just so small, there’s no way unless he grows that he can play at the ACC level.”

Luckily for Tyler, he’s still a freshman in high school, with the assumption that he’ll grow in the next three years.

“The doctors have told him based on his growth plates and his older brother who is 6’2”, that Tyler could be the same size,” Gibbons said.

While Tyler’s size will hopefully change, his current mental state must persist through high school.

see LEWIS, page six

Tech students to descend on D.C. for eco-conference

Stomping Burruss

RILEY PRENDERGAST

ct news reporter

SALLY BULL/SPPS

As part of Black History Month celebrations, Virginia Tech welcomed Step Afrika, the country’s first professional stomp troop, to Burruss Hall last night.

Starting on Feb. 27, an estimated 10,000 students will appear in Washington, D.C., to take a stand for immediate climate action as part of Powershift 2009.

Virginia Tech is sending 88 people as of Thursday, said Bryce Carter, the recruitment coordinator at Virginia Tech.

Carter, a junior majoring in humanities, science and environment, is also the vice president of the Environmental Coalition, which places Virginia Tech in the top three schools sending the highest amount of students in the nation.

Powershift aims to “to hold our elected officials accountable for rebuilding our economy and reclaiming our future through bold climate and clean energy policy,” according to its Web site.

The massive conference looks to make a major impact on climate policy within the first 100 days of President Barack Obama taking office.

The event is not limited to college students — or students at all, for that matter.

“We have people coming from literally hundreds of not only universities, but also high schools and middle schools.

There will also be people coming who aren’t students at all,” said Brianna Cotter, spokeswoman for the Energy Action Coalition. “It’s going to be bigger and more amazing that anything that this country has ever seen with young people mobilizing for clean energy.”

COURTESY OF BRYCE CARTER

Last year, over 100 Tech students, some of whom are pictured above, attended the national Powershift Conference in Washington, D.C. Powershift has been holding rallies in Washington since 2007 but in past years has never predicted this large of a turnout. Last year, Tech was the first in the nation with its turnout of students, sending 105 people, mainly undergraduates.

have a news tip? want to see something in the CT? e-mail newstips@collegiatetimes.com

“Our goal is to push our numbers up to 100 (people this year),” Carter said.

“These are the people, with absolutely no joking about it, that we helped put into office, and now we are expecting

see POWERSHIFT, page two

page

2 news

editor: caleb fleming email: nrvnews@collegiatetimes.com phone: 540.231.9865 office hours: tth 2 p.m. - 4 p.m.

february 25, 2009

editor: sara mitchell email: universitynews@collegiatetimes.com phone: 540.231.9865 office hours: mw 1:30 p.m. - 3:30 p.m.

Tech drops home opener

An appl(ication) a day HERE’S A COLLECTION OF APPS FOR ALL MUSIC LOVERS. DISCOVER NEW TUNES OR CREATE YOUR OWN MASTERPIECES. TOMORROW’S THEME: ACADEMIC APPS.

Slacker Radio by Slacker, Inc. Description: Here’s a simple and intuitive streaming radio station app for whenever you want to hear something different. Genres are specific to the point of absurdity. All about the Christmas-angst? Try “Dysfunctional Holiday.”How about“Alternative Chill?”Whatever mood you’re in, you can find a station to audibly represent it.

Price: Free Device: iPhone, Blackberry Last.fm by Last.fm Description: A free online profile — think musical Facebook — keeps track of every song you play. The site makes suggestions based on what other people with similar music tastes listen to. The app works like a streaming radio station but offers additional information about the artists such as upcoming shows or easy access to their Wikipedia entry.

Price: Free Device: iPhone, Android TuneWiki by TuneWiki Description: Upgrade the standard Android operating system music player with this nifty app. Beyond essentials like playlists, this app includes plenty of integration with YouTube to search and save videos easily. The defining feature? Synchronized, scrolling lyrics will make you the TOTS karaoke master in no time.

Price: Free Device: Android

PHOTO ILLUSTRATION BY SARA SPANGLER AND KELLY HARRIGAN

Midomi by Melodis Corporation Description: Got a song stuck in your head but clueless about the artist or what it’s called? Hum or sing the song to this app, and it’ll try to compile a list of possible matches. Narrow down the selection with a 30second sample. Success depends on your abilities, but it works flawlessly when identifying a song on the radio or in some trendy clothing store.

Price: Free Device: iPhone, Android (in development) Ocarina by Smule Description: Impress, or seriously weird out, your friends with this elegant Ocarina simulator. What’s an Ocarina? Well, someone clearly hasn’t been playing their Zelda video games. Use your fingers to simulate playing the flute-like instrument while you blow into the microphone to create the sound. Awkward stares of confusion not included.

Price: $.99 Device: iPhone, not compatible with iPod Touch

PETER VELZ

ct multimedia reporter

SALLY BULL/SPPS

Head coach Pete Hughes returns from the mound after bringing in pitcher Kyle Cichy in the Hokis 7-3 loss to East Tennessee State yesterday, Tech’s home opener. Catcher Anthony Sosnoskie gives Cichy a pat on the shoulder before Cichy’s warm up pitches.

Powershift: Going green from page one

them to do the right thing,” Cotter said. “We have already seen more change than we have seen in the past.

But I think the way a lot of people are looking at this is that a window of opportunity has been opened.”

On the agenda for the five-day rally are performances by The Roots and Santagold, multiple career fairs focusing on the green industry, keynote speakers, movie screenings and training workshops for taking community action.

“Powershift branches out into a whole variety of different topics from social, environmental and ecological issues,” Carter said. “But its main focus is to train people to become organizers on our campus and give them the tools to become involved and make a difference.”

Julie Chop, a graduate student in

urban and regional planning was a participant from Tech in Powershift 2007 and weighed in on her own experiences from the conference.

“It was an amazing experience. I definitely think it was educational,” said Chop. “There were a lot of workshops that taught you how to motivate people and how to obtain the different objectives that we may have. It was after Powershift that we started to form focus groups for the club.”

The Environmental Coalition has coordinated transportation and lodging. Students from Tech who are attending the national rally will be staying with host families or with other students in the area at surrounding universities.

“I stayed with the family of another student from Tech (last year) who lived 20 or 30 minutes from where the conference was being held, so five or six of us stayed there,” Chop said.

“Basically when you register with us there is a discount. It only costs $35 because of donations; usually it costs around $60,” Carter said. “We’re organizing transportation through carpooling, and also people from Northern Virginia who went to Tech have volunteered to house people.”

Most schools don’t have the benefit of housing in the Washington, D.C. area. There are students coming from schools in every state, and Tech is lucky to have alumni and current students opening their doors for the young advocates, Carter said.

“Powershift is all about students, just like those at Virginia Tech, trying to create a clean energy revolution in this country,” said Cotter.

The conference begins on Feb. 27 and continues until March 2, and the EC is still recruiting for people who are looking to be a part of Powershift.

page

opinions 3

editor: laurel colella, david mcilroy email: opinionseditor@collegiatetimes.com phone: 540.231.9865 office hours: mw 11 a.m. - 1 p.m.

february 25, 2009

EDITORIAL

Smoking indoors is not a right in Va.

Making a case for open broadband infrastructure MARK T. ANSBOURY

Have you ever walked past a coat you had hanging on a hook or draped over a chair and been hit with the reeking, stale smell of tobacco? If you’re a smoker, you’re out of luck. But if not, you might be interested in a piece of legislation that went through in Virginia.

The General Assembly just passed a bill banning smoking in most public bars and restaurants in the state. The ban will go into effect on Dec. 1. The ban does not extend to private establishments or places with enclosed smoking rooms.

Everywhere else in Virginia, though, will be smoke-free at the end of the year.

Negative reactions to this bill have come (largely from smokers) in the form of arguments that this law infringes on people’s right to smoke in bars.

But what about non-smokers’ right to not inhale secondhand smoke? What about asthma sufferers’ right to be able to socialize without experiencing shortness of breath? What about anyone’s right to not be suffocated by smoke when they’re out and stink of it long after they’ve left the bar?

It’s been scientifically proven that cigarettes are not only addictive but that they also cause multiple deadly diseases. In fact, the World Health Organization estimates that smoking tobacco killed 100 million people in the

20th century.

Smoking isn’t just fatal to smokers, either. Secondhand smoke has been proven to significantly increase the risk of heart disease and sudden infant death syndrome in those exposed to it.

The judicial system has repeatedly upheld the idea that you can engage in almost any unbecoming, irresponsible, life-shortening activity you are inclined to partake in as long as it has no bearing on anyone else.

Once you intrude into territory that puts the quality of life or safety of others at risk, though, you will be regulated.

That’s how societies work. You have to give up some freedoms in order to enjoy the benefits communities provide. If you want to be able to do absolutely whatever you want whenever you want, then you should stake out a nice little plot of land in the Marie Byrd section of Antarctica (the part so desolately inhospitable that not one single country has wasted time claiming it). It’s likely that you could smoke in whatever igloo you like out there.

Unfortunately, though, company and amenities might be limited.

The editorial board is composed of David Grant, David Harries, Laurel Colella, Alexandra Kaufmann and Jenna Marson.

LETTERS TO THE EDITOR Other effects of sustainability In response to your article “Tech dining services pushes for sustainable dining,” (CT, Feb. 23) it was encouraging to see that Mr. Sarjahani and the rest of the university staff are working to reduce our collective impact on the planet by promoting sustainable foods on campus. While it is a positive thing that Sarjahani uses organic and free-range animals, it’s important to note that raising and killing animals for meat is inherently unsustainable. According to a recent United Nations study, raising animals for food contributes more to global warming than all of the cars, trains, boats, and trains combined. If we really want to make a difference, the first step would be to cut out the meat.

Across the board, animal agriculture squanders the limited resources we have by funneling them through animals raised for meat and other animal products. For example, we currently feed more than 70 percent of the grains raised in this country to animals raised for food, rather than eating the grains directly.

Similarly, nearly half of the water and 80 percent of agricultural land consumed in this country is used for livestock, when it could be used to grow food directly for human consumption. This wasteful use of our resources has a devastating effect on our local environments as well.

Currently, farmed animals produce about 130 times as much excrement as the entire U.S. population, much of which finds its way into our local waterways.

Thankfully, it’s never been easier to find delicious and “green” meals on the go. With local grocery stores stocking the shelves with products such as vegetarian BBQ “riblets” and vegan pizza, not to mention chain restaurants such as Denny’s and Burger King adding veggie burgers to the menus, there’s never been a better time to eat sustainably and cruelty-free. For more information about the impacts of animal agriculture on the environment, visit peta2.com to request free stickers and a DVD. Ryan Huling College Campaign Coordinator, peta2.com

Explaining the lack of reasoning behind disputing the theory of evolution After reading the letter “Explaining the reasoning behind refuting the theory of evolution,” (CT, Feb. 20) I felt compelled as an informed person to write the editor explaining why that creationist author refutes the theory of evolution.

Unfortunately, he never actually did any refuting, and his rambling rant of apparently unconnected points seems to have been based off of either misunderstood or incorrect information.

His first point is that the scientists in Darwinian times were ignorant

about DNA. This is probably the second most factual statement his letter makes (more on that later).

Anyway, yes — they did not know about the functioning of DNA, and this makes no difference at all. Not only does the subsequent identification and study of DNA reinforce and enhance evolutionary theory, saying Darwin’s theory of evolution is wrong because he wasn’t familiar with DNA is like saying Newton’s theory of gravity is wrong because he isn’t familiar with Einsteinian relativity. Further developments in the field refine it — they don’t refute it. Next, the author embarks on a daring, single-sentence foray into abiogenesis, or the creation of life from nothing. He notes that, to assume DNA “evolved” from nonliving substances is “blindly accepting the notion.” To the assertion of blindly accepting notions, may I take a page out of your own book: “Hypocrite! First remove the plank from your own eye, that you may see clearly to remove the speck from your brother’s eye” (Matthew 7:5). A creationist who claims that one must see something to believe it — what an unpleasant contradiction.

The second overall point the creationist makes is that “carbon dating has proven inaccurate” because it puts the eruption of Mount St. Helens at thousands of years. Words fail me. The eruption of Mount St. Helens was never radiocarbon dated, ever, for a myriad of reasons — primarily that volcanoes emit an excess of carbon-14, the isotope used for dating, which would greatly throw off such methods. However, there was a highly publicized case of potassium-argon dating of Mount St. Helens that had a brief flurry of controversy because the results show a several thousand-year discrepancy.

This was quickly explained when people who actually knew what they were talking about noted that, first, K-Ar isotope dating does not accurately measure anything less than two million years old, and, second, the sample that was dated was hopelessly contaminated and not at all homogenous — as the sampler himself admitted. Our creationist author then notes that, when using dendrochronology as a calibration method in radiocarbon dating, “all (tree) specimens discovered have been under 10,000 years (old). I do not believe that is a coincidence.”

Now we come to the truest statement of his letter. If indeed he means to say that there have been no 10,000 year-old trees discovered, then I, too, do not believe it is a coincidence.

Trees don’t live 10,000 years. Ever.

However, if he means to say that there have been no tree fossils older than 10,000 years, that is just hopelessly incorrect — there is nothing further to say.

Regardless, I hope our young creationist friend has been educated. I think it is fantastic to have an open forum of opinions and beliefs; however, I wish that people would do some fundamental research about their own points.

Zach Freed Junior, environmental science

mcclatchy newspapers If America is about to spend nearly $7 billion on building a new pipeline for Internet access, then we should clearly understand the spending choices we’re about to make.

A place to start is by drawing a comparison to our national network of delivering gas and electricity to consumers. Imagine if federal regulation were so lenient that competing companies in the same community each built their own separate grids and pipelines to deliver these essential utilities. Everyone would pay more for gas and electricity in order to finance the high cost of excess infrastructure.

In the case of gas and electricity, America has one complex grid and pipeline system to serve everyone.

Multiple providers each tap into the same system.

Today, it’s the opposite in the case of broadband networks.

Communications companies such as AT&T, Sprint, Verizon and cable operators such as Time Warner, Comcast and Cox each invest in their own separate networks. And who pays for this duplication of expense?

You do, as a consumer and a taxpayer, whether you’re paying for your own Internet service or for service to your schools, hospitals, libraries, public safety forces and government offices.

Making matters worse, the high cost of building a broadband network acts as a barrier to new competitors enter-

ing the market.

The stimulus bill does not require an open broad network that is shared and accessible to new providers. However, the plan does make a start in the right direction. About 75 percent of the $7 billion proposed allocation for broadband infrastructure would go to the underserved in rural communities. State and local governments, nonprofits and commercial providers would compete for this money to finance new open networks.

Yet far more is needed. Beyond this first step, the Federal Communications Commission must establish policy to determine how existing privately owned networks can become part of a common system.

Opponents to an open infrastructure argue that tax incentives would be a cheaper option. That is true in the sense that Internet service carriers would receive tax breaks to expand their current infrastructure, in place of new spending. Yet the shortsightedness of this approach is that it would only perpetuate the current fragmented system that drains resources by duplicating efforts.

The current plan does not include tax incentives, but you can be sure there will be ongoing efforts to create tax breaks, essentially to perpetuate the current flawed system.

Our federal leaders must resist the pressure and instead continue on the path of open broadband infrastructure. Ultimately, open

Internet access will result in job growth while transforming the very way we live and work. It will enable police and fire forces to develop new procedures to communicate directly with people in distress. It will allow doctors anywhere in the United States to send complex medical images to leading specialists who can offer advice. It will let students learn through virtual experiences. Imagine advanced science students tuning in live, with two-way communications, to events such as open-heart surgeries and real-time scientific experimentation.

Right now, our international counterparts are incorporating the best technology has to offer to encourage and advance creative education. We as Americans built our great nation with intelligent foresight that relied on learning and innovation. Now we must rise to this new challenge, and we must be willing to invest new money on new initiatives that benefit the common good.

Today, with jobs, the economy and American competitiveness at stake, we must meet the challenge to build a new transportation system to carry information — and America — through the 21st century.

Mark T. Ansboury is chief technology officer of the Knight Center of Digital Excellence, operated by Cleveland-based technology nonprofit OneCommunity in partnership with The John S. and James L. Knight Foundation.

Clarification of misconceptions about creationism and evolution MATTHEW HISER & NATHAN MAY guest columnists We are writing in response to, “Considering creationism offers interesting insight”(CT, Feb. 19). The major problem with this column was the liberal use of the terms “creationism” and “evolution” without proper definition, and they demand clarification.

For example, in the first paragraph the author defines creationism as “the view that the Bible is literally true and humans and the universe were created

by God within the past 10,000 years.”

This definition would be better applied to the term “young-earth creationism.”

The author entirely ignores major schools of thought, such as old-earth creationism or theistic evolution. We will now clarify the meanings and relevance of these terms to the life origins debate.

Young-earth creationism concludes that the seven days of Creation were seven literal 24-hour days, and accordingly, the earth is less than 10,000 years old (Morris, The Genesis Flood, The Genesis Story; Ham, The Lie: Evolution).

However, this theory is critically flawed by the fact that, according to Genesis, God did not make the sun until the fourth day of creation. Therefore, how does it make any sense to assume 24hour days before the sun was even created? Additionally, of course, modern science has clearly proven that a young earth/universe is not true. However, the Bible itself is consistent with an older universe and the young-earth belief arose from misinterpretation. The bigger point here is that the term “creationism” is not restricted to the young-earth creationism interpretation.

Old-earth creationism is a class of hypotheses that essentially argue a creator is responsible for crafting the universe, life and, to some extent or another, mankind. This understanding does not in general deny the idea of genetic transitions from simple to complex life. However, unlike some other theories, it does involve the idea that the Biblical story of creation has scientific as well as spiritual relevance (Ross, A Matter of Days, The Genesis Question; Stoner, A New Look at an Old Earth).

Theistic evolution is another potentially confusing, but critical, term appearing in the human development discussion. Theistic evolution deals specifically with the idea that evolution, essentially as described by a modern theory, occurred, guided, observed,

or was permitted by a creative deity (Miller, Finding Darwin’s God; Collins, The Language of God).

The lumping together of the term “creationism” with the definition of “youngearth creationism” is an employment of the straw-man argument by the author to reject all forms of creationism by cherry-picking one that has clearly been disproved and pointing out its absurdity to condemn all of them. “The Genesis Flood,” Morris’ seminal work on youngearth creationism (as per Mr. Thomas), was written in 1960; evolutionary science has since had its own changes and panned theories. Modern creationism has become more scientifically robust because of an increasingly accepted reading of the Genesis story that the universe and earth were formed over long periods of time.

“Old-earth creationism is a class of hypotheses that essentially argue a creator is responsible for crafting the universe, life, and to some extent or another, mankind.”

The second very relevant clarification of terms that the author fails to provide is the distinction between microevolution and macroevolution. He seems to operate on the premise that “evolution” is true and “Even the Vatican supports” it. Here, and in many other cases, “evolution” becomes unacceptably vague.

Microevolution refers to the drift of genes and traits within a population, which has been clearly proven and is observed ongoing today; just about every scientist who has seriously studied the matter accepts microevolution as fact (i.e. drug-resistant bacteria).

Macroevolution, on the other hand, is the much more controversial, theologically relevant, and less supported assertion that all life on this planet developed from a common ancestor by the blind process of natural selection.

Macroevolution involves drastic genetic change, on the order of changing one species into another (i.e. developing new functions, appendages, body forms, etc.). We believe macroevolution itself is fatally flawed by Darwin’s own standards, namely the existence of systems of irreducible complexity and the lack of evidence in the geological record, among other reasons.

Regarding irreducible complexity,

Darwin wrote: “If it could be demonstrated that any complex organ existed, which could not possibly have been formed by numerous, successive, slight modifications, my theory would absolutely break down.” In other words, irreducibly complex systems cannot be produced by natural selection, and their existence in biological systems would disprove his theory. Unfortunately for Darwin, we have since discovered tremendous examples of irreducible complexity in biochemical processes, organs, etc. (Behe, “Darwin’s Black Box”).

Regarding the geological evidence for macroevolution, Darwin wrote: “But just in proportion as this process of extermination has acted on an enormous scale, so must the number of intermediate varieties, which have formerly existed, be truly enormous.

Why then is not every geological formation and every stratum full of such intermediate links? Geology assuredly does not reveal any such finely graduated organic chain; and this, perhaps, is the most obvious and serious objection which can be urged against the theory.

The explanation lies, as I believe, in the extreme imperfection of the geological record.”

Darwin was saying that in his time, the geological record didn’t support his theory, but he expected that to change as we learned and discovered more. Unfortunately for Darwin, the geological record has been developed to a much greater degree in the past 150 years, and the lack of “intermediate links” is so great that Darwinists such as Stephen Jay Gould have resorted to proposing theories like punctuated equilibrium.

Punctuated equilibrium posits that, for unknown reasons, evolution works very slowly for longs periods of time, followed by great change in relatively short periods of time. This does not really conform to Darwin’s theory, which in his own words, “can never take a great and sudden leap, but must advance by short and sure, though slow steps.” It is modern evolution’s attempt to explain away a fossil record that doesn’t support their theory of life’s development.

We hope that this article was able to clarify some of the misconceptions perpetuated in “Considering creationism offers interesting insight.” The author’s use of the straw-man argument to attack creationism and his blind acceptance of evolution (presumably both macro and micro) necessitated a response for the sake of clarity.

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wednesday, february 25, 2009

page 4

Organization hopes to get Hokies into saving habit JUSTIN GRAVES

ct news reporter VT Saves held an event on the Drillfield on Monday, advertising the new program and encouraging students to save money. Headed by Irene Leech, Associate Professor of Apparel, Housing, and Resource Management, VT Saves is a part of the America Saves program, which is a social marketing campaign with the goal of helping the Virginia Tech community get in the habit of saving regularly.

Nancy Register is the associate director of the Consumer Federation as well as the national director of America Saves.

“America Saves is a national social marketing campaign that is coordinated by the Consumer Federation of America. Its goal is to encourage everyone, but particularly lower to moderate incomes households to save money,” Register said. “What the campaign wants to do is to build a savings community so that people take financial action to save money, reduce debt and build wealth.”

This program pertains to college students, because it can help offset any

challenges posed by tuition increases, family tragedies, or unexpected medical costs. George Barany is the director of Financial Education and Youth Saves.

“For college students in particular, establishing some savings habits is important. We understand that it’s difficult for students to save money, because you have so many expenses.

But even a small amount could be deposited on a monthly basis to develop a habit with some savings accumulation for emergencies,” Barany said.

Based on studies, about 50 percent of graduating college seniors have four or more credit cards with anywhere between $5,000 and $10,000 dollars of consumer debt, besides loans. America Saves believes that most important is getting in the habit of saving, from the day students get their first job, through the pattern of furnishing their apartments and other things that make debt grow larger.

The first America Saves program was launched in March 2001, in Cleveland, Ohio. Since then, 52 campaigns in different communities around the country have been launched, promoting savings of all

kind for everyone involved.

The VT Saves program is one of four on college campuses. The others include Howard University in Washington, D.C., Wiley College in Texas and the University of California Santa Barbara. Last year, Kansas State University and Utah State attempted pilot programs.

VT Saves recommends opening or adding to a savings account or taking advantage of savings opportunity that an employer may offer. Every individual, especially in times of a recession, should have an emergency fund that can be a safety net for other emergencies that enables you to spend money on expenses you may not have thought of.

America Saves week, Register said, couldn’t come at a better time.

“America Saves week is an annual opportunity for everyone to take a look at their savings, assess the status of it, figure out what could be done differently, if anything, and find resources you need to help make changes that you want to make, and then take financial action,” Register said.

“America Saves is all about financial action, you must be informed, moti-

vated, and there has to be opportunity to increase or begin savings behavior.”

In honor of America Saves week, VT Saves will hold numerous events around campus. On Monday, representatives from VT Saves, including coordinator Matt Jones, held a display on the Drillfield advertising to students to begin saving. Events will be held throughout the week, and attendance at any of them along with signing up as a saver by noon on Thursday puts the student in the drawing for a Nintendo Wii on Thursday at 4 p.m. in the Wallace Hall Atrium.

Students may find more information today in Squires’ info booth next to the Au Bon Pain kiosk from 4 p.m. to 6 p.m. and in Wallace from 11 a.m. to 2:30 p.m.

“It was very cold, but we fought through the wind as we were just trying to build awareness for VT Saves.

This is the second year we’ve done the project,” Jones said. “ Last year, we had our kick-off event on the Drillfield, and we set up some tables in Wallace Hall and told students about VT Saves and gave them a way to open a savings account and other ways to save. The difference between this year and last is we’re organized a lot better. We have many students that are participating and helping us advertise the program. We had over 15 students on the Drillfield all day and we had several people break dancing, along with SunTrust and Bank of America representatives who provided small giveaways, and other small drawings.”

Jones works with SunTrust and Bank of America to try and find a better interest rate on savings accounts for students who sign up as savers through VT Saves. He also stressed the importance of saving, even if you don’t that you don’t make enough money or need to think about saving just yet.

“We try to work with the banks to get a better savings account for the students. Last year we were able to get a percentage better than the annual

COURTESY OF AARON HUNNEWELL

Tech student Peter Kang, a junior mechanical engineering major, break dances as part of a VT Saves event held Monday on the Drillfield. savings percent(age rate). I’ve heard a lot from students that they don’t really see the importance of saving,” Jones said. “Even if you plan to save for going out on the weekends, or going out, but as long as you know where your money is going and what percentage that you’re actually using that is benefiting you and not throwing your money away.”

The program desires to build awareness for not only this week, but to gain momentum into next year. The main goal is to try and stop students and ask them to set financial goals and get them to enroll as a VT Saver, and let them know the benefits of saving.

They believe that if students have the

financial education in college, the will be more well off as far as being successful financial planners into the future.

“The time to save is now,” Leech said. “See for yourself how easy it is to start saving toward a brighter future by attending our events.”

“The sooner you start figuring out how to manage your finances, the better off you are. Everyone has a story of how their parents or grandparents helped them save,” Register said.

“Financial education in high school and getting into the habit of saving at lower levels is something that’s been on the table for a very long time. That’s really what we’re trying to do here.”

Nutrition blog dissects Tech dining REBECCA THOMAS

ct news staff writer The Virginia Tech dining program services has started a nutrition blog for students who are interested in healthier choices when eating on campus. The marketing department wanted to launch a blog in a different format to get information out there and to have another way to communicate with students.

“We wanted a way to communicate healthy nutrition messages to students,” said Jenny Lindsey, administrative dietician for student programs. “Our department of student programs has started several blogs lately for different subjects.”

Assistant communications manager for dining programs, Rachel DeLauder agreed that the blog would be the best way to reach out to students. “A great place to do this instead of putting table cards on the Web site would be to make a blog,” DeLauder said. “That way she could update it regularly with information.”

Junior student assistant dietician Rachel Cornett has contributed to the health blog and came up with the idea to put recipes on the page.

“We recognized that a lot of students eat on campus and a lot of people can’t really determine what are healthy options and what are not,” Cornett said.

“There are also lots of people who are commuters and sometimes they eat here and sometimes they eat off campus,” Cornett said. “We wanted to show them healthy options for recipes that they could make if they were to stay home and eat, as well as some ingredients that they could get from our dining halls if they wanted to make their foods at home.”

ON THE WEB Visit the nutrition blog at http://vtnutrition.wordpress.com Included within the recipes is a rough estimate of how much the meal would actually cost to make. “I calculated the prices based on myself going to the grocery store looking at different prices for the items listed,” Cornett said. “Our theme for the recipes was trying to make a recipe in under 30 minutes on a budget.

We wanted to make them fairly simple.”

The blog is written from a student perspective. “It’s more or less like me trying to relate to other students on campus and it’s a bit more personal,” Cornett said.

Although the blog was recently launched, it has been getting some activity that shows promise. “One day we got 522 hits,” Cornett said. “And

......radio for

it has stayed constant since we’ve launched it with about 50-100 hits every day. The feedback I’ve gotten — everybody really likes it and finds it helpful. We’re trying to promote it and use as an opportunity to become healthier.”

“Dining services is always looking for student feedback in different ways like comment cards. We figured this would be a good way to be interactive with the students so they could tell us what they want,” DeLauder said. “Because it really is for them and the information we want to share is current and up-to-date.”

The blog is also being used as a point of contact for students who have questions about nutrition. “It’s a good way to ask questions of us, rather than talking to their friends and getting nutrition information that may not be accurate,” Lindsey said. “They can post up a question, and Rachel or I can answer giving accurate information.”

“We would love more questions and feedback from students because we want to teach and give out good information,” Lindsey said.

Both Lindsey and Cornett are hoping for more questions and feedback within the blog. “We’re trying to encourage more students to post on the Web site; if they have questions to let us know,” Cornett said.

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february 25, 2009

Lewis: Boy wonder from page one

“I just hope the attention that he’s getting doesn’t have any kind of negative impact on his mindset,” Gibbons said.

Gibbons says sometimes players get cocky when their abilities are discovered at such a young age.

He hopes Tyler doesn’t get into a mindset “where he thinks well, I’ve arrived, I’m good, and I don’t have to continue to work hard.”

Everything Tyler has shown to this point, though, is exemplary of the mindset and work ethic he needs to continue to improve.

“He doesn’t appear to be that kind of kid,” Gibbons said. “He’s got a true passion for the game, he’s motivated, and he’s got good guidance from his dad.”

LaRue said he doesn’t think Tyler’s that kind of kid, either.

“He loves the game, he loves to work, and he’s a gym rat,” LaRue said. “I think he’s a kid that’s going to continue to get better because he wants to play at a really high level and he believes in himself.”

As Tyler gets older, LaRue said opposing teams are “going to take him out of the game. They’re going to trap him every time he comes off a ball screen, and they’re going to limit his shots.”

“Right now, physically for him, that’s tougher,” LaRue said. “He’s playing bigger, older kids, and he’s crafty enough to get his shot off and create shots for other people. But I think to get to the ACC, big-time level, he’s going to have to continue to work.”

When asked what he’s doing to improve, Tyler said he’s focusing on “getting stronger, getting quicker and playing better defense.”

Rick Lewis remains adamant when he says that Tyler is a long way from the next level, but believes there’s a reason that he’s receiving offers from the likes of Tech head coach Seth Greenberg and other Division I coaches.

Lewis said that while people may focus on his lack of size at this point, Tyler is “out there playing day in, day out against juniors and seniors in high school and he’s doing very well.”

“No one’s going to recruit him for his athleticism,” Lewis said, “but what they do like is his skill level, his basketball IQ and how he’s like a

coach on the floor.”

When Tyler says he wants to go somewhere where he can have fun, he means it.

The Lewis family loves the game.

Tyler’s older sister played basketball through high school , and his brother Colby, a senior at Forsyth Country Day, is Tyler’s teammate.

“I guess we’re a basketball family,” Colby said.

Colby and Tyler have grown up shooting hoops together, but this season will be their last playing on the same team.

“It’s cool because not many people get the chance to do that. It’s something I’ll look back on when I get older,” Colby said.

Colby plans to attend UNCCharlotte next year and will attempt to walk on to the basketball team.

Knowing that this is their last year playing the game together, Colby tells Tyler “just to stay motivated and don’t get overconfident. Keep on doing work and don’t get cocky.”

Despite the fact that Tyler’s father, brother and sister have all been involved in the game as he’s grown up, the Lewis’ don’t think anything they did made Tyler such a highprofile recruit so fast.

“I think it’s just God-given,” Rick said. “It’s just something he was born with. It’s something you really can’t teach, and he’s just blessed in that regard.”

Already, offers from three Division I schools and interest from at least one other, Wake Forest, has Tyler Lewis thinking about the future.

While he is far from making a decision on where to attend college, Tyler and his family are all excited he received an offer from Tech.

An e-mail from Rick read, “Right now, our favorite school is VT .”

Tyler said he’s visited Tech at least three times already, and he’s liked what he’s seen.

As his freshman, sophomore and junior years pass and his high school career nears its end, Tyler’s abilities will continuously be questioned.

Those inside the basketball world will ask, “Will Tyler grow?”

Then, they will ask, “Is Tyler’s mind right?”

So far, in three cases at least, those inside the basketball world skipped the questions and asked for a signature.

Pretty good — for a 15-year-old.

Hokies have eyes on Tigers JUSTIN LONG

ct sports reporter Less than a month ago, the Hokies faced off against what was thought of as a similarly-built No. 12 Clemson Tiger team. Tech handled the full-court pressure with ease, and there seemed to be the sweet taste of an upset filling Cassell Coliseum.

After squandering a 15-point lead that night, the Hokies (16-10, 6-6 ACC) have lost five of their last seven games. That Clemson collapse signifies the recent downturn in the Atlantic Coast Conference standings for Tech, dropping the team from third to eighth in that span of time.

The Hokies will now head south to take on that same Tigers team (22-4, 8-4 ACC) in what has to be considered a “must win” game for them if they are going to make a late-season push toward an NCAA Tournament bid.

“We knew this was going to be a tough segment of the schedule,” said head coach Seth Greenberg. “It just proves there is such a fine line between winning and losing. That ability to get that last stop or score that last basket is really the difference between winning 16 games and winning 20 or 21. That’s college basketball. That’s playing in this league.”

The Hokies will be expecting more pressure once again, having to play on the road in a hostile environment.

This time, they will be looking to improve on their half court offense, seeing as they hit a drought in the second half of their last meeting with

the Tigers. The Hokies only scored 29 points after Clemson decided to tighten up its half court defense.

“I think you have to start with their pressure, whether it’s in the full court or the half court,” Greenberg said. “We did a good job with their full court pressure… we have got to do a better job of attacking their blitzes at the ball screens in the half court.”

Malcolm Delaney, who had a careerhigh 37 points in that last Clemson meeting and is averaging 18.5 points per game this season, will be a key factor in determining whether the Hokie half-court offense can be more effective. “(We need to) try to guard Malcolm Delaney a little bit better,” said Clemson head coach Oliver Purnell. “Delaney controlled the basketball and much of the game last time, so we’ve just got to find him. He’s just so good coming right at you off of the dribble. He can pull up or go by you and shoot that runner in the lane.”

Virginia Tech vs. Clemson Virginia Tech at Clemson Wednesday, 7pm., ESPN 2 Littlejohn Coliseum

Virginia Tech #23, G; Malcolm Delaney 18.5 ppg #5, G; Dorenzo Hudson .737 ft percentage #40, G/F; A.D. Vassallo 18.3 ppg

#0, F; Jeff Allen 14.4 ppg #34, C; Cheick Diakite 4.0 rpg

Clemson #2, G; Demontez Stitt 3.5 ppg #22, G; Terrence Oglesby 13.6 ppg #1, F; K.C. Rivers 14.4 ppg

#35, F; Trevor Booker 9.1 rpg #12, C; Raymond Sykes 8.2 ppg

VELECHIA HARDNETT/COLLEGIATE TIMES

JOSH MILLER/SPPS

Defensively, the Hokies will be expected to play better against K.C. Rivers and Trevor Booker, who tallied 50 of Clemson’s 86 total points the last time these teams faced off. Rivers is second on the team in scoring, averaging 14.5 points per game. Booker leads the Tigers in scoring, averaging 15.2 points per game.

“I hope we do (guard Booker better),” Greenberg said. “He’s a physical specimen. He’s a relentless offensive rebounder. He’s got great energy. He uses his dribble purposely, and he’s a hard guard.”

Cheick Diakite, who has seen more minutes over the last several games, will have the hefty task of tangling with Booker in the paint.

“He’s rebounding the ball with consistency,” Greenberg said of Diakite’s recent play. “He gives us a physical presence. He’s facing up and making that little 15 footer.”

The Hokies will also be looking to get more production from players not named Delaney, Vassallo or Allen, as they continue to look for a reliable fourth source of production.

“It’s the hardest thing in coaching,” Greenberg said. “Obviously you want to know what you’re going to get out of someone when they come out on the floor. You need consistency. You need

to know what you’re getting when you go to your bench. We’ll hopefully continue to develop that.”

Vassallo, who had only 10 points in the last match up, will be counted on to step up and play a larger role of the “Big Three” this time around, as he is averaging 18.3 points per game in this 2008-09 campaign.

“We’ve just got to get ready, just like we did after the loss to Maryland,” Vassallo said. “Clemson is a hard place to play and it’s going to be a tough game, and we have to go out there and execute.”

Vassallo will also be a crucial factor in making sure that this team keeps everything in perspective as it heads down the final stretch of its daunting regular season schedule.

“We can’t concentrate on the NCAA Tournament, we still have four more games to play,” Vassallo said. “We’ve just getto take it one game at a time.

The NCAA Tournament doesn’t come until mid-March. We have to concentrate on Clemson, that’s the next team we have to play.”

Refusing to even look at the name of the team next on the schedule, perhaps Delaney had the best mindset in these tough times.

“It’s the ACC, so anybody can lose,” he said. “I’m not really worried about the next team we play. I think if we play well at Clemson we can get that win.”

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All stories by Teresa Tobat

Showtime for ‘Trestle’

KYLE MOIR/SPPS

Freshman environmental policy and planning major Eric Park, playing Dalton, a 15-year-old high school student, rehearses this Monday evening.

AFTER FIVE WEEKS IN PRODUCTION, ‘THE TRESTLE AT POPE LICK CREEK’ OPENS TONIGHT

O

nly actors and a director’s voices occupy Squires Studio Theatre. There is no set. It’s the week before spring semester begins and the first week of rehearsals for the theatre department’s latest mainstage produc-

tion, “The Trestle at Pope Lick Creek.”

The play will show tonight through March 1 and again from March 3 to March 5 in Squires Studio Theatre at 7:30 p.m.

The play is set in 1936 in a town somewhere in America. Cat Capece, senior communication and theatre arts major, plays Pace, a 17-year old

girl who is obsessed with running the trestle. Freshman environmental policy and planning major Eric Park plays 15-year old Dalton, a boy who is intrigued by Pace.

They’re working act I, scene four of “Trestle.” In this scene, Pace and Dalton are at the trestle for the second time in the story. Pace is explaining to Dalton how they’re going to run it and tells Dalton that he’s not going anywhere.

“We’re going to do it again, and I just want you to move,” said director Bob Leonard after the actors finish a run of the scene.

“What’s going on inside the body when this is going on?” Leonard asks Park. “She’s two years your senior, which is a lot. You can’t initiate what you want. He’s got ants in his pants.” see TRESTLE, page four

page 2

page

B2 characters

editor: bethany buchanan email: features@collegiatetimes.com phone: 540.231.9865 office hours: w 11:30 a.m. - 12:30 p.m., f 1:30 - 2:30 p.m.

february 25, 2009

For Will Quinn, ‘when improv is good, nothing can beat it’ J

unior theatre arts major Will Quinn equates improv acting with talking with someone you find attractive.

“I’m not sure if I’m stealing this metaphor or not, but I think it’s great. Doing improv is sort of like talking to a pretty girl — or a handsome guy if you’re a pretty girl — in that when you’re sitting there you’re thinking, ‘Oh, my God, this person is so good looking,’ and you’re thinking of how to impress them, and meanwhile all that comes out your mouth is, ‘I like your hat,’” Quinn said.

Quinn is specifically interested in commedia dell’arte, a 16th century Italian art form. Commedia revolves around a group of characters who all have their quirks and back stories. Quinn said he admires commedia because it’s highly theatrical, utilizing masks and grotesque characters.

He described commedia as the kind of comedy as what makes you laugh when you’re with friends at 2 a.m. It might not make sense ever again, but was hilarious at the time.

“It’s a form that can really handle any of the absurdity you throw at it,” Quinn said of commedia. He said in a rehearsal his character briefly became a dog, and it fit well with the scene.

He said improv acting has taught him skills that actors need working in any genre.

“It teaches you to be in the moment, to react; it teaches you to play,” Quinn said.

Acting on the spot with essentially nothing prepared puts added presPROFILE sure on the actors, but Quinn has learned how to handle it.

“It is entirely you. If you want to do something, you can do it. There’s no excuses. You’re making it up. There’s no reason you couldn’t do something,” he said. But when things don’t go well, “You can’t use it to beat yourself down. You have to be there for your scene partner. And if you’re thinking about how terribly it went, you’re not there.”

Quinn loves when performances go off as planned.

“When improv is good, nothing can beat it,” Quinn said.

He loves playing Arlecchino, a deviant servant character.

“Part of the fun is finding out who’s coming out of me this time,” he said. “It’s almost an out-of-body experience.”

Patty Raun, theatre department head, has noticed how Quinn has matured as a performer.

“His awareness, his understanding over the last couple of years that there is no divide between comic acting and serious acting if one does it well, has been a real growth for him.

He’s no longer dismissing comedy as something not worth doing. He understands that the skills are applicable to any kind of acting. Truth is truth. Whether it’s comic truth or tragic truth,” Raun said.

ON THE WEB Will Quinn talks about his approaches to improvization and studying abroad in Italy.

She recalled a scene Quinn performed in an intermediate performance class she taught from “Angels in America” that was detailed, truthful, and layered in a way that one would expected from a more seasoned actor.

Quinn also succeeds as an actor because of his physical skills.

“I would say he’s among the most gifted physical comedians I’ve ever seen. It’s natural to him, but he works very hard

KYLE MOIR/SPPS

Junior theatre arts major Will Quinn rehearses an Italian improv art form called commedia dell’arte, playing the mischievious servant Arlecchino. at it,” Raun said. “There’s a specificity of every body part that’s required for very skillful, physical comedy. Will is aware of his little toe, while the audience is aware of the direction of his walk. He really is down to the smallest thing, aware of the impact and the contrast of one move into another.”

In addition to expanding his definition of what acting is, his self confidence has really blossomed, she said.

“He used to just say ‘yes’ to everything. He was always at the other person’s service. He still is extremely generous, but he is much more selective about the opportunities that he wants to pursue. He’s much clearer about what’s going to lead him on the path,” Raun said.

Associate professor of theatre arts David Johnson, teaches Quinn in a commedia dell’arte class and has also observed how Quinn has grown as a performer.

Johnson said comedic actors have to worry about tangents because humor can be very subjective, and Quinn has

learned that he doesn’t have to invent new material each time he acts.

“It took him a while until he began to get a more focused sense of the humor … He has learned to follow that instinct in a really sharp way,” he said.

Johnson said Quinn is a great actor who is devoted to his art.

“He’s intelligent, he’s got a good voice, and almost more than anything else is that he’s really interested. He looks at the Marx Brothers, most students are only concerned with what’s going on now. He’s just pretty constantly in that world,” Johnson said. “He’s made a good study of this form. I think of him more as a colleague than as a student.”

Commedia asks that the actors bring the audience into the performance, and Quinn once incorporated an audience member’s cell phone ringing into a scene, and the audience loved it.

“He was just able to roll that up into the play,” Johnson said.

“He has this ability to make the real life that’s going on work with the life of the play that’s going on. He’s hugely spontaneous.”

Johnson has been at Virginia Tech since 1988 and, in those 21 years, has had many students.

“Students are memorable. He’s one of them that will make a permanent imprint. I fully expect him to be quite successful,” Johnson said.

Johnson took Quinn and a group of students to Italy two summers ago and said he sees Quinn applying what he learned in daily rehearsals.

Quinn was in Chicago this past summer studying improv and said the art form has influenced him in many ways.

“It’s is definitely something you can carry over into your everyday life,” he said. “It helps you as an actor, it helps you as a person, it helps you in anything.”

After 40 years and counting, founder of Tech theatre looks ahead A

lumni distinguished professor emeritus Tony Distler came to Virginia Tech to start a theater program in the late ’60s and planned on leaving after five years. And 40 years later, Distler is still here. He’s the former head of the theatre department and the voice and creator of the Marching Virginians.

Distler created the performing arts program at Tech and has watched it change and grow with the university. Recently, Distler took a few minutes to talk with the CT.

Collegiate Times: How long have you been in this office in the Performing Arts Building?

Tony Distler: Here, just last summer. But I was in 201 Performing Arts Building from about 1980 and on … What this (moving into renovated Henderson Hall) is going to mean with music in Squires and the two theaters in Squires for the theater people, and the new theater that’s being built on College Avenue, getting probably a third of the music department because they’re overcrowded into Henderson, and all of the theater people into Henderson, and a portion of the art people into Henderson, is create a really a wonderful mix — which is what we’ve been trying to do since 1967, which is really to create an identity for the arts, and that building being right next door to Squires where all the activity happens — the Recital Salon, Haymarket and Studio and so forth. It’s just finally, finally happening.

Building?

TD: I can’t remember exactly, it was around ’72 or ’73 … All the various aspects of student life were in the Performing Arts Building, they were then moved to Patton. So this place was empty, and the vice president for administration, Stuart Cassell, after whom Cassell Coliseum is named, was going to demolish the building, totally, and make a parking lot. So when this kind of came out, the powers that be, the president at that time, Marshall Hahn said, ‘Look, we’ve got to put these people somewhere,’ we’re not going to demolish the building, they’re going to go into which was at that point called the old YMCA building. … The YMCA essentially was the student center. It became evident that the university didn’t own this building. The YMCA leased it to the university at a dollar per year. So the person who was the head of the YMCA also told the university you can’t tear it down, we own it, you don’t. After negotiations over time, the YMCA eventually gave it to the university on the stipulation that it not be torn down, ever.

CT: So you were hired to start a theater program — did you

CT: When did you move into the Performing A r t s

ever think it would be where it is today?

TD: I wouldn’t have stayed with it if it had not grown. Starting in 1970 when performing arts and communications, that department was created, we went from approximately 12 faculty to 58 faculty in an eight-year period. It was really very exciting.

During that time, the B.A. in theater came i n

1970, the B.A. in music in ’72 or ’73, the B.A. in communication in ’75, ’76 the M.F.A. in theater. It was not only growing, but it was also instituting those degree programs during that time. I planned to come here for five years … It came down to either coming here to start a theater program from scratch or going to Southern Methodist to head up and start a Ph.D. program. My wife and I came to visit and we just fell in love with the surroundings, the mountains and decided to come here.

CT: Are you excited about where the theater department will go?

TD: I’m excited also because you’re going to have components from music and the visual arts in there as well. Here the classrooms are all theater; there they’re going to be multi-use. So you’re going to have a mixture of students in there interacting with one another. Right now, the rehearsals, for example, are sometimes are in this building, sometimes in Studio Theatre or Haymarket Theatre. This way there’ll be a closeness, proximity and a closeness with the music department, because music and theater really grew up together.

C T : What’s it like for you per-

Q&A

sonally to see the program you were hired to start blossom into this?

TD: It’s gratifying. In 1969, before the department of performing arts and communication occurred, I had written a white paper, essentially laying out the ground work for a college of fine arts. When the school of the arts occurred, you know that was in essence almost like having a separate college.

We almost operated on our own … I’m just gratified. It’s 40 years overdue. I couldn’t be happier for the people who are in the departments right now – the music department, the theatre department and the film unit in communication.

CT: After the theatre department moves into Henderson Hall, where do you see it going?

TD: I think the next step is going to be the new Center for the Arts, and not only the major auditorium in there, which is 1,300 seats, but all of the other laboratory areas that have to do with the integration of the live arts and electronic, digital arts. I think that’s the next thing after Henderson … across Alumni Mall you’ll have this new Center of the Arts.

That I see as just a natural evolution from Henderson over to there. That I think is going to be exciting.

CT: How do you feel about the arts having a place at this university?

TD: It’s not there yet. There are still people who are unaware of what we have here and unaware of the quality of what we have here.

I travel around the country doing consulting, and I can say people in California know more about the arts at Virginia Tech than people in Virginia. People in New York City know more about, let’s say, the theatre department, than the rest of Virginia. We have a terrifically good reputation in the arts because of the graduates who have left art, music, theater, communication and so forth. They’re out there. And people outside know about them. But go to Roanoke and they’ll say ‘Oh, is there’s a theatre department at Tech? A music department at Tech?’ I feel good about the reputation that Virginia Tech has in the arts around the country where we’re known, even though we may not be known locally.

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editor: bethany buchanan email: features@collegiatetimes.com phone: 540.231.9865 office hours: w 11:30 a.m. - 12:30 p.m., f 1:30 - 2:30 p.m.

february 25, 2009

Scene shop takes on all theatric challenges W alls that drip blood, refrigerators that spill out sand and elevators that rain have all been created in the theatre department’s Scene Shop in Squires Student Center.

“There’s no handbook,” said Michael Webb, a master of fine arts student in technical direction, about building for theater. “Every mechanical challenge or every construction challenge, very often we’re sort of reinventing the wheel.”

Theater scenery is unique compared to other construction projects, and the shop, run by faculty and graduate students, must build all the larger set pieces needed over the course of four main stage plays each year. The scene shop workers cannot purchase hardware kits that will resolve the unique challenges each show presents.

“Those things have to be sort of imagined, and then the reality is sort of what components are out there that can be put together in interesting ways, in novel ways, in innovative ways to actually realize whatever challenge that we’re facing,” Webb said. “Those are the instances where the challenges are really gratifying to watch them work well. You know that how you choose to solve the problems and the pieces you used — it’s likely never been done exactly that way, and may or may not ever be done exactly that way again.”

The shop, tucked away on the first floor of Squires Student Center behind the Studio Theatre, has a ceiling that is about 22 feet high and an interior space that measures about 1,500 square feet. During the construction process, the sounds of saws whirring and wood being drilled are near constant.

The shop is filled with saws, welding equipment, saw dust, pieces of lumber, woodworking equipment, a lift, drills, nuts, bolts, screws, paint and assorted brushes. A garage door connects the shop with the theater and that space is often used as additional workspace during construction.

Despite being an industrial environment, the shop manages to maintain personal touches. Shop workers’ iPods provide music that spills out from overhead speakers. A piece of duct tape above the sink where the paint brushes hang reads, “Ouch … some of us have bad rheumatism because we are so abused…please keep us clean and dry.

Thanks.”

The shop is responsible for communicating with designers to match the designer’s wants and needs with the logistics of the build. “(We are) maintaining that aesthetic of all these other people whose job is to be really concerned with how it looks when it’s all said and done. So we have to honor what their vision is as well.

That often times poses challenges and specific choices on us as we do engineering,” Webb said.

This compromise is reached through conversations amongst the theater staff and is open to multiple interpretations.

“We very rarely start with an idea in stone. We really start with a concept or an idea, and it really is open to critical evaluation with a lot of people. That’s how we tend to arrive at the decisions that we do,” Webb said.

The schedule for building is, as the concepts of a show, altered depending on what assignments were completed each day.

“I think a guiding principle of how we run things in the shop is we want to stay busy,” Webb said. The shop is open from 1 p.m. to 5:30 p.m. Monday through Friday.

Elspeth Ridout is a third year master of fine arts student and technical director for the latest main stage production.

As technical director, she is responsible for running the shop, supervising the build, staying at budget and honoring the designer’s ideas. About four to six graduate students do assistantship work in the shop.

Management roles in the shop are reassigned for each show.

“My main function for the show is to coordinate all of those different elements that are being worked on by other people — making sure that everyone’s pieces fit together,” Ridout said.

Another of Ridout’s challenges in mapping out the day’s schedule is working in the small space of the scene shop.

“One of the things we do well in the scene shop is put everything on wheels so we can manipulate things around the shop. Just figuring out and learning that I need to budget time and money, but also budgeting shop space. I have the people and the materials to build a whole bunch of stuff,” Ridout said.

“Managing time, people and space.

That third one is a big consideration in the shop.”

One of Ridout’s most interesting endeavors was engineering a working elevator for “Eurydice.”

The elevator was built using a 96inch hydraulic cylinder and came up through the stage floor where it rained and also played music. The water had to be isolated from the electricity, and the hydraulic motor had to be quieted in order for the mechanism to be seamless.

Ridout said she was proud that the elevator functioned on the first go around and that she came in at budget.

“You weren’t supposed to know that the elevator was coming, and I think we did a pretty good job with the shockand-awe effect. People weren’t expecting it. I don’t think they knew where it was going to come from,” Ridout said.

While working on a stage elevator is

With research, set designer crafts unique props

KYLE MOIR/SPPS

Jessica Long helps build a country style bench made out of local poplar for “Trestle at Pope Lick Creek.”

J

KYLE MOIR/SPPS

Paul Schreiner, a second year masters of fine arts student, works in the Squires Scene Shop. one of the shop’s more spectacular feats, each show is a challenge.

“They all have interesting set pieces.

Every show has some interesting challenge. If they’re not interesting, why do it? We don’t do it for the money, that’s for sure,” Ridout said.

About 20 to 25 undergraduates work in the shop as part of a lab requirement for a theater class. The graduate students help mentor the undergraduates.

“Teaching in the shop is a lot different from teaching in an actual classroom,” Ridout said. “You can’t cut off your hand in a classroom. Those who have been doing this a long time … forget what it’s like to come and use a table saw for the first time.”

Ridout said when you’re working with students, you have to remember that they’ve probably never used a table saw.

“Safety is the number one priority. It has to be. If someone’s afraid of a tool, they’re more likely to hurt themselves than if they’re comfortable with a tool.

You still have to have a healthy respect, not necessarily fear,” Ridout said. “I have to say, and this sounds weird, I have to respect the table saw because it could take off my arm.”

Ridout also must be conscious of what the students are doing to keep everyone out of danger. Their shirts need to be tucked in, hair pulled back, wear eye and ear protection and keep their fingers in the right places.

“I never learned in a classroom how to use a table saw or how to use a drill. You learn by doing, and you learn by someone else teaching you how to use it.”

Junior theatre arts major CJ Mellides started working the shop his freshman year. He said his assignments vary daily, but he helps put set pieces together and tweaks lighting and sound.

“Every day is a learning experience no matter what you’re doing,” Mellides said. “Whether you’re hanging a light or you’re cutting a piece of wood — everybody has something to teach you or something to learn.”

He said building the set for “Joe Turner’s Come and Gone” was a fun challenge for him, because after the set was complete, the entire thing was moved to Haymarket Theatre.

He said it’s a relief when a set is finished, and he looks forward to a show’s first run.

“In theater you have that deadline; you have opening night. So it has to be done. It has to be done perfect one way or the other,” Mellides said.

Instructor of scenic technology Kristen Morgan, and scene shop supervisor of three years, oversees afternoon undergraduate lab hours and graduate students.

“The flip side of having the undergraduate students here is we’re a teaching shop,” Morgan said. “In this shop we only work four and a half hours, and a lot of the time it goes really slow because we’re teaching people how to do things. There’s always that tension of needing to get stuff done and our primary goal ,which is teaching people how to do it.”

Morgan, who last semester had an independent study with an undergraduate student in furniture marking, said if the undergrads want to learn something new it depends on their areas of interest and what work needs to be done.

Morgan herself enjoys building furniture and scenic painting.

She said the older look of the “Joe Turner’s Come and Gone” set was unique in that she had to consider where the wear patterns on the floor were, where the smoke from a stove would have been and the location of the soot on the walls.

“On stage, we work very precisely on our scenery, but furniture has to be even more precise so it can be put together properly. We have to do a lot of things by hand. It’s more fine work,” Morgan said.

The first main stage play of the year, “A Skull in Connemara,” called for a hearth that was a few hundred years old, and Morgan’s responsibility was to age and distress the piece. The set designer created an outline of a mantle that had been removed from the hearth that had been stained by cooking, fires and tobacco smoke.

“It’s fun to make a piece that sort of tells a story,” Morgan said.

First year master’s of fine arts student Kate Burnham enjoyed creating props and learning how to work with plaster to make molds and casts of skulls for “A Skull in Connemara.”

For the theatre’s second production of the year, “Iphigenia 2.0,” Burnham had to solve the problem of finding an easily-breakable wine bottle that would shatter without pieces breaking off toward the audience. Burnham researched and ultimately decided to use acrylic resin, a brittle plastic, in a wine shaped bottle and added water bladders to make it appear like wine splattering on the back stage wall.

“Every play presents a challenge,” Burnham said.

For the current main stage, Burnham created shadow scenery and built a model-size beam engine — a contraption often used to pump water — for one of the main characters in the play, Pace.

Burnham said part of her task for building the beam engine was to get inside the head of a high school girl in 1936. Burnham concentrated on using found objects to construct the beam engine that would have been readily available to the character. The furnace is made of an oilcan, wood she took from a high school shop class and tubing from a chemistry lab.

When it came to painting the engine, Burnham said beam engines were considered a matter of civic pride and were often brightly colored. Burnham wanted to use bright, power colors, like red, to reflect Pace’s obsession with power.

“Sometimes I’m chopping, sometimes I’m building, sometimes I’m researching,” Burnham said. “We have a little bit more individual freedom here than I’ve had in other places I’ve worked. Just the nature of it being school, just because they want you to explore.”

Burnham has worked in other shops in an educational setting and noted the strong contrast between the two.

“Here is much more collaborative.

It’s a little more of a family. It’s not as competitive. We’re competing enough with the outside, we don’t need to compete with each other,” Burnham said.

Second year master’s of fine arts student Paul Schreiner has worked in the shop for two years and usually takes on welding or carpentry projects. He, like Burnham noted how he’s learned in this shop about “what it means to be

truly collaborative. One of the problems with my small college background is that everybody kind of carves out their own niche and has a tendency to become territorial. Here, you have people who work together well, trust each other and aren’t so ego-centered,” Schreiner said.

He said it’s nice to work with other graduate students who have experience building scenery.

“This is the best manned-shop, not just in terms of man power, but skill level,” Schreiner said.

Schreiner’s daily responsibilities primarily include scenic construction and painting, but he said he is grateful for the relationships he has with his co-workers.

“It’s immensely gratifying to be able to work with a bunch of people like this,” said Schreiner, who recalled his first day at Virginia Tech at a graduate teaching seminar. “Out of the five incoming grad students we had, three of us sat down in the same row together.”

Webb’s wife, a fellow graduate student ,attended the same university as another graduate student. There were a host of other associations amongst the graduate students.

“There were little connections between us all that clued me in — we’re here for a reason. We’re in the right place. I would be sorely disappointed and very surprised if in some way, shape or form if we’re not all working together occasionally years from now and I hope we are,” Schreiner said. “We’re developing what I hope to be some fruitful, lasting, personal and professional relationships.”

Bill Barksdale, associate professor of technical direction and production manager for “Trestle,” has been at Tech since the early ’90s and has seen more than his share of exceptional scenic pieces.

“References to Salvador Dali Make Me Hot” included a non-functioning refrigerator that opened and was filled with sand.

In the play “Waiting for Godot,” the set calls for a large tree. The shop created a Styrofoam tree that “bloomed” rubber spray-painted leaves which were pushed out through the tree’s branches with an air cylinder.

Their production of “Far Away” featured a wall that dripped blood. The shop manufactured a blood mixture, made out of corn syrup and red and blue food coloring, and a delivery device to create the effect.

An effort is made to recycle materials, but Barksdale said that’s becoming more difficult as lumber quality has decreased in the last 20 years, and stored wood warps and becomes unsafe to work with.

“We have made a concerted effort to acknowledge resources, not just personnel resources, which are very important, but also natural resources. So we try not to be wasteful and we try to recycle as much as we can. But not use it just to abuse it and throw it away,” he said.

Barksdale researches the latest in scenic construction tools and materials and tries to keep the shop stocked with modern pieces.

“It’s a teaching institution and we like to be well-equipped both for teaching and for safety,” Barksdale said.

“Using the right tool for the right job is important.”

unior theatre arts major Jessica Lee Long knows there is more to designing furniture for theater than joining pieces of wood.

Before even picking up a tool, she first must delve into the play to determine how the set pieces should look.

“I love the historical aspect of it,” Long said of the research required for her work. “Finding a piece … and then just the story behind it, whether it’s an old piece or something you’re building.

ON THE WEB Thinking about how the person used it, how it’s going Get a video tour of the Squires Scene to be used in the context of Shop from Jessica Long. the play and how that’s going to forward the motion.”

Constraints such as staying within budget, the availability of materials and the time period of the play influence the design of her furniture.

“Why wasn’t there a lot of fabric until the mid-18th century? Well, because people couldn’t afford it. The necessity of the piece and how that changes is interesting,” Long said.

This past fall, Long worked alongside theatre arts instructor Kristen Morgan in an independent study on furniture making. They met once a week for two hours and worked on four different projects throughout the semester. Their first task was to create a chair that also functioned as a table, what Morgan and Long called a “chable,” for the first mainstage show of the year, “A Skull in Connemara.”

Morgan and Long used four different types wood to construct the chable and had to make it look like a family heirloom. Morgan said the piece had to appear as if it was hand crafted using readily accessible tools, despite being made with high powered saws.

Long said she had to ensure the piece looked slightly worn. She achieved this by exaggerating the grime on the chair and table.

“Actual grime on a table may not be that exaggerated. You need that dark contrast. I was contemplating even going to black. You need to be able to see that from wherever you are in the house,” Long said.

“This is an important idea we’re trying to convey: It doesn’t want to look like it was just built, it needs to look like it’s been used for 50 years.”

Long had to make the table sturdy enough to withstand the daily beatings her piece received as the characters in the play smashed plaster skulls on the table top.

“The chable has been beaten, and there’s still plaster on it. You have to remember, definitely take into account, how it’s being used and what’s being used in the context in the play,” Long said.

As part of her independent study, Long arranged to visit the owner of a mill in Blacksburg to study how he made wooden bowls and also to buy some local wood for a chest Long is in the process of constructing. Out of that field trip, Morgan and Long did a project on wood turning, which uses a tool called a lathe that spins wood to create a desired shape.

The purpose of the independent study was to not only gain practical experience building furniture, but to refine Long’s fine carpentry skills. Morgan and Long studied joinery — the different techniques used to put wood together — wood carving and woods in general.

They both worked with specific tools that are used in woodworking.

Morgan said Long caught on quickly to new techniques and was interested in furthering her carpentry skills.

“She’s a really hard worker,” Morgan said. “She grew up on a farm.

And she always knows when to jump in and help and lend a hand.

She has a good sense of responsibility and helping out. She’s also really interested in learning new ways of doing things and new things.”

Long said because of her farm background, she already felt comfortable using saws and other power tools which helped with furniture building when she became seriously interested in props after working in Squires Scene Shop her freshman year.

Other faculty members have noticed Long’s skills as well. Professor of stage and lighting design Randy Ward is doing a field study with Long this semester in props research and illustration.

“She is learning the skills and she’s had some good guidance from one of our staff and she’s getting better at it,” Ward said. “What is going to make her a good props carpenter is the fact that she loves what she’s doing, and she’s committed to doing a good job.”

Ward said there’s a huge range of detailed specific information in props, and Long is increasing her knowledge of the field.

“She’s starting to develop a broader knowledge of the range of stuff out there, and I’m challenging her to develop a pretty comprehensive glossary of prop and furniture terminology, period terminology,” Ward said.

Long challenged herself by spending last summer interning at Berkshire Theatre Festival, a community theater in Massachusetts, for the props department.

Long worked alongside Brandeis University graduate student and props master for the festival Chesapeake Westveer and worked on multiple pieces, including a 1500s-style trestle table, refinishing French side tables, upholstering wing backed chairs and creating an 1850s-style ottoman.

“Jess takes her time and is attentive to what would make something better,” Westveer said.

While Long may take her work seriously, she remembers to have a sense of humor.

Westveer recalled one night where Long found a mask of an older woman who had blue and pink hair with cat glasses. Members of the theater festival staff took turns donning the mask and photographing themselves wearing it.

Over the summer, the staff worked 12 to 18-hour days six or seven days a week, and Long could always make them smile.

“No matter how hard we were working or how long … She was always very light hearted and could crack us up all night long,” Westveer said. “Working with her was delightful.”

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editor: bethany buchanan email: features@collegiatetimes.com phone: 540.231.9865 office hours: w 11:30 a.m. - 12:30 p.m., f 1:30 - 2:30 p.m.

february 25, 2009

Trestle: Behind the scenes

KYLE MOIR/SPPS

“Pace,” left, and “Dalton,” right, look up at the trestle during tech rehearsals Saturday. from page one

Within the scene, Pace ultimately has more power than Dalton. Leonard tells Park that he needs to stop staying in one place for too long because that is representative of a high status that

he does not have with Pace.

Leonard walks up to Park, places his own hands on the actor’s shoulders and “steers” Park into a circular walking pattern around the Studio Theatre stage and tells him that he needs to feel that on the inside.

“It felt unnatural,” Park said.

“Of course it does, because you’re not Dalton. I think you began to find some Dalton, Eric,” Leonard said.

After the actors have run through it a few more times, the director gives his closing words.

“A lot of growth happened here tonight. A lot. Some of the blocking was messy … But It’s a really nice connection,” Leonard said of the developing relationship between the two actors.

The two Virginia Tech student actors have started to create their characters for the theater’s latest production. They have a ways to go, but they’ll be there by opening night.

Within five weeks, scenes must be created and characters must be found.

Blocking is set and fights choreographed. Props need to break the way they’re supposed to and stage weapons need to be purchased. The set has to be built and sound integrated. From the very moment the play is chosen, to making sure all the props are in place — creating a mainstage production is an involved group effort.

“The Trestle at Pope Lick Creek” was chosen in March 2008 along with the four other mainstages performances that will be put on this year.

Department head Patty Raun said it’s tough to build a season and “We were playing with the dynamic this year of the comic and the tragic. We’ve got a Greek tragedy, Greek comedy, modern tragedy, modern comic.”

“Trestle” is the modern tragedy and Raun said they chose it because Leonard was passionate about it and it provided a balance to the season.

Casting was held in fall 2008 and Leonard said it was a very useful audition process and that he was able to learn about actors in the process and found those who we’re willing to share what they do.

BLOCKING It’s Jan. 22, and rehearsals will remain in Performing Arts Building 104. The room has hardwood floor that’s scuffed and visibly chipped and is marked with tape to show approximately the layout of the studio theatre set.

The actors are working with a scene where Pace and Dalton “practice” running the trestle for the first time.

The actors run through the scene as they had it blocked and wait for the critique.

Leonard says the scene is too simple and it’s interesting to see when the actors leap into their imaginations.

Fight movement coach and assistant professor of theatre arts Cara Rawlings watched the rehearsal and offers her suggestions.

“What about slowing it down?”

Rawlings asks. She demonstrates how she wants the actors to run on stage.

Rawlings plants one foot and then places her other foot beside it.

Leonard remarks that it’s like moon walking and he mimics the action

himself.

Actors Capece and Park have a little trouble catching on, but they eventually get it. Rawlings tells them they cannot run side by side because that will always be humorous.

The actors have begun to seriously block their scenes which helps contribute to its overall meaning.

“I’m always working on the acting moments, too, because it all comes from an organic place that the characters are coming from,” Rawlings said.

She also works with students as an acting coach. She said it’s usually too much for a director to be responsible for the big picture and to teach the basics of acting.

Rawlings has worked with Park before in another mainstage play.

“Eric has incredibly, incredibly natural instinct. When he’s not acting very much, when he’s just him, it’s just captivating. His reactions are so honest and everything is just so open and then when he starts acting and trying to get it right, it’s just not honest,” she said. “Dalton has to be very emotionally available and very lost. Not knowing what’s going on. Which Eric as an actor plays to his advantage, because if he allows himself to be lost, to kind of find his way through it, then he’s right there. Essentially, when you cast somebody, you’re looking for not somebody who can become somebody else, but somebody who is that person or — as Eric has very much in a lot of ways.”

While Rawlings doesn’t think Park looks like the character she envisioned, he has other strengths.

“Eric doesn’t look like Dalton to me, because I think Dalton is kind of dorkier looking he’s not as good looking as Eric is. Because Eric’s kind of frat boy good looking, so I don’t think Dalton is that, but I think Eric has the great quality of not exactly knowing that he is frat boy good looking. … I think that works for him,” she said.

Blocking the scene means more than just going through the steps of a dance, it adds to overall depth of a scene.

“You can only have a certain amount of sit and talk moments that are the payoff for the relationship created through movement,” Rawlings said.

Freshman environmental policy and planning major Park plays Dalton and said that after mastering the fight work of a scene, the scene will grow, breathe and live.

“Finding your own self at that age, finding the playful, curious Dalton was the hardest part of everything we’ve done,” Park said.

He said he physically plays a younger character by acting goofy and started finding his character by examining the text.

“It starts with reading your lines, from there it gets to questioning why is that his reaction to that line? It just takes time and different choices. What I’ve learned (is that) planning ahead doesn’t work at all. That’s what I thought acting was, just saying the line the same way every time. It has to be different every time if it’s going to be real,” Park said.

He also remarked that he doesn’t try to reflect on what he’s done because it helps him stay responsive as an actor.

He said working with the other cast members has helped shape Dalton as well and enjoys exploring his complex relationship with Pace.

“There’s so many good moments when they’re so close to being like everyone else, but they don’t want to be. But he thinks he wants to be, but she shows that’s not who she is and

he can’t have that with her. He tries to come meet that…It’s beautiful,” Park said. “They can’t stay in one place, really. They both challenge each other and push each other a lot. They’re both really young. She thinks she knows everything. Dalton knows she doesn’t.”

THE ROLE OF THE CREW For the most part, the crew and the cast work separately. The crew encompasses costumes, lighting, scenic design, set construction and props. Stage manager Alison Whitley sends out rehearsal reports to all the people on the technical side of production to keep them up to date with what’s going on during rehearsals. Sometimes the actors will need specific things and other times the reports simply thank the department for attending rehearsal.

Set designer and professor of theatre arts Randy Ward designed the set last fall and had a completed model to present at the first production meeting on Dec. 10, 2008.

Ward said that at superficial level, there’s a train trestle overhead that is an important image in the play.

“You read the play at a deeper level and you get beyond that superficial knee-jerk reaction and you realize that ‘a’ you don’t need to have the real trestle there and ‘b’ you would create a physical image that denies the truth of the story.

Because any theatrical scenery trestle that you make is wrong because it’s too small,” Ward said.

He did not want to design a full scale trestle because that isn’t necessary to fully understand the play.

“That is not the real dramatic function of the trestle. The trestle like a number of the ideas in the play has to do with hope versus despair. It takes great risk to run the trestle, it takes great risk to deal with, in that case, life in an economic downturn. The trestle as (playwright) Naomi Wallace specifically says, is not necessarily a realistic rendition of place,” Ward said.

When Wallace describes moments when Dalton senses Pace, but he doesn’t see her, and moments when the Pace that we see is different from the Pace Dalton sees. Ward said those notions mesh perfectly with this notion of shadow work, so there can both a shadow and 3-D Pace.

“We can again play with that perceptual reality of the moment in a highly theatrical way,” he said. “And in a way that hopefully intensifies the consequence of the scene being played out at the moment.”

He said he choose to use shadow work because of its dynamic qualities.

“Shadow work allows you to vary scale in the life theater in a way similar to the way the camera lens can change perspective and scale in film. It gives us the ability to change our sense of distance and depth and scale which is hard to do with a stage that is really not very large,” Ward said.

The set is one solid black wall framed by curtains, with two rolling shadow boxes on either side and a huge cut-out circle in the center. But Ward said he wanted the set to be about what happened in performance.

“With sets like these, at first blush, you look at them and you think there’s not much there. There’s actually quite an amazing amount of time and material and technology that goes into executing them very precisely,” Ward said.

The black-hole wall weighs about 1,500 pounds and presented technical director and third year master of

fine arts student Elspeth Ridout, who oversees building the entire set, with a challenge.

“It’s all about planning,” Ridout said of moving the big wall of the set. “We put in a steel framing into the wall and hung the pieces on that. We have these really awesome chain hoists so there’s not much manual lifting, it’s pressing a button and making the chain hoists go.

It was a little tedious.”

The theater’s scene shop built the metalwork and wood part at the same time.

The shop crew ran into some difficulties with installing the main wall.

“We’re increasingly getting more and more warped wood,” Ridout said. “It presented some issues when we were installing it.”

The two smaller shadow boxes were motorized and Ridout said it was fun to make everything move on its own and work with gear boxes, chains and motors. The projection work presented Ridout with unique tasks.

“The biggest challenge is these projections ... so figuring out how to build something without any, essentially any, interior structure can be a challenge.

Trying to figure out how to leave wide spaces open without anything behind them because you don’t want to cast unwanted shadows (is an obstacle),” Ridout said.

Ridout had to be conscience of the lighting while putting together the set.

“I have to make sure I don’t put anything in the way of the lights,” Ridout said of the rear projection shadow screen that features images of the trestle in the play. “It’s basically a four-foot diameter circle with a cut-out that has to mount two feet from the front of the light source. I figured out through tests how to get our 15-foot diameter image. I needed to have a structure that held said cutouts that wouldn’t impact that lights the lighting designer was using.”

Lighting designer for the play and assistant professor John Ambrosone said after conversations about the play, he thinks about what the entire play will look like.

“Everything should look like it fits. All the elements go together and not one element stands out,” Ambrosone said.

But at the same time he tries not to jump to a conclusion about designing.

The meaning of the play is created through conversations and by finally getting all the elements of the play in one space.

After he initially read “Trestle,” he said he loved the mystery and specific austere character of the play.

“I think it’s very sparse looking, hopefully in a haunting way,” Ambrosone said. “There’s a lot of poetically weaving out and of what is in the past, what is the present.”

He has to use a source of an unfiltered light that helps make a very sharp shadow.

“A lot of times you won’t see a horizon, it will look like they’re floating in a black void, it kind of helps the mysterious quality,” he said. “When you do the exercise of using extremely little or nothing, what we hope is that you heighten the experience of the where the audience needs to be.”

Ambrosone said the toughest part of his process is keeping the lighting consistent.

“The challenge for me is to remain sparse and specific all the time. As a cumulative event, when it looks virtually the same all the time, it looks boring I know, but every once in a while they make a black and white film and everyone talks about it,” he said.

Sound designer and second-year master of fine arts student Paul Schreiner. He said it was evident from the beginning of the script that most of the five person cast would be wearing a microphone.

The play calls for very loud train noises and quiet whispered passages and the tonal quality of those two extremes needs to be preserved.

“For the very, very quiet things for which we want to keep that intimacy, but expand the intimacy into a 220 seat house,” Schreiner said, while they could have recorded some of the music the play didn’t ask for that. “You know when somebody’s lip-synching and we do not want that potential.”

The composer for the show and Schreiner met with Leonard to discuss what the show should sound like.

“The conceptual idea that Bob started our first meeting with the idea this show is all about a breathe. There are scenes that take place in between breathes …

There’s breathes as a common theme running through all of this, so taking that as an idea, and what are the qualities of different types of breath,” Schreiner said.

He said his process consist of attending a few rehearsals, meetings with director, by spending time with the script and asking himself how he hears certain things.

“It’s different every time, but it depends on where the script is taking me. It also depends on what the particulars of a piece are. Do the actors need certain effects for rehearsal?” he said.

Schreiner gave the actors a CD of train sounds during one rehearsal as they have to imitate them in the play.

While Schreiner and Ambrosone said they imagined the entire play could be scored, but that the play did not call for that.

“At its core, yes, there are a lot of complex emotions and complex people in this piece. But it’s a simple piece structurally. The set is simple. The lighting is going to be simple. Find a few things with high value and try not to clutter, which is why I did not go through with full underscore or even suggest full underscore,” Schreiner said.

In the play’s later scenes, where Pace appears as an apparition following her death, Schreiner decided to make Pace’s voice sound far away or close to an echo by utilizing a different set of speakers.

“I don’t need her voice to sound like it is coming from any place in particular. I would rather it on some of those scenes, but with the ones with Dalton, I want her voice to be coming from his head,” he said.

The concept behind the sound design depends on where the characters physically are in the story.

“Chas is totally rooted in this world, so he’s not getting a mic. He’s in this space.

Pace spends half the time in Dalton’s head. Dalton spends part of his time in his head, so when they’re not in this real, contemporary space, we’ll play with their voices,” Schreiner said.

He’s worked with composers before and said he’s careful to allow the composer to have creativity.

“When I’m working with a composer dedicated to the show and not trying to write music myself for it, it’s a very fine line between where I don’t want to be stepping on toes. It’s not totally my voice how this show is going to sound.

Not that it ever is. I’m not the one totally responsible for it,” Schreiner said.

Senior music major Matt Barbee composed the entire score for “Trestle.”

“My goal is just not to take away from the play. Enhance the play sometimes, but I’m going to try and not mess anything up in there for them. It’s not a music show. It’s a play and then occasionally there’s music.” Barbee said.

Barbee had initial thoughts for the pieces before the read-throughs and discussed the ideas with director Leonard.

“Initially I thought more of a modern-type piece, maybe a small chamber group, even some computer use. He very much wanted the instruments of the time to make something modern, which certainly made it quite tricky,” Barbee said. “He wanted it to use elements of the jazz era, but also the Hank Williams sound. I couldn’t just write a Hank Williams tune, I could do that in 10 minutes. It was the fact of using those elements to try and make something will sound far different from Hank Williams but will still have that kind of perception.”

He recorded Capece and Park breathing and had them read different parts of the text aloud for his score as well.

He read the play about five times and “I wanted to make it, not really match the mood, but commentate on what’ being seen … I didn’t want to feel obligated to match the mood. Because sometimes music is incapable of doing such without being kind of campy” Barbee used trumpet, trombone, guitar, flute, cello and various percussion instruments to create music for the play. Barbee worked the drums, while other undergraduate students played everything else.

Costume designer and senior theatre arts and apparel design double major Megan Carey found inspiration for “Trestle” from “Carnivale,” an HBO series set in the Great Depression. Carey said the characters from the show fit the “Trestle” characters well.

After doing research by looking through photos and literature about fashion and popular patterns of the 1930s, Carey created renderings of what she wanted the costumes to look like over winter break, got them approved by the director and set to work.

First, she looks through the theater’s clothing storage and they have. She has to buy or create any other pieces.

The two female characters dresses and Pace’s undergarments were handcrafted.

Her favorite costume was Gin’s dress.

“For Gin (Dalton’s mother) I really wanted stripes. I love patterns on fabric because it can create things. Up close, it’s floral, you stand far away and it becomes almost stripes. There’s so much that can be manipulated with the stage and fabrics. You have to be aware of that,” said Carey, who had some difficult finding fabrics that fit the show.

“We know she’s a worker, to kind of give it almost a uniform look, I went with stripes,” she said.

Gin’s dress has a collar and has alternating light and dark pink stripes. Gin’s hair is in a snood — or what looks like a crotched hair net and contributes to Gin’s uniform look. It’s a nice image and it’s an image a lot of people associate with a working woman, Carey said.

One of the other challenges for Carey was making sure the clothes she used weren’t too in vogue for the characters.

“There’s no time for style,” Carey said.

Carey kept up with rehearsal reports and provided the actors with costume pieces as needed.

“When you’re doing a period piece, the costume is so different from what you’re used to wearing. It’s nice to get a feel for how to do things, because something could be restricting,” Carey said.

“It helps the actors fall into place and helps us know what needs to be fixed.”

Dalton has to break a cup in one scene and cut his hand because the original

cup required too much force to break which presented props coordinators Jessica Lee Long and Thea Childress with a challenge. Junior theatre arts major Long found the best way is to pre-break a cup every night, apply a theater glue, paint and glaze product over the cup so it’s easier for actor Park to break.

Childress, a junior art history and theatre arts double major, searched through old Sears and Roebuck catalogs to familiarize himself with plate designs in the 1930s. Long and Childress visited a Christiansburg thrift store and found the plates to use as Gin’s mother’s china.

Tech rehearsals started Feb. 22, the weekend before the show opens.

The actors are in costume and all the elements of the show are finally put together and tweaked. The rehearsals are slow as the entire cast and crew work through each scene and slowly brought to life.

In this scene, theatre arts alumna Sarah Hoffman’s character Gin is telling Pace about how hands were stained blue because of a chemical switch at her plant. Lighting designer John Ambrosone asks someone standing on catwalk above to adjust the spotlight on Capece and gradually the light is focused on her.

Originally, the shadow box was going to move out as Capece simultaneously walked onto it but set designer Ward eventually arrives at the conclusion that it would be safer for Capece to walk out to the small shadow box. After that is resolved, the scene is lit.

It’s decided that the front of Gin needs to be in the light.

“Can you feel that?” Leonard said.

“So I need to be completely in the light?” Hoffman asks.

The front of Hoffman is illuminated by the light, while everything around her is cast into darkness.

“In the beginning, after you do the hands, just slowly move yourself into this” Ambrosone said about the light.

Hoffman toys with the idea of when she should exit the scene and how her character should stay in the light. The scene is set.

LAST IMPRESSIONS Three days before the opening of the play, Leonard remarked on the play overall. He said some new images were revealed to him during the rehearsal process.

“I thought I knew what the play was and then in the midst of rehearsal, I’m realizing it’s this and this. The list of things that I didn’t even know about got longer and longer. If you work with a smart playwright, they teach you so much. This woman’s skill in making theatrical image is fabulous.”

As well as images, Leonard discovered another connection the playwright made amongst the characters.

“I’m realizing how the playwright connects the struggles of the adults who are out of work, they’re in the middle of the Great Depression. How do they keep their family together when all the stuff of their lives comes apart? That’s a whole other story line that’s intimately connected with the story of these two young people who are trying to figure out their own identities through a relationship with each other. It isn’t just a story line, they illuminate each other, those two sets of conflicts or struggles. I know more about that now,” he said.

While moments in the play are very sad, Leonard said he does not think of it as a tragedy.

“These two people find a connection on a spiritual level that is worth living for, they find it in the course of death and dealing with death, but they find it. (Playwright) Wallace says she thinks of this play as the most irresponsible hopeful play she’s ever written. Gin stays strong and doesn’t succumb to the awful agony of her husband’s depression. That’s not tragic, that’s heroic. No, it’s not tragic,” Leonard said.

While he saw the play come together in rehearsal and over the technical rehearsal weekend, “Theater is ephemeral. It only exists when there’s an audience and when the audience and the actors and the performance come together and the images happen in the consciousness that are shared between the performance and the audience. That’s when it comes together. I think we’re going to have a good ride here.”

It’s Feb. 15 and the actors are back in Studio Theatre since their first week of rehearsals. Aside from two permanent screens for the small shadow boxes and fresh coats of paint, the set is complete. The cast has been rehearsing the prologue scene for a few hours and are now trying to create specific image for the opening. Leonard is demonstrating to actress Capece just how he wants her to put out the candle in the prologue of the play. This scene’s only light source is the flame.

Leonard kneels behind the candle that Park has been using to create shadow puppets on the wall directly behind Dalton and sweeps his hand over the flame while attempting to blow it out.

It’s to appear as if Pace extinguishes the candle light with just her hand.

Leonard tries and the candle stays lit, but reassures Capece, “You’ll do it and it’ll look beautiful.”

Pace grabs the flame. It goes dark.

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editor: bethany buchanan email: features@collegiatetimes.com phone: 540.231.9865 office hours: w 11:30 a.m. - 12:30 p.m., f 1:30 - 2:30 p.m.

february 25, 2009

Community theatre group promotes multicultural understanding

A

bout 15 girls of high school age hold hands and, following the directions of an instructor, mirror one other. They press and pull without releasing their grip.

The instructor then asks the girls for words that describe a location. They tell her “around, over, under and through.” The participants watch as the instructor demonstrates each preposition by moving her body. The instructor is as graceful as a ballet dancer, and so are the girls.

The participants are part of Sisters of the Circle — an after-school community theater program, produced in part by Roanoke’s Jefferson Center that teaches 14- to 18-year-old girls from other countries language skills and promotes cultural awareness.

Theatre arts and women’s studies professor Ann Kilkelly helped found Sisters of the Circle three years ago after the former artistic director of the Jefferson Center started a similar program in Maine.

“I think performance really has the capacity … to allow young women to say important things that they have to say about their lives to other people,” Kilkelly said.

ON THE WEB See a video of the girls in Caribbean dance rehearsal and visiting artist Esperanza Spalding explaining jazz improvisation.

Sisters of the Circle meets weekly for two-hour rehearsal sessions that offer workshops in varieties of dance, from Caribbean and West African rhythms to hip-hop and community singing. The girls also perform a variety of performance exercises, including story circles where each member of the group tells a portion of a sequential tale.

Facilitators of the program take excerpts from the stories and other performance pieces and put them into a script.

After months of rehearsals, the girls’ work is showcased in a final performance.

The girls attend Roanoke City Public Schools but hail from Haiti, Honduras, Eritrea, Somalia, Kenya and Liberia (where most of the girls are from). Some of the participants are African American and a few are Roanoke natives. There were about 35 girls at the first meeting in January.

Sisters of the Circle encourages conversation among its members.

“Many things come up, (like) war, torture, rape. All kinds of experiences of women. But also they’re teenagers and they love to sing and dance and they can be extremely silly and they’re extremely energetic. And tend toward the wild a little bit, just behaviorally.

They’re amazing. They’re vibrant,” Kilkelly said.

Kilkelly recalled issues the girls brought up last year. The girls spoke of seeing various family members killed and of walking from Somalia to Kenya.

Kilkelly said that though the stories were upsetting, the girls wanted to share their experiences and used dance as a medium to express themselves.

Asha Mricle, a native of Ethiopia and an 11th grader, has been a part of Sisters of the Circle for two years

and said sometimes they’ve discussed Ethiopian people’s struggles, which include not having food or water and fighting.

While many of the issues the girls have experience are very serious, there are lighter cultural issues that come up in their meetings.

One day last year during a break in rehearsal, the girls got into an argument about food preparation.

The Liberian girls and Haitian girls were arguing with the African American girls about preparation of chicken.

The Haitian girls said that chickens knew Sunday was the day they were going to be killed, so if you wanted to eat chicken, it couldn’t be on Sunday.

Kilkely said the Americans were shocked that one of the Liberian girls said she killed chicken herself.

“It was very funny, the Liberian essentially started teasing, ‘oh, we love to eat the lips of the chicken and the best part is the feet,’” Kilkelly said.

The Liberian girls’ retort was that the Americans didn’t know what was in the chicken they bought at supermarkets and that Americans eat hot dogs, which are made out of intestines and other meat products.

This moment in rehearsal became a scene in the girl’s final performance and Kilkelly described it as hilarious.

“We learned a lot from that,” she said. “We learned about our sense of what was really important.”

Kilkelly said the facilitators listen to the girls and give them back their words. Part of the goal of Sisters of the Circle is literacy.

“Many of (the girls) grew up in camps, in refugee camps, many had seen, I have no idea still how much misery, war, death in their own countries. But also some of them had been here for quite a while, like seven or eight years. So their command of the language was widely diverse,” Kilkelly said.

“They’re beautiful, they’re talented, but some of them aren’t literate in our sense. Most of them are now because they’ve been in school for a while. Some of them came without a written language. Even the ones that can’t write in any language speak in several languages.”

As of right now, Sisters of the Circle is only open to girls.

“The need is really there for the young women. I think they suffer a great deal because of conflicting cultural expectations of them as women, adjusting to a new culture,” Kilkelly said. “Listening to what they have to say about themselves intersects with broadening their opportunities and sense of themselves as smart, independent, empowered people.”

She also said that during performances, they try to teach the girls to break away from mass media stereotypes of women which are unrealistic and hyper-sexualized.

“I think it’s really important for young women to have an environment in which they can be free as women. I think that gender boundaries, gender distinctions, especially on young women have an effect. I think they have an effect on men as well,” Kilkelly said.

Sisters of the Circle will try to get the Jefferson Center’s visiting artists to speak with the girls.

“These artists that are from their home country or working in differ-

ent ethnic traditions or just women are really inspiring to the girls, especially someone who is from Africa for example who is an international star.

And comes in and says to them, ‘You need to understand you have a place in the world. You can go back to your countries and help girls get educated and many other issues we discuss,’” Kilkelly said.

Jefferson Center visiting 24 year-old artist Esperanza Spalding, a jazz and instrumental music bassist, composer and vocalist, spoke to the girls on the afternoon of Feb. 4.

Spalding, whose bass instrument is a few inches taller than her, began her presentation by teaching them an important element of jazz music: Improvisation. She asked the girls to shout out a line individually and then add on to the original story.

Spalding reflected on how what one girl said changed the meaning of what the other before her said and how that is reflective of how fluidity of jazz music.

“You can never convince anyone to work harder than you,” Spalding said, suggesting the girls should stay in high school.

Spalding also mentioned that she observes people and when she meets someone with a skill she’s like to have, she practices for it.

“A teacher can show you exercises on a sheet you can draw from. The important thing is to be your own teacher,” Spalding said.

She emphasized the importance of being an expressive individual.

“No one knows everything about the world around you. If you can take it and break it down, that’s a useful tool.”

Volunteer and theatre arts alumna Sarah Hoffman said the girls were “mesmerized” by Spalding’s appearance and hopes the girls gained a great appreciation of their own imaginations.

“Your creative process is your own. And there are lots of ways to be creative. And lots of ways to do your own thing and that’s an OK thing to do,” Hoffman said.

This is her first semester working with Sisters of the Circle and she became involved because of her interest in how performing can make a statement.

“I’m really interested in the way that theater helps facilitate communication,” Hoffman said. “The whole idea was using theater and dance to help create this alternate mode of communication between these girls.”

Hoffman said what they’re doing in the early phase of rehearsal is teaching the girls how to use their bodies to communicate ideas.

Despite the age gap, she and volunteer and junior theatre arts major Alisha Saunders have shared some of the same interests with the girls.

“Everybody loves Beyonce,” Hoffman said.

Saunders has noticed that the girls want to intermingle. Sanders said they don’t hang out in groups based on interests, like dancing or singing; they’ve all been good at meeting each other.

“They’re so expressive and even the ones that are really quiet in the corner, if you give them the right thing to make a machine of, they’re there and they’re loud,” Saunders said.

PETER VELZ/COLLEGIATE TIMES

Instructors for Sisters of the Circle, a community theater program in Roanoke, demonstrate Caribbean dancing.

Working with the girls allows Saunders to show the girls what she is passionate about.

“It gives me a chance to spread what I love to do. A lot of times when you’re in theater, you do a show and only the people that come to see are the people that are affected. But I like doing community stuff and getting it out there. Especially for girls that are younger, it’s good to help people find the things they love to do,” Saunders said.

Eighth-grader Brittany Brizendire said she likes how she can come to Sisters of the Circle and express

herself.

“When you come in here and have the worst day, it will make you feel better,” Brizendire said.

At the end of the Feb. 4 session, Kikelly had the girls gather in a circle and asks for new members to share where they’re from.

One is from Sudan, another is from Haiti and one hails from Liberia.

Newcomers also include two girls from Iran, which is the first time Sisters of the Circle has had anyone from that country.

Stephanie Cheridieu, a William Fleming High School student,

is from Haiti and said she has learned about new people and cultures.

While the work of the graduate and undergraduate students, facilitators and volunteers is important, Kilkelly said the spotlight needs to shine on the sisters of the circle.

“There’s a lot of people that make theater and performance with communities,” Kilkelly said. “I also have to learn this lesson over and over again. The communities have the knowledge, the local knowledge that is important.”

PETER VELZ/COLLEGIATE TIMES

Roanoke public school students practice a movement and language exercise in Roanoke’s Jefferson Center. The organization brings together students from countries including Haiti, Liberia, Ethiopia, Iran and Somalia.

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editor: bethany buchanan email: features@collegiatetimes.com phone: 540.231.9865 office hours: w 11:30 a.m. - 12:30 p.m., f 1:30 - 2:30 p.m.

february 25, 2009

After 30 years, Theatre looks forward to renovated Henderson Hall W hile teaching classes, theatre department head Patty Raun often imagines what has transpired inside the walls of the her department’s home for more than 30 years — the Performing Arts Building.

“I wonder about the number of feet that have walked across that floor, and the kinds of conversations. I’m aware of 23 years of history of this building, but thinking back to when it was a YMCA and served the Corps of Cadets, there’s so much cool Virginia Tech history in the building,” Raun said.

The theatre department will leave its home in PAB for a renovated Henderson Hall and new Black Box Theatre over the summer before the start of the 2009-2010 school year.

“It will be very painful in some aspects to leave it, because although this is a wonderful kind of celebration of the progress of our program to make this transformation, it’s also kind of a threshold time that we look back at the same time we’re looking forward. As we step over this threshold, it’s both painful and joyous,” Raun said.

She said the department was going to move out of the PAB and into renovated Squires Student Center when Raun arrived at Tech 23 years ago, but when Squires was over-budgeted, music left the building and theatre stayed. Because of the delayed move, she said she was incredulous that they were actually leaving until recently.

“I never really believed it. I took a tour of the building last week and could actually see offices in Henderson Hall in the shape they will be. Today, Feb. 2, 2009, I believe we’re actually going to be moving out of PAB and into Henderson,” she said.

Raun said there would be a few changes in theater culture as it currently exists.

The faculty and staff offices in PAB are in the same building as the classrooms but will be separate in their new spaces.

She said the department would have to find new ways of building community.

However, currently the theatre department is spread across Sandy Hall, PAB and Squires, so the new space will mean they will all be together.

Art history, theater, music, and school of performing arts and cinema faculty and staff will be sprinkled throughout Henderson. Raun said she hopes integrating the schools together will be productive and collaborative.

“Sometimes when you’re passing somebody in the hall, it’s easier to say, ‘Hey, I’m working on this thing, what are your thoughts about it? Is there a way that we might come together

around this?’ It doesn’t necessarily happen when you’re sending e-mail across the campus or across the Drillfield,” Raun said.

Henderson’s and the Black Box Theatre’s location near downtown Blacksburg may change the theatre’s role within the community.

“I think there is no better door to university campus than through the arts because our whole research focus is on our engagement with the community. And I know that many people who don’t teach here really feel intimidated by walking around the campus.

Hopefully we can make a little more porous boundary between Blacksburg and the New River Valley and Virginia Tech,” Raun said.

While moving into a new space, the department will lose one rehearsal space and a student lounge. Raun said she wonders where students will gather during their free time.

Freshman marketing management and theatre arts major Sandy Bass said even though people will miss PAB — where people go if they’re bored and want to pass time with other theatre majors — he thinks it will be a positive change for the theatre.

Bass has spent countless hours in PAB for play rehearsals and is confident he will spend just as much time in Henderson Hall and the Black Box Theatre.

“I can guarantee that I will make new memories in the new space,” Bass said.

Next school year, until funds for a renovation of PAB are found, the theatre department will use the rooms to bring elements of the newly added cinema program, playwriting and some student workshops in PAB. “This building is the oldest limestone, Hokie stone, building on campus, and I know that we’re not the only people that value it. I have spoken with university architects, and it will be a quality restoration,” Raun said.

The staircase, banister and the woodwork date from the late 1800s.

“I think that is an emblem of our campus that will be preserved, that needs to be preserved,” Raun said.

While Raun thinks of PAB fondly, the building is not handicapped accessible and has no elevator or air conditioning.

“There’s all kinds of compromises you make to be in a place that has great character, and since we’re in the theatre, we value history, we value character, and we’ve been really willing to make those compromises,” she said.

Although the department will leave the Performing Arts Building, it will not have to compromise living in a building

that is rich with university history.

“The funny things is … we’re moving from the oldest Hokie stone building to I believe the oldest brick building on campus,” Raun said.

Henderson Hall is actually comprised of three separate buildings that have been combined. One part is the old president’s office, where the theatre department administrative offices will be located. One section was built in the 1920s, and another was built in the 1950s.

Associate professor of theatre arts Greg Justice moved into the building in 1983 and thinks highly of his workspace.

“This is one of the nicest faculty offices of any office on the Virginia Tech campus. If you look at any office that is built since the 1980s or so, there is maximum requirements for a faculty office, and they are very small. This one is twice as large, if not maybe two and half times as large as many faculty members,” Justice said.

The floors in his office on the third floor of PAB are solid wood. He has two windows that are both made of handblown glass. The trim in his office, which Raun said she originally painted when she and Justice shared the office because she thought it was boring, is a blue-green color. Ceiling tiles have been glued to the back of his door as remnants of when a trumpet teacher inhabited the space and used the tiles to deaden the sound of students playing.

While PAB has no official script library, Justice has thousands of plays that students can check out in his office and has saved all of his director’s notebooks and notes from his graduate and undergraduate studies.

“I’m in total denial about it. Because I don’t want to pack the stuff for one thing and I will miss this office and this building,” Justice said.

Justice, as the undergraduate coordinator, has seen hundreds of students in his office.

“There are a lot of memories. From students who come and tell me that they’ve just been offered a Broadway play to students wailing in here in tears and saying, ‘I don’t think I should be a performer anymore, and I need to stop pursuing this dream because I’m not going to make that.’ And everything in between those two extremes, so, yeah, there are a lot of personal moments in this office, but I think the building also holds them,” Justice said.

He said that he often thinks about all the art that has happened within the walls of the building.

“The Greeks considered their theaters sacred, and I think any major that spent four years here and any faculty that’s spent time here considers this space to be quite sacred and we will deeply, deeply miss it when we leave because of the amount of art that permeates these walls,” Justice said.

Theatre arts professor of scenic design Randy Ward served as interface between the department and the architects. He consulted and integrated with the design of the building. He helped acquire technology that novice designers, directors and actors would feel comfortable using.

“It’s a stepping stone with a level of technology that’s more advanced than what we have in this building, but not as advanced as in Studio Theatre. It’s a kind of intermediate place,” Ward said.

The Black Box Theatre is an experimental theatre with flexible seating and an infinite number of possibilities.

When Ward was assisting designers, he considered how to increase the size and technology of the room without getting too complex.

“We’re still keeping concerted, found space, which is a very vibrant part of the American professional theater. Dozens, if not over a hundred, theaters in New York City where a lot of new and very interesting experimental work is done that were converted from former use, they’ve been recycled,” Ward said.

Ward said he thinks having the new theater will be “a step forward, a step into the future, a step into closer contact with the arts initiative. And the new arts district of campus that’s being developed and the new center for the arts is coming. It’s fabulous. There’ll be some nostalgia, sure, there were — and there are — good memories from here.”

Ward is focused on both the past and future of the department.

“Maybe I should be Chinese because I have no problem with keeping a foot in the past, but I’m always interested in moving forward. I have no problem moving forward,” Ward said.

A reunion is in the works in hopes of reuniting the alumni to help celebrate the move into the new space and to honor the Performing Arts Building.

Assistant technical director, information technology lead David Wedin is responsible for coordinating some of the logistics of the move and purchasing new technology for the Black Box Theatre.

“I have a huge to-do list,” Wedin said.

He said the most challenging part about moving is the complexity of scheduling everything. Everything has to be physically moved out of

KYLE MOIR/SPPS

A view from the PAB, where Theatre has spent more than 30 years.

PAB; phones and Ethernet have to be switched. The department will also have to figure out how to use the new space fairly quickly, and Wedin said they will most likely not start major production until later in the fall semester. While the move-in date changes daily, the department may be able to move in as early as mid-July.

“There will be problems, obviously, but we’re also excited to get in and do work in this nice, new space. I’m looking forward to seeing my new office.”

New facilities the department will get include a sound-proof audio recording room, a room designated to teach lighting techniques, a computer lab with theater-specific software installed and a set-model making room. The new theater is twice the size of the old black box and will be more readily equipped.

“They’re going to get to work with some new state-of-the-art equipment and as usual we’re trying to keep them up to date so they have what they need when they leave. In general, although not as quaint as the Performing Arts Building, I think it will be a nice environment to study and work in,” Wedin said.

When Bob McGrath, theatre arts professor of two years, first stepped into his

office on the second floor of the PAB, he was reminded of the University of California at Berkley Bears because of his office’s light yellow walls and dark blue trim.

McGrath said he loves that PAB is old but is eager to see how moving into Henderson and having the Black Box Theatre will transform the theatre department.

“I think that this is a very exciting, growing time for the theatre department and now the theater and cinema department that it’s becoming. And I think with the new space and with the potential of the even larger space opening, I think it’s a very fertile time for the theater department and I think it’s going to change and grow in a lot of exciting ways,” McGrath said.

The PAB is more than 100 years old and rumors of spirits residing in the building have popped up over the years.

“I’m here at night, and there’s always talk about the ghosts of the Performing Arts Building,” Raun said. “I think there are echoes of a lot of great learning and creativity that has happened in this building. And my greatest hope is that that’s in us — it’s not in the building and that will be taking that with us.”