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Volume 52, Issue 28 | thursday, october 5, 2017 | ndsmcobserver.com
Former chiefs of staff discuss policy White House staffers from Bush, Obama administrations explore presidential decisions, global trends By LUCY LYNCH News Writer
CHRIS COLLINS | The Observer
Former White House chiefs of staff Andrew Card, middle, and Denis McDonough, left, speak at a Notre Dame Forum event Wednesday, providing insight into the factors that influence U.S. foreign policy.
Saint Mary’s screens film about homophobia By STEPHANIE SNYDER News Writer
On Wednesday night, students gathered in Vander Vennet Theatre for a screening of “The Laramie Project.” The film is adapted from a play based on interviews of townspeople after Matthew Shepard, a 22-year-old gay man, was kidnapped, beaten and murdered in Laramie, Wyoming in 1998. This years’ Saint Mary’s Margaret Hill Visiting Artist is Barbara Pitts McAdams, who performs in the film and helped create the it and an award-winning play. “We blundered into Laramie because we were all affected by what happened there,” Pitts McAdams said. “We weren’t qualified to do what we were doing.” The film is about Shepard, who was openly gay in Laramie, a secluded town of skeptics. Before Shepard was killed, he attended the University of Wyoming. One of Shepard’s best friends in the movie said Shepard was interested in politics and had a passion for human rights. The town was shocked to learn that Shepard was killed
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by two young men from Laramie — they expected the perpetrators to be from elsewhere. The men bound Shepard to a fence and beat him with a pistol. When an officer found him unconscious, she said the only place on his head that wasn’t covered in blood was where he had been crying. He died several days later. Pitts McAdams said all the actors for the play were “dramaturgs,” which are actors who provide extra research or structural support. “They keep their eye on whether or not we’re veering from the story,” she said. “I was one of them.” “We interviewed 200 people for the Laramie project, but we ultimately had about 60 characters,” she added. “We each may have been a dramaturg for our character or someone else’s character.” Pitts McAdams played the landlady of the trailer park where one of the perpetrators lived. She was given information from the woman’s interview such as her occupation and her connection to the perpetrator. Pitts McAdams said playing this character made her confront her own
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assumptions. “The first time I was handed her interview, I made this assumption in my mind,” she said. “To be crass, I assumed trailer trash. When I listened to her whole interview, she has a double major from the University of Wyoming and she owns the trailer park. I heard trailer park and I made all these blue-collar assumptions about her.” When she met the character she was playing, Pitts McAdams realized there was more to the woman’s life. “I really put her in a box. It made me realize how even those of us who consider ourselves not prejudiced that we still have to check ourselves and our assumptions about people,” she said. Pitts McAdams is currently writing and directing a play that will be put on at Saint Mary’s, titled “If You Knew Me.” She has been interviewing students at Saint Mary’s about their experiences of diversity. Pitts McAdams said she has learned so much since doing “The Laramie Project.” “What didn’t occur to us was that if we put people’s see LARAMIE PAGE 4
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This year’s keynote Notre Dame Forum event, “Views from the West Wing: How Global Trends Shape U.S. Foreign Policy” was held Wednesday night in the DeBartolo Performing Arts Center. Moderated by Maura Policelli, executive director of the Notre Dame Keough School of Global Affairs’ Global Policy Initiative, the keynote speakers were Andrew Card and Denis McDonough, chiefs of staff to Presidents George W. Bush and Barack Obama, respectively.
Scott Appleby, the Marilyn Keough Dean of the Keough School of Global Affairs, began by welcoming the audience and introducing University president Fr. John Jenkins. “We will consider tonight how presidential decisions and U.S. foreign policy shape and are shaped by global trends and patterns as well as the immediate crises and opportunities presented by the events unfolding today,” Jenkins said. Jenkins then introduced the two speakers and the moderator. see FORUM PAGE 3
PEMCo to stage ‘A New Brain’
Photo courtesy of Denise Dorotheo
PEMCo members practice for “A New Brain,” a musical to show from Thursday to Saturday in Lab Theatre in Washington Hall. By SERENA ZACHARIAS News Writer
The Pasquerilla East Musical Company (PEMCo) will perform William Finn’s musical “A New Brain” from Thursday to Saturday in Lab Theatre in Washington Hall. “A New Brain” follows songwriter Gordon Schwinn, who has a severe brain disorder and faces the possibility that he may die. Sophomore Caroline Lezny, director of the show, said the musical conveys the struggle to balance relationships with personal aspirations, as well as the significance of using time carefully. “The idea that we’re really trying to drive home is that
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relationships are the most important things you can have in your life and that you shouldn’t waste the time you’re given, because you don’t have the time that you think you do,” Lezny said. Lezny said the combination of the dialogue, costumes, lighting and overall design highlight the theme of the musical. With a small cast, Lezny said she focused especially on characterization, or understanding characters on a personal level, with the actors. Junior Shane Dolan, who plays Scwinn in the show, said he worked closely with Lezny to create a backstory for his character. “In the beginning, we worked see PEMCO PAGE 4
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