BC Theatre & Red

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By Ella Janek / Staff Writer Design by Eleni Venetos / Staff Designer

Kristen Morse / Gavel Media

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s the fall season of football fanaticism comes to a close and we all pull out our hockey jerseys to represent our

winter sports Superfandom, it’s easy to see Boston College as a place where sports and academics are king. Yet while the fiddle kid may put on a great performance at Conte, just down the street in the Robsham Theater our own classmates wholeheartedly prepare more emotive, theatrical performances.

The latest of many performances to grace the stage of the Bonn Studio, BC’s intimate, black box theater, was a student-directed enactment of Red. The play chronicles the artistic career of Mark Rothko, an abstract impressionist painter. His struggles with the everchanging trends of the art world and his unique relationship with his assistant

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BC Gavel

and confidante Ken both establish a deep sense of reflection not only on the nature of art, but also on human interconnectedness.

While at first the play may seem to be the biography of a troubled artist, its student director Joe Meade ,A&S ’15, would argue that its portrayal of the art world is a “microcosm of the real

world” which shows us that “as things are constantly changing and rolling, you must adapt.”

For Meade and his fellow student actors and directors, working on such a thoughtful play has kept them occupied not just in a concrete sense, but even more so in a philosophical way.

The intimacy of Meade’s partnership with his two (yes, two) actors has allowed them to not just scrape the surface of the play, but also delve deeply into its significance and, as Meade puts it, “flesh out every single page.” It’s not often that a cast consists of only two actors, so Meade is taking this unique opportunity to focus on the complex dialogue and language that originally drove him to choose the play, without the hindrance of having to coordinate a large cast.

Beyond learning lines and setting staging, the trio has made exceptional

December 2014

efforts such as going to the MFA to see Rothko’s works in person in order to truly understand the significance of his art. “Art needs to be taken with much considerate care,” urges lead actor Matt Consalvo, A&S ’15. “Our play can definitely speak to that.”

Just as in Red where the two protagonists navigate the art of creation with one another’s support, so do BC theater students explore expression in the arts within the school’s tightly knit theater community. And while most people only think of theater as being acting or performing, Leo Bond (lead actor and first year graduate student) argues that, “of all the arts, theater is one of the most all-encompassing.”

In this way, the BC theater department provides a niche not just for performers, but for painters, set designers, costume designers, lighting and sound engineers and even a treasurer. The student-directed nature

of many of the performances maximizes student involvement in the program, and gives theater students opportunities to experience every role involved in putting together a production.

While faculty advisors and professional directors do direct several of the school’s performances, many others are entirely student run. The two student theater organizations on campus, Contemporary Theater (the group headed by Meade) and the Dramatics Society present one show apiece in the fall semester, and will collaborate on a final production in the spring.

With this intense level of involvement, it is astonishing that most of the theater department’s most involved thespians have no intentions of pursuing acting as a career. But Consalvo explains, most theater students see the major as a “way to think that can be applied to whatever you want to do,” rather than a gateway

to a career in acting.

In this way, theater at BC is an experience in expression, creativity and discipline that any student can learn from. Fortunately, with several performances ahead in the academic year, it is not too late to get involved in the theatrical arts here at BC whether by auditioning for an upcoming show, taking part in one of the student theater groups or just buying tickets to engage in the performance from a more observational perspective.

So while BC sports fandom is very evident with its bright yellow Superfan shirts and boisterous crowds, Meade expresses that he has “always felt supported in doing theater here even if it’s not what people think of most at BC.” The intimacy, the diversity of projects and the opportunity for human connection - for Meade and the cast of Red, that is what theater at Boston College is all about.

Kristen Morse / Gavel Media

CULTURE

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