This WEEKEND by Yale Daily News

WEEKEND // FRIDAY, MARCH 2, 2012

Life After Yale

The Roads Less Traveled

BY JORDI GASSÓ, PAGE B3

THEATER

HOBBIES

EXPERIMENTAL

‘CHAMBER MUSIC’ AT THE CABARET

YALE PROFS’ EXTRACURRICULARS

CONTROL GROUP DEFINES ITSELF

Sijia Song reviews the Cabaret’s latest play — and tells us what happens when eight feminists are placed in an insane asylum.

Caroline McCullough talks to professors who ice skate, rap and garden — all while preparing for that next section.

Akbar Ahmed profiles this wacky group and examines how it has differentiated itself from other Yale theater troupes.

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YALE DAILY NEWS · FRIDAY, MARCH 2, 2012 · yaledailynews.com

HOW TO BE A GENTLEMAN // BY JACK SCHLOSSBERG

HURSEY

// ILANA STRAUSS

Follow these steps to be a gentleman, and I assure you that your heart’s desires will immediately be realized. These tactics are not easy, but once mastered they will serve you well throughout your undoubtedly long and fruitful life. Cheers! 1) Meeting People: Until you have met someone at the very least 15 times, treat him or her as a complete stranger. This tactic immediately makes your company feel less important than you. And they should, because, frankly, they are. If you get a cheeky response like, “We’ve met a few times before,” do not act apologetic. Simply retort, “Is that so? Well, it’s hard to keep track of all the people I’m introduced to.” Finally, take your iPhone 4S out and say, “Excuse me, I’m expecting a call from (insert any parliamentary monarchy here),” then put your phone away and talk to someone else. 2) Leather: Unless you are in the shower, needless to say, always wear at least one piece of leather. It is preferable to have a leather accessory, such as a watch, shoes, vest, iPhone case, shoulder bag or coin pouch. All of these together work wonderfully, but I understand that for some this might not be possible. It is also important to note that leather clothing must never have a zipper, for this is far too functional and has connotations of the peasantry of Urban Outfitters. 3) Beer: Always complain about the beer you are drinking. American beer, so beloved in this country, is simply unacceptable. It is watered-down, it has no flavor, and you can barely taste the hops. When complain-

Passin’ them apples on // BY MILA HURSEY

So anyone who knows me at all knows that I smoke. I smoke a ton. I smoke cigarettes. No, I know what you were thinking. “Crack is whack.” (Too soon, she was a goddess.) I smoke almost a pack a day. Well, I smoked almost a pack a day until this past Monday morning when I threw out my ciggies and fire-making paraphernalia and said, “I’m done with this shit.” So why did I quit? Well, as you know, the consequences heavily outweigh the benefits. But that’s not the reason I quit. I like to think that I am a reasonable and rational person, but I’m not. I am addicted to nicotine, and that means that nicotine rules my judgment. Did I quit when my uncle died of lung cancer two years ago? No. Did I quit when my neighbor across the street, a man I talked to every day before college, died of lung cancer a year ago? No. Did I quit when my cousin was diagnosed with lung cancer? WelI, I started thinking about quitting, but I didn’t. What really drove it home, what actually made me think that smoking was such a dangerous game, was something that happened the night before I quit. I used to be an athlete, NBD. I rowed, I ran track, I did Comedy Sportz. I even ran a 6:09 mile in high school. But once in college, I stopped “moving” and started smoking. Last Sunday night, I had a society interview (yay!), but forgot about it and had to run from Stiles to the corner of College and Chapel as fast as I could (bad!). The result of completely neglecting my body was having an asthma attack after running as fast as I could for that half a mile. Half of a freaking mile. I coughed like I had TB for the entire interview. I was so upset. What had my life come to that I had a mild heart attack after running a half a mile? How terribly sad! That was the last straw. Cigarettes were killing my friends and

SHAIN

SCHLOSSBERG

WEEKEND VIEWS

ing, always compare your beverage to the beer Father orders on holiday in Brussels. Remind others that you prefer to have a relationship with the brewery, for your family’s corporation cares deeply about local businesses. 4) Parents: Speaking of Father’s beer preferences, when discussing your parents, which cannot be done enough, never use a possessive. Always say “Father” or “Mother,” as if they are everyone’s parents. For instance, “Father’s merger has taken a toll on dear Isabel, our beloved Cavalier King Charles Spaniel, so that is why I’m acting so moody.” 5) Reading: Never read in private. There is simply no point. Make sure you are seen reading The Economist, in print of course, every morning. When around friends, it is permissible to read Forbes, but you must do so ironically and point out their childish understanding of global markets. Do not read fiction; it is, of course, a habit for the uneducated. 6) People You Do Not Know: When someone you do not know is referenced, no matter the age, mention that they are a friend of Father’s from any of the following: his days at Andover (before it was co-ed), his trip to India as a youth, his childhood, work, or, if you are feeling adventurous, the Geneva Convention. 7) Winter Sports: You must love all winter sports, except the snowboarding; you mustn’t mingle with the nouveau riche. Skiing is a true joy, but be clear that American skiing is not worth the effort. The Alps are really the only acceptable destination for

men like you. Cross-country skiing is a favorite pastime of yours, and is even featured on your family’s crest, which you keep in your back pocket. Luge you have tried several times, but only because it was the ’06 Olympics, and you were asked to test the course. 8) Trousers: Always wear trousers, and always call “pants” trousers. 9) Dancing: Be comfortable only in a ballroom setting. That said, don’t just pull out the foxtrot every time — make sure you show your knowledge and appreciation for other cultures that you have visited. Use the mambo for courtship, the rhumba to acquire a one-night stand, and the jive if you have had a few whiskey sours and feel like being silly. 10) Food: You are not a picky eater, but you are a pricey one. Hors d’oeuvres are your favorite, so you never eat at a restaurant that does not serve them. You took classes as a sommelier one summer, so don’t let the waiter tell you ’99 is their best, because that was most definitely not a good year. If there happens to be a “kids’ menu” at a restaurant, walk out immediately and never go back. Children are people too, if their father’s company reported considerable earnings last quarter. 11) Academia: Take your studies seriously, men. When in the library, always wear a tie, keep your quills sharp and your ink wells deep, and drink diet Red Bulls should you be sleepy. It is important to learn many things in your time at school, because these skills may aid you in your corporate endeavors. That is why an econom-

ics degree is a must. Might I also recommend feigning interest in art history, because this will make your travels to Italy all the more pleasurable. 12) Health: Take care of your body; it is after all, insured. Exercise regularly and always use the elliptical machine. In addition, always take your supplements: protein, vitamins and testosterone (as a preventative measure, of course). 13) Curiosity: Never be too curious. Only ask a question you already know the answer to, as this is comforting in two ways. First, you will never be surprised and look unintelligent. Second, you can never be wrong. 14) Whom: Always use “whom” instead of “who,” whether it is correct or not. 14) Seasons and Holidays: Always refer to seasons as verbs. For instance: “We summer in the south (of France, obviously).” Also, make sure you call vacations “holiday.” As in, “Natasha and I went to Greece on holiday. It was lovely.” 15) Smoking You only smoke fine, Cuban cigars. You are able to get them because Mother’s first husband took a liking to you, and his relationship with the secretary of state certainly has its perks. Should someone ask for a cigar, remind them that each puff is worth more than their life. You may smoke one cigarette a day, but never inhale. It is for intellectual show only. That is all for today, gentlemen. Ta-ta! Contact JACK SCHLOSSBERG at john.schlossberg@yale.edu .

‘Call Me Maybe,’ progressivism from the tweenage heartland // BY JULIE SHAIN

family, and now I knew without a shadow of a doubt that they were killing me too. The process of going from lots of cigarettes per day to none is not a smooth one to say the least. Day one I wanted to punch and/or make out with any male within my line of sight (and maybe even some ladies too). I needed to replace one impulse with another, or many others. When I would reach a point in my daily routine where I would usually light up, a knot tightened in my stomach and I experienced a rush of blood to the head. Strolling down Hillhouse, leaving the Stiles dining hall, and lounging on Cross Campus, normally delightful experiences, were all unbearably painful through the first and second days. As of this writing, four days after the society dash, I only crave ’em when I see ’em, or when I’m feeling especially exasperated. I loved smoking. Smoking was a quick and easy study break: It was something to do while walking, it was better than Prozac, it was a better ice-breaker and friendmaker than freshman-year living arrangements, it was an international language and it was possibly the best way to flirt outside of the United States. I have to admit, it even made me feel gritty and intense. When I smoked and wrote at the same time, I felt like Carrie Bradshaw — deeply flawed and fabulous. Now, I much prefer not feeling gross. I like not smelling like Camel Blues. I will miss the cashiers at the gas station and Whitney Beauty Supply, but I kind of don’t want to die too. Maybe I will work out instead. Maybe I will create a peaceful world without politicians, and maybe without hunger. Whatever I do, I best not do it smoking. Pray for me, y’all. Contact MILA HURSEY at mila.hursey@yale.edu .

The current phenomenon of “Call Me Maybe” by Carly Rae Jepsen is one of the most exciting recent indicators of social change I’ve had the opportunity to observe firsthand. The song and its accompanying music video show that through popular culture, the picture of “wholesome” is rapidly expanding. It is with utmost sincerity that I propose we champion “Call Me Maybe” as being at the forefront of this progression. There are three elements to the phenomenon of the song — the song itself, the cloying-thenclever music video and, most importantly, the spoof video made and released by Carlos Pena Jr. featuring Disney stars like Selena Gomez, Ashley Tisdale and Justin Bieber. Together, the triumvirate of ingredients produces a moment of social significance that is blaringly progressive in its casual and clever reference to homosexuality. First, the song: hilariously simple and insecure, there is nothing in the lyrics that suggest any obvious political LGBTQ agenda — there isn’t any. I’ve toyed with the idea of suggesting some sort of double meaning in the first two lines — “I threw a wish in the well, don’t ask me I’ll never tell” — as a reference to the repeal of Don’t Ask Don’t Tell and a foreshadow to the ending of the music video. But that would be inappropriate: (1) Singer/songwriter Carly Rae Jepsen (26 years old by the way, so don’t feel weird that you think she’s attractive, she is not 14) is Canadian, so Don’t Ask Don’t Tell isn’t that politically relevant, (2) the reveal of the music video that challenges heteronormativity is all the stronger because the lyrics don’t seem to be pushing a political stance. I’d wager you’d be hard pressed to find anything obviously progressive in the lyrics. In fact, they absurdly and perhaps even regres-

sively caricaturize gender norms by essentially lyricizing our imagination of teenage estrogen set loose upon the world. And the insecurity embedded in Jepsen’s decision to qualify the bold tag, “Call me” with “ … maybe” is perhaps even insulting to the feminist movement. No, there is nothing in the lyrics to suggest any sort of progressive agenda or, really, anything clever at all. I’ll say this much: the bulk of the bridge is, and I quote, “Before you came into my life, I missed you so bad. I missed you so bad, I missed you so, so bad. Before you came into my life I missed you so bad, and you should know that I missed you so, so bad.” So there’s that. But the chorus is immediately appealing if only because of its thrilling use of the synthesizer. And say what you will about the lyrics, the song is just really, really fun. Any real noteworthy message stems from the music video. Now, before you continue to read this, watch the music video (I’ll wait). Also, hi, thanks for getting to this point. Okay, have you watched it? ISN’T IT AWESOME? Since you’ve watched the video, you know that all the cleverness comes from the “surprise ending” — our romantic lead, our fantastical hero, our abs upon abs, is gay, and gives his number to Carly’s guitarist. Yes, the music video references homosexuality, but what is its political message — progressive or regressive? Director Ben Knechtel’s casual reference to homosexuality is a move that can be seen as socially progressive, but he also uses homosexuality as the punch line. Some may take issue with the guitarist’s reaction shot, which does not condone or seem to consent to the advance. Is it because the guitarist is homophobic? Is he just not gay? Probably. But might

he also be, like those of us raised in a heteronormative world, just surprised? In my opinion it’s the last one. Because I’ll bet you didn’t see it coming, either. And it is precisely that surprise that makes up the thesis of the music video: Knechtel lulls his viewers into a false sense of our expectations of conventional romance, and at the end he subverts our expectations by challenging heteronormativity. The reaction shot is the reaction shot of the audience — shock. It doesn’t pass judgment on the gay lead, who has been exaggeratedly romanticized over the course of the three-plus minutes. Instead, the punch line passes judgment on us. All that is fine and good. But there have been other music videos and pop songs that have done a lot more for the gay rights movement than Carly Rae’s catchy, silly song. We’ve seen Katy Perry and Lady Gaga (among others) race up the charts with socially progressive pop songs. “Call Me Maybe” is neither the first nor last sensation to incorporate homosexuality in its content. The reason I believe “Call Me Maybe” is unique is because of the third element — the publicity boost the music video likely received from the recent Disney star spoof. One of the primary reasons the song has become so popular is due to a music video spoof recently uploaded by Carlos Pena Jr. featuring various Disney stars (including Justin Bieber, Selena Gomez and Ashley Tisdale) dancing and singing along to Jepsen’s hit. As of this writing the spoof has attracted nearly 14 million views, more than twice the number of views for Carly Jepsen’s own official Vevo upload. The video is cute, fun and is basically just exciting because it humanizes Disney stars by showing them hanging out with each

other. But they’re dancing to a song whose music video’s essence challenges heteronormativity, and in that context we have something new. The Disney Channel is the image of wholesomeness, even if their stars later grow up to become Lindsey Lohans. The channel takes its responsibility as a showcase for role models very seriously because of the impressionable youth that makes up its fan base. When Justin Bieber publicly supports something or endorses something, his unquestioningly loyal fans seem to follow him. And he, along with Selena Gomez and Ashley Tisdale, have helped direct traffic to “Call Me Maybe,” by singing to it, and linking to the music video in the spoof’s description. From the tweenage heart of pop culture, Justin Bieber, Selena Gomez and Ashley Tisdale are implicitly supporting the message of the music video and, from the sincere place of just fooling around, have showed their support for the gay rights movement, a support I believe will be translated to their fan base. This fan base is growing to accept the gay rights movement by proxy, and is being raised by role models who casually and unceremoniously expose them to progressive ways of thinking. For that reason, I’m led to wonder if “Call Me Maybe’ is emblematic of a progressive trend that is beginning to take root not just among college-aged people, but in the Disney Channel-style world of young tweens. Maybe, just maybe, this phenomenon is a spark showing that American kids today will start to grow up with acceptance on a wider level, and “wholesome” can start to accept the gay movement as well. Contact JULIE SHAIN at julie.shain@yale.edu .

YALE DAILY NEWS · FRIDAY, MARCH 2, 2012 · yaledailynews.com

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LI FE

WEEKEND COVER

R E T F A

nless you landed a job with a salary so high you couldn’t possibly spend it all, you need to begin thinking about developing a reasonable monthly budget.” “Life After Yale” booklet, page 1, 2011 ed. Keep reading or skip right ahead to the “Million-Dollar Retirement Advice for the Future Millionaire” chapter. Published annually by Undergraduate Career Services, the “Life After Yale” manual teems with morsels of insight about, a. From filing your taxes to preparing salmon with dill cream sauce, this primer for all things practical includes every piece of information recent graduates need to know (in 102 pages, no less!). The well-intended “survival guide” or “gift” (words on the cover, not mine) shares general advice with graduating seniors busting out into the real world. Just by scanning the first few pages, though, you notice the guidance begins with the premise that the graduates doing the surviving will be headed for an apartment in a big city looking for work, or with a job already in tow. [Note: This assumption is reasonable. According to the Office for Institutional Research’s most recent study of alumni activities one year after graduation, in which overall response rate ranged from 68 percent to 82 percent, 75 percent of members from the class of 2010 are employed.] Don’t get too excited about income tax breaks just yet! Start from the beginning — flip back a couple of sections, to the part on how to dress to impress. Let’s say it is a balmy November afternoon in a Caribbean city: What should you wear to the office? If you’re Gerald McElroy ’09, you wander the streets of Santo Domingo in a Superman costume … so, business casual? A red cape, fake pectorals and a stunning set of synthetic abs in lieu of a tie and blazer — this is McElroy’s dress code for the day. Collecting donations from drivers and pedestrians for a local non-governmental organization became one of his many activities as a Fulbright scholar in the Dominican Republic after graduating from Yale. He currently acts as development director for the Yale-founded student organization turned 501(c)3 nonprofit, Yspaniola. McElroy’s choice to chase after his own international projects led him to some of the most uncertain waters an alumnus can tread after college. Many seniors surely suit up every year to partake in the well-oiled recruiting machines of Wall Street and Teach For America. On the other hand, it’s impossible to know the number of Yalies who go down non-traditional avenues following their senior year. “Non-traditional,” of course, within the Yale context — meaning, any option outside of graduate school, the finance and consult-

ing sectors, or even teaching. Be it the arts, journalism or social work, unconventional careers can take plenty of forms for a whole demographic of post-Yale Bulldogs. Taking the plunge into foreign territory after shedding your cap and gown involves a myriad of considerations: social groups, vocational interests, chance encounters, fellowship applications followed by a coveted “Yes” or a “Sorry, we can’t fund your proposal.” The paths to finance, consulting, or graduate school are quite clear in comparison. “I know lots of seniors, myself included, who are planning and thinking about doing very nontraditional things abroad,” says Catherine Osborn ’12, a Latin American Studies major hoping to work in development and urban policy in Brazil. “But we’re very hesitant to announce them to the winds because who knows? We might not get funding and have to change our plans.” Yalies who opt to go abroad after graduation do so after accepting and understanding the risks inherent in their personal choices. What remains a little tricky is pinpointing the common denominator anchoring their experiences, what ultimate set of values determines their decision to pursue (or not to pursue) the alternative. *** Many postgraduate fellowships awarded each year offer students the opportunity to flexibly mold their post-Yale experiences according to their needs and longterm plans. While the Center for International and Professional Experience houses its own Office of Fellowship Programs (OFP), other available channels of funding include residential colleges, the MacMillan Center for International and Area Studies, and the Jackson Institute for Global Affairs. More than 100 postgraduate fellowships were either won through OFP or reported to their office in the 2010-11 academic year, said Kelly McLaughlin, director of fellowship programs and outcomes assessment. “Veering off of well-known paths requires students to be prepared to deal not only with more uncertainty and challenges but also potentially, often happily, to find a much better fit for their interests and talents in the long run,” he added. While most of these challenges take place once a student arrives at the postgraduate destination, the phase leading up to the actual experience can be nearly as stressful for applicants. Yet Osborn said that candidates have a great deal of control over the process because the applications include written essays and proposals that they can refine, and interviews for which they can prepare. She has applied for the Fox International Fellowship through the MacMillan Center and the OFP’s Parker Huang travel fellowship, among others. The risk in planning a post-

graduation project that relies on fellowship funding from Yale “is more in the fact that all the deadlines are later,” she said. “So you might be ineligible for other potential jobs.” The success of postgraduate fellowship applications usually depends on how students can wrestle with several aspects of the process and other available opportunities. *** During his freshman year at Yale, McElroy learned of Yspaniola, then just an undergraduate student group founded earlier in that year that was co-organizing a trip to the Dominican Republic that “changed [his] life.” The rest is not history, as to this day McElroy remains heavily engaged with Yspaniola. Even before college, he had grown interested in languages (he speaks fluent French, Spanish and Haitian Creole) and Latin America, and he mostly surrounded himself with Yalies who had kindred interests. “I felt comfortable in pursuing what might be perceived as non-traditional to some,” McElroy said. “During my time at Yale I met many other idealistic individuals like myself who shared the belief that we can go forth and make a positive impact in the world.” After spending his first year out of Yale working for a law firm in Paris, France, he has made a second home of the Dominican Republic for the past two years through his Fulbright research on microfinance and his involvement in Yspaniola. Yspaniola encourages sustainable advancement and empowerment in marginalized communities of Dominicans and Haitians in the Dominican Republic. Headquartered in the northern region, in the cities of Santiago and Esperanza, the bulk of their work gravitates around the nearby Batey Libertad and Batey Boca de Mao. Bateys are rural communities in the Dominican Republic that originally expanded through the sugarcane industry in the first half of the 20th century as plantations increasingly employed unregulated Haitian migrant labor. At present, providing these communities with basic public services is an onerous task mired in red tape. McElroy described how Yspaniola has evolved from its Yale roots, sponsoring several service-learning trips from the U.S., while also developing a women’s leadership institute, a microenterprise project and a tutoring program. Initiatives start on the ground and come about organically, he added, the product of collaboration between Dominicans and Haitians living in the batey. A university scholarship fund, one of Yspaniola’s main projects, was established by Jonathan DiMaio ’09 on a Yale Parker Huang Fellowship after graduation (he is now the organization’s executive director). Two scholars from the batey receive generous stipends, academic support and leadership training each year to study in nearby Santiago, with the expec-

tation that they will return and serve as local leaders. “We recognize that the people from the community know what’s best for them,” said Julie Gladnick, Yspaniola’s local program director, as we take a stroll in Batey Libertad. Poverty, much like the dust on the ground, covers every inch of the area. As I look around I feel like a stranger in my own country, and I’m a bit mortified. *** The 6:45 a.m. bus ride from Santo Domingo to Esperanza proved uneventful. I sat in the back row, knowing that no one ever dares to use the claustrophobic bus bathroom. I closed the shades and shut my eyes. I wouldn’t be missing much by ignoring the scenery rolling outside my window: mountains beyond mountains, the occasional mattress strapped on the back of a shabby motorcycle. I arrived. Gladnick introduced me in Creole to every community member we ran into, as “un ami de Ge Ge,” McElroy’s friend. Everybody there knows him. She elucidated everything I asked her: the residents’ personal histories, the racial relations inside the batey. The littlest toddlers poked fun at me: “Américain, américain!” I found it endearing — worse things have been said about my sickly pale appearance. I kept meeting new faces, seeing naked babies sitting on the dirt. I accompanied a kind woman with joint pains to the local hospital. Everybody was warm, devoid of the bitterness I expected, an environment so deprived yet so welcoming. I began to comprehend what may drive Yalies back to Batey Libertad, or for that matter, any comparable place in need. *** Once he receives his Yale diploma, Thomas Smyth ’12 and two other partners will board a one-way flight to Zambia, another nation where innovative work could make a difference. During Smyth’s summer in Zambia under the Leitner Fellowship before his senior year, he identified a huge demand for small energy sources in rural areas off the grid, even with the near ubiquity of cell phones. From this trip, he came up with Zamsolar, a new company aimed at distributing solar products in under-electrified communities. Despite the venture’s social and environmental mission, he said, making Zamsolar a for-profit enterprise will help it get its products out to more citizens. As with any startup, Zamsolar’s founders will be expected to put sweat, equity and capital into their operations. Smyth will earn enough to cover daily living expenses, he explained, while every other dollar from his investors will go toward the business. The obvious risks intrinsic to this undertaking did not deter him, he said, in part due to the smorgasbord of academic and networking services provided at Yale. “It would be much scarier for me if I didn’t know what I wanted

to do or what I was doing,” added Smyth. In fact, Smyth claims that our generation has a fundamentally different attitude with regard to risk than generations before us. His senior essay, entitled “The Riskless Generation,” expounds on our anti-risk outlook and how to get us out of that mindset. “We are more risk-averse in terms of everything,” he said. “People are closing off doors that could lead them to incredible opportunities.” Alternately, Osborn thinks that saying we’re a generation without a universal cause may be more accurate, in the sense that that we don’t get as outraged around a given issue as our predecessors once did. As such, fields or occupations will seem risky or safe based on one’s peer group and personal financial situation. Setting out on a less traditional career path, she added, commonly involves guidance from close peers or role models who have been successful in the first steps of a similar decision. *** Fascinated and a bit envious, I scan an email from Pete Martin ’10 in Bogotá, Colombia, one of Osborn’s former colleagues at the Yale Globalist. As I read his account of tackling uncertainty head on in the South American city, I think to myself: “At last, I have found the prototype of the risk-seeking student, the antidote to our generation’s malaise.” Alas, Martin might not concur. “I was very scared of trying to be a real adult with a ‘real’ job in the U.S.,” he wrote. “To me, moving abroad seemed easier and less scary in a lot of ways.” Martin, a political science major at Yale and a former opinion editor for the News, decided to move to Bogotá after searching (“not too hard,” he admitted) for employment in the United States and receiving no job offers. With adequate Spanish-speaking abilities under his belt but no fellowships or grants filling his pockets, his first gigs in Colombia consisted of teaching English. All the same, Martin would not have relied on Yale’s career resources to prepare him for the rapid clientele growth he saw. “I’m sure UCS would have been clueless about how to help me find a job in Latin America,” he maintained. A couple of months later, Martin also took on freelance editing and writing jobs, and even lent his voice for audio recordings in English textbooks. Low living costs combined with the high demand for English language skills in Bogotá, he said, have allowed Martin to erect a comfortable lifestyle for himself, affording him the ability to travel around the region, become fluent in Spanish, and save some of his income. In spite of conventional assumptions, Martin’s gamble seems to have paid off. SEE ROADS PAGE B8

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YALE DAILY NEWS · FRIDAY, MARCH 2, 2012 · yaledailynews.com

WEEKEND ARTS

A‘CHAMBER’ OF HILARIOUS INSANITY // BY SIJIA SONG

Eight insane women walk into a boardroom. All expectations to the contrary, this is not the start of a bad bar joke. Rather, it is the central premise of Arthur Kopit’s “Chamber Music,” a one-act absurdist play directed by Katie McGerr DRA ’14. “Chamber Music” is staged at the Yale Cabaret, with a set that is simple and spartan with-

as famous women from across the centuries, are holding a board meeting. Most of the women are definitely and obviously mad. Joan of Arc (Marissa Neitling DRA ’13) — or someone who thinks herself Joan of Arc — marches in with a large wooden cross, nearly colliding with silent film actress Pearl White (Mariko Nakasone

MOST OF THE WOMEN ARE DEFINITELY AND OBVIOUSLY MAD. out being seedy. The play incorporates the room into the scene, utilizing the window and fireplace of the theater as props, so that the actual set consists simply of a long wooden table and an old phonograph. The year is 1938; the room is in the women’s wing of a lunatic asylum. And eight inmates, who identify themselves

DRA ’14). Meanwhile, Isabella of Spain (Ceci Fernandez DRA ’14) glowers imposingly in her chair as Mozart’s wife Constanze (Sophie von Haselberg DRA ’14) listens to the phonograph and bristles at the mention of Bach. “Chamber Music” is not a very plot-oriented play. Instead, it runs on sheer force of person-

ality, combined with a continuous and hilarious stream of literary and historical in-jokes. To some extent, the brilliance of the play relies on the viewer’s prior knowledge of the women depicted. For example, someone who is familiar with Gertrude Stein’s (Michelle McGregor DRA ’14) infamously repetitive and unbroken writing style will appreciate her irregular stutter in the play on a level that others might miss. However, it doesn’t take a deep knowledge of the subject matter for “Chamber Music” to be entertaining. Each woman has her distinctive madness mantra, from Joan’s “My pants are getting rusty!” to Queen Isabella’s rant about Columbus and his apparent unconcern for finding the wrong continent, as long as there are pretty native women. The tipping point of “Chamber Music” lies in these women’s voices, which the actors capture brilliantly. As the inmates speak, it is possible to forget that they are mad. They begin to seem less like lunatics and more like strong-willed women who are simply extraordinarily colorful and eccentric. Here, “Chamber Music” ceases to be simple, because among the inmates is Amelia Earhart (Monique Barbee DRA ’13), and she is sane. She just wants to get out — but nobody believes her. In a context where only madwomen are strong and eccentric, it is all too easy to suppose that strong and eccentric women must all be mad. There is no help from the other women, who ridicule her for her insistence that she is sane. There is even less help from the doctor (Fisher Neal DRA ’12), who treats all the women with a paternal and infuriating condescension. The doctor refers to them as his “lovely ladies,” and never bothers to ask them how they feel about the state of their minds, caring only that they be good girls and smile — “not the itty-bitty smile, the big one!” In these conditions, Barbee’s Earhart is witty, sarcastic and eminently likeable. She goes through the women’s meeting with an air of resignation and rising exasperation at their increasingly paranoid assumptions and outlandish plans. Eventually, the other women turn on her, claim-

// MATT OTTO

“Chamber Music” at the Yale Cabaret.

ing the need to kill her for the “women’s cause.” “Chamber Music” is undeniably a feminist play, but it is hard to pin down its exact opinion about feminism. It is a critique of both sides: the condescending patriarchy that labels a sane woman mad for being stronger and more interesting than socially accepted, and the women who are too willing to harm and ridicule other women. As clear as the message is, it is couched in enough hilarity to make “Chamber Music” appealing regardless of one’s views on feminism, and this clever comedy is the play’s greatest strength, allowing it to make its point without driving it home with a sledgehammer. Contact SIJIA SONG at sijia.song@yale.edu .

‘Miss Representation’: or, How the media packages and sells Woman // BY PATRICE BOWMAN On Feb. 29, one day shy of Women’s History Month, the Yale Women’s Center presented the documentary “Miss Representation” at the Whitney Humanities Center to a nearly full auditorium. Articulating the media’s limited and often negative portrayals of females, the documentary (written, produced and directed by Jennifer Siebel Newson) made a big impression at Sundance and other film festivals. It’s not too difficult to see why: the movie effectively builds momentum with familiar, but nevertheless troubling, facts and statistics (shown in wispy white and blue animations), which are confirmed and confronted by stories from teenage girls and interviews with strong women like Condoleezza Rice, Nancy Pelosi, Katie Couric, Margaret Cho and Gloria Steinem. With such a collection of intelligent women showing America that they can be more than “tits and asses,” it’s hard not to leave the documentary feeling both empowered by the possibilities for change and angry at the way things are now. The film fantastically taps into this

understandable feminine rage. “Miss Representation” evenhandedly addresses the gender dynamic and the female role in accepting and furthering the negative images of the media. While the film asserts that men do determine the information distributed, it also faults women for internalizing stereotypes and being unsupportive of other women. Catfights on trashy television are shown side by side with students in a high school admitting that girls usually vote for boys when students run for office. The film also explores, albeit briefly, how the pressure to be masculine and controlling pushes men to see empowered women as threatening. As important as keeping this issue in the public view is, the film treads too much familiar ground without fresh insight. If advertisements make us strive for unattainable beauty, how do we give them up? Do we just stop buying the products that fuel our desires? What’s more, it’s a shame that the 90-minute film can’t (or won’t) permit itself to tackle other, difficult issues. It doesn’t look deeply

into the racial divide within femininity; instead, it lumps the struggles of women together. Newson does include Rice and Cho in the documentary, but they’re tokens that don’t elaborate on the prickly history between (white-dominated) feminism and female minor-

The imagery, although serving to comment on the objectification of women, seems to be there for the very shock value it criticizes. The music tries to play with us, too: the violins on the soundtrack, by Eric Holland, strum our hearts too much.

IF ADVERTISEMENTS MAKE US STRIVE FOR UNATTAINABLE BEAUTY, HOW DO WE GIVE THEM UP? ities. And if the film is going to be so America-centric, then why doesn’t it elaborate on the role of both sex and violence in American culture in viewing women as objects to be obtained, chewed up and tossed out like meat? Maybe Newson should have made room for these issues by removing some of the regurgitated factoids and sexual imagery.

After the screening, members of the Women’s Center Board — Esi Hutchful ’12, Jazzmin Estebane ’13 and Rebecca Suldan ’13 — led a discussion. The discussion, which consisted of an audience of about 12 (including one single, silent man), poked and pried at the film for answers and weak points. The film makes, as one woman put it,

“what women want and need [into] a monolith. I watch ESPN. Does that mean that I don’t care about my womanhood?” The audience brought up several equally great points: What about queer issues and homophobia? What about women in science? A Yale alum asked the most pointed question: “What happened to the anger on campus?” The anger that the alum felt 30 years ago on Yale’s campus helped lead to Title IX and another victory in the path towards gender equality. But are we still angry? What do we do? Do we gnash our teeth in silence? Or do we speak out and risk being called, as one woman explained, a “feminazi”? The film had no easy answers, and neither did the discussion. For more information about the film and its mission, visit www. missrepresentation.org. Check out womenscenter.yale.edu for a look at a part of the feminist community at Yale. Contact PATRICE BOWMAN at patrice.bowman@yale.edu .

YALE DAILY NEWS · FRIDAY, MARCH 2, 2012 · yaledailynews.com

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WEEKEND EXTRACURRICULARS

THE SECRET LIFE OF THE YALE PROFESSOR // BY CAROLINE MCCULLOUGH

Like Yale students, Yale professors share a diverse set of extracurricular interests. Yet students rarely get the chance to see this side of their professors. Outside of the classroom, our professors are athletes, yogis, musicians, farmers, conservation advocates and rap enthusiasts. Although most professors separate their extracurricular activities from their academic pursuits, some instructors’ hobbies are less than secret — hobbies that they incorporate into their class schedules. For example, Silliman College Dean Hugh Flick, a scholar of Sanskrit, regularly practices different types of yoga, such as Bhakti yoga as it is described in the Bhagavad Gita. He will be teaching a class on the Bhagavad Gita in the Yale Summer School Session. Additionally, Ray Fair GRD ’79, John M. Musser Professor of Economics, holds office hours on his morning runs. “If anyone wants to run, we meet at 6:45 a.m. in front of my office,” Fair wrote in an email. “I do get some students each year!” Another runner, Paul Tipton, director of graduate studies of physics, enjoys participating in the New Haven Road Race 20K. Tipton asked, “Who can live in [the] East Rock [area] without going to the top of East Rock Park once a week?” Many other professors expressed an interest in the outdoors and nature. Christopher Wildeman, assistant professor of sociology, maintains a 40-by-50 foot square garden at his home in North Madison, Conn. “I walk back and forth from our rain barrels to the garden with our daughter Greta, and Cilla waters the plants, weeds and decides what looks good for dinner,” Wildeman detailed. “Down the road, we hope to be able to grow almost all of our own vegetables, as well as having chickens, goats and maybe a cow.” Timothy Dwight College Master Jeffrey Brenzel ’75 also likes to be outdoors. Besides his occasional folk or country guitar performances, Brenzel’s other secret hobby is “getting off the grid.” “Every summer for the last decade or two, I’ve taken a backpacking, biking or kayaking trip into a wilderness area with an old friend of mine … I have come to see these expeditions as soul// CHRISTOPHER WILDEMAN

Assistant professor of Sociology Christopher Wildeman and daughter Greta enjoy the outdoors.

restoring necessities,” Brenzel wrote in an email. “My bucket list includes hiking the Appalachian Trail from end to end, and after that doing the Continental Divide trail out west. Also cycling the Swiss and Italian Alps.” Likewise, Tim Robinson GRD ’94, a lecturer in the Classics Department, is an avid hiker. He is also a member of the Advocacy Committee of the Connecticut Forest and Park Association, which oversees hundreds of miles of New England trails. Last summer, Robison worked to amend the loopholes in liability laws that hindered the incentives for municipalities to maintain parks and trails. “I felt honored that I was able to play a small part in keeping our trails open. It was inspiring for me to learn that the system works and that everyone’s opinion can be heard by government,” he said. “I feel the same way about our precious natural resources that I do about preserving the Greek and Latin treasures in the Yale libraries,” Robinson continued. “People who easily dismiss topographical features as ‘just rocks’ or plays of Sophocles as a ‘dead language’ really don’t get the point. These are both exquisite gifts for us to savor and to hand over to posterity. They exist NOW and provide beauty and perspective for our lives.”

tennis team based out of Yale’s Cullman-Heyman Tennis Center. “I’ve been playing on a USTA team for the past seven years, ever since I picked up a racquet after a 25-year hiatus,” Sodi wrote in an email. “It was love at first backhand slice!” Branford College Master Elizabeth Bradley MPH ’95 GRD ’96 also practices squash for the simultaneous physical and mental exercise it affords her. “The game played well is fast, aggressive and surprising,” Bradley elaborated. “Never a dull moment.” Bradley began playing squash in a 10-by-10 rec room her parents furnished in her basement. Using a tennis ball and retired tennis racquets, Bradley’s father taught her to play the ball off the wall. She began to play more seriously during her high school years at Taft, and later received influential coaching from Jack Barnaby on the varsity team at Harvard. “I played a lot after college in tournaments and even went into the nationals when I was 40,” Bradley wrote. “Now, I just play for fun.” Another athlete, T.P. Ma GRD ’74, Raymond John Wean Professor of Electrical Engineering and member of the Yale Figure Skating Club, practices almost daily at Ingalls Rink. Ma said he began skating 30 years ago as a junior faculty member at Yale, when he enrolled him and his children in

// T.P. MA

T.P. Ma, an electrical engineer, exhibits grace on ice.

James Berger, senior lecturer in American studies and English, also sees a connection between his extracurricular activities — he is a member of three different jazz bands — and his scholarly studies. Berger believes that “thinking about and playing music does intersect with my literary work in helping me think about form, the relationship of parts and rhythm.” In addition to a more traditional jazz band and a ska-jazz band, Berger is a member of “a little group that plays music for silent movies at the Lyric Hall Theater in Westville — which is a terrific place, a restored old vaudeville theater that puts on a lot of good shows and that Yale people should check out.” “It’s social, as scholarly work often is not. And performing music, you receive an immediate response, which is certainly not the case with scholarly publication,” Berger explained. “It’s enormously refreshing to do something that uses a different symbolic system, a different set of cognitive — and physical — muscles.” Risa Sodi GRD ’95, senior lector and Italian language program director, enjoys playing tennis for similar reasons. She even manages to include her area of study into her game. “A tennis secret that even my tennis friends don’t know?” Sodi admitted, “I psych myself up in Italian during matches.” In the summer, Sodi plays on a United States Tennis Association

the Yale Family Skating Program. “I came from Taiwan, a semitropical island where ice skating was an ‘impossible dream,’” Ma remembered. “I enjoy the fact that I can continuously advance my skills by overcoming technical challenges, as long as I follow diligently my coach’s instructions,” Ma wrote in an email. “I especially like the fact that figure skating is a lifetime sport for as long as one can walk, and widely practiced by ‘elderly’ people above 70 years old.” Similarly, the will to improve draws Drew McDermott GRD ’83, professor of computer science, to acting. He believes that “the skill of acting has the feature that it’s almost impossible to explicate. We can tell the difference between mediocre acting and good acting, but it’s hard to put our finger on the exact difference between them.” Two summers ago, McDermott preformed in the chorus of his church’s production of “Annie” and is considering auditioning for this summer’s musical. David Evans ’92, director of undergraduate studies of geology and geophysics, is interested in another type of performance: hip-hop and rap. Evans grew up in a suburb of Milwaukee, a place he described as “not exactly on people’s minds when they think of rap music or hip-hop culture.” Evans said that his first exposure to rap came during the eighth grade, when someone brought a boom box on the bus, playing Newcleus’ “Jam On It.” “During

// CHRISTOPHER WILDEMAN

We wonder: Was this tasty apple grown in Mom Cilla’s garden?

that summer’s typewriting class an acquaintance from the inner city taught me how to assemble my first rhymes … they are so hilariously old-school!” Evans described the way that Run DMC brought rap into the mainstream, how Public Enemy turned rap from a mildly amusing club phenomenon into a major political avenue for social protest and the way in which “Chuck D and Flav were saying pretty much all that there needed to be said about social woes and racism (sadly, much of their message is still relevant today).” Evans recounts his days as a student at Yale, “Our BK suite’s parties ca. 1990 were thumping with De La Soul, Deee-lite, Snap!, Technotronic, C+C Music Factory and a host of other bands with which students today would be well served to acquaint themselves.” Notorious B.I.G.’s innovative lyrics were a huge inspiration for Evans. “Given how many records he still sells,” Evans speculates, “I wouldn’t be surprised if he’s alive today on some remote island!” Since his return to Yale, Evans notes Ludacris’ performance at Spring Fling a few years ago as a particular highlight. Another much enjoyed event is the annual Trinity College International HipHop Festival, which he attends each April. “The artists who come to Trinity from all over the world,” Evans wrote, “bring hip-hop back to its roots: promoting peace, respect and a temporary goodtimes escape from the pressures of the world outside the venue.” In terms of his own rap career, Evans wrote, “I can recite a lot of other people’s raps (and have been known to do that on Yale geology field trips), but a tight free-style remains beyond my reach, unfortunately.” Unfortunately, indeed. One thing certainly within our professors’ reach is their ability to surprise and impress us with their varied interests and talents. Their pursuits are interesting because they can all arguably be seen as activities of creation, whether it be the performance of a song, a cultivation of an appreciation for nature or the art of the game. Our professors’ activities seem to embody Berger’s definition of “the miracles of improvisation and composition: how something new happens from existing, known elements, the event of creation … not out of nothing, in a genre, a history, but still undetermined and never precisely repeatable.” As we move beyond the structured activities available to us as undergraduates, our educators’ continuous pursuit of diverse passions exemplifies the kind of dynamic life students should aspire to lead. Contact CAROLINE MCCULLOUGH at caroline.mccullough@yale.edu .

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YALE DAILY NEWS · FRIDAY, MARCH 2, 2012 · yaledailynews.com

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WEEKEND HOLIDAZE

TEACHERS GONE WILD

David Scott Kastan

Tamar Gendler ’87

My wife and I are going to Rome for the first week, for a little work and a lot of play with some friends; the second week I will be back in New Haven hoping to finish up a book proposal and to catch up on the spring training reports from Red Sox camp.

I’ll be going to my grandmother’s 95th birthday in Kansas City, paying a guest visit to my sister’s book group in Washington, D.C., participating in an external review of the Wellesley College Philosophy Department, finishing an article that responds to a number of published reviews of my recent book, getting the tail light fixed on our Volvo, and finishing up a sewing project that I started months ago.

Interviewed by YANAN WANG.

Linda Lorimer I am looking forward to spending four days with my son in a place with little Internet connectivity. Reading list: The new novel by the director of the Yale Press John Donatich, John Gaddis’ new biography of George Kennan and “The Idiot’s Guide to the iPad.”

reak. Break means for us: a sandy beach, Tequila Sunrise, a fading memory of bygone literacy. But where do professors flock when school is out? One thing we’ve discovered: they take their books. // BY WEEKEND

Interviewed by TAPLEY STEPHENSON.

// TAO TAO HOLMES

Penelope Laurans As we head to the start of spring break I fear I am barely awake. So my plans are not deep: They’ve been mostly to sleep For my health and my temperament’s sake. Oh to rest and to rest and to sleep! These pleasures could cause me to weep And if ever I rise I would cover my eyes And enumerate sheep after sheep.

Mary Miller What I try to do in spring break is catch up on some of my own work. I’m going to an Ivy Plus deans’ meeting at Stanford. Then I’m giving a talk at the Art Institute of Chicago, about Mayan painting. Then I’m going off to Ann Arbor to work with my coauthor on some last details on a book, “The Spectacle of the Late Maya Court.” The manuscript is fully submitted, [but we will be] doing something called match prints, where you check the color of how the print will appear. The book will be out in 2013. When I’m not doing that, I’m working on the last details of the other book I’m working on — my survey book will be out in a new edition in the summer.

Shelly Kagan Nothing terribly exciting planned for spring break. I have some papers to grade, the rest of the semester to prepare for, some students (grad and undergrad) to meet with, recruiting prospective graduate students, catching up on email (okay, I will never manage that), and the like. We (me, my wife, and our kids) will [also] be headed to Chicago for one weekend to see my niece’s new son.

Interviewed by ANTONIA WOODFORD. Interviewed by YANAN WANG.

However, as part of Yale’s mission, — It’s not that I have great ambition — I’ve been asked to help plow Through the twenty-nine thou Who are currently seeking Admission. And then — I can’t leave out JE — Where I must of a certain plan tea And a bit of a fling For when we win the Tyng And the spiders erupt in sheer glee. On the other hand, while I won’t cook, I do have my eyes on a book Which I’ve heard is a prize — “The Hare with Amber eyes” Which I’ll browse in some comfortable nook. So Elis wherever you sail Take time to let down — and exhale. Get some sleep — Get some rest — So you’ll bring back your best For God and for Country and Yale!

Anne Fadiman Over spring break I’ll be at the MacDowell Colony in New Hampshire, a place where writers and artists find out what happens when they don’t cook, clean, drive, take care of their kids, watch TV, or use the Internet, and are thus theoretically freed to commune with their muses — unless, of course, the absence of distractions itself proves distracting. I’ve heard about MacDowell for years, but this will be my first visit, and I’m excited. The most famous aspect of life there is lunch, which is delivered in a basket to one’s studio in the woods and left on the porch, lest a knock interrupt a sentence.

Interviewed by TAPLEY STEPHENSON.

Jane Levin All four of our children and our seven grandchildren live on the West Coast. We’re going to visit them over spring break. I’m looking forward to seeing them! Reading list: I’m going to reread “Swann’s Way” in the Montcrieff translation in between reading Beatrix Potter, “Winnie the Pooh,” and “Babar.” Interviewed by TAPLEY STEPHENSON.

Interviewed by YANAN WANG.

// AUBE REY LESCURE

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YALE DAILY NEWS · FRIDAY, MARCH 2, 2012 · yaledailynews.com

PAGE B7

WEEKEND HOLIDAZE

TEACHERS GONE WILD

David Scott Kastan

Tamar Gendler ’87

Interviewed by YANAN WANG.

Interviewed by TAPLEY STEPHENSON.

// TAO TAO HOLMES

Interviewed by ANTONIA WOODFORD. Interviewed by YANAN WANG.

Interviewed by TAPLEY STEPHENSON.

Interviewed by YANAN WANG.

// AUBE REY LESCURE

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YALE DAILY NEWS · FRIDAY, MARCH 2, 2012 · yaledailynews.com

WEEKEND COVER

ROADS DIVERGE ROADS FROM PAGE B3 “With the hindsight of my professional success here,” he said, “I’m confident that my professional prospects were better in Bogotá from September 2010 to now than they would have been in New York, where I would have lived if I hadn’t moved abroad.” *** It is unclear what the 21 percent of the Class of 2010 graduates who didn’t respond to the post-graduation employment surveys are up to these days. Maybe they keep themselves so busy working that they have no time to answer questionnaires or even their mothers. Or are they the unemployed, still scouring the job market? Are they unpaid interns? Or are they some of the risk-takers Smyth suggests our generation lacks? The Office of Institutional Research study doesn’t answer this, but Smyth might still have a point (again, we must take into account the varying response rates throughout the years and the timing of each survey). Whereas the study shows that the percentage of employment following graduation has steadily gone up from 16 percent since the class of 1960, the percentage of “others and indefinites” has decreased since that same year, starting from 13 percent, peaking at 41 percent for the class of 1973, and currently standing at 4 percent. The sheer number of graduates flocking more and more toward safe and gainful employment, at least in the past 10 years, could be logically pegged to the turbulent economic backdrop of our times. “There is some evidence consistent with those who graduate in recessions being more riskaverse,” observed Lisa Khan, an assistant professor at the Yale School of Management known for her research regarding the effects of recessions on college graduates’ decision-making and salaries. “However, a number of other factors could also explain that behavior.” Graduates could also be avoiding entrance into a toxic economy. Application numbers for fellowships nationwide have risen noticeably in the wake of the recent financial crisis, fellowship director McLaughlin said. Yale has been no exception, with a steady increase in applications for both national and Yale fellowships. For those who instead choose to enter firms during a recession, Kahn has found they are less likely to leave, relative to their peers at these firms. These workers are unsure of the probability of finding another job, she suggested, even if it doesn’t provide conclusive proof of increased risk aversion. She continued: “I have seen some work showing that those who graduate in recessions are less likely to start their own companies at early stages in their careers — again, possibly suggesting increased risk aversion.” That being the case, Smyth’s endeavors stand as a distinct rarity among the already rare. A political science major with no previous start-up experience is setting out into another country to build a business from the ground up, our current global recession notwithstanding. Fortunately, he said, the fledgling Zamsolar enjoys the nurturing assistance of mentors and investors. “We couldn’t make this project work without people in the

finance industry,” Smyth acknowledged. “My business would not be possible without access to capital.” But if Smyth’s idealism is any indication, this risky new venture runs not only on capital but on the hope of bringing about tangible contributions to Africa and beyond. Accordingly, he says he has “no idea” what he will do after Zamsolar. He intends to stay in the continent until he “makes it work.” *** Tully McLoughlin ’11 breathes in and then pauses. He appears to know all the answers. “I think there’s a small percentage of those who graduate college that know exactly what they’re doing, and take a small step in pursuing what they want to do for the rest of their lives. I don’t fall into that camp,” he continued. McLoughlin is currently in Accra, Ghana, partly to be out in the world, partly to test his capabilities. Through Yale’s year-long Cohen Public Service Fellowship, McLoughlin works as a project officer for Farm Radio International, a nonprofit focused on improving food security and agricultural techniques for African small farmers. As part of his proposal, he also planned to put up a youth radio talent competition for senior high school students regarding agricultural topics. He is now halfway through his year abroad. It was important for him as a Yale senior to escape the sense of applying for something by default, he said. The first two years after college, he asserted, are still an appropriate time for people to continue figuring out their next step. “There’s a lot to be gained from the undefinable challenges of living and working in a foreign country,” McLoughlin said. “But it’s also the reason why it’s so hard to persuade people to do it, especially to people graduating from college now who are looking to seek their teeth into and know what they are facing.” For McLoughlin, when it comes to life abroad and in Africa, not everything is in the job description. “Going from a structured college life, filled with pre-cooked meals, registrars, advisers and organized extracurricular activities to a foreign country without anyone really looking out for you or giving you feedback was a little bit scary,” said Zachary Fuhrer ’11, who is in Brazil on the Gordon Grand Research Fellowship researching the politics of prostitution in the United States and Brazil from a human rights and public health perspective. Fuhrer, a former arts and living editor for the News, studied abroad in Northeastern Brazil during his junior year, took five semesters of Portuguese classes at Yale and wrote a senior thesis that required him to read 19th century Brazilian texts. In his quest to feed his growing interest for the South American nation, he primed himself for his postgraduate experience. He decided to go abroad, he explained, “because spending my first year out chasing a developing interest in Brazilian public health policy seemed far more challenging and fulfilling than an entryl e v e l desk job geared toward recent graduates.” ***

The offices of Morgan Stanley near Times Square don’t look evil or decidedly miserable. As a recent Yale alum — a bouncy Humanities major turned stockbroker — led our group up elevators and stairs into a conference room furnished with sandwiches, fruit and beverages, it was easy to forget how I got there. That feeling didn’t last long. It was quite explicit: all the Yale freshmen and sophomores in the room were there due to their Latino or African-American heritage. This was our tailored day trip, not just any kind of recruitment session. The Kool-Aid, however, tasted no different than the that doled out at my prior visit to Goldman Sachs. Major investment banks and consulting firms have the time and the resources to fine-tune their recruitment strategies down to an absolute science, with lucrative offers, countless panels, and meetings that cater to minority students. “The difficult thing is when you compare living and working abroad to moving to New York City,” McLoughlin said. “The New York path is much clearer, it’s a simpler sell. Finance firms make it seem like a no-brainer.” Not only is it an easier sell, but a much more evident option. UCS Director Allyson Moore recognized in an interview that financial services and management consulting firms claim the upper hand when it comes to having a more visible campus presence than most employers in other industries. Moore has partnered with Dwight Hall and other student groups, she said, to brainstorm additional ways to heighten student awareness and increase the visibility of less moneyed fields such as the non-profit and public sectors. UCS and Dwight Hall have agreed to co-sponsor a nonprofit career fair during the next academic year. The largest employer of Yale graduates for the past few years happens to be a nonprofit, Teach For America: 24 percent of the class of 2010 survey respondents listed in the OIR study went into education, the highest percentage of all categories. If there is any resemblance between the appeal of a TFA position and a Wall Street job, McLoughlin said, it is their streamlined process of employment. Any Ivy League student can recognize and adapt to the methodology of applications + interviews = competition, and who doesn’t like to win competitions? *** The debate around job recruiting, though, often overlooks students’ financial circumstances, career motivations and even the likelihood of having a genuine interest in finance or consulting. Case in point: seeing how a whirlwind of factors drove one Yale senior away from the development sector and into a desk at the prestigious management consulting firm Bain & Company after college. This senior, who will be referred to as Lindsay in this article, asked to remain anonymous out of respect for her family’s economic situation. Lindsay had already spent two summers working for Innovations for Poverty Action (IPA), a nonprofit founded by Yale economics professor Dean Karlan that measures the impact of international development programs. She expected to work for the organization after graduation. Her thinking eventu-

ally began to shift for a few pragmatic reasons. Although she is morally and personally committed to development as her ultimate career path, she opted for a consulting job that could provide her with specialized know-how for future work in her field of choice. Moreover, the realistic pressures of paying off her student loans weighed on her shoulders. Her plan is to work for Bain for two or three years, she said, and learn about the managing and scaling of different projects. Later on, she will apply this set of skills toward development initiatives, where her true passions lie. “You’re always thinking of risk when you’re thinking of unconventional paths: Will it be the best thing that will further my professional goals?,” Lindsay mentioned. “Maybe the objective of my work [at Bain] is not going to be personally exciting, but the mechanisms of that work are what I’m interested in.” *** Lindsay said she gets a fair amount of flak from some of her friends working at nonprofits for going to “the dark side.” “Dark side.” A Yale colloquialism reserved only for jobs in finance, consulting, banking and business. That’s a big side. But at some juncture, the “dark side” joke ends and its underlying criticism unravels. “The world needs your commitment to public service,” University President Richard Levin told graduates at the 2006 Baccalaureate Address. “We at Yale expect it.” For some Yalies, this commitment does not necessarily mean going into finance. On Nov. 15, around 50 students picketed a Morgan Stanley information session outside of the Study Hotel on Chapel Street, where it was being held. Right across the street, an “alternative info session” took place. The goal of Occupy Morgan Stanley, according to an email announcement sent the day before, was to “make students think more critically about what they’re going to be doing next year in a broader context.” Volunteers carrying posters and rallying calls filled the sidewalk as their fellow Elis walked past them and went inside the hotel. By questioning — or “demonizing,” depending on whom you ask — the recruiting event, the demonstration became Yale’s translation of the global Occupy movement. “Twenty-five percent is too much talent spent!,” the protesters chanted. That percentage is a bit inflated. The 25 percent figure refers to the respondents of a survey on employment sent to recent alumni, Moore said, not the

total number of graduates of a given class. For the class of 2010 data, for example, only about 869 of the approximately 1,280 graduates, around 68 percent of the class, replied to the survey. But focusing on the facts and numbers would be missing the larger picture. Whether a future banker or an aspiring artist, most Yalies interviewed actually admit to appreciating a campus atmosphere where the ideas and decisions of their peers do not stand unchallenged. “I think it’s always great to have a conversation about it and not take anything for granted, be aware of all opportunities,” said Smyth, also an attendant and observer (not a protester) at Occupy Morgan Stanley. “We should pay more attention to institutions and less to individual choices. It doesn’t make sense to criticize a student for a career choice.” If anything, questioning students’ vocational paths shines a light on a perceived moral component of a Yale education, one that Osborn thinks could be emphasized more in the public forum. “What will you do with your privilege?” asked one of the signs in the protest. Yalies cite the networks, the acquired skills and the vast resources from a wide range of fields, not to mention the recognition carried by the “Yale” name. Is this what enables President Levin to expect public service from graduates? Just by virtue of being a Yale student, Osborn noted, undergraduates benefit from a broad spectrum of possibilities. What is important and tougher to quantify, she said, is how Yalies take advantage of the resources and options available to them in order to improve the lives of others in the future. “Not everyone who does finance is a sellout, just like not everyone who goes into development is a saint,” said McElroy. Conversely, in alignment with Smyth’s and Martin’s expressed views, the responsibility to foster public service might not hold any unique bearing on Yalies, but on the general population. *** Over kosher shawarma at a Diamond District Israeli restaurant, Fuhrer had lunch with Nick Arons, a New York-based lawyer and a former Fulbright scholar in Northeastern Brazil. During their conversation, Fuhrer said, Arons gave him a piece of advice he still keeps with him. “He said, ‘Nothing matters until you’re 30’,” Fuhrer recalled in our interview. “This was not meant to discredit any of the work you do in college and your immediate post-grad life, but to encourage a spirit of risk-taking, as in ‘You’re young. You have plenty of time to sit at a desk in Brooks Brothers slacks and wax poetic about your bright college years o v e r

summer trips to Martha’s Vineyard.’” Fuhrer’s statement suggests a step-at-a-time mentality, which is adopted by most recent graduates abroad. For McElroy, he now aspires to get a master’s degree in development. Afterwards, he hopes to work in the field as a development practitioner in Latin America and could eventually go into development consulting, while continuing to serve on the executive board of Yspaniola. While McElroy’s past choices have naturally led him to this next stride, Fuhrer does not consider his current work as a stepping stone for an upcoming phase in his life. Fuhrer said worrying too much about his next steps would get in the way of his research. Back at Yale, how normal a nontraditional path looks to students depends on their overall undergraduate life, the friends with whom they socialize and the extracurriculars they cherish. Seniors tend to overemphasize what their peers are doing right after graduation, ignoring the possibility of diverging career choices down the line. “It is hard to pass moral judgment on other Yalies based on their first year jobs after graduation,” Osborn said, given the amount of possible approaches to serve the public good. Osborn learned this past week that she received the Huang fellowship. She can temporarily accept the award, pending notification from the Fox fellowship in April, and then decide between them if she also receives the latter. At this stage in the academic year, several current seniors may lack concrete plans and recent alumni have spent enough months out of Yale to put their experiences in perspective. Since their first postgraduate moves are not likely to dictate the course of their entire career, the only thing that stays certain in all of their futures is their desire to get somewhere. Wherever “somewhere” happens to be, they seem to agree, there is no dearth of time. “I do love the [African] continent and there is so much more to explore,” McLoughlin said, optimistically. “For now, in my 20s at least, this is the time to have adventures.” Contact JORDI GASSÓ at jmgj11@gmail.com .

“

“THE DIFFICULT THING IS WHEN YOU COMPARE LIVING AND WORKING ABROAD TO MOVING TO NEW YORK CITY.”

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// CATHERINE OSBORN & TULLY MCLOUGHLIN

YALE DAILY NEWS · FRIDAY, MARCH 2, 2012 · yaledailynews.com

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WEEKEND CONTROL

CONSTANTLY SHIFTING ‘CONTROL’: A PROFILE OF ‘CONTROL GROUP’ // BY AKBAR AHMED Patrick Cage ’14 looks at his hands, one wrist bedecked with bracelets of every color in a postnuclear rainbow, and calls Control Group “the marzipan of theater companies.” Charlie Polinger ’13 says, in an email he wrote to me five days after the close of the ninth show he’s directed at Yale, that Control Group is not afraid of messiness — it’s “really liberating.” Josh Evans ’12 tells me, with his hands on his skinny-jean-encased knees and not a hair out of place, that Control Group enabled him to bring the vision in his mind to the page with the script he wrote earlier this year. All of them say the group just wants to play. Control Group is Yale’s only undergraduate experimental theater company. Popularly known for its departure from the conventions followed by most other Yale productions, the ensemble comprises 12 undergraduates who together design one major show and numerous ‘happenings’ each semester. Last weekend, they put up a production of “The Tempest,” their contribution to this semester’s Shakespeare at Yale festivities and a foray into the world of the conventional that most people, group members said, would never expect from them. “I’ve heard that people who’ve never been to a Control Group show are afraid they’ll be, like, touched,” says co-director Charlotte McCurdy ’13. “People think we’re experimental theater with a capital E.” That impression frustrates McCurdy, particularly because it ascribes to Control Group a number of priorities it just does not have. “Audience confrontation is boring to us – it’s very ‘done,’” she argues, adding that the group is “not interested in having people take shits on stage.” The way the group perceives itself is a little less typically radical. Evans, who has been a Control Group member since his first semester at Yale, describes the group as an ensemble that “can do things you can’t do production to production.” That includes, he explains, creating a lasting ethos and a process-based group work. “I think a lot of outsiders are looking for the gimmick or asking, ‘what crazy thing will Control Group do this time?’ but we’re really just trying to put up an exciting, interesting show and use more experimental approaches as tools to build it,” says Polinger. Zach Bell ’14, the company’s producer, says that though people outside Control Group see its pro// AKBAR AHMED

‘Control Group’ finds inspiration in the group dynamic.

cess as mysterious, transgressive and even dangerous, once one is initiated in the group’s ways, “the mystery has been unmasked.” Prepare for some unmasking.

‘THE CONTROL GROUP MACHINE’

Calista Small ’14 ties back her hair, pulls her seat closer and begins to speak about her experience acting in nine ‘conventional’ Yale productions. “All the rest of the theater at Yale is like ‘I’m an actor, gimme the costume, you do the lights, I’ll memorize the lines’ […] and that’s all you do,” she says. For Small, that’s limiting. And according to McCurdy, that’s where Control Group comes in. “We train twice a week [every semester] and build a shared vocabulary and style,” she explains. Together, they test and define what they want their ensemble to be. McCurdy adds that, when Control Group puts up a show, each group member is involved in every part of the production process, from set design to acting recommendations, from tweaking the vision to suggesting spaces to work in. “It’s not like there’s a clear cut writer or director or designer, etc,” Polinger says. He went on to say that a more collaborative approach has given him the confidence to present more daring ideas that he, a former board member of the Yale Dramat, might otherwise fear people would disapprove of. Helping members learn to do effective collaborative work is a key benefit of being in the Group, says McCurdy. That focus, she added, helps tackle the “frustrating” Yale pattern of productions being very much shaped by the visions of their directors. Small said that Control Group members see each other twice a week and develop concepts from images and ideas their peers bring to rehearsals, as well as tropes that spontaneously arise through creative exercises. McCurdy cites the example of one idea Small put out during a rehearsal exercise before “The Tempest” went up, a walking pattern that eventually came to be central to her portrayal of Miranda. “It’s very hard to keep track,” adds McCurdy. “The best ideas are the ones where you can’t tell where your ownership ends and someone else’s begins — you just know that you were part of it, and believe it, but could not have come up with it without […] passing it through the Control Group machine.”

DIFFERENT PERSPECTIVES: CONFLICT AND CREATIVITY

Having all of Control Group make decisions means that the process can be very democratic but, according to Bell, also chal-

lenging. “Efficiency definitely suffers,” he says, comparing his experiences with Control Group to working on “Coriolanus” and “Macbeth,” and finding the latter more streamlined and to the point. Inviting multiple contributions also results in a vast array of opinions. Since Control Group taps members on the basis of auditions at the beginning of the year, and selects them for their creativity more than their theatrical skill, says Bell, the group includes individuals who do not hail from theater backgrounds. Small says that conflicts due to starkly different opinions on theater and how best to put up shows manifested themselves as Group members discussed how to stage “The Tempest.” Some members, she explains, were more invested in preserving parts of the original text, while others wanted to use images that would stick in audience members’ minds. “Alex, for instance, is very much a traditionally trained actor, and we do not necessarily see eye to eye all the time,” says Bell, an art major. “But out of the conflict comes work that’s interesting.” The eventual show was, Evans ventures, a qualified success. Staged in the Payne Whitney gym, and featuring spools of VCR tape wound strategically to create Prospero’s world, the production left Control Group members thinking that they could have pushed boundaries more, given more time. But, Evans adds that Control Group sees self-critique as critically important.

THE WIDER THEATER SCENE

Evaluating their productions’ success may seem like, for some students in the Yale theater scene, one of the few (if any) practices both Control Group and other production teams have in common. The divide in focus between the two is palpable. “I’ve put forward ideas in other shows and have people tell me to save them for Control Group,” says Small, who acts in conventional shows regularly. McCurdy, who has been involved with the Dramat, says that Control Group is necessarily very different from other Yale theater, due to the emphasis it gives to process and unconventional theater spaces, such as hallways, stairwells and off-campus locations. “I don’t think Control Group is part of the Yale theater scene if one exists,” Cage argues. “We’re in dialogue with it out of necessity, but Control Group operates so very differently.” Still, McCurdy says that the group has increasingly included Theater Studies majors and students also involved in traditional theater over the last three years. Meredith Davis ’13, presi-

dent of the Dramat, says that she believes Control Group “provides truly experimental opportunities for actors as well as audiences to expand their definition of what theater and performances are.” “[Our appeal] could be because Yale is so theoretical in its acting training, and so book-based,” McCurdy said. “There’s an interest in doing physical work.”

OUT OF THE GYM AND INTO THE FUTURE

With the focus Control Group places on the demands of its membership and charting the course they mutually agree on, it’s difficult to predict with any certainty where they’re going next. Evans says that since his freshman year, he’s seen different sets of Control Group directors focus on everything from physical work, incorporating the Suzuki and Viewpoints techniques, to appropriating the intimate space of homes. Some things stayed the same, he adds — “Control Group has always had a big obsession with light.” But “The Tempest” represented something different, say McCurdy and other group members. She explains that using a set text, what Bell called the “extreme […] structured” opposite of Control Group’s usual approach of transforming spaces, was a big development for the experimental theater company. Now, Bell says, it’s possible that Control Group is at a turning point in its style of work. “I’m not sure what that style will look like, but we’re starting to question our role in the theater community and what ideals the group stands for,” elaborates Bell. “That question is really important for me: what exactly is our bigpicture goal?” What will define that goal is unclear. Control Group is not, as McCurdy and Evans both say, shaped by what its audience wants. “It’s not an unconcern, but it’s a subsidiary one,” Evans says. “Primarily, we’re doing this for the ensemble; it’s about doing something that’s important to us and that’s what’s interesting to the audience.” Ideas are being tossed around: Small, for instance, wants to bring Control Group’s work to a broader audience in New Haven. The most honest, accurate declaration of where the company will go comes from an offhand comment McCurdy lets slip when discussing the Group’s constantly shifting nature and vision: “this could, of course, all change in a year or two.” And so it goes. Contact AKBAR AHMED at akbar.ahmed@yale.edu .

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YALE DAILY NEWS · FRIDAY, MARCH 2, 2012 · yaledailynews.com

WEEKEND COLUMNS

LET’S TALK ABOUT SEX

Talking about sex is uncomfortable. I never got the sex talk from my parents, nor did I want one. I was content not knowing what sort of naked shenanigans transpired to produce some sort of child. I didn’t even need a stork story. Because even if there was a stork involved there was something strange about the entire situation. Which is why I was particularly annoyed in third grade when my friend asked me, “Do you want to know what sex is?” I answered no, of course not, and tried to get back to playing with my Barbies. “It’s when a man puts his penis in a woman’s vagina.” OK, wow, that’s enough. I changed the subject to last night’s “Rugrats” and tried to put some clothes on the Barbie because I was suddenly aware of her nakedness. Talking about sex in school was even weirder, especially when they made us touch tampons and label uteri. The spectrum of awkward sex education is vast and mortifying, from private to public schools, from Jewish to Catholic schools, from abstinence-only to here-take-these-condoms approaches. Sex talks tend to start around fifth grade, roughly around the

MARIA YAGODA MARIA DOES YALE time you start getting strange urges and hair. My friend Allison, who attended a liberal Jewish day school, was once made to sit in a circle with her fifth grade class and shout, “Vagina! Vagina! Vagina! Penis! Penis! Penis!” The point of this exercise was to make talking about sex less intimidating. My friends in more conservative Catholic schools had opposite, though equally terrifying, experiences — for one friend, sex ed was a chapter in her religion book, which explained that sex before marriage not only gives you diseases, but will also probably kill you (and definitely land you in hell). You would think these discussions would become more sophisticated in high school. They don’t. Freshman year at a Boston public school, my friend Molly had evangelicals come to her class and explain that having sex was like jumping off a diving board into the ocean, where you would get attacked by the pregnancy piranha, the STD shark and the emotional eel. In Lubbock, Texas, a pastor explained the following to my friend’s health class: “Sex in marriage is

like fire in the fireplace, it will keep you warm and make you feel good. Sex outside marriage is like a fire in the middle of the floor; it will burn your house down and destroy your life.” He then passed around a magazine profile of Jessica Simpson, to demonstrate that you can be beautiful and talented and stay pure. Scaring kids into not having sex is an unfortunate approach because a) it doesn’t work — teens are horny and will always have sneaky, awkward sex and b) fearing sex has dangerous consequences. Young people should feel comfortable talking about sex, which will make it easier in the future for them to seek help and ask questions when they need to, and to feel comfortable talking about sex to their partners — and not just at that moment when they’re already unclothed and giving consent. Another problem with the sort of discussions about sex that young people are forced to have is the lies. It’s an unequivocal lie that the first time you have sex is going to be amazing. It won’t be; it will be awkward, uncomfortable, and messy. Sex, just like any activity, is better when you practice it. This is why the most recent “Twilight” movie made me so angry. Did they expect us to believe that Bella and Edward’s

// WEDDINGDRESSES.COM

compilation series, but my copies of “Now! That’s What I Call Music” 2 through 16 were purely for sociological purposes. My “independent” heart chose to forsake Britney and Christina and instead shower its affection on the corn-syrupy hooks of throwaway singer Hoku, the beach-blonde daughter of Hawaiian musician Don Ho, and the perplexing mixed signifiers of the Irish jig-pop girl group B*Witched. I choreographed elaborate dances on the banister of my staircase and taught them to my friends, but as soon as they would suggest the then-ubiquitous tied white belly-blouse as a costume, I would shake my head in resignation. I was convinced divine inspiration had blessed me with enough self-awareness to recognize the fundamental kitsch that pervaded the girl world of the late ’90s, an intellectual burden I knew solemnly to be heavy. My Nickelodeon clock radio and I were fated to appreciate — so, so misguidedly — the collaboration between Carlos Santana and Rob Thomas of Matchbox Twenty alone, together. Pop music be damned; I was the child

who knew too much. Maybe my focus on the lesserknown pop musicians missed the point. Anyone who listens to the radio or keeps up with the Billboard or iTunes charts (or American Top 40 with Ryan Seacrest, which I just discovered has an almost satirical, regressively kitschy website) knows that pop music isn’t particularly about compositional genius or aptitude for lyricism (see: Selena Gomez’s wildly successful and unthinkably inane “Love You Like a Love Song”) but about an inescapable cultural firmament of verse, chorus, celebrity. Pop songs never make sense to listen to out of context, and can’t easily be put on a playlist alongside other sorts of music; the selfish urgency of a successful Top 40 jam often makes it feel less like music and more like an audible representation of the state of contemporary popular culture. Katy Perry and Taylor Swift and Nicki Minaj, for example, operate in a recognizable but inaccessible pantheon of archetypal figures in the public consciousness. Rightly or not, we see ourselves in them. Of course, we don’t always realize that we’re doing this. The

Vampire or not, the first time will NOT be mindblowing, “Twilight” to the contrary.

first time having sex is mindblowing, that it was worth waiting until after the wedding? I’m willing to go along with the vampire and werewolf plotlines, but this is where I draw the line. Salt-n-Pepa were on to something in “Let’s Talk About Sex” when they rapped, “Don’t decoy, avoid, or make void the topic/ Cuz that ain’t gonna stop it.” Maybe we would do well to all get together and shout “Penis!” and “Vagina!” — this would be more complex, open and useful than many of the dialogues we have about sex, which are too often packed with judgment and fear. And while the emotional eel, STD shark and pregnancy piranha are all very real concerns, there are ways to explore these issues in a way that doesn’t vilify or mystify sex. I dream that we can all one day live in a world where we won’t die of embarrassment if we get trapped next to our parents on the couch and an unexpected sex scene comes on TV. Contact MARIA YAGODA at maria.yagoda@yale.edu .

Totally Hits 2012 Last week, a friend whose musical taste I normally respect introduced me to the song “Call Me Maybe” by the perky 26-year-old Canadian singer Carly Rae Jepsen. Before she was signed in mid-February to the Justin Bieber-affiliated Schoolboy Records, the only marginal claim to fame she had — other than a remarkably twee name — was being the third-place winner of the fifth season of Canadian Idol. “Call Me Maybe” relies on “meh”-level production: a combination of dramatic synthetic strings and trebly percussion highlight dreadfully ordinary love song lyrics that contain the rhyme of “maybe” and “baby” again and again. The bubblegum attitude and I’m-just-a-zanylittle-girl theme are reminiscent of a certain strain of pop music prevalent over the last couple of decades. Knowing only this, the odds of my approval were stacked against her. But after watching her music video on YouTube for the millionth time, I’ve decided that she is officially one of my favorite soon-to-be pop stars, because this song is really, really ridicu-

NINA WEXELBLATT PLAYING OFF THE BEAT lously good sounding. Of course, as a generation, we are obsessed with catchy pop hooks, and the more manufactured-sounding, the better. We were born amongst the grunge and the alternative of the early ’90s, the steady P-wave of the ideal to the soiled fringes, and we turned out 20 or so years later the way any reasonable force of reactionary youth culture should: addicted to Flo Rida, Bruno Mars, and ”sick drops.” Counterculture, man. As a small child, though I listened to the radio as much as anyone, I wanted nothing to do with what I saw as the mainstream. I’m not sure where I got these snobbish politics, but I do know that when I noticed a group called the Backstreet Boys appearing on the back of juice boxes, I knew instinctively that they were too popular to pursue. I took my staunch underground position seriously, if curiously, to mean that I could earnestly enjoy installments of the “Totally Hits”

OF COURSE, AS A GENERATION, WE ARE OBSESSED WITH CATCHY POP HOOKS, AND THE MORE MANUFACTURED-SOUNDING, THE BETTER. brilliance of great pop songs is that they are sneaky, infiltrating our subconscious until we find ourselves humming along without realizing it to a song we might have only heard once. This insidious ubiquity gives each song an instantly dated, trendy quality, but at the same time, a timelessness. Ten years from now, you’ll still remember what stupidly regular thing you were doing while

listening to it — grocery shopping, standing in line for the public pool — and you probably won’t know why. What’s so great about “Call Me Maybe”? I just can’t put my finger on it. And that’s why it is so perfect. Contact NINA WEXELBLATT at nina.wexelblatt@yale.edu .

YALE DAILY NEWS · FRIDAY, MARCH 2, 2012 · yaledailynews.com

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WEEKEND THEATER

A DARK SORT OF BEAUTY IN ‘LEENANE’ // BY YANAN WANG

“It’s a surprise how sane I’ve turned out,” says Maureen Folan (Willa Fitzgerald ’13), the 40-year-old spinster whose tragedy is at the center of the drama. She is speaking in reference to the suffocating presence of her mother, but this also gets at the crux of the play. What is sanity, and who possesses it? The story is a dance between the competing forces of deception and truth, reason and madness. Under the guise of an archetypal love story between newly reunited childhood friends, Maureen and Pato (Gabe Greenspan ’14), “The Queen Bee of Leenane” paints a gruesome picture of personal anguish beneath rural Ireland’s idyllic façade. The arguments between Maureen and her mother, Mag (Sarah DeLappe ’12), start out as typical quarrels. Mag warns Maureen against associating herself with men, and Maureen accuses her mother of being prudish. Maureen is resentful because she has been taking care of her mother for the past 25 years instead of leading a life of her own, a sentiment that

appears typical of an adult child tasked with caring for an aging parent. That is, until it adopts violent undertones. When Maureen daydreams of another life, she is explicit about what it would include: a man around her arm and her mother in a coffin. When Mag protests — “That’s a mean dream!” — Maureen retorts, “I suppose now you’ll be hanging on just to spite me.” Their conversations continue on in this manner, with

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Maureen becoming increasingly murderous in her threats and Mag resisting being made the weaker party. When Mag accuses Maureen of having once forced her hand under boiling water, you can’t tell which of the two is the crazy one. Amidst the tension of Maureen’s romantic and familial strife, the guileless Ray (Ryan Bowers ’14) provides muchneeded comic relief. The quintessential boy next door, Ray

“THE QUEEN BEE OF LEENANE” PAINTS A GRUESOME PICTURE OF PERSONAL ANGUISH BENEATH RURAL IRELAND’S IDYLLIC FAÇADE.

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Watching plays can be disarming. Unlike television, where there is an obvious physical barrier between you and the actors on the screen, theater is close and immediate, like being trapped at a stranger’s birthday party. When done right, theatrical productions pierce the fourth wall in a nuanced, quiet way. They reel you in slowly until reality and fiction begin to blur. “The Beauty Queen of Leenane” provides this sort of experience: intimate, gripping and wholly unexpected. Set in the unassuming Irish village of Leenane, the play initially appears to be no more than a simple domestic drama between a middle-aged woman and her ornery elderly mother. Little by little, though, the narrative darkens, the characters’ natures become confused and spectators find themselves deeply ensconced in a psychological journey. Seamlessly directed and laced with black humor, the production sends a jolt through the audience with each turn of its twisted plot.

is Pato’s younger adolescent brother and the designated messenger of the family. Whenever he visits the Folan home with messages from Pato, he is lured into conversation with the unaccommodating Mag, who enjoys having someone other than Maureen to whom to complain and from whom to request porridge and Complan, a lumpy nutritional beverage. Since Ray is oblivious to the bleaker affairs of the Folans, his interactions with Mag and Maureen are humorously absurd in light of the play’s darker happenings. As he sits in the kitchen, he eats the Kimberly biscuits that are loathed by the other three characters and comments on the boredom of Ireland. On his penchant for foreign television, Ray says, “Who wants to see Ireland on the telly? Soon bored you’d be.” Making a slow, sloping gesture with his hand, he says drily as if looking at a window, “There goes a calf.” But “The Beauty Queen of Leenane” does not rest long on these comical breaks. By

the last couple of scenes, it has plunged the audience deep into the drama of Pato’s supposed desire to move to America with Maureen and Maureen’s potent method of making sure her mother is “taken care of” while she is gone. Because no dramatic irony is employed, the audience is taken through the psychological thriller via the lens of the frenzied characters themselves. There is no certainty surrounding what is true and what isn’t, which characters are dangerous and which ones are normal. Even when the truth sinks in during the final scene, you leave the theater replaying moments in your head, trying to fish out reality from illusion. Don’t let the fact that it’s Friday before spring break deter you from coming to see this play. “The Beauty Queen of Leenane” is not only a testament to the fragility of the human mind, but also a chilling reminder that nothing is ever exactly as it seems. Contact YANAN WANG at yanan.wang@yale.edu .

‘Connemara’ surprises with grave humor // BY JOY SHAN

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In “A Skull in Connemara,” main character Mick (Peter Kaufman ’12) instructs Mairtin (Charlie Kelly ’14) in his Irish brogue, “Don’t be cursin’ … not when you’re handling the departed now,” promptly before crushing a pile of bones with his shoe. Such is the dark, ironic humor this play shoulders from the beginning: a morbid tongue-in-cheek that grows with each line. This absurdity is what comes back to delight the audience, but the verbal volleys leave enough room for the show’s tension to pull through. “Connemara” zooms into the lives of four characters in small-town Ireland. Beginning in Mick’s living room, the quick dialogue propels the plot and outlines the characters. Mick, we learn, has a grim task: emptying graves in the overcrowded churchyard to make room for the newly dead. Boyish and profane Mairtin is tasked with helping Mick clear the graves. Their jabs and insults reveal the central conflict: Mick has been assigned to empty the grave of his wife, who died in a car accident with Mick at the wheel. This awkward situation has again sparked the town’s whispers: Did Mick’s wife really die from the crash … or did Mick kill her? Though the question of Mick’s innocence taunts throughout, this play is not primarily a murder mystery but rather a twisting, turning look into these characters’ lives. “Connemara” is performed on a central wooden platform surrounded by audience members. Exhibiting the action “in the round” allows the audience to feel enclosed and intimate with the characters — but also slightly voyeuristic, like peeking in at this thin slice of life. “It’s a drama that mostly takes place inside a house, and we want people to feel really intimate … to feel like they were right in the space,” director Austin Trow ’12 explained. “Doing it in the round makes it more exciting to watch,

EVERYONE EXPECTING ANOTHER DENSE, SERIOUS MURDER STORY WILL BE JARRED FROM THIS BEATEN PATH FIVE MINUTES INTO THE SHOW.

and having [the play] on just one side cut people off.” But this is not the only noticeable design move. In the first scene, the set is a shabby sitting room. In the next scene, the lighting cools, and trapdoors are propped up to serve as gravestones. The back-andforth from Mick’s living room to the graveyard ties into a greater exploration within “Connemara”: the blurred line between death and a desolate life. This point is not the most explicit, but as Kaufman explains, the set’s duality emphasizes it. “They’re two radically different settings,” Kaufman said. “We needed something to blend the two spaces; that’s why there’s dirt all over the floor. The grave-

yard kind of is [Mick’s] house and the house is the graveyard … It’s a show about death and desolation, so [this] makes sense.” This recurring presence of death in every element of the play is a repeated high point. Everyone expecting another dense, serious murder story will be jarred from this beaten path five minutes into the show. When Mick snappishly jokes about what he does with the bodies he unearths, audience members get the hint that they have permission to laugh at death. The light, rollicking treatment of death has an effect that is dark, bizarre — and hilarious: after digging up corpses, Mick and Mairtin analyze the merits of choking on vomit ver-

sus choking on urine. At times, the play’s understated humor even peaks to pure glee; audiences won’t forget the scene in which Mick and Mairtin use mallets to demolish the skeletons. Rowdy, biting dialogue continues as bone shrapnel flies, keeping in check the scene’s unabashed humor. The jokes themselves could easily have been brash, but the actors wear their humor lightly. Tom’s ridiculousness is never quite believable, but Klein delivers each sentence with measure — he stays in control and takes his time so that audience members can feel the full force of his character’s offhanded absurdity. Mick and Mairtin have chemistry as they slide between tense

arguments and outlandish quips (“Shall we teach them skulls a lesson?” “Sure you can’t teach skulls lessons; they have no brain to be stickin’ the lesson.”) These seamless transitions can partially credit the versatility of Mick’s character, who with a few words in each scene, manages to give a glimpse into his underlying turmoil. From far away, the play does not overreach. Although the action takes place in a span of a few days, the verbal exposition builds enough room for the characters to develop and tension to build. But the play has crammed moments. The quick dialogue, crucial to the play, is sometimes overshadowed by movement: the rocking of the

// JOY SHAN

“A Skull in Connemara” in WHC.

shovels, the occasional turned back of a character. Add to all of this an Irish accent, and the effect can be too chaotic. The sheer bathos of “Connemara” cannot be matched — each point of tension is followed by a cold dash of absurd humor. The play will certainly make audiences shift in their seats — if not from the weirdness of it all, then at least to avoid the flying pieces of femur. Contact JOY SHAN at joy.shan@yale.edu .

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