Lawton Hall

Meeting and observing Lawton Hall was an interesting experience because I felt connected to him even though he was a complete stranger. Knowing that he was an alumni was one thing but hearing his experience after Lawrence was what cemented my association with him. As a graduating senior, one of the things that seems the most daunting is the unplanned nature of life after Lawrence. Ever since I was a child I have been in a system that was planned and created for me. College was part of that system but life after college is up to me. Hearing Lawton’s experience on how his experience in Appleton started his career was refreshing and eye opening.

One of the things that spoke out to me most was the existence of artist residencies. The ability to work for your shelter but also have the time to work on your craft was really engaging. I will admit that the possibility of an artist residency spoke to me and I have begun to research the topic further. Lawton Hall’s visit was refreshing because he was an artist that was admittedly still figuring things out even as he presented his successes to us. I truly believe that he has the talent to do whatever it is that he wants. Having him admit he himself does not know every one of his next moves made it feel much more ok for me to embrace the unknowingness that I have been turning towards for the past couple months. Mystery is exciting.

Theater/Theatre

Stansbury Theater Seating Chart (Image Source: Lawrence.edu)

Theater: The space itself
Theatre: The art in that space

“In particular if one takes the map in its current geographical form, we can see that in the course of the period marked by the birth of modern scientific discourse, the map has slowly disengaged itself from the itineraries that were the condition its possibility. “ The Practice of Everyday Life (pg. 120)

As a Theatre Major with emphasis on Production, Design and Directing, I have worked on shows since I was a freshman. I went from the simple jobs like painting the nuts and bolts of a door to ultimately directing and designing large productions. During this past fall term I completed my capstone that combined my two passions of film and theatre together in one coherent project. Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind - The Staged Adaption, was born.

 
For this project, I wanted to show footage of this show in a way that detailed how a vast empty space can ultimately become a place where entire stories and journeys are told. When you walk into an empty Stansbury Theater you see seating for an audience and you see an elevated empty space. That's it. There is nothing interesting or special about the space other than its constant underlying potential. When my show opened, my co-creator Kayleigh Kitzman and I took our audience on a journey that unfolded on that very stage. We showed the progression of two characters lives and the world that surrounded them. What was once an empty meaningless space forever changed due to the events and moments that it housed.

I matched this project with the quote above about the changing nature of places and how a space can be disconnected from what it has or could ultimately become. Stansbury, like the map in the quote, goes through constant discourse and changes to encompass the world that it is going to present to an audience at a particular time. Stansburys existence has changed for me because, even though it has gone back to its “mundane empty space” mode, it is ready to house another potential world. Stansbury Theater was the place where I took on the hardest project I've ever done in my life and where I learned the most about my work and myself.