Two buildings. Two committed alumni. The opening of the Yulman Theater and the dedication of the Reamer Campus Center
Morton and Helen Yulman Theater moves to
center stage
Theater at Union, which for much of its life has been performed in the wings, moved center stage this spring with the dedication of the Morton and Helen Yulman Theater.
The Yulmans, joined by more than 100 friends and family members, celebrated the theater opening on a beautiful day in late May. After the ceremony, there was a dinner and then a
special presentation of the building's first production, “The Servant of Two Masters,” written by Carlo Goldoni in 1743.
President Roger Hull, welcoming the guests, noted that the new building is the College's first real theater-a building actually designed and constructed for theater.
“Although the first play at Union was presented in 1804, much of the nineteenth century was a hit or miss proposition,” the president said. “It was not until 1919 that the Mountebanks was organized. Even then, students had to turn to downtown theaters on off-nights when road companies were not booked.”
In 1929, he continued, students were able to transform the central section of Washburn Hall into a theater. When Washburn was taken down to make way for Schaffer library, theater at Union moved into the Nott Memorial, where it stayed for thirty years.
“The Yulman Theater gives a visibility to the arts that has never before existed,” Hull said. “There could be no more fitting celebration of our Bicentennial than the dedication of a building devoted to one of the foundations of the liberal arts.”
Also extending greetings to the guests-and thanks to the Yulmans-were Joseph M. Hinchey '47, chairman of the College's Board of Trustees; William Finlay, director of the theater; Hilary Tann, chair of the Performing Arts Department; and Emilia Teasdale '97, president of the Mountebanks. The theater is located on
Terrace Lane North, next to North College. There is a director's lab with flexible seating for up to 280 persons; a second, smaller performance space; a set design shop; a costume room; faculty offices; and rehearsal spaces. A carpeted lobby offers a spectacular view to the north overlooking Jackson's Garden.
At the dedication, guests were transported to an Italian villa as soon as they entered the director's lab. The play carried on the rich tradition of Commedia dell'Arte, a form that demands a highly physical and stylized performance. The cast of fifteen students rehearsed four hours a day, up to seven days a week. Finlay
described the play as “fast, funny, a classic piece of literature, and a great challenge for the students.”
The Morton and Helen Yulman Theater is a variation of the “black box” theater. Its distinctive design provides enormous flexibility to theater students and faculty, and it will encourage a variety of productions that would be unavailable in a conventional proscenium theater.
The flexibility of the building is in keeping with the College's approach to theater, which always has encouraged many different kinds of audience-performer relationships. In the Yulman Theater, potential performing spaces are everywhere, and students can learn about-and actually do-all of the theater arts, from set design to acting. Already, the College is seeing expressions of interest from secondary school students who want to major in theater and who have seen the exciting possibilities of the new building.
The Murray and Ruth Reamer Campus Center is dedicated
Before the weekend was overtaken by the bustle of Commencement, a quiet and moving ceremony marked the dedication of the Murray and Ruth Reamer Campus Center.
On a beautiful Friday evening, several dozen friends of Norton H. Reamer '58 gathered in front of the building that has become known as the crossroads of the campus.
After thanking his wife, Sue, whose help, encouragement, and patience made the gift possible, Reamer talked about his love for his parents, Murray and Ruth Reamer.
“My mother has been a rock and a support and an inspiration for me. She is alive and well in Florida and is an absolutely wonderful woman.
“My father suffered a permanently-disabling stroke when he was fifty-two and I was twelve,” Reamer continued. “He never left the hospital and died twelve
years later. I used to visit him on Sundays and remember talking to someone who could never respond. I resolved to build him a monument, and this campus center is it.
“It is pure joy for me to remember these two people at this place,” he said.
Constructed in 1910, the Reamer Campus Center began as the home for the College's Engineering Departments. Subsequent users included the Mathematics Department and the Graduate Studies program. The building was renovated and expanded into a college center in the late 1980s. As President Roger Hull noted, the dedication, at Reamer's insistence, came only after Reamer had completed his gift to the College.
“One of the things that stands out about Norton is that he never misses a meeting at Union despite a travel schedule of more than 200,000 miles a year,” the president said. “He once said that at Union he can do something for a worthwhile institution that is small enough so that you have a chance to make a difference.
“Clearly, Norton Reamer has made a difference,” Hull continued. “And Murray Reamer is smiling down and Ruth Reamer is smiling from Florida about what their son is accomplishing.”
Several speakers commented on the fact that the building has established itself as the center of the campus.
Christina Sorum, dean of arts and sciences and professor of classics, said, “It's much nicer to have a building already in use. I don't have to say this building
will change the interaction between faculty and students – it already has.”
She said that it was perfect for a classicist to talk about the building, which has as its basis the agora at the foot of the Parthenon.
“It is a place for the dissemination of information-exactly what the agora was,” she said. “This is where learning outside the classroom takes place on this campus, and that's why this building is so important to faculty.”
To Fred Alford, dean of students, the Reamer Campus Center is “where we find out what's really happening. It is the one place on campus we all
come, and repeatedly.”
To Diana Sedita, editor of the Concordiensis, the building gave her “a feeling of community” when she visited Union as a potential student. “I just didn't know I'd be here seventy hours a week, fifty of them in the Concordy office.”
To Nate Coffin '95, president of the Student Forum, the building's designers did make one
mistake-they “didn't put in beds for all of us who seemed to spend all our time here.”
And to Joseph M. Hinchey '47, chairman of the College's Board of Trustees, “The name Reamer represents all we aspire to. We all admire you, and we're all indebted to you.”
Reamer is president and chief executive officer of United Asset Management Corp. in Boston. A native of New York, he received two degrees at Union (an A.B. in economics and a B.E.E. in electrical engineering). He was elected to Phi Beta Kappa and earned his M.B.A. with distinction at Harvard University.
A member of the College's Board of Trustees since 1973, he has led many of its committees, is immediate past chairman, and currently serves as secretary. For these and his many other activities on behalf of Union he was awarded the Founders Medal at Commencement.