Posted on Oct 25, 2007

The cast and crew of “Dracula” are seeing red, and lots of it.

From the set’s striking crimson spider web to gallons of homemade blood – and even the custom-fitted fangs and prescription red contact lenses worn by Rich Leahy ’08, who plays the title character – this fall’s theater production paints a spectacular and suspenseful picture of the world’s most famous vampire.

The Theatre and Dance Department presents Steven Dietz’s play adaptation of “Dracula,” based on the classic 1897 novel by Bram Stoker. The curtain will rise on the two-act, two-hour production Tuesday, Oct. 30 through Saturday, Nov. 3 at 8 p.m. and Sunday, Nov. 4, 2 p.m., at the Yulman Theatre.

“The technical demands of this show are far more than we usually attempt,” says Prof. William Finlay, director and department chair. “The average show has 30 or 40 cues; this has 240, with 200 sound cues alone. It’s a real sound and light show. You’ll hear everything from boys’ choirs to babies being eaten.”

And there’s no shortage of blood.

“We’re making our own,” says Finlay. “We’re using several different recipes. We’ll go through gallons. There’s blood when stakes are driven into hearts, when people cut themselves, when they’re cut by swords. Of course, people are bitten by Dracula quite a bit.”

Finlay, who was the violence coordinator of a production of “Dracula” several years ago at Albany’s Capital Repertory Theater, said there are also technical demands of working with blood, including making sure costumes are washable, that there are back-ups in case of spills, that the blood itself is chemically safe.

The “Dracula” story follows the Transylvanian count as he wreaks havoc on a host of Londoners. Stoker’s novel was originally conceived under the title, “The Un-Dead.”

“It’s been very interesting playing a character so well known,” says Leahy, a double major in theater and political science. “It’s a challenge not to fall into the patterns you see for the character, like Bela Lugosi’s Dracula. I want to make it really believable and scary. I think Dietz tried to keep the parts of the original book that are frightening and different and off-putting. It’s a lot of fun.”

The play “is really interesting because it’s a mix of Victorian language and costumes with a very surrealistic set and direction,” said Joey Hunziker ’08, who plays vampire hunter Dr. Van Helsing.

"It's not just a fantastical story about a mythical vampire. It's about good vs. evil and the ability of love to conquer all. it sounds cheesy, but its true," Hunskier added. "'Dracula' is about real people fighting real evils, and sometimes what we see and hear is not as powerful as what we believe."

“We’re not doing it campy,” says Finlay. “The Dietz version is very sincere and true to the myth. It’s tough stuff for the students to get their acting chops around because it’s a style piece, not a contemporary American version. It’s just as difficult as Shakespeare. These characters have to be larger than life, but they can’t be a parody or a cliché. They have to be honest.

“We have a lot of new people, a mixture of theater majors and others who are taking theater classes. We’ve been rehearsing Monday through Friday nightly since the second week of the term.”

The Union cast features 15 actors and actresses. In addition to Leahy and Hunziger, it includes Victor Cardinali ’08, as the mad Renfield; Maggie Nivison ’09 as Lucy, Dracula’s victim-turned-vixen; Neill Sachdev ’10 as the guileless solicitor, Harker; Marc Tangvik ’09 as insane asylum director Dr. Seward; and Keegan Peters ’08 as Mina, who is seduced by Dracula and eventually helps to destroy him.

John Costello is sound designer; John Miller, technical director; Dana Cartwright ’08, stage manager; Zachary Smith, crew chief; and Ian Clemente ’10, assistant producer.

The haunting set, complete with giant spider web, a couple of coffins, a roll-away tomb and under-stage areas where a lot of the action occurs, was designed by Charles Steckler. The costumes were built and designed under the direction of Lloyd Waiwaiole.

“Dracula” tickets are $7 for members of the Union community, $10 for general admission and $7 for area seniors. Any Minerva House or group of students that purchases tickets for a group of 10 or more will receive a $3 discount on each ticket, and those wearing a costume to the show on Halloween night will be admitted free.

For reservations, call the theater’s box office at 388-6545. 

Posted on Oct 24, 2007

Maya Angelou, the award-winning poet, civil rights activist and playwright, recently captivated an overflow crowd of more than 900 in Memorial Chapel.

People began lining up at least an an hour before the event, hoping to get inside to hear the 79-year-old icon speak. For the people who packed the Chapel, Angelou did not disappoint.

To read an account of Angelou's visit to campus in the Times Union, click here (registration may be required).

Posted on Oct 23, 2007

Sportswriter Jack Etkin '68 was at Fenway Park in Boston during the American League Championship Series, but his readers and the team he covers were 1,900 miles away in Denver practicing for the World Series.

Etkin covers the Colorado Rockies for the Rocky Mountain News and reported on the team's first-ever World Series appearance. Etkin, who arrived in Boston for Game 6 of the ALCS, was busy meeting story deadlines as the Boston Red Sox pulled off two home wins to advance to the World Series, which they won in four games.  

Find Etkin's reporting at: www.RockyMountainNews.com/sports  

Etkin received a B.A. in Economics. He was a Dean's List student, business manager of the Concordiensis and a member of Chi Psi.  He went on to earn an M.B.A. from the Wharton School of Business at the University of Pennsylvania before joining the reporting staff at The Kansas City Star. In 1986 Etkin wrote a book called Innings Ago about recollections of retired Kansas City baseball players.

Etkin joined the Rocky Mountain News in 1993, the same year the expansion Rockies joined Major League Baseball.

Posted on Oct 23, 2007

The inaugural Alumni Symposium recreated Professor Byron Nichols' "Moral Dilemmas of Governing" seminar for about 20 alumni.

When David Eppler ’82 reunites with Union College classmates, conversation often returns to one of their toughest and best-remembered courses: Byron Nichols’ “Moral Dilemmas of Governing.”  For Eppler, such conversations seeded an idea that in mid-July became the first Alumni Symposium at Union.

David Eppler and his sister, College Trustee Nancy Eppler-Wolff ’75, were the driving force behind the symposium, which brought roughly 20 graduates ranging from the Class of 1971 to the Class of 2005 back to campus for a weekend-long series of discussions about illegal immigration and undocumented workers in the United States. The goal was to recreate the thoughtful yet lively exchange of ideas that made Nichols’ course memorable.  

“When we get together, the conversation will often come back to ‘Moral Dilemmas of Governing,’” David Eppler said. “That very much was the origin of this weekend. We’d say, ‘Wouldn’t it be great to get generations from ‘Moral Dilemmas’ back to do it again.’”

And so on the evening of Friday, July 13, Nichols' former students began arriving in the Nott Memorial for a cocktail hour, dinner and group discussion. Robert Wells, longtime professor of history at Union and accomplished folk singer, performed a series of American folk songs connected with immigration. The performance was followed by short speeches from Nichols and President Stephen C. Ainlay.  

“This symposium is part of a single flow of personal and intellectual development that began, for each of you, at Union,” Nichols said. “It connects back to who you were as undergraduate and to the lives that you now lead, both personal and professional. It connects back to issues that society faces and to who you were when you came to Union 15, 25 even 35 years ago. This is all part of an evolution; And part of the reason for this symposium is to expose and reveal the kind of continuity that ought to exist.”

The College plans to create a recurring series of symposium-style events that allow alumni to re-engage in the intellectual life they enjoyed while enrolled at Union, according to Ainlay. The symposiums are part of expanded alumni offerings such as faculty-led international tours and downloadable recordings of lectures available from the College Web site.

Before arriving at the symposium, alumni were asked to complete several readings and to write an essay about an aspect of illegal immigration and undocumented workers. Those essays became a 40-page book that was distributed to participants on Friday evening. Essay topics varied but nearly all agreed with a stance taken by Dr. Henry G. Fein ’71: “We have a deep moral obligation to provide basic services to those in need, no matter when or how they arrived.”

For Bruce Lawton ’89, a state Department of Civil Service analyst from Schenectady, the weekend was a chance to experience again the debate found in a Union classroom and to survey opinions across generations.

“It can be a reaffirming experience and you can really learn a lot about what the public discourse is. You may not be able to speak to that in your 9-to-5 work life,” Lawton said. “We have people going back to the 1970s. We are trying to get an idea and see if our Union experience is the same across generations.”

The Alumni Symposium weekend continued on Saturday with an outdoor dinner at the President’s House and media presentation in the Emerson Auditorium. Alumni stayed at the Parker Inn in nearby downtown Schenectady. The symposium, organized by College Relations Officer Sally Webster and Union student Cristina Liquori ’10, wrapped up on Sunday morning with a brunch at Abbe Hall. 

Alumni essays on illegal immigration and undocumented workers

The psychological journey

The process of leaving one’s homeland and adapting to a new country is lengthy and arduous. The immigrant must give up his or her sense of identity – and place – within their established community – to move to a new and unfamiliar situation. The loss of family, friends and culture is inevitable. Immigration is a lonely process; a process in which the individual must separate successfully from their former culture, and reinvent herself in a new, and foreign society. The process of immigration has been described by psychologists as a process of mourning. The psychological steps of numbness, or disassociation, and anger, sadness, and finally, acceptance, must be lived and relived to make a healthy adjustment. When the immigrant lives in fear of possible deportation, the experience of these feelings is compromised, if not impossible.

Without moving through this sequence, an immigrant is unable to gain a renewed sense of identity, and to establish themselves in a new community of friends and co-workers. Most illegal immigrants are simply not able to attain a basic level of human services. Can we, a nation of immigrants ourselves, turn our backs on providing basic human services for illegal immigrants? I don’t think so.    

(Nancy Eppler-Wolff is a psychologist based in New York City.)

Moral obligation

Illegal immigration is an issue that many communities struggle with, not the least of which are those in the Washington, D.C. area. Loudon County, Va. garnered worldwide publicity just this week[ when the county council unanimously approved a measure to essentially bar illegal immigrants from all county services and to require purveyors of these services to check immigration status.

Providing basic services to all is simply the right thing to do, both morally and practically. Immigration is a fact of life around the world in the 21^st century. We, as a society, generally agree that it is morally unacceptable to round people up and forcibly deport them. Short of such actions, we need to deal with the needs of immigrants (illegal or otherwise) just the same as we should for the native-born population.

(Dr. Henry Fein is a retired U.S. Army Medical Corps colonel, endocrinologist and assistant professor at Johns Hopkins University Medical School in Baltimore.)

Symposium conclusions

The group distilled their discussions into a set of consensus recommendations regarding illegal immigartion and undocumented workers.

• Increase enforcement of workplace legislation.

• Increase the number of legal immigrants each year.

• Encourage private humanitarian efforts to aide illegal aliens.

• Increase enforcement of border security.

• Provide illegal immigrants access to programs that promote the public good and public safety like drivers licenses and worker’s compensation.

• The privilege of legal residency can be earned by the following:

            – Gainful employment

            – No criminal record

            – Length of time in the country

            – A family member who is a U.S. citizen

            – Evidence of taxes paid

Posted on Oct 23, 2007

A lifetime membership

On the evening of Sunday, Sept. 2, more than 500 members of the Class of 2011 gathered in front of the President’s House, accompanied by their orientation assistants, and sang “Ode to Old Union.” The evening was picture-perfect and Judith and I stood on the front steps, surrounded by a sea of young people adorned in their garnet t-shirts, and were moved beyond words. These young people, hailing from 24 states, came together as one and sang Fitzhugh Ludlow’s now beloved composition well, and with great enthusiasm. The lyric, “Let the Grecian dream,” carried well down Terrace Lane. “Old Union, smiling o’er us” filled the yards of Fox House and Davidson House. While aided by the words of the alma mater printed upside down on the front of their shirts, there was no question that the Class of 2011 sang with pride. In this way, these newest members of our community began their lifetime membership in Union College.

On another picture-perfect evening in July, more than 30 alumni and guests ate dinner in the garden of the President’s House. The dinner allowed them to pause midway through the inaugural Alumni Symposium. The remarkably successful seminar allowed graduates, who represented Union classes from 1971 to 2005, to relive something of the educational experience they had in Professor Byron Nichols’ “Moral Dilemmas of Governing” class. Many came to honor Professor Nichols; all seemed to leave rejuvenated in the life of the mind. The conversations over dinner were animated. People voiced genuine excitement about the ideas that were being discussed. They were transported back to an earlier time in their lives when they were given the luxury of basking in new and often unfamiliar and even unsettling ideas. At the same time, they were reminded that Union prepared and expected them to be lifelong learners.

Many things draw graduates of Union back to campus. Certainly the friendships formed here serve as a magnet for Homecoming and ReUnion. So too do the sights and sounds of this remarkable campus: the chimes of Memorial Chapel; the way the light plays in the windows of the Nott Memorial late in the day; and the bowl-shaped arena of Bailey Field where many games have been etched in memory.  Likewise, people are drawn back to Union by the relationships formed with faculty, the memory of foundational assumptions challenged, the sense of being overwhelmed at times by great ideas. In the years ahead, we hope to create more opportunities for people to reconnect in various ways with their Union experience. Such opportunities come with the lifetime membership that is Union College and I hope that you will take full advantage of your membership, over and over again.

And when you are back, be sure to visit “the brook that bounds through old Union’s grounds.” On most days, it still “gleams bright as the Delphic water.”