"Tea and Sympathy" opens and the audience talks back

The show opened to very appreciative audiences this weekend. Meghan Brodie, a Department of Theatre instructor, lead a talk back session with the audience, director William Steele, and the cast after the matinee performance, Sunday afternoon.

Tea and Sympathy deals with fear, diversity and compassion.

Heather Scammon (Scarborough High School grad 2005) plays Laura, the kindly wife of the housemaster at a stuffy boys school, played by Patrick Malloy, right, (Orono High School 2009) who comforts Tom, played by Joseph Skelton Bearor (Bangor High School 2006), when he is tormented by his schoolmates for possibly being gay, in the University of Southern Maine Department of Theatre's production of Tea and Sympathy this November.

Tea and Sympathy

By Robert Anderson

Directed by Professor William Steele

November 6-15, 2009

When: November 6, 7, 12, 13, 14 at 7:30 p.m. & November 8, 15 at 2 p.m. / Special “$5 @ Five” show November 11 at 5 p.m., all tickets $5 / High school matinee performance November 10 at 10 a.m.

Tickets: Students $7, seniors/faculty/staff $10, general public $14 / Season Flex Pass good for six tickets, in any combination (limit two tickets to the spring musical) to the play or plays of your choosing for $40

For reservations: call the Theatre Box Office at 207-780-5151

Where: Russell Hall on the Gorham Campus of the University of Southern Maine

Tea and Sympathy, far ahead of its time, examines the emerging relationship between a student and his schoolmaster's wife against a backdrop of homophobia and hypocrisy in the 1950's.

A sensitive teenage boy named Tom endures the cruelty and suspicion of his teachers and classmates as they taunt and ridicule him for possibly being gay at a stuffy private boy’s academy. The only one who seems to understand, to offer any sympathy, is Laura, the evasive housemaster’s young, compassionate wife.

Heather Scammon (Scarborough High School grad 2005) plays Laura, the kindly wife of the housemaster at a stuffy boys school who comforts Tom, played by Joseph Skelton Bearor (Bangor High School 2006), when he is tormented by his teachers and schoolmates for possibly being gay.

“At its heart, Tea and Sympathy, looks at how we make judgments about other people based on the degree to which they conform to our own preconceived ideals,” says Director and Professor William Steele.

“It’s also about kids who don’t fit in and how the people around them, their peers and parents and teachers, often compound their angst. It’s a sensitive play about a boy, falsely stereotyped, who is rescued by a compassionate woman who is locked in a lonely marriage that is itself based on false pretenses,” he adds.

Following the performance on Sunday November 8, the public is invited to attend a talk-back session. Director William Steele and the cast of the show will field questions about their work, the play, and the relevancy of this story to contemporary audiences. The post-show discussion is free and will be moderated by USM instructor Meghan Brodie.

Goodbye Joe.

Former Russell Hall custodian, Joe Ruminski, has passed away. His family has requested the Russell Hall auditorium for his memorial service since Joe spent most of his time here with us. The service will be this Monday, October 5th between 4:00 - 6:00 p.m. in the Theatre.

Joe's featured obituary in the Portland Press Herald.

Presenting a pair of rollicking, Russian plays

The combined casts of the University of Southern Maine Department of Theatre's production of two plays (The Bear & The Proposal) from the pen of 19th century Russian playwright Anton Chekhov appear in an authentic tintype by photographic artist Troy R. Bennett. From left Matthew Defiore of Mexico, Maine, Ellen White of Hallowell, Jake Cote of Bangor, Sarah Dube of Eagle Lake, Samuel Rapaport of Bangor and Joshua Adams of Amesbury, Mass.

THE BEAR & THE PROPOSAL
Two bite-sized, comic, one-act plays by Anton Chekhov
Directed by Professor Thomas Power
October 1-4, 2009

Fiery women and bombastic men battle for love, lust and the last word in a pair of bite-sized, energetic Russian comedies from the pen of the master, Anton Chekhov. Hilarity ensues when an overbearing creditor hounds a young widow with no reason to grieve, and a declaration of love goes horribly wrong in two stories where romance and passion meet at the end of a barrel.

October 1, 2, 3 at 7:30 p.m. and October 4 at 2 p.m. in Russell Hall, on the Gorham Campus of the University of Southern Maine.

Tickets: Students $7, seniors/faculty/staff $10, general public $14

Buy a Season Flex Pass: Good for six tickets, in any combination (limit two tickets to the spring musical) to the play or plays of your choosing for $40

For reservations: call the Theatre Box Office at 207-780-5151

Old school publicity photos

On Saturday morning, September 6, 2009, the combined casts of both one-act plays being produced this fall at USM gathered at a downtown Portland photo studio to make some very special publicity photos. Nineteenth century Russian playwright Anton Chekhov wrote his bite-sized comedic masterpieces "The Bear" and "The Proposal" at the tail end of the tintype era of photography. Tintypes were inexpensive instant photos made on sheets of blackened tin. The Department of Theatre's promotions manager, Troy R. Bennett, who is in charge of publicity materials for the theatre, is also one of a handful of tintype practitioners in the world today. It was an opportunity too cool to pass up. The images made that day may well be the first theatrical publicity tintypes produced in over a hundred years.


The combined casts, above, appear in an authentic tintype: from left Matthew Defiore of Mexico, Maine, Ellen White of Hallowell, Jake Cote of Bangor, Sarah Dube of Eagle Lake, Samuel Rapaport of Bangor and Joshua Adams of Amesbury, Mass.

The cast of Chekhov's "The Bear” from left, Matthew Defiore, a 2008 graduate of Mt. Valley High School from Mexico, Maine plays the brutish Smirnov, Jake Cote, a 2008 graduate of Bangor High School plays the harried and confused servant Luka, and Ellen White, a theatre major from Hallowell, plays the mourning Popova.

The cast of "The Proposal" from left, Joshua Adams of Amesbury, Mass, plays the hopeful, yet misguided suitor, Samuel Rapaport, a 2008 graduate of Bangor High School, plays the Chubukov, the frustrated father, and Sarah Dube of Eagle Lake, a 2006 graduate of Fort Kent Community High School, plays the lovely yet stubborn bride-to-be Stepanovna.

Englishman Frederick Scott Archer first introduced the wet-plate process, by which tintypes are made, in 1851. By 1860 it became the dominant method of picture making in America and abroad. It’s called the wet-plate process because the plate (a piece of blackened tin for tintypes and glass for negatives or ambrotypes) is coated, sensitized, shot, developed and fixed within just a few minutes, during which it remains wet.

First, Troy flowed plates, in this case black trophy aluminum, with collodion, a mixture of cellulose, acid and ether.

Collodion is what adheres the picture to the aluminum plate.

Then Troy dipped the plates in a lightproof bath of silver nitrate.

The silver nitrate makes the collodion sensitive to light.

In total darkness, the sensitized plates were loaded into the back of the camera and exposed.

Troy's camera is a replica of a 19th century model and was built last year by the Star Camera company of New Jersey. The lens was made in Germany around 1870. Troy used his baseball hat as a shutter and the exposure times were around 10 seconds.

After the plates were exposed they were developed with an iron sulfate and acid mixture inside the dark box. Troy's ever present furry assistant, Hook, was on hand to supervise the operation.

After the plates were developed they got a quick wash before going into the fixer.

The fixer takes away any undeveloped silver and reveals the image. Then more washing happened before the plates were set out to finally dry.

A rack full of plates, above, dry on the edge of the sink. When completely dry, plates are varnished with a mixture of alcohol, lavender and gum of sandarac to protect them.

Sarah Dube, Samuel Rapaport and Joshua Adams wait . The wet-plate process is a time consuming one.

The camera is set for the shot.

University of Southern Maine Department of Theatre Costume Director Kris Hall, above, fits Ellen White into a vintage 19th century Maine schoolteacher's dress lent by Dr. Assunta Kent for the photo shoot.

Costume designer and student Desiray Roy holds a false mustache on Jake Cote's face before the shoot.

Jake Cote, Samuel Rapaport and Joshua Adams sit for a test shot.