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News
Archive - March-April 2007
 Arena
Theater to Present The Hamlet Project
Cast Member Cori Mitroff comments on The Hamlet Project
Last April, Arena Theater embarked on a new, and remarkably unique, season of
work. Director Mark Lewis chose a group of
ten women to work on Hamlet, and together they began what would be a complete
year of work, culminating in the performance of The Hamlet Project,
taking place starting on April 20, 2007.
Even though the cast is entirely female, something that I have personally appreciated
about this process is that it has never been about women performing Hamlet.
Rather, it has been about performing Hamlet with a cast that happens to be female.
We have not feminized Hamlet in any way, rather we have explored as
a group what it means to be a man. This is not “female Hamlet,” it’s Hamlet.
One of the greatest advantages of having a year to live and work on this project
is that we have been able to develop what Mark has called a “Hamlet culture,” a
dynamic within our group shaped by work we’ve done both together and on
our own. Mark once said that the greatest difficulty in staging Hamlet is
not killing Hamlet at the end of the fifth act, it’s keeping him alive
for the first four acts that’s a real challenge. In essence, it takes the
effort of the entire cast and crew to move the play forward instead of letting
it drag on lifelessly. This is where the “culture” has become important
in the work we’ve done on the play: the entire cast supports the play at
all times, making each individual person involved vital to the life of the play.
By far the greatest thing about The Hamlet Project is that it is a project.
It’s about the process, not the product. One of the many reasons that Shakespeare’s
plays have lived on strongly across the centuries is that they speak to people
in all walks of life. Recognizing this immortality and magnanimous nature of
the play has allowed us to work on it as a continuing dialogue, rather than a
singular experience that we put behind us upon completion. This project has been
only a small part of the conversation and experience we’ll have with Hamlet over
the course of our lives. In light of that, what I offer is an invitation for
people to share in our conversation with Hamlet, with hopes that our
work will support and foster the continuation of their own individual experiences
with the play.
Arena Theatre will perform Shakespeare’s Hamlet April 20 - 28.
Tickets will be on sale in the Jenks Box Office. For specific show times and
to reserve tickets, contact the Box Office at (630) 752-5800. Tickets are also
available online through the official Arena Theater web
site.
 Depauw
Conference
This year four Wheaton student papers were accepted at the 33rd Depauw Undergraduate
Honors Conference for Communication Studies held on the campus of Depauw University
in Greencastle, Indiana.
From a national call for papers, thirty are chosen for the conference. Communication
students Ryan Ellis, Lindsay Block, Sarah Kornfield and Ari Hyde wrote papers
accepted by the conference. Hyde attended the Honors Conference and described
it as a positive experience.
As part of the weekend, Hyde was a member of a small seminar group with Dr. Kent
Ono from the University of Illinois-Champaign. Within the group, each member
received feedback on his or her paper. “There isn’t a single person
in our room who will not revise their paper,” said Hyde.
Hyde’s paper, composed for Dr. Gardner’s
Messages, Influences and
Culture class, focused on Robert Edman’s theories of framing and salience
as applied to media coverage of the Palestinian/Israeli conflict.
 Debate
Team Success
The Debate Team competed in the National Debate Tournament March 22-26
at Colorado College. Ammon Simon and Bob Kubinec won five out of eight cumulative
debates to clear to a round of 128 teams. Two hundred and forty teams participated
in the tournament. Wheaton brought six teams and placed 25th overall out of 81
schools. Congratulations to the team on a successful year!
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