Imago Theatre Presents "ZooZoo"

I wasn't sure what to expect.  All I really knew was that the penguins on the posters in the stairwells looked pretty cool:

So Rob and I got tickets, and Tuesday night we went.

It turns out ZooZoo is a collection of elaborate costumes, simple sketches, good acting, comedy, and dancing.  It's a show in which actors imitate animals and objects: frogs, rabbits, anteaters at a restaraunt, even accordians.  My favorite was a toss up between the cat caught in the giant paper bag and the penguins playing musical chairs.

The Degenstein Campus Theater was packed mostly with kids and parents, and all the little kids around just made the show more and enjoyable.  The whole evening had a fun circus-like atmosphere, with kids laughing and cheering and penguins and polar bears spilling out into the audience.

But words don't quite do it justice.  You should check out the video below.

The Diary of Anne Frank

Friday night I helped a friend cross an item off his senior year bucket list: attend this fall’s theatre department production, The Diary of Anne Frank. We arrived almost late (I tend to be almost always late for everything) and ended up sitting in the very first row because the show was almost sold out.

The set was sparse, roof beams above, floor boards below, and a few crates that sufficed for furniture. With the exception of a few cherished objects (a fur coat, a music box, the diary itself), there were no props. The actors mimed nearly everything. We watched the eight Jewish characters on the stage eat from empty hands, seek privacy behind invisible doors, and light Menorah candles that gave off no light.

After the show I learned that the tiny dimensions of the set that the eight actors shared actually matched those of the original rooms where Anne and her seven companions remained hidden for two years.  When the play ended, director Doug Powers joined the cast on the stage for a brief Q&A with the audience. The actors dangled their feet over the edge of the stage and discussed the challenges of acting in a tight space and bringing to life characters who were described primarily through the eyes of a young girl.

Sometimes people forget that Anne was just a girl, Powers explained during the Q&A. His aim in producing the play was to get his audience to see Anne not as a symbol of the Holocaust, but as a person. He said that by restoring her humanity, we strengthen her message.

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The Canals of Mars

Last Monday, students like myself as well as professors from the English and Creative Writing Department gathered in Isaacs Auditorium to hear a reading from Susquehanna’s own Gary Fincke, head of our creative writing department and author of twenty-two books of poetry, essays, and short stories.

Sitting in a chair at the center of the stage, Dr. Fincke pressed his thumb into the uncracked spine of his new memoir, The Canals of Mars, and he started to read:

I take us through Etna to the Circle Bar (you could see it from my grandmother’s porch), but now it’s somebody or other’s sports bar, one of those places with two pool tables, a dart board, and dual televisions tuned into ESPN and ESPN2 below a display of Pittsburgh sports memorabilia and a sign advertising fifteen-cent wings during Monday Night Football. Late afternoon on a weekday, it’s deserted except for two men simultaneously watching an equestrian competition and a dog show. “You’re too late for all this,” my father says. “You should have been this interested when your mother was alive.”

Every year the Writers Institute brings in some pretty big-name authors for on-campus readings—last year I had lunch with Sue Miller, attended a workshop class guest-taught by Bob Shacochis, and sat down for an interview over Chinese food with Tom Franklin and Beth Anne Fennelly—but I was especially looking forward to Dr. Fincke's reading, a celebration of the debut of his newest book, The Canals of Mars, a memoir that explores his working-class background and his family’s view on work, religion, and weakness.

In the writing world, Gary Fincke is pretty big deal. Last year Salman Rushdie, guest editor of Best American Short Stories 2008, placed Dr. Fincke's “Isn't She Something” in his list of “100 Other Distinguished Stories of 2007,” alongside works by John Updike, David Foster Wallace, Alice Munro, and Stephen King.

Dr. Fincke’s work has appeared publications such as Harpers, Newsday, The Kenyon Review, and Doubletake. His poem “The Sorrows,” was recently read by Garrison Keillor on NPR’s Writer’s Almanac, and in 2003 he was awarded the Flannery O’Connor prize for his most recent collection of short stories, Sorry I Worried You. And he’s also won two Pushcart Prizes.

Dr. Fincke’s stories and poems are great, but it’s his nonfiction that grabs me the most. Four years ago, as a prospective student, I heard him read what is now title essay of The Canals of Mars, a reflection on growing up during the Cold War, a time when Body Snatchers, communists, and sixth-grade dropout Jimmy Mason were all very real threats.

My freshmen year, in my Intro to Creative Nonfiction class with Dr. Fincke, we looked at selections from his other memoir Amp’d, which chronicles the rise of his son’s career in rock music as lead guitarist for the band Breaking Benjamin.

Really, Dr. Fincke’s the one who sparked my interest in the whole creative nonfiction genre to begin with. He’s the professor who taught me that “creative” and “nonfiction” can actually go together in the same sentence, that essaying is actually a really satisfying way to gain a deeper understanding of your world.

So for all these reasons wrapped up together, I was excited to sit down and hear some world-class writing and pick up an autographed copy of the new book. For me, it’s opportunities like this that make Susquehanna the best place to be an undergrad creative writing major.

More:

• Hear Garrison Keillor read Dr. Fincke’s poem “The Sorrows”*
• Learn more about Susquehanna’s creative writing program by checking my other blog, Workshop
• Read Gary Fincke's full bio
• Order The Canals of Mars on Amazon
• Visit Susquehanna's The Writers Institute website for more information on our Visiting Writers Series, our summer writers workshop for high school students, our student-run magazines, and our other top-notch writing professors

*Dr. Fincke's name is pronounced "Fink," not "Finky."  Keillor is mistaken.

The Sound of Music at Susquehanna

Last Saturday at Susquehanna, the hills were alive with the sound of music.  Okay, not literally, but this past weekend the theatre department did put on The Sound of Music.

Every fall the theatre department teams up with the music department to put on a musical for family weekend.  In past years they've put on shows like Hello, Dolly!, Chicago, and West Side Story.

This year, because they moved the show from the Weber Chapel Auditorium, which seasts 1,500, to the much smaller Degenstein Theater, the theatre department doubled the number of shows, performing during family weekend and during homecoming.

Which was great for me because my younger sister was busy with marching band stuff during family weekend but was free during homecoming weekend.  So after my friends and I saw the Brian Regan show, we squeezed her into Holly's car and brought her back with us.  My sister's involved with drama club at school, and I thought she'd really enjoy the play.

The theatre department did not disappoint.  The student who played Mother Abbess really nailed her part, and of course the student cast to play Maria was excellent.  Four of the six Von Trapp children in the show were played by actual children, the sons and daughters of university faculty and staff.  The kids all did an amazing job.

What I thought was best about the play was the musicianship in the pit orchestra.  The music was fantastic.

The whole production was really professional.  I think it really made my sister's visit a memorable experience.

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Brian Regan: Stand-Up Comedy at Shippensburg University

Friday after class four of us piled into Holly's car, and we took 81 South to Shippensburg University.  Shippensburg is usually about an hour and half drive from Susquehanna, but the trip was longer for us because we drove fifteen minutes past Shippensburg to my hometown, Chambersburg, where we squeezed my friend Jimmy into the car and grabbed some Tex-Mex food from Moe's Southwestern Grill.

Then we took 81 North up to the Luhrs Center at Shippensburg University for the main event: stand-up comedian Brian Regan.

Brian Regan has appeared on "Late Night with Conan O'Brien and "The Tonight Show with Johnny Carson."  Regan has had two Comedy Central specials, and he recently made his twentieth appearance on the "The Late Show with David Letterman."  Tickets for Brian Regan's show at the Luhrs Center went on sale online at 11:00 AM and were sold out by half past noon—and Luhrs Center seats 1,500.

We were lucky enough to get five great seats in the front center section of the theater.  That was the part I couldn't get over—we were only about twenty yards away from him.  I've been listening to Brian Regan's albums since I was in high school, and there he was, right in front of me.

And his act was hillarious.  I don't think I could convey to you in words how funny he is.  Instead of listening to me give you his jokes secondhand, you should just see him for yourself:

As we headed back out to the parking lot, my face was sore from smiling so much.

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