Pointless College Stories: Out on a Limb, IX
While it may be widely known that the stew of my college experience was heavily seasoned with theater... I bet that not many people know who held the bottle.
My stint at McKeesport did have its trials. The biggest was that of scheduling. In an endeavor to have a larger breadth of courses to choose in my major from when I got to University Park, I took great pains to fill in as many general education credits at the branch campus.
I focused on general maths and sciences courses and when I saw an acting course available, I thought it would be a great way to get some arts credits.
Enter Dr. Breckenridge, stage left
He had a presence that upped his contrast over everything else in any room he entered. Some might argue that it was disheveled hair or his overly puffy white beard, but think it was more than his physical appearance that made him stand out.
The good doctor brought a lot of energy into teaching his subject... as one might expect in field of theatrics. The difference here was the that energy was infectious. You wanted to tried new things, explore the craft and collaborate in the creation of art.
After the first semester, I made it a mission to take any subject where he was listed as the professor. Acting I, Acting II, The History of Theater... and even Children's Theater. To tell you the truth, I was a bit hesitant to sign up for that one because at that age I wanted nothing to do with kids... I went with it anyway and it was perhaps my best experience of the lot.
This is because Dr. B decided to resurrect an old form called Commedia dell'arte. Character acting, improvisation and farce all rolled into one. Seriously, does it get any better?
The story we based ourselves in was the fable, Androcles and the (Nittany) Lion. In fact, I may still have my copy of the script lying around somewhere... such as it was. It was bare bones to allow us the flexibility to ad lib but gave us enough of a framework to keep the story from getting stalled out.
Though I was certainly interested in being the Harlequin, the good doctor cast me in the role of Pantalone. I wasn't exactly sure why he wanted me to portray the codgerly miser but once I started to dig into the layers of the character itself, I found a wealth of freedom in playing the belligerent antagonist.
We spent a couple of months learning the form, practicing and improvising. Then we took our show on the road. One noteworthy performance was at one of the elementary schools... there was a bit where the heroes were hiding from me in a cave and I was looking for them. This bit had me taking my time, muttering to myself on where they might have gotten to in order to build up the tension and then discover the cave.
After about the first or second place I looked, a kid from out in the audience started shouting "they're in the cave!" It gave me pause for a moment because I found it strange that this kid would want to help out the villain. It was then that my improv instincts kicked in. Instead of ignoring the kid, I turned my head to the audience and acted all surprised to see a crowd there.
"What? Where did all you come from? Don't you know it ain't polite to sneak up on a guy like that?"
Then I asked them where the heroes were hiding and sure enough that one kid piped up again. I thanked him, made some comment about kids today not being all too bad after all and then went on with story. Good times.
I found out later from the professor that when he was doing a stint of Commedia that he too played Pantalone. To me that was all shades of awesome.
Yeah, Dr. Breckenridge had me pretty close to reconsidering my major. But I knew deep down that I really didn't have the chops to develop the craft. Maybe it was something I could work through, but knowing how tight and competitive the major was at the main campus, I opted to stick with a more realistic major.
It was very fortunate for me that No Refund Theatre came along to help me scratch my itch, but that is a story for another time. Suffice it to say, I owe a lot to the good doctor. Maybe I'll try to hunt him down and drop him a line.
My stint at McKeesport did have its trials. The biggest was that of scheduling. In an endeavor to have a larger breadth of courses to choose in my major from when I got to University Park, I took great pains to fill in as many general education credits at the branch campus.
I focused on general maths and sciences courses and when I saw an acting course available, I thought it would be a great way to get some arts credits.
Enter Dr. Breckenridge, stage left
He had a presence that upped his contrast over everything else in any room he entered. Some might argue that it was disheveled hair or his overly puffy white beard, but think it was more than his physical appearance that made him stand out.
The good doctor brought a lot of energy into teaching his subject... as one might expect in field of theatrics. The difference here was the that energy was infectious. You wanted to tried new things, explore the craft and collaborate in the creation of art.
After the first semester, I made it a mission to take any subject where he was listed as the professor. Acting I, Acting II, The History of Theater... and even Children's Theater. To tell you the truth, I was a bit hesitant to sign up for that one because at that age I wanted nothing to do with kids... I went with it anyway and it was perhaps my best experience of the lot.
This is because Dr. B decided to resurrect an old form called Commedia dell'arte. Character acting, improvisation and farce all rolled into one. Seriously, does it get any better?
The story we based ourselves in was the fable, Androcles and the (Nittany) Lion. In fact, I may still have my copy of the script lying around somewhere... such as it was. It was bare bones to allow us the flexibility to ad lib but gave us enough of a framework to keep the story from getting stalled out.
Though I was certainly interested in being the Harlequin, the good doctor cast me in the role of Pantalone. I wasn't exactly sure why he wanted me to portray the codgerly miser but once I started to dig into the layers of the character itself, I found a wealth of freedom in playing the belligerent antagonist.
We spent a couple of months learning the form, practicing and improvising. Then we took our show on the road. One noteworthy performance was at one of the elementary schools... there was a bit where the heroes were hiding from me in a cave and I was looking for them. This bit had me taking my time, muttering to myself on where they might have gotten to in order to build up the tension and then discover the cave.
After about the first or second place I looked, a kid from out in the audience started shouting "they're in the cave!" It gave me pause for a moment because I found it strange that this kid would want to help out the villain. It was then that my improv instincts kicked in. Instead of ignoring the kid, I turned my head to the audience and acted all surprised to see a crowd there.
"What? Where did all you come from? Don't you know it ain't polite to sneak up on a guy like that?"
Then I asked them where the heroes were hiding and sure enough that one kid piped up again. I thanked him, made some comment about kids today not being all too bad after all and then went on with story. Good times.
I found out later from the professor that when he was doing a stint of Commedia that he too played Pantalone. To me that was all shades of awesome.
Yeah, Dr. Breckenridge had me pretty close to reconsidering my major. But I knew deep down that I really didn't have the chops to develop the craft. Maybe it was something I could work through, but knowing how tight and competitive the major was at the main campus, I opted to stick with a more realistic major.
It was very fortunate for me that No Refund Theatre came along to help me scratch my itch, but that is a story for another time. Suffice it to say, I owe a lot to the good doctor. Maybe I'll try to hunt him down and drop him a line.