‘The Way of Water’

Brandeis Theater Collective’s production The Way of Water highlighted the effects of the 2010 BP oil spill on the lives of those who lived near it. The intimate production in the Laurie Theater at the Spingold Theater Center followed couples in the Deep South who relied on fishing for their main source of income. The production, which opened on Thursday, Mar. 12, used staging to uniquely combine the two main settings of the play.

Onstage, a fishing dock jutted out from the front of a backyard of a dilapidated house.

Jimmy (Meir Alelov ’15) and his wife Rosalie (Jamie Semel ’17) were left in extreme poverty after the oil spill made it difficult to catch fish. Jimmy’s closest friend Yuki (Siddharth Mehra ’17) and his wife Neva (Jacquelyn Drozdow ’15) decided to join ongoing protests about the spill.

Jimmy refused to take part in the protests because of his stubbornness, and, more importantly, his overarching belief that protests would not result in actual change because few people care about the poor.

In a talkback by Playwright Caridad Svich after the Saturday night performance, Svich explained the motivation behind writing the play. Svich said she was surprised that people had not created more creative pieces based on the gulf disaster, and, even more, that the story of the poorer people whose lives were severely damaged remained largely untol

—Jaime Gropper

Springfest

The sounds of Brandeis’ annual music festival Springfest could be heard throughout campus on April 26. Headlining this year’s Springfest was British pop-singer Jessie J.

Food trucks from around Boston bordered Chapel’s Field for the occasion, keeping the concertgoers well fed.

Stolen Jars, a band consisting of college students, started off the festival. Next came St. Lucia, playing a set that included their hit song “Elevate.”

In between the acts, DJ A-Smooth kept the music going and the crowd dancing. After St. Lucia came a crowd favorite: ILoveMakonnen. The rapper performed his hit song “Tuesday,” which rose to fame when it was remixed by rapper Drake.

The final and arguably the most anticipated act of the afternoon was headliner Jessie J, who opened with her song “Ain’t Been Done.”

The highlights of Jessie J’s set were her performances of her hit songs, including “Domino,” “Price Tag” and “Bang Bang.”

In between numbers, Jessie J made her performance more intimate by making small talk with the audience and calling out specific audience members. Throughout the performance, Jessie J showed her Brandeis pride by changing into a variety of Brandeis apparel.

This year’s Springfest was a success in bringing a variety of live music to Brandeis’ backyard.

—Jaime Gropper

‘Spring Awakening’

Tympanium Euphorium’s production of Spring Awakening showed how theater can address controversial themes—the show’s program billed it as a play about “everything we don’t talk about.” The play, which opened on Nov. 14, followed German teenagers as they learned about each other and the world around them. The show specifically focused on leads Melchior Gabor (Jason Theoharis ’17) and Wendla Bergmann (Sarah Steiker ’17), who inspired each other to break the rules of their restrictive society.

Despite the play’s serious nature, the show held some distinctly comedic moments. The scene when Hanschen (Jason Teng ’17) and his friend Ernst (Rodrigo Alfaro Garcia-Gonzalez ’18) met in a clearing turned unexpectedly funny when Hanschen surprised Ernst by kissing him. Ernst pulled away, wearing a comical look of complete confusion. This element of comedy gave the pivotal and significant moment in the characters’ lives a lighter mood.

One of the best parts of the play was the last song, “The Song of Purple Summer.”

This number brought the whole cast together as they summarized what had happened to them over the summer. It was interesting to see all the characters on stage in a play in which so many of their storylines remained separate.

The performance played to a mostly full house for every show, demonstrating that the 1990’s show’s timeless melodies and engaging plot can still hold a modern-day audience’s attention.

—Brooke Granovsky

‘Big Bounce’

The Women’s Studies Research Center received a makeover courtesy of artist Leeza Meskin’s Big Bounce. The spandex and fabric-based site-specific exhibit, part of which covered the front of the WSRC, opened on Oct. 24 and was on view through Dec. 16.

Meskin is a Brooklyn-based artist who uses a variety of materials in unconventional ways to redefine our idea of conventional art. In her talk at the opening reception, she noted that her favorite material is spandex, a material that unifies all of her work to date. Spandex was used in a variety of ways throughout the exhibit. Each work in Meskin’s exhibit showcased a different pattern, texture and color of spandex.

The most extreme work in the exhibit was an installation that covered the side of the 32-foot tall WSRC building in brightly colored layers of spandex. The neon structure could be seen from as far away as the Brandeis/Roberts train station on South Street.

At a talk during the exhibit’s opening, WSRC docent Phyllis Shapiro ’56 commented that the exhibit’s interaction with feminist themes earns it a place at the center. Shapiro noted that spandex is often associated with clothing and housework, which are activities that many people associate with domesticity and, by extension, meekness.

Shapiro says that the exhibit changes this notion by using bright, exciting colors and different sized structures to give the spandex a renewed boldness and sense of dominance. According to Shapiro, Meskin’s work helps change the idea that domestic materials must always correlate with fragility or timidity.

The exhibit allowed the viewers to take something commonplace—a common material and the common practice of housework—and find the beauty in it, reclaiming the everyday as art.

—Brooke Granovsky

“Light of Reason”

The Rose Art Museum’s new installation features a series of repurposed lampposts painted white and arranged in rows pointing toward the museum’s entrance. The lights opened with a first ceremony, on Aug. 17, for orientation leaders and community advisors, and a second on Sept. 10, for students and the Brandeis community.

On Sept. 10, speakers included Perry Traquina ’78, Chairman of the Board of Trustees, President Fred Lawrence and Lizbeth Krupp, the chair of the Board of Advisors for the Rose Art Museum. Krupp spoke about how the sculpture derives meaning from the campus and the student body. “It’s a social structure” she said. “And by that I mean that it’s one that derives meaning in its surroundings and lasting vitality by how it’s used. So let it become a hub for everyday social life and a constant canvas and community activity.”

Krupp also referred to “Light of Reason” as a place where students could hold protests and rallies. This statement was a fitting reference to the circumstances, as students gathered at the ceremony to protest the way the University handled cases of sexual assault. In a talk about the sculpture in late September, Professors Gordon Fellman (SOC) and Chris Abrams (FA) made similar remarks. Both professors noted the installation’s ambiguity, highlighting the importance of the public’s perception in assigning the structure meaning.

—Brooke Granovsky

‘The Electro-Acoustic Piano’

The Electro-Acoustic Piano concert highlighted music’s evolving role in the digital age. The concert came to Brandeis on Oct. 18 and starred coordinator and performer Keith Kirchoff. The show was part of Kirchoff’s ongoing project to find works that unite the piano with electronic instruments and other music.

Over the course of the concert, Kirchoff entertained the audience by emphasizing sounds not usually heard on stage, including screeches, walrus noises, slithering and slurping. Similarly, Kirchoff used unusual pieces of technology to make music. He relied on handheld versions of electronic music mixers and an Xbox Kinect to add to his piano playing. Alumnus Peter Van Zandt Lane’s ’13 “Studies in Momentum” (2014) stood out among the compositions. Many of Lane’s etudes used similar sound bytes and mixed them in different ways. This technique gave “Studies in Momentum” a unique relation to repetition; the sounds’ familiarity could be heard above their digital alterations, which produced a haunting effect that grew with each note.

The concert, especially Lane’s piece, demonstrated music’s versatility. The show’s focus on digital alterations of music demonstrated a way for music to evolve in harmony with technology. At the same time, EAPiano showed that music’s ability to affect a tone or mood is universal, regardless of the instruments used or the convention of their use.

—Brooke Granovsky

24-Hour Musical: ‘Grease’Grease was the word at Tympanium Euphorium and Hillel Theater Group’s 10th annual 24-Hour Musical.

The Sept. 7 production had the Shapiro Campus Center Theater packed, with even more viewers watching from a live stream in the SCC Atrium.

As is the tradition with the 24-Hour Musical, Grease was presented just 24 hours after it was announced as the musical. The show’s costumes, sets, tech cues and rehearsals were organized and executed only in the 24 hours leading up to curtain.

Grease tells the story of good-girl Sandy Dumbrowski (Gabi Nail ’18), who enrolls in Rydell High School and discovers that her summer fling, Danny Zuko (Jason Theoharis ’17), is at the school and is a part of the bad-boy T-Birds clique.

Sandy joins the female counterpart of the T-Birds, the Pink Ladies. Throughout the musical, Sandy tests her relationship with Danny.

Grease was full of upbeat musical numbers and had intensive choreography, which was especially impressive given the limited amount of rehearsal time.

Many scenes and musical numbers featured a majority of the cast, whose members practically filled the entire stage. The cast and ensemble gave great performances as if they had been practicing for weeks rather than hours.

—Jaime Gropper

‘Shakespeare (Abridged)’

Hold Thy Peace’s production The Complete Works of William Shakespeare (Abridged) attempted to perform all of Shakespeare’s 37 plays in just over one and a half hours. The play, which opened on Mar. 12 in the Shapiro Campus Center Theater, accomplished this feat through a comedic and sometimes absurd retelling of all of Shakespeare’s works.In order to squeeze all of Shakespeare’s works into the limited amount of time, the plays were presented in unique ways. Othello was retold as a rap, Titus Andronicus was performed as a cooking show, and Shakespeare’s histories centering on royalty were stuffed into a very exciting football game.

Much of the play’s run time was devoted to two of Shakespeare’s most well known works, Romeo and Juliet and Hamlet. In Romeo and Juliet, many of the laughs were produced from the hesitance of the two male players to get intimate with each other. In Hamlet, the audience laughed as Hamlet took several tries to get his ‘To be or not to be’ speech just right. The comedic production succeeded in its overarching mission, and even managed to shed light on some of Shakespeare lesser known works.

—Jaime Gropper