Amiln Gray
Fall 2005 Evaluation
is course is designed to expose students interested in theater to ways of enriching and intensifying their experiences of plays with exploration of the historical, economic and cultural contexts in which they were created. The Amlin Gray sections of the course are conducted chronologically. They brought us up to 1700 by semester’s end.
Gary is a very involved member of the class who seems extremely clear about its potential to feed into his work in theater. His responses to the texts and traditions, both oral and in his somewhat inchoate papers, are keen and excitingly original. I look forward to fuller presentations of and responses to his ideas in class as we take more time for discussion addressing the less-remote theatrical idioms of Semester Two.
Submitted on 12/29/2005
Spring 2006 Evaluation
In this course, we’ve spent the year working together on what theater is, what it has been, and what it might be in the future. Our approach has been essentially chronological but sometimes thematic. We’ve read a play every week, then explored it in historical, cultural and economic context. Class discussion has been central, extended by electronic discussion courtesy of a webboard with weekly postings during much of the second semester. I’ve tried to balance systematic “survey” work with attention to my and the students’ spontaneous connections both to assigned plays and to plays and films that they’ve seen on their own, as well as to work in other disciplines and to life itself. We never know what may stick in our minds and illuminate or jazz us years later. To quote the character of Mr. Bernstein from CITIZEN KANE: “A fellow will remember things you wouldn’t think he’d remember. You take me. One day back in 1896, I was crossing over to Jersey on a ferry, and as we pulled out there was another ferry pulling in and on it there was a girl waiting to get off. A white dress she had on, and she was carrying a white parasol, and I only saw her for one second and she didn’t see me at all, but I’ll bet a month hasn’t gone by since that I haven’t thought of that girl. See what I mean?”
Gary had chops as an actor and life experience beyond many of his classmates, who were mostly first-year. But neither this nor the forthrightness of his style—-he enjoys a good argument—-kept him from full (and, I hasten to say, courteous) engagement in the course. He especially liked confronting older theatrical forms with new, often technologically-driven, media, and introduced a lively dimension to discussions via material in which I, for one, was very little versed.
Written expression—-I should specify the formal essay, having seen his charged dramatic writing for another course—-is not, at this point, as congenial a medium for Gary as is speech; his papers showed some awkwardness and muddle. But he met every play and tradition head-on, and was a linchpin of the class.
Submitted on 5/19/2006
Class Papers
Personal Reaction
I am now closer than I have ever been. Amiln Gray’s class, coupled with my previous class experiences in theatrical history, have brought me to understand why theatre is what it is today. The evolution is now clearer than ever before.
Amlin brought us out of the murky waters of the Greek Chorus onto the spot of dry land that the minimalists used Off-Off Broadway back in the 70’s and 80’s.
The experience was unique, I believe, because of the class demographics. I sat with one graduate student in a class made up of first year theatre students. Their insight was possibly more unique than any group of seasoned theatre students. Due to my previous education background often sat and blankly stared at Amiln while he walked us through the transitions of theatre. Had I been of the minority he might not have explained what was essential to me – a fully flushed out class about the history of theatre.