Dear Prospective Students,  The end of the year is fast approaching!  How did it happen?  And where did my junior year go?  Oh, how time flies by when you’re having fun.Let’s evaluate how much my life has changed in just one short year here at Fairfield.  When I started writing this, I was a commuter who was involved in a few things here and there, writing about theatre and the like.  Now, I live in Claver Hall, a dorm in the Village area, I have made many new friends by being part of the Hunger Cleanup board and going on the Kairos retreat, and I have discovered that writing is truly where my heart lies. Each year – each month, each week, each day – I continue to grow here at Fairfield.  (And no, Admissions is NOT making me write this!)  It is simply how I feel.  I feel I am finally starting to become me, not bits of everyone else around me all rolled into one.  Sometimes there is so much conformity, but I think I am reaching beyond that and finally speaking out and voicing my opinion – something I have never really done before.After taking “Examining the 60s,” a class that is run every three years and is team-taught by Dr. David McFadden of the history department and Dr. Marti LoMonaco of the theatre department, I think a bit of the 60s spirit has become ingrained in me.  As far as classes go for the semester, that one surely topped my list of favorites.  After studying the parallels between 1968 and 2008, the similarities between the Vietnam War and the Iraq War, hippies and the sixties counterculture, and feminism, I still have to the urge to learn more and will probably spend a portion of my summer looking even more into the history of the sixties. And while I’m still not sure what the summer will hold – whether it be an internship, a job, or something I cannot even predict – I know I am going to be taking a lot of time to evaluate all the changes that have taken place over the last year (especially over the last semester) and figure out exactly where my life is headed and what direction I want it to go in. So, until next semester! love, anna. 

Dear Prospective Students,

Last weekend, for my “Examining the 60s” class, we went on a trip to New York City to see two shows. Paid for by a grant, all we had to spring for was train and subway fare and whatever we ate for dinner.

Meeting up at the Fairfield train station for the 12 p.m. train, we all hopped aboard and headed to Grand Central Station in order to make it to Broadway for the two o’clock showing of Tom Stoppard’s “Rock ‘n’ Roll”.

Me and my friend Sarah keeping ourselves entertained on the train ride to NYC.

Before going to see “Rock ‘n’ Roll”, we read the play as well as learned about the historical context of the events through reading assignments and class discussions.

This historical play spanned a 22-year period, from 1968 to 1990, chronicling the effects the “Prague Spring” in Czechoslovakia and the fall of the Communist Party had on the play’s main characters. Deep down, this play was a love story that spanned the miles and the years, keeping everyone connected by the power of music.

We got out of “Rock ‘n’ Roll” at about five o’clock, at which time we were free to go eat dinner wherever we chose. While some ate in Times Square, many of us hopped on the subway and headed downtown to the lower east side where the next show was being performed at 8 p.m.

The entrance to The Living Theatre.

My friends and I ate a diner, and then went to Dunkin’ Donuts for dessert before we headed to The Living Theatre. Started in the 50s by Julian Beck and Judith Malina, The Living Theatre was a controversial political establishment in the 60s. With the goal of starting an anarchist revolution, they brought theatre to the streets, encouraging everyone to get involved.

The Living Theatre, still run by Malina, who is now 81-years-old, just returned to NYC within the past year after having relocated to Europe many years ago. We saw “Maudie and Jane”, a two woman play. In it, a middle-aged woman named Jane, caught up in her career, unintentionally attaches herself to the life of a lonely, old lady named Maudie. By befriending Maudie, Jane finds meaning in her own life as she watches Maudie die.

Afterward, we were allowed to stay for a talkback with the performers and director of the play. Once that was over, we all headed for the subway back to Grand Central Station and hopped on the 11:22 p.m. train back to Fairfield.

It was an extremely fascinating and exciting experience, but after all our wandering that day I couldn’t wait to flop down in my bed and get some sleep… aka, the perfect ending to a lovely trip!

love, anna.

Dear Prospective Students,

Life is alive with theatre!

Between on-campus involvement and an off-campus venture, it has been one crazy week for theatre.

Over the weekend, amidst the plays we saw during our New York adventure, plenty of theatre activity was taking place on campus as well. Theatre Fairfield’s New Works Festival opened Thursday, February 21, of which I was part of the tech crew.

The New Works Festival was a collection of staged reading of plays written by Fairfield students and faculty. Featuring Kerry Davies ‘11, Jayson Cowley ‘10 and resident playwriting mentor, Staci Swedeen, New Works consisted of five plays - Staci Swedeen’s three plays made up the second act.

For New Works, I initially agreed to be head usher. However, at last minute, I was asked to be part of the tech crew because they were in need of someone to switch the configuration of the set between plays quickly and efficiently. The set for New Works solely consisted of chairs and music stands, so in between play changes, two other crew members and I, dressed completely in black, would sneak out and readjust the set to accommodate the next play. Then we would sneak back to our little hideout in the next room, peaking at the performances through a hole in the door.

Then, the following Tuesday, February 26, I volunteered for the first time as an usher at the nearby Westport Country Playhouse. My friend, a recent Fairfield graduate, now works at the Playhouse and was encouraging people to utilize this untapped resource to gain theatre experience. Among the most common volunteer positions is usher, which I was most interested in.

Luckily, I responded at the perfect time because the Playhouse was in desperate need of ushers for the preview night of “Vigil”. A sarcastic comedy starring Timothy Busfield, “Vigil” is about a man coming to live with and take care of his dying aunt whom he has not seen in 30 years.

I jumped at the chance to volunteer! And I’m so glad I did because I got to see a wonderful show for free just by helping out. It was actually the first time I had ever been inside the Playhouse, too. And I already can’t wait to do it again!

Talk to you soon!

love, anna.

Dear Prospective Students,

Believe it or not, I am writing this to you from the semester’s very first meeting of The Cream Filling!

Yes, indeed! We have started the year off on a high note and have morphed what was once just a literary magazine into a writing club!

Being one of three co-presidents, I decided it was time we take our lovely literary endeavor to the next level. With one of my fellow co-presidents studying abroad in London and the other busy with an internship and prior commitments, I collaborated with some of our most interested members to create what we have here tonight.

We began the meeting by introducing each other, infusing the meeting with humor and a light-hearted nature that led to our premise. We plan to hold meetings about every other week, at which time we come together to get creative. We start each session with some sort of prompt. Whether it’s a song, a picture, or words, we strive to provide inspiration that will get everyone’s mind going. Then, for about twenty minutes, we write or draw anything we please, whether it was prompt-inspired or not. Afterward, we open the floor up to sharing on a volunteer basis.

Our goal is to get people thinking and creating in order to hopefully gain submissions for publication. Members are invited to submit their work right then and there, or are welcome to take what they’ve been doing home and submit it at a later date.

We rarely get submissions when we only send out e-mail reminders, so through this method, we hope more people will become aware and interested enough that we will have a wealth of works to choose from when it comes time to publish.

If you would like to check out last year’s copies of The Cream Filling in PDF format, check out this link: http://www.fairfield.edu/pub_creamfilling.html

Talk to you soon!

love, anna.

Dear Prospective Students,

Well, now that we’re a few weeks into the semester, I can officially say I dropped my English class. I know, an English major dropping an English class? What is the world coming to? Well, I was overloaded with reading, that’s what. (As in, I basically had to read a novel on top of the reading for ALL my OTHER classes… not fun.)

So now my semester looks like this:

AE 284 Environmental Ethics
ENW 325 Environmental Reporting
HI 241 Examining the 60s
PH 150 Questions: Descartes to Derrida

A lot of reading and writing involved this semester, but it is worth it as I will be done with the core by the end of the semester!

Although that leaves me with so much room to maneuver next year, I’m not sure what to do. After my acting class last semester, I’ve decided finishing out my theatre minor may not be the right decision for me. Sure, we had fun and I made tons of friends, but when you realize you’re not as passionate about something as you really should be - not truly putting your all into it - then it probably just isn’t what you’re meant to do.

As of late, I’ve simply been trying to connect with as many people as possible, having heart-to-heart conversations, and basically just trying to get involved as much as possible around campus. With The Mirror, The Cream Filling, and my desire to jump head first in a zillion community service activities, I’m simply thrilled to be meeting so many different and amazing people, while also growing closer with my circle of friends.

Isn’t life on campus just great?

Talk to you guys soon!

love,
anna.

Dear Prospective Students,

Welcome to 2008!

A new year, a new semester… and best of all, a new start!

Yes, everyone. It is official. I am now a Fairfield University resident! As of January 13, I am now living in Claver Hall. Located in what is known as The Village, down behind the library, Claver Hall houses mainly sophomores and juniors in a suite-style atmosphere. I have a roommate, Tara, as well as two suitemates, Veronica and Simone. Our rooms are connected by a bathroom, which the four of us share.

Move-in day was quite interesting because I arrived rather early in order to drop off my first wave of belongings. However, being so early, the maintenance men were not through replacing the carpet on my floor. My hallway was a complete mess, leaving me and my dad to have to walk all over the glue already laid out on the floor, scared that we’d stick in place.

And while it took multiple trips up and down a zillion flights of stairs (since I live on the fourth floor), I’ve realized that I really don’t have that much stuff. I truly need to work on making my side of the room homier.

Tara has been living in the room since the beginning of the school year. However, her roommate from last semester went abroad for the spring, leaving the perfect opening for me. But my side of the room barely shows any signs of life and now I just have this urge to go on a shopping spree!

Oh, life is great! I’m so excited about the semester and living on campus that I could keep writing, detail by detail, about everything that has happened in just the first week, but I will save those stories for another time… and I’m sure there will be plenty to tell!

Talk to you soon, everyone!

love, anna.

Dear Prospective Students,

The fall semester is over! Last Wednesday meant the end of classes and the completion of one final… only four more finals to go, and I can’t wait! I’m looking forward to a few weeks of relaxation like you wouldn’t believe.

This semester has been one of intense work, but mostly exploration and self-discovery. Every semester I feel like I grow significantly as a person, figuring out more and more who it is I am and who I want to be. Each new experience builds on who I am, but it’s the happenings of this semester that seem to have led me to great changes. And now I’m ready to dive in even deeper.

Earlier in the semester, I put in an application to change to resident status. While I am still awaiting a reply from the Office of Residence Life as to whether I got accepted for housing next semester, I am keeping my fingers crossed for a positive outcome.

As the semesters have passed, I have increasingly become aware of the unique opportunity one gets when they live on campus. Being a commuter for the past two and a half years, I have found the flexibility just isn’t what it is for a resident student. I feel as if I am missing out on the once in a lifetime bonding opportunity students receive when they come to live and know each other so closely. Instead, my free time generally consists of me trying to plot out my schedule to make the most out of my time on campus before one of my parents picks me up. (Yes, that’s right; I’m a commuter without a license.)

With this division of time and focus, I don’t feel like I’m able to give school my all. There are so many opportunities at my doorstep, but I just can’t quite dig in and commit myself like I want. I want to get even more involved! I want to not only do more for myself and develop my independence, but I want to be free to do more for others as well. Campus Ministry holds so many opportunities for service, that I really hope I can have this chance to live at Fairfield and really begin to find out who I am and who I want to become.

So here’s to hoping for a letter of acceptance and the chance at new experiences! The wait is simply nerve-wracking! I desperately want to know now!

Curious as to how it all turns out?

Check in next semester for all the details!

love, anna.

Dear Prospective Students,

As a part of my acting class, we participated in the last week of a nationwide festival called “365 days/365 plays.” Started by playwright Suzan-Lori Parks in 2002, her idea was to write a play every day for a year. Then, with the effort of theatres and universities all over the country, her plays were performed every day for the past year.

Our performance of “Intermission” near Jazzman’s Café.

Invited to participate in week 51, November 5-12, our class divided up the week’s plays and took on the endeavor of performing them site-specific. We performed in random places all over campus, places no one would expect to see a performance.

From Jazzman’s Café to performing under the apple trees, we could be found all over the place that week… and at random times of the day, too! Spanning from early morning to midnight performances, the campus was alive with theatre!

One of our favorite, most moving plays was entitled “The 2nd Constant.” This play was one of three that could be performed during any week of the festival. This one specifically required the performer to dress as if in mourning, impacting the audience through their inaction.

As a grand finale to the week, we wanted to go out with a bang, so we opened our idea to anyone and everyone on campus and the theatre community, allowing anyone who so desired to participate. We decided that, at 12:18 p.m., on November 12, a very high-traffic time on campus, whoever wished to was welcome to perform “The 2nd Constant” anywhere and everywhere around campus.

In order to make a bigger statement, a group of my classmates and our professor congregated outside the Barone Campus Center near the Oak Room patio at 12:18 p.m., all dressed in dark clothing, as people walked by after leaving class or as they headed to lunch.

I stood there until 12:34 p.m. Others left when the chapel bell rang 12:30 p.m., some stayed even longer. But the whole time I stood there just listening to people’s reactions - some were completely confused, some thought it was ridiculous, some were oblivious, some were intrigued, and some knew exactly what we were doing.

I only hope that this is not the last our campus sees of site-specific performance!

love, anna.

Dear Fairfield,

There are so many times when you see a bunch of people just having so much fun that you wish you could be part of such a great group. But the other night, I finally got a chance to be a part of one of those fantastic group moments during Your Mom Does Improv!

With a good portion of the members performing in Theatre Fairfield’s first play of the season, we had a workshop session during which we all gathered together under the guidance of Tony Da Costa ‘08 and had one of the best times I’ve had here at Fairfield.

We began by heading outside onto the field and performing a ritual. Based on the “follow the follower” concept, we all stand in a circle and do nothing, just letting things come to us as they might. At one point a group of students passed by, so we all began laughing because they were giving us weird looks. Eventually, as if all reading each other’s minds, we began to morph into zombies, approaching the students’ car and chasing it in our zombie-like state as it exited the parking lot. It was the perfect finale to our intense ritual. Of course, public safety ended up coming around wondering what we were up to, but we’re pretty sure that was just coincidence.

Then Tony told us to think of an animal, become that animal and embody it, then slowly return to human form while incorporating our animal’s physical life. By doing this, we ended up creating characters and interacting with each other in unexpected ways.

Being a little chilly, we then headed back to the main space (in the PepsiCo theatre) and gathered around the piano as our friend, Pat LaRiviere ‘11, began playing “Drops of Jupiter” by Train. Although we didn’t know many lyrics, we all began rocking out with him, eventually leading to everyone singing “Hey Jude.”

Lucky for us, Tony had “Hey Jude” on his iPod, so he plugged it into the speakers. We all began dancing and my friend, Alex Conroy ‘11, picked me up, carrying me around the theatre on his shoulders. Then we all joined hands and formed a circle. We ran around until we all decided to fall on the floor and stomp to the beat until the end of the song.

Of course, after that we broke into some short-form improv skits, but nothing could compare to our amazing little pow-wow. We were all so connected, doing things at the same time on the same impulse. It was almost like a purposely choreographed scene from “Grease” or “West Side Story” - I’ve always wished life could be part musical.

Looks like I got all my wishes granted!

love,

anna.

Dear prospective students,

There comes a lull right around this time in the semester (aka
midterms), when you just don’t feel like doing work. Even if you
haven’t got more than usual, the task still seems more daunting than it
did a couple of weeks ago. And while everything eventually gets done
somehow - I’m not sure how, I swear homework does itself sometimes -
there’s nothing a good dose of procrastination can’t fix.

And what do most choose as their mind’s getaway destination?

Facebook.

Everyone can have one, and nearly everyone does. And if you do, you
probably know it better than your history book. You can’t remember
which of King Henry VIII’s wives were beheaded, but you know that Suzie
and Bobby broke up last Wednesday and reconciled 42 minutes ago. And
the photos of your crush’s wild weekend escapades are ingrained more
deeply in your memory than the Mona Lisa.

So why do I find my addiction to be a healthy one?

Because, sometimes, procrastination can be good for the mind! As long
as you don’t let it get out of hand, I see nothing wrong with letting
your mind senselessly wander around cyberspace for a bit. One can only
cram in so many calculus equations or read so many Shakespearean sonnets
before it just becomes gibberish on paper. If you let your mind relax a
bit, things soak in better. Panicking does not help, so take a
breather. (This goes for anyone! High school, college, work - you name
it! Nothing’s going to get done if you freak out!)

Pick your diversion and set your mind at ease. Sometimes when you’re
not thinking is when the greatest ideas arise.

Now I’m going to go off and study for my sociology exam, but hopefully
my journal can continue to be an object of momentary relief for all you
college applicants!

Good luck!

love, anna.