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.