Liberal Arts Voices

Read the perspectives of our current students

The Paterno Fellows’ “The Color Purple” Event

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When Alice Walker wrote The Color Purple, she didn’t mean lavender. Why? Because this story is dark.

But let’s rewind a bit. Wednesday evening, Paterno Fellows and Aspirants gathered in the Eisenhower Auditorium to mingle, snack, and discuss all things Purple. This was our exclusive pre-show event–a look behind the scenes of the musical adaptation of Alice walker’s book that we were about to see.

The event started out like a mixer as students snacked on refreshments and spoke with both peers and professors. Many students were even able to meet Sue Paterno, who spoke a bit about volunteering at the Special Olympics. After a session of mingling, Dr. Keith Gilyard discussed the controversy surrounding the book, movie, and musical, in a way even the least knowledgeable of us (*cough-cough* me) could understand.

As someone who bought tickets for the show with as little as a “well, the book was good” to recommend it, I was reassured by the enthusiasm that many of my fellow students brought to the event. I was even more intrigued to learn about the controversy surrounding the story–I had no idea what a stir it had caused. Since none of us students were around when the book and movie first came out, Dr. Gilyard enlightened us as to all the fuss over certain themes. There were several things that got people angry, but the most notable of them was Alice Walker’s portrayal of men as terrible, dark, and even evil.

Soon after this discussion, though, guests were treated to something unexpected–a question and answer session with two the actors (one of which was Penn State class of ’08!). This discussion was all about the actors’ lives behind the scenes; we learned about acting strategies, tour life, and how the Penn State alumna got this acting gig.

Overall, the pre-show event was a pleasant chance to enhance our knowledge of the show in a relaxed environment. Maybe this is why, then, that upon the start of the show, my light-hearted demeanor needed major adjusting. As I quickly discovered, The Color Purple is not light stuff.

Seriously. The show opens with Celie, (who several times throughout the show is described as “poor, black, and ugly”) aged fourteen and holding her new baby. Her step-father quickly takes the baby away from her, presumably for Celie to never see again. The entire first act, and much of the second, consists of things going from bad to worse for this poor woman. This is mainly, of course, the fault of the play’s terrible male characters.

But it’s not all bad–ultimately, the story is one of survival and strength. And I don’t want to spoil it for anyone, but there is a happy ending. It’s a beautiful rollercoaster ride of trials, tribulations, and emotions. For me, all this was a look into a life far, far different from my own, and I realize that I’m very lucky to have that be the case. I’m pretty privileged. It’s not only my job to be thankful, but also to be gracious towards those who don’t have everything I do.

So, I guess I’ll admit it–I cried.

Attending “The Beaux’ Stratagem”

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Friday night, a full audience arrived at the Theatre Building for a performance of 18th-century play, “The Beaux’ Stratagem.”  But only a fraction of the audience arrived early for a special event–dinner and a talk with acclaimed Theatre professor Robert Hume and renowned English director Di Trevis. 

I was part of that fraction. My name’s Noelle, and I’m a freshman majoring in French. This is my first blog post for Paterno Fellows Program blog, so hello! As a freshman who’s hardly used to attending academic events, let alone dinners with distinguished professors, the idea of the program being stiff and formal worried me, to say the least. But when I entered the event room, I was pleasantly surprised to find that it really was just an informal chat, meant to give us some extra information before watching the play. Dr. Hume spoke from a scholar’s point of view. He highlighted the key literary themes of the play, and also provided a historical context–apparently, writer George Farquhar was on his deathbed when he wrote the piece, which seems odd for such an apparently light-hearted play. 

Note that I said apparently light-hearted. Director Di Trevis pointed out that even though “Beaux’ Stratagem” often comes across as a silly romp, there are several dark themes beneath the surface. For example, “divorce” is a theme that almost never comes to mind when thinking about 18th-century England. But according to Trevis, Farquhar was really an advocate of the right to divorce, and used the terrible marriage among two characters in his play to point this out. There’s also an underlying theme concerning the mistreatment of women, and the unfairness of not being allowed to provide for themselves in society. These are all themes that I would never have picked up on by just watching the play, and I appreciated being able to view the play through the lens of this knowledge. 
Now here comes the important part– why do you care? Why does it matter that I saw a play, went to a dinner, and kind of liked it? First, I’ve never been a huge fan of plays, probably because I’ve always considered them a little too high-brow a form of entertainment. I’m more likely to kick back with a recent romantic comedy, and I imagine many of you are the same way. But here’s the thing — “Beaux’ Stratagem” is a romantic comedy. And even if our society today views theatre as a more elitist pastime, this sort of thing was pop culture in the 18th-century. In a world without movies, TV, iPods, etc. — theatre was the creme de la creme of popular entertainment, and as someone who loves pop culture today, I can certainly appreciate this. 
Attending the “Beaux’ Stratagem” not only enlightened me as to the complexity of theatre (as discussed in the pre-show talk), but it also led me to reconsider my preconceptions. And whether or not you’re a fan of attending academic events, I encourage you to try it– at least just once. Honestly, there’s more similarities between an 18th-century play and How To Lose A Guy In 10 Days than you might think. 
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