C o l u m b i a U n i v e r s i t y RECORD January 23, 2004 5

The Play’s the Thing: SOA Students Perform ‘Hamlet’ at Riverside Church

Two Columbians con-tributed to films at theprestigious Sundance Film

Festival, which has its awardsceremony this Saturday. Schoolof the Arts Professor ThomasRoma shot the photographs usedin the documentary Let theChurch Say Amen, directed byDavid Petersen. And a short filmby student Jowan Carbin, SOA’04, Welcome to Life, wasscreened in the shorts program.Last year, the film festival’s topprize went to American Splendor,by SOA alumni Shari SpringerBerman and Robert Pulcini.

Amen director Peterson hadbeen thinking about making a filmon black churches when he cameacross a book by Roma, ComeSunday (MOMA/Abrams, 1996),a collection of 86 photographs ofAfrican-American churchesthroughout Brooklyn. Roma spentmore than three years working onthe photographs in Come Sunday;he attended 150 services in 52churches, and the book was pub-lished in conjunction with a one-person exhibition at the Museumof Modern Art in 1996. Roma, therecipient of two Guggenheim Fel-lowships, worked on this projectas part of the second fellowship.

Deeply impressed by Roma’sbook, Petersen contacted himabout a collaboration. Withinmonths, Petersen identified theWorld Missions for Christ Churchin Washington, D.C., as a settingfor his powerful documentary.The film shows how one church

Man delights not me: no,nor woman neither,”Hamlet announces early

on in his play. But audiences maybe delighted by both, when theysee the unusual School of the Artsacting students’ thesis productionof Shakespeare’s tragedy. Direct-ed by LAByrinth Theater direc-tor/producer John Gould Rubin,this Hamlet has not just one, butseven different students playingthe melancholy Dane, and four ofthem are women.

Hamlet, which opened Jan. 17and runs through Feb. 1, at theTheatre of the Riverside Churchon Claremont Avenue, is the cul-mination of the actors’ training atColumbia. But because more thanhalf of the cast of 17 graduate stu-dents are women, and there areonly two substantive female rolesin the play (Queen Gertrude,Hamlet’s mother, and the sad,mad Ophelia), director Rubindecided to create a “fractured”Hamlet, taking the audience intothe very depths of his psyche. Hemanages that by using multipleHamlets, occasionally even hav-ing more than one Hamlet onstage at the same time, bringing tolife the character’s own internalstruggles. “It allows the audienceto see [the depths of the character]more completely if there is morethan one Hamlet,” said Rubin.

In the first several rehearsals,Rubin had the cast sit in a circleand take turns reading the play

aloud. Instead of tryouts, he askedthe students to pick their favoritemoments in the play. “I cast theplay based on what studentsrequested,” explained Rubin. “It’snot so much about gender, butrather how it is played.”

While somewhat unconven-tional, the students liked hismethodology. “Everyone got atleast one moment that they areproud of and that has meaning forthem,” said Elenna Stauffer, SOA’04, who is playing one of theHamlets, Rosencrantz and theghost of Hamlet’s father. “It wasalso interesting to hear the playwithout investment in the parts—to think about the play as a whole.If I were originally cast as a Ham-let, I would only look at the playthrough his eyes and not see thewhole picture.”

The production of Hamletunder Rubin’s direction is the cul-mination of a collaborationbetween the School of the Artsand the LAByrinth Theater Com-pany. The company, which beganin 1992 and is currently in resi-dence at the Public Theater inGreenwich Village, encompassesa diverse ensemble of 76 theaterartists and produces works rele-vant to the issues faced by themany cultures found in New YorkCity. LAByrinth has producedmore than 30 new plays, includ-ing John Patrick Shanley’sWhere’s My Money and StephenAdly Guirgis’ Jesus Hopped the‘A’ Train, which Rubin will pro-duce on Broadway.

Throughout the fall, award-

Hamlet players Dustin Helmer (standing) and (from far back to front) Elenna Staufer, Leah Foulke,Nathan Blew, John Bogar and Carol Ellis practice their sword fighting technique.

winning actors, directors andwriters from LAByrinth, includ-ing Guirgis, Philip SeymourHoffman, Keith Reddin andRubin, taught master classes forgraduate acting students in theSchool’s theater arts division.Classes focused on acting, direct-ing, producing, writing songs andplays, and improv techniques.

“The master classes broughtthe unique spirit of LAByrinth tostudents who are about to enterthe professional world, encourag-ing [artists] to create their ownopportunities. You don’t wait for

business to come to you,” saidRubin.

For the students, the masterclasses were the highlight of thefall semester. “They all had prac-tical applications—it was like giv-ing us a map,” said Carol Ellis,SOA ’04. “In Rubin’s class onproducing he explained how toorganize people, put together apiece, get on your feet and go. Headdressed the biggest mystery—how to go from an idea to fruition.It made me realize that it is in ourgrasp.”

“I love the energy and creativi-

ty of LAByrinth, but most, I lovethat they encourage their mem-bers to be able to do every-thing—not only to act but towrite, direct and produce,” saidFrank Mihelich, SOA’04. “I real-ize that if I am ever out of ‘artis-tic’ work, it is ultimately myfault. If there is no work out thereI can create my own work. I canwrite a one-man show or direct aplay. It’s a very empoweringfeeling, and it’s what LAByrinthand Columbia are about.”

See Calendar for dates andtimes of remaining performances.

BY KRISTIN STERLING

BY KRISTIN STERLING

A Professor and a Student Contribute Works at Sundance Film Festivalnourishes love and hope in itsmembers, whose lives are riddledwith hardship, and incorporatesRoma’s black-and-white pho-tographs of the congregationmade for the film.

“This documentary does notdepict the typical use of black-and-white photos in film,” Romasaid. “It incorporates movingimagery and still imagery in aninteresting way. It begins with amoving color image, then cuts tothe next scene with a movingblack-and-white image, and thencuts to one of my black-and-whitephotos.”

Roma was also glad to have theopportunity to work again withHarvard Professor Henry LouisGates, Jr. Gates, who wrote theintroductions to Roma’s ComeSunday and another book, Sanctu-ary (Johns Hopkins UniversityPress, 2002), served as Amen’sexecutive producer.

The film is one of 24 documen-taries selected from more than2,500 entries to screen at Sun-dance. The film will have itsnational broadcast debut on PBSon Easter Sunday, April 11. It willalso be screened at the NationalGallery of Art, Washington, D.C.,on the same day. The Office of theUniversity Chaplain will host ascreening of the film on campusprior to the PBS broadcast.

The selection process for thedocumentary section of Sundanceis highly competitive, and JowanCarbin likewise faced stiff compe-tition for a slot in the short filmsprogram. Welcome to Life isamong 86 short films selectedfrom 3,400 submissions from

around the world. The short filmsat Sundance have become afavorite for festival-goers, andtheir directors are considered byproduction companies and agentsas a talent pool of new artists.

Wanting to tell the story of anoutsider, it took Carbin sevenmonths to write the script for Wel-come to Life. The film is the storyof a sixth-grader who longs to beplaying outside. When the boyand his only friend make a pact toremain pals forever, the momentis destroyed by the emergence ofthe school bully. The film wasshot on location in Washington,D.C., in 2002, during the periodof the sniper attacks, and Carbinhad to cut a large playground

scene featuring 30 children fromthe film, as many parents werereluctant to allow their children toparticipate in the outdoor filming.

Despite this setback, Carbin,who served as the writer, director,editor and executive producer, cre-ated a film that is being acknowl-edged around the country. Lastyear he won Best Student ShortFilm 15 Minutes and Under at thePalm Springs International ShortFilm Festival. He also took secondplace at the San Francisco BlackFilm Festival and was a regionalfinalist for a Student AcademyAward. Welcome to Life was alsoone of five films selected for theAmerican Black Film Festival andhas screened at the Newport Inter-

national Film Festival as well asthe Urbanworld, Cinematexas andFort Lauderdale festivals.

While Carbin will participate inthe short film screening, KazuoOhno, SOA ’02, was selected toparticipate in the SundanceScreenwriters Lab, Jan. 9-14. TheScreenwriters Lab is a five-daywriters workshop that gives 12independent artists the opportuni-ty to work intensively on their fea-ture film scripts with the supportof established screenwriters. Ohnoworked on his feature-lengthscript, Mr. Crumpacker and theMan from the Letter. Four filmsfrom previous Sundance FeatureFilm Labs screened at the 2004Sundance Film Festival.

This intense untitled photograph of a church service by Thomas Roma was used in the film Amen.

PHOTO BY EILEEN BARROSO