This past weekend, the Connecticut College Theater Department presented an original work entitled Foundation, Dreams, and Inspirations: The Centennial Project to the Connecticut College community in multiple sold-out performances. Students, alumni, faculty and staff flocked to Tansill Theater to witness the performance for themselves. The audiences met the Centennial Project Ensemble, the creators of the Centennial Project, a cast of twelve students and one alumnus director, with eager anticipation. I found myself, much like my fellow audience members, caught up in the excitement of my expectations.
As I waited for the performance to begin, I read through the dramaturgical note included in the program. My understanding of the purpose of the project grew. I learned of the personal connection that the participants of the project had developed in their creation of the work. They had explored the college’s archives, engaged with alumni and reflected on their own experiences and connections to the experiences they were learning about. I was truly astounded by how much effort went into the process of creating this performance and my admiration of the ensemble was affirmed.
The performance began with a young woman leading a small group across the stage “on a tour of our campus,” and just like that, I was placed into the world of Connecticut College that the Centennial Project Ensemble had created for its audience. The cast shared pieces of the college’s history, ranging from traditions such as the mascot hunts, where the sophomore class hunted for a hidden gift to the college from the junior class, to pivotal changes in the college’s history such as a shift to a coeducational learning environment. The information was fascinating, and I was riveted by all that was being thrown my way.
There was attention-grabbing shifting from chronological story-telling to layering of stories of women from 1911 and women from 2011 at the same time. These shifts enveloped the audience in the history of the college and transmitted us so that we were connected not from simply reading about the past but by reliving it. I was able to imagine myself as a student in a multitude of decades, yet at the same time, I was able to truly picture my own place in the story of the college’s history.
In five short weeks, the Centennial Ensemble was able to construct a place for students of the college’s past and students of the college’s present to meet and connect. While I was extremely impressed with this feat and so many of the things that the performance had to offer, I must admit that the overall execution of the production left much to be desired. I felt that at many times the satirical vibe of the work came off too much like an episode of an afterschool special. When put up next to extremely eloquent, thought-provoking monologues and beautiful interactions between characters such as students of 2011 and Elizabeth Wright, it seemed somewhat jarring and out of place. Beyond this, mistakes with lines, messy shifting and swinging of spotlights, and other unfortunate mishaps like breaking glass bottles onstage, took away from the performance and did not seem to match the caliber of productions that I am accustomed to from other theater department productions.
That being said, my disappointment only came from remarkably high expectations of the performance, many of which were met and exceeded. This performance was, overall, truly inspirational. It helped me to understand the foundation that supported this college one hundred years ago and that continues to support it today. This community was built with much effort, passion and drive, and the efforts of the Centennial Project Ensemble perfectly mirrors that of the founders of the college as well as many of the other ‘characters’ present in the college’s story throughout the years.
I know that going forward, I will keep the sentiments I felt as I ‘relived’ Connecticut College’s history very present in my mind. One moment of the performance that will be most prominent for me was a provocative line from a monologue from one of the actresses. She stated, “We’re here to be shaken up and to shake up more,” and she could not be more right. Connecticut College is and has always been dedicated to the implications of this statement. I hope that we all can make sure that in the next hundred years and beyond we stay true to this sentiment.
