The Bowdoin Orient

In a modern retelling of the classical Greek myth of Orpheus and Eurydice, Bowdoin’s Department of Theater and Dance will merge fantasy and innovative visuals this weekend in its production of “Eurydice.” 

Written by playwright Sarah Ruhl, the play tells the traditional myth from the female perspective of Orpheus’ bride, Eurydice, and explores dimensions of the story that are not present in the original myth. Ruhl’s play builds upon the original story, following Eurydice in her journey through the underworld as she reunites with her father and, ultimately, with her husband, Orpheus.

 Dedicated by Ruhl to her father after his death, “Eurydice” is steeped in themes of love, loss and reminiscence. According to Associate Professor of Theater Abigail Killeen, the show hopes to evoke subtle yet meaningful responses in both actors and audience members. 

 “This play invites audiences to think about what we spend a lot of our lives not wanting to think about: the reality of death of the people we love and how that affects us,” said Killeen. “It’s a really beautiful meditation on grief without being indulgent or histrionic at all. It faces what part of the human condition wants to ignore.”

Sally Rose Zuckert ’19, who plays Eurydice, cited the play’s exploration of these themes as what first drew her to the show.  

“The first time I read it I cried like a little baby. [Ruhl’s] writing is really brilliant—it’s lyrical, it flows so well and it says so many things that, as people, we probably struggle with,” said Zuckert “I think that’s what contributes to the play’s beauty and to the theme of loss and to the theme of sadness and to the theme of love—it plays into all those things.” 

“Eurydice” deviates from more traditional plays in the way its plot is constructed. While the narrative is clear, the story does not develop in a linear fashion, nor does it conclude in a neat wrap-up. 

“I think because of that it can also affect an audience in a different way. Rather than, ‘Oh that was a cool story,’ or, ‘I could follow that narrative,’ this play requires—well, I think all theater requires—something of the audience,” said Killeen.

The unorthodox development of the story provided Killeen and her colleagues with the opportunity to experiment with a non-traditional set as well. The set of “Eurydice” is an all-white room onto which a series of videos are projected. 

This digital set was designed by Adjunct Lecturer in Theater Ryan MacDonald. He collaborated with Bowdoin’s Information  Technology Department, working with a technical director, a lighting designer and a sound engineer. For MacDonald, the process was a meticulous but rewarding one. He compiled images and videos and utilized a full range of editing software to create dramatic effects. One such effect is a projection of ocean waves onto the white floor of the stage.

The video-based set was particularly fitting for “Eurydice,” which is chock-full of open-ended stage directions and evocative descriptions. Both MacDonald and Killeen underscored the play’s possibilities for experimentation in shadow, costume and light.

“This particular play is written in a way that certainly lends itself to the digital format. For instance, many scenes jump sharply from an ‘Alice in Wonderland’-like underworld to, say, a starry night, and these transitions are quickly accomplished on stage using projection,” said MacDonald.

Both Killeen and her cast hope that the show offers its audience with a moment of reflection.

“The play is an invitation and we welcome you,” she said. 

“Eurydice” will be performed tonight and tomorrow night in Wish Theater at at 7:30 p.m. Advanced tickets are sold out but some may be available at the door.

When Brunswick residents Julie Marshall and her business partner and boyfriend Paul Giggey saw a brick and timber store-front with large windows at the end of Maine Street, the couple knew they had found the ideal property for Maine Street Sweets, their old-fashioned candy shop. 

The store sparks nostalgia and stays up to date with a wide selection of sweets; from classic peach ring candies to bright modern-flavored jelly beans for children.  

“Paul and I are kind of old souls anyway—so that’s why we [have] the nostalgics,” said Marshall. 

In their search for potential locations, Marshall and Giggey felt strongly that the space should dictate the type of business and not the other way around. 

When the space on Maine Street was finally put up for sale, its old-timey feel charmed the couple, who felt the space was perfect for a candy shop. The dream came to fruition as Maine Street Sweets had its grand opening last month. 

More than just inspiring an idea, the distinctive, antique feel of the space has also played a major role in other decisions, such as decor and inventory. 

Marshall and Giggey designed the store as a nod to the past: a contemporary spin on an old-fashioned candy shop. 

Marshall said she hoped that the store’s antique interior and collection of candies will make customers say, “remember when…”.

Marshall, who is originally from Virginia, has lived in Maine for twenty years. She and Giggey, who works as a schoolteacher in Lisbon, attended both high school and college together. The long-time friends  started dating five years ago.

The couple’s decision to open Maine Street Sweets was prompted by Marshall—an accountant by trade with the long-term aspiration of becoming a business owner. She explained that the prospect of owning a store of her own only recently became tangible. 

While she is currently keeping her day job, Marshall also decided to follow her longtime dream of owning a shop. She is thrilled to begin a new chapter in her life.

“I [said], ‘What do I want to do for the next ten years of my life? Well, [I thought] I better do it now because when I’m older I’m not going to be able to. So I started looking around,” she said.

 As for Marshall herself, owning a Brunswick business has been an exciting change of pace.

 “All the jobs I’ve had have been in bookkeeping. Everything was behind the scenes, in the backroom where you don’t see people,” she said. “Just to have people come in and say, ‘Wow, this is so cool’ is the most satisfying thing.”

With puffy arm chairs scattered across the room and the inviting aroma of butter wafting through the air, Brunswick’s Union Street Bakery has quickly become a local favorite.

The small pastry shop is a hidden gem for those venturing off campus in search of a hot mug of coffee and a freshly baked brioche cinnamon bun. Owner and head baker Sandy Holland opened the bakery on a quiet corner of Brunswick’s Union Street in June 2015.

Union Street Bakery is not the only restaurant Holland has owned in Brunswick. After receiving an Associate Degree from the Rhode Island School of Design in Culinary Arts, Holland and her former husband settled in Brunswick and opened a bake shop similar to Union Street called The Humble Gourmet. The couple closed the shop after a number of years, and Holland took a break from cooking and became a manager of a bank.

However, her love for baking remained as strong as ever, and it wasn’t long before Holland returned to the kitchen.

“I have a culinary degree; I have a culinary background—my whole life has been in restaurants,” said Holland. “As thankful as I was for those jobs, I really hated almost every minute of it because sitting at a desk was just miserable for me.”

“I knew that all I really wanted to do was bake and cook,” she said. “So I turned 50 and I got Obamacare and I quit my job.”

After seeing a vacant storefront on Union Street, Holland decided to purchase the space and open a neighborhood bakery, keeping community at the center of her vision. A resident Mainer who raised her three sons in Brunswick, Holland sees her connection to community as a crucial component of her business.

The space’s historical significance to Brunswick was also important in Holland’s decision to open Union Street Bakery. Until 2004, the building was a local store called Tetreault’s Market that had operated for nearly 75 years, supplying food for the neighborhood’s French-Canadian mill workers. After this market closed, the building housed various local businesses until it was purchased by Holland.

Personally acquainted with nearly every one of her customers, Holland explained she is not in the business for the money. Instead, her focus is on giving back to the community.

“I hate the pricing part of it because when you like to cook and you’ve been the mother of three sons, charging people for food is really not what you want to do. You just want to give it to them,” said Holland.

Holland says she has no plans for expansion—she is happy doing what she is doing now.

“People keep saying to me ‘you should open another one, you need more space, something bigger.’ But no. This is it … this is what I want to do,” she said.

Captain Sarah Kelley ’18 won the Maine State Cross Country Championship on Saturday to help the women’s team to a second-place finish for the second consecutive year.

Kelley’s success on Saturday is only one of her many accomplishments this season, which have included first place finishes at each of the three NCAA Division III races that team has competed in this year.

This week Kelley was named NESCAC Women’s Cross Country Performer of the Week—an honor that Head Coach Peter Slovenski sees as a product of Kelley’s competent racing strategy.

“Sarah looked very strong. She showed a lot of poise in the early stages and then…a lot of grit [pulling] away in that final mile as she did,” said Slovenski.

Even with her continued success this season, the title came as a surprise for Kelley since her training has not changed over the past couple years. 

“It’s a pleasant surprise to see improvement,” Kelley said.

This week’s other notable performance came from Demi Feder ’17, who has quickly become a crucial member of the team since joining this fall. A longtime track runner, she has shown steady improvement throughout the season, finishing fifth on the team in the first meet and fourth in the second meet.

“[Feder] was a very smart track runner, so we knew she could figure out the complexities of distance running,” said Slovenski. “She has had a really good intuition for when to hold back and when to move forward in workouts and races. It’s not easy to teach that and…it’s been a big help to the team this fall.”

While her lack of cross country experience could be seen as an obstacle, Feder credits her improvement in large part to being a new member on the team.

“Coming into it new I’ve been lucky enough not to have expectations and just take everything in,” said Feder. “I’ve been able to enjoy running for running and it’s the first time that I’ve truly felt that at Bowdoin. It’s taught me to love the fall and be completely infatuated with running through the woods. It’s more of a freeing experience in sport than I’ve ever had at Bowdoin before.”

Looking ahead, the team is preparing for the upcoming NESCAC Championship meet, which will be held at Colby next Saturday. In 2014 the women’s team placed 10th out of 11 at the NESCAC Championships and in 2015, the team moved up to 8th place. Slovenski hopes that with the proper training and focus the team will continue the upward trend this year.

“NESCAC has a lot of highly ranked teams in the NCAA Division III so it’s a really good conference for cross country. A top-five finish would be a great accomplishment,” said Slovenski.

Daisy Wislar ’18, an outspoken advocate for Bowdoin students with disabilities, organized a photography exhibit around a portrait series of eleven Bowdoin students. Set to open in the Lamarche Gallery in David Saul Smith Union on Monday October 3rd, the exhibit is titled I Am: A Conversation about Disability at Bowdoin and Beyond.

These portraits will be accompanied by texts written by these students illustrating their experiences as students with disabilities on campus. The exhibit will be opened to the Bowdoin community with a kick-off event on Monday evening at 7 p.m., followed by a Q&A panel featuring six students with disabilities.

With the sponsorship of the Bowdoin Office of Accommodations and the Good Ideas Fund, Wislar organized the event to highlight the diverse experiences of an identity that she believes is often overlooked in community discussion.

“I really want to create a space where that community can authentically speak about that experience, what it’s like to be disabled on this campus and in doing so create a larger campus conversation,” Wislar said. “When people talk about identity and talk about these intersectional identity issues that come out in a community like this, I really want ability to be included. I think it’s really important that we hold space for ability in that conversation because it impacts so many people here whether you know it or not.” 

In her effort to start the dialogue, Wislar has been vocal about sharing her own experiences as a student with a disability.

“Having a disability affects everything and nothing all at once. On the day-to-day … it’s just my lived experience, it’s just who I am. At the same time it impacts how I navigate this campus, it impacts how I interact with other people so it’s constantly informing everything I do.”

Wislar chose to feature portraits in her exhibit because of their powerful visual quality. Collaborating with classmate and student photographer Jude Marx ’18, the two conducted interviews with each featured student before Marx photographed each portrait. Marx hopes that the individual spirit of each student will come through in each portrait.

“The whole project is about giving visibility to individuals and identities that we don’t really talk about and I think that photos are a really special way of doing that. [They] are a platform for the individuals to say what they want to say and they’ve all done it differently,” said Marx.

Wislar expects that seeing portraits featuring real Bowdoin students will serve as a reminder that disability exists among us, even in places we don’t expect. She hopes the exhibit will counter the narrow and stereotypical portrayal of disability often displayed in the media and provide a more diverse and relatable image.

The exhibit will be on display in the Lamarche Gallery in Smith Union through October 24th.