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Arts & Entertainment

Performance Art

Department of Theater and Dance performs first in-person stage play “Cows of War”

Last Friday evening, the Bowdoin Department of Theater and Dance traded in vocal warm-ups and a house packed full of Bowdoin students for rapid pre-performance COVID-19 testing and cameras placed in an empty Pickard Theater for a staged production of the “Cows of War.” The play, written by Department of Theater and Dance Coordinator Callie Kimball and directed by Associate Professor of Theater Abigail Killeen, marks the Department’s first production since the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic in March 2020.

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Dance

Bowdoin dance groups find creative ways to keep moving

In response to the challenges posed by social distancing and remote learning, several dance groups at Bowdoin—including Polar Bear Swing Dance, VAGUE and Arabesque—have adapted their structures to keep their members socially connected and active. Polar Bear Swing Dance, led by Sydney Cox ’23 and Zachary Kaplan ’21, has been meeting exclusively over Zoom since last semester.

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Quarantine Cinema

Please stop asking for director’s cuts

After watching six hours of footage expanded from what was previously one two-hour movie, I can say that “Zack Snyder’s Justice League” is vastly better than the original theatrical release of “Justice League.” A film that was meant to make millions was fumbled so badly by those involved that it took four years before the intended cut was seen by fans.

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Arctic Studies

Rhea Banker shares the value of the Greenlandic qamutit

For photographer Rhea Banker, qamutits, or Greenlandic ice sleds, are more than just a vehicle for traversing an  unforgiving arctic landscape—they are objects that tell unique cultural stories. In her virtual lecture, “Qamutit: Portraits in the Landscape,” hosted by the Peary-MacMillan Arctic Museum on Wednesday night, Banker spoke about her work in the Arctic, where she photographed Greenland and the ice sleds that dot its terrain.

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Film

Bowdoin Film Society plans programming and Journal of Cinema release

The Bowdoin Film Society looks forward to re-engaging the College community with cinema through the inaugural launch of Bowdoin Journal of Cinema in May. The Journal is an extension of the Bowdoin Film Society, and came about after Society member Kate McKee ’22 reached out to Finn McGannon ’23, one of the Society’s officers late last fall.

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Faculty

Killeen stars in Smithsonian television episode

When Associate Professor of Theater Abigail Killeen first heard about the opportunity to act in an episode of the Smithsonian’s “America’s Hidden Stories,” she did not realize that she was auditioning for a starring role. Earlier this month—almost a year after that audition—she made her debut as Elizabeth Van Lew, a Union spy who fought for the abolition of slavery during the Civil War.

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Alumni

Sally Rose Zuckert ’19 explores making theater in the current moment with virtual show

In the current near-cessation of live theater due to the COVID-19 pandemic, Sally Rose Zuckert ’19 believes that there is a chance for a reckoning: the invitation to reimagine the institution and question its history. Through her performance in the University of Chicago production of Diana Oh’s “My H8 Letter to the Gr8 American Theater,” Zuckert challenges theater as a cultural reflection and explores inequities that have always existed in the theater industry.

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Brunswick

Brunswick-based artists and galleries recount triumphs and struggles of past year

What is art worth without people to experience it? In what has been close to a 12-month period where Brunswick-based art galleries and local independent artists have been forced to curtail and restructure their operations, those in the industry have grappled with just that question—and found creative solutions to operate their businesses and safely bring their work to the world, even during the pandemic.

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Quarantine Cinema

The importance of Black stage-to screen adaptations

It’s safe to say that the majority of present-day moviegoers steer clear of stage-to-screen adaptations. There are films in this subgenre that would be considered classics, like Elia Kazan’s “A Streetcar Named Desire” and Milos Forman’s “Amadeus” and “One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest,” but there is something about the intimacy of watching the film version of a work originally performed as a stage play that turns many audiences off.

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Student Activities

WBOR prepares for the spring semester

Despite the obstacles of running a radio station amid pandemic restrictions, WBOR, Bowdoin’s radio station, has found inventive ways to keep the College community connected to music. When Bowdoin transitioned to remote learning in the spring 2020 semester, the radio station’s setup did not function anymore.

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Student Life

Bowdoin Animation Society takes advantage of online platforms to stay connected

The Bowdoin Animation Society (BAS) continues to virtually watch and critique animation through online platforms in an effort to maintain their tight-knit community during the mostly remote fall semester. The members of BAS hope to simulate the social experience of gathering together and discussing animation by using a variety of messengers and servers.

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Books

Special Collections speaker sheds light on the living work of the archive

In the third installment of the “Beyond the Reading Room” virtual lecture series hosted by Bowdoin College Library’s George J. Mitchell Department of Special Collections and Archives (Special Collections), literary scholar Susan Beegel joined the Bowdoin community over Zoom on Monday to explore the role of Harriet Beecher Stowe’s novel in transforming Orr’s Island from a fishing village to a summer tourist attraction.

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Dance

Dance collective provides comfortable and virtual space for experimental movement

Editor’s note 12/28/2020 at 10:38 p.m.: This article has been updated to accurately reflect details around the establishment of the Movement Collective.  Seeking to replace the tedium of Zoom meetings with the joyful experience of shared dance, Lucy Sydel ’22 and Emma Dewey ’22 are transforming the landscape of dance at Bowdoin through the Movement Collective: an expressive, dance-based initiative that emphasizes the need for student connection without the formality of usual Zoom meetings.

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Quarantine Cinema

“Borat Subsequent Moviefilm” and the limitations of political comedy

Jak sie masz! The days are now in the single digits as we wait for the election, and Sacha Baron Cohen decided it was a perfect time to release his new political comedy, “Borat Subsequent Moviefilm: Delivery of Prodigious Bribe to American Regime for Make Benefit Once Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan.” Although I was thoroughly excited to watch the film, I noticed that there were great differences between the two Borat films.

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A Cappella

Singing over Zoom: a cappella auditions go virtual

In a normal academic year, Bowdoin’s six a cappella groups would have finished recruitment several weeks ago. The week-long process, which typically takes place in late September, consists of a first round of auditions, a second round of callbacks and the “draft,” where the A Cappella Council meets to express interest in singers and then issue bids to them.

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Quarantine Cinema

“The Forty-Year-Old Version” and the nightmare of being a marginalized creator

Over the past few weeks, I have constantly been thinking about the movies that studios are putting on the backburner to release when theaters are completely reopened. I am excited to see Cary Joji Fukunaga’s “No Time To Die,” Edgar Wright’s “Late Night in Soho,” Denis Villeneuve’s “Dune” and, honestly, I am curious about Malcolm D.

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Alumni

New costumer Lily Prentice ’10 joins the Theater and Dance Departmemt

During the initial chaos of the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic, a month after Bowdoin’s emergency transition to remote instruction, the Theater and Dance Department hired Lily Prentice ’10 as its newest costume shop manager. While the fall semester has been unlike any other for the Theater and Dance Department, Prentice still has her hands full with small- and large-scale sewing projects, educating and advising students about the role of costume in the performing arts and organizing the costume shop—all of which the department lacked the time to do during typical, in-person semesters.

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Anti-Racism

Museum of Art publishes anti racism action plan

The Bowdoin College Museum of Art (BCMA) has unanimously approved and released an Anti-Racism Action Plan with hopes of pushing the Museum towards greater equity and inclusion. “This statement represents a recommitment on the part of everybody who’s a member of the [BCMA] staff since everybody had an opportunity to read drafts and contribute recommendations,” said Frank Goodyear, co-director of the BCMA, in a Zoom interview with the Orient.

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Art History

BCMA exhibition illuminates Wyvern Collection

On Wednesday, Visiting Assistant Professor of Art History Kate Gerry gave two talks about her recent exhibition on the Wyvern Collection—one of the most important privately owned  medieval art collections in the world. The Bowdoin College Museum of Art (BCMA) secured a long-term loan of 100 of its objects through an anonymous lender.

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A Cappella

Ursus Verses sings together despite the distance

With only first years, transfer students and a select few upperclass students on campus this semester, maintaining club connections requires extra creativity in the virtual sphere. Ursus Verses, one of  Bowdoin’s coed a cappella groups, is working to overcome the challenges of remote learning and to cultivate a supportive musical environment despite the distance.

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Anti-Racism

Museum webinar links visual art to anti-racist work

On Wednesday, the Bowdoin College Museum of Art (BCMA) hosted the first installment  of “Art Up Close”—a five-part series where students, staff and faculty come together to discuss art. The first webinar brought together 20 community members to discuss “Protest Art and Black Lives Matter.” Claire Traum ’21 and Lucy Siegel ’22, two members of the Bowdoin College Museum of Art Advisory Council, developed the idea after gaining experience with webinars during summer opportunities.

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Museum

Museum of Art spearheads remote programming

The Bowdoin College Museum of Art (BCMA) must abide by the College’s color-coded campus status levels. Currently, at “yellow” status, first-year writing seminar students and their accompanying faculty members can enter the BCMA for a class visit; at “orange” status, only faculty and staff may enter; at  “red” status, only essential staff members may enter the building.

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Comedy

Improvising 2020: Bowdoin Improvabilities move remote

Between a pandemic and a precarious political climate, very little has gone according to plan over the past several months, and the world has had to learn how to improvise. “Improvabilities,”  Bowdoin’s oldest improvisational comedy group, has worked to modify and adapt their craft to suit a remote model.

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Performance Art

Visual and performing arts adapt for remote learning

This semester, without the ability to gather in the studio or rehearse on stage, faculty in the visual and performing arts have had to come up with creative approaches to remote instruction and artistic community-building. Despite these challenges, students have begun the semester with great enthusiasm, filling introductory courses and, in some cases, becoming part of long waitlists.

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Poetry

In memory of Eavan Boland H’04

Eavan Boland H’04, scholar, professor and trailblazing poet, died following a stroke in her home in Dublin on April 27. She was 75. Boland was born in 1944 to Frederick Boland, a diplomat and Irish ambassador to the United Kingdom, and Frances Kelly, a well-known painter.

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Theater

On a changing stage: Tina Satter ’96 named a 2020 Guggenheim Fellow

Tina Satter ’96 got the news that she had received a Guggenheim Fellowship in Drama and Performance Art just as the entire landscape of her life’s work began shifting, maybe for good. “The big question, and the constant micro-question of every day [is]: ‘How does theater exist on the other side of [the COVID-19 pandemic]?’ That I don’t even know how to answer, but you go back to the work,” Satter said in a phone call with the Orient.

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Bowdoin Minecraft Club builds virtual community

Katie Filiakova ’22 first developed the idea for a Bowdoin Minecraft Club in the middle of March, while sitting in the Moulton Union with a friend. Little did she know that less than a month later, the digitally-generated campus on the Bowdoin Minecraft server would be the nearest she could get to the real thing.

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Ivies

Ivies 2020: what could have been

On March 19, during a virtual ‘town hall’ about the coronavirus (COVID-19) and its impact on the College, President Clayton Rose confirmed the cancellation of this year’s Ivies weekend. The news saddened members of the Bowdoin community, including those on the Entertainment Board (eBoard) who plan the annual spring concert.

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Dance

Theater and dance faculty share lip sync video

Dancing outdoors and sharing snapshots of quarantined family life, faculty from the Department of Theater and Dance relayed an exuberant and spirited message to the Bowdoin community last week. With 2,500 views and counting, professors starred in a video cover of The Temptations’ 1960s Motown hit “Can’t Get Next To You,” taking a humorous—albeit important—stance on the social distancing measures prompted by the coronavirus (COVID-19).

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Music

Mauceri redefines music through computation

Frank Mauceri, senior lecturer in music and coach of Bowdoin’s jazz combos, loves to play music with students. His other, more unconventional combo-partner, however, is his computer. Mauceri merges music with computer science, using machine learning and machine listening to improvise and play songs.

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Alumni

Reider recalls his boy band days

In 2006, the midst of the 2000s mainstream pop-punk acts, The Friday Night Boys formed with Bowdoin junior Robert Reider ’07 as its bassist. Fourteen years later—after two albums, three EPs and multiple tours with names such as Boys Like Girls, All Time Low, We The Kings and Cute is What We Aim For—Reider is back at Bowdoin as the assistant director of annual giving at the College.

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Theater

One Acts continue M&G tradition

Rarely does the process of embalming incite romance, but in the Wish Theatre this past Saturday, love bloomed amidst dead bodies and shaving cream. Or, at least, it did for the duration of “Over My Dead Body,” written by Dylan Sloan ’22, Johnny Liesman ‘22 and Elizabeth Gracey ’22, which debuted this past Saturday at Bowdoin’s annual one-act play festival.

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Live Music

Frontier’s Songwriters on Stage showcases local musicians

On Tuesday night, local musicians and music lovers gathered at Frontier to hear a medley of songs and vocals in the cozy theatre tucked into the old mill at the end of Maine Street. Michael Gilroy opened Frontier in Fort Andross in 2006, with a mission to “connect the world through food, arts and culture.” The business strives to do this through its restaurant, coffee bar, event spaces and theater, used for a variety of community gatherings.

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Books

Reizbaum explores Judaism in new book

On Wednesday evening, Harrison King McCann Professor of English Marylin Reizbaum discussed her latest book—one that took her 10 years to complete. “Unfit: Jewish Degeneration in Modernism” examines the manifestations of degeneration theory in Jewish artwork.

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Unheard Voices

Fakoly embraces West African roots through music

Tiken Jah Fakoly, born Doumbia Moussa, is an internationally renowned Ivorian reggae singer from Odienné, a town in the northwestern region of the Ivory Coast. Heavily inspired by Alpha Blondy, another Ivorian reggae star from the 1980s, Fakoly began his musical career at the age of 18, secretly composing songs that he hid from his strict Muslim family.

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Museum

‘Pasado y Presente’: A glimpse into Mexican society

“Pasado y Presente: Twentieth-Century Photographs of a Changing Mexico” is the first Latin America-focused exhibition featured at the Bowdoin College Museum of Art (BCMA) in the past 15 years. The collection of photographs, curated by Associate Professor of Romance Languages and Literatures Carolyn Wolfenzon Niego’s intermediate Spanish class, opened on January 7 and will be on display through March.

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