"OK, who has the memorized?" Professor Dan Crozier asks the dozen students in his advanced acting class--all of them clutching copies of Romeo and Juliet as they shiver in the cool air of early spring outside the new Vukovich Center for Communication Arts.
Crozier moved his class from the relative privacy of the center's rehearsal room to its courtyard, a public stage where students can practice their craft. It's the perfect venue for students to act out the play's famous balcony scene--the aspiring Juliets climb the courtyard's steps and fan out along the railing above, while the Romeos remain at ground level to declare their love.
Up until now, the students have been reading--almost but not quite in unison--lines from their books. "It's not the same experience, the same rhythm, when you're constantly looking down to read," Crozier tells his students.
Two volunteers step forward to recite the lines from memory, with Crozier offering the occasional suggestion on how they can be more expressive. Romeo takes Crozier's advice to heart, scaling the outside of the courtyard's stairway to get that much closer to Juliet. Passers-by heading to the Campus Center become an impromptu audience, with most at least turning their heads to soak in a snippet of Shakespeare.
Students in Professor Dan Crozier's advanced acting class practice in the Vukovich Center's courtyard
Activity both inside and outside the Vukovich Center is, quite intentionally, always on display. The facility, which opened for classes this spring semester, has expansive windows and a central location in the College's evolving "Gator Quad"--a well-traveled corridor bordered by creative spaces in Arnold Hall of Music, Doane Hall of Art, and the College's art galleries.
Home to the popular and innovative communication arts and theatre department, the Vukovich Center is foremost a teaching and learning facility, rather than simply a performance venue. It's a place where technology and an aesthetically direct approach to architecture combine to complement the close interaction of faculty and students that is a hall-mark of the liberal arts experience at Allegheny.
Most important, the Vukovich Center provides a state-of-the-art canvas on which students from across the disciplines can learn to express their ideas in innovative and meaningful ways.
Continue reading the feature article, "The Curtain Rises on the Vukovich Center for Commmunication Arts."
