description:
Page forty-eight Page forty-nine The Little Theatre, Eighth Floor DEPARTMENT OF DRAMATIC ART THE quick glow of a lacquer-red lamp on ihe stage darts long rays across gray curtains and even gleams faintly on the black-and-silver chairs in the body of the Little Theatre, as the speech student tries out her own theories of stage technique. The faces of actors who have succeeded in the profession that captivates her interest Catholic actors who have autographed these portraits for Mundelein College smile at her from the walls. She turns on the footlights and poses for a moment before the large mirror opposite her. Succumbing to temptation, she becomes another person, living through a moment of supreme tragedy, or addressing a line of buoyant comedy to blue Lake Michigan. The microphone dispels the illusion. Will Miss Speech Student please report on the auditorium stage? She has busy, vital days, the speech student at Mundelein. Once she has passed the elementary courses, with training in voice placement, breath control, and ease of speech and bearing, she devotes an increasing amount of time, through that enthusiastic and energetic organization, the Lae- tare Players, to recital work and dramatic presentation. She enriches her powers of interpretation as the weeks go by, learning to think and speak and move in character. Her movements become more flexible day by day, and her growing poise and ease of expression are evident even in casual conversation. Through her course in Stage Design, she becomes adept in selecting just the background for a given piece, and in improvising clever touches that give her settings a distinctive air. One very attractive phase of her work is the study of lighting effects. She learns to operate the huge switch of the auditorium stage, and can suggest just the right light for a February blizzard or a summer afternoon. She knows what lights will change the color of the curtains, filling them with purple shadows or making them gay and vivid. She studies Costume Design, learning to make each production perfect in those details that lend assurance to the players and atmosphere to the play. Through the study of dramatic technique and the writing of plays, she learns not only to criticize current productions intelligently, but also to revise and adapt poorly constructed plays that are based upon good material, and to write plays for production in the Little Theatre of the Speech Department and upon the auditorium stage. Executive ability and practical knowledge of the drama are developed by experience in the direction of plays, a task demanding understanding of technique, enthusiasm, endless patience, a lively sense of humor, and an imagination and knowledge of human nature that enable her to see the possibilities of her material, human as well as literary, and to bring them out to the full. The drama is of all arts the one that rests upon a happy combination of personality and teamwork. The Tower Music Library, Seventh Floor SCHOOL OF MUSIC SEVEN floors above the roar and rumble of the street is a rarefied atmosphere the realm of music. Is it a painting, that gleaming scene that greets us beyond the last door in the corridor? Certainly it resembles the background of a medieval masterpiece, with the calm, bright blue of the lake paneled by strips of creamy wall and dark casement. But no, it is only a glimpse of the music library, the untroubled room that seems built out into the lake, with all its windows looking on the water and with its eighteen hundred shelves hidden in the cloisters on either side of the entrance. A diminutive grand piano is here, a long, narrow table with its freight of music periodicals, a few paintings, an exquisite etching or two. One would scarcely guess the immense sheet-music capacity of this leisurely, decorative nook. Mundelein students are proud to know that already it contains the nucleus of a collection of original compositions for piano, voice, violin, and orchestra, by members of the faculty or students of the department. All the other features of an up-to-date school of music are grouped along the two transverse corridors of the department. Here are found rooms for the study of private and class piano, harp, violin, voice, history of music, and harmony, besides the rehearsal room for orchestra and glee club practice all that can aid the student in whatever course she may choose, whether it be applied music, theory, school music, church and choral music, or courses leading to the Bachelor of Music degree or to a music major in liberal arts or science. The attractive history of music course is rendered even more helpful and interesting by the reproducing Duo-Art piano, by means of which a composition is played and at the same time illustrated and analyzed on the screen. Keyboard harmony, sight singing and dictation, applied music, form and analysis, counterpoint, and composition and orchestration are some of the other courses offered. In the Voice Department, English literature, German, and Italian replace music history, keyboard harmony, and applied music, and are followed by additional courses in French, history and appreciation, acoustic, and electives. A major in theory and composition may be chosen, if desired, instead of in instrumental music or voice. Music education is also offered to those who take the supervisors' course in school music. Degrees, diplomas, or certificates are thus within the reach of those who aspire to professional heights. As a complement to a well-rounded education, music assumes high rank. It is a medium of expression; a study that can be pursued in leisure hours or that can absorb one's entire time in preparation for professional work. It creates a taste for the lovely and the aesthetic such as few other studies are able to arouse. Thus the Music Department of Mundelein College has appropriately taken up its residence close to the sky. f 19 3 1
title:
tower1931024
publisher:
Women and Leadership Archives http://www.luc.edu/wla
creator:
Mundelein College Sisters of Charity of the Blessed Virgin Mary
description:
There are eight total Mundelein College yearbooks: 1931, 1932, 1967, 1968, 1969, 1971, 1972, and 1985.
relation:
Mundelein College Collection
description:
Reading Room
type:
Print
rights:
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