I love how there is always something to do in Chicago! I’m so used to the small town where my school is – where everything closes at 5pm and stays closed on Sunday (people can’t even mow their lawn on Sunday). But here, we’ve been able to find something almost every day.
Last weekend Renae and I headed down to the loop for a couple of hours. A friend I have that attends Moody Bible Institute had told me that there was a game of "Where's Waldo in the Windy City?" so we went, determined to find him. There were boundaries set which made up an area of about 20 blocks where Waldo, Wanda, Wizard Whitebeard, Woof, and Odlaw would be hiding. We had two hours to find them and it was quite an adventure! It was a lot more fun that you would think - wandering around the city searching for a man in a red and white shirt/hat - and then the excitement when you finally find one of them – plus it was a great way to explore the city and a fun way to get a better feel for the layout of streets and buildings around the loop.
This weekend a couple friends and I went out to the Randolph Street Market which was a little more difficult to find than it should have been, but once we got there it was a lot of fun to browse through tent after tent of antiques, art, and vintage clothing and jewelry. It was quite the experience for me because it was the first time I had ever haggled with someone to lower a price (and I’m quite proud of myself I might add, because I got a $15 ring for just $8).
In the evening, we got back to the apartment just in time for the progressive dinner. The food was wonderful (plus it was free) and it was fun to see everyone else in the building. It’s interesting living in Canterbury since there are so many of us, but we rarely see each other. I thought it was going to be more like a dorm instead of an apartment building because of the number of people, but since our schedules are so busy and we are spread throughout the building, we only see each other when we make specific plans to meet up. It’s nice, however, because it’s kind of a bridge between dorm-life and living on my own this summer, even though when living on my own I probably won’t have as many people I know that I can run into walking down the street, riding the elevator, or while doing laundry.
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Thursday was our second Fine Arts event – we went to see History Boys at the Timeline Theater. It was an intense play, which presented very controversial topics through the story of eight boys and their daily lives at their boarding school. The actors in this play were, in my opinion, amazing at drawing the audience into their lives – the joys and the struggles – and more importantly, engraved them in our minds. Immediately after the play my roommate and I looked at each other and both said “I want to see that again!” We didn’t think we’d actually go a second time, but it ended up that we didn’t have plans Friday night, and our other roommate works at Timeline, so we managed to get some wait-list tickets and saw it a second time. Since leaving the play Thursday night, my roommate and I have discussed the play multiple times – we frequently catch ourselves thinking about the story and analyzing the characters as well as how they dealt with the many situations thrown at them.
(this isn't entirely the same cast, but just to give you the general idea)
We have to write reading responses for the “Arts in the City Class” and this week we were asked to write a little about our favorite character. I don’t think I can choose a favorite character from this play – they each had their own draws – even the characters like Crowther (the “class clown”), Rudge (the “dumb athlete”) and Lockwood (the “strong silent type”) who didn’t have very big speaking parts were still characters that stuck in my mind. Each of the actors were engulfed by their characters – I tend to find myself watching the actors who are not speaking during plays to see how they behave and react non-verbally and I was impressed with the commitment of each of these actors. I think some of my favorite parts of the play were the quieter interactions and the jokes/side comments that only those sitting closest to them could hear.
The more I dwell on it and try to pick my favorite based solely on the script, I think I would have to say Scripps (who was one of the main characters and had little narrative sections that seemed like he was reflecting back from and older age). I found his character to be very relatable. He was kind of the over-seer of the entire group, but more so, I think this character was the most intriguing because of his relationship with both Dakin (the “good-looking one”) and Posner (the “outcast”). His friendship with Posner was highly understated but there were many times I saw the two of them interacting, whether it was while they were both sitting on the piano bench, sharing a hug after the papers/interviews were over, or the moment shared when Scripps brought Posner his book bag after finishing a song. That is the moment that stick with me the most – Scripps approaches Posner with a big smile and acts as if to say “good job” but something happens (which I didn’t catch) that causes Scripps to become concerned or confused as he walks back to his desk, and even lingers with a uneasy look at Posner before sitting.
I also found this play interesting because of the way the theater was set up. We were thrown in to their lives with them living in their rooms in full character before we were seated. And with having the two halves of the audience facing each other I caught myself, once or twice, observing people on the other side of the auditorium to see how they were reacting. I think it allowed me to feel like a fellow student – just sitting off to the side – instead of a distant audience member. It forced me to really address the issues that they were addressing: what did I think of Hector (one of the boys’ teachers) or Posner or the relationship between Dakin and Irwin (another teacher)?
I’m still not entirely sure, but it has been one of the many things I have been thinking about since Thursday, wondering what brought Dakin to that point where he greatly longed to push Irwin over the edge and what made Irwin allow it to happen. The subtle transformation of Irwin’s character was intriguing as well and his inability to “draw the line between teacher and friend” in the long run. Is it all a story of a person’s innermost desire to be liked by another, the teaching and use of history as a subject, or a commentary of the confrontations of homosexuality in the 1980s?
Though I think it is all three, I think it was also an interesting look at how we as individuals chose to use our knowledge and education. Though we will be out of school soon, it doesn’t mean that we stop being students, and of ten it is in those situations in life, like the ones these boys and teachers faced, that we learn more that we ever could in a classroom.
