Recap of Winter 2023 Courses

Winter 2023

Who was Carson McCullers and Why All the Renewed Interest in her Life and Written Work? with Steven Reynolds

I remember my first encounter with Carson McCullers’s work in the late 1960s when I was mesmerized by the film version of The Heart is a Lonely Hunter starring the mute Alan Arkin. To this day, I think of its beautiful and profound vision of lost love and the important need we all have for connection and friendship. I was equally moved by reading and seeing the novel and film versions and her other great works, The Ballad of the Sad Café and The Member of the Wedding. Then, in 2008, when I was asked to direct a Julie Harris tribute production of the stage version of The Member of the Wedding at Cape Rep in Brewster, I knew my fascination and interest in McCullers would only grow as I visualized and listened to her words almost every day for six weeks.

What I would like to do in this course is to explore with you both the life and major work of Carson McCullers and why there is so much renewed interest in her work in the 21 st Century. After the first Zoom session on her biography, we’ll focus on The Heart is a Lonely Hunter (1940), The Ballad of the Sad Café (1943) and both the novel (1946) and play (1950) versions of The Member of the Wedding. I’m hoping to have some of the actors involved in the 2008 Cape Rep production share thier experiences with us in the last class.

Gore Vidal thought Carson to be “the best American woman novelist” in the mid-twentieth century and “of all Southern writers, . . . the most apt to endure.” However, playwright Arthur Miller and others considered her a “minor” American writer. Let’s consider why these and other recent perspectives (including our own) were formed.



Cole Porter: The Elfin Wonder from Peru with Marc Strauss

From before his first hit, “Let’s Do It (Let’s Fall in Love),” in the 1928 Broadway musical Paris, to after his last, “True Love,” in the 1955 film High Society, Cole Albert Porter (June 9, 1891 – October 15, 1964) was famous for his witty, urbane lyrics, breathtaking melodies, and often censored double entendres in over 800 songs written for dozens ofvBroadway shows and film musicals.

Over the five weeks of this course, Marc Strauss will present and coordinate discussion of over fifty Great American Standard and rare Cole Porter tunes via CD, DVD, and YouTube recordings from both Broadway and Hollywood. Marc will help students dig deep into Porter’s musical and lyrical artistry, as well as discuss cultural and social contexts surrounding his personal life to provide rich insights into his songs.

Women in Architecture: Defining Viewpoints with Martha Rothman

This course will focus on women who became architects from the 19th century to the present. We will examine their motivations to choose the profession, their place in the historic trajectory, and their contributions as practicing architects and/or design educators. For each class, we will cite several women who were notable in the profession at the time, then explore the work of two architects and how their individual viewpoints shaped their types of work, practice models and their design.

Let us note that the course is titled “Women in Architecture” (not “women architects”). My premise is that individual viewpoints produced different types of work, with no common ground of a “feminine gene” that links the work. Rather, an underlying persistence and aptitude enabled these women to succeed in what was perceived as “a man’s profession.” Work of women, largely unrecognized in earlier eras, has recently begun to receive recognition. Women are acknowledged now as firm leaders and for their design contributions.

We will consider, also, how these architects, their specific points of view and their work reflects generational shifts within the profession. In addition to the formal aspects of building design and execution, themes we will explore include: blurring boundaries between disciplines, working across different scales, and extending the idealistic roots of architecture to serve the “common good” as they apply to current social issues: the environment, climate change and equity/equality.