Delivery of a president if}; i

Sitting in a B & G cart which was
strewn with empty beer bottles,
President Turner woefully
remarked Friday afternoon that
all the fun was soon to end as the
formality oi Saturday's
ceremonies closed in upon him.
Mr. Paul M. Kubeta, Academic
Vice President of Middlebury
College not only agreed, but he did
Something to break the stiff forr
mality of Saturday's Herrick
Inauguration,

As the ﬁrst speaker at the
Inauguration, Kubeta “gave the
president away," delivering
Turner from Middlebury t0
Grinnell. Extending “warm and
snowy greetings” to Grinnellians,
Kubeta spoke on behalf of Mid-
dlebury “who in their generosity
and wisdom worked diligently to
shape Richard Turnerﬁup."

Taking history into account on
the occasion, Kubeta reminded the
audience that JB. Grinnell was
“born up the road apiece rrom
Middlebury College,” Once again,
“Middlebury, in Addison County,
the land of milk and honey, ski and
sap, tries ever to serve Grinnell
and Iowa well by sending your
leaders westward before theyuare
totally corrupted."

Another Grinnellian was also
fostered “back home in the heart
of downtown metropolitan Mid-
dleburv. population 2000,” where
“down Frog Hollow Lane is a
Smithy where John Deere ap-
prenticed [or a pioneering career
breaking the plains.” Back on that
Middlebury campus on the hill “is
Glenn Leggett’s creative
playground where as a member ol
the class ol 1940, he tirst exc
perimented with the arduous joy of
education and the joyous ardor of
coeducation,”

Staying in Middlebury, Kubeta

reminiséed. there is “in an old
chapel in an abandoned office, now
only Richard Turner’s outgrown
birdcage where he chirped his first
administrative birdcalli‘Yeah’.”

Returning to the present in Iowa,
Turner was characterized by his
friend’s “way with words”, His
voice was ever soft, gentle, and
low—an excellent quality in a
president, but his capacity for the
colorful colloquism, he inherited
not from us. but be assured his
presidential rhetoric will never
have to be hushed or husked.”

Ceremoniously moving on to his
duty, “1 deliver you your new
president, not as a Vermont United
Parcel boy, I have not the strength
to move mountains that size, not as
a midwife or a midhusband, I can't
even deliver a speech,”

Kuheta chose rather to make his
delivery as an art collector. “I
come as an art collector less
generous than Clinton Rehling;
Middlebury’s priceless collection 1
present to you as an irreplaceable
masterpiece~on loan. We ignore
what others less gracious might
call your unconscionable ripoit,
because your motives are laudable
and your taste impeccable.

“You receive from me a gifted
gift, a Renaissance art historian of
landscape who now seeks an
educational perspective at a

Misiress of the stitches

When the Theater Department
presents its upcoming production
or Shakespeare's .\ Mid-
Sllmmel‘llight's Dream on April 24,

25, and 25, all the world (orjthc‘

people who attend) will witness the
labors of numerous Student
players, but the labors of Costume
Mistress Deborah J Lotsof will
have already been periormerl,

it you’ve been to many of the
Theater Department's productions
in the last iew yearspyou may have
noticed the regularity with which
Deb’s name appears alongside the
title of Costume Mistress. Now a
senior, she is completing work on
her last, biggest, and perhaps best
Grinnell theater production.

The play is a major ex-
travaganza ior all concerned, and
the Costume Shop, in particular, is
seeing more action than usual,
Theatergocrs will be happy to
learn, though. with opening night
only a week away, that creation of
the 40»odd costumes required tor
the play is going extremely well.
Deb considers the current show to
be the most challenging and ex-
citing in her three years as
Costume Mistress. She says it is an
even greater undertaking than last
year’s Once Upon A Mattress. and
is the first production for which she
has designed and executed every
costume starting only with pencil,
paper, and bolt after bolt oi fabric.

Planning (or the show began
early in the semester with the
designing of costumes; labric was
purchased over spring break at
various places in Chicago, Des
Moines and Grinnell, Since then,
work has proceeded feverishly to
produce what she describes as
“really almost four or five difc
ferent sets of costumes." Deb is
aided in the sewing by one paid
assistant, one practicum assistant,
3 seamstress hired from town
especially to help in thls produc
tion, and recruits from the In-
troduction to Scenic Construction
Techniques class,

That costume design is a definite
art is evidenced by the eight to ten
hours Deb estimates are spent on

‘ sureitsappropriate
her career (We

Costume Mistress, she has worked
on over twenty department
productions. She says in the early
stages of a production she spends
an avcrage of ten to twelve hours
each week in the Costume Show in
the final three to four weeks before
a play is presented, that figure
jumps to ten to twelve hours a day.

Although Dob is earning four
credits for this particular effort,
her work in the past has always
been in addition to an eighteenc
semester load, but the pleasure
apparently outwcighs the
sacrifices, “Working so hard, you
get emotionally lnvolved . , it’s
always a big let-down when it’s
over,” she says, and adds that it is
”tremendously exciting” to see
costumes, sets, props, and players
all in their different regions of the
Fine Arts basement, and watch
them all come together in the final
production. She does confess,
however, to asking the proverbial
”Why?” when she thinks of the

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time and energy spent for a mere
three or four nights on stage.

Certain positive changes have
taken place in the years Deb has
been involved in the Theater
Department. Costume holdings,
lor one thing, now occupy eleven
racks in the Fine Arts basement,
when four years ago they occupied
only four, She is also pleased with
the addition of faculty member
Terrence D. Jones who brought
interest and a course in costume
history to the cirruculum.

Much of Deb‘s study as a theater
major was carried out as in
dependent projects combined with
a lot of practical experience, in-
cluding work with Grinnell High
School and Community Theater
productions, She says she would
like to get into professional
costume design, and plans to at
tend graduate school in that field
next year.

by Mary Brown

Deborah 'Lotsoi‘:

 

Scarlet and Black, April IE. litisip. 3

 

by Greg robin

J. B. Grinnell brings our leaders westward

distinguished college, which X as a
Green Mountain Boy must say
looks toward a limitless horizon-
is it always this flat?"

Compliments continually flowed
Turner’s way—“Your president's
breadth of Vision makes him no
nuts and bolts administratorm
when he sees a nut, he boltsAand
so he has left us.

”I do not worry about his

financial finesse or his ability to
iinesse the finances, Where‘s
Waldo (Walker)?"

As a priceless work of art to
Kubeta, Turner’s move to Grinnell
filled Kubeta with envy
“unabashed", “You have chosen
well, now Grinnell among liberal
arts colleges becomes the chosen
one. i congratulate you.”

by’l‘ Elaine Carey

Comma Dedigu by Debbie Blatant

 

