02.03.2015

My second day of my International Intern!

I was so excited because one day before I was going to conduct my interviews, I thought they were going to cancel it because yesterday it was snowing so hard.

My task for today was awesome. Today marked the start of the auditions for the play "The Glass Menagerie" by Tennesse Williams, the production for this Spring Semester at Iona College.
The students that love acting in the theatre were auditioning for this new play of the Department of Fine and Performing Arts & The Iona College Theatre Ensemble.

The audition was in Doorley Hall, Doorley Auditorium, next to East Hall. They were held from 12:00 p.m. to 2:00 p.m.

Dawn asked me to go to interview some students asking why they wanted to participate in the play, and which character(s) they were auditioning for, and also some more basic questions such as the year in the school (freshman, sophomore, et.) their major, and if they had participated in an audition before.

Additionally, I had to interview Professor Donnarumma, who sponsored this event. He chose the Glass Menagerie because it is one of the classic plays of the American Theatre. Also, as he said, "I always give my students and the assembly very challenging pieces of work to do because it gives them the opportunity to really delve into amazing works of literature."

Talking with him was exciting because he makes you see other aspects of the college. Donnarumma believes that acting and the theater are part of the reason why people are here in the college. They want to really explore and strengthen their minds and their education. He believes that selecting this particular theatre piece would give the opportunity to the Iona Community to see a classic piece of theatre literature as well. 









Then, he explained to me what the play was about. The play revolves around a young man begrudgingly supporting the family his father has abandoned. It also features a painfully shy and slightly crippled sister character, whose preoccupation with a collection of glass animals draws her away from reality. Set against the backdrop of the Depression, the family struggles together with the past, the future, and one another. The action of the play centers on the characters of Tom, the main character, his mother Amanda and his sister Laura. And those are three of the parts of the play that the students would be auditioning for.

Prof Donarumma was so nice and friendly with me, he also told me that he has been to Barcelona a couple of years ago with his wife, and that he enjoyed it so much while visiting museums of art, dances and operas. I could see in the eyes of Prof. Donnarumma the strong interest in the play The Glass Menagerie. Prof Donnarumma founded the Theatre Program in 2005; this year is the 10th anniversary. As he said, “when I came to the College I wanted to establish a theatre assembly that was very reputable and that the college community would look at and say that this was very excellent work that the students were doing and they do it at a very high and professional level.” Prof Donnarumma wanted to establish a repertory and an assembly that they would do all different genres of theatre, from the classical theatre to the contemporary. But he says that every piece of theatre would be challenging and would be from the best theatre authors in the world, from the American theatre, to the Spanish, German, and Russian theatre. So what Prof Donnarumma wants is “to bring them into the College and having my students excel all of these genres of this great works.”

My second day in my international Intern was so different and artistic for me. 
Can't wait to go tomorrow!

AAGG




PS: If you guys are interested on this awesome play, I leave you with the information of the days when it is going to be held: