Durang ’71 Honored At 14th Annual Arts Festival

Blessed with unseasonably perfect weather, Harvard celebrated its 14th annual Arts First festival this past weekend, a showcase of over 200 student art performances.

Organized by the Office for the Arts (OFA), the springtime arts extravaganza featured venues of all shapes and sizes, from co-ed a cappella concerts to Japanese tea ceremony demonstrations. This year’s festivities, featuring a combination of dancers, singers, visual artists, actors, and musicians lead outgoing University President Lawrence H. Summers to describe it as “one of the most enjoyable weekends of the year.”

And the artists themselves appreciated the opportunity to be the star attractions on campus.

“It gives us a chance in the arts community to collaborate with each other,” said Michael L. Vinson ’07, President of the Harvard Kuumba singers, who sang in Sanders Theater Saturday night. “Most of the time, we’re so busy with our own things that it’s really nice to have one compact weekend to just go out and support each other.”

Most events boasted high attendance rates throughout the weekend; many performances, which sometimes struggle for audiences during the rest of theyear, played to packed houses as families, friends, and Cantabrigians ventured out to partake in the celebration.

“Some weekends there’s huge crowds, and then some weekends there aren’t,” said Barry A. Shafrin ’09, who preformed in the Sunken Garden Children’s Theater’s production of “A Tale of Two Cities.” “I feel like Arts First is really good because people will make a connection to the arts and want to see shows in the future.”

The OFA also honored six outstanding student artists this weekend, including Zoe M. Savitsky ’07 with the Louise Donovan award. She applauded the event for bringing the greater Harvard community together in celebration of the arts.

“Arts First is vital to [Harvard] because it highlights just how significant the arts are to so many undergraduates, regardless of their concentration.”

One of the weekend’s main attractions was the 2006 Harvard Arts Medal ceremony, where the former-choir-boy-turned-savage-satirist Christopher F. Durang ’71 was honored with the prize. Following the ceremony, John Lithgow ’67, who was last year’s commencement speaker and founded the Arts First program, led a conversation with Durang in front of a sold out audience at the Agassiz Theater.

As Summers introduced the controversial playwright, he noted that both he and Durang shared the same disregard for political correctness.

“The more sensitive the subject, the more provocative and direct is his approach,” Summers said, before presenting Durang with the medal.

During the interview, Durang discussed the inception of his play writing interest and the complaints his work has received over the years. He talked about his latest project, “Adrift in Macao,” a film noir parody, and his squabble with famed director Robert Altman, calling his film adaptation of Durang’s “Beyond Therapy,” “ghastly” and “really awful.” Durang also provided insight into his personal writing style and gave aspiring writers in the audience a tip.

“An awful lot of writing is intuitive. In the rewriting process, you can use the more intelligent part of your brain.”

But the Art First celebration was not limited to professional artists. With help from Jack Megan, director of the OFA, as well as the construction company itself, residents of Mather, Dunster, and Leverett House united to paint the gray wall seperating Cowperthwaite St. from the construction zone across the street.

“People were a little fatalist about the construction, so this way we can own it more and make it ours,” said Dunster resident Erinn M. Wattie ’06, who helped organize the event. Each house had total freedom to paint eight of the 24 panels. Mather chose a classic arts theme, creating Pollack and Van Gogh inspired scenes, while Dunster went with a “moose-tastic” design Evan R. Johnson ’06, a Dunster resident and also a Crimson editor said.

—Staff writer Lindsay A. Maizel can be reached at lmaizel@fas.harvard.edu.