StC News
US English teacher Chris Whalen continues his education
This past summer Upper School English teacher Chris Whalen began working on a master’s degree through Middlebury Bread Loaf School of English. Program participants complete the degree over four or five summers, spending time at Middlebury’s campus in Ripton, Vt. with the option to study at campuses at Oxford University in the United Kingdom or in Santa Fe, N.M. Mr. Whalen started his coursework at Oxford, spending eight weeks following one course titled “Stage to Page to Stage.”
What attracted you to the program?
"When I first came to St. Christopher’s after graduating from Kenyon College I knew that I wanted to pursue an advanced degree. I also knew I wanted to teach or get a professorship. Some of my own professors advised me to start teaching to make sure it was what I wanted to do before I spent six years in school pursuing a Ph.d. St. Christopher's offered me the chance to do both—to start my teaching career and to pursue another degree during the summers with the school’s financial support. So, I applied to the Bread Loaf program, got in and headed to Lincoln College at Oxford University in England in June to get started."
What was your course of study this past summer?
"I took a course called “Stage to Page to Stage” that was based on productions at theatrical institutions in London, Stratford and Oxford including the Royal Shakespeare Company, the National Theatre, Shakespeare’s Globe and the West End. We looked at the relationship between the texts and how they were performed on the stage through performances of The Alchemist, A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Richard III, Hamlet, Two Gentlemen of Verona, Ivanov, Dr. Faustus, The Plough and the Stars, The Threepenny Opera, and Romeo and Juliet. We wrote a response to each play that we saw and at the end of the semester, we chose a topic that played out through each play."
What did you end up focusing on?
"I sought to define the “new theatrical mechanism” through a study of metatheatrics, or the breaking down of the fourth wall in a theatrical setting. This is the idea that there is an invisible and imaginary wall that separates the world in which the actors perform and the world in which the audience spectates. There are two opposing schools of thought about acting that I concentrated on. One (the Stanislavskian method) holds that actors 'become' the character, trying to create the illusion that the events unfolding are happening in real time. The other, articulated by the theorist Berthold Brecht, proposes just the opposite. He sought to create a tension between the actor and the character and to ensure the audience remained aware of their surroundings. Simply put, Stanislavski wanted the audience on the edge of their seat, fully engaged. Brecht wanted the spectators forced out of the action, viewing from the depths of their chair. I suggested that the modern directors of the plays we saw are actually combining the two schools. As a member of the audience, you’re simultaneously pushed away from the production and pulled back into it.
How has your work in the program so far carried over into your teaching?
"I reference the plays I studied over the summer a lot in my teaching. Having studied them helps me teach them with greater attention to detail. I’ve gotten very comfortable thinking in terms of the stage and the production, and not just the text. For instance, a character might make a gesture that completely changes the meaning of what is being said in the text."
Can you share one extracurricular experience from last summer?
"I did manage to do a fair amount of traveling throughout England and even up to Scotland. Early in the summer, I made it up to Edinburgh, Scotland and on to the Cairngorms where I hiked four mountains. I also got to swim in a loch that was 57 degrees Fahrenheit to a castle that was in the middle of it."
What will the program involve next summer?
"Next summer I’ll be heading to Ripton, Vermont to the campus of Middlebury College. The course load is more significant and requires less independent study, so I won’t spend as much time researching."
Chris Whalen, who joined St. Christopher's in 2015, teaches composition and grammar, British literature, and American literature.
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