This afternoon I gave an ice cream social at Sweet Briar House for members of the Endstation Theatre Company, which is in the middle of its annual residency on campus. Here they are, taking a quick break from their rehearsal schedule. (Right now, it’s Alice in Wonderland in Babcock, but Hamlet at the Dairy Barn is just around the corner!) 
It would be hard for me to overstate how proud we are to have Endstation on campus. Take a look at this wonderful feature piece from today’s Washington Post. Endstation is doing innovative live theater, theater that is not just in a place but of that place . . . showing us a Confederate Hamlet, working out his fate outside a Virginia barn, in the shadow of the Blue Ridge.
Colleges and universities should be places where the arts are alive. I mean something very specific by that: colleges should be places where art is created, adapted, changed, developed, and made new every day — not places where art is treated too reverentially or metaphorically trapped in amber. A company like Endstation brings living art to Sweet Briar and to the Amherst and Lynchburg communities, creating opportunities for all of us to explore. Students get to work with them and explore new dimensions of what it means to “do” theater. Meanwhile, old theatergoers like me get to explore what Hamlet means for audiences at this moment in time, in this specific place. If you’re going to be near campus during the rest of the season, do consider catching a performance. The schedule is here.
Company Members Enjoying the Garden
