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Students write apology to Peterborough Playhouse
by Richard Raymond
Exchange Staff
Two Experiencing the Arts classes' attendance grades were affected after an e-mail from the Peterbourgh Playhouse complained about their behavior at a recent play.
According to the House Manager at the Peterbourgh Playhouse, Franklin Pierce students were being "rude and disruptive" during their performance of the Belle of Amherst last Wednesday night. Experiencing the Arts professors Richard Block and Richard Silvestro took their classes on the mandatory field trip to see the one-woman show starring Lindsay Crouse, outlining the life of poet Emily Dickinson.
Block, a professor of the Visual and Performing Arts division, received the forwarded e-mail from the Playhouse manager's report a couple of days after the play.
In the report, the manager said, "Tonight we had the bad Franklin Pierce kids…There were a couple of times when I wanted to go down into the audience and drag them out by the ears."
Block, who was not in attendance at the play, was disappointed to hear what some of the students had done. Silvestro accompanied the group, but was unaware of any disturbances.
"I was sitting in a part of the theater where I didn't hear anyone being disruptive," said Silvestro. "I don't want to believe that any student would do that."
They immediately decided to give everyone a failing grade for attendance of the play because they felt that all the students should be held responsible for letting the incident take place.
"We can't let the actions of a few spoil it from everyone, we're a community," said Block. "We have a long history with the Players. We've had faculty work there, students work there and graduates work there, and I didn't want to leave things sour."
Sophomore Casey Williams, who attended the play for Silvestro's class, said, "The problem with this group of students started as soon as we got on the bus. They were loud, inappropriate and immature. You can't fail the students and say we did nothing to prevent the incident. We told them to stop a number of times."
According to Williams, "One of the students was 21 and bought beers at the concession stand before the play and at intermission."
Block came up with a solution in which his students would have to write an apology letter to the Peterbourgh Players and, in return, he would then give them full credit for attending the play.
Eventually, both Experiencing the Arts classes wrote apology letters. Block stated that, "most students chose to write the letter of apology," even some who were not in attendance that night.
The Peterbourgh Players are in the 75th year as a professional theatre. It has made recent improvements by installing heating and ventilation, so that the theatre can stay open for more than the summer season.
To learn more about the Peterbourgh Players, visit www.peterbourghplayers.org.
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