School of the Arts: Creativity and camaraderie converge in the North Woods
Students plan to live what they learned
Students of many ages and backgrounds listen to creative‑writing professor Marshall Cook during one of 59 workshops in the arts offered at UW-Madison’s School of the Arts in Rhinelander, Wis. in late July. More than 300 students participated in the school, now in its 43rd year.
Photo: Steve Apps
On Friday, we begin to turn our thoughts toward home as we end one chapter of our arts experience.
We call good-byes in the lunchroom, pass contact lists in classes and talk about how we’ll work to continue the practices we began this week. What we have taken from the week, most of us say, is the belief that we can do it if we try.
How to describe the experience of a week at School of the Arts?
“It was fabulous,” says Rebecca Schumacher of Hancock, Wis. A student of improvisation, she says she gained confidence during the week, and saw that in others, too.
Shelley Travis of Keokuk, Iowa, was so taken with the movement practice Tai Chi Chih in her first exposure to it that she’s thinking of training to teach it.
“I had wonderful instructors,” she says. “They took time to work with you at the drop of a hat.”
Paul Theys of Green Bay, Wis., gave School of the Arts two thumbs up at the close of his first experience with the week-long workshops.
“It was a lot of fun and very educating,” says Theys, who took acting, playwriting and improvisation classes. “It brought out the joy and passion acting has for me.”
Berle Ouimette of Rhinelander, Wis., marked her 15th year at the school this season. Hoping to lessen her stress and ease a medical condition, Ouimette signed up for a meditation and relaxation class, were she meditated, chanted and laughed away cares.
“This has really helped me,” Ouimette says. “I didn’t know what I was getting into, but everything has been so easy to fall into. I had no problem letting go.”
By Friday, when another driver cut her off on the way to school, Ouimette says, she was able to tell herself: “Just smile, Berle. And I did.”
In the afternoon, I head one last time to the computer lab, where we students without laptops did our writing assignments and — those who felt they must — checked our e-mail.
I find myself singing a song from an old musical: “So long, farewell …”
The line is taken up by the fellow at a nearby computer: “Auf wiedersehen, goodbye.”
— Pat Schneider