February 2018
Over the Moon
The Love Doctors
Peter Spears reflects on universal impact of ‘Call Me By Your Name’ p.4
Profs. Eli Finkel, Alexandra Solomon dig into relationship science p.10
Mozart Meets #MeToo
Comedy with a Boom
Joachim Schamberger modernizes Mozart’s Don Giovanni p.8
Boom Chicago celebrates 25 years dominating Dutch improv scene p.12
PAINT THE EYES SOFTER: MUMMY PORTRAITS FROM ROMAN EGYPT
JANUARY 13–APRIL 22, 2018
www.blockmuseum.northwestern.edu Cer For ma For H est k arle est Par 54t m Par M k h/C idw k Loo e a rma y p O Ho ’Ha k dw w re Ash ard ay Go lan Kim d/6 3rd nde Co b ttag all beyond eG n Ho rov Loo e w thep Bean. ard em 54t H h/C ow ard erm F F n ore ore ak st P st P ark ark Mid H arle wa Engage m y Kim CHICAGO Loo k bal 95t p l Ho h/D wa an rd R M y id H a @nublockmuseum
Organized by the Block Museum of Art at Northwestern University in collaboration with the McCormick School of Engineering, Weinberg College of Arts and Sciences and Feinberg School of Medicine.
THE MONTHLY Contents
Over the Moon
Peter Spears reflects on universal impact of ‘Call Me By Your Name’
Mozart Meets #MeToo
Joachim Schamberger modernizes Mozart’s Don Giovanni
The Love Doctors
Profs. Eli Finkel, Alexandra Solomon dig into relationship science
Comedy with a Boom
Boom Chicago celebrates 25 years dominating the Dutch improv scene
04 08 10 12
Staff of The Monthly Issue 8
Jane Recker A&E Editor
Ruiqi Chen Creative Director
Andrea Michelson Assistant A&E Editor
Madeleine Fernando Catherine Kim Charlotte Walsh Writers
Cover photo and page 3 photo: courtesy of Sony Classics
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Peter Spears, a producer of ‘Call Me By Your Name,’ reflects on film’s universal impact
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en years ago, Peter Spears (Weinberg ’88) was immediately captivated by the advanced copy of André Aciman’s book, “Call Me By Your Name.” He liked the relatable portrayal of first love. He liked the poignant internal dialogue. He liked the emphasis on memory and nostalgia. As a gay young adult at the time of the book’s setting, Spears said he was moved by the relatable storytelling. This led him to spearhead the production of the book into a movie, despite having worked in Los Angeles primarily as a writer and actor. “I was roughly (the same) age at that time period,” he said.
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“I didn’t grow up in Italy — I grew up in Kansas — but (being) Jewish and gay, there were a lot of things that resonated with me.” “Call Me By Your Name” is now nominated for four Oscars: best picture, best actor, best adapted screenplay and best original song. The movie, which tells the story of a brief yet intense summer love between two young men in Italy, has been praised for its artistic cinematography and subtle storytelling. Though it took producers from all over the globe and a decade of waiting to finally release the movie, Spears said he’s glad they took the time to make the movie “just right.” When he obtained the movie rights for the film, Spears said he felt an obligation to
— by Catherine Kim Aciman to capture the book’s spirit, which has enchanted a wide range of readers. The book became an “instant classic” in queer circles, he said, but even those who don’t identify as queer were moved by the story. Much like in his own experience with the story, Spears added that many people had a personal connection despite their different backgrounds, largely for the universal themes of first love and sexual awakening. “The ability to so perfectly capture the internal dialogue of the crush of conflicting feelings with first love –– I had just never seen that captured so perfectly,” Spears said. Spears said while he was originally struggling to find a way to express this internal turmoil and self-exploration without traditional narrative strategies, Photos: Source: Sony Classics
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“I think (the phrase) ‘over the moon’ was invented for this feeling. People are having this very personal experience with it, and that’s such a rare and beautiful thing in life to have a connection with a piece of art … and to have helped shepherded that is immensely moving.” 6
— Producer Peter Spears, Weinberg ’88
director Luca Guadagnino suggested using singer-songwriter Sufjan Steven’s music as a form of narration, because the “feel” of his songs complimented the movie, Spears said. Stevens, whose music Guadagnino thought complimented the movie, ended up writing two songs for the soundtrack. Stevens’ music inspired the acting as well, Spears added. In fact, he said, lead actor Timothée Chalamet was actually listening to the song “Visions of Gideon” while filming the iconic final scene, in which his character Elio tears up by the fireplace to the song in the background. Spears said he witnessed how the music organically influenced the performance. Spears lauded Guadagnino’s ability to stimulate the audience’s senses, perfectly recreating and inviting the audience to engage with “the languidness of a summer’s day where time melts away.” The director also added a personal touch to the movie by using his own furniture, artwork and silverware in the film, he said. “(Guadagnino) sort of opens his whole life up to the audience and says to the them, ‘This is my life. Now take a moment to take it in and watch what happens,’” Spears said. Spears said his experience at Northwestern has benefited him professionally throughout his career.
From the importance of getting agents to always having 10 monologues ready, he said he learned the business of show business –– something that not many young actors are aware of fresh out of college. When off-stage in college, Spears was a “dynamic” person with a silly nature, said Dan Seaver (Communication ’88), who was Spears’ roommate and a fellow Sigma Nu fraternity brother. He brought personality to his fraternity with his sense of humor, Seaver added. Professionally, however, Seaver said Spears has always been a hard worker with a “refined sense of taste.” “His doggedness, his commitment to creativity, to quality work, to a story that needs to be told has really been what brought him to this place,” he said. “This is years and years and years of work committing to telling a very specific story. … That’s a testament to his character right there.” Jessica Hughes (Communication ’88), whose history with Spears goes back to their theater days at NU, also said Spears’ tenacious nature helped him achieve his current success. His captivating personality helped him find success as well, demonstrated early on by him charming his way into theater classes as an American culture major, she said. Hughes said she gets teary eyed
thinking about how her friend has helped make a movie that has “changed people’s lives.” “I sort of obsessively track it on Twitter, and there’s a lot of young gay boys that (say) this movie spoke to them,” she said. “It’s the first movie they’ve had that they can call their own.” Seavers, too, said it was moving to see Spears produce a movie that depicts characters both he and Spears could relate to as college students around the same time period as the movie’s setting. Spears said he hopes the massive attention toward the movie helps protect the legacy of both the movie and the book, which is currently on the New York Times best seller list. As “Call Me By Your Name” has reached a wider audience, Spears said he has felt honored by the number of people who have reached out to share their experiences with the story. “I think (the phrase) ‘over the moon’ was invented for this feeling,” he said. “People are having this very personal experience with it, and that’s such a rare and beautiful thing in life to have a connection with a piece of art … and to have helped shepherded that is immensely moving.” ◊
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Joachim Schamberger uses modern technology and social media to modernize Mozart’s Don Giovanni
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ienen Prof. Joachim Schamberger has mixed feelings about the use of technology in the modern era. While he reminisces about the days when he could talk to unplugged fellow passengers when riding the train in his native Germany, he also recognizes the merits of phones and social media as a rallying force for large-scale, powerful movements. “On one hand, technology can be incredibly separating and isolating,” the director of Northwestern operas said. “But on the other hand, things like the #MeToo movement were only possible because of social media. We can reach so many people, combined with the opportunity to be anonymous in some cases.” The #MeToo movement is the backbone of Schamberger’s modernized production of Mozart’s “Don Giovanni.” The opera features a womanizing main character, Don Giovanni, who brags about his conquests and sexually harasses and assaults countless women. The show premiered in 1787, but Schamberger has decided to set the show in modern day New York and make use of social media as a means of commenting on the current political and social climate surrounding sexual harassment and assault, he said. This is Northwestern’s first full production of “Don Giovanni” in its entirety, which will be performed in Cahn Auditorium March 1-4. Schamberger said it will run for about two and a half hours, including intermission, and will be performed in its original Italian
— by Charlotte Walsh
with English supertitles. Schamberger said Don Giovanni was a perfect choice for the winter opera for multiple reasons. Not only can it be translated into the modern era, it’s also a classic piece that is technically challenging for the singers. He noted that it’s internationally become more common for operas to be taken out of their original time periods. He said the decision to do this with “Don Giovanni” was easy considering the national attention currently given to sexual harassment and assault that began with the allegations against Harvey Weinstein and other powerful men in Hollywood. “In this piece particularly, it is incredible how timeless it is,” Schamberger said. “Word by word, verbatim – it fits into our time period.” The most apparent aspect of the modernization of the show will be the use of cell phones and social media sites such as Facebook and Twitter to help convey events occurring during the show to the audience. For example, Don Giovanni and one of the women he attempts to assault, Donna Anna, meet via a dating app similar to Tinder. The meeting between the two in the opening scene acts as the spark for many of the show’s ensuing conflicts, including Giovanni’s ultimate demise. Bienen second-year master’s student Shallece Peters, who plays Donna Anna, said her character deals with some of the more Photos: Katie Pach/Daily Senior Staffer
nuanced themes related to sexual assault, like the concept of consent. Her character, an engaged woman, invites Giovanni into her home in the hope of one last fling before her marriage. While the libretto is unclear as to what happens inside, Peters has chosen to interpret the evening culminating in a sexual assault. “I think, at first, Donna Anna thought she could go through with (an affair), but when he came over and she said no, he still followed through and forced himself upon her,” Peters said. “Because of that grey area, people could say she invited it because she wanted him to come over. It’s just crazy that this story is from 200 years ago, and we’re still able to put it in today’s setting with these issues of consent.” Peters also spoke about how the two other main female characters in the opera, Donna Elvira and Zerlina, are able to empower Donna Anna and one another by the end of the show through social media. She said that when Don Giovanni is eventually “taken down,” all three women are on their phones posting #MeToo style messages that will be shown to the audience. Bienen senior Gabrielle Barkidjija, who plays Zerlina, noted that her character is an example of the modern woman. She said after becoming one of Giovanni’s victims, Zerlina works tirelessly to achieve her ultimate goal of exposing Giovanni for the predator that he is. “There’s still gender inequality in the workplace, there’s still old-fashioned ideas of what a woman should do, but I feel like the modern woman is breaking out of those societal norms, and I feel like Zerlina’s character is really trying to do that throughout the entire opera,” Barkidjija said. Eric Olson, a Bienen second-year master’s
student who plays Don Giovanni, agreed that the trials faced by the women in the show are starkly similar to what many women are forced to navigate in regards to modern sexual interactions. He said even though the opera is named after Don Giovanni, the women experience the most character development. In comparison to the women finding their strength, Giovanni’s character remains relatively stagnant throughout the production. Olson said that Don Giovanni’s unwillingness to change his lecherous habits is the precise reason why he meets his downfall. “I think that character is emblematic of the problem we are trying to address, in that Giovanni, up until this point, has been allowed to go on with his life and not be held accountable in a very serious way,” Olson said. “He’s symbolic of the structures that have permitted the people around him to suffer.” Olson also said there is a
conversation to be had about society’s obsession with Don Giovanni-esque characters, like Leonardo DiCaprio’s character in “The Wolf of Wall Street.” He said the trope has been so overused that society no longer recognizes the severity of the character’s actions. Schamberger said he is excited for audiences to recognize the piece’s relevance in regards to the opera’s modernization and use of technology. However, while the technical aspects have been fulfilling to work with, he said the most rewarding part of “Don Giovanni” is seeing the students debuting and growing in their roles. “I love working on this with young singers in these characters to make the music come alive,” Schamberger said. “If we do this as performers, there’s a good chance then that the audience will understand the characters and our message.” ◊
“There’s still gender inequality in the workplace, there’s still old-fashioned ideas of what a woman should do, but I feel like the modern woman is breaking out of those societal norms.”
— Gabrielle Barkidjija, Bienen senior 9
Profs. Eli Finkel, Alexandra Solomon dig into science behind successful marriages
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housands of couples celebrated Valentine’s Day across the nation this month, and some nights have surely culminated in marriage proposals. While the thought of wedding bells chiming inspires feelings of love and romance for most, psychology and Kellogg Prof. Eli Finkel and psychology Prof. Alexandra Solomon are far more interested in the psychology of matrimony. The two have dedicated their careers to uncovering the science behind marriage and relationships: what makes them work, where they fall short and how to improve them. Finkel, the director of the Relationships and Motivations Lab, recently authored a book titled “The All-or-Nothing Marriage,” which brings together research from sociology, history, economics and his expertise in psychology to offer a comprehensive outlook on how expectations of marriages have changed over time — causing the best marriages to be better than ever, while the average marriage has become slightly worse. Solomon teaches one of the most popular classes on campus: “Building Loving and Lasting Relationships: Marriage 101.” The SESP course seeks to educate students on intimate relationships and help them develop more self-awareness of their own “love templates” — a collection of internalized messages, expectations and experiences that shape “how they do love,” Solomon said.
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Finkel said he wanted to write “The Allor-Nothing Marriage” for two major reasons. First, he said he felt he had reached a point in his career where he wanted to broaden his perspective and study relationships and marriage with a more “panoramic” perspective. His second reason was that he wanted to make relationship science literature available for the general public. “Thousands of people have invested their careers to collecting data to try to understand relationships, and the collective wisdom is cloistered in academic journals,” Finkel said. “I wanted to share what I believe to be some of the most important findings from that scientific literature in a way that’s interesting and userfriendly for people who aren’t relationship scientists.” As documented in his book, Finkel follows changing expectations for relationships over time through three periods of history that are each linked to a level of Maslow’s hierarchy of needs — a psychological theory presented in the form of a pyramid, ranking things like food and shelter at the bottom and higher needs like love and belonging toward the top. Finkel shows that over time, couples have started to demand more from their partners in a desire to achieve higher stages of Maslow’s hierarchy of needs through their relationship. But he argues that this wasn’t always the case, as marriage was originally a survival-based
— by Madeleine Fernando institution in which couples depended on each other to fulfill basic needs. “The idea that you would only be with somebody who made your fingers tingle or that you would stand up at an altar and say ‘I want to marry you because you’re my best friend,’ (people) would’ve laughed at you because marriage was too crucial,” Finkel said. Finkel also includes a variety of “love hacks” in the book, which he describes as sciencebacked “quick, temporary fixes” for small issues that often come up in marriages. For example, one hack involves asking couples to think about conflict in their relationship from the perspective of a neutral third party who wants the best for everyone involved. Similar to this idea, Solomon writes about a reflective-based approach to fostering healthy relationships in her own book titled “Loving Bravely: Twenty Lessons of Self-Discovery to Help You Get the Love You Want.” She said the project, published last February, stemmed from wanting to distribute some of the lessons of her “Marriage 101” course to a wider audience after the class attracted media attention from five continents over five years. Solomon said the core of “Loving Bravely” is identical to the heart of her “Marriage 101” class: Growth in “relational self-awareness” that allows individuals to reflect on themselves and how they love. The class, which will be in its 18th year this
spring, is at the intersection of academic and experiential learning, Solomon said. In addition to traditional readings and quizzes, students complete two projects. In one, they interview an older family member or caregiver to better understand the messages and frameworks about interpersonal relationships they adopted growing up. In the other, they are paired with another student and interview a “mentor couple” in their home who has volunteered to share the story of their relationship. Solomon said although the two main projects have remained consistent over the years, the class’s curriculum has changed to address relationship issues students deal with in their present lives. Solomon said she has added more material to the course on modern, relatable topics like online dating, hookup culture, sex and sexuality. She also noted that students nowadays are less likely than those in the past to have marriage on their radars due to the significant rise of the average age entering into marriage — 27 for women compared to 24 in 2000. Rachel Zar (’16), a former teacher’s assistant for the class, said the course teaches many “important life lessons” and wishes it was a required class for every college student. Zar has her masters in marriage and family therapy from the Family Institute at NU. Zar compared the breakout groups for class to group therapy sessions, where there is a “healthy mix” of learning the material
Photos: Source: Eli Finkel and Alexandra Solomon
and requiring the students to reflect on their personal experiences. “A big part of the class was talking about things that people haven’t talked about with anyone, or if anyone, only a very very close friend,” Zar said. “People have such a wide variety of relationship experience in the college setting. … Just having the chance to talk about that is something that felt really unique.” Solomon said in today’s day and age, “love matters” and students should stop pressuring themselves to have all of their feelings under
control when it comes to romance. Stressing the importance of self-awareness in relationships, Solomon said it is important to carve a path that feels “aligned and healthy” for the individual. “Our culture is obsessed with romance and love stories, but we’re not obsessed with really good solid relationship education,” Solomon said. “The quality of our life is very much dictated by the quality of our relationships. So from that lens, there’s really very little that’s as important as learning about how to be successful in your relationships.” ◊
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Boom Chicago celebrates 25 years of dominating the Dutch improv scene
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— by Andrea Michelson
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t was the summer of 1992. Andrew Moskos and Pep Rosenfeld were kicking off their postgraduate European adventure in Amsterdam, and, naturally, they decided to sample some hash in a Dutch coffee shop. The two men were struck with an idea: Why not open a comedy club in Amsterdam? While most people would dismiss this as the drugs talking, Moskos (WCAS ’90) and Rosenfeld (WCAS ’90) actually followed through, and spent the next year recruiting performers and writing to the Dutch tourism office for feedback. Now, 25 years later, their brainchild, Boom Chicago, is thriving. At its upcoming anniversary show this July, the Boom team will feature 25 years of alumni at the Carré Theater, one of the largest venues in Amsterdam. Notable alumni include NU favorite Seth Meyers (Communication ’96) and Jordan Peele of “Key & Peele.” Meyers is planning to attend the reunion and will be performing a stand-up show. Boom Chicago’s fame extends outside of Europe: It’s the only visiting group to have performed on the Second City mainstage in Chicago. Moskos and Rosenfeld are Evanston natives who grew up going to Second City shows, so their experience performing there was “something between astounding Photos: Source: Boom Chicago
and crazy proud,” Rosenfeld said. “I remember when we were old enough we could stay for the improv sets, which were at 10:30 at night, and we’d drive home at 11:30 and it was so late!” Moskos said. “We never thought we’d actually play at Second City.” Rosenfeld said Boom Chicago’s set-up was inspired by the creative design of the Second City and Northwestern’s Mee-Ow show. He performed in the Mee-Ow show his senior year, and described it as a life-changing experience. During his NU days, Moskos was just another happy audience member in the sweaty Shanley Pavilion. After watching his friends perform in the Mee-Ow show and at iO Chicago, an improv school in the city, he decided to take some classes there himself after graduating from NU. “I had that wonderful sort of improv beginning,” Moskos said. “Second City was the dominant force for so long, and (improv) kind of started to spread out when I was coming up in it. It was a nice time to be doing improv.” Moskos and Rosenfeld said there was no improv or comedy presence in Amsterdam when Boom Chicago first opened. Though they said they were attracted to the idea of being “bigger fish” in Amsterdam instead of “getting eaten” in another city like London,
the Dutch tourism office and arts scene did not initially agree. The tourism office warned them that Dutch audiences would not want to watch a comedy show in English, Moskos said, and the two were unable to find a theater to host their show. In the summer of 1993, the first Boom Chicago show began running Thursday through Sunday nights in the back of a “funky old salsa bar,” Rosenfeld said. He said they attracted an average of 50 people per show that summer. The next summer, they rented a larger space. They then moved to a black box theater for a few years after, then finally found a more permanent venue in the Leidseplein Theater in 1997. Moskos and Rosenfeld initially flew out to Amsterdam to perform in the summertime, leaving the Boom Chicago office in the care of Saskia Maas during the rest of the year. Maas, now the CEO of Boom Chicago, connected with the men through Moskos’ brother in 1993. Maas said she eventually got sick of fielding calls from customers looking for tickets during Boom Chicago’s off season and decided the group needed a year-round venue. At the Leidseplein, the company was able to evolve into a 100-person operation with a kitchen, a bar and shows year-round, she said.
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Moskos said the Leidseplein Theater is located in what could be called the Times Square of Europe — full of action and very “touristy.” However, Boom Chicago is not exclusively geared toward tourists. “Our long term brand is that we have interesting shows for locals and tourists are welcome, as opposed to a show for tourists where locals are welcome,” Moskos said. “That’s what we’re known for, we have our feet in two worlds.” Rosenfeld and Maas referred to Boom Chicago as a group of “insider-outsiders.” They are able to appeal to locals like Maas and expats like Moskos and Rosenfeld, as well as tourists who were just like how the two used to be. Rosenfeld said the early Boom Chicago shows featured touristy sketches about getting high in coffee shops and touring the Heineken brewery. Nowadays, their comedy is more nuanced. “A lot of times, when people are looking for someone to explain something American, they come to us,” Moskos said. “Everyone follows American news, and when it comes through our filter, it’s interesting to explain it and make fun of it for a Dutch audience.” Moskos said the level of engagement in American politics by Boom Chicago’s audience is a testament to the Dutch being informed about current events outside of the Netherlands. Past shows with political themes have included “9/11 Forever” and “Trump Up the Volume,” a show that was
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meant to play on the 2016 election and has since become Boom Chicago’s longest running hit. Over the years, Boom Chicago has sparked creative relationships and started careers. At the Second City comedy swap, Jordan Peele met Keegan-Michael Key — who was in the Second City’s mainstage troupe at the time — and a comedic duo was born. Other highlights include Seth Meyers’ “Pick-Ups and Hiccups,” a show about relationships that he co-wrote and co-starred in with Jill Benjamin, another Boom Chicago alum. The duo performed in Edinborough,
London and Chicago. It was at their Chicago show that Meyers was discovered by “Saturday Night Live” scouts, Moscow said. “We’re always very proud that Seth has only had two employers: Boom Chicago and NBC,” Moskos joked. Maas said she often feels like a “proud mother” of her “Boom Chicago children.” She said she is proud of their accomplishments, most recently Peele’s Oscar nominations for “Get Out;” and she also appreciates the “automatic bond” that the alumni network shares. For the past five years, Boom Chicago has been performing at the Rozentheater, located in a trendier part of Amsterdam. Moskos said it is their nicest venue yet, with two theaters, a bigger bar and, due to the location and size, more artistic credibility than they ever had at the Leidseplein. Boom Chicago’s most recent development is an escape room attraction called “Escape to the Movies.” Moskos and Rosenfeld said after going to an escape room in Budapest a couple years ago, they thought they could create a better one themselves. Once again, they feel their daring creativity is paying off. “What I love the most about Boom Chicago is that what is key for improvisation, this ‘yes and’ mentality, is also in the core of the way we run our business,” Maas said. “We’re always looking to be more innovative, and we are always looking to say ‘yes’ to an idea.” ◊
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