NYU’s Daily Student Newspaper
WASHINGTON SQUARE NEWS Vol. 43, No. 6
THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 5, 2015
nyunews.com
SPORTS
PUBLIC SAFETY
Nearby attacks put NYU on alert
Basketball star shoots for NCAA tourney By BOBBY WAGNER Sports Editor
The UAA is loaded with talent this year, but NYU junior basketball star Evan Kupferberg has claimed his stake as one of its undisputed top players. Kupferberg, the conference’s leading rebounder at 10.8 per game and second leading scorer with 17.7 points per game, garnered his third UAA player of the week award over the weekend. Kupferberg transferred from Liberal Studies to the Gallatin School of Individualized Study to study real estate. When he is not on the court, he passes time playing video games. After such a successful sophomore season, Kupferberg earned the confidence of his coaches. “It’s a whole year process,” he said. “I’ve been working in the offseason to get better. During the season the coaches really put you in the right spots to succeed.
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By ALANNA BAYARIN News Editor
STAFF PHOTO BY JOHN AMBROSIO
A bloody sweater lays outside of University Hall following attack on a pedestrian. The suspect is still at large and the NYPD is attempting to identify him.
FEATURES
Tisch sophomore crowdfunds tuition By DHRITI TANDON Staff Writer
To help Tisch sophomore Jeremy Harris pay his spring semester tuition, Steinhardt sophomore Ursula Seymour, CAS junior Erica Gonzales and Steinhardt junior Devin McNulty started a successful fundraiser on the crowd-funding website ‘Go-Fund-Me’. The quartet surpassed its initial goal of $7,864, the amount Harris needed to pay for his petition, to raise $11,055 in just nine days. This overwhelming response was completely unanticipated. “At the start we weren’t really expecting to reach the full $7,684,”
Seymour said. “I thought maybe we could get close to it and beg NYU for the rest. Then, we were absolutely in shock when we reached the full amount and people kept donating. We didn’t know how to stop it, really.” Initially having given up all hope, Harris was prepared to head home to Minnesota. His hope returned, however, when members of his A Cappella group, The Mixtapes,began donating on the crowd-funding site. “Most notably my fellow Mixtape, Jerry Wilson, donated a slightly larger amount than another Mixtape, Tom Dziuba, with a caption
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Four people were attacked by a man with a boxcutter near Union Square last night after they refused to give him money. None of the victims are affiliated with NYU, but the attacks occurred in close proximity to University Residence Hall. The suspect has yet to be arrested. The assailant slashed three people in the face with a boxcutter and slapped a woman. The assaults occurred at the bus stop in front of U-Hall, on an uptown No. 4 train between Broadway and Lafayette, in the Union Square subway station and in front of the Food Emporium on 14th Street. Randy Vasquez, the first victim, told the New York Daily News that the victim seemed unstable and was initiating confrontation with many peo-
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THEATER
Venture back ‘Into the Woods’ Off-Broadway By WILLA TELLEKSON-FLASH Contributing Writer
From the moment the cast of Fiasco Theater’s “Into the Woods” stands together and announces “once upon a time,” the audience is transported into an engrossing world of magic. A baker and his wife, cursed by a neighboring witch, are sent into the woods on a quest to reverse the spell preventing them from having a child. Along the way, they encounter Grimm’s beloved characters: Jack of “Jack in the Beanstalk,” Little Red Riding Hood, Cinderella and Rapunzel. Each on a pursuit of his or her own, the characters cross paths in the woods, finding that they need each other in order to realize their dreams. In 2014, the play’s journey was transformed
into a film adaptation. The first act ends in happily ever after, leaving the audience wondering how the plot will advance in the second act. Yet the second act is just as exciting, if not more compelling, as the characters join forces to defeat a kingdom-crushing giant. Betrayal, loss and culpability add new dimensions to the once-lighthearted tales, capturing the concern of the audience. There is more to Fiasco Theater’s interpretation of “Into the Woods” than its fairy tales, though. The music plays a key role in creating the magical tone, and the set doesn’t let the audience forget that. An upright piano sits at center stage, which musical director Matt Castle plays for the entirety of the show. Other instruments, played by the cast,
also remain on stage. The sides of the stage are lined with the innards of pianos, evoking the singing harp of “Jack and the Beanstalk.” The backdrop is covered with a web of ropes, which simultaneously remind the audience of the strings of a piano and a forest densely packed with trees. Clever and charming lyrics balance simple and poignant melodies, enchanting the audience with Sondheim’s music. In this mashup fairytale, Cinderella and Rapunzel’s respective princes are brothers, and they indulge the audience with some sibling rivalry in the wonderfully funny number, “Agony.” The melodramatic lyrics of the princes struggling with the trials of love leave
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