Thought Process OPERA
Oberlin at the Bard
LAYERING UP Kristin Paabus, associate professor of reproducible media and studio art, meshes screen printing and digital plotter drawing to create some of her works, including this one, Something to Believe In, from a series she’s been working on for five years. Each color represents a different 10
printed stencil layered on top of one other. The pieces contain between 30 and 50 layers and take years to complete, ultimately creating a richly textured work thick and heavy with ink. “This body of work developed out of an interest in game theory and strategy—examining the reasoning and
causality of decision-making,” Paabus says. “Over time I also realized that these works are a response to the barrage of digital information that we face on a daily basis and our ability/ inability to sift through it.” Paabus was awarded an Ohio Arts Council Individual Excellence Award for 2019.
the bard summerscape’s wellreviewed production of the horroropera Acquanetta, an interrogation of Old Hollywood exploitation, might have taken place at Bard’s Annandaleon-Hudson campus, but it revealed Oberlin roots. Deborah Artman ’81 was the show’s librettist; soprano Amelia “Mimi” Watkins ’97 played the role of the Brainy Woman, soprano Rebecca Hargrove ’12 played the opera’s title role, and Hannah Levison ’08 played violin and viola with the opera’s band, Bang On a Can Opera Ensemble. Acquanetta focuses on a brief moment in the real-life acting career of a B-movie star who arrived in New York claiming Native American roots, but who was repackaged by the celebrity press machinery as an untamable, “exotic” Latin bombshell. The Obie-heavy production was less the result of connections than coincidence—and talent—since the musicians weren’t aware of their shared backgrounds going into the piece. Artman discovered that Hargrove had attended Oberlin by looking at her online bio when the production team was considering people for the difficultto-cast Acquanetta part. For Watkins, the news came more directly. “I found out [Hargrove] was an alum the minute I met her, as she was in Oberlin shorts and a T-shirt. Full swag moment.” Even though Watkins had been associated with the Acquanetta project for years (and is featured on the official multimedia recording from Cantaloupe Music), she didn’t know that Artman was an Obie until Hargrove told her. While she enjoyed finding out about their shared pasts, Hargrove was not particularly surprised. “I seem to find Obies wherever I go!” she says. New York Times’ theater critic Ben Brantley gave the opera a rave review, writing that the actors “perform with a wit that matches the playful intelligence and intensity of the score and libretto. It’s all great fun and highly unnerving, as a scary movie should be, while