Tom Stoppard

"I will always remember my time spent at Penn" The excited atmosphere created by the three-day campus appearance of renowned playwright Tom Stoppard came to an abrupt halt yesterday with the conclusion of the "Theater of Ideas" panel. A crowd of University and Philadelphia community members packed into the Harrison Auditorium to hear the final on-campus words of the man described as the "greatest living playwright." Although Stoppard was clearly the dominant figure in the discussion, he was complimented by several academic and professional theater community members, mostly from the Philadelphia area. The panelists included among others Grace Gonglewski, an actress in the Arden Theatre production of The Real Thing, playwright Michael Hollinger and Blanka Zizka, artistic director of the Wilma Theater and director of Travesties. Cary Mazer, chairperson of the Theatre Arts Department, began the session and played moderator. Mazer set the tone by describing the 1995-1996 Penn Reading Project, which focused on Arcadia. He specifically spoke about the preparations discussion leaders made over the summer in order to get ready for the incoming freshmen. "During the summer, committed professors were lectured at by many professional people from the math, science and even landscape specialities," Mazer explained. "The one gap in the preparation was the theater-arts area." The purpose of yesterday's forum was to fill that void. And the seven panelists spent a solid 90 minutes in pursuit of redemption. Zizka began the discussion by noting that "ideas fly with Stoppard plays." The statement encouraged lively conversation which was accented by Stoppard's intelligence and humor. Stoppard began by commenting on his unruly microphone. "We must have borrowed this microphone from the ENIAC people," Stoppard said sarcastically before going on to a more serious topic. "I'm really a very backward person," he added. "The only reason I am a playwright is that I constantly hoard books and eventually read most of them. I end up reading lots of books and getting new ideas from them." The next segment of conversation was introduced by Gonglewski, who hit Stoppard with a list of complicated questions ranging from acting tips to the hierarchy a proper play should follow. Stoppard answered her questions by using examples from his own works. "When I write a play it creates noise in my head," Stoppard said. "It is the responsibility of the director and the actors to try to reproduce that noise." At the close of the event, Stoppard expressed his feelings. "I will always remember my time spent at Penn," Stoppard said. "When I listened to these panelists and the people I met during the past three days, I just don't know what to say. I can't understand the overwhelming response." Maybe the line of autograph seekers snaking out of the auditorium made the University's admiration clear to him.