To attend Alumni Weekend or not to attend Alumni Weekend? That is the question!

Professor Jeffrey Groves

Indeed it is. On April 29 and 30, Professor Jeffrey Groves’ Literature 110 class will perform Shakespeare--this year’s play is “A Midsummer Night’s Dream”--in the Thomas-Garrett courtyard for the last time before the building is razed this summer.

For more than 20 years, Professor Groves’ consistently oversubscribed literature course has become something of an institution at Harvey Mudd College because of the course’s focus on performing Shakespeare. Though HMC offers majors only in engineering, mathematics and the sciences, students are required to take one-third of their courses in the humanities, social sciences and arts to enable and encourage them to make connections between their work and its impact on society.

Alumnus Kurt Dresner ’02 says he welcomed the opportunity “to get away from the many strictly left-brained courses that made up the bulk of my HMC education.” His wife, alumna Kendra Dresner ’03, says the class was one of the highlights of her experience at Mudd.

Matt Richman ’12, joint computer science and math major, will play Nick Bottom in this year’s performance. This spring marks Richman’s second time taking the class, which he says “helps bring out your artistic side, exposing you to a different approach. It makes you think about how things fit together.”

Early on, Groves noticed that the Thomas-Garrett building where he teaches, with its open courtyard, second-story walkway, and stage-framing pair of olive trees, resembles an Elizabethan amphitheater. “After performing there, I never looked at the courtyard of Thomas-Garrett Hall quite the same way,” Dresner says. And Richman likes the trees because “they’re fun. Every year, some part of blocking involves climbing up into those trees.”



The teaching and learning building, which will soon replace Thomas-Garrett, is being designed with a large, open-air courtyard for future Shakespeare performances.

To register for these and all other AW 2011 activities, visit the Alumni Weekend page.

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Read the full article by The Chronicle of Higher Education