Saturday, April 14, 2007

Play about SIU professors and academic mobbing?

SIU professor David Rush's play "One Fine Day" just closed a run in Chicago.
the conflict at play is the power struggle between students and their teachers. When a professor of philosophy and political propaganda goes too far one day in class--dressing up as Hitler and passing out anti-Semitic literature--he ignites the fury of a Jewish student who calls for his dismissal.
Sounds like a combination of Jon Bean and his extra credit reading list and the Architecture professor (he runs that great summer camp for kids, but I can't remember his name right now) who dresses up in costumes (including a Nazi armband), doesn't it? I wonder if the play had its own set of unproductive professors acting as a mob, like SIU does?

Wonder if the touring company is going to play SIU? Maybe a opening speech by SIU's own expert on academic mobbing would be nice as her SIU swan song?

Often blogging is a good way to discuss problems. But plays that get it right, can often expose the hypocrisy of a place in a way that nothing else can. Wish I had seen this play, it sounds like fun.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

http://calendar.siu.edu/cgi-bin/cal_make.pl?p1=001

PeterG said...

Hey, it is playing today!

Anonymous said...

I feel "One fine Day" is part II, or a different case study of David Mamet's controversial "Oleanna" originally performed in 1992 with William H. Macy, and Rebecca Pidgeon, Mamet's own wife, in the lead roles. "Oleanna" centers on ethical problems regarding gender and censorship that emerge when a male college professor and his female student both abuse their positions resorting to constitutionally upheld "rights." It questions assumptions on both sides and is critical in that it leaves the reader asking questions, more than offering answers. It's a powerful read! Highly recommendable.