In print | February 3, 2005

With the limited size of our student body and the limited resources available to us, we find it all too difficult, even with the notoriously overambitious nature of the average Swattie, to find students able and willing to create original, self-directed projects that can truly engage and involve the whole campus. This is especially true of anything creative or artistic. Students can come together to protest the war or to feed the homeless, yes, but when there’s less of a clear moral imperative, our artistic endeavors tend toward the quirky, cliquey and insular. Much of art is anchored in the grand tradition of big, far-reaching projects of collaboration between many disparate minds and voices intended to bring something impressive and lasting to the masses, but Swarthmore students seem to prefer obscure pieces created alone in a garret, intended to impress one’s professors and small group of friends.

This may be a tradition that works well for paintings, short classical music compositions and avant-garde one-act plays, but it’s antithetical to the tradition of the American musical, which requires a huge degree of cooperation between playwrights, composers and choreographers to manage huge numbers of actors, singers and dancers. Those of us who have been starving at the dearth of creative new musical theater at Swarthmore therefore have a lot to admire in Joe Raciti ‘05, who has not only written a musical but wrangled the massive number of talented people at all levels needed to make it happen. Let’s hope more people follow in his footsteps.

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