Inspired by Milosz

Public performance by Acting students inspired by the poetry of Nobel Laureate Czeslaw Milosz. Students will explore the elegance, sophistication, and thoughtfulness of selected poems through a dramatically compelling range of interpretations.

Czeslaw Milosz became one of the foremost literary figures in European history. After publishing his first volume of poetry at the age of twenty-three, Milosz continued to write prolific poems, essays, and novels throughout his life. Milosz served as a Polish cultural diplomat to France in the aftermath of World War II, but he eventually fled to the Paris in 1951 to escape Soviet oppression in Poland. His subsequent 1953 novel, The Captive Mind, received international acclaim as a masterwork on the psychology of intellectuals living under the repressive Stalinist regime. Historian Norman Davis famously credited Milosz with “totally discrediting the cultural and psychological machinery of Communism.” Milosz emigrated to the United States in 1960, where he continued writing poems as a professor of Polish literature at the University of California, Berkeley. Since the Communist government in Poland had banned Milosz’ works throughout his career, few Polish citizens knew of Milosz until he received a Nobel Prize in 1980. His fame continued to grow after the fall of the Iron Curtain in 1989 when he began to travel frequently between Poland and the United States.

In 2011, the United States has joined Poland and Lithuania in commemorating the Year of Czeslaw Milosz, a centennial celebration of his birth. As part of this commemoration, students will engage the Williams College community with a creative performance based on Milosz’s poetry. In this moving presentation, students will display their individual ingenuity by bringing unexpected emotions and unconventional meanings that elucidate Milosz’s insights.

CAST: Timothy Berry, Peter Christiani, Christopher Cleary, Matthew Conway, Sean Cummiskey, Steven Denza, Andrew Desrosiers, Taylor Fitzgerald, Maria Galvez, Griffin Hewitt, Samuel Jonynas, Brian Kim, Nikola Mirkovic, Kenneth Murphy, Vincent Nistico, Naomi Patterson, Lucas Pierce, Elaina Pullano, Inan Barrett, Noah Cadet, Guedis Cardenas, Taylor Chertkov, Tyler Cole, Jason Hernandez, Annie Jeong, User Kushaina, Daniel Lima, Patrick Lin, Ralston Louie, Yang Lu, Stephen Marino, Katherine McDowell, Kelsey Roggensack, Anders Schneider, Alexander Scyocurka, Alexandra Sera, Cameron Susk, Douglas Weinrib

MUSIC: Frederic Chopin and Joanna Gabler

PRODUCTION ASSISTANTS: Marguerite Love and John Noelke

PRESS COVERAGE: The Berkshire Review