When I heard that Ms. Spellman would be writing a column on us, I was quite pleased. However, when I read her column (“The trials and tribulations of a Troupe” April 13), I was more than a little taken aback.
Ms. Spellman used our theatrical ensemble to make a point about under-funded groups. In the process, she made us look like bumbling, incompetent idiots. I realize that comments like “the duct-taped curtains fell down on Malvolio … knocking him unconscious,” “one of the extras electrocut[ed] himself on the dangling wires” and “the stage was a God-awful falling apart mess” were meant to be humorous. Nonetheless, besides being completely untrue, they reflected badly on our group.
Ms. Spellman should not have resorted to lying about our production to further her views on Student Activities Office policy. True, we were under-funded. That is not surprising; we are new. We still managed to present a very good production. But people reading Ms. Spellman’s article wouldn’t know that. She publicly hurt our reputation just to make a weak point about SAO. Humorous statements would have been fine. Outright lying, however, is not. Our survival depends on our ability to bring in audiences, and Ms. Spellman damaged our ability to do so.
Although no one from the Free Press wrote an article on us prior to the performance, we believed that a column published afterward would provide future publicity for our new, relatively unknown group. However, we would have been better off without the kind of publicity offered in Ms. Spellman’s column. We hoped only for fair representation, which Ms. Spellman did not provide. Until reading Denise Spellman’s column, I heard nothing that wasn’t complimentary about our production of “Twelfth Night.”
Alys Ebenhoe
Secretary, Wandering Minds
CAS ’03
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