■ Stentorian
vol. XXXIV, issue 3
North Carolina School of Science and Mathematics
October 2014
stentorianl23@gmail.com
Being Dr. David Cantrell
By ViBHA Puri
David Cantrell, Instructor
of Humanities, has acquired
quite a fan base at NCSSM
despite only teaching here for
one year.
Comments about him
narrowly range from downright
devotional, such as “Cantrell
is a God,” said senior Maggie
Knostman, to respectfully
admirable, such as “I think it’s
great that such an experienced
college professor is now
teaching at our school,” stated
junior Corinne Greenblatt.
Cantrell was bom in North
Carolina and raised in different
parts of the state. He attended
Wake Forest University
on a baseball and football
scholarship.
Unfortunately, shortly after
beginning at Wake Forest,
he had a shoulder injury that
ended both potential sports
careers. He later attended
Yale law school but dropped
out after a year, after which
he continued on to Harvard
Divinity School, where he
studied literature, history
and “pretty much everything
except religion,” he said.
After graduating from
Harvard, Cantrell worked for
a time afterwards directing
homeless shelters in Cam
bridge, Mass, before attending
graduate school
at Stanford. He
and his wife
lived in Califor
nia for around
20 years, where
he taught classes
in literature and
law.
Looking to
return to North
Carolina and be
around his fam
ily, Cantrell re
ceived multiple
offers for teach
ing positions
from academic
institutions
across the state
but thought that class. His favorite song is "We like to
the offer from ” V Vengaboys and his quote to live by is "Have a good time, all the
NCSSM was the Owe, "from This is Spinal Tap.
most appealing.
“It allows me to work with
students who are the best and
brightest,” he stated, “when
you teach at colleges, you
get students who are often
unprepared to take advantage
of college”.
Having taught at
universities, he believes that
he knows what it would take to
teach students to be successful,
which he defines as academic
achievement and intellectual
autonomy.
“Humanities,” he said, “are
fundamental to that process—
discovering what you need to
know to live the life you wish
to live”. He also added that it
is his own personal goal to get
the name of the school changed
to “The North Carolina School
of Arts and Sciences”.
When asked whether NC
SSM had lived up to expeeta-
tions, Cantrell answered that
it has exceeded expectations,
featuring brilliant kids and
excellent colleagues. Its only
shortcomings have been su
per study duty in the cafeteria,
which “smells bad, is hot and
only allows him to see students
at their worst”.
Cantrell has also expressed
a desire for screens on his oftice
windows, since a cardinal
visits and smacks itself into
them daily, often leaving blood
stains. The cardinal has lost
its head feathers from this
praetice.
So far, the only cla.ss he has
taught at NCSSM is American
Studies, which he calls the
study of the absurd. He stated
that the course material is on
the verge of both tragedy and
comedy every moment, though
tragedy often wins out due to
the failure of his own jokes.
Cantrell will also be teach
ing Research Experience in
Humanities this year and will
be hosting a mini-term about
cowboys entitled The West,
complementing his pirate
mini-term from last year.
I le recommends that
students read “Let us Now
Praise Famous Men” by James
Agee and Walker Evans, a
study of three sharecropping
families in Alabama during the
depression.
Cantrell read the book when
he was seventeen and believes
everyone here can and should
read it. He calls it a “beautiful,
important work, which exhibits
the necessity and difticulty of
describing other peoples’ lives
with justice and compassion
and care.”
“We all seek to practice
objectivity,” he continued,
“but what objectivity is not is
the ability to stand outside of
what you are studying from a
transcendental position; it is
the ability to know something
as it exists in its freedom and
independence.”
When prompted for advice
for the students of NCSSM,
Cantrell said, “Discover what
you love and have the courage
to remain faithful to that,” and
“Men: find a good bar of soap
and get rid of body wash.”
Promethean Players perform
Macbeth: A Comedy
By Richard Ong
Editor-in-Chief
From Friday, Oct. 24
to Sunday, Oct. 26 the
Promethean Players performed
Shakespeare’s “Macbeth” in
the ETC Auditorium. However,
for this version of The Scottish
Play, the Theater Department
added a special twist and it
was certainly something to
laugh at.
“Macbeth: A Comedy” is
an audacious retelling of the
original play. In it, a theater
company called The Mediocre
Muses, mediocrely performs
“Macbeth” with comedic re
sults.
• Hilarity en-
I sues as the story
within a story
unfolds, as NC-
SSM students
“act as our ac
tors would act,”
said senior
Dolan Potter,
member of the cast.
The origins of the play
come from last year, when
third trimester Shakespeare
and Performance students
wanted to perform it and now
have brought it to fhiition.
Since “Macbeth” is a tragedy
without a tragic hero, the play
works ideally as a comedy.
The play is designed as
an ensemble piece, meaning
each actor has no specific role.
Instead, the roles are fluid and
actors played different people
in different scenes.
“Shakespeare works nicely
that way. I think it just lent
itself to [an ensemble],” said
Adam Sampieri, head of the
Theater Program and director
of the play.
The ensemble also creates
a fluidity between the age and
the gender of the characters, a
useful trait since the ensemble
cast is playing a cast who are
performing “Macbeth”.
“Macbeth” continues
tradition of performing a
Shakespearean play, typically
tragedies, in the autumn.
However, this play has some
unique qualities.
“It’s .one part dark comedy,
one part Monty Python, and
one part 5"' grade school
play,” said Sampieri. Since
“Macbeth” is a play almost
everyone reads at some point,
the humor will appeal to a vast
swath of people.
For those expecting to see
a carbon copy of the original
play performed, do not despair,
because the original script has
remained almost entirely intact.
However, since the Mediocre
Muses are performing a
hopelessly terrible version of
“Macbeth”, hilarity ensues.
Despite the daunting acting
challenge of transforming tears
into laughter, the mechanics of
how the play is performed are
quite simple. The play lacks
pyrotechnics and rappelling,
so most of the effects are
completed with lights and
sounds.
“It’s less multimedia
than Hamlet was and more
slapstick,” said Sampieri,
comparing the play to last
year’s.
Sampieri has performed in
“Macbeth” twice and taught
it more times than he can
remember but he has never
done it quite like he is now.
When the cast described it, they
used words like overblown,
ridiculous and zany.
“I think Shakespeare would
be pretty happy about this,
since it’s our interpretation
of the play,” Sampieri said.
The Promethean Players have
interpreted it anaehronistically,
throwing in an eclectic mix
of period and contemporary
props, along with gratuitous
cartoon violence.
However, despite the veneer
of humor placed over the play,
it still maintains the same
echoing message. “It’s still
a play about ambition gone
terribly awry, but I think it .sort
of pokes fun at the obviousness
of it,” said Sampieri.
The play itself was a lovely
production. While it was hit-
or-miss at times and a bit
obvious when the writers had
time to alter the original script,
it was still an enjoyable and
humorous production, with
several comedic allusion.
It was often difficult to un
derstand what was happening
in the play, since several of the
actors either spoke too softly
or quickly, not giving the au
dience time to understand the
Shakespearean dialogue.
Nevertheless, it was a won
derful production, especially
considering the challenges
posed to the directors and ac
tors in transforming a somber
play into a comedy.