The Caswell stage lights are dimmed. All the other dancers are standing next to you, sharing the anxiety. You put on lipstick and kiss the backstage wall.
For almost ten years, Dance Dimensions members have kissed the walls behind the Caswell stage to mark opening night of the Evening of Dance. Unlike in traditional theaters where walls are black, the walls of Caswell are white, so the pink and red kisses stood out as memories. But they’ll soon be gone.
Performing arts instructor Doug Lowry made the decision to paint over them for sanitary reasons, since the kisses are evidence the walls haven’t been cleaned in years, as well as technical reasons - the practicality of a black box theater. Dance instructor Mpambo Wina said that black walls will expand the ways the performing arts department can creatively use the theater space, because more of the backstage area can be exposed.
Wina said the stage curtains and the wings will be taken out and replaced with new walls, exposing more of the set and therefore requiring the backstage to be black.
Lowry said, “I’ve never worked in a theater with white walls. Black box theater is a tradition.”
Wina talked to Dimensions members about starting a new tradition. One idea is kissing a board that would be framed and dated. Wina said ending the tradition made her a little sad, but she is focusing on the future.
“I’m looking forward to creating a new tradition with the girls,” Wina said.
Dimensions students have mixed feelings. Carter ’10, who has been in Dimensions for three years, is unhappy about seeing the kisses go.
Carter said, “I’m sad because it’s a physical memory. When I come back from Marlborough after I graduate, I won’t be able to see the kisses.”
