A few actors in Loyola’s November production of “Spinning Into Butter” saw a lot of similarities between events at Loyola and events at the fictional Belmont University where the play is set.
In the play, a black student finds racist notes left on his door, and Belmont’s deans elect to hold a campus forum to talk about race issues on campus.
The questionable reasons the students and administration want to hold the forum — reasons that reveal themselves as self-serving, guilt-driven, idealistic or patronizing throughout the play — are a central focus of “Spinning Into Butter.”
Colby Lemaster, who plays the head of security and facilities at Belmont, Mr. Meyers, says that while the play was meant to entertain, it was also meant to challenge the audience.
“It is Loyola. For the entire student body at this campus, I would say that if you think racism doesn’t exist on a large scale here, you’re a moron,” said Lemaster, theater arts senior.
Andrew De La Peña, assistant to the director of the play and theater arts senior, said that he thinks Loyola is better than most universities, but “there is some segregation that goes on.”
“I think it parallels every university,” De La Peña said. “The student body and administration continually struggle with these issues.”
Laura Hope, professor of theater arts and dance and the director of “Spinning Into Butter,” said she wanted to do a social justice play, especially in light of events such as the anti-Semitic graffiti at Loyola, the Jena Six controversy and other incidents involving noose displays at other colleges.
“It was a conversation worth having on our campus,” she said. “The play hits close to home. It gives people an opportunity to turn the magnifying glass on themselves.”
Hope said that Belmont is not Loyola.
“I don’t think there was any one incident that made me choose this play,” she said and pointed out that theater has always been a tool to start dialogue in the past.
Hope said that the play certainly started a dialogue within the cast, and she was proud that the student actors were willing to play racist characters and say blunt things about race in front of an audience.
“It’s important to create a safe space to have a dialogue about race. It’s very unfashionable to be an overt racist,” De La Peña said with a laugh. “The racism that exists now is underlying.”
Lemaster pointed out the similarities between the setting of the play and the setting of Loyola.
“Make a list of similarities,” he said. “‘Spinning Into Butter’ — liberal arts small campus,” he said. “Loyola — liberal arts small campus. Population that they talk about in ‘Spinning Into Butter’ — primarily white. Loyola — primarily white. Racial incidents that get swept under the table — racial incidents that get swept under the table.”
Lemaster said there’s a lack of dialogue on campus that parallels the play.
“I would almost bet you that if you went up to a hundred students and asked them if they knew anything about the swastikas that were spray-painted in Biever last year, the hate notes that were thrown up on dorms rooms — that happened my freshman year — nobody would say anything about it,” he said.
Theater arts junior Chris Bohnstengel said the way he performed his character was based loosely off of Loyola economics professor Walter Block.
“The very things he supports are the very things Dean Strauss would support,” he said, referring to his character.
The cast joked one day that Dean Strauss had “read Heart of Darkness and probably had no problem with it,” Bohnstengel said, referring to Joseph Conrad’s novel about European imperialism in Africa.
Then Bohnstengel found a video of Walter Block on YouTube stating that he was pro-ivory trade, the driving force behind European imperialism.
“‘Spinning Into Butter’ is set on a small college campus, and honestly if they didn’t make any references to Vermont in the script it could be Loyola,” Bohnstengel said.
Katie Urbaszewski can be reached at [email protected].
