{"id":82354,"date":"2014-11-12T15:47:58","date_gmt":"2014-11-12T20:47:58","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/news\/?p=82354"},"modified":"2023-11-21T10:53:02","modified_gmt":"2023-11-21T15:53:02","slug":"for-senior-thesis-schwolsky-15-directs-boxing-2000","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/news\/2014\/11\/12\/for-senior-thesis-schwolsky-15-directs-boxing-2000\/","title":{"rendered":"For senior thesis, Schwolsky ’15 directs ‘Boxing 2000’"},"content":{"rendered":"

Richard Maxwell\u2019s play Boxing 2000<\/em>, directed by Jonathan Schwolsky ’15 of North Caldwell, N.J., will be performed at 7:30 p.m. Friday through Sunday, Nov. 14-16, in Gannett Theater, 305 College St.<\/p>\n

The play is open to the public at no cost, and tickets are available online through Bates Tickets <\/a>or by calling 207-7786-6161.<\/p>\n

In Boxing 2000<\/em>, a young man, Freddie (Will Dunbar \u201915 of Greenville, S.C.), pursues underground boxing with the help of his older brother JoJo (Alex Moscovitz \u201916 of South Hadley, Mass.).<\/p>\n

Directing the play as part of his senior thesis project, Schwolsky says the experience is an opportunity to collaborate and experiment.<\/p>\n

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Freddie (Will Dunbar '15 of Greenville, S.C.) takes a punch from his older brother Jo-Jo (Alex Moscovitz \u201916 of South Hadley, Mass.) in a scene from \"Boxing 2000.\" (Phyllis Graber Jensen\/Bates College) <\/p><\/div>\n\t\t

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Ol\u2019 Kid Hansen (Brennen Malone '17 of Philadelphia) sits in his corner as the Father (Ahmed Sheikh '16 of Lewiston) speaks to Freddie in a scene from \"Boxing 2000.\" (Phyllis Graber Jensen\/Bates College) <\/p><\/div>\n\t\t

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Freddie gets help from Jo-Jo in a scene from \"Boxing 2000.\" (Phyllis Graber Jensen\/Bates College) <\/p><\/div>\n\t\t

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Jo-Jo confronts the Promoter (Colby Harrison '17 of Kennebunk, Maine) in a scene from \"Boxing 2000.\" (Phyllis Graber Jensen\/Bates College) <\/p><\/div>\n\t\t

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The Referee (Ben Cuba \u201816 of Worcester, Mass.) in a scene from \"Boxing 2000.\" (Phyllis Graber Jensen\/Bates College) <\/p><\/div>\n\t\t

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The play uses boxing culture as the framework for a discussion about masculinity and community. As director, Schwolsky sought actors who would bring in their own ideas about the play.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe director is not the one in charge, but the one with the vision,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n

\"Jonathan<\/a>

Jonathan Schwolsky ’15 directs “Boxing 2000.” (Phyllis Graber Jensen\/Bates College)<\/p><\/div>\n

Schwolsky also feels a personal connection to the boxing culture in the play, a culture he says is very much present in his part of New Jersey. To prepare for the production, he attended an amateur boxing match and talked with people in the Boonton, N.J., boxing community.<\/p>\n

Last spring, Schwolsky read 14 plays by Maxwell to prepare for his thesis. He was drawn to the colloquial language and universal message in Boxing 2000<\/em>.<\/em><\/p>\n

\u201cAnyone can see this show and come out thinking something different.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Maxwell himself directed the original production of the play with the goal of mimicking reality as closely as possible. His actors spoke simple, often mundane dialogue in monotone.<\/p>\n

As he directs the play, Schwolsky hopes to take inspiration from Maxwell\u2019s vision and expand upon it with his personal vision.<\/p>\n

He collaborated with professional set designer Simon Harding to design the unusual two-tiered set. The audience will sit around and look up at a 5-foot-tall square platform in the center of the theater, where the action will take place.<\/p>\n

Schwolsky hopes that Boxing 2000<\/em> will affect each audience member differently and make them ask questions about their own lives. \u201cAnyone can see this show and come out thinking something different,\u201d he reflects. \u201cAnd that is fascinating to me.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Directed in partial fulfillment of his senior thesis project by Jonathan Schwolsky, a Bates College production of the play “Boxing 2000” will be performed Nov. 14-16.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":148,"featured_media":82391,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_hide_ai_chatbot":false,"_ai_chatbot_style":"","associated_faculty":[],"_Page_Specific_Css":"","_bates_restrict_mod":false,"_table_of_contents_display":false,"_table_of_contents_location":"","_table_of_contents_disableSticky":false,"_is_featured":false,"footnotes":"","_bates_seo_meta_description":"","_bates_seo_block_robots":false,"_bates_seo_sharing_image_id":0,"_bates_seo_sharing_image_twitter_id":0,"_bates_seo_share_title":"","_bates_seo_canonical_overwrite":"","_bates_seo_twitter_template":""},"categories":[4,11010],"tags":[6889,7842,71,9087],"class_list":["post-82354","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-academic-life","category-arts","tag-performing-and-visual-arts","tag-senior-thesis","tag-theater","tag-visual-arts"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/82354","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/148"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=82354"}],"version-history":[{"count":12,"href":"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/82354\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":158787,"href":"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/82354\/revisions\/158787"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/82391"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=82354"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=82354"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=82354"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}