ALUMS RECALL THEIR FONDEST AND FUNNIEST TIMES INSIDE THE HOPKINS CENTER
NO HESITATION
The Hop opened in my senior year at Dartmouth, and I jumped in with both feet. I performed in the first production in the Moore Theater, Georg Büchner’s Danton’s Death. It was very heavy stuff. I ran the lighting board for JB—more heavy stuff—and appeared in Threepenny Opera as police chief Jackie Brown—heavy stuff with music. I couldn’t get enough of the place. That spring I adapted, wrote and directed a play for the interfraternity play contest, a chapter from Winnie the Pooh, ‘In Which Kanga and Baby Roo Come to the Forest and Piglet Gets a Bath.’ There were my fraternity brothers, hale and hearty good fellows all, parading around with names like Pooh, Eeyore and Piglet. To paraphrase e.e. cummings: ‘A host of pentup desires began to break jail’ when the Hop opened its doors to me. Did it influence my career path? Does Geico sell auto insurance?”
PAUL BINDER '63 founder and artistic director of Big Apple Circus, New York City
SHELTERED
THE HOP WAS A SANCTUARY, A PLACE THAT WAS AT FIRST BLUSH LOGICALLY AND CLEARLY LAID OUT. CLOSER INSPECTION REVEALED COMPLEXITY AND CONTRADICTION. AT SOME POINT I THOUGHT I COULD PROBABLY JUST MOVE INTO THE HOP AND STOP PAYING RENT. I KNEW THE PLACE BETTER THAN ITS JANITORS DID. IT WAS THE UNIQUE, MESSY AND VIBRANT CULTURAL HEART OF THE CAMPUS. A HOME AWAY FROM HOME"
MICHAELARAD '91 architect and designer of the World Trade Center Memorial, New York City
LETTERMAN
I WAS ONE OF THE HOP MONITORS. THIS WAS A WORK-STUDY JOB, WHICH, AMONG OTHER THINGS, INVOLVED CHANGING THE SIGN ON THE BALCONY. IT COULD BE AN ODIOUS TASK IN THE COLD, DARK WINTER MONTHS, MANIPULATING THE HEAVY, INFLEXIBLE LETTERS INTO THEIR RIGHTFUL PLACES, UPSIDE DOWN AND BACKWARD WITH A SPOTLIGHT SHINING IN YOUR EYES. BUT IT WAS A LABOR OF LOVE AND A PRIVILEGE TO BE A PART OF ONE OF DARTMOUTH'S MOST VISUALLY RECOGNIZABLELAND.”
JONATHAN SULLIVAN '90 director of electronic marketing at Learning Tree International, Washington, D.C.
PIANO MAN
One afternoon in the early fall of 1973 I was studying calculus on the upper floor of the Hop, overlooking the Green. A guy stopped playing the grand piano and walked by. Observing that I was studying multivariable calculus, which he had completed the year before, he asked if I needed any help. For him it was meant as an opening line, but I was absorbed in my studies. Given that I already had decided to be a math major and understood the material, I said no. He sat down to talk anyway. His persistence paid off. After several more chance encounters we dated throughout my Dartmouth career. A few years after graduation, we married.”
LESLIE (KENNEY) FINERTIE '77 senior consultant at MyVal Center, Orinda, California
THEATRICS
I HAVE SO MANY MEMORIES: THE FIRST PLAY I EVER DIRECTED WAS IN THE BENTLEY—MY ULTRAPRETENTIOUS, SELFTRANSLATED VERSION OF IONESCO’S LES CHAISES WITH A SET THAT HAD TILTING WALLS. TEARING THE CROTCH OF MY RESTORATION BRITCHES JUST BEFORE TAKING STAGE ON OPENING NIGHT OF SHERIDAN’S THE DUENNA. RIGGING LIGHTS AT 4 A.M. FOR THE PRODUCTION OF EUGENE O’NEILL’S HUGHIE DONE BY JOE SUTTON ’75. PLAYING A SOLDIER IN BOTTICELLI DIRECTED BY BRUCE COUGHLIN ’75 AND A PETTY CRIMINAL IN THREEPENNY OPERA AS STAGED BY MARK ARNOTT ’72. AS FESTE, TWISTING MY ANKLE IN TWELFTH NIGHT AND GETTING TO BOOT (WITH MY OTHER FOOT) PROFESSOR SACCIO AROUND AS ASSISTANT CLOWN. ALL THOSE AIRES REHEARSALS IN EVERY CORNER OF THE MUSIC DEPARTMENT. EVERY SUNDAY WORKING AS A HOP MONITOR IN THE LOBBY. COMING BACK AS AN ALUM TO REVISE A BROADWAY FLOP CALLED WORKING. FOR ME THE HOP WAS, AND STILL IS, DARTMOUTH.”
PAUL LAZARUS '76 director, producer, writer, Los Angeles
ART HAVEN
I SPENT MOST OF MY SENIOR YEAR IN THE PRINTMAKING STUDIO DOWNSTAIRS. I REMEMBER ENTIRE DAYS AND NIGHTS THERE, BLASTING MY MUSIC AND DANCING ALONG AS I WORKED ON MY PROJECTS. IT WAS MY FAVORITE PLACE ON CAMPUS, AND I MISS IT SO MUCH.”
JULISSA LLOSA '10 high school teacher, Brooklyn, New York
EARLY DECISION
It was the fall of 1968. My brother Pat ’72 was an incoming freshman. I was a freshman at Stamford (Connecticut) High School. The Mattimore family, including my dad, class of 1938, had made the fourhour drive from Stamford in our Plymouth station wagon to drop Pat off. We unloaded his stuff at his dorm and walked up to the Green. As we approached Hopkins Center I saw two upperclassmen leaning over the wrought iron railing of the Hop’s second-floor balcony. Attached to the railing was a large sign, made of individual cardboard letters and numbers, which spelled out the greeting: ‘Welcome Class of ’72.’ I watched as the two upperclassmen, all the time laughing, removed the C and the L from the sign. It was at that moment that I decided, if I got in, there’d be no choice. I’d be going to Dartmouth.”
BRYAN MATTIMORE '76 owner of Growth Engine, Norwalk, Connecticut
CHOW TIME
EARLY MORNIGS THE HOP WAS ALWAYS OPEN AND OPERATING, CHEERFULLY SERVING FRESH FOOD. I WILL NEVER FORGER TASTING A BILLY BOB SANDWICH-AND FRESH WAFLE-FOR THE FIRST TIME AFTER AN EXHAUSTING CREW PRACTICE."
EVAN GREULICH '10 assistant instructor at Lebanese American University, Beirut, Lebanon
VINTAGE BOSS
I remember my all-time favorite Hopkins Center concert. It was October 1974, and for the first time in more than a decade the Dartmouth-Harvard game was being played in Hanover. An upperclassman invited me to usher a big Bruce Springsteen concert. I have seen him in concert several times in the past decades, but nothing will compare with the intimacy of 900-seat Spaulding Auditorium rocking to the Boss and his band playing ‘Rosalita.’ Little did we know then that he would become one of the great performers of our generation.”
BARBAR "BARBIE" (SNUDER) MARTINEZ '78 territory manager, InfoPrint Solutions, Boston
WHAT A PANE
SEVERAL OF US WERE PLAYING POKER IN SOUTH FAYER WHEN ONE OF US GOT AN URGE FOR SOMETHING FROM THE SNACK BAR IN THE HOP. IN A HURRY TO GET BACK TO THE TABLE, HE RAN AT FULL SPEED FROM THE DORM TO THE HOP LOBBY WITHOUT SLOWING FOR THE CLOSED-AND ALL-GLASS—MAIN DOOR. THE GLASS SHATTERED, AND THIS FRIEND SUSTAINED A LEG WOUND THAT NEITHER HE NOR ANY OF US IN THE GAME NOTICED UNTIL AFTER HE RETURNED, WHEN THE CAMPUS COPS ARRIVED 10 MINUTES LATER. THEY HAD FOLLOWED THE TRAIL OF BLOOD. THE POKER CHAMP GOT STITCHES, AND THE HOP GOT A SET OF EYELEVEL DECALS ON THE GLASS OF ITS MAIN DOORS."
ED GRAY '67 editor and writer, Lyme, New Hampshire
BLIND LUCK
“IT WAS WINTER CARNIVAL 1965. I WAS A PREMED SOPHOMORE WITH A BLIND DATE. I TOOK HER TO THE HOP TO SEE WARNER BENTLEY’S PRODUCTION OF THE MUSICAL WONDERFUL TOWN—AND IT CHANGED MY LIFE FOREVER. NOW, 45 YEARS LATER, I AM A DIRECTOR OF BROADWAY PLAYS AND MUSICALS. IT ALL STARTED AT THE HOP. AND I’M FOREVER GRATEFUL.”
JERRY ZAKS '67 Tony Award-winning director and actor, New York City
FREE SHOWS
I WOULD TRY TO SNEAK INTO EVERY MUSICAL AND MOST DRAMATIC PERFORMANCES AFTER INTERMISSION—WHEN THEY STOPPED COLLECTING TICKETS. THESE PERFORMANCES WERE EXTRAORDINARY BALM FOR AN OVERWORKED ENGINEERING STUDENT. I MISSED THE HOP WHEN I LEFT.”
MARK SAMUEL TUTTLE ’65, TH’66 board member of Apelon, Orinda, California
X-RATED?
“I TOOK UPRIGHT BASS LESSONS AT THE HOP FOR YEARS AND JOINED A BLUEGRASS BAND. MUSIC STILL PLAYS AN IMPORTANT EXTRACURRICULAR ROLE IN MY LIFE. I’M GRATEFUL TO THE HOP FOR HELPING STUDENTS MAKE MUSIC. ONE OF MY FAVORITE MEMORIES: PRETENDING TO BE A MUSIC JOURNALIST TO GET INTO CONCERTS FOR FREE. MOST AWKWARD MOMENT? MY FRIENDS AND ME RUNNING INTO MY SOCIOLOGY PROFESSOR AT THE FILM SOCIETY’S RATHER SARDONIC SCREENING OF, UM, AN ADULT MOVIE.”
KATE GILBERT '05 student at the University of Michigan Law School, Ann Arbor
A KIND OF HUSH
The Hop was more of a home to me as a theater major than any of the dorms I lived in or even my Greek house. I don’t think there’s an inch of that building I haven’t been in—the workshops, the performance spaces, the lighting cages, the costuming department, set storage, green rooms, lighting booths, orchestra pits. And, of course, I ate so very many meals at the Courtyard Café. Some of my favorite memories are rubbing the nose on the Warner Bentley bust for good luck every time I passed, late-night hang-and-focus sessions in the black box and main stages, helping to move pianos out of storage and into a performance space with the other student workers, and hanging out on the catwalks during a performance when spotlights needed to be run. The professional shows I saw broadened my experience and taught me to love new things: modern dance, bunraku puppetry, unusual performance. The shows I worked on taught me even more. I remember dozens of opening nights and the hush of anticipation between the house lights going down and the stage lights going up. Even close to 20 years later so many performances are fresh in my memory. They remain some of the best days and nights of my life.”
STEPHANIE CROWLEY '91 communications specialist, Syracuse, New York
Additional alumni memories of the Hop can be found at www.dartmouthalumnimagazine.com
GREAT LEAP FORWARD The Hopkins Center—the College’s manifest investment in the arts—was one of my primary reasons for attending Dartmouth. As a student I spent innumerable hours in its classrooms and theaters, and four decades later I find the friendships and lessons I acquired there provided an excellent preparation for a life in the arts. I tip my hat to the Hopkins Center on its 50th anniversary, for without the Hop, we in Pilobolus Dance Theater might not be celebrating our 40th.” —michael tracy ’73 artistic director of Pilobolus, Washington Depot, Connecticut
CABIN FEVER The Hopkins woodshop was the only thing that kept me sane during the Hanover winters. Freshman year I built a bookcase/stereo/album rack for my 203 Gile dorm room. Sophomore year I built a library table from solid oak. My biggest undertaking was the Phi Delt tiger-maple bar top that lived until the recent fire.” —William SCoville ’83 program manager at Shaw Group, Cincinnati, Ohio
