Impact: 1. The striking of one body against another; collision. 2. The force or impetus transmitted by a collision. 3. The effect or impression of one thing on another. 4. The power of making a strong, immediate impression.

What does it mean in the Potsdam context? We scratched the surface a bit and found a few examples that we will share. But our research revealed that it would take volumes to capture the impact that Potsdam has had on the lives of so many and the impact that they have had in return on the College.

Gore refers to himself as an “accidental archeologist.” He was a history major at Potsdam with a minor in German. When the German program was no longer an option, he opted for a minor in archeology, which changed his life. As part of his minor, Gore participated in a field school in Virginia with Dr. Steven Marqusee, associate dean and professor of anthropology. It was there that Gore received hands-on training in excavation techniques, documentation of excavations and general site management on a 19th-century farm site.

A native of Ogdensburg, NY, Gore grew up hearing about Fort La Presentation, a military fort built by the French on the St. Lawrence River dating back to the mid-18th century, which was later occupied by both the British and Americans. Over the years, parts of the fort were destroyed or buried five feet underground. As a result, the exact location was lost, until now.

Lighthouse Point in Ogdensburg at one time was used as an oil storage facility and the soil was contaminated, but it was also the suspected location of the fort. Originally, it was work done through Potsdam archeological student fieldwork in the 1980s that first revealed the contamination at the Fort La Presentation site.

Since spring 2007, the Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC) has been cleaning up the soil from petroleum contamination. Last summer, ground-penetrating radar identified four target dig spots and one of those spots resulted in the discovery of the fort’s original cobblestone floor, solving the mystery of Fort La Presentation’s location. As an archeologist for the New York State Museum, Gore manages the clean up and recovery efforts by collecting and preserving as many artifacts as they can find.

“The archeology field training at Potsdam was an absolute necessity to get any job here at the New York State Museum,” said Gore.

The archeology department at the New York State Museum is responsible for archeological impact studies when an area of proposed construction or development is included in any state or federally funded plan for development. Gore’s job at the museum is to determine whether there are artifacts and historical information, like at Fort La Presentation, to be collected. He then rescues them before any work is done.

His work includes helping with the city of Albany’s recent revitalization efforts and being on hand to look for historical artifacts when changes were made to Pearl Street. It was there that his team discovered a portion of the palisade wall, which surrounded Albany during the 18th century. The wall was used as a defense mechanism by towns and villages. The historical impact of this find is immeasurable and would otherwise be lost to state researchers and communities.

The Fort La Presentation project goal is to clean up the soil and recover any remaining artifacts. However, Gore’s personal goal was to find the cobblestone floor, a thrilling discovery for an accidental archeologist. While Gore would have preferred to locate some of the walls as well as the floors, he admits that it would be unlikely. Historical reports show that the early residents of Ogdensburg took materials from the fort to use in the building of their own homes. The remnants can still be found in some of the foundations today.

Gore hopes that the floor will not be lost through the soil remediation process. He sees it having a large impact on the community because it is a part of their history and has tremendous value for local researchers and historians. He believes it offers the community a renewed sense of pride for its rich history.

“I think it’s not only great for the community, it’s great from a research perspective, for archeologists and historians to learn a little bit about the French occupation of Northern New York and later on the British and American occupation as well.”

When Mike Teglasi of Mount Sinai, NY, a student of Dr. John Ellis at Crane, received a trumpet lesson from Pace Sturdevant, an artistic associate with the National Arts Centre Orchestra in Ottawa, he didn’t travel to Canada, nor Sturdevant to The States. They used a new technology called Internet 2 to provide a realtime video conference lesson.

It is a form of space/ time travel – a broadband connection reserved for educators to foster real time video conferencing and other creative technologically enabled collaboration across continents.

“Internet 2 expands our abilities to offer quality interactions with experts and high profile teachers from around the world,” said Dr. Peter McCoy, SUNY Potsdam associate professor of music technology.

“To be able to invite a top person in your field to work with your students is amazing.”

The trumpet lesson allowed Sturdevant to see Teglasi’s exact finger placement as well as hear his playing in real time with virtually no delay, only a quarter of a second. It is similar to an echo and normally unnoticeable, allowing student and master to see and hear each other instantaneously.

Imagine the impact. You can be anywhere in the world at Potsdam. The Crane Latin Percussion Ensemble had the opportunity last fall to collaborate with Grammy nominee Bobby Sanabria of the Manhattan School of Music. Considered a specialist in Latin Percussion, the students were given an opportunity to be coached by one of the leading experts in the percussion field. Sanabria’s students then performed for the Crane students, providing a unique opportunity for instrumental dialog without braving the elements of the North Country to get to Manhattan.

At this point, Internet 2 does not move quite fast enough for the two ensembles to play together because music timing is too precise and even a quarter of a second is significant. They could, however, have a natural conversation to provide feedback after listening to each other’s performances without any pauses or breaks for the data transmission.

While Crane offers many innovative music programs, one course it lacked was a seminar on conducting. Through Internet 2, Pinchas Zukerman, director of the National Arts Centre Orchestra in Ottawa, provided a conducting master class with Crane students, thus filling a void otherwise found in the program.

Dr. McCoy has other hopes for the use of I2. Internet 2 will give Potsdam’s future music teachers experience teaching in an urban environment without leaving the North Country.

“This technology virtually eliminates the distance between teachers and students,” said Dr. McCoy. “Future teachers can interact with students in other places for teaching experience.”

Other departments are looking at ways to capitalize on the exclusive bandwidth. Faculty are exploring the potential for collaboration with their global counterparts in both a scholarly and creative way. Theatre performances may include actors from stages around the world, or language students could practice French with students in Paris.

Currently the only other option for video conferencing, other than commercial Internet, is the use of satellite which is time-consuming, requires reserving the time and can be costly. With Internet 2, Potsdam students and faculty have an opportunity to utilize the technology whenever they see fit. In the video conferencing world, this is the newest, most cutting-edge technology.

“It’s the best way to have a human connection without having the physical connection,” said Dr. McCoy.

With an increased use of Internet 2, Crane students will continue to collaborate not only with experts from Canada and Manhattan, but also with experts from around the world.

When you ask Melissa Brewer ’07 why she wanted to go into the field of applied theatre she will tell you, “I want to tell people’s stories in new ways. I want people to know their stories aren’t forgotten, and I want to make people know how important their lives are.”

Brewer is now pursuing a master’s degree in applied theatre at Royal Holloway, part of the University of London system. She was introduced to applied theatre during a class on the concept taught by Assistant Professor of Theatre Dr. Jay Pecora in spring 2006.

Applied theatre is an overarching term that includes many different types of theatre. It is a chance to take theatre into traditionally non-theatrical areas such as education, social work, therapy and political activism. There is no limit to what method of theatre can be used to bring the
audience’s attention to the story or issue being addressed. It is a way to impact people’s lives.

Sound vague? It is. As Tiffany Weller ’07 puts it, “It’s really hard to attempt to describe it or put a definition on it until you do it.”

To ease the students into the right frame of mind, Dr. Pecora starts with a project called Memory Theatre. During this project, each member of the class visits with residents of United Helpers, a nursing home located in Canton, NY, and interviews them to learn their life stories. Those stories and memories are then turned into a play, which is performed for the residents of the nursing home.

Each scene is a different memory tied together through a holding form, or method of tying together two seemingly unrelated scenes. In the case of the spring 2006 class, music from the residents’ generations was used, the music they would remember the most.

Applied theatre is not like traditional storytelling, where each action is built off the previous actions. With the memory theatre concept, the students could take many different memories, such as former military
service or a wedding, and make them flow into a cohesive performance. As a result, an emotional journey through the lives of the residents was created.

In the conversations that followed the performance at the nursing home, Brewer recalls being told that the play allowed the residents to remember how great their lives were. Weller also remembers distinctly the performance with the nursing home residents and how it affected them, knowing that they had someone interested in hearing their stories. “It was a great way to bridge the generational gap,” she said.

From the left: Tiffany Weller ’07, Erin Gandia ’07 and Melissa Brewer ’07 in Hong Kong to perform their original applied theatre work titled “Project Homecoming.”

Both Brewer, of Vooheesville, and Weller, of Potsdam, took it to another level, getting international attention when they created Project Homecoming with fellow classmate Erin Gandia ’07 of Natural Bridge, NY. They developed an ethno drama detailing the experiences of women soldiers who had come back from Iraq and Afghanistan. The project was one of the first of its kind to focus on the stories of women soldiers and also included research on Post Traumatic Stress Disorder.

Through interviews and qualitative research, they put together a performance for the end of the semester, and it went on to be accepted and performed at the American Alliance for Theater and Education Conference in Washington that summer. Each time the group interviewed another female soldier or family, they would update the play and eventually they decided to continue their research even though the class was over.

Dr. Pecora submitted the piece to be presented at the International Drama Education Association (IDEA) Conference in Hong Kong during the summer of 2007. Much to their surprise, they were selected to participate. After months of research, the final version of Project Homecoming was performed for the first time at the conference. They were the only Americans selected to perform.

For the international community, this was a fresh new perspective on the war in Iraq and Afghanistan. While the students maintain that they took a neutral approach and showed all sides of the issue, their audiences received it in very different ways. Some saw it as a pro-war message; others saw it as anti-war. Regardless of the side the audience saw, the performance was well received and resulted in discussions on United States foreign policy, military politics and people’s views on war in general. It was a unique dialogue not normally associated with going to the theatre.

“This is the point of applied theatre. To get people talking and to provide a space for people to think outside their normal comfort zone and frame of mind,” said Brewer.

It has no boundaries. The Theatre Program is using drama to bring student actors together with actors with developmental disabilities to collaborate on an emotional piece about what it is like to be disabled. The work has a profound impact on the actors as well as the College’s relationship with the community.

“We view it as part of creating well-rounded theatre artists so they are aware of all the opportunities available for people with theatre degrees. Students need to know there is a lot more to theatre than pursuing your big break on Broadway. You can also do incredible community work and get people motivated towards breaking down social barriers,” said Dr. Pecora.

Applied theatre has become popular abroad but isn’t as well known in the United States. Developing countries have used it to teach people about health and education issues facing the world, such as HIV, women’s education and crime. The inclusion of this class in the Theatre Education Program is a big step towards teaching younger generations new ways to solve their problems or to make a difference while also providing a creative avenue for people currently working in the drama field to make a difference.

As Brewer put it, “In my opinion, it has changed my life, and it has the potential to change the lives of others.”

On the homepage:
Illustrating impact can take many shapes. We wanted to have some fun with it so, yes, that’s real paint. And we threw it at them. Thanks to our helpful students and to all of the faculty, staff, alumni, and friends who impact their lives in many ways!
From the left: Issac Snell ’08, Art Education; Nicole Wilson ’09, Childhood Education; Bridgit Noone ’08, Art Studio Major