Casey Troost – The Oberlin Review

Amer Hasan, Third-year Conservatory Clarinetist

March 13, 2020

Conservatory third-year Amer Hasan is now the clarinet finalist for the 2020 Yamaha Young Performing Artists Competition. Hasan’s mentor is Oberlin Professor of Clarinet Richard Hawkins, who received the same award in 1990. Hasan now serves as the principal clarinetist for the Akron Symphony Orchestra, teaches clarinet at the Grafton Center of Musical Arts, and has already performed and taught in multiple countries. On good days, Hasan says, he plays the clarinet like it’s a part of his body...

Behind the Scenes: “Cosi Fan Tutte” Opens This Wednesday

Casey Troost, Staff Writer

March 6, 2020

Beginning Wednesday at 8 p.m., the Oberlin Opera Theater will continue to uphold a tradition that’s at least four decades old: producing Mozart’s Cosi Fan Tutte once every 10 years. First performed in 1790, Cosi Fan Tutte is set in Naples and centered around a scheme between three military officers and a maid, Despina, to test the fidelity of two of the officers’ lovers. The eldest officer, Don Alfonso, bets against the younger Ferrando and Guglielmo that, by the end of the day, he will prove that their sweethearts, Dorabella and Fiordiligi, aren’t eternally loyal to them. “It can be a harsh and bitter comedy,” said Costume Designer Chris Flaharty. “At the beginning of its life, it was taken as a...

Theater Degrees Lead Students to a Wide Variety of Careers

Casey Troost

February 21, 2020

It is easy to argue that certain humanities degrees are marketable. English, History, Politics, and several other “scholarly” fields cultivate strong writing and research skills. But for creative majors, like Theater, doubts over financial security sometimes hover on the horizon. However, Assistant Director of Career Development Center Josh Koller, OC ’18, who runs the Arts and Creative Professions Career Community, attests to Oberlin Theater majors’ versatility in the job market. “We have Theater majors working in the business and marketing world, writing, developing websites, doing data science, and entering law school,” said Koller. “You have so many skills that you’ve developed in that major. You’ve...

Student-Written Play MOIRAI Reimagines Greek Mythology

Casey Troost, Staff Writer

November 15, 2019

MOIRAI, College fourth-year Giulia Chiappetta’s debut as a playwright, follows the classical Greek Fates Atropos, Clotho, and Lachesis as they seek to reclaim Atropos’ scissors from a thief in the modern world. The project is Chiappetta’s playwriting debut, and was directed by College fourth-year Maddie Henke. MOIRAI is a dark comedy, exploring themes of mortality, sisterhood, and traveling. The production is being put on with support from the Oberlin Student Theater Association, and is entirely student-run. MOIRAI reflects Chiappetta’s interest in humanizing legendary mythological characters. “I was interested in expanding and giving these staple characters who are part of this canon … a voice,” sh...

German Department Celebrates 50-Year Anniversary

November 8, 2019

Visiting German Writer-in-Residence Nora Gomringer gave a public reading of her book Hydra’s Heads on Thursday, Nov. 7, in commemoration of the 50th anniversary of the Max Kade German Writer-in-Residence Program’s partnership with Oberlin College. The book, released in 2018, contains the first official English translation of her poetry. The publisher, Burning Eye Books, describes the book as “poems about the darker times of Germany’s modern history, reworkings of myths and fairytales and a...

An Obie Recommends: How to Avoid Procrastination

Casey Troost, Staff Writer

November 1, 2019

It’s that time of the semester again: I’ve just finished midterms and used fall break to get a jump start on upcoming projects for my classes. There’s a foggy idea forming in my mind about the amount of work piled on my plate, an unending academic grind in the weeks ahead. Any day now I expect the specter of academic foreboding to come knocking at my door, whispering to me to put off my finals and internship applications in favor of readings, homework, and student organizations. My procrastination is gathering on the horizon, and once I start slipping, it’s hard to overcome. Fortunately for me, though, procrastination works like sleep debt. With a large enough disaster, I’ll find the motivation to av...

“E. Pluribus” Recontextualizes 9/11 in Analysis of Conflict

September 13, 2019

Walking into the Firelands Association for Visual Arts gallery for a panel focusing on the 18th anniversary of 9/11, I expected tense silence. Instead, I was met with excited conversation and laughter between an intimate audience and the panelists. The mood didn’t match the somber nature of the day, but I sensed that this would inspire the crowd to continue the conversation after the event. The panel concluded the FAVA’s “E. Pluribus” exhibition, a collection of artworks depicting war fro...

Looking Beneath the Laughs in Coming-of-Age Comedy “Good Boys”

Casey Troost

September 6, 2019

Based on the trailer, it’s easy to compare Good Boys to previous action-comedies like Superbad, Bad Teacher, Year One, and Bad Grandpa. However, while the humor of comparable movies is often delivered by adults or teenagers, Good Boys shifts the focus to three youthful and inexperienced pre-teens. In Good Boys, most of the comedy comes from scenes in which the three naive protagonists, called “The Bean Bag Boys,” misinterpret the adult content they come into contact with. For example, Thor, one of the three Bean Bag Boys, mistakes a BDSM mask in his parent’s closet for protective wear and puts it on to answer the door for a stranger. While I enjoyed the comedy in the film, I question whether I should have...