Theater teaches empathy, one author has written; theater was my first love, and it remains central to my life. I collect to enhance that love with plays and critical studies and with the two pieces on paper that I am offering for New Members Collect.
The two pieces derive from the same source: a costume designed for me in a Dartmouth Players production of Shakespeare’s “Comedy of Errors”. I was given a tiny role, Dr. Pinch, who speaks 75 words over six lines. But what a costume! Professor Alicia Annas was head of the costume shop and a friend. Item one is her costume rendering, which she gave me. A cape of yards of black velvet with white piping, bright orange satin lining, white ruffles, topped by a giant black cone on my head (with white stripes, of course). Stephen Harvard, also a Dartmouth student, saw me in the costume and decided to use it as his poster advertising the production. He invited me to make whatever gestures, took some pictures and produced Item Two.
This is my tribute to Alicia and Stephen. They supplied the art; I contributed only a body and a big grin.
Costume rendering by Professor Alicia Annas, Dartmouth College, 1967
Professor Alicia Annas designed this costume for Arthur Fergenson as Dr. Pinch in the Dartmouth Players production of Shakespeare’s Comedy of Errors. She gave her rendering to Mr. Fergenson. Professor Annas later taught at San Diego State University, which houses the Alicia Annas Historical Costume Collection, a costume collection of over 1000 costumes/artifacts. The collection dates from the 1860s through the 1970s.
Comedy ofErrors poster. Stephen Harvard, 1967
Stephen Harvard was a Dartmouth student when he designed this poster from his photograph of Arthur Fergenson in a costume deigned by Alicia Annas. “HCDA” stands for Hopkins Center Design Associates. Mr. Harvard designed the Grolier display type, first prominently used in the Club’s 1984 volume The Grolier Club 1884-1984[;] Its Library, Exhibitions, & Publications. Mr. Fergenson is unable to locate any other printing of this item.
