“Fire on the Hill”: a show of activism at Colby
2020 has been a powerful year for activism all over the world. Activism itself has a rich history at Colby, ranging from protests against the Vietnam War in the 1960s to a rally just last week supporting the effort to count every vote in the presidential election.
With this in mind the Theatre and Dance Department decided to create a show titled “Fire on the Hill” that is inspired by Colby’s history of activism. Written and directed by AB Brown, the Assistant Professor of Contemporary Performance, the show consists of a mix of on stage acting as well as recorded interviews that are projected on a screen at the back of the stage.
Sam Kwon `21, who was involved with the play, explained how the event came together.
“We started by doing research on the history of activism at Colby. The cast began diving into Colby’s Special Collections and picking out moments, and also noting moments not mentioned, from Colby’s timeline of activism. From there, the cast developed interview questions ranging from older to very recent moments of activism at Colby. All of the spoken content in the play came from interviews done by the cast, or interviews from the Activists Voices Podcast,” Kwon explained.
“Before we had a written script, most of our rehearsals were focused on devising exercises and working with moments from history, thoughts, feelings, and themes. Many of the motions on stage were based off of specific moments of activism on Colby’s campus that the cast developed during workshopping rehearsals. So, all credit is due to our interviewees for all of the spoken content in the play. However, full credit goes to AB for listening to hours and hours of audio and transcribing the entire script. From there until tech week, we worked on rearranging parts of the script, blocking out specific moments, and memorizing lines.”
Kwon went on to detail how he managed to get involved with the show.
“AB reached out to students who were in [AB’s] directing classes to see if anyone was interested in assistant directing the fall performance. To be completely honest, I really didn’t read the flier closely when I responded with interest; all I knew is that we were going to be working on performance very different than anything I’ve seen before,” Kwon said.
“I’d been involved in quite a few performances for Powder and Wig [Colby’s theater club], but I’d never been involved in a department production. I met with AB and we discussed the details of the project, and I was a little intimidated! A performance about activism? During a pandemic? No script, yet? As a director, I’m used to going into rehearsal knowing the details of the play down to the last word. Devising theatre was something completely new to me, and I’m so glad I had the privilege to be a part of this project.”
Kwon further explained how he thought the show represents Colby’s relationship with activism.
“Fire on the Hill is the embodiment of Colby’s relationship with activism. A big theme throughout the play is this relationship between the students and the administration and how it has affected the way Colby has dealt with activism,” Kwon explained. “And I say dealt because, well, I love Colby, but Colby isn’t the biggest supporter of activism. At Colby, we’re supposed to be students first and everything else second. A rally at the flagpole between 11 and 12. Sure, as long as it’s calm, timely, and non-disruptive.”
Despite the show’s critique of Colby’s relationship with activism, it appeared to be well-received by the Colby community.
“So far, we’ve had a very positive reaction to the show,” Kwon said. “Several members of the administration were present for the opening night, and seemed very open to the message of the performance and were speaking with the cast afterwards too.”
~ Tanvi Iyer `22
