The word Moon is probably connected to the Sanskrit root me-, to measure, because the changing patterns of the Moon were the first ‘scientific’ calculation for planting, harvesting, and celebrating religious or social events. But this practical use of the Moon did not exhaust its meaning for humankind. The patterns imagined in the surface of the Moon have long served as a kind of cultural inkblot test, supplying a rich symbolic representation of cultural meanings. For some peoples, the Moon spirit safeguards decent behavior. Certain Inuit tribes, for example, believe that the Moon spirit is a mighty hunter who lives on the Moon and has the difficult task of watching over human behavior. For the Inuit, the Moon spirit is the proverbial “Man in the Moon.” Another version of the “Man in the Moon” finds its origins in the Bible and symbolizes banishment to the Moon as punishment for breaking the rule against working on the Sabbath. In this version, the “Man in the Moon” is a man leaning on a pitchfork with a bundle of sticks picked up on a Sunday.

Some cultures find a woman in the Moon. In Chinese folklore, the Moon goddess is known as the “Lady in the Moon.” This legend begins with ten Suns in the sky blazing down on the earth, baking it dry. Hou Yi, an archer, shot down nine of the Suns, leaving one to keep the earth warm and to separate day from night. Yi was later given a ‘pill of immortality,’ if one person took the pill that person would ascend to heaven immediately, but if two people shared it, then they would both live forever. To live forever, however, the pill had to be shared only on the 15th night of the 8th lunar month when the Moon was at its fullest. Hou Yi decided to share this gift with his wife Cheng-O so that they would forever be together. The couple got into an argument, however, and Cheng-O swallowed the pill alone. She ascended to the cold and lonely palace in the Moon. Hou Yi was heart broken. Knowing this, Cheng-O sent a messenger on the 14th day of the 8th lunar month and told Yi that the only way they could see each other again was if he used rice flour to make a cake the shape of the full Moon for the very next night. She promised that as he prayed to the full Moon, she would be there with him. This folklore from the Tang Dynasty (A.D. 618-906) is still well known and influential. The 15th day of the 8th lunar month is known as the Moon Festival, when Moon cakes are made to represent reunion of family members for Chinese people all over the world.

Invention of the telescope replaced mystical explanations of features on the Moon’s surface with more precise and scientific lunar topography. Now the work of three Washington University scientists might further explain that topography and rewrite the history of the Moon. Professors Haskin, Korotev, and Jolliff base their research on the fact that materials remaining in orbit after the Earth and Moon had formed bombarded the crusts of both bodies and left enormous impact craters. Most of these craters were erased on the Earth, but as humans have always been able to see, they remain major surface features on the Moon. These lunar craters hold secrets that might explain what the early solar system looked like. Although such knowledge contributes to both our understanding of the Earth’s first half-billion years and potentially our possible future use of the Moon, it will not necessarily bring to an end the actual rather than the archival entertainment we derive from looking up at the Moon. I am reminded of another Chinese legend about a Moon spirit who secures the destiny of lovers by uniting them with an invisible silken cord tied around their waists. At the time the lovers are destined to meet, the spirit draws the cords together. Astronomers may smile at the thought, but there are mysteries that continue to be entertainingly explained by folklore that served for hundreds of human generations before NASA scientists Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin set foot on the earth’s satellite in 1969, becoming the men on the Moon. There will always be events in terrestrial human lives that have as much magic as a full Moon.

Jian Leng, Assistant Director
The Center for the Humanities

Although my mother claims I have been melodramatic all my life, I did not start out working toward a career in the world of theatre. Certainly, theatre has been a consistent presence in my life. At the age of eleven, I checked my first play out of the public library and found my reading genre of choice. Somehow, precocious child that I was, I understood the worlds that drama would let me experience. Michael Feingold described it in The Way We Live Now:

Plays are the first of all models of behavior, imitations of life which reflect back onto it. They give us patterns to follow or reject, motives and meanings for actions, consequences to hope for or to avoid; in their ambiguities they offer alternatives.

In my sixteen years as a special education teacher, I found theatre a powerful tool for both instruction and assessment. Whatever pedagogical preference or style was in vogue—right brain/left brain, multiple intelligences, mixed modality, Bloom’s taxonomy—theatre was the one tool that engaged them all. You truly have not lived until you have seen very tough, cool inner-city boys doing their dance of the rain cycle. Concepts like precipitation, saturation, condensation and evaporation seemed inaccessible on the pages of a science book, but suddenly made sense when used in a rap ballet. Theatre also allowed students to show their strengths in a risk-free environment. It was not the student trying a course of action and failing dismally, it was a character. The fact that these situations applied to their daily lives was never mentioned by any of us; the lessons were quietly internalized and new courses of action were used.

In 1994, I joined Syracuse Stage as their Director of Educational Services. Also serving as adjunct faculty at Syracuse University, I co-directed a University touring show for children and made my acting debut on the professional stage as a dead body for twenty minutes. My experiences at Syracuse Stage led me to become The Repertory Theatre of St. Louis’ first Director of Education in 1998. Although The Rep’s education department has only three people, with the help of the entire staff, several teaching artists, and a cadre of over 150 volunteers, we are able to offer over twenty programs. Some of these programs support the work on stage while others are designed to weave theatre into the tapestry of everyday life.

One of our most successful programs is WiseWrite, in collaboration with Springboard to Learning, which offers fifth grade students at two area elementary schools an opportunity to learn the art of playwriting while increasing communication skills and literacy. The program is also offered for two classes at Edgewood Children’s Center. Over the course of the school year, these young playwrights work with teaching artists to learn the elements of a well-made play. After adapting a folk tale for practice, they begin to write their own scripts. Each playwright submits a final script for publication. We are constantly reminded of the power of this experience. Years later, students in middle school will show us their bound scripts from fifth grade. We had a young playwright who wrote a twelve-page play every weekend to read to his parents, neither of which could read on their own. A young woman at Edgewood insisted that the program did not change her a bit, she just dreams a little more now. The final event for WiseWrite, a festival in which professional and student actors present twenty plays on The Rep Browning Mainstage, is open to the public. This year’s festival is March 4, 2004, and is an experience not to be missed.

Never far from my inclusionary education sensibilities, I work with volunteers to make our theatre accessible for all audiences. We started offering Audio-Description for the blind in 1998. Since that time we have trained volunteers who now also audio-describe at six other venues. Set models, props, and costume materials are used for a touch tour prior to the performance allowing blind patrons to establish an inner vision of the set. Last season, The Rep became the first and only venue to offer Open Captioning for the deaf and hearing impaired. This service is offered at the same performance as our sign language interpretation, allowing deaf friends to attend the theatre together regardless of the communication mode they prefer.

If you are interested in our education programs—either as a participant or volunteer—more information can be found on The Rep’s website at www.repstl.org or by contacting me at The Rep. There is surely a program to meet your needs and interests.

Steve Woolf, Artistic Director of The Rep, has said it best: “Our places of art serve as cauldrons of creativity, repositories of past treasures and windows on the new. At The Rep we will continue to entertain, challenge, explore, penetrate, frustrate, win, lose, engage and celebrate humanity.”

Marsha Coplon is Director of Education at The Repertory Theatre of St. Louis. Please call 314/968-7340, ext. 280 for more information.

On December 9th, The Center for the Humanities held the inaugural meeting of its new Student Advisory group. The group’s purpose is to facilitate greater interaction between the Center and students on the Washington University campus; to make the Center part of student life and to gain vitality from student input into the Center’s activities.

The Center’s six student workers under the Federal Work Study program are part of the group, together with other interested undergraduates and graduates. Dr. Gerald Early, the Center’s director, emphasized the Center’s unique qualities: “Our center exists, in part, to assist students by providing resources on study and careers in the humanities; most other humanities centers just serve faculty,” he said. “We want to reach out to students and hear their ideas about what we can do – ideas that may not find an audience elsewhere.”

Dr. Early discussed the center’s current programs and future plans, and invited the students to become involved in a variety of ways: suggesting speakers and subjects of particular interest to themselves and their peers for future forums; organizing student-oriented workshops; writing for Figure in the Carpet and Belles Lettres; helping to develop the Center’s library; and publicizing the Center’s events on campus. An important project starting in spring will be to collect statistical information on student experiences in the humanities, in particular on graduate career paths. The aim is to provide a solid resource of data on the practical implications of choosing to work in a humanities field. Students will be recruited to help with gathering this data.

Students responded with suggestions on how to reach out to their number, including an Open House, poetry days with local writers, open mike contests on the South Forty, banners, mailings and online access to our publications. Their lively ideas, energy and local campus knowledge promise to help raise the Center’s profile among students in the coming year.

All interested students are warmly invited to join the Student Advisory Group. Please contact us at (314) 935-5576, or cenhumartsci.wustl.edu.