“Wyoming Seminary celebrates175 years of history - Wilkes Barre Times-Leader” plus 1 more

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Wyoming Seminary celebrates175 years of history - Wilkes Barre Times-Leader Posted: 14 Sep 2019 12:00 AM PDT When 17 boys and 14 girls gathered for the first day of school at Wyoming Seminary, it was a time of horses and wagons, pot-bellied stoves, and stern rules against "scuffling" in the halls. Early textbooks offered lessons in Latin and mathematics and English grammar, including when thou shouldst say "thy" versus "thine." The Civil War was 17 years in the future and John Tyler was president of the United States. It was Sept. 25, 1844. As the present-day Wyoming Seminary community prepares to celebrate its 175th anniversary with a Homecoming Weekend, a gala dinner dance and a public concert, admissions director John Eidam said some things haven't changed. The college preparatory school still wants to produce graduates who are prepared and determined to make the world a better place. But it's fascinating to look back at Wyoming Seminary's history and gain insight into the lives of long-ago students, especially those who boarded. Consider Royal Taft, who described in his 1864 journal how students kept warm in the winter, being "obliged to bring in coal and take out ashes. If we wanted hot water we had to heat it up on the stoves." Early students recalled getting up at 5 a.m. for an hour and a half of studying before breakfast. They also studied at night from 7 to 9:30, and had to be in bed by the 10 p.m. bell. One young man casually wrote about the walks he took, some 20 miles from Kingston to visit his family in the vicinity of Tunkhannock, and on other occasions, about 16 miles round-trip to visit the young woman he was courting in the West Pittston area. If you have a chance to visit Sem's Kirby Center for Creative Arts on Sprague Avenue, perhaps for a free, 2 p.m. Sept. 22 concert scheduled to feature such alumni as opera artists Sara Casey and Jeff Martin and rapper Count Bass D, you'll see treasured artifacts are on display, ranging from the desk of Sem's long-time president Levi Sprague, who served 54 years in that position, to a vintage uniform worn by Betsy Condron when she was a Wyoming Seminary Lower School student. The Lower School, which educates students up to eighth grade, has its roots in the Wilkes-Barre Academy, which was founded for boys in 1807, and in the Wilkes-Barre Institute, founded a few decades later for girls. They eventually merged to form the Wilkes-Barre Day School, which became part of Wyoming Seminary in 1951. "I'm especially looking forward to seeing the former students and teachers who have memories of what was called the 'tri-school'," Lower School history teacher Clark Switzer said, anticipating the homecoming reunion. Also looking forward to the anniversary is vice president of advancement John Shafer, who grew up with the campus surrounding his family home and has worked for the school more than 40 years. "It doesn't feel like work," he said, explaining he gets to spend a lot of time talking to grateful grads who make his job easy. "About 65 to 70 percent of the money that comes in each year is from alumni," he said. "Every school says it's like a family, but we have something that's hard to describe," he said. "We call it the Sem Way." Many deserving students receive financial aid to Wyoming Seminary, Shafer said, and they have opportunities to learn with classmates from around the world and prepare for a world that is becoming ever more global. "It's just as common for them to talk about going to work in Seoul or Hong Kong as it is to talk about going to work in New York," he said. Kevin P. Rea, who became Sem's 12th president in 2015, summed up his experience this way: "What makes me smile is knowing that every day I can make a genuine difference in the world as a result of being at Sem, a school which welcomes students locally, nationally and globally and which transforms the lives of those students, producing inspired graduates with the courage and creativity to make the world an even more true, beautiful and good place to be in the long run."

‘Vaudeville’ returns to Scranton - Wilkes Barre Times-Leader Posted: 22 Aug 2019 12:00 AM PDT Professional performers Rudy Caporaso, Marilyn McIntyre and Lorenza Bernasconi will appear in the 'Scranton Vaudeville' show on Sunday afternoon, along with active seniors and young people who have been working with REV Theatre Co. at the United Neigborhood Centers of Scranton. - Submitted photo 'Vaudeville Scranton' is designed to make audiences feel as if they've stepped back in time to the heyday of vaudeville. - Submitted photo Once upon a time theater folks called Scranton a "dog city." That didn't mean it was overrun with Great Danes, beagles or mutts; just that it was an ideal place to try out your act. "If you put meat in front of the dog and the dog won't eat it, nobody else should eat it. So if a play or musical event didn't work in Scranton, it probably wouldn't work in New York or anywhere else," said Ro Hume, a new American citizen — she was naturalized in February after moving here from her native Australia — who recently wrote the narrative for a REV Theatre Co. production called "Scranton Vaudeville." You can take in the free performance 2 p.m. Sunday at the United Neighborhood Centers' Oppenheim Center for the Arts, 1004 Jackson St., in West Scranton, where you can admire the talents of some professional performers as well as local young people and older adults who have been working with REV Theatre's artistic directors Rosemary Hay and Rudy Caporaso. The production will showcase some Scranton theatrical history as well as songs from hearken back to vaudeville's heyday. Do these lyrics sound familiar? "Pack up all my care and woe. Here I go, singing low. Bye, Bye, Blackbird …" "If you knew Suzie, like I know Suzie, oh, oh, oh, what a gal …" "Toot, toot, Tootsie, good-bye. Toot, toot, Tootsie, don't cry. The choo-choo train that takes me away from you, no words can tell how sad it makes me …" You're probably not old enough to have heard the songs in the 1920s, when they first came out, but you might have heard them on Mitch Miller records. That was Caporaso's introduction, when he was a kid. Enthusiastic about the catchy tunes, he recalled, "I would force my sister to put on a show with me, and my parents were mortified when we performed for their friends. I'd bribe them to watch with cheese and crackers … I was about 8." Nowadays, Caporaso and Hay don't have to bribe anyone to attend their shows — or to participate. Earlier this week United Neighborhood Centers regulars Betty Griffiths, 82, and Cindy DeSarno, 66, practiced harmonizing on a "You Are My Sunshine" duet. They're looking forward to singing in the show, as is Chuck Weber, 85, who remembers seeing live performances of "magicians, singers, dancers and comedians" at places like the Capitol Theater when he was growing up in Scranton. "There were 10 legitimate (vaudeville) houses in Scranton," Caporaso said. "People like Buster Keaton, Ray Bolger and Fanny Brice came here." Will Rogers, John Phillip Sousa, Buffalo Bill Cody and Lillie Langtry also came to Northeastern Pennsylvania, Hume said, noting she based her narrative on history she found in Nancy McDonald's book "If You Can Play Scranton: A Theatrical History." 'You knew where you stood in Scranton," Caporaso said. "If they liked you, you were embraced. If they didn't like you, you'd be booed off the stage. 'Get the hook' was a real thing." Professional performers Rudy Caporaso, Marilyn McIntyre and Lorenza Bernasconi will appear in the 'Scranton Vaudeville' show on Sunday afternoon, along with active seniors and young people who have been working with REV Theatre Co. at the United Neigborhood Centers of Scranton. 'Vaudeville Scranton' is designed to make audiences feel as if they've stepped back in time to the heyday of vaudeville.

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