Back at ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½ to work with a class in Indonesian performance, Sulochana Dissanayake ’09 works with rod puppets in Olin Arts Center during a rehearsal for a May 14 concert. (Phyllis Graber Jensen/ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½ College)

“I learned the value of doing what you love for a living through the professionals I met at ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½ – who were all 100 percent committed to their chosen path,” Sulochana Dissanayake ’09 told the seniors gathered for the annual honors banquet on May 6.

In a world crisscrossed with intriguing life paths, Dissanayake’s stands out. A double major in economics and theater at ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½, and a Watson Fellow after she graduated, her chosen path afterward ultimately led home to Sri Lanka.

There she launched Power of Play, a communication company dedicated to practicing performing arts with a special focus on puppetry and theater for education, awareness, reconciliation and development in Sri Lanka.

Sulo Dissanayake ’09 gives the keynote address at the May 6, 2015, honors thesis dinner. (Phyllis Graber Jensen/ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½ College)

But this month her path has brought Dissanayake back to ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½, where she is collaborating with the Short Term gamelan ensemble and Indonesian guest artists on a performance of puppetry and music at 7:30 p.m. Thursday, May 14, in the Olin Arts Center Concert Hall, 75 Russell St.

Admission to the performance is free. The event is made possible in part by support from the Edith C. and Raymond A. Kendall ’19 Endowment Fund and a gift from Eijk and Rose-Marie van Otterloo. For more information, please call 207-786-6135.

Titled Stories From the Seven Seas, the program pulls together:

• two Indonesian puppetry styles, Javanese shadow puppets and Sundanese “wayang golek” or three-dimensional rod puppets;
• Dissanayake’s puppet work, which is influenced by wayang golek and Sri Lankan folk traditions;
• and the percussion-based Indonesian music called gamelan, performed in this case by students in the Short Term unit Performing Musical Art of Indonesia.

Gamelan is a traditional Indonesian musical form played on tuned percussion instruments. The term can refer to a given collection of instruments, which tend to be crafted in sets, as well as to the genre itself. ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½ has two sets of gamelan instruments.

Visiting ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½ from West Java are wayang puppeteer Kodrat Hidayah Taryana and Jaja Diatmaja, who instructs the 19-year-old Taryana at the Indonesian Institute of the Arts in Bandung, West Java.

Sulochana Dissanayake ’09 explains a fine point of puppet communications to students in the course Performing Musical Art of Indonesia, Taizaburo Inoue ’18 of Toon-Shi, Japan, and Leah Zulkoski ’15 of Charlotte, Vt. (Phyllis Graber Jensen/ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½ College)

Diatmaja will conduct the gamelan ensemble and provide the highly specialized drum accompaniment for the wayang golek puppetry, says Gina Fatone, associate professor of music and director of the gamelan ensemble.

“Sulo is used to performing collaboratively, so Kodrat will perform with Sundanese puppets” — referring to a region in West Java — “alongside the Sri Lankan version of the wayang golek puppets that Sulo uses,” Fatone explains.

The program will include “The Power of People,” a puppet story that Dissanayake created collaboratively with students in the Performing Musical Art of Indonesia course. A classic tale of good vs. evil set in a fictional land facing the real perils of a modern country, “The Power of People” the story pits a fallen leader against a true savior who has rebelled against the regime.

“Finally, evil succumbs to good in an epic battle,” says Dissanayake, “which ends with the reminder that each human is a combination of good and evil — and true victory is achieving a sustainable balance.”

Dissanayake was prominent in the theater department during her time at ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½. Among other achievements, she was one of the rare students to direct a mainstage production — in this case, a 2008 production of Sam Shepard’s Lie of the Mind. She graduated cum laude from ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½.

With the ultimate dream of founding a theater company and school to explore sociopolitical issues in her native Sri Lanka, Dissanayake visited Indonesia and South Africa to observe how people in these countries —former colonies with social, political and economic histories similar to Sri Lanka’s — use puppetry and nonverbal theater to explore socially critical issues, an approach not common in Sri Lanka.

Surrounded by gamelan instruments, Sulo Dissanayake ’09 talks with students in the 2015 Short Term course Performing Musical Art of Indonesia. (Phyllis Graber Jensen/ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½ College)

In Indonesia, Dissanayake studied wayang golek, in which wooden puppets are controlled by rods attached to the hands and a central rod attached to the body and head. There she worked with the most famous wayang golek dalang (master puppeteer), the recently deceased Pak Asep Sunandar Sunarya.

“Indonesian puppeteers have made their work relevant and entertaining to modern audiences,” Dissanayake told the Sri Lankan art magazine Artra. “And that was the goal I came back to Sri Lanka with, that we’re going to revive what’s ours, in terms of puppetry and traditional arts, and we’re going to make it relevant to modern audiences.”

Dissanayake founded Power of Play upon returning to Sri Lanka after her Watson year. Power of Play seeks to use the puppetry and other arts not only to entertain, but also to promote communication and break social, political and economic barriers in Sri Lanka.

“You can’t get angry at a puppet,” Dissanayake said in an interview with the magazine Lanka Woman. “A completely genuine channel of communication is created between puppet and audience.”

The shadow puppets to be used in the performance are part of a collection of more than 300 on permanent loan to ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½ College. David Eisler, an attorney in New Hampshire, has loaned the collection to ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½ to honor the memory of his father, Dr. Milton Eisler, and to ensure that the collection remains intact.

Hello from ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½! Here is a preview of public events at the college in September 2010. Except as noted, these events are open to the public at no charge. (Where there is an admission fee, the cost for the general public appears first, followed by the cost for students and seniors.)

For a printable version: If you’re viewing this in the e-mail update, please click the headline above to go to the Events Schedule website. At the website, go to the bottom of the page and click “print”  (as in “print this page”) for the printable format.

For up-to-date events information throughout the month, see our page. Questions or comments? Contact events editor Doug Hubley at this calendar@bates.edu.

Saturday, Sept. 4

Noon

Men’s and women’s cross country: Alumni meet.
Russell Street Field

Tuesday, Sept. 7

4:10pm

Convocation: In a one-time departure from the usual Wednesday event, ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½ begins its 145th academic year with a Tuesday program including talks by ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½ President Elaine Tuttle Hansen and by Professor of Religious Studies Marcus Bruce, whose Convocation address is titled A Shared Vocation.
Historic Quadrangle (rain site: Alumni Gymnasium)

Friday, Sept. 10

7pm

Lecture: Watson Fellowship recipient Sulochana Dissanayake ’09 describes her year of researching contemporary theater companies in South Africa and Indonesia. An information session about applying for the Watson follows.
Benjamin Mays Center

8pm

Contradance: Traditional New England folk dancing to the band Bustopher Jones. No experience needed; all dances taught and called. Beginners’ workshop at 7:30. Admission: $5. Sponsored by the Freewill Folk Society.
Chase Hall Lounge

8pm

Global Lens film: The international film series begins its ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½ season with The Night of Truth (Burkina Faso, 2004; 100 min.) Admission: $5. For more information contact 207-786-6135 or this olinarts@bates.edu.
Olin Arts Center, Room 105

Saturday, Sept. 11

10:30am

Men’s and women’s cross country vs. Colby.
Pineland Farms, New Gloucester

8pm

Global Lens film: The Night of Truth (see Sept. 10).
Olin Arts Center, Room 105

Sunday, Sept. 12

Noon

Field hockey vs. Amherst.
Campus Avenue Field

Noon

Women’s soccer vs. Amherst.
Russell Street Field

5:30pm

Spiritual gathering: Protestant worship service featuring ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½â€™ gospel choir. The Rev. William Blaine-Wallace, multifaith chaplain, leads the service with faculty, staff and students participating. All are welcome. For more information call 207-786-8272.
ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½ College Chapel

Tuesday, Sept. 14

12:30pm

Noonday Concert: Frank Glazer, pianist and ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½ artist in residence, performs music by Haydn, Weber and Chopin. For more information contact 207-786-6135 or this olinarts@bates.edu.
Olin Arts Center Concert Hall

4:30pm

Men’s soccer vs. Maine-Farmington.
Russell Street Field

Wednesday, Sept. 15

6–9±è³¾

Figure drawing sponsored by the ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½ College Museum of Art. Artists should bring drawing board and supplies. Easels provided. Admission: $7 (free for ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½ students).
Olin Arts Center, Room 259

7pm

Volleyball vs. Colby.
Alumni Gymnasium

Friday, Sept. 17

7pm

Lecture: Illuminating Dark Energy — A Staged Approach by Gregory Tarlé, professor of physics at the University of Michigan. Tarlé will discuss pending developments in research to determine the nature of the mysterious dark energy that dominates our universe and has caused its expansion to accelerate. Co-sponsored by the physics and astronomy department and the Southern Maine Chapter of Sigma Xi. For more information contact 207-786-6490.
Carnegie Science Building, Room 204

8pm

Global Lens film: The international film series presents Adrift (Vietnam, 2009; 110 min.). Admission: $5. For more information contact 207-786-6135 or this olinarts@bates.edu.
Olin Arts Center, Room 105

Saturday, Sept. 18

11am

Field hockey vs. Bowdoin.
Campus Avenue Field

11am

Women’s soccer vs. Bowdoin.
Russell Street Field

Noon

Men’s and women’s cross country vs. Bowdoin, Colby and Tufts.
Pineland Farms, New Gloucester

2pm

Men’s soccer vs. Bowdoin.
Russell Street Field

8pm

Global Lens film: Adrift (see Sept. 17).
Olin Arts Center, Room 105

Sunday, Sept. 19

5:30pm

Spiritual gathering: Protestant worship service (see Sept. 12).
ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½ College Chapel

Tuesday, Sept. 21

12:30pm

Noonday Concert: Performer to be announced. For more information contact 207-786-6135 or this olinarts@bates.edu.
Olin Arts Center Concert Hall

4:30pm

Lecture: A talk on a topic TBA by Nancy Bauer, an associate professor of philosophy at Tufts University who explores the history of philosophy and philosophy’s role in everyday human life, especially in its intersections with gender and with film. Sponsored by the philosophy department.
Pettengill Hall, Keck Classroom (G52)

4:30pm

Men’s soccer vs. Plymouth State.
Russell Street Field

5pm

Field hockey vs. Husson.
Campus Avenue Field

Wednesday, Sept. 22

4:30pm

Women’s soccer vs. Wellesley.
Russell Street Field

6–9±è³¾

Figure drawing sponsored by the ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½ College Museum of Art (see Sept. 15).
Olin Arts Center, Room 259

Friday, Sept. 24

7:30pm

Concert: Musica Nuova, a Boston-based baroque ensemble, performs the program It’s Complicated. The program takes unrequited love for its theme, Italian music from the early 1600s for its substance and a Facebook relationship status for its name. Admission: $5, available at . Proceeds benefit the 2010 . For more information contact 207-786-6135 or this olinarts@bates.edu.
Olin Arts Center Concert Hall

8pm

Global Lens film: The international film series presents Becloud (Mexico, 2007; 111 min.). Admission: $5. For more information contact 207-786-6135 or this olinarts@bates.edu.
Olin Arts Center, Room 105

Saturday, Sept. 25

8pm

Global Lens film: Becloud (see Sept. 24).
Olin Arts Center, Room 105

Sunday, Sept. 26

5:30pm

Spiritual gathering: Protestant worship service (see Sept. 12).
ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½ College Chapel

Monday, Sept. 27

7:30pm

Reading: Marianne Boruch, author of six poetry collections and two books of essays about poetry, reads from her work. The Language Arts Live series of literary readings is sponsored by the English department, the Humanities Fund, the Learning Associates Program, the programs in American cultural studies and African American studies and the John Tagliabue Poetry Fund. For more information contact 207-786-6256 or 207-786-6326.
Chase Hall, Skelton Lounge

Tuesday, Sept. 28

12:30pm

Noonday Concert: History professor Atsuko Hirai, a soprano, performs songs of Richard Strauss. For more information contact 207-786-6135 or this olinarts@bates.edu.
Olin Arts Center Concert Hall

6pm

Volleyball vs. Maine Maritime.
Alumni Gymnasium

Wednesday, Sept. 29

6–9±è³¾

Figure drawing sponsored by the ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½ College Museum of Art (see Sept. 15).
Olin Arts Center, Room 259

ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½ College Museum of Art

Museum hours: 10am–5pm Tuesday–Saturday

Through Sept. 25
: Nicoletti, an important realist painter known for impeccable landscapes and still lifes as well as psychologically fraught self-portraits, is a senior member of the art and visual culture faculty at ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½. He has taught at ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½ since 1981 and had work featured in numerous ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½ exhibitions, but this is the museum’s first exhibition of a broad range of his work. Featured are paintings and drawings from the collections of the ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½ museum, other museums and individuals, and the artist himself.

Recent Acquisitions: This exhibition celebrates the acquisition of artworks that have entered the collection during the last year as gifts or purchases. Featured are sculptures, paintings and prints by artists including Abe Ajay, David Driskell, William Manning, Hermann Nitsch, Frohawk Two Feathers, Charlie Hewitt, Bernard Langlais, William Pope L., Joel Shapiro, Kiki Smith and Andrea Sulzer. Organized with assistance from museum intern Emma Scott ’10.

Landscapes of Maine: Then and Now: Inviting contemplation of the evolution of Maine’s landscape and how artists approach it, this exhibit pairs paintings made from 1880 to 1905 by beloved Lewiston artist Delbert Dana Coombs with landscapes from the corresponding period 100 years later. Organized with assistance from museum interns Charlotte Widlein ’09 and Andrea Svigals ’10.

With the ultimate aim of teaching contemporary drama in her native Sri Lanka, a ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½ College senior has received a 2009 Thomas J. Watson Fellowship to study performance arts in South Africa and Indonesia. Sulochana Dissanayake of Pita Kotte, Sri Lanka, is one of 40 recipients of the 2009 fellowship, a $28,000 award supporting a year of independent research abroad.

What Dissanayake learns during her Watson year will support her ambition of creating a theatrical practice that brings social and political issues to Sri Lanka’s rich performance traditions. She hopes to “establish an institution that provides the equivalent of an undergraduate degree in theater and the performing arts,” Dissanayake explains.

Performances take place at 7:30 p.m. Thursday, Friday and Saturday, Oct. 30, 31 and Nov. 1; and at 2 p.m. Saturday and Sunday, Nov. 1 and 2, in Schaeffer Theatre, 305 College St. Admission is $6 general admission and $3 for senior citizens and non-ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½ students. For more information, please visit www.batestickets.com or call 207-786-6161.

Winner of the 1986 New York Drama Critics Award for Best Play, A Lie of the Mind depicts two families joined by marriage and torn apart by a brutal act of domestic violence. It’s the darkly humorous story of archetypal American characters trying to piece together their lives while dealing with rage, vengeance, disillusionment and abandonment.

See a short video about Dissanayake’s mainstage production below.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rcSWfuU2wRU#t=0m09s

“The play is universal in its dysfunctionality of families,” says Dissanayake. “We all know people like that. It’s just how some families behave. The two families seem to avoid the reality of what’s happened.”

Where ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½’ mainstage productions are usually directed by a member of the theater faculty, Dissanayake directs A Lie of the Mind as a part of her senior directing thesis.

“This is very rare,” says Katalin Vecsey, lecturer in the theater department and vocal director for theater productions. “I’ve been here for 14 years and this is the first time that a student has been invited by the theater department to direct a mainstage production.” Dissanayake has already acted in a show and directed several others, and directed a short film for a filmmaking course. “Sulo was invited to direct the main stage because she has displayed not just imagination and intelligence, but rarer qualities like organizational skills, dependability, keen listening abilities, and interpersonal warmth and care,” says Paul Kuritz, professor of theater and Dissanayake’s thesis advisor.

Coming from southern California and Montana, the play’s two families are connected by the marriage of Jake and Beth. An incident of spousal abuse leaves Beth brain-damaged at the beginning of the play.

The play follows the two families in their struggle with Beth’s brain damage and Jake’s retribution. The families mirror each other, and the audience sees that Jake’s out-of-control nature is influenced by his environment and his family.

Dissanayake chose the play in part because of its wit. “Shepard uses a completely brilliant humor to comment on how absurd families can be,” she says. “It’s very dark but absolutely hysterical.

A Lie of the Mind has contemporary young people in the main roles but in socioeconomic conditions very unlike those of the typical ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½ student,” says Kuritz. “From underneath the superficial differences, the common brokenness of all people emerges.”

Shepard is an American playwright who acts and directs in many of his own plays. In 1979, his play Buried Child received a Pulitzer Prize for drama. He has been nominated for an Emmy, a Golden Globe and a Screen Actor’s Guild Award. “A Lie of the Mind,” says Vecsey, has “a lasting impact. It will make you think about how people live their lives.”

The First-Year Activities Fair at ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½ College reminded Sulochana Dissanayake ’09 of Colombo, Sri Lanka, “of a market back home with people selling their wares.”

Accustomed to a system that rewards status rather than ability, Dissanayake discovered that “ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½ provides many opportunities to all its students.” Her first semester on campus, she directed a play with the Robinson Players, a student theater group. “I had literally just gotten off the plane,” she says. “That amazed me. Here, if you are serious about something, you can do anything you want.”

Like many international students, she chose economics as a major, but her love of the stage lingered. The Office of Career Services put her in touch with an alum whose contacts yielded a 2006 summer internship with , a Minneapolis-based firm that provides live entertainment for children. Spending every spare moment attending productions at the nationally famous Guthrie Theater, Dissanayake concluded that she couldn’t live without the stage. Upon returning to ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½, she declared a double major.

“Coupling theater with something steady like economics gives my parents a little relief,” Dissanayake laughs.

Distance from family is a challenge for international students, she says. But new activities and academic rewards distract her from homesickness. “I have twice as many opportunities here as I would have had if I stayed at home,” she says. “I can’t imagine being anywhere else but ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½.”