Poles Together

 

The 2024-2025 school year was a Winterim trip wonderland with excursions domestic and foreign for students in Grades 7-12. From New York to Panama to Italy, Brimmer students and faculty, together—the community of the School—explored the world that many had previously studied or imagined. Those joyous and impactful learning adventures occurred early last spring, and since that time Brimmer—the physical educational institution—has undertaken two “polar” expeditions as well. And these odysseys without even leaving the property; though in such adventurous undertakings, some of the property has left us: the Thompson gym and the Corkin Theatre “house”!

 

The demolition and reconstruction of the gym—one of our two community poles*—is prominently in our lefthand view every day we enter the even-numbered side of the campus. (See last Spring’s Brimmer Magazine for musings on the magnetism of that pole.) Yet, one needs to but walk into the physical and metaphorical heart of the Hastings Center / Chase Building to land at the other of our community poles, the now expeditiously refurbished Corkin Theatre. 

 

(*Two notes of note: first, a case could be made for the Dining Commons as a third pole: as James Beard avers, “Food is our common ground, a universal experience”; and second, and most important, because learning happens everywhere on campus there isn’t one learning pole in the School; learning is ubiquitous. The School is a world of learning and the poles noted above are part and parcel of this ubiquity. These poles do not divide but draw us together.)

 

This year the portion of the Corkin Theatre that is the “house,” the auditorium, has new blue carpeting and seats which have already comfortably held the posteriors of many and diverse audiences: Brimmer students in every grade, school faculty and staff, parents attending Back-to-School Nights, prospective parents and students attending Admissions events, and theater production cast, crew, and staff for both the Middle and Upper School fall productions. Despite the migrations of these most-welcomed populaces during the first two months of school, the space still emits the redolence of new textiles when one walks into the empty cavern of our theater auditorium. But when the house is occupied, as it was this past week, it effervesces bouquets of community.

 

The newly renovated Corkin Theatre house has hosted a host of community-building events: drama classes, an Admissions Open House, Lower School Share, Upper School play rehearsal, and, of course, the performances of the fall Upper School play, Radium Girls. Like the weeks that preceded it and the many weeks to follow, no imagination was needed to experience our theater alive with people, art, conversation, performance, energy, achievement, and community. The Corkin Theatre brings the Brimmer and May community together—it is the now renewed magnetic pole that converts the creative and intellectual kinetic energy of all who enter it into another, better version of our School community. In our daily journeys, we are drawn to and can sit most comfortably in this warm polar region of the School.