Lydia Anderson, '03 (BardCorps)
Files
Interviewee Role
Alumni/ae/x
Loading...
Class Year
2003
Academic Program
Theater; Religion
Interviewer
Helene Tieger '85
Description
Lydia Anderson came to Bard through a scholarship for students graduating in the top ten of their high school class—Bard would match the tuition cost of a public state university to which the student had been accepted. For Lydia, originally from Mississippi, this was a fantastic deal. She describes falling in love with the campus upon arrival, and recalling her L&T professor's stories about L. Ron Hubbard and Scientology. She also recalls her experiences living in the Ravine Houses freshman year—“terrifying and awesome” dorms that were condemned halfway through the year. She says, “We called [them] an ewok village, these odd little stilt-houses.” She discusses her experiences with the religion and theater departments, describing her senior project: performing selections from Sartre's “No Exit” and adapted works by C.S. Lewis by the old "lightning tree" at Blithewood. She recalls all of the students in the theater department doing impersonations of Professor JoAnne Akalitis, then making a DVD of the impersonations and sending them to a confused JoAnne. She remembers Bard as being a place where people were very involved, and “you never had to think about it hard. If you wanted to do something, you just did it.”
Keywords
L. Ron Hubbard, the Ravine houses, Blithewood, Bruce Chilton, JoAnne Akalitis, Paul Murray, Shelley Wyatt, theater, religion, L&T
Location
BardCorps Trailer, Main Campus
Interview Date
5-25-2013
Interview Duration
17:03
Recommended Citation
Anderson, Lydia, "Lydia Anderson, '03 (BardCorps)" (2015). BardCorps -- All Oral Histories. 34.
https://digitalcommons.bard.edu/oral_hist/34
Significant Quote
“We called [the Ravine houses] an ewok village-- these odd little stilt-houses.”