Profiles of 2001 Graduating Students

Antonio Anagaran bids his Cornell career aloha with much mahalo

By Franklin Crawford

Antonio Anagaran, a double major in theater arts and anthropology, is feeling much mahalo as he reflects on his career as a Cornell student.

Antonio Anagaran '01 outside his campus stomping grounds, the Schwartz Center for the Performing Arts. Nicola Kountoupes/University Photography

Mahalo is a Hawaiian word that describes a state of admiration or thanks, and it is the word Anagaran, a native of Oahu, used to thank the committee members who awarded him the inaugural Edward M. Murray Arts Scholarship for 2000-01. The scholarship was established this year by the Cornell University Council's Committee on the Arts (COA) to assist artists showing exceptional promise. The scholarship is named in memory of Edward M. Murray, Cornell professor of music and inspirational advocate of the arts, who died last fall.

While grateful for the award, Anagaran's mahalo extends to all aspects of his Cornell experience -- an experience that didn't come easy.

Anagaran wasn't accepted at Cornell the first time he applied, "which was definitely a setback," he said.

In high school, Anagaran had received a Cornell Book Award from the Cornell Club of Hawaii, and he naturally sensed destiny calling. But on the first pass, his Cornell dream was deferred and he entered the University of Hawaii -- which was literally in his backyard.

"The fence that borders our high school is shared with the University of Hawaii," said Anagaran, who received training in acting from the Mid-Pacific School of the Arts in Hawaii. "Kids who graduate high school and go to U of H are called fence-jumpers. It was a little discouraging."

But Anagaran selected his first-year courses with those listed in a Cornell course book -- carefully matching each class at Hawaii so the credits would transfer.

Undaunted, Anagaran gave Cornell another shot -- and scored. He arrived as a second semester sophomore, in January 1999.

Anagaran relished his work in both theater arts and anthropology, especially his theater arts class work with Assistant Professor Rebecca Schneider and Professor Bruce Levitt. Schneider said she was impressed with Anagaran's ability to handle a huge transition.

"It's not always a successful change for a transfer student," she said. "Tony really had to play catch-up with a lot of the course work and he applied himself stunningly to the task. But even under pressure, I was most struck by his generosity to fellow classmates."

Levitt recognized Anagaran's gift for processing performance feedback on the spot; he was in Levitt's text analysis course and Shakespeare performance course.

"In acting class he quickly picked up on what was needed and with his work in the Shakespeare class, it was startling how quickly he could adjust to the moment," Levitt said. "He is a very bright student with a terrific appetite for learning and one of the most gracious people you could ever meet."

Poise and centeredness were two other qualities Schneider and Levitt used to describe their former student.

At Cornell Anagaran focused on Asian theatre and Asian studies and brought a vast amount of first-hand experience to the task.

As a junior he participated in the Student Laboratory Theatre Company (SLTC). SLTC provides an opportunity for students enrolled in directing and acting classes to work together on informal joint presentations. This year he appeared as the lead role of Arlecchino in the Black Box production of "The Knave of Hearts," by Cornell senior Alan Rosenberg.

While he aspires toward a career in acting, Anagaran said he would like to be a producer as well and is seeking enrollment in a producer's certification course at the University of California-Los Angeles this summer.

"Acting is my passion, but I would like to work in as many areas of theater arts and entertainment as possible," he said. "I get a lot of satisfaction from seeing a production through and in helping that process along."

This semester he has been an assistant stage manager for the Spring Dance Concert and is actively involved with Cornell's Hawaii Club, which strives to share aloha with the Ithaca and Cornell communities. And if there's one thing he wished he could have changed about Cornell, it's the mistaken idea students here have about, well, what it means to wear Hawaiian shirts.

"Back home these shirts express aloha -- it's an attitude of graceful social bearing, a sweetness of personality. Hawaiian businessmen wear these shirts, even the mayor of Honolulu wears them," he said. "Here students wear them to go out to a bar -- the shirt means you're partying. I would have liked to change that."

In what Schneider described as a "fantastic project," Anagaran led a class through a presentation of the hula dance as a sacred ritual, and then showed how the dance has been corrupted and homogenized to serve as a tourist attraction that mocks Hawaiian culture.

Anagaran has not decided on his next move yet, but it will certainly be in a theatrical arts direction. One project-in-progress is to travel around Asia and record authentic dialects for a translation of The Jesus Film, created in 1978. Anagaran was an active member of the Vineyard Church in Cayuga Heights. He also hopes to enroll in acting classes at the Los Angeles branch of the London Academy of Music and Dramatic Arts.

Reflecting again on the Murray award and Cornell as a whole, Anagaran said, "It's wonderful to be encouraged to follow your dreams. To have had the opportunity to merge anthropological interests with theater arts was an invaluable experience, and now I will apply that experience to my future."