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Falmouth Public Library – Postcards from Falmouth
Postcards from Falmouth Oral History Transcript
Recorded: August 19, 2021
Oral Historian: Mark Pearson
Interviewer: Troy Clarkson
Topic: College Light Opera Company (CLOC)
Note: The right column references postcards by identifiers searchable in the Digital
Commonwealth online collection.
00:00
[Music]
00:44
Mark
00:45
welcome we're so glad that you're here
00:47
and Falmouth has
00:49
a thriving artistic community and
00:52
certainly a rich
00:53
artistic history in the College Light
00:55
Opera Company is and has been an
00:57
important part of that so
00:59
talk to us your postcard was of course
01:02
the facility in West Falmouth that is
01:04
the home
01:05
the heart and soul of CLOC as it's
01:07
known right so tell us about the history
01:10
of the College Light Opera Company and
01:11
also
01:12
the site there in West Falmouth where
01:14
it's it's been housed sure well first
01:17
very happy to be here thanks for
01:18
reaching out uh yeah so College Light
01:20
Opera Company was founded in 1969
#cloc
#westfalmouth
1
#1969
�Falmouth Public Library – Postcards from Falmouth
01:25
and it grew out of the
01:28
defunct Oberlin Gilbert and Sullivan
01:30
Players who had been in Falmouth for
01:32
just under a decade so that was a summer
01:35
program operated by Oberlin Conservatory
01:39
designed to provide their students with
01:42
a summer performance opportunity that
01:45
was something very typical
01:47
at that time in America especially in
01:50
resort towns like Falmouth
01:53
you'd have you know any number of
01:55
college organizations and they would
01:57
just put on a different show every week
01:59
and that would be your summer
02:01
entertainment for the summer you know
02:03
folks would have uh season tickets so
02:06
for example CLOC
02:07
and at the time orbiting G&S they did
02:10
nine shows uh in nine weeks the same
02:13
program basically that we continue this
02:15
to today so families would come down
02:17
they'd have you know Tuesday night
02:19
tickets Wednesday night tickets and that
02:21
would be their regular thing for uh for
02:23
the summer and that was known as
02:26
Summer stock theater and it was very very
02:29
typical um
#oberlin
#gilbertandsullivanplayers
2
#summerstocktheater
�Falmouth Public Library – Postcards from Falmouth
02:31
it's died out significantly
02:33
there are very few organizations left
02:35
that do it in that similar
02:38
fashion
02:39
CLOC is one of the one of the remaining
02:41
ones uh on the arts landscape
02:44
and I think that's just as as a starting
02:47
point that's a really important
02:50
piece of information to say about the
02:52
organization and its place in the sort
02:54
of national landscape it's sort of
02:57
holding a torch for
02:59
summer stock which was
03:01
at one time a very very important part
03:03
of American
03:05
summer entertainment and very
03:06
specifically American it doesn't really
03:08
happen in many other countries that way
03:11
so that's sort of what CLOC is as I say
03:13
grew out of Oberlin Gilbert & Sullivan
03:15
Players who themselves sort of grew out
03:18
of an older organization called the
03:20
University Players which goes back to
03:22
the 1940s I believe and again that's
03:26
just the sort of tradition of
03:28
a group of college kids getting together
03:30
for the summer to perform
3
�Falmouth Public Library – Postcards from Falmouth
03:33
the original intent was more
03:34
entertainment but our mission has sort
03:37
of shifted over the years as we became
03:40
a
03:41
one of the last remaining organizations
03:43
to do this to really focus on the
03:45
educational aspect of that experience
03:48
the educational side of it was sort of a
03:50
side note in the old days I was like
03:51
well yeah you're going to learn how to
03:52
do it because you've got to do it
03:55
and then
03:56
it sort of became clear that hey this is
03:58
actually
03:59
a big part of what's important about
04:01
this organization so
04:02
that's why in our mission education is
04:05
equally important as the entertainment
04:07
that we do
04:09
you mentioned our our campus in West
04:11
Falmouth
04:13
which is where we
04:14
live and work we perform at the
04:16
Highfield Theater
04:18
which is
04:19
as many folks know I think
04:23
was once the stables for Highfield Hall
#highfieldtheater
4
#highfieldhall
�Falmouth Public Library – Postcards from Falmouth
04:26
so if you're familiar with Highfield
04:27
Hall uh it's the building right next
04:29
door that at one time housed the horses
04:31
and now uh since the 1930s this is a a
04:34
theater structure
04:36
and that's about four and a half miles
04:38
from our campus in West Falmouth
04:40
it's about six acres uh right
04:44
uh on the banks of the West Falmouth
04:46
Harbor where the bridge to Chapoquoit
04:49
Road is uh and the oldest building there
04:52
is uh Bridgefields Hall
04:55
which was named uh you know because of a
04:58
the bridge that's basically right in
05:00
front of the building and at the time
05:02
the fields of West Falmouth that
05:04
stretched out beyond which now of course
05:06
are
05:06
lots of houses um so Bridgefields Hall
05:10
was built in 1895
#1895
05:13
uh by a Quaker family the Scull
#quaker #scull
Gunning_West_Bldg_1580
through 1585,
Gunning_West_Bldg_1649
#westfalmoutharbor
#bridgefieldshall
Hunt_West_Bldg_482
05:16
Sara Scull uh so it's had a couple of
#sarascull
05:19
names over the years the Sara Scull
05:21
House Bridgefields Hall
05:23
the Inn at West Falmouth and simply the
5
#westfalmouthinn
�Falmouth Public Library – Postcards from Falmouth
05:25
Inn
05:26
and the Scull family
05:29
built it her husband died I believe in
05:33
1884
05:34
and
05:36
left her a widow with two children and
05:39
uh she built this as a summer home so
05:42
they were based in Philadelphia and they
05:44
would come summer in Falmouth uh as I
05:47
mentioned they were a Quaker family and
05:51
according to sort of urban legend and I
05:53
can't confirm or deny this but their
05:55
original intent was to uh to buy a
05:58
property on the island Chapoquoit Island
#1884
#chapoquoitisland
Hunt_West_Bch_496
through 499
Gunning_West_Sts_1549 &
1550,
Gunning_West_Har_1606 &
1607,
Gunning_West_Isl_1637
through 1648
06:01
and uh
06:02
I as I understand it Quakers were not
06:05
particularly welcome on the island so uh
06:09
as sort of a well I’ll show you
06:11
they bought the large lot right at the
06:14
entrance to the island so everyone going
06:15
to the island would have to drive past
6
�Falmouth Public Library – Postcards from Falmouth
06:17
their estate to get to their summer
06:20
state uh it was designed by
06:23
J. Williams Beal a Boston
06:26
architect he had recently moved from New
06:28
York to Boston he had spent some time
06:30
abroad
06:32
and he was commissioned to design the
06:34
building uh it is of
06:37
somewhat architectural interest in that
06:39
it is a
06:41
Queen Anne
06:42
Tudor revival which is unusual for our
06:45
area most houses being built at the time
06:48
were what we would call the shingle
06:49
style
06:50
you know everything that standing still
06:52
is covered with shingles and this was
06:55
a style that was more popular for town
06:58
houses sort of stucco half timbered
07:00
style
07:02
and it also has
07:03
the
07:04
whispers of the emerging
07:07
early modern architectural movement in
07:10
that was inspired by a lot of Japanese
07:12
architecture and the sort of play
07:14
between exterior interior spaces so if
#jwilliamsbeal
7
�Falmouth Public Library – Postcards from Falmouth
07:17
you're going around the building you'll
07:18
be in a staircase all of a sudden the
07:20
staircase is outside that it's inside
07:22
again
07:23
and it has a lot of very dominant
07:25
horizontal lines which sort of suggests
07:29
where Frank Lloyd Wright was heading at
07:31
the time you know fitting buildings more
07:33
into the area that they're that they're
07:35
set in
07:37
so yeah the Scull family uh
07:40
lived there for about ten years
07:41
uh Sara Scull died in 1910
07:45
uh at which time it was uh sold and
07:48
converted to an inn in 1912
07:51
and it basically served as an inn
07:54
and restaurant uh until 1975
07:58
when it closed and CLOC moved in in 75.
08:02
I mentioned earlier CLOC was founded in
08:03
1969.
08:05
so the question is well what was
08:06
happening at that time uh well Oberlin
08:09
before CLOC and then CLOC were
08:11
originally in residence at what was
08:13
known as Tanglewood House
#1910
#1912
#1975
#tanglewood
Gunning_Village_Bldg_0473
08:15
which if you're familiar with the
8
�Falmouth Public Library – Postcards from Falmouth
08:16
history of the Beebe family
#beebe
08:19
here in Falmouth they actually built two
08:22
mansions up on the hill there was
08:24
Highfield Hall which is uh
08:28
Queen Anne but again leaning a little
08:29
bit more Shingle style and then there
08:31
was an iconically Queen Anne house which
08:34
was called Tanglewood and they were
08:36
built for the brothers and they shared
08:38
the barn and the stables
08:41
and Tanglewood was the longtime
08:43
dormitory for
08:45
both Oberlin and College Light Opera
08:48
now when the property was given to the
08:51
Cape
08:52
Conservatory they were uh unable to keep
08:56
up all of the buildings that were on the
08:58
property and the first one that really
09:00
had to go was Tanglewood so it was
09:01
announced in
09:03
uh 74 that they would be razing
09:06
Tanglewood and there was not enough time
09:08
for
09:09
the sort of uh
09:10
you know grassroots movement that ended
09:12
up saving
09:13
Highfield
#capeconservatory
#capesymphony
9
�Falmouth Public Library – Postcards from Falmouth
09:14
several years later so Tanglewood fell
09:17
to the wrecking ball and CLOC was left
09:20
presumably homeless um but uh
09:23
J. K. Lilly
09:25
uh stepped forward at that time and he
09:27
had he and his wife had recently
09:29
acquired the West Falmouth Inn and he
09:31
said you know what I’m going to do is
09:33
let's have y'all move over to West
09:35
Falmouth
09:36
we'll rent the property to you for a
09:37
dollar a year until you get back on your
09:39
feet figure out
09:41
a better solution so the Company moved
09:44
sort of lock stock and barrel to west
09:46
Falmouth in 1975
09:49
B Haslun one of the original founders of
#haslun #roberthaslun
09:51
the organization and his wife Ursula uh
#ursulahaslun
09:54
got married and had their wedding
09:56
reception uh a week before the Company
09:59
arrived in 75 and then the first thing
10:01
the company the 75 Company did was they
10:03
went up to Tanglewood salvaged
10:05
everything they could and trucked it
10:07
over to West Falmouth and we've been
10:10
there ever since
10:11
um about five years after that so we're
#lilly #josiahklilly
10
�Falmouth Public Library – Postcards from Falmouth
10:16
into
10:17
77 78 ish
10:20
uh
10:21
the Lillys decided that
10:23
they didn't really want to be landlords
10:25
for this property and uh the best
10:28
best use of the facility would be to
10:30
demolish all the structures uh
10:33
four struc— uh five structures at the
10:35
time
10:37
to make a public park
10:39
and uh so there was a big effort to find
10:42
CLOC another home
10:44
in the uh in the area
10:46
and uh that kept coming up with no
10:50
no viable
10:52
alternatives and then finally the uh the
10:55
Board of Trustees struck a deal with the
10:58
Lillys which was to buy the property for
11:01
the cost of tearing it down and turning
11:03
into a park
11:04
so they were able to
11:06
get a mortgage raise some funds and then
11:08
I think by 79 or 80 they had paid off
11:10
the full mortgage
11:12
and the property was was CLOC’s um as I
11:16
mentioned there's the there's the inn uh
11
�Falmouth Public Library – Postcards from Falmouth
11:18
which was built in 1895 which is the
11:20
most iconic building on the property
11:23
then there are four outbuildings so
11:25
there are two twin cottages which we
11:27
call Cottage One and Two on the harbor
11:29
that were built in the 30s to uh
11:33
as the inn as the West Falmouth Inn was
11:35
expanding those were sort of uh you
11:37
could bring your family and rent a
11:39
cottage but you would dine in the inn
11:42
and then Cottages Three and Four which
11:44
were added in the sixties uh Cottage
11:46
Three which is out behind the property
11:48
was a caretaker cottage Cottage Four
11:50
which is right next to the bike path uh
11:53
was built as a staff house also in the
11:56
mid 60s
11:58
they dug a pond so we have about an acre
12:02
man-made pond right in the center of the
12:05
property
12:07
and yeah so the West Falmouth campus is
12:10
where we do obviously
12:12
we live all
12:13
those buildings are all dormitory
12:15
buildings
12:16
and we also have our dining facility it
12:17
was fortunate that it was an inn so it
12
�Falmouth Public Library – Postcards from Falmouth
12:21
came with a large industrial kitchen and
12:23
the dining rooms are perfectly appointed
12:25
for uh for the Company
12:28
as well as our costume shop is housed in
12:30
the former Pony Room which was the uh
12:33
the bar and lounge of the West Falmouth
12:35
Inn
12:37
and we recently just actually
12:40
minutes ago
12:41
completed a new facility on on the
12:44
property which is called Lucas Hall
12:48
which is a
12:50
is the first new structure since the 60s
12:53
on the property and it's a large
12:56
rehearsal and office facility and the
12:58
purpose
12:59
for that is to
13:01
take the stress off of
13:03
Bridgefields Hall which has sort of
13:05
served
13:06
as a catch-all space so it's been our
13:09
main rehearsal space our dining space
13:11
we've carved office spaces out of common
13:14
areas
13:15
uh and so this is an opportunity to
13:17
actually create
13:19
a building designed and intended for its
#lucashall
13
�Falmouth Public Library – Postcards from Falmouth
13:23
purpose which is to
13:25
do all of the rehearsal of the
13:27
preparation for the shows that we do up
13:29
at Highfield Theater as well as provide
13:31
office spaces for our summer staff but
13:34
also for our year-round staff
13:36
none of the other buildings on campus
13:37
are winterized or heated so as soon as
13:40
you have to shut the water off you have
13:41
to shut the water off
13:43
but this building
13:44
is insulated and will have
13:46
year-round use which is which is a big
13:49
uh
13:50
big change for us and very exciting
13:52
wonderful well thank you for that
13:54
detailed history because it
13:57
both the property and the organization
13:59
are richly woven uh through the the
14:03
really the soul of our community so
14:04
thanks for that
14:06
that virtual tour with us that gives uh
14:08
our viewers a sense of of the history
14:11
before the camera went on we were
14:13
talking about the role that uh the
14:15
College Light Opera Company plays in so
14:17
many lives not just in the performers
14
�Falmouth Public Library – Postcards from Falmouth
14:20
but in people that have enjoyed the
14:22
shows or people feel a connection uh to
14:25
the organization and so
14:27
as we record this the Woods Hole Film
14:29
Festival is about to open in Woods Hole
14:31
and as I told you I interviewed someone
14:34
this week
14:35
who is one of the filmmakers that has a
14:37
film
14:38
his connection to Falmouth began in 1990
14:41
or 91 when he was a performer with the
14:43
College Light Opera Company and
14:45
that sort of lifetime connection to the
14:47
organization has happened thousands and
14:50
thousands of times because over the
14:51
course of more than 50 years
14:54
uh
14:56
you know you've had so many lives that
14:59
have been impacted and enriched by the
15:01
organization yeah it's
15:02
the a couple of things I always try to
15:05
hit when I’m talking about CLOC you
15:07
know one of which is uh if you're in
15:10
Falmouth if you live here and you know
15:12
the CLOC is here
15:14
you may be
15:16
permitted to make the mistake to think
15
#woodsholefilmfestival
�Falmouth Public Library – Postcards from Falmouth
15:18
oh every community must have one of
15:20
these but this is a
15:22
truly unique organization and it is
15:26
something that
15:28
uh is uniquely
15:30
situated your Falmouth is uniquely
15:33
situated to support this kind of an
15:35
organization um you couldn't do this
15:37
just anywhere and this organization
15:39
couldn't have survived in just any
15:41
community you need a good base of of
15:44
folks who
15:45
appreciate the performing arts who will
15:48
not only attend but will support the
15:50
performing arts and
15:52
a certain uh continuity
15:54
which I think Falmouth provides and
15:57
in uh on the other aspect is what you
16:00
mentioned um this sort of networking you
16:03
know we do
16:04
provide the students with a sort of
16:06
educational experience but the
16:08
experience is more learning by doing
16:10
they've all been to university they've
16:12
all been studying their craft we don't
16:15
provide classes we don't provide
16:17
lectures we simply say okay you've
16
�Falmouth Public Library – Postcards from Falmouth
16:21
you've been studying this
16:24
now do it and do it
16:26
repeat it for nine nine weeks
16:29
and uh in a very intense environment and
16:32
what
16:33
one learns in that environment is a is
16:35
this what I want to do with my life
16:37
because if
16:38
if you get through that uh really 11
16:41
weeks when you count the pre-season time
16:43
get through those 11 weeks and you're
16:44
like I never want to do that again then
16:46
you probably don't want to have a career
16:47
because your career is going to be that
16:49
you know if you're actually paying the
16:50
bills with performing arts your career
16:52
is going to be that hectic so that's
16:54
thing one and then thing two you you
16:57
realize how to streamline your own work
17:00
um and be more efficient which is also
17:02
important when it's a question of
17:04
economics and trying to pay the bills
17:06
it's great if you're a wonderful
17:07
designer but you can only design one
17:09
show and it takes you six months well
17:10
that's not gonna pay your rent uh but
17:13
then thirdly and most importantly it's
17
�Falmouth Public Library – Postcards from Falmouth
17:14
the connections that they they make when
17:16
they're here because they are it's a
17:19
hyper concentration of uh
17:22
the best of the best
17:24
in these programs so it's those
17:26
who really
17:28
are
17:29
thinking this is what I cannot do
17:30
anything else with my life this is what
17:32
I want to do with my life and then they
17:34
meet
17:35
all these other people in their age
17:38
group who are feeling the same and they
17:40
end up being a very tight-knit
17:43
group within the performing arts
17:45
community as they go on you know they
17:47
all they go to New York or some of them
17:48
go to Europe but they keep connections
17:50
and they keep talking and
17:53
it also spans generations so you go you
17:55
know you go to
17:56
move to New York after summer CLOC and
17:58
you're at a cattle call audition
18:01
and it is
18:02
very
18:03
likely
18:04
if not a given that at least one person
18
�Falmouth Public Library – Postcards from Falmouth
18:06
behind that table has either been the
18:08
CLOC or has a strong connection to
18:10
CLOC because that's just how small the
18:11
community is and then of course
18:14
the sort of beneficial residual for
18:16
Falmouth is they also have that deep
18:19
emotional connection to the community
18:21
because it you know for many people it's
18:23
one of the most uh memorable
18:26
summers of their lives and they spent it
18:28
here so they do tend to come back and
18:30
tend to
18:31
keep connections with uh you know not
18:34
just their company members but locals
18:36
that they met while they were here and
18:37
then they may end up doing something
18:38
like the Falmouth um film festival or
18:41
you know some of them
18:43
have come back every year just to do the
18:45
Road Race because they did it that one
18:46
summer that they were playing trumpet in
18:48
the orchestra you know so it's uh it is
18:51
a very
18:52
uh important
18:54
organization
18:56
for on the national scale but also I
18:58
think for us in Falmouth it really you
19
�Falmouth Public Library – Postcards from Falmouth
19:00
know when you are talking about
19:02
your home community and you're giving
19:05
folks some information about it it's
19:07
like okay well Falmouth what's Falmouth
19:08
oh well you know Woods Hole and the
19:10
ferries are going to the Vineyard and um
19:12
there's WHOI and all of this great
19:14
science going on and there's College
19:16
Light Opera Company which is this
19:17
incredible uh you know
19:20
unique
19:21
summer program for for young artists so
19:24
I often refer to our community as a
19:26
mosaic
19:27
and
19:28
CLOC is one of the shining tiles in
19:30
that mosaic for sure and that's what uh
19:33
in in my full-time work I work in
19:36
government and have worked in many
19:37
places
19:38
and there are no other places in my
19:41
experience that quite bring
19:44
just such
19:46
an array of tiles to the mosaic and the
19:48
arts community in the scientific
19:50
community
19:52
and people's willingness to engage
20
�Falmouth Public Library – Postcards from Falmouth
19:54
in so many different ways and it really
19:57
really
19:57
makes this place special and and CLOC
20:00
is certainly an important part of that
20:03
yeah I mean I would I would absolutely
20:04
agree I think Falmouth is so
20:07
interesting in that it is a small town
20:09
but it has
20:11
large city scale
20:13
uh
20:14
bells and whistles to it which is so
20:18
crazy you know that we get to live in
20:20
this community where there are
20:23
world-class
20:24
everything happening around us and we
20:26
can walk on the bike path and there are
20:28
little villages yeah it's it really is
20:31
that's what Falmouth is to me I I think
20:33
you said it perfectly this amazing
20:35
mosaic of of
20:37
all any
20:38
any piece of which would be incredible
20:40
for a community but we're so spoiled you
20:43
know to have it all here
20:45
you bet well one of the other phrases
20:47
that I love to use is that it takes a
20:48
name to make a town but people to make a
21
�Falmouth Public Library – Postcards from Falmouth
20:51
community so Mark we thank you for
20:52
sharing the time with us and for you
20:55
being one of the people that really
20:56
enriches that mosaic and and thank you
20:59
for your leadership at CLOC and keeping
21:00
that tradition going thank you so much
22
�
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Transcript of Mark Pearson's Oral History on CLOC
1884
1895
1910
1912
1969
1975
Beebe
Bridgefields Hall
Cape Conservatory
Cape Symphony
Chapoquoit Island
CLOC
Gilbert and Sullivan Players
Haslun
Highfield Hall
Highfield Theater
J. Williams Beal
josiah k lilly
lilly
lucas hall
mark pearson
oberlin
oral history
Postcards from Falmouth
quaker
robert haslun
sara scull
scull
summer stock theater
tanglewood
transcript
troy clarkson
ursula haslun
West Falmouth
west falmouth harbor
west falmouth inn
woods hole film festival