Lehman Remembers Ken Ross
by Angel Vitiello
Issue date: 10/6/08 Section: Arts & Entertainment
In the summer of 2003, when I was a 16-year-old high-school student in the "College Now" program, my class put on a production of Derek Walcott's "Ti-Jean and His Brothers." The performance could not have occurred had it not been for a few of Lehman's theatre professors. One of them was Kenneth Ross, the technical director of Lehman Stages. He was the set carpenter and lighting designer of our production.
Set design was not my forte, but I volunteered to help. After 20 minutes of lifting and drilling wood on the first day I said, "Let's take 5." Nobody listened, which was a good sign, because if everyone took a 5-minute break every 20 minutes, the show would have never opened. One day, Ross changed the sign on my dressing room door, which read "Angel Vitiello" to one which said "Take 5." Five years later, that story still makes me smile.
Kenneth Ross, professor of theatre and friend to many, passed away from cancer on July 28, 2008. Lehman Stages held a memorial ceremony for Ross on September 16 at 6 p.m. in Lehman's Lovinger Theatre. To honor Ross's love of sailing, the ceremony was held on the stage so that his friends and family could share his fondness of being on a deck.
The speakers delivered a heartfelt chronology of Ross's life. The first was his colleague William M. Hoffman, the acting chair of the Journalism, Communications and Theatre (JCT) Department. The last was Danny Mejia, a recent graduate, who worked with Ross on many JCT productions. The speeches paradoxically invoked tears and laughter while the remembrance video, created by Derek Woods of BronxNet's "Bronx Magazine", demonstrated the sad reality of the Theatre Department being forced to continue on without him.
"Anyone who has been through the Theatre Department has been deeply affected by Ken in the last 26 years, not just on a superficial level," said Henry Ovalles, assistant director of Lehman Stages. "Everything he did, he did with passion. He gave his life to the theatre program and his passion will live on in the work of his students."
Set design was not my forte, but I volunteered to help. After 20 minutes of lifting and drilling wood on the first day I said, "Let's take 5." Nobody listened, which was a good sign, because if everyone took a 5-minute break every 20 minutes, the show would have never opened. One day, Ross changed the sign on my dressing room door, which read "Angel Vitiello" to one which said "Take 5." Five years later, that story still makes me smile.
Kenneth Ross, professor of theatre and friend to many, passed away from cancer on July 28, 2008. Lehman Stages held a memorial ceremony for Ross on September 16 at 6 p.m. in Lehman's Lovinger Theatre. To honor Ross's love of sailing, the ceremony was held on the stage so that his friends and family could share his fondness of being on a deck.
The speakers delivered a heartfelt chronology of Ross's life. The first was his colleague William M. Hoffman, the acting chair of the Journalism, Communications and Theatre (JCT) Department. The last was Danny Mejia, a recent graduate, who worked with Ross on many JCT productions. The speeches paradoxically invoked tears and laughter while the remembrance video, created by Derek Woods of BronxNet's "Bronx Magazine", demonstrated the sad reality of the Theatre Department being forced to continue on without him.
"Anyone who has been through the Theatre Department has been deeply affected by Ken in the last 26 years, not just on a superficial level," said Henry Ovalles, assistant director of Lehman Stages. "Everything he did, he did with passion. He gave his life to the theatre program and his passion will live on in the work of his students."
Viewing Comments 1 - 2 of 2
Juan
posted 10/20/08 @ 1:55 PM EST
wow, i didn't know he passed on. Triste.
chandra
posted 11/04/08 @ 10:15 PM EST
Mr. Ken Ross was one of the most dedicated and hardworking people that I was blessed to know while a young theater major at Lehman. He will be missed. (Continued…)
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