Gaston Hall

Gaston Hall is an auditorium located on the third and fourth floors of the north tower of Healy Hall on Georgetown University's main campus in Washington, D.C. Named for Georgetown's first student, William Gaston, who also helped secure the university's federal charter, Gaston Hall was completed in 1901, around twenty years after the construction of the building within which it is housed.

The 740-seat hall (including orchestra and balcony) is today used for numerous occasions including convocations and honorary degree ceremonies, theatrical and musical performances, and speeches. Gaston Hall has gained a reputation for hosting prominent heads of state, political leaders, and other public figures.

Architecture

Gaston Hall is often referred to as the "jewel in the crown" of Georgetown's campus due to its ornate interior and grand adornments. The ceiling line bears the coats of arms of the sixty Jesuit universities in the world at the time of Gaston's construction, all beneath a decorated wood ceiling. In addition, a number of classical allegorical scenes that fill the walls were painted freehand (without a stencil) by Francis Schroen, a Jesuit Brother who was a reputed interior designer and painter of Catholic institutions and several other rooms with Healy Hall. Behind the stage are paintings of Athena, goddess of wisdom, and a "classically draped male." He painted two large murals above the stage, the left symbolically depicting Morality, Faith, and Patriotism, and the right depicting Art, Alma Mater, and Science.

Gaston (seal)

Gaston is the name of a brown fur seal that lived in Prague Zoo in years 1991-2002. He became famous during the 2002 European floods when he escaped from the zoological garden, when the rising waters of the Vltava river flooded his tank at Prague zoo. He swam more than 300 km (190 mi) from Prague to Dresden (Germany) on rivers Vltava and Elbe. He was recaptured north of Dresden and subsequently died due to exhaustion and infection.

References

Beauty and the Beast (1991 film)

Beauty and the Beast is a 1991 American animated musical romantic fantasy film produced by Walt Disney Feature Animation and released by Walt Disney Pictures. The 30th film in the Walt Disney Animated Classics series and the third in the Disney Renaissance period, it is based on the French fairy tale of the same name by Jeanne-Marie Leprince de Beaumont, who was also credited in the English version as well as in the French version, and ideas from the 1946 French film.Beauty and the Beast focuses on the relationship between the Beast (Robby Benson), a prince who is magically transformed into a monster as punishment for his arrogance, and Belle (Paige O'Hara), a beautiful young woman whom he imprisons in his castle. To become a prince again, Beast must win her love in return otherwise he remains a monster forever. The film also features the voices of Richard White, Jerry Orbach, David Ogden Stiers, and Angela Lansbury.

Walt Disney first attempted unsuccessfully to adapt Beauty and the Beast into an animated feature film during the 1930s and 1950s. Following the success of The Little Mermaid (1989), Disney decided to adapt the fairy tale, which Richard Purdum originally conceived as a non-musical. Disney chairman Jeffrey Katzenberg eventually discontinued the idea and ordered that the film be a musical similar to The Little Mermaid instead. Beauty and the Beast was directed by Gary Trousdale and Kirk Wise, with a screenplay by Linda Woolverton story first credited to Roger Allers. Lyricist Howard Ashman and composer Alan Menken wrote the film's songs. Ashman, who additionally served as an executive producer on the film, died of AIDS-related complications eight months before the film's release, and the film was dedicated to his memory.

Gaston (song)

"Gaston" is a song from the 1991 Disney animated film Beauty and the Beast. A short reprise is performed later in the musical.

Production

While "Gaston" is merely a boastful song, "Gaston (Reprise)" is the villain song of the film.

Synopsis

"Gaston" sees Gaston and the village people singing about how great he is. "Gaston (Reprise)"' sees Gaston hatch a plan with the help of LeFou to send Maurice to an insane asylum.

Composition

The Globe and Mail described the song as a "Lerner and Loewe-flavoured drinking song".

Critical reception

MDTheatreGuide deemed it "one of the highlights of the show". The Herald Sun noted the song "delivers the punches of humorous lyrical accomplishment as well as memorable choreography". In a review of the musical version, The Globe and Mail said it "stops the show midway through Act 1". ColumbiaUnderground called it "the second best song and dance number of the musical".

SputnikMusic wrote "Ever one to recognize a true gem, Disney then decided to employ White and Corti for the subsequent song "Gaston" and its reprise as well. These numbers are from the scene in the local tavern just after Belle's capture by the Beast, and are perhaps best remembered for being the manliest songs in the entire film. White manages to come across as a pure paragon of maleness, sporting rippling musculature and bristling chest hair all at once. Herein, White comfortably busts out lines like "As you see I've got biceps to spare!" and "I'm especially good at expectorating - ptooey!" with much gusto. The gaggle of incompetent, second-rate buffoons in the background do a stunning job too, rolling out accompanying refrains like "No one plots likes Gaston!/Takes cheap shots like Gaston!/Likes to persecute harmless crackpots like Gaston!" to rousing effect. Take it from me - it's ridiculously hard to come out of this one without having the burning desire to eat five dozen eggs per day and become roughly the size of a barge."

Hall

In architecture, a hall is a relatively large space enclosed by a roof and walls. In the Iron Age, a mead hall was such a simple building and was the residence of a lord and his retainers. Later, rooms were partitioned from it, and the space next to the front door became the entrance hall. Today, the (entrance) hall of a house is the space next to the front door or vestibule leading to the rooms directly and/or indirectly. Where the hall inside the front door of a house is elongated, it may be called a passage, corridor (from Spanish corredor used in El Escorial and 100 years later in Castle Howard) or hallway.

Other meanings

The term hall is often used to designate a British or Irish country house such as a hall house, or specifically a Wealden hall house, and manor houses.

In later medieval Europe, the main room of a castle or manor house was the great hall. In a medieval building, the hall was where the fire was kept. With time, its functions as dormitory, kitchen, parlour and so on were divided off to separate rooms or, in the case of the kitchen, a separate building.

Hall (disambiguation)

Hall can mean:

Places

Arctic

Austria

Australia

Germany

Ireland

Sweden

United States

Hall (cyclecar)

The Hall Cycle and Plating company was a maker of Cycle cars in Waco, Texas from 1914-1915.

History

In 1914, a man named John B. Fisher designed a cyclecar for the Hall Cycle and Plating Company. It had an underslung frame.Lawrence Hall, president of the company, did a test run from Waco to Dallas, covering 104 miles while consuming only 2.5 gallons of gasoline. The cyclecar had a 4-cylinder, 18 hp engine(the prototype only had a two-cylinder engine) with a 100" wheelbase. The company reorganized in 1915 as the Hall Motor car Company. Production ended in 1915, and Lawrence Hall moved to Los Angeles.

References