FILE PHOTO -- The Flat Hat Greg Hess

That Guy
Greg Hess

By Heather Irene Howard
Flat Hat Staff Writer

If junior Greg Hess could have any superpower in the universe, it would be the ability to bring everyone he wanted together in the same room, anytime he pleased. This would come in handy because he is always performing with Improvisational Theater (IT) in the most random places.

"Sometimes we play in hollow logs, sometimes we do shows on unstable atoms," Greg said with a smile. "I saw IT perform at an open house as a prospective student. They were wonderful and I knew then that improv was the one thing I wanted to do at William and Mary."

Greg, who had never done improv before coming to the College, is also a member of the Covenant Players (a theater company that donates its proceeds Canterbury Association and Episcopal Student Ministries) and a band called Turning to Tucker.

"My roommate Michael Glaser and I have a two-man show and we perform a lot on campus, for benefit concerts and at Aromas," Greg said of the band, which gets it's name from a William & Mary jazz professor, Mark Tucker, who died recently. "He was our first professor here, for the Duke Ellington class. He meant a lot to us."

When Greg isn't performing he's also part of a new campus program called the W.A.R. Goodwin organization.

"It's a new organization that is dedicated to telling the history of the College to visitors," he said.

According to Greg, he recognizes the close link the College has with Colonial Williamsburg.

Greg's favorite College tradition is the lore surrounding the Crim Dell.

"It's as though it's a forbidden bridge. It has all of those mystical powers that we hear about," he said.

Greg also likes to create some College legends of his own.

"My freshman year, during the blizzard, my hallmates and I made skis out of UC lunch trays and duct tape. Then we went skiing down Yates Hill. Afterwards, we hid the skis in the ceiling of Gooch Hall--but when we went back the following year someone had absconded with them," he said.

Greg's antics can be traced back to his childhood when he used to play on his favorite piece of playground equipment, a little metal merry-go-round.

"They don't make them anymore," he said. "I think they're dangerous. I liked to sit in the center and spin until I felt sick. I was also really skinny, so I'd sometimes fly off."

Over the summer, Greg traveled abroad and had the opportunity to work in a peace and reconciliation community called Corrymeela in Ballycastle, Northern Ireland.

"I volunteered in a lot of different areas -- desegregation of Protestant and Catholic youth, hospice families and I even got a taste of working in the kitchen and outdoors," Greg said.

He also confesses to picking up an Irish accent during his month abroad, which makes frequent appearances in IT skits.

Greg also attended the College program in Cambridge, England this summer.

"I'm a religion major and I wanted to take some courses that had nothing to do with religion ... though I recommend that everyone take at least one religion course at the College. It's definitely worth it," he said.

Greg also had some wisdom to impart to the freshman class.

"When you get to college things are a tabula rasa, a clean slate," he said. "The imprint you make is new and you can carry that new imprint with you throughout your time here ... I love William and Mary and I think that the time here goes by so fast. Cherish the time here because it doesn't last forever. A friend once told me that life is never boring. I often get frustrated when people say they are bored. If you just take a look around there are so many amazing things."