By John Custodio

Tyler Hall’s Waterman Theatre will be hosting “Imagining Kerouac” on March 8 as a celebration of the poet and novelist Jack Kerouac’s 100th birthday on March 12.

Kerouac, born on March 12, 1922, was a poet and novelist raised in Lowell, Massachusetts by French-Canadian parents Leo-Alcide Keroack and Gabrielle-Ange Levesque. Kerouac stated his own full name as Jean-Louis Lebris de Kerouac due to a family legend of descent from a famous French baron. Kerouac’s works were deeply inspired by his brother’s death when Kerouac was four along with heavy involvement in the Catholic church and other religious organizations. Kerouac attended Columbia University in New York City on scholarship for football, but dropped out of the university after his football career ended. Many of Kerouac’s characters in his novels were inspired by friends, colleagues and acquaintances he met during his life, with many coming out of his time at Columbia University. 

Kerouac became close with many “Beat Generation” writers and artists after dropping out, before enlisting in the United States Navy Reserves in 1943 before being honorably discharged eight days later with a “schizoid personality” that he claims was only diagnosed after he asked for aspirin for headaches. 

Kerouac was heavily influenced by Buddhism and jazz as well, with much of his poetry about Buddhist themes with the rythmns of jazz. Kerouac is most famous for his novels “On the Road” (1957), “The Dharma Bums” (1958) and “Tristessa” (1960) along with numerous poems collected in “Mexico City Blues” (1959) and “Scattered Poems” (1971) which was published posthumously after Kerouac’s death in 1969.

Kerouac died from an abdominal hemorrhage on Oct. 21, 1969, that was brought on by heavy drinking throughout his life. Numerous works have been published posthumously. Kerouac had one child, Jan Kerouac, that he saw twice and who did not have any children herself. 

In Waterman Theatre, English professor Donald Masterson will direct the multimedia performance, act and read, with cinema production professor Jacob Dodd as a filmmaker and reader, Kurt Paneuf and Renee Stewart as readers and art and design professor Juan Perdiguero as a visual artist. Music professors Robert Auler, Trevor Jorgensen and Eric Schmitz will act, compose and perform with Auler on piano, Jorgensen on saxophone and Schmitz as a drummer. Audio engineer Dan Wood will be the recording engineer. 

Image via SUNY Oswego