You probably don’t know Alex Bunke; he seems to belong to that oh-so-small minority of students on this campus whose face you cannot put to a name. However, regardless of the fact that this senior has been under the radar – or perhaps more appropriately, under a rock – for the last four years, this surprisingly does not reflect all that poorly on his artistic career at Lawrence.
In fact, he’s done a pretty good job being involved in things without getting a whole lot of recognition. And thus Alex Bunke, theatre arts and English major, Dave Matthews Band lover and the skinniest man I know, is this week’s featured artist.
After an extensive hours-long interview in which Bunke mostly talked about himself, Auto-Tune, and “Lost,” I was finally able to coax out of him his reasons for being a theater major.
While he himself attributes it to an accident, one might have a hard time believing this from someone who has been in at least five notable LU productions – most recently “A Midsummer Night’s Dream” – multiple staged readings and, of course, the 24-hour Play Festival.
Bunke has also been known to produce a good film or two during his time on campus. In the most articulate statement of his interview, Bunke noted, “I like film because I like control. In film, you can aim the camera and really limit what people see and don’t see. In theatre, you’ve got a whole stage and you can’t always rely on an audience to see the picture that you want them to see.”
Bunke has indeed taken on some interesting film projects thus far, including his prize-winning submission to the “Light, More Light!” competition. He also plans to stay in Appleton this summer, as he has been commissioned to produce all of Lawrence’s new promotional videos.
Noted the auteur, “In a way, I regret leaving Lawrence this year because recently there has been a big push for film on campus – I think the next few years will see a lot of cool film stuff out of Lawrence.”
As for his own future, Bunke plans to be “in charge of something, but not a Cold Stone.” He continued, “I’d like to be creating something, but not illegitimate children.” We’ll see.
Artist Spotlight: Alex Bunke
