Performance Draws Talent to the Yard

Singer-songwriter Jean Gauthier broke out her guitar last Friday afternoon to perform for lunching faculty, grad students, and passers-by seated in the colorful assembly of chairs in front of Lehman Hall.

“I think I’ll write a song for you, then watch the gentle breeze,” sang Gauthier, whose musical style is a mix of gospel, jazz, folk, and blues.

Ordinarily, Gauthier serves as the office manager for the Harvard Center for the Environment. But last Friday she left the workplace for half an hour to perform as part of “Chairs Revue: A Festival of Performance in Harvard Yard,” an initiative that gives members of the Harvard community the chance to showcase their talents on campus.

The performance series, which began on Sept. 7 and will continue through Oct. 15, solicited people with a Harvard affiliation to act, play music, dance, juggle, or showcase another talent outside of Lehman Hall or the Science Center.

Graduate Student Christian C. Millian, who drops by the Chairs Revue performances between classes, said he never knows who the performers are in advance, “but they’ve been good, so I keep coming.”

Gauthier arrived for her act with an unassuming entourage of two, peeled off an azure sweater, set up her own equipment, and began to sing. Students looking intensely at the screens of their laptops began to glance upwards, tourists and harried undergraduates found a moment to stop and grab a free slice of the apple pie provided by Chair Revue curators, and people gradually began to orient their chairs in Gauthier’s direction.

“I love that it’s perfect for the season,” Lauren O. Libby ’14, who attended Gauthier’s performance, said of the Chairs Revue.

The series will conclude this Friday at 12:30 p.m. with performances by the Cliffe Notes, Expressions, Harvard Modern Dance Company, scenes from “Action” by Sam Shepard, and readings by A.R.T. Institute first-year students.