See a list of employees joining and leaving the University in January 2012: Continue reading »
Theatre
Curry edits published volume
February 8th, 2012 | Faculty News
J.K. Curry, associate professor chair of theatre history, edited the volume Theatre Symposium, v. 19, Theatre and Film, which has been published by the University of Alabama Press. [ISBN 978-0-8173-7006-0]
Innovative ideas for engaged teaching
January 18th, 2012 | Faculty News
Register now for the Fellows & Friends Engaged Teaching Luncheon Series, which is led by inspired faculty. The next event will be Tuesday, Jan. 24, at 11 a.m. in 301 Reynolda Hall. Lunch will be provided.
The Institute for Public Engagement promotes engaged teaching that fosters critical thinking, gives each student a voice, and encourages students to engage with issues affecting the Wake Forest community and the community beyond. Within the broader concept of engaged teaching is the recognized pedagogy of service-learning, usually involving direct service to meet community needs. Other forms of engaged teaching may not involve such service but nevertheless engage students in the process of identifying and understanding community issues.
The purpose of this discussion series is to afford faculty the opportunity to share their ideas and gain inspiration for engaged teaching in an enjoyable, informal setting. Faculty are invited to enjoy lunch, highlight their work, share ideas, and gain inspiration. Featured faculty will speak for about 20 minutes followed by open conversation.
Tuesday, Jan. 24 (11 a.m.-12:15 p.m.): Innovative Ideas for Engaged Teaching
- Featured Faculty: David Finn (Art), Mary Pendergraft (Classics), Cindy Gendrich (Theatre), Phoebe Zerwick (English)
Tuesday, Feb. 28 (11 a.m.-12:15 p.m.): Navigating Engaged Teaching in a Global Context
- Featured Faculty: Steve Virgil (Law – Nicaragua Nexus), Ananda Mitra (Communications – India Study Abroad), Betina Wilkinson (PS – Latino Political Behavior and Public Opinion)
Monday, March 26 (11 a.m.-12:15 p.m.): Assessment in Engaged Teaching
- Featured Faculty: Michele Gillespie (History), Adam Friedman (Education), Andrew Allwine (Classics -Latin poetry)
It takes a village to put on ‘The Grapes of Wrath’
February 17th, 2011 | Alumni News, Events, Faculty News, Staff News
Sharon Andrews and her colleagues in the theatre and dance department would like to make the University Theatre the community’s theatre. Andrews, an associate professor of theatre, is directing the University Theatre’s current production of “The Grapes of Wrath” on the Mainstage Theatre.
The play has the usual large cast of undergraduates, but Andrews has sought to make it more of a community play, reaching out to faculty and staff and graduate students, and she is using the play as a springboard to partner with other academic departments on campus and a local high school.
“We want the theatre to ripple out to the campus community and to the larger community and integrate the community into what we are doing,” Andrews said.
Read more campus news at Inside WFU.
Read more about the importance of props in stage shows
Read more about stage manager Suzanne Spicer (’11)
The play, adapted by Frank Galati, is based on John Steinbeck’s classic 1939 novel of a desperately poor family fleeing the “Dust Bowl” of Oklahoma during the Great Depression for what they hoped would be a better life in California. In addition to about 30 undergraduates, the play’s cast also includes several graduate students and others with connections to Wake Forest. Owen Rask, the son of Provost Jill Tiefenthaler and Professor of Economics Kevin Rask, auditioned for and landed the part of Winfield, the youngest son of the Joad family.
The play features an old-time string bandcomposed of faculty and staff and others associated with Wake Forest: Martha Allman (’82, MBA ’92) (autoharp), director of undergraduate admissions, and her daughter, Ella (bass fiddle); Linda Bridges (accordion), director of admissions for the divinity school; Rick Davidson (banjo), husband of Joanne Davidson, who works in the Schools of Business; Cecilia Kucera (fiddle), a sophomore Presidential Scholar; and Bill McIlwain (MAEd ’94) (guitar). McIlwain also plays “the man with the guitar” in the play.
The production is presenting several opportunities for related events over the next week to explore the play’s themes. “More and more, we are striving to provide opportunities for theatre students to have a larger conversation about the issues that plays bring up,” Andrews said. “We are looking for shows that serve our students — first of all, the University theatre is the ‘lab’ for theatre students — but that can also be integrated with other departments on campus.”
Frank Galati, the playwright who adapted “The Grapes of Wrath” in 1988, will discuss the economic, social and political issues raised in the story with several Wake Forest professors on Feb. 24 at 4:30 p.m. in the Mainstage Theatre. The panel will also include Worrell Professor of Political Science David Coates; Professor of Economics Robert Whaples; and cultural historian and journalist Brian Berger, who will take about the social context of the play. The panel discussion is sponsored by Wake Forest’s BB&T Center for the Study of Capitalism.
Andrews is also taking the play’s themes of poverty, homelessness and the Great Depression to two history classes at Parkland High School, and the students are coming to campus to see the play. Wake Forest has a partnership with the IB program at Parkland.
Also, McIlwain is presenting a one-man musical, “Woody Guthrie, Tonight!,” in the Mainstage Theatre on Feb. 22 at 7:30 p.m. The show will follow Guthrie’s life from Oklahoma to California to New York and feature 16 of his most memorable songs, including, “This Land Is Your Land,” and “So Long, It’s Been Good To Know You.”
“We want the community to know that Wake Forest University Theatre is your theatre and that we belong to the community,” Andrews said.
– By Kerry M. King (’85), Office of Communications and External Relations
It takes a village to put on ‘The Grapes of Wrath’
February 17th, 2011 | Events
Sharon Andrews and her colleagues in the theatre and dance department would like to make the University Theatre the community’s theatre. Andrews, an associate professor of theatre, is directing the University Theatre’s current production of “The Grapes of Wrath” on the Mainstage Theatre.
The play has the usual large cast of undergraduates, but Andrews has sought to make it more of a community play, reaching out to faculty and staff and graduate students, and she is using the play as a springboard to partner with other academic departments on campus and a local high school. Continue reading »
The Prop’s the Thing: Stage Properties Reconsidered
February 14th, 2011 | Faculty News
Associate Professor and Chair of Theatre JK Curry
Props are often vital to a play’s storyline, but no one ever really thinks about them — until the gun doesn’t fire at the right time. “We tend to not pay much attention to props until they’re not working,” says Curry, who argues for a new appreciation of their importance. Read the full story.
The Prop’s The Thing for stage shows
February 14th, 2011 | Faculty News
Associate Professor and Chair of Theatre JK Curry
The suitcases in “The Grapes of Wrath.” The gun in the climactic scene of “West Side Story.” The small glass animals in “The Glass Menagerie.” The bottles of alcohol in “Cat on a Hot Tin Roof.”
Props are often vital to a play’s storyline, but no one ever really thinks about them — until the gun doesn’t fire at the right time.
“We tend to not pay much attention to props until they’re not working,” said Associate Professor and Chair of Theatre JK Curry, who has edited a recent book on props. “But props enhance performances in interesting ways. Props convey messages that may not be in the dialogue.” Continue reading »
Fulbright specialist Sam Gladding to discuss ‘a slice of Turkey’
October 29th, 2010 | Events, Faculty News
Chair and Professor of Counseling Samuel T. Gladding shared his expertise of family counseling with educators and students in Turkey during a month-long stay there last summer as the University’s first Fulbright Specialist scholar.
Gladding (’67, MA ’71) will share his experience with colleagues at this month’s Thursdays at Starling program on Nov. 4. The program, open to faculty and staff, will be held in Starling Hall beginning at 4 p.m.
Professor of Theatre Cindy Gendrich and Assistant Professor of Anthropology Sandya Hewamanne are also on the program. Gendrich will discuss her research project, “Why Do People Laugh?”, which received an NEH Enduring Questions grant. Hewamanne, recipient of the third annual Hatch Award for Academic Excellence, will discuss her summer research at Oxford’s Bodleian Library on the writings of a Buddhist revivalist and its impact on Sri Lankan women. Continue reading »
‘The Imaginary Cuckold’
October 26th, 2010 | Events
The Wake Forest University Theatre presents Molière’s “The Imaginary Cuckold,” Oct. 29 and 30 and Nov. 3 – 6, on the MainStage Theatre in the Scales Fine Arts Center. Read more.
