COMING UP:NOVEMBER 6-14
Mel Graves Scholarship Concert, November 7
Emerging from a year of regrouping after the loss of Jazz Director Mel Graves, the Music Department welcomes trombonist and composer Doug Leibinger to head the jazz program. One of his first tasks is to assemble players for the Mel Graves Scholarship Concert that takes place at 7:30 p.m. on Saturday, Nov. 7, the anniversary of Mel's death and one year after the historic "Movin' On" tribute to his life and work at SSU.
Sharing the Warren Auditorium stage will be Bob Afifi, flute, Jim Rothermel, sax, Pete Estabrook, trumpet, Leibinger on trombone, John Simon, piano, Randy Vincent, guitar and George Marsh, percussion. The occasion also marks the debut of SSU's new bass teacher, Cliff Hugo, known for his work with artists as diverse as Warne Marsh, Ray Charles and Supertramp. Plan to arrive early as a packed house is expected. There is a suggested donation of $15 that will contribute directly to scholarships for SSU's jazz students.
Award-Winning Writer Merlinda Bobis to Deliver Lecture-Performance, Nov. 9
Merlinda Bobis (pictured, right), an award-winning writer, has launched her new novel, The Solemn Lantern Maker, and will speak on her play, River, River, in an upcoming lecture-performance, "Passion to Payson: Playing Militarism" which takes place Mon., Nov. 9 at noon in Schulz 3001.
This lecture traces how the 1987-1989 total war waged by the Philippine government against communist insurgency has been embodied in text and performance by writer-performer Bobis, using actual events, creative writing, theatre and music, and the Payson—the Philippine Holy Week tradition of singing The Passion of Christ.
Inspired by her militarized home region Bikol, Bobis wrote the short story Fish-Hair Woman, which she has expanded into a novel and then adapted into the play River, River. She has received various awards for her writing, among them the Prix Italia, the Steele Rudd Award for the Best Published Collection of Australian Short Stories, and the Philippine National Book Award. Her plays have been performed and produced in Australia, Philippines, Spain, China, France, Thailand, and the Slovak Republic. For more information about the author, visit her website.
Growing Up In Neverland Offers a Fresh Take on Peter Pan
Longtime SSU theatre professor Judy Navas, collaborating with composer
Jeff Langley and designer Anthony Bish, breaks the fourth wall of Peter
Pan with the debut of Growing Up in Neverland, a world premier
production that offers a fresh perspective on J.M. Barrie's classic Peter Pan. The production opens Fri., Nov. 13 and plays until Sat., Nov. 21, in Person Theatre.
The family-oriented Growing Up is a wild romp through three
imaginative worlds of Neverland, Barrie's mind, and the stage itself, featuring live-action, an original musical score,
theatrical wizardry, fairy creatures, and puppetry. "The play deals with different dimensions of fantasy and reality which
the medium of theatre is naturally suited to explore," explains Navas.
The 50-minute play, which has no intermission, is offering four, youth-audience performances (Nov. 13, 9 a.m. and 11:30 a.m., an Nov. 20, 9 a.m. and 11:30 a.m.) for which tickets for students and parent chaperones are $3, and free for teachers and administrators. The remainder of the performances are ticketed at $12 general admission, $10 for SSU faculty, alumni and staff, $8 for seniors and children under 12, and free for students with an SSU ID. For a full list of dates, or more information, visit the Brown Paper Tickets website.
Writers at Sonoma Welcomes Wagner and Wolff
The "Writers at Sonoma" series presents an upcoming lecture featuring authors Catherine Wagner and Rebecca Wolff, taking place Thurs., Nov. 12 at 5:30 p.m. in Schulz 3001. The event is free and open to the public. "Writers at Sonoma" is funded by the Nadinia Newkirk Writers Foundation and instructionally related activities of SSU.
Wagner is the author of My New Job, Macular Hole, and Miss America. She lives car-free in southwest Ohio with her six-year-old son Ambrose and teaches poetry at Miami University. She is known for her fiercely syncopated, outspoken utterances and unflinching gaze. UK critic Josephine Ebert writes: "Her neo-surreal vision and neo-dada attitude are matched by an exceptional feel for the magic of simple language…very American, very urban, very modern and yet harking back to the best 'beat' legacies.”
Wolff is the author of three books of poems, most recently The King. She is editor and publisher of Fence and Fence Books, and a fellow at the New York State Writers Institute. Publishers Weekly called The King “breathtakingly brave…. challenging the idea that motherhood is a glossy miracle that makes the mother special. Wanting to negotiate—intellectually, emotionally, spiritually and poetically—such concepts leads Wolff into the mind’s knottier realms.”
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