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Waiting for Lefty

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Theater students stage political uprising

By Nathanial Quinn, Guest Commentator quinn15@up.edu

From THE BEACON

Clifford Odets’ landmark play Waiting for Lefty can be described as an event to be experienced by all. While this show was written about a union strike that took place in the 1930s, it is just as significant for society today. Its goal then and now is to remind us to stand up for what we believe in, much like occupiers and protesters are doing now. It is about a group coming together for a unifying cause, overcoming obstacles and deciding to take the initiative.

Jared Lee, the second-year directing grad in charge of the piece, wants the audience to be reminded that “we are the 99 percent.” He hopes the audience will be moved to participate during the action of the play, though it’s not a requirement. In order to facilitate this, Lee intends to rearrange the theater space “to create a sense that we are all in a camp together—in one unifying space, where the audience and the actors are equals.”

When the play opens on Nov. 28, cast members will be protesting outside the Mago Hunt Theater, and encouraging incoming audience members to rally as well. Upon entering the space, should you feel like having your voice heard, you can take up a sign—or bring your own—and treat our show as a place to voice that opinion, be it for or against the movement.

Audiences will feel like they are entering an Occupy camp as they enter the theater. Cast members for this show are going above and beyond taking on the roles of Odets’ sharply delineated characters; they will portray actual occupiers as well. You can expect to see these people, hear their opinions and witness their strife and anguish as you move further into the performing space. Once in the theater, designer Eric Lyness has created an environment defined by chain link fences, a wall of doors, and tarps overhead, to deepen the audience’s feeling of being in an Occupy camp. By stretching the set out into the audience, Lyness intends to help create Lee’s idea of unity between actor and audience. Actors will also be present in this environment, but not until the show begins will the audience actually know who is a performer and who is a spectator.

Student costume designer Hope Robinson is also working to make the show feel as real as possible. All cast members have a basic occupier costume, and as they adopt other characters throughout the show, they add and remove costume pieces to signal a change in character. These costume pieces will be seen hanging around the set in various locations, as though they were donated articles of clothing for the protesters.

As you walk around campus this month, you will see some of your colleagues sporting buttons that say “Where’s Lefty?” and “Occupy.” We encourage you to ask about them. While these emblems are there to gain your attention, they also represent individual stories for each character of the show. Stop and ask, and we’ll happily give you some insight into the production—as well as buttons of your own, if you’d like.

Nathaniel Quinn is a first-year graduate directing student who, in addition to appearing in Waiting for Lefty as a union boss, is also the show’s dramaturge. He can be reached quinn15@up.edu.  The play runs from November 28 through 30.

Student Symphony Conductors take Music in Hand

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The University of Portland’s Undergraduate Conducting Associates Program (UCAP) is an innovative musician training program that allows UP students to conduct the University’s Wind Symphony. Conducting Associates conduct pieces at every UP Wind Symphony concert, and have conducted nearly 20% of all pieces performed over the past five years. Students are selected based upon ability shown in MUS 331 (Fundamentals of Conducting). Upon invitation from Dr. Patrick Murphy, students then take private lessons and lead weekly rehearsals of the Wind Symphony. Students in the Program receive podium time and lessons that make it similar to a master’s degree conducting program, and gives them a unique learning experience not available to most undergraduates in the United States. All of their rehearsals and performances are recorded for critique and the development of a video portfolio. This year’s Associates are Amanda Pilcher and Tim Blaydon. [Read more…] about Student Symphony Conductors take Music in Hand

Rebecca Chavez: Hightower Scholarship Recipient

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Rebecca Chavez, this year’s recipient of Molly Hightower scholarship, has “taken advantage of all that UP has to offer”

Rebecca Chavez, a University of Portland senior, barely recalls a time when service was not part of her life.Recipient of this year’s Molly Hightower Endowed Scholarship, Chavez was under the age of 10 when she regularly volunteered with her family at a home for developmental disabled adults. Her job included transporting the home’s residents via wheelchair to Sunday Mass.

“It was often noisy in those Masses,” she said. “But I realized they were praising God just like anyone else.”

“I have been doing service since I could walk,” she added. “My mother is an immigrant, and my father was born to immigrant parents, so my siblings and I grew up with understandings of social justice.”
Chavez, born and raised in Santa Clara, near San Francisco, is majoring in Spanish and social work and minoring in communication studies. She is the third recipient of the Molly Hightower Scholarship. The scholarship was established by the Class of 2010 in memory of Hightower, who died in the January 2010 earthquake in Haiti while volunteering with special-needs orphans. [Read more…] about Rebecca Chavez: Hightower Scholarship Recipient

Machinal Debuts This Week

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From UPBEAT

Machinal, an expressionistic play, will be per- formed November 9-11, 15-17 in the Mago Hunt Center Theater. All performances are at 7:30 p.m., except the Sunday performance, which is at
2 p.m. Admission is $10 for adults and $5 for students and seniors. For reservations starting call 7287.

Machinal is an expressionistic modern age tragedy of isolation turned to murder. Loosely based on the sensational 1927 murder trial of Ruth Snyder, the first woman put to death by the electric chair, the play is set against an industrial landscape. Playwright Sophie Treadwell’s classic early 20th century feminist play speculates about what circumstances might drive a seemingly harmless stenographer to commit murder in a male-dominated, mechanized, materialistic world. This play deals with adult themes and is intended for mature audiences.

Tops in Fulbrights Again!

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From UPBEAT

University of Portland has been named the top producer of Fulbright scholars in the nation among “master’s universities” for the third consecutive year, according to a study released today by the Chronicle of Higher Education. The University had six alumni win the prestigious grants to work and study abroad for 2012-13.

Three of the Fulbrights won by UP alumni for 2012-13 are for English teaching positions in Germany, while the others are for graduate studies in the United Kingdom, research in India, and English teaching in Spain.

The University has been a leader among its peer institutions in producing Fulbright scholars for several years, also ranking first nationally in 2011-12, 2010-11 and 2007-08 and second nationally in 2006-07, 2008-09 and 2009-10. Since 2001, students from University of Portland have earned 40 Fulbright grants.

Debate Success

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From UPBEAT

Bohn Lattin and Brian Simmons, communication studies, wrote in to let us know of the University of Portland Speech and Debate Union’s recent success at the Steve Hunt Classic Speech and Debate Tournament held at Lewis & Clark College. Our students achieved as follows:

  • Elizabeth Hartley advanced to the
    Quarterfinal Round (Top 8) of the Junior Division of IPDA Debate
  • John Russell advanced to the Quarterfinal Round (Top 8) of the Junior Division of IPDA Debate
  • KatieWilson placed 6th in the Junior Division of Extemporaneous Speaking
  • Arthur (Bo) Hammer placed 6th in the Novice Division of Impromptu Speaking
  • Alaina Bever placed 6th in the Novice Division of Informative Speaking

Hands on History

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Students in Mark Eifler’s History 420 this semester are reading, transcribing, and researching a collection of unpublished letters of a surgeon from the US Civil War.  The letters of William Peck were digitalized and given to the university by Jane Leeson, who lives in the North Portland neighborhood.  The letters begin in 1854 and go through 1870, and cover Peck’s work as a doctor, lawyer, surgeon, officer, political worker and businessman during this traumatic period of history.

The collection was digitalized last summer in order to preserve the letters, and to make it easier to view and study them without increasing any deterioration of the original pages.  The letters are now being transcribed and researched. [Read more…] about Hands on History

Students conduct Tree Inventory

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Students in David Taylor’s Biology 341: Field Botany lab are getting a chance to both learn to identify trees as well as to give back to the University Park neighborhood.

David Taylor, Biology

Trees provide an economic value for the neighborhood–reducing erosion and run-off, cooling streets and homes in the summer, and increasing property values.  Recently Prof. Taylor contacted Portland Parks and Recreation about helping inventory trees in University Park.  In exchange for collecting the data Parks and Rec. needed, Taylor was able to add more information to the survey, which the Park department will then process and crunch into useable data on the growth and distribution of mosses and other activity in the area.

UP student Clair Dinsmore

Taylor notes that the experience has been good for students as well as the neighborhood.  One resident asked the students to help him identify various trees he had in his backyard that he had always wondered about.  Delighted that the students answered his questions, he responded by sending the students on their way with a basket of plums from one of his trees!

Charity Taylor, Political Science Major, 2013

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When Charity Taylor speaks of her experience at UP, her enthusiasm is nearly overwhelming.  A Political Science major, a Mock Trial team member, an aspiring teacher and law student–Charity is a perfect example of the way CAS has made a difference in a student’s life.

Charity discusses why she chose UP, her experiences here, and her hopes for the future on an upcoming episode of Speaking UP!

 

 

“On the Verge” Review

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By Kate Stringer ,  Staff Writer stringer14@up.edu

From THE BEACON

When traversing into the wilderness it is important to take three things: a machete, a Victorian pith hat, and an umbrella for poking hippopotami.

At least that’s the advice given by the characters in UP’s production of “On the Verge”, a play by Eric Overmyer about three female explorers from the Victorian era setting out to discover a new world, Terra Incognita.

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While they don’t encounter a hippopotamus, the women undergo bizarre occurrences. Foreign objects mysteriously appear in their luggage. Strange words begin pouring from their tongues. Women walk around in trousers.

Terra Incognita forces the women to confront their fears and anticipations of the unknown. While Alex (sophomore Emily Clare Biggs) demands they embrace their new world, Fanny (junior Danielle Renella) is as accepting of the future as she is of “cyclones, pit vipers, and bad grammar.” [Read more…] about “On the Verge” Review