Marketing and Communications
Press Releases: September 2008
Senior Recital: Federico Behncke, Composition (9/29/08)
A concert of new music by composer Federico Behncke will debut at the Southern Oregon University (SOU) Recital Hall on Monday, October 6 at 8 pm. The program will include pieces for two pianos and percussion, soprano and piano, soprano and clarinet, cello and flute, saxophone solo and a short play by Peter Handke. Performers include Joseph Yungen, Tessa Brinkman, Lisa Truelove, Richard Elmore, Kevin Kenerly, Christopher Jean, Caroline Shaffer, and Department of Music Chair and Associate Professor of Music Terry Longshore. Admission is free.
The evening will begin with a piece composed for soprano and piano set to an e.e. cummings poem titled, “here’s a little mouse” performed by local pianist Joseph Yungen and San Francisco-based soprano Shelly Cox.
The concert will also debut a piece for four actors and tape using the text of a short play by Peter Handke called Prophecy. The performers are OSF actors Kevin Kenerly, Richard Elmore, Cristofer Jean and Caroline Shaffer. The piece explores language, meaning and sound, breaking down and reconstructing words to find the essence of their rhythms and pitches and eventually the essence of the objects for which they stand. Prophecy creates a landscape in which language is simultaneously all-powerful and totally meaningless. The tape composed for the play will work as a magnifying glass through which the audience will experience Handke’s Prophecy.
Other new works include a piece for solo saxophone titled “Something Yellow” featuring saxophonist Nicklas Warof, and “Historia de la Eternidad” for cello and flute featuring local cellist Lisa Truelove and OSF’s flutist Tessa Brinckman.
Soprano Shelly Cox will perform again with clarinetist Marla Kasdorf in a duet titled “Narciso” using a poem by Federico Garcia Lorca of the same name.
Finishing off the program will be “Quartet for Two Pianos and Percussion” featuring Terry Longshore, SOU percussion student Evin McHil and SOU pianists Chris Bingham and Joseph Yungen.
Tickets for this performance are free for general admission. Tickets and season passes may be purchased by calling 541-552-6101 or at the Music Box Office prior to the performance. For more information, please visit Southern Oregon University’s Music Department website.
SOU Department of Theatre Arts Announces 2008–09 Season (9/22/08)
The Southern Oregon University (SOU) Department of Theatre Arts announces its 2008–09 season of classical and contemporary works. Two plays are staged each term, with one production in the Center Stage theatre and one in the intimate Center Square theatre.
Designated a Center of Excellence in the Fine and Performing Arts by the Oregon University System (OUS), Southern Oregon University is the longest-standing OUS institution to offer the preprofessional bachelor of fine arts degree in theatre. Directors this season include guest artists from the Oregon Shakespeare Festival, two SOU professors, a theatre department alumnus and a senior theatre arts major. Costume, scenic, sound and lighting faculty either design or mentor selected student designers on all the productions.
Productions scheduled for the Center Stage theatre are as follows:
- Ring Round the Moon by Jean Anouilh and adapted by Christopher Fry runs November 13–23, 2008. In this comedy of manners among the worldly French, appearances are of utmost importance. Some, however, are not impressed by wealth and power in their pursuit of love. Twins Frédéric and Hugo vie for the hand of the same woman, but the brothers’ motives for courtship are quite different. The NY Herald-Tribune calls the play " . . . [a] lovely and delectable trifle." David Kelly of the Oregon Shakespeare Festival directs.
- Pulitzer Prize-winner Anna in the Tropics by Nilo Cruz runs February 19–March 1, 2009. As workers toiled in Florida's cigar-making factories in the early twentieth century, lectors would educate and entertain them by reading books aloud. When Juan Julian is hired as the new lector, he reads Anna Karenina to the workers. Tolstoy's tragic story unleashes desires and jealousies within a family bound by tradition. Marieke Gaboury, a theatre department alumnus and associate producer/director with New York City's LAByrinth Theatre Company, directs.
- Love's Labor's Lost by William Shakespeare runs May 21–31, 2009. The King of Navarre and three lords who are his close companions decide to devote themselves to three years of study and to not give in to the company of women. Their oath is put to the test in short order when the Princess of France and her ladies-in-waiting arrive on a visit to the King's court. Shakespeare’s classic use of wordplay, puns, and proximity to temptation brings the lords’ firmness of intention to the brink in this comedy. SOU professor Dale Luciano directs.
Productions in the intimate Center Square theatre are as follows:
- An Enemy of the People by Henrik Ibsen runs November 6–16, 2008. D. L. Smith's adaptation of this nineteenth-century drama places Ibsen's iconic character, Dr. Stockmann, in contemporary society. Stockmann's descent from respected citizen to community outcast is as relevant to today's political vagaries as it was for Ibsen in 1882. The play is noted for its message that the "the strongest man in the world is the man who stands most alone." SOU professor Dennis Smith directs.
- The annual children's theatre offering is Dick Whittington and His Amazing Cat by Pat Hume, which runs February 13–March 1, 2009. This charming musical filled with outrageous characters entertains children of all ages. Dick teams up with an extraordinary cat when he travels to seek his fortune in London. While Dick struggles to make ends meet as a kitchen boy, Pussycat escapes to Morania and becomes a Queen by saving that country from a plague of mice. Pussycat’s new status creates many new opportunities for Dick. Michael J. Hume of the Oregon Shakespeare Festival directs.
- Icarus by Edwin Sánchez runs May 14–24, 2009. Bruce Weber of The New York Times describes Sánchez as a writer "with the imagery of a magic realist and a sweetly poetic sensibility . . . and Icarus, like the myth of the wax-winged flier, is a story about the nobility of dreams." A young man, his sister, and their mysterious homeless companion move into a beach house. They take in a man who wears a ski mask. An aging actress waiting for her big break lives next door. Though all have some type of physical or mental affliction, dreams and fantasies are what fuel their lives and carry them above our everyday world. Jimmy Garcia, a senior theatre arts major, directs.
Tickets are $18 regular, $16 senior, and $5 student. Subscribers to three or more plays receive a discounted rate of $15 regular and $13 senior. For more information, call 552-6348 or visit the Theatre Arts Department website.
Southern Oregon University Hosts Urban Planner (9/22/08)
Southern Oregon University (SOU) will host urban planning expert John Fregonese on Thursday, October 9, 2008, at 7 pm in the Rogue River Room located in the Stevenson Union on the SOU’s Ashland campus.
The presentation is titled "Environment, Equity, and Economy—How does Ashland Measure up to the Triple Bottom line of Sustainability?" Using international examples, as well as statewide and regional data, Fregonese will discuss methods of incorporating all three aspects of sustainability in Ashland city planning. He will also update the audience on the status of “The Big Look.” Fregonese’s firm is working with “The Big Look Taskforce,” created through the Oregon Legislative process, to review statewide land-use planning.
Fregonese is president of Fregonese Associates, an award-winning urban and regional land-use planning firm in Portland, Oregon. He also has extensive experience in southern Oregon as the Ashland community development director from 1979 to 1992. His local restoration projects included the Butler‑Perozzi Fountain, the Ashland City Hall and the Ashland Community Center, as well as the Ashland Railroad District Rehabilitation.
Fregonese Associates is currently working on two local land-use planning projects: designing plans to expand the Talent, Oregon, downtown, as well as maintaining and improving access to Ashland’s “Calle Guanajuato,” located behind the downtown plaza, parallel to Lithia Creek.
The presentation is co-sponsored by the Ashland League of Women Voters, the City of Ashland and the SOU Sustainability Council.
SOU Associate Professor of Geography Pat Acklin, who is organizing the event, credits SOU Emeritus Professor of Psychology Hal Cloer with the idea for the Fregonese visit.
“Hal, while in communication with Fregonese, developed the idea for the talk, hoping that it would prompt a lively community-wide discussion about the future of the city and region,” said Acklin.
For more information about the event, please call Acklin at 541-552-6786. For more information about Fregonese Associates, please visit their website.
Master Drummers of South India (9/19/08)
The Southern Oregon University (SOU) Department of Music presents “Master Drummers of South India” as part of its Faculty and Guest Artist Concert Series on Thursday, October 16, at 8 pm in the Music Recital Hall. This concert features an ensemble of world-renowned percussionists from South India who are on tour in North American this fall.
Sri T. H. Subash Chandran is one of the most respected percussionists in India, performing on ghatam (claypot), and is recognized as being one of the finest living teachers of South Indian music. He is considered to be the "King of Konnakol" (vocal percussion) and he has mesmerized audiences around the world through his unimaginable speed, clarity, and voice modulations.
Ganesh Kumar, virtuoso performer of the kanjira (South Indian frame drum) has performed around the world on this single-hand drum. In his hands, this seemingly simple six-inch instrument is capable of delivering unbelievable tonal ranges, while reaching blistering speeds and breathtaking musical expression.
They will be joined by Cameron Flint on the mridangam, the South Indian double-headed drum.
Tickets for this performance are $15 for general admission and free for students. Tickets and season passes may be purchased by calling 541-552-6101 or at the Music Box Office prior to the performance. For more information, please visit SOU’s Music Department website.
SOU Celebrates Constitution Day (9/15/08)
In recognition of Constitution Day, Southern Oregon University (SOU) will host several activities on the Ashland campus commemorating the signing of the U.S. Constitution on September 17, 1787.
On Wednesday, September 17, two programs featuring Justices of the U.S. Supreme Court will play continuously from 11 am to 3 pm in Elmo's in the Stevenson Union’s on the Ashland campus and in the Welcome Center at the RCC/SOU Higher Education Center in Medford. The first program, A Conversation on the Constitution: Judicial Independence, features Justices Anthony Kennedy and Stephen Breyer, and retired Justice Sandra Day O’Connor discussing judicial independence. The second program, Our Constitution: A Conversation, features Supreme Court Justice Stephen Breyer and retired Justice Sandra Day O’Connor discussing why we need a Constitution. In addition, a third program, Key Constitutional Concepts, a three-part series examining the guiding principles of the constitution, will also be available to view in Stevenson Union on the Ashland campus.
Copies of the U.S. Constitution and Bill of Rights will be available in the Government Publications Section of the Hannon Library at SOU, which is the Government Documents Depository for Oregon’s Second Congressional District.
These activities are free and open to the public.
Across the country on the week before or after September 17, education institutions host events to remember the signing of the U.S. Constitution. The federal government has asked that all institutions receiving federal funding sponsor some type of event.
For additional information on the Constitution Day federal requirement, visit the government website.
Oregon Secretary of State will Present “Global Warming and the Impact on Oregon” (9/12/08)
Southern Oregon University, along with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service National Forensics Laboratory, and ScienceWorks Hands-On Museum, will host Oregon Secretary of State Bill Bradbury for his slideshow presentation titled “Global Warming and the Impact on Oregon.”
Bradbury will present at the RCC/SOU Higher Education Center at 1:30 pm on Thursday, September 18, 2008. The presentation will take place in the center’s Presentation Hall, located at 101 South Bartlett Street, on the corner of 8th Avenue and Bartlett in Medford, Oregon.
Bradbury will also show the presentation at 7 pm, September 18, in the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service National Forensics Laboratory Conference Center, located at 1490 East Main Street in Ashland, Oregon.
Secretary of State Bill Bradbury, a member of Oregon's newly formed Climate Change Commission, has given more than 130 presentations all around Oregon. Bradbury's presentation looks at the science of climate change and the impacts and solutions to this crisis. Some topics include the effects on Mount Hood, the Rogue River, the Oregon dead zone, timber and agricultural effects and weather oddities.
Additionally, Bradbury will discuss how Oregon is addressing climate change, including the Western Climate Initiative and ways that individuals can be part of the solution. The presentation will end with an audience question, answer and discussion period.
Both events are free and open to the public.
