I got an email from “Doc” Loeffler recently with news from some alums and I realized that it had been a very long time since I had updated the newsletter, so I figured I’d better do it.
Crystal Waters-Elliot (’03) was on campus getting her Master’s in Public Affairs with a concentration in cultural and arts administration in December. This is, of course, her second degree from Western, as her B.M. was her first. She was married in October to Donald William Elliot and they live in Northern Virginia where she has been working to promote cultural events and the arts.
Jessica Phelps West (’77) wrote to me regarding the position the department had open in acting (the replacement for Steve Ayers), but the search had closed when she wrote. Her son (and Dennis’ (’77?) is now a freshman at Georgia Tech. That makes me feel a little old, but he isn’t the first alumni child who has started college. Some have graduated by now. It was good to hear from her.
Alan Reavis (’03?) writes that he is working for Mary Kay cosmetics and that you should all buy that sort of thing from him. You can reach him at www.marykay.com/alan.reavis to get all those essentials.
Claire Eye (’90) has been appointed Program Director for Theatre and Dance within the department, taking over from Susan Brown-Strauss, who has been having some health “issues,” but seems almost as active as ever.
Kathy Wright, who has now officially retired from Western, and her daughter, Samantha, visited with Karen Furno (‘85) and Jim Wood (’72?) on their way through California on their way to an Hawaiian cruise recently. I understand they had a good time reminiscing.
When Kathy retired at the end of the Fall semester, there were several nice parties and a number of alumni were able to attend. I won’t try to name them all (mostly because I’m sure that I’d forget some), but they included Maggi (Peggy) McLaney Cox (’76?) and Howard Allman (‘86) as well as some Communication students and lots of local faculty and friends.
Kathy told me sometime last fall that Steve Carr had passed away, but I don’t remember the details. (Getting old isn’t fun, I should have written the details down immediately.)
DV Caitlyn (who has been here in a “visiting” capacity this year) has been appointed to a full-time, tenure-track position in performance (Steve Ayers’ old position), so the faculty is at capacity, although still frantically busy.
Mary Bennett Harvey (‘74) wrote “Doc” that she is still in Jacksonville, FL, working in advertising and PR, where her company (Agency a la Carte) is doing well with over 30 employees.
Alan Freeman Jr. (‘88) wrote “Doc” that he is using Facebook to communicate with Karen Furno (‘85), John Clark (‘74), David Waldrop (‘??), Ron Fender (‘7?), Sonja Beckham Weiner (‘74), Phoebe Hall (‘88), Nancy Georgian (‘75), Ken Stikeleather (‘79) and Randy Abee (‘??).
I hear that Janus Yates Barton (‘7?) and her husband, Paul, visited “Doc in March and they had a great lunch chat.
I saw David Roberts (’86) at a university Open House this spring. He’s now a pastor and was bringing a friend and her child up to visit Western. It was great to see him an talk about the “old days” while trying to do a little recruiting.
Effie Rosbert dropped in on me the other day to say that she and Scotty Corbin (’97) are leaving their current jobs to take on new positions as TD and Artistic Director of a new theatre being opened (later this summer) in Franklin, NC. Apparently the man who owns the Drake Software Company decided that Franklin needed a theatre facility, so he’s building one. The plans Effie showed me looked very interesting and I’m looking forward to seeing the actual building when it’s completed early this summer.
Some Random Thoughts by RSB
It’s approaching Easter of 2009 as I write this. I had meant to get this together shortly after Xmas, but life just got in the way. The economic difficulties of the state, nation and world have forced some significant budget reductions for Western and the UNC system already and we’ve had to plan for further cuts next year. After that, who knows? It doesn’t look real promising, but we’ll have to wait and see.
Since I’m still Chair of the Faculty at Western (for another year), it’s meant a good many extra meetings while the university has had to deal with these problems. That’s on top of being a part of many committees, presiding over the Faculty Senate, trying to keep my classes going, preparing a major revision of the Theatre History classes and working on getting ready to start teaching the Dramatic Literature and Criticism course starting in the fall.
Yes, I know I taught Lit./Crit. to some of you a long time ago, back when it was a two-semester sequence, but it’s only the one course now and, besides, it’s been quite a while. So, on top of everything else, I’ve been trying to find a suitable text for Lit./Crit. While revising the History classes due to the need to adopt a fairly heavily revised new edition of Brockett and Hildy’s history text. I’ve been a little busy.
I did get a chance to design lights last fall for our production of Plaza Suite, directed by then visiting professor DV Caitlyn, who also wrote some “bridge” material to provide a bit of a back story to Simon’s classic piece. It was a lot of fun to do (I do miss production work a good deal), but, as I’m currently the only faculty member in the department with a traditional academic degree (PhD), it does make sense for me to be focused on the “academic” stuff like History and Lit./Crit..
Still, after a few “growing pains,” the new department of Stage and Screen, with programs in motion picture and television production, theatre, musical theatre and dance is starting to really come together. Our new department head, Tom Salzman, has been moving us in a positive direction and there are collaborative projects between faculty and students from all of the areas appearing like mad. We are in the process of a major curriculum revision, especially of the BA degree. This will be a truly “stage and screen” degree with a well-balanced core of classes from all areas of the department and will allow a student to combine it with a second major or minor, as well as the option of a concentration in Theatre Tech/Design or a broad “General” concentration with options for some specialization in the video production area or theatre. Claire Eye has dubbed this a “Rockin’” BA and it really should be quite exciting. I’ll try to let you know when it’s finalized, so you can take a look at it online. I think it’s going to really revive the BA side of the curriculum and will be a great addition to the existing BFAs in Acting, MPTP and Musical Theatre.
The school year is, of course, coming to a close soon, so we (my colleagues) are frantically trying to recover from a very successful run of Fiddler on the Roof (I remember well the “sick ward” we had in the basement of Hoey and being snowed in during the last production of that show) while working on getting Almost, Maine, the final theatre production of the season ready and finishing prep on the student film festival, the dance showcase and a whole bunch more. Personally, I’m trying to help students finish up their thesis projects and go to a plethora of “end of the year” ceremonies and awards presentations which are (sort of) required for me as Faculty Chair. That’s on top of class prep, grading and going to the usual Senate and committee meetings.
To top things off, at the last UNC Faculty Assembly meeting (being Faculty Chair at Western means being a delegate to that, as well), I was elected to be on that body’s Executive Committee. After three years as a member of the Assembly, it’s probably my turn and I may be able to remind the often “Raleigh-centric” general administration that not all of us live and work in urban areas or close to the middle of the state. That’s something that they often seem to have some trouble remembering.
I confess that I’m looking forward to summer and taking a bit of a break. To make it even better, our daughter, Margaret (who was in Fiddler the last time we did it as a high school freshman) and I are going to England for 10 nights towards the end of May. One of the major advantages of having a child who works for a hotel company (Hyatt) is that she can get really nice hotel rates at any of their properties. And, since she and Bonnie went to the West of Ireland for a few days to attend a family wedding a couple of years ago, Maggi invited me to go to England with her this summer. Obviously, I jumped at the chance.
So, we’ll be meeting in D.C. about a week after commencement, seeing her sister, Kate, and family (including the two grandkids) briefly, then flying to London for six nights there, then going to Birmingham for four nights. I flew to Omaha to visit Maggi over Spring Break and we made a lot of plans about things to see and do. We have tickets (an Xmas gift from Kate) to see Ian McKellen and Patrick Stewart in Waiting for Godot at the Royal Haymarket and will see the Royal Shakespeare in Julius Caesar at the temporary Courtyard Theatre in Stratford while we are based in Birmingham. We may well get to some other shows, but we haven’t committed to that. We’ll see when we get there. There’s a lot standard “tourist” stuff we want to do besides theatre, of course. We want to see the Tower of London, St. Paul’s, some shops and stores, the changing of the guard, etc. I also want to try to get to the new Theatre gallery at the Victoria and Albert (which replaces the old Theatre Museum) and I definitely plan to try to get to Shakespeare’s Globe, the Rose, the Royal National complex, Covent Garden and as many others as I can get to, at least to take some pictures.
We plan to take the long way to Birmingham (via Stonehenge [Stonehenge Rocks!], which is way out of the way, but someplace we both really wish to go to). While we are there we have day trips planned to Warwick, Coventry, and Cadbury World, a theme park operated by the Cadbury chocolate people. We understand that it either inspired, or was inspired by, Willy Wonka’s factory in Roald Dahl’s books. It will be fun, in any event, if a bit silly.
We’ll also be going to Stratford-Upon-Avon, which will probably be a long day, as will the day trip to Oxford. I’m not sure what we’ll see in Oxford, but I just can’t be that close and not get to the oldest university in the English-speaking world. I know there are several museums and galleries, so I’m sure we’ll find stuff to see and (maybe) take pictures of. Just seeing the town and buildings will be fun.
By the time we have to leave, I expect we’ll be exhausted, but (almost certainly) far from satisfied. Still, it may be a “once in a lifetime,” but maybe not. We’ll have to see what the future brings. I’ll post a more complete report on the trip sometime this summer.
As I get older, I think more often about all of the students it has been my pleasure to know, work with, learn from and (maybe) teach something to. If you get a chance, drop me a note or an email, or come by to visit the campus. It’s changed so much since I started here all those years ago that I know that some of you would have trouble recognizing the place. Still, Cullowhee will always be a bit of home.
My best to you all,
Dr. B