Guys and Dolls, Student Script Feature in Spring Theatre Season
The 2007-08 University Theatre Spring season will feature not only the Tony-award winning Guys and Dolls but a new script based around the well-remembered adventures of the Hardy Boys, entitled That’s What We Love About You, Hardy Boys, written by our own Stage and Screen students.
Guys and Dolls, the classic collaboration of Swerling, Burrows and Loesser, based on the stories of Damon Runyon, will be directed by our own Terrence Mann, the Phillips Distinguished Professor of Musical Theatre, and will run February 21, 22 & 23 at 7:30 p.m. and February 24 at 3:00 p.m. in the Performance Hall of the Fine and Performing Arts Center. It will feature music direction by faculty member Bradley Martin, and our own Claire Eye will be assisting Terrence with the direction of the show in addition to her regular class schedule.
The plan had been to close the Mainstage season with a Festival of One Acts, but the Players had such a great success on the Second Stage last spring with their original script, That’s What I Love About You, Nancy Drew!, that they wished to build on that show with a new script about the Hardy boys and to be able to go a bit farther in terms of production than had been possible in the Second Stage situation. That seemed like a great idea, so the plans were changed so that we could include this as a part of the Mainstage season.
The script is currently in the final stages of development by a group of four students, and student director Anthony Giordano (who is also part of the writing team) is very enthused. The script, a musical comedy spoof of these wonderful old stories, will build on the characters and relationships from last year’s Nancy Drew script and it promises to be a lot of fun. That’s What We Love About You, Hardy Boys will be performed in Hoey Auditorium at 7:30 p.m. on April 9, 10, 11 & 12 and again at 3:00 p.m. on April 13.
Both of these shows will feature our students in many capacities both on the stage and “behind the scenes.” It’s going to be a great season and the springtime is a great time to visit Cullowhee, take in a show, and see what’s happening here. Tickets are available from the Fine and Performing Arts Center box office at (828) 227-2479 or by visiting their ticketing web site at http://wcutheatre.ticketsxchange.com/. Come see a show if you can. If you haven’t seen FPAC or the “new” Niggli, we think you’ll be pleased with them.
Looking Back at the Fall
The season opened with Larry Shue's wonderful comedy, The Nerd on September 26-30 in Hoey. The show featured Anthony Giordano as Rick (the Nerd) and Nathaniel Mason as Willum. They were ably supported by Rachel All, Kaley McCormack, Anna Latanyshyn, Sarah Lipham, Kate Gardner, Cord Scott and Danny Osborne. The show also featured Western’s own Terry Nienhuis as Warnock Waldgrave. Direction was by Stephen Michael Ayers, with costumes by Glenda Hensley, set by Luther Jones and lighting by Del Delorm.
In October, a new project, “The Actor’s Conservatory,” held its first performances in the newly renovated Niggli Theatre. This effort, headed by performance faculty members Peter Savage and Claire Eye, is a class that gives student actors an opportunity to hone their craft in an environment of highly intensive scene study. This Fall, the focus was on contemporary scenes, but plans include expansion into other sorts of drama.
November 8-11 saw Lucky Stiff, directed by guest director Charlie Flynn McIver, the artistic director of the Asheville-based N.C. Stage Company. The show was performed in Hoey with sets by Luther Jones and costumes designed by Susan Brown-Strauss. This musical, based on Michael Butterworth's The Man Who Broke the Bank at Monte Carlo, featured Mark Hudson, Christy Waymouth, Dayna Dameron with a highly versatile cast in a delightful performance.
DONATIONS WELCOME: The Campaign for Western
You all have probably heard about Western’s current “Creating Extraordinary Opportunities” campaign to raise funds to endow scholarships, professorships, and programs. We hope that each of you will be a part of this campaign. Don’t forget that you can designate your support to go to support Niggli Scholarships or the activities of the Theatre program. Call (828) 227-7124 or go to http://campaign.wcu.edu/ for more information.
Steve Ayers to leave
Dr. Stephen Michael Ayers has decided to leave Western after 24 years. Steve says, “I have no regrets about my wonderful experiences with the many fabulous students I have encountered over the past 24 years. I am leaving solely to further my career as a performer.” Many of you will remember some of the productions Steve directed or performed in while at Western. You may have also had a chance to see him (or go “on set” with him) in some of his many ventures in television or movies. We’ll miss him, of course, but he feels that the time is now right for him to start on the next great adventure and to return to a more complete involvement in his professional career, and we all wish him well as he re-embarks on a full-time professional career. He hopes to keep in touch and to return from time to time for workshops, etc., so he won’t be completely gone. We’re all wishing him the best. So, keep your eyes open. One of these days very soon you may be able to turn on your television or go into a movie (or legit) theatre and see a familiar face. He might be a little older, but he will still be “our Steve.”
Alumni News from “Dr. B” (“All I can tell ya, is what I hear”)
This is what I have gleaned from recent communications ...
Sabrina “Brina” Frantz writes that she is currently working as a Teacher’s Assistant at Hendersonville High School while taking classes through UNCA to obtain her teacher’s license.
Diana (Marshall) Shoaf emailed me that her daughter, Abbey, has been cast as Lucy in Mount Tabor High’s production of You’re a Good Man, Charlie Brown, scheduled for performance in March. Diana continues to work for the Winston-Salem/Forsyth County Schools as K-12 theatre arts lead teacher. She says that her family is planning a European trip for this summer.
James Cotton has been working with Jay Stallworth on a short film project James started writing when he was in film school. It’s in “post” at the moment, but he hopes it will be completed before March. James is also working as technical director for the community theatre in Albemarle on a production of To Kill a Mockingbird.
Kevin Hoffman and I have exchanged emails and phone calls a couple of times this fall. He works in the oil and gas industry in the Houston area after working for the Houston Opera and the Acting Company. This fall, he ran for a seat on the Board of Trustees of the Houston Community College, but he was not elected.
Laura Lupton emails that she is enjoying spending time with her husband, Dan, and their 2 1/2 year old son, while working part time as a family practice physician in Charlotte. She says that she hasn’t done in any theatre for several years but is (at least currently) content to be an audience member.
I saw Phoebe Hall at NCTC this fall when she was the official host for the fall “Gathering” at Fayetteville State, where Phoebe is Director of Theatre. She keeps very busy directing productions on campus and working at the Cape Fear Regional Theatre. She says that Al Wiggins is doing much better but may need some additional surgery before he is considered “fully” recovered.
Sarah Moses recently sent me an announcement that her web site was (finally) up and running at
Beth (Thomas) Gurski writes that she and Rev are hoping that they will be able to give up their “day” jobs and focus completely on their business of Rev’s Armour Werx. She says that this has been a very busy year working “day” jobs while building stock up and spending a lot of time manning their booth at renaissance and medieval faires.
Ken Stikeleather writes how it’s hard to believe that he’s been in New York for 7 years. He is Director of Operations for Micato Safaris
Lynn (Bogan) Thurmond and her husband, Dean, have been doing a fair amount of traveling this year and Dean is thinking about retiring. Lynn, of the other hand, suggests that she just might end up taking enough courses to get a degree in philosophy.
Christopher D. (Chris) Zink writes to tell me that the production of The Exonerated which he directed last fall toured to several cities in North Carolina (including Asheville, but I couldn’t get to see it). He also says that he is currently serving as Chair of the Catawba Faculty Senate. That makes at least two of us serving in that sort of role. He notes that, like me, he spends a lot of time dealing with email from faculty and administrators. He also says that he has some contact with Connie Silver, who is working in the Asheville area and says that she is “keeping busy.” He would like to have a chance to “catch up” with other alums in the Asheville area, especially David and Marie Gaddy, when he visits family in the Asheville area. Chris can be reached at: cdzink@carolina.rr.com
“Doc” Loeffler sent me the following in his usual “after the holidays” report. So this info is from him ...
Mary Blevins writes that she is contemplating retirement, but she is currently working with some folks from Brazil in helping with the American publication of a book on international aspects of juvenile penal systems.
Jimmy Smith is with American Express and hoping to win the lottery!
Janus Yates Barton tells Doc that she’d like to see him “on the boards” again. (Doc doesn’t sound too convinced, although from what I hear he gets in a certain amount of acting as a “sample patient” for the medical school. RSB).
Bobby Funk has been busy directing Sister Mary Ignatious Explains It All to You and An Actor’s Nightmare at East Tennessee State. He is teaching a Basics of Fight Choreography course this spring.
James Burke (Jim) Wood came back to WNC (and WCU) last October for his 40th high school reunion. Doc notes that Jim said he thought the Niggli Theatre renovations looked pretty good. (I’m not exactly sure when Jim was on campus, but I know it was when I wasn’t around because he left me his card. I wish I’d been able to talk with him for a bit. RSB)
Doc passes along greetings from Jeannie Laffoday, Allen H. Freeman, Jr., Kevin Hoffman, J.C. Alexander, James Epperson and several others.
Doc says that Pandora Bell has returned to the US and is planning some traveling with friends.
Steve Fryar is still doing the “corporate Roadie thing” and, apparently, enjoying it. He says he has even done some “Bush gigs for Whitehouse Communications.” As he says, “Go figure.”
Apparently Pam Boylan Hill has had a bit of a rough year dealing with health related issues. Her daughter, Nichole, is in first grade and doing well.
Michael Jones (Dr. Michael Douglas Jones) and his company, Companion Star, have been working on a performance development project called For the Living and the Dead which they hope to complete and debut this spring. You can check out this project (and more) at
Glenda Hensley has been keeping her hand in Theatre Education stuff with a couple of courses she and Claire Eye cooked up for Western focusing on developing and producing an original script in a collaborative effort between Western students and students in the Cherokee school. Glenda presented a discussion about the group’s first production, Dogwood’s Search, at the American Alliance for Theatre Education Conference in Vancouver, BC, Canada last summer, combining this trip with a bit of vacation with her husband, Luther Jones.
Sonja Beckham Weiner has completed her Master of Library Science degree from ECU and now is working in library media at Baucom Year Round Elementary.
Donald “Doc” Loeffler keeps so busy it would take several pages to start to list it all. When he wrote to me, he was working on a “Lunch and Learn” presentation about Noel Coward for the University of South Florida. He also serves as a “patient” for the USF medical school and volunteers for a number of organizations in various capacities.
Some Random Thoughts by RSB
It’s the Martin Luther King weekend as I’m starting this, so the Christmas/New Year’s holidays are over and school is back in session (for about a week now). We got threatened by a pretty bad looking storm last Wednesday night/Thursday morning, but, while it caused Western to cancel 8 o’clock classes and shorten 9:30s that Thursday (the first time I can ever remember that happening!), by the time I had to leave Cullowhee to go to an all day meeting in Chapel Hill on Friday about 11:30, the roads were wet and sloppy and there was some drizzle, but it wasn’t bad except on the sheltered mountain side roads. We are finally having some cold weather and getting some precipitation to help us deal with the recent drought. The water table is still down but getting better. I hope none of you have had major problems with too little (or too much) water.
Things don’t seem to change a lot in Cullowhee, although there remains a lot of construction on campus with the renovation of Stillwell nearly, but not completely, done and work going on in Forsyth, on the new Rec. Center, and on the new dining facility (which will replace Dotson). I’m not sure about the exact status of the replacement for Helder Dorm, but that’s in the works as well. Still, classes, productions, various student activities, etc. all progress pretty much as they always have.
As Chair of the Faculty, I’ve been dealing with Strategic Planning, implementation of the SACS-mandated Quality Enhancement Plan, and a bunch of other stuff. Now, we also have to start to look at how the campus will respond to President Bowles’ UNC-Tomorrow Commission report on the future of the UNC System. All in all, I’m keeping pretty busy (but probably not out of trouble). I’ve enjoyed my 2-year term as Chair of the Faculty and I plan to run again. I have had quite a lot of encouragement from a lot of folks who seem to think I’m doing a good job. (Go figure!)
There are a number of things (see above) which I would like to see through to greater completion, but there will still be stuff “hanging fire” at the end of a second term, should I be elected again. It’s true, though, that I’m only now beginning to feel that I know enough to be making any sort of real difference. On the other hand, I often feel really “out of the loop” as far as most departmental activities (especially productions) are concerned and it’s much harder to have much of a relationship with a lot of students, except in class, which isn’t quite the same (or as satisfying) as working together on productions. I like to think that the work I’m doing in this role is of some value, but it’s hard to be sure. The job has given me a new and better understanding of the campus (and system) political process, though, which has been very interesting. And I think it has given me a much broader perspective on the university.
I hope you will keep in touch. I don’t always respond as quickly as I might, but, especially as I get older, I do think of the many folks I have known over the years with some frequency and I do like to hear what’s going on with you. It’s always good to hear from you. Come see us if you can! Even if I don’t have time to see you myself, the department is always glad to see former students and to show them around. Come see us when you can and write when there’s news. I love to know how you are doing.
Best Wishes for the New Year,
Dr. B