The Bard: A Reader’s Digest Version
By Amanda Harrison ’12
Shakespearean actor and author Tim Mooney will bring his one-man show Lot ’o Shakespeare to Keuka College Wednesday, April 25.
The next offering in the Spotlight Series, the show begins at 7:30 p.m. in the Red Barn Theater and is free and open to the public.
Mooney will perform a single monologue from each Shakespeare play, with the order determined by chance.
Lot ’o Shakespeare “takes highbrow art and mixes it with lowbrow fun,” said Matthew J. Palm of the Orlando Sentinel. “Mooney is an engaging presence and can switch from indignation in Comedy of Errors, to earnest in a love sonnet, to comical Malvolio in Twelfth Night. He may not be as physically imposing as some actors to play Henry V, but his St. Crispen’s Day speech made me want to take up arms with him.”
Chaim Eliyahu of KCStage.com called Lot o’ Shakespeare “a tour de force comprising no fewer than 19 Shakespeare scenes and sonnets. Mooney’s interpretations were outstanding, and not infrequently cast new light on obscure corners of Shakespeare’s work.”
Mooney has also garnered rave reviews for Moliere Than Thou, another one-man show. He is the author of an acting textbook titled Acting at the Speed of Life; Conquering Theatrical Style.
Keuka Theatre Prof Gives Back
Over his many years in theatrical directing, Mark Wenderlich has some experience in taking on new roles.
His latest – as the new executive director of Habitat for Humanity of Ontario County – adds another dimension to a career of service in a variety of “hands-on” positions.
According to Wenderlich, he first got involved with Habitat about 16 years ago, volunteering to build one of the organization’s homes. The organization’s ability to meet tangible needs in a concrete way appealed to him, he said.
“I was looking for a way to give back and doing something with my hands was appealing to me,” he said.
When he got to the house, he was put to work putting a lock on a door, and by day’s end, he was helping to finish the roof.
Then about six months ago, the Canandaigua resident noticed the old racquetball club property on County Road 10 had been revived as something called the “ReStore.” Curious, he stopped in and found new and gently used appliances, furniture and other home goods selling at prices 50-70% below retail in a building staffed primarily by volunteers. The organization running the venture? Habitat for Humanity.
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How Did Walt Bates Die?
Jessamine Qualman (l) in a scene with Mackenzie Ellis.
Keuka College’s fall theater production will be Lanford Wilson’s mystery Book of Days.
The play will be staged Oct. 27-30 in the College’s Red Barn Theatre. The Oct. 27 performance will benefit the cast members’ trip to the Kennedy Center American College Theatre Festival in January.
“It’s a revisit of small-town mid-America with conservative ethics in a crucial life-threatening situation,” said Mark Wenderlich, professor of theatre and director of the production. “It deals with not only black and white, but a lot of shades of gray of truth and how people see things.”
The story revolves around Dublin, a quiet Missouri town with more churches than bars, and a cheese factory at the center of commerce.
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Designing ‘Til Her Hands Fall Off
While finishing up part of the set design for the Keuka College spring play last semester, Danica Zielinski broke her hand.
The then-freshman pushed ahead, however, eager to finish her set work and fulfill duties as assistant stage manager for Rabbit, Nina Raine’s dark comedy, staged at the Barn, Keuka’s theatrical performance space.
“I have arthritis and was doing splatter-painting when I heard a crack. But I kept going until I finished and went to the doctor after the set was done. It hurt, and sure enough, I was in a brace for about two months,” Zielinski recalled.
Perhaps that sacrifice made news that her set design won a merit award, from the Kennedy Center American College Theater (KCACT) Region II festival competition, all the more sweet.
“I was ecstatic,” said the Congers resident.
Red accents enhanced the black themes in Zielinski's set design for Nina Raine's dark comedy, "Rabbit."
“She’d never designed a set before, which makes it remarkable she received that [award] on her first design,” professor of theatre Mark Wenderlich said, adding that Zielinski auditioned for an acting role as a first-semester freshman and he didn’t pick up on her design talents until he observed her drawing during rehearsals. (more…)
Plenty of Options for Multi-Talented Senior
Editor’s Note: This is the 7th in a series of stories saluting members of the Class of 2011. We asked division chairs for story ideas and they in turn contacted faculty members for ideas. We believe they came up with some terrific profiles.
If all the world’s a stage, Amber Smith has three she is intently looking into as she considers the next chapter of her life: hip-hop dance, acting or maybe owning her own business.
The Canandaigua resident will graduate Sunday with a bachelor’s degree in management from Keuka College, but has invested plenty of time acting in campus plays, serving as president of the Arion Players (drama club), and fine-tuning leadership skills in the business and management program.
Immediately following graduation, Smith plans to seek a full-time job and work on a master’s degree in management through Keuka’s Accelerated Studies for Adults Program (ASAP), which enables adults to earn degrees in 18 months or less attending night classes once a week.
“I’m currently looking at Cornell Cooperative and attempting to do something through 4-H,” Smith said, noting she did marketing work for a local 4-H camp for one of her Field Periods. At Keuka, each student is required to complete a 140-hour hands-on internship – known as the Field Period – each year. Smith has also conducted Field Periods in China at one of Keuka’s sister schools, in human resources at F.F. Thompson Hospital in Canandaigua, and in marketing assistance at non-profit Sonnenberg Gardens & Mansion State Historic Park in Canandaigua.
Should she pursue a career in the corporate world, Smith is not likely one to be intimidated by public presentations or pulling projects together under a deadline. That’s because Smith has held a number of acting roles in her four years at Keuka in addition to coordinating events such as an all-arts or improv night, said Mark Wenderlich, associate professor of theatre. (more…)
Where Have All the Cowboys – er, men- Gone?
If Newton’s third law of physics states that every action requires an opposite and equal reaction, then Jennie Joiner would like to see that applied to emerging trends in the state of manhood.
“If we’ve redefined feminism, we need to redefine [masculinity],” says Joiner, assistant professor of English at Keuka. “We’re in an interesting space culturally, where no one wants to step up and do that – it makes everyone uncomfortable.”
As such, a Thursday talk Joiner will present, “Lifting the Fig Leaf to Reveal Hidden Masculinities,” will explore contemporary notions of masculinity in the figurative cowboy as depicted in the novel True Grit and its two film versions. Joiner’s talk will also include a scene from the recent Keuka production of Rabbit by Nina Raine and a discussion of the themes of that play. Her presentation starts at 4:15 p.m. in Hegeman 109.
The cowboy – a specifically American icon – has always embodied the conflicting issues seen in manhood, she said. However, there’s a difference between the 1968 cowboy depicted by John Wayne and the 2010 cowboy depicted by Jeff Bridges in the Coen brothers recent Western remake, Joiner said, one that speaks to an apparent reluctance on the part of men these days to embrace a fully defined role.
Born Yesterday Opens Oct. 28
Born Yesterday, a comedy by Rochester native Garson Kanin, will be the fall theatre production at Keuka College.
The play will be staged Thursday–Saturday, Oct. 28-30, at 8 p.m. and Sunday, Oct. 31 at 7 p.m. in the Red Barn Theatre. The Oct. 28 performance will benefit the cast members’ trip to the Kennedy Center American College Theatre Festival in January.
First featured in the Lyceum Theatre on Broadway, Born Yesterday was made into a movie in 1950 with actress Judy Holliday, who received a best-actress Oscar for her performance. The Keuka production is directed by Associate Professor of Theatre Mark Wenderlich, who also serves as lighting designer.
Born Yesterday is one of America’s original screwball comedies. Harry Brock, a business tycoon, goes to Washington, D.C. trying to break into the “special interest” business with an ethically-challenged senator. Brock realizes his fiancée, Billie Dawn, may need a makeover to fit his new inside-the-beltway image. To ensure that Billie gets properly “culturefied,” Brock hires a D.C. journalist to give the seemingly dim-witted blonde a crash course in politics, history, literature, and—of course—true love.
Members of the cast include Logan Ackerley (Paul Verrall), a freshman political science/history major from Liberty; Caleigh Alterio (manicurist/bellhop), a freshman occupational science major from Akron; Patrick Caughill (Harry Brock), a senior English major from Buffalo; Ross Gleason (Ed Devery), a freshman management major from Chester, Vt.; Jessica Gonzalez (Helen), a sophomore English and psychology major from Hudson; Greg Griffing (Senator Norval Hedges), a freshman adolescent English education major from Riverhead; Sierra Lynch (bootblack bellhop), a freshman criminology/criminal justice major from Watervliet; Billie Risboskin (bellhop), a freshman occupational science major from Waverly; Amber Smith (Billie Dawn), a senior management major from Canandaigua; Matthew Snyder (Eddie Brock), a sophomore adolescent English and mathematics education major from Potsdam; Jenny Tammera (barber/bellhop), a freshman adolescent English/special education major from Belvidere, N.J.; Carolyn Thompson (assistant manager), a senior political science/history major from New York; Danica Zielinski (Anna Hedges), a freshman American Sign Language-English interpreting major from Congers; and Winsome Zinkievic (waitress), a freshman unified childhood/special education major from East Meredith.
Costumes for the performance are designed by Jerry D. Allen, who serves as chairman of the theatre department at Lycoming College. P. Gibson Ralph, set designer, is an associate professor of theatre at SUNY Brockport, while Dan Roach, sound designer, is also working with the Eastman Opera production of Inherit the Wind.
Kelsey Marquart, a junior English major from Auburn, serves as stage manager and Julia Foster, a sophomore management major from Penn Yan, serves as box office manager.
Tickets are $4 for members of the Keuka community and $7 for the general public. All seats for the Oct. 28 performance are $7, and are available online at: http://www.instantseats.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=search.results&search=keuka&x=37&y=8.
Murder and Monetary Strife
A series of three staged readings, featuring Keuka College faculty and students, and members of the local community, will be performed this month and next in the Red Barn Theatre.
Lanford Wilson’s murder mystery Book of Days is scheduled for Wednesday, March 10 at 7 p.m. The story focuses on Ruth Hoch, who begins her own quest to find truth and honesty amid small town jealousies, religion, greed and lies as murder grips a small Missouri town.
Declares Variety magazine: “… An intriguing, prismatic and thoroughly engrossing depiction of contemporary small-town life with a murder mystery at its core… a splendid evening of theater.”
Next up is Shakespeare’s Hamlet on Friday, March 19 at 7 p.m.
Joan Holden’s Nickel and Dimed, based on the book by Barbara Ehrenreich, is the final selection, which will be read Friday, April 30 at 7 p.m.
Main character Barbara is prepared for hard work but not, at 55, for double shifts and non-stop aches and pains; for having to share tiny rooms; live on fast food because she has no place to cook; beg from food pantries; gulp handfuls of Ibuprofen because she can’t afford a doctor; for failing, after all that, to make ends meet; or for constantly having to swallow humiliation. Fellow minimum wage workers Gail, Carlie, Pete and Holly humble Barbara with their courage.
“Penetrating clarity and sharp, illuminating humor… succeeds beautifully in creating the wearying reality of dead-end jobs and the people trapped in them,” proclaims the San Francisco Chronicle.
According to Time magazine: “A rare example of theater that tries to open people’s eyes to the way life is lived in the real world—and maybe even rouse them to action.”
Auditions to be Held for Keuka College’s Spring Theatre Production ‘Book of Days’
Keuka College’s spring theatre production will be Lanford Wilson’s mystery Book of Days.
Auditions for the play will be Tuesday, Feb. 16 from 4-6 p.m. at the Red Barn Theatre on the Keuka campus. There are roles for seven men and five women ranging in age from 20 to 65 and members of the community are encouraged to audition.
The play will be staged April 16-18.
Reincarnation
Miss Witherspoon, a dark comedy by Christopher Durang, will be the spring theatrical production at Keuka College.
The play will be staged Thursday – Saturday, April 16-18 at 8 p.m., and Sunday, April 19 at 7 p.m. in the Red Barn Theatre. A benefit performance will be Thursday, April 16 to help students attend the Kennedy Center American College Theatre Festival. Billsboro Winery will offer a free wine tasting the night of the benefit performance.
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