SHSU
Update For Week Of Jan. 7
Theatre Makes Another ‘Grand’
Statement
“Grand Canyon,” the SHSU theatre department’s
entry in the Kennedy Center American College Theatre Festival,
will participate in the week-long Region VI festival Feb.
28 through March 4 after advancing from the video-tape round
of the state festival.
The play was one of seven plays from colleges in Texas, Arkansas,
Oklahoma, Louisiana and New Mexico chosen to travel to Tulsa,
Okla., for the regional competition, and if it advances out
of the regional festival, it may be invited to perform at
the Kennedy Center this spring.
Among the accolades “Grand Canyon” received was
the KCACTF David Mark Cohen Playwriting Award, awarded to
only two regional finalists, according to theatre manager
Kandice Harris.
As part of the award, the winning playwright, senior theatre
major Scott McCarrey, will receive $1,000, membership in the
Dramatists Guild, an invitation to present a staged reading
of the play at the National Association of Theater in Higher
Education conference in August and may have his play published
by Dramatic Publishing Company.
“Grand Canyon” was workshopped as part of the
SHSU theatre department’s Summer Repertory Theatre offerings
in the summer 2006 and became a full-scale production performed
in the Showcase Theatre on August 24-26.
The play received numerous awards in October when performed
at the KCACTF’s Region IV Texas I Festival at San Jacinto
College South in Houston, including the “Director’s
Choice,” “Excellence in Supporting Original Works,”
and excellence in directing, playwriting, costume design,
set and light design and make-up design awards.
The video-tape round is judged by KCACTF regional chairs and
vice chairs, Harris said. Before the play can advance to the
Kennedy Center, it must be selected to the video-tape round
of the Region VI festival.
Back to top
Support Group To Be Offered
For Disabled Students
The SHSU Services for Students with Disabilities is seeking
interested students to participate in a support group during
the spring semester for those with any and all types of disabilities.
Kelley Osborn, Disability Services Coordinator and licensed
professional counselor, will serve as group facilitator.
“The purpose of the group will be to provide students
with a confidential and supportive environment in which to
explore the unique challenges of living with a disability,”
said Osborn, who himself lives with a disability in the form
of a visual disorder that causes blind spots in his central
vision.
“Many students who have participated in such groups
have described the experience as both reassuring and empowering,”
he said.
Some of the issues that will be addressed during the support
group include what it means to have a disability; how disabilities
impact social relationships, schoolwork and job prospects;
how the experiences of other students with disabilities differ
or are similar; skills for coping with disabilities; and how
to be a better advocate oneself.
The group is tentatively scheduled to begin meeting in February
and will meet on a weekly basis for approximately one hour.
The day, time and location of meetings will depend on the
numbers of interested students and their schedules.
For more information, call Osborn at 936.294.1720.
Back to top
Geography Prof’s
Research Gets Attention
Donald Albert, associate professor in geography at Sam Houston
State University, was looking at ways to a healthier lifestyle
about five years ago and as a result has become a celebrity
of sorts with those who espouse naturopathic medicine.
"It's getting a whole lot of attention," Albert
said of his research on geographic aspects of the field. "I
can't believe it."
Albert was contacted recently by Jacob Schor, a practicing
Denver naturopathic physician who is using several of Albert's
10 publications in an effort to convince the Colorado Legislature
that the licensing of naturopathic physicians should be approved
there.
Another key state in the effort to increase licensing, and
thus the field's credibility, is New York.
Albert's figures show that about 20 jurisdictions in the U.
S. and Canada now license naturopathic physicians, and in
five years (2001-2006) the numbers of such practitioners have
increased from 2,100 to more than 4,000.
He said his research indicates that there are more naturopathic
physicians in New York and Colorado than any other states,
which do not have licensing.
"To me that means there is an unmet need in those states,"
he said.
Albert also received a recent phone call from William J. Keppler,
president of the National College of Natural Medicine in Portland,
Ore.
Albert said Keppler was amazed that a geographer was interested
in naturopathic issues and offered his support for future
research.
He is currently using traditional as well as natural medical
remedies for his personal needs but believes that naturopathic
medicine is a field that should not be ignored.
Back to top
Professor Receives Kaplan
Award
Brian Herrington, a composer and music theory professor
in the School of Music, was recently awarded the Leo Kaplan
Award from the American Society of Composers, Authors and
Publishers.
Herrington received the award during the group’s 7th
Annual Concert Music Awards held at Lincoln Center's Walter
Reade Theater in New York City, he said.
“It's the highest award given to an American composer
under the age of 30,” Herrington said.
He was selected from more than 550 entries to receive the
Morton Gould Young Composer Award, and from those approximately
30 recipients, his was judged to be the top score.
As the Leo Kaplan Award winner, he earned a $2,500 cash prize,
a plaque, a medal and an upgraded version of composition software
for his computer.
Established in 1979, the ASCAP Foundation Young Composer Awards
program grants cash prizes to young concert music composers
up to 30 years of age whose works are selected through a juried
national competition.
The award-winning composers share prizes of approximately
$40,000, including the Leo Kaplan Award, according to the
ASCAP Web site.
Back to top
Marine Corp Band Features
Professor’s Work
The United States Marine Band recently presented the work
of an SHSU music professor.
Henry Howey’s adaptation for modern band of Amilcare
Ponchielli's “Variazioni Sopra Carnevale Di Venezi”
will be performed by the band on Sunday (Jan. 7) at George
Mason University, located in suburban Washington, D.C.
“One of the pieces associated with my research will
receive its first documented performance since 1872 (in the
Piazza Cavour—today Piazza Stradivari—in Ponchielli's
hometown of Cremona, Italy),” Howey said.
The Jan. 7 concert will have one major change in its presentation,
as Lt. Col. Michael Colburn, leader of the United States Marine
Band, will not perform the solo part for the bells that Ponchielli
himself played from a keyboard, according to Howey.
“Ponchielli was an organist and played a set of bells
attached to a keyboard in the performance,” he said.
“If the score and first performance dates can be believed,
Ponchielli's soloists had less than two weeks to prepare their
parts whose difficulty exceeds any others for this favorite
Neapolitan song of the 19th century.”
The bulk of the concert will feature works by John Philip
Sousa, whose earliest musical influences were shaped by the
many Italian members of the Marine Band when Sousa was an
apprentice musician.
Back to top
Student Earns Spot
On National Committee
The president of SHSU’s student chapter of the Student
Council for Exceptional Children was recently named to the
Council for Exceptional Children’s Student Standing
Committee.
James Williams was appointed to the competitively-awarded
position for the national organization for a two-year term,
from Jan. 1, 2007, to Dec. 31, 2008.
Williams was selected from many college students from around
the country to represent his fellow students and colleagues
in the education profession on a national level.
His goals for his term are to fully represent his profession
and those with disabilities, as he, himself, has a high functioning
autistic disorder called Asperger's Syndrome, as well as promote
Sam Houston State University and its programs on a national
level, Williams said.
The goal of the CEC Student Standing Committee is to recommend
individuals who will, when part of the group, provide diversity
as well as balance with respect to demographic representation,
undergraduate and graduate student representation.
It also provides volunteer and professional experiences with
CEC and other organizations that serve individuals with disabilities,
leadership abilities, and those who have a strong vision for
their role on the committee and how the committee can better
serve CEC student members now and in the future, according
to student standing committee chair Cynthia Chambers, from
the University of Kansas.
For more information on the council, visit www.cec.sped.org.
Back to top
Send Update Items Here
Please send information for the SHSU Update to the Office
of Public Relations at SHSU. For electronic access to SHSU
news see the public relations Web page Today@Sam.
Back to top
- END -
SHSU Media Contacts: Frank
Krystyniak, Julia May,
Jennifer Gauntt
Jan. 7, 2007
Please send comments, corrections, news tips to Today@Sam.edu
|
