Producing “Pirates”: The Story Behind the Show

Posted by  on Tuesday, January 25th 2011     

MillerJThis coming weekend, Gordon’s departments of music and theatre arts will produce one of their biggest shows in recent history, “Pirates of Penzance.” The cast alone includes over 45 students—all of whom came back early from Christmas break to rehearse—but the story of its production, from creating costumes to building the set in the chapel, has particularly inspired the show’s (acting) director, JEFFREY S. MILLER, professor and chair of theatre arts. Here are his thoughts:

“Since about January 10, a substantial number of backstage crewmembers have been laboring many many hours a day (often 10 to 12) to produce the significant scenic elements and massive numbers of costumes that the show require.  I wish people could have seen this shop in action.  It was akin to a summer stock factory!  Senior Amy Laing has been the student coordinating the costume crew and her help must number somewhere around 8 to 12.  These are students who voluntarily came back to school to build costumes for the show – large numbers of them.  The women in the show each have two costumes, a dress and night dress.  Many of the pirates double as police.  So the total is well over 100 costumes.

And that doesn’t even take into account the people, under the supervision of student Nathaniel Punches (and our department technical leader, Dawn Sarrouf), who have been building and painting the set, the scenic drop and creating/gathering props.  All of this must be built, moved over to the chapel, installed (no one has seen a design in that space that comes close to what staff member and Gordon alumna Amber Primm has created – it will surprise!), coordinated, run and then dismantled by next Sunday at 7 PM.  Nor does it account for the dinners that needed to be planned (with a goodly amount of food special needs), prepared and served before the food service opened on Jan 18.

 It has been a massive undertaking.

I know that I have never seen so many students work so hard for the love of learning and serving each other and their prospective audience in a creative artistic project, using their gifts joyfully and collaboratively, on our campus.  It’s absolutely remarkable.  And their example has moved me deeply. It builds my hope in for the future of the arts at Gordon.”

category: Theatre arts

Moral Reasoning in Sport

Posted by  on Thursday, January 20th 2011     

Gin_Valerie_2008_11_21_02_48_46Aren’t athletics supposed to build character? The answer might be a bit more complex than most would assume. This past summer Valerie Gin, professor of recreation and leisure studies, presented her work on moral reasoning in sport at a conference hosted by Neumann University’s Institute for Sport, Spirituality and Character Development. In line with other studies on the topic, Gin found that the moral reasoning of college athletes actually decreases over time, even at faith-based institutions. This decline may be due in part to the tension between sport world values and faith world values. At the conference, Gin presented her research on the positive effects of personal narratives and group discussions on the moral reasoning of college athletes. With a small pilot group, Gin had seen the value of storytelling as a means of reducing this moral tension, helping athletes to reflect upon the role and place of morality in their respective sports.   Athletics can indeed build character, but without intentional measures to help athletes process and re-frame their experiences, the opposite is often true.

To join the dialogue on integrity in sports, visit Professor Gin’s website wired4sport.

It’s the Year of Chemistry!

Posted by  on Thursday, January 13th 2011     

photoThe United Nations has adopted a resolution proclaiming 2011 as the International Year of Chemistry (IYC). At the end of January, Irv Levy, professor of chemistry and computer science, will attend the International Launch of the IYC at UNESCO World Headquarters in Paris.  This two day event will feature speakers from more than a dozen nations addressing the UN’s resolution, which calls for national  and international efforts to emphasize the  importance of chemistry for sustainable development in all aspects of  human life. Among the program’s speakers are a Nobel laureate, directors of research corporations, governmental administrators, scientists, educators, historians, and the granddaughter of Marie Curie. Beginning with the International Launch, the IYC will focus upon four goals throughout 2011:

* Increasing public appreciation of chemistry in meeting world needs

* Encouraging an interest in chemistry among young people

* Generating enthusiasm for the creative future of Chemistry

* Celebrating the achievements of Marie Curie and the contributions of women to chemistry

 

Merry Ornaments!

Posted by  on Wednesday, December 22nd 2010     

DSC05022 David Lee, professor of physics and pre-engineering (pictured here with some of his students’ festive works), inspired much merriment before the holidays with the 4th Annual Geekiest Ornament contest.

Students in his Introduction to Engineering class demonstrated their ornaments by hanging them up (or not) and turning them on (if applicable). Criteria for the contest entries were that they must: Fit inside a 6 x 6-inch box; Weigh less than 1 kg.; If using a power source or projectile, must not be dangerous; Be actually hangable on a Christmas tree.

None met the criteria though the efforts were more than creative.

“While designing within stated limits is an engineering maxim, strict adherence to the rules wasn’t the point this time,” said Lee. “This was intended as a fun way for first year engineering students to mark the end of the semester and the beginning of Christmas break.”

Read more here.

Painting for Character . . . and the Next Generation

Posted by  on Thursday, December 16th 2010     

DSC05079Last Tuesday, December 14, Tanja Butler, professor of art and painting, took her 13 students from Painting 1 to Harrington Elementary school in Lynn. Their final ‘exam’? To see their work displayed in the foyer of the school. Six Pillars of Character were the result of ongoing collaborations with the school, Gordon in Lynn partnerships, and other Gordon professors and classes. Writes Butler on the process: “I’ve been working with Jean Sbarra-Jones, our adjunct design professor, and Tim Ferguson-Sauder, creative director at Gordon and adjunct professor, to create banners and paintings for the Harrington Elementary School entrance hall. The pieces are designed to reinforce the character-building themes built into the school curriculum, and to add color, warmth, and energy to the entrance area.

My painting students worked with Jean’s communication arts department design students to develop the painting subjects and designs. The designs were then painted by the Painting I students, critiqued for further design development by the comm design students, and were completed by the painting class (by God’s grace!). Tim Ferguson-Sauder provided text banners to identify the character traits and present the school slogan.

DSC05051Along with Val Buchanan of Gordon In Lynn and Gordon’s Center for Community Engagement, we installed the paintings on Friday and had the official unveiling on Tuesday with our students and members of the Harrington community. We’re so grateful that the Harrington School has said, ‘our walls are open; use your gifts to invest in the next generation.’”

Verbal Oddities in Revelation

Posted by  on Tuesday, December 14th 2010     

Mathewson_DaveDavid L. Mathewson, associate professor of Biblical studies, recently published his work on Greek verb tenses in “Revelation.” The book, entitled Verbal Aspect in the Book of Revelation: The Function of Greek Verb Tenses in John’s Apocalypse, is the fourth volume in Brill’s Linguistic Biblical Studies series. Below, a summary of Mathewson’s volume is followed by a description of the series from the publisher:

“The book of Revelation is well-known for its grammatical infelicities. More specifically, Revelation exhibits apparently ‘odd’ use of Greek verb tenses. Most attemtps to describe this ‘odd’ use of verb tenses start with the assumption that Greek verb tenses are primarily temporal in meaning. In order to explain Revelation’s apparent violation of these temporal values, scholars have proposed some level of semitic influence from the Hebrew tense system as making sense of this ‘odd’ use of tenses. However, recent research into verbal aspect, which calls into question this temporal orientation, and suggests that Greek verb tenses grammaticalize aspect and not time, has opened up new avenues for explaining the Greek verb tense usage in Revelation. This book applies verbal aspect theory to tense usage in Revelation and focuses on how the tenses, as communicating verbal aspect, function within sections of Revelation.”

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Snow Dreams, Dusty Feet: Reflections for Advent

Posted by  on Thursday, December 9th 2010     

arlyene004Provost Mark Sargent offers a personal and stirring reflection here for the Christmas season. (Photo: Arlyne Van Dam Sargent on Christmas Day 1986, in Apeldoorn, The Netherlands.)

Growing up in Southern California, I never dreamt of a white Christmas.  The best we could hope for was fog.  Every few years an early morning cloud layer would seep inland from the coast on Christmas, bringing a small dose of Dickens into suburban Los Angeles.  As children, we were even happy for the rain, especially when it flooded the street gutters and allowed us to race the small homemade boats that we occasionally got as gifts.

Only a fraction—usually about eight percent—of the world’s people will see the snow fall on Christmas.  More often, the holiday is celebrated under balmy skies.   Lights are strung over banyan trees in Thailand and along palm-bordered marinas in Singapore.  Papai Noel—or Father Christmas—wears silk to survive the Brazilian sun.  For many African families living on the Indian Sea, a white Christmas is a barbeque on the bleached sands of Diani or the Seychelles.

Jesus, for all we know, was born on a sultry night.  Many scholars place the birth in late spring or summer, when an evening on the West Bank would be warm enough for shepherds to watch all night in their fields.  Even in December, Bethlehem nights are cool but still temperate, perhaps even slightly humid.

I thought of the Christmas sun recently when watching Catherine Hardwicke’s film The Nativity Story.

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Considerations for Economic Recovery

Posted by  on Tuesday, December 7th 2010     

Bruce Webb, professor of business and economics, discusses the national recession as it relates to GDP and unemployment.

Bringing Grace to the Stage

Posted by  on Thursday, December 2nd 2010     

photo.cfmAfter researching scores of letters, biographies and works by Nathaniel Hawthorne to create his one man show as Hawthorne himself, Norm Jones, associate professor of theatre arts, has now taken on John Newton. Newton, the one time slave trader whose Christian conversion led him to pen the famous hymn, “Amazing Grace”, has given Jones plenty to work with for a dramatic re-telling of his life. Tomorrow, December 3, in Gordon’s convocation, Jones and a cast of student actors will present a dramatic dialogue on the life of Newton.

Reinterpreting Gadamer

Posted by  on Tuesday, November 30th 2010     

Gadamer's Dialectical HermeneuticsLauren Swayne Barthold, associate professor of philosophy, recently published her work on the German philosopher Hans-Georg Gadamer, entitled Gadamer’s Dialectical Hermeneutics. The publisher, Lexington Press, describes the unique value of Barthold’s work as follows:

“Gadamer’s Dialectical Hermeneutics contributes to the growing literature that takes seriously the significance of Plato for Gadamer’s hermeneutics. What distinguishes this book is the way in which Lauren Swayne Barthold argues for a dialectic central to Gadamer’s hermeneutics, one that recalls the Platonic chorismos, or separation, between the transcendent and sensory realms. Barthold demonstrates that Gadamer, too, insisted on the ‘in-between’ nature of human understanding as characterized by Hermes: we are finite beings always striving for infinity—that which lies beyond being.

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