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Horne on Zimbabwe Gregory and Ruffin on McCain |
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Borne on the bayou |
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Theatre and Dance bragging points |
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Discovery
Powell and Rothman and the Barber in Modern Jewish Culture |
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Feature
Renu Khator, Chancellor of the University of Houston System and President of the University of Houston, has shown up on the airwaves in recent weeks promoting the UH System and UH and talking about her plans for the University. Last month, C-SPAN’s Brian Lamb conducted an uninterrupted, hour-long interview with the Chancellor/President during which they touched on a wide range of topics, including her first meeting with her future husband, Suresh; how she watched sit-coms to help hone her English; her ideas on how the University can position itself as one of the nation’s top public research universities; and how our nation’s colleges and universities can prepare their students to participate successfully in the global marketplace. Watch the C-SPAN interview (opens in new window). Earlier this month KUHT’s HoustonPBS Presents: A Conversation With . . . featured a half-hour discussion between Channel 8’s Patricia Gras and President Khator, during which she shared some of the challenges she faces and some of the suggestions she received during her first 100 days in office. The program re-airs on July 31 at 9:30 p.m. and on August 7 at 3:30 a.m. Faculty
As of this writing – the second week – of July, the news out of Zimbabwe is pretty ugly. G-8 leaders and heads of seven African nations could not reach agreement about how to deal with six-term president Robert Mugabe and the seemingly endless reports of violence against his opposition. Not to mention the one-candidate runoff election that many world leaders publicly have called a sham. Last month, former South African President Nelson Mandela mourned the “tragic failure of leadership” in Zimbabwe. On June 26, Democracy Now conducted a discussion on Zimbabwe with Gerald Horne, John J. and Rebecca Moores Chair of History and African American Studies and author of From the Barrel of a Gun: The United States and the War Against Zimbabwe, 1965-1980 (2001, University of North Caroline Press, 400 pages), and with Syracuse University Professor Horace Campbell. Horne researches issues of race in a variety of relations involving labor, politics, civil rights, and war. He’s written more than seventeen books and one hundred scholarly articles and reviews. His current research focuses on topics such as the United States, Brazil and slavery; black labor at sea; the Communist Party in Hollywood; and Negro fascism. During the interview, Horne noted that “the fact that thousands were killed in Zimbabwe in the 1980s and yet (Mugabe) received a virtual knighthood from Queen Elizabeth and received an honorary degree from Massachusetts, and yet, today in 2008, he is a subject of international scorn after, of course, he expropriates some white farmers, really speaks of profound racism in terms of how this issue has been covered in the North Atlantic media.” And he added that “we have to be careful when we try to butt in to the internal affairs of a sovereign state. I think our energies would be best served by putting pressure on this government here in Washington and its comical sidekick in London.” Read the transcript and watch the interview on the Democracy Now Web site (opens in new window). Two UH Economics professors endorse McCain's Economic Plan Paul Gregory, the Hugh Roy and Lillie Cranz Cullen Distinguished Chair in Economics and a Hoover Institute Research Fellow and  Roy Ruffin, the M.D. Anderson Distinguished Professor of Economics, are among more than 300 professional economists recently signing a statement in support of the Jobs for America economic plan put forth by Republican presumptive presidential nominee John McCain. Joining Gregory and Ruffin were Nobel Prize winners in Economics (Gary Becker, James Buchanan, Robert Lucas, Robert Mundell and Vernon Smith); former Treasury Secretaries or Under Secretaries (George Shultz, Beryl Sprinkel, and John Taylor); and former Chairs and other Members of the President's Council of Economic Advisers (Michael Boskin, Martin Feldstein, Glenn Hubbard, Paul MacAvoy, Burton Malkiel, Paul McCracken, William Poole, Harvey Rosen, John Taylor and Murray Weidenbaum). Hart wins Meyer Prize
John Mason Hart, John J. and Rebecca Moores Professor of History, won the Michael C. Meyer Prize from the Rocky Mountain Council on Latin American History for his book Empire and Revolution: The Americans in Mexico Since the Civil War (2006, University of California Press, 688 pages), given every five years for the best book published on Mexican history in the preceding five years. Hart is a senior Latin Americanist and one of the most prominent historians of Mexico working in the United States. Mitchell profiled on Ebru TVLynn Mitchell, Clinical Professor and Director of the Religious Studies Program, is the subject of a Portrait feature for Ebru.tv. Click to watch the profile. Hutchison chairs anthropology commission on race and racism
Janis Hutchinson, a Professor in the Department of Anthropology, co-chairs the American Anthropological Association commission to re-evaluate race and racism in the discipline and the association. The commission will collect information to expose how privilege has been maintained in anthropology and the association, including, but not limited to, departments and the academic pipeline. The commission also will develop a comprehensive plan for the association and for the field of anthropology to increase the ethnic, racial, gender and class diversity of the discipline and organization. Hutchinson also is an advisory board member for the association's Race: Are We So Different project, which consists of a museum exhibit that brings together the everyday experience of living with race, its history as an idea, the role of science in that history, and the findings of contemporary science that are challenging its foundations. This exhibit is touring the country and is booked through 2011. Hutchinson is the Chair of the Web site exhibit: understandingrace.org, which provides information and interactive activities dealing with the history and science of race, human variation and the lived experience. This Web site was nominated for a Webby Award. Magsamen and Hillerbrand Force Fields to reckon with
Force Fields explored ideas about the pressures of daily life through playful use of the children’s toy, an inflatable balloon. Magsamen is an Adjunct Professor in the Cynthia Woods Mitchell Center for the Arts and Hillerbrand is an Assistant Professor for the School of Art and the University of Houston Area Coordinator for Photography. Find out more faculty news on the CLASS News and Events page. Students UH Students Explore Houston With Guidance From Center For Land Use InterpretationThis past Spring semester, some of our students looked at three distinct aspects of Houston’s anatomy: Buffalo Bayou, one of the city’s main arteries; oil, the city’s economic lifeblood; and bulk materials such as sand, gravel, stone and cement used to construct its urban body. With guidance and assistance from the Los Angeles-based Center for Land Use Interpretation, students from the Creative Writing Program, the School of Art, and the Gerald D. Hines College of Architecture journeyed out of the classroom and into the heart of Houston to research and document information about these crucial aspects of the city’s identity. “CLUI is showing students how to frame a landscape, then really study it to understand why it’s there and its continued impact on the existing social and physical environment,” said John Reed, Director of the School of Art. “In a sense, the center helps curate the world, and it is helping students learn to do that, too.” Founded in 1994, CLUI’s mission is to understand the nature and extent of human interaction with the Earth’s surface. CLUI also curates land-themed exhibitions and conducts guided bus tours of specific sites around the United States. CLUI’s presence in Houston is made possible by a year-long residency with the Cynthia Woods Mitchell Center for the Arts. Although its members do not describe it as an art collective, the art world has embraced CLUI with features in Artforum magazine and the 2006 Whitney Museum Biennial exhibition. The center’s researchers, including its founder and director Matthew Coolidge and program coordinators Steve Rowell and Erik Knutzen, took students on field trips to a host of local sites. Students visited Glendale Cemetery, Hartman Park, and BP’s Texas City refinery. Students also made regular visits to CLUI’s base of operations, a field office positioned on land owned by the Buffalo Bayou Partnership. “By focusing on the bayou, oil and bulk industries, we’re showing students their own city through three different lenses,” Coolidge explained. “These are three elements that are at the city’s core and have distinct implications on both its physical and economical makeup.” Students led by Mat Johnson, Assistant Professor in the Creative Writing Program, used data collected during the field trips to compose non-fiction essays that reflect the essence and identity of 21st century Houston. “So many cities like New York, New Orleans or Philadelphia have distinct identities. Houston, however, is so diverse and so large that it is hard to narrow down what this city is all about,” Johnson said. “What these students are trying to do is create an identity for Houston in their writings, particularly based on how they are viewing the city through the field trips and this class.” Reed’s art students extended the scope of Houston beyond the three lenses prescribed by CLUI. For the purpose of this class, Reed instructed his students to map creatively their surroundings as a way of producing artworks, incorporating circumstances and conditions specific to Houston. Among the topics mapped were the city’s smells, climbable objects, graffiti and religious abstractions. “Students in my class are looking at their environment, selecting points of interest, recording data and then presenting it. That’s essentially how a map is developed,” Reed explained. Architecture students engaged in a different type of CLUI project. Guided by Patrick Peters, Associate Professor in the Gerald D. Hines College of Architecture, these students contributed designs and concepts for an environmentally friendly, carbon-neutral facility for possible use by CLUI researchers. “The current CLUI field office in Houston is located on a devastated site, but it’s in an amazing area near both residences and industry,” Peters said. “Our focus is to resuscitate this site, so that it serves CLUI and the Buffalo Bayou Partnership. It also would be a place that would showcase sustainable building practices.” In addition to working with students to understand base components of Houston, CLUI researchers are also gathering data on Texas industry and the regional landscape for a major exhibition that will premiere in 2009 at Blaffer Gallery, the Art Museum of the University of Houston and will be offered in collaboration with the Mitchell Center. Also in 2009, the Mitchell Center and CLUI will offer tours, films and other programming open to the public. - Mike Emery
AcademicsSpotlight on Theatre and Dance
Okay, yes, that was a pretty lame headline (and, yes, lame is a sorry pun, but what pun isn’t?); but, it got your attention. A document containing some of this year’s highlights for the School crossed our desk recently, and we thought it would be nice to share it with our Graffit-e readers. Hey, when you’ve done something to be proud of, it doesn’t hurt to tell folks. 
Achievements for 2007-08Alley Theatre Partnership: Professional Theatre Training Program
Recruitment and Retention Initiatives
Marketing Initiatives
Faculty and Staff Additions
Summer Master of Arts Degree for Theatre EducatorsAlumniOne of the world’s top composers is a Cougar!
Christopher Theofanidis (’90 Music), who also holds degrees from the Eastman School of Music and Yale University, just may be one of the leading composers of his generation. Theofanidis, who was born in Dallas in 1967, received the 2004 Masterprize, the Rome Prize, a Guggenheim Fellowship, the Barlow Prize, six ASCAP Gould Prizes, a Fulbright Fellowship to France, a Tanglewood Fellowship, and a Charles Ives Fellowship from the American Academy of Arts and Letters. In April, he received a Distinguished Alumnus Award from the Houston Alumni Organization. His Rainbow Body (which received the Masterprize) is often cited as the most-performed orchestral work by a living American composer during the last ten years, having been performed by more than 70 orchestras. Many of the world’s top orchestras have performed his works, including the Houston Symphony, the National Symphony, the London Symphony, the Oslo Philharmonic, the Orchestre Philharmonique de Monte Carlo, the Moscow Soloists, the California Symphony (for which he was composer-in-residence from 1994 to 1996), the Oregon Symphony, the Brooklyn Philharmonic, and the Pro Arte Chamber Orchestra. Some of his recent projects include a ballet for the American Ballet Theatre, a string orchestral work for the Orpheus Chamber Orchestra, and a work for the Austin Symphony for the inauguration of its new hall in September. Theofanidis served as a delegate to the US-Japan Foundation’s Leadership Program, and was a music faculty member at The Juilliard School. Today, he teaches at The Peabody Conservatory of Music at The Johns Hopkins University. Watch the two-part Supreme Master Television interview with Theofanidis and part of his oratorio The Refuge performed by Houston Grand Opera.
The Lone Star AwardCLASS alumni and staff were among the recipients of coveted Lone Star Awards handed out by the Houston Press Club during its annual banquet at the Hilton University of Houston Hotel in June.  Robert Arnold (’94 Radio and Television) of KPRC-TV in Houston received second place in the category of Television Journalist of the Year.  Rob Cahill (’82 Journalism, ’97 MA Public Relations), Senior Media Specialist at The University of Texas Health Sciences Center in Houston, received his second Public Relations Communicator of the Year Award to go with the one he received in 2006.  Amy Davis (’98 Journalism) of KPRC-TV took home a second place in the Investigative Series category for Your Electric Bill.  Laurie Johnson (’02 Journalism) of KUHF-FM received a couple of trophies: a first place in Spot News for NASA Shooting, and a second place for the Soft News Feature Cancer Recording Studio.  Ron Kabele (’84 Radio and Television) from Austin also received two awards: first place in Feature Photography for Texas Parks: A Day at Livingston that he shot for KLRU-TV, and a second place in the category of Television Photojournalist of the Year for his work at Texas Parks and Wildlife Television and KLRU.  Gina Miller (’96 Radio and Television) at KTVT-TV in Dallas/Fort Worth received a second-place award for her Sports Feature Uniting Big Sandy Once Again, and a third-place award in the same category for A Family Tradition.  John David Powell, CLASS Interim Director of Communication, continued his eight-year tradition of receiving at least one Lone Star Award in the category of Internet-based Opinion: a second place for An Arkansas Christmas: Have a nas nat, published by The Conservative Voice; and a third place for Jena and Mahmoud: Two examples of public relations failures, published by the American Daily. Ronda Wendler (’78 Radio and Television, ’83 Speech Pathology and Audiology), Managing Editor of Texas Medical Center News, took third place for her Public Relations Article The price doctors pay when pressured to be perfect. Ronda also took home a whole bunch of awards from PRSA/Houston and IABC/Houston, which we’ll tell you about in next month’s Graffit-e. 
The Pasadena Police Department recently honored department officers for their exemplary service. Justin Coppedge (’00 Anthropology), a six-year veteran, is a member of the DWI Task Force Unit that received the Unit Citation Award.  Sandra Elliott (’93 English), Lecturer at Rice University, has been recognized by Cambridge Who's Who for showing dedication, leadership, and excellence in all aspects of higher education. She received the 2006 Faculty Excellence Award at Lone Star College-CyFair given by the National Institute for Staff and Organizational Development. She also received the Faculty Excellence Award for the Women's Studies Program at the University of North Texas in 1996. Elliott is a member of the American Society for Training and Development and the American Federation of Teachers, and hopes to teach underrepresented groups.  Nancy Porter (’97 Speech Communication ) of Sugar Land is one of three individuals recently appointed by Gov. Rick Perry to the Brazos River Authority board of directors. She also is Director of Communications for the Fort Bend Independent School District, a member of the Public Relations Society of America and the Texas and National School Public Relations Associations. She is a past planning and zoning commissioner for the City of Sugar Land, a founding board member of Fort Bend Young Life, and a graduate of the Fort Bend Chamber of Commerce Leadership Forum. Ted Pardee (’91 Psychology, Economics) is the new Vice President of Sales and Marketing for the Fuel Management System division of FuelQuest, Inc. He began his career right after graduation with Telescan Inc. where he organized the company’s first Internet software sales force, increasing client acquisition by more than 200 percent. He later became one of the youngest vice presidents at Jupiter Media Metrix, where he was responsible for leading the company’s western region sales organization. In 2004, Pardee joined Merrill Corporation, where his successes included securing one of the largest single contracts and participating in three of the largest deals in company history. And, if his name sounds familiar, it’s because he is a color commentator for University of Houston Football radio broadcasts for ISP Sports.  Jim Nantz Jr., the father of CBS Sports anchor Jim Nantz III (’81 Radio and Television) and the inspiration for his son's book Always By My Side: A Father's Grace and a Sports Journey Unlike Any Other (2008, Gotham, 272 pages), passed away last month at the age of 79. He was diagnosed with Alzheimer’s Disease in 1995. Memorial contributions may be made to Alzheimer's Research, Methodist Neurological Institute, 6560 Fannin St., Suite 802, Houston, TX 77030. Read more about CLASS alumni on our Web page. If you would like to share your accomplishments with your CLASS family, please send us an email note. DiscoveryThis month, Interim Communication Director John David Powell visits with Irving Rothman, Professor of English and editor of the new anthology The Barber in Modern Jewish Culture published this year by the Edwin Mellen Press. Click on the screenshot at right to watch the interview, then read some more about the book below. If you would like to purchase a copy, you may contact Mrs. Miller at The Edwin Mellen Press (716-754-2788) and obtain the book for the special price for individuals at $39.95. The Barber in Modern Jewish Culture, Edited with Introductions by Irving N. Rothman. Lewiston, NY: The Edwin Mellen Press. 2008. 714 pages. ISBN: 9789-0-7734-5072-1. IntroductionIf one characterizes the Jews as a “Jewish civilization,” every aspect of their culture deserves examination. This anthology includes items of the Holocaust; items of anti-semitism; and items focusing upon Jewish life in America, Europe, Israel, and the Middle East. These have been gathered into a single anthology designed to understand Jewish cultural phenomena and the world’s perception of Jews. This work includes stories or excerpts from five Jewish Nobel Prize Winners in Literature, the Israeli S. Y. Agnon, the Russian Joseph Brodsky, the Bulgarian Elias Canetti, the Hungarian Imre Kertész, and the Polish-American Isaac Bashevis Singer. Jews are everywhere—ubiquitous—and so are barbers Various disciplines would find this anthology a valuable source. In women’s studies for example, Itzik Manger tells a story of a Jewish barber whipped to death by a Polish count whose wife curses the count so that the man’s mustache continues to grow until he hangs himself with it. Cheryl Kaplan’s poem treats the stark reality of women having their hair cut by barbers in concentration camps, as does Claude Lanzmann’s film Shoah. Poems by Muriel Rukeyser and Cynthia Macdonald add to the study. Edward Dahlberg in Because I Was Flesh writes about his mother, a lady barber and shop owner. In the field of medicine, Dahlberg’s autobiography also has application. For example, we read the experience of the female owner of a barbershop who helped cure her lady barbers of venereal disease. Selections include a story by the great Yiddish writer Isaac Loeb Peretz., “During the Epidemic,” where a skilled Christian physician loses out to the community Jewish barber-surgeon. Noah Gordon’s The Physician, tells the story of a barber-surgeon, eager to study medicine in an 11th-century Moslem madrassa, but forbidden to do so because he is Christian, who assumes the identity of a Jew to gain admittance for study with the best doctors of the known world. In film or theater, one can study Charlie Chaplin’s The Great Dictator, the Marx Brothers’ Monkey Business, commentary on Stephen Sondheim’s Sweeney Todd, or Canetti’s Comedy of Vanity. Table of Contents Selections Muriel Rukeyser, “Boy With His Hair Cut Short” (l937) Itzik Manger, “The Squire's Moustaches” (1963) David Shtockfish, The Book of Zgierz (1975) Lester Goldberg, In Siberia It Is Very Cold (1987) Doug Monroe, “Barber of Midtown” (2005) Around CLASS and Campus
HOMECOMING 2008 Friends, As we begin making preparations for a new academic year, I am excitedly looking forward to having the opportunity to take part in so many Cougar events and traditions that are scheduled for the upcoming Fall semester—especially Homecoming 2008. Homecoming is one of the most exciting and invigorating traditions on any college campus. It serves as the perfect time for reuniting with old friends, reflecting on past experiences and basking in school pride. This year at UH, we’re looking forward to getting the entire Cougar family back together for Homecoming 2008. And, we’re thoroughly excited about inviting our friends, colleagues and loved ones from all over the country back home to see firsthand how we are building our future right here on the University of Houston campus. To help plan this year’s events, I’ve asked several members of our UH family to serve on the 2008 Homecoming Committee. I’m absolutely certain that these individuals will help deliver a Homecoming Week that is fun, fantastic and forever memorable for us all. Over the next few months, you will be receiving detailed updates on all of the planned festivities. Until then, please mark the week of November 1 through November 8 on your calendars as UH’s Homecoming Week 2008. Also, begin making plans to come out to campus for some of the events—especially the UH Cougars vs. Tulane Green Wave football game on November 8, 2008. We have plenty to be excited about at the University of Houston, so let’s all do our part to make our 2008 Homecoming Week one of the best yet. Go Coogs! Renu Khator  Count Pelicula Returns to UH For Spanish Theater Camp, Shakespeare FestBernardo Cubria working with Houston high school students and preparing for two bard plays. After graduating from high school, Bernardo Cubria (’06 Theatre) wanted to be a revolutionary. Instead, he wound up shaking things up on the theater stages at the University of Houston and around town. Now, Cubria is teaching the magic of stagecraft to Houston high school students as part of the summer fine arts program “Exploraciones Dramaticas,” which focuses on Spanish-language stage works. He’s also gearing up for his debut in UH’s Houston Shakespeare Festival playing Casca in Julius Caesar and Iachimo in Cymbeline. The plays run Aug. 1 – 10 at Houston’s Miller Outdoor Theatre. “It’s wonderful to be back,” says Cubria. “I can’t think of a better way to spend my summer. I am working with extremely intelligent students, who have a sincere appreciation for theater. And, in a sense, I get to be a student again as I work with two of my UH mentors with the Houston Shakespeare Festival.” Cubria moved to New York City last fall, but eagerly accepted the invitation to participate in “Exploraciones Dramaticas,” the summer program presented by Houston-based non-profit organization Wonderworks in collaboration with UH. Now in its second year, Exploraciones offers bilingual high school students an opportunity to study, discuss, and perform classic and contemporary Spanish-language dramatic works. “When many young students think of the theater, they immediately think New York or London. I want to show them that many great theater works also are rooted in South America, Mexico and Spain,” Cubria says. “I also want them to explore these plays as they were written and performed in Spanish, so they can expand their own knowledge of the language.” Although he will make his Houston Shakespeare Festival debut, he is well versed in the Shakespeare’s material. He became very familiar with Shakespeare through UH’s theatre curriculum and his participation in Houston’s Shakespeare Outreach, which presents programs and residencies free to schools and other institutions throughout the city. He also starred as Lysander in UH’s spring 2005 production of A Midsummer Night’s Dream at the Lyndall Finley Wortham Theatre. The festival reunites Cubria with his former UH professors, Carolyn Houston Boone, Coordinator of Undergraduate Acting and Directing, and Sidney Berger, the John and Rebecca Moores Professor in the School of Theatre and Dance. Berger is directing Julius Caesar while Boone helms Cymbeline. “He has an unrestrained zest for the theater,” Berger says. “I had no hesitation to casting him in good roles while he was a student and am delighted he is participating in this year’s Houston Shakespeare Festival. His passion is infectious, and I think both his cast mates and workshop students will embrace his energy.” Cubria was born in Mexico City, but raised in Houston. After high school, he returned to Mexico as a human rights activist for Amnesty International, but his dreams of becoming the next revolutionary quickly faded. “Like so many middle-class Latino teenagers, I envisioned myself as the next Che Guevara, but I realized that I was not going to save the world,” Cubria says. “I thought I’d get my head together and attend a semester at UH. I took an acting class with Carolyn Boone just for fun. As soon as she began talking, I knew that acting was what I wanted to do for the rest of my life.” Cubria also worked with Houston-based experimental theater group Nova Arts Project directing 2006’s Oedipus Rex and starring in 2007’s lauded tempOdyssey by Dan Dietz. After graduating, Cubria developed an unexpected cult following when he portrayed Count Pelicula, a Saturday night horror host on Channel 55’s Count Pelicula’s Theatre of Horror. With his hair slicked back, face in white make-up and wearing a black cape, he and other UH acting alumni presented film classics such as Frankenstein and Dracula. The show was cancelled last year, but the character left a mark on the Houston media landscape. So much so, Cubria still gets fan mail. Now in the Big Apple, Cubria is starring on off-off-Broadway productions including a recent production of Nilo Cruz’ Pulitzer-winning Anna in the Tropics. He also appeared on a recent edition of Tru-TV’s Rich and Reckless. For information on Cubria’s career, visit www.bernardocubria.com. To learn about Exploraciones Dramaticas, visit www.wonderworkshouston.org, or for details on the Houston Shakespeare Festival, go to www.houstonfestivalscompany.com. School of Theatre and Dance Raises Curtain on Season of PremieresContemporary works by veteran, emerging artists highlight 2008-2009 productionsNew plays take center stage at the University of Houston. During the upcoming 2008-2009 season, the School of Theatre and Dance will present local debuts and world premieres of works by rising playwrights and esteemed masters of the craft. Among the highlights of the season are the world premiere of Nathaniel Freeman’s Hurricane Katrina-inspired Bridges on Oct. 3; the local debut of Louis Sachar’s stage adaptation of his popular children’s book Holes on Oct. 13; and the Houston opening of former faculty member and Pulitzer Prize winner Edward Albee’s latest production, Peter and Jerry on Feb. 13, 2009. “We are offering a season that is both accessible and relevant to all our subscribers and friends,” said Steven Wallace, director of the School of Theatre and Dance. “It’s a challenging slate full of vigor, intellect and intensity. As we train the next generation of theater and dance artists, we are conscious of presenting a body of work that we hope will connect artists and audiences across age and ethnicity.” The following five productions are included in the School’s subscription series. Tickets for individual productions will be available Sept. 2. For additional details, call 713-743-2929 or visit the School’s box office.
Presented in collaboration with the Cynthia Woods Mitchell Center for the Arts, this world premiere production focuses on the oral histories of Hurricane Katrina survivors who were stranded on the I-10 overpass after their neighborhood was decimated. The script was adapted from interviews gathered as part of the UH Surviving Rita and Katrina Project.
Zimmerman’s stunning Tony Award-winning adaptation of some of Roman poet Ovid's humorous, heartbreaking myths is set in and around a large pool. An ensemble cast depicts the transformations that define the human experience. Created at Northwestern University, Metamorphoses was produced at the Mark Taper Forum in Los Angeles, the Seattle Repertory Theatre, and the Berkeley Stage Company before moving to Broadway’s Circle in the Square Theatre in 2002. That year, Zimmerman earned the Tony Award for Best Direction for this play.
Fifty years ago, Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright and former UH professor Albee dazzled audiences with the provocative A Zoo Story, which detailed a Central Park meeting between Peter, a publishing executive, and Jerry, a disturbed young man. In 2008, Albee added a first act, Homelife, which details Peter’s marriage and the events leading up to his meeting with Jerry. Paired as Peter and Jerry, the combined works will have its local debut after its New York debut.
The artwork of Robert Rauschenberg has long intrigued and challenged art aficionados. This imaginative production explores the American landscape through a creative lens that is inspired by the recently departed artist. Not unlike his unique “combine” paintings, the play melds a host of diverse characters, settings, music, dancing, and stories.
What do you do when your sister is a convict, your momma can't kick her bingo habit, and your husband is still missing from your honeymoon skydiving trip two years ago? Lock yourself in your trailer, of course. This comedy farce, by up-and-coming playwright Lanasa, won the Best Short Play Award at the 2001 Kennedy Center/American College Theatre Festival. In addition to the subscription series, the School of Theatre and Dance will debut its Theatre for Young Audiences program with a production that runs during the week for school children:
Adapted from Sachar’s book and the film of the same name, Holes tells the story of Stanley Yelnats, a young man sentenced to hard labor in West Texas for a crime he did not commit. Between dodging poisonous yellow-spotted lizards and trying to play nice with other inmates, he finds himself unraveling a century-old mystery. The school will continue to develop new work for dance and theatre with these annual offerings:
The creative energies of up-and-coming choreographers are showcased in this annual concert that has become a favorite among dance enthusiasts.
Dance aficionados look forward to this annual show featuring contemporary works by faculty and guest artists that is set on the pre-professional dance company, the UH Dance Ensemble.
The New Play Festival offers Houstonians a chance to enjoy the city’s freshest theater. Tomorrow’s star scribes develop scripts under the supervision of Tony winner and UH professor Mark Medoff and present them during intimate readings. Each season, the School of Theatre and Dance produces five plays performed in the Wortham Theatre and the Jose Quintero Theatre, two dance concerts, student productions, the New Play Festival, the Houston Shakespeare Festival and the Children's Theatre Festival. 
Houston Shakespeare FestivalNow celebrating its thirty-fourth season, the Houston Shakespeare Festival has grown into one of the major events on Houston's summer entertainment calendar. In 1975, Sidney Berger, then Director of the School of Theatre and Dance, met with university administrators and the Miller Theatre Advisory Council to enlist support for a two-production season of Shakespeare's works to be played in repertory on Miller Theatre's stage. Overwhelming enthusiasm greeted the trial season as attendance exceeded expectations and letters of appreciation from fans and city officials poured in. Now an annual Houston tradition, the Houston Shakespeare Festival attracts thousands of people from around the country who enjoy free live theatre from one of the greatest playwrights of all time. Julius Caesar Cymbeline All shows are at 8:30 pm and tickets are free. Please visit the Miller Outdoor Theatre Web site for directions and instructions on how to pick up your free tickets!
The 2008 Houston Area Exhibition, selected by curator Claudia Schmuckli of Blaffer Gallery, the Art Museum of the University of Houston, not only introduces new or young artists to the Houston community, but it also offers more experienced artists the opportunity to develop new work and to be seen in a fresh light. Held very four years, the Houston Area Exhibition takes the pulse of Houston’s contemporary art to offer a snapshot of what matters to artists in the here and now. Running through August 2, the exhibition and publication are made possible, in part, by Occidental Energy Marketing, Inc., the George and Mary Josephine Hamman Foundation, Mr. and Mrs. I. H. Kempner, III, Nancy and Rob Martin, Judy and Scott Nyquist, and the Karen & Eric Pulaski Philanthropic Fund. 
Photographer Charles “Teenie” Harris, Inspiration For Major Choreographic Work, Celebrated Through Exhibition at UH Blaffer Gallery Few things eluded the watchful eye of Charles “Teenie” Harris during his time as a photographer for one of the nation’s premier African American newspapers, The Pittsburgh Courier. Between 1931 and 1975, the trailblazing photojournalist captured countless images of his community, sporting events and celebrities. Houstonians now can learn more about the man as his photos make a seamless transition from gallery exhibition to stage performance during two dynamic events. Harris’ work will be on view in the exhibition Charles ‘Teenie’ Harris: Rhapsody in Black and White, which runs through Aug. 2 at Blaffer Gallery. Noted choreographer Ronald K. Brown and photographic arts expert Deborah Willis are curators for the exhibition, presented by the Cynthia Woods Mitchell Center for the Arts. Shifts in Time, which offers a look at African American community life through Harris’s work, as well as through the eyes of students from UH and Jack Yates High School, runs concurrently with the video installation. More at CLASSFor more information about what’s going on at CLASS, please visit our News & Events page. Make sure you visit the CLASS home page for more information about our programs, students, faculty, and staff. Missed an issue of Graffit-e? Catch up by visiting the online archive. Transcript of Dean Antel's Video MessageHello. My name is John Antel, Dean of your College Of Liberal Arts and Social Sciences. The university, national politics, and world events have kept our administrators and faculty in the national media in recent weeks. Last month, President Renu Khator visited with C-SPAN’s Brian Lamb in an hour-long interview that touched on the president’s personal life and her plans for the university. Also last month, History Professor Gerald Horn weighed in with his opinions regarding the current political crisis in Zimbabwe in an interview on Democracy Now. And Economics Professors Paul Gregory and Roy Ruffin were among 300 distinguished economists to endorse the John McCain “Jobs For America” economic plan. We have links to the broadcast interviews in this month’s Graffit-e. Also inside this month’s newsletter you’ll meet Christopher Theofanidis, an alumnus known as one of the world’s leading composers of his generation, and you’ll have an opportunity to hear some of his compositions. You’ll also meet some award-winning class alumni and staff, and learn about the university’s plans for this year’s homecoming. Even as we celebrate the successes of our outstanding faculty and alumni, we also are well-aware of the floods in the Midwest and fires in California that have touched the lives of some of our class family. Please join me in keeping them in our thoughts and prayers. Transcript of Intro for DiscoveryHello. My name is John David Powell, and this is Discovery, the research section of Graffit-e, the electronic newsletter of the College Of Liberal Arts and Social Sciences at the University of Houston. Irving Rothman is a Professor of English at the University of Houston. He received his Ph.D. in English and American Literature from the University of Pittsburg in 1967, and later that year he joined our English faculty. Prof. Rothman is a specialist in the works of Daniel Defoe, and he conducts research in restoration and eighteenth-century English literature and in neo-classical patterns in early American literature. He also is a specialist in technical and professional writing, and he is the editor for the Institute for Space Systems Operations. Irving Rothman also is the editor of The Barber In Modern Jewish Culture published this year by the Edwin Mellen Press. And it’s my pleasure to welcome you to Graffit-e. | |||
Visual Studies
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