Harlequin Theatre spring production to run April 12-15

By Amy Hancock

Professor Gary Harris and the Harlequin Theatre will present the spring production, "The Good Doctor," April 12-15 in Holloway Theatre at Lyon College.

"The Good Doctor," by the great comedic playwright Neil Simon, is a series of comic sketches based on the character studies of Anton Chekov, who was one of the first to write "slice of life" plays for the modern theatre.

"The Good Doctor" is a comedy with music that centers on the life and ideas of a writer. The audience is able to see the writer’s ideas come to life as they are acted out by an 11-person cast. Such moments include the writer’s opening and closing statements, the story of a man attempting to climb the social ladder, a mistress trying to teach her maid the values of speaking up for herself, a man with a toothache going to see a doctor, two older people wondering if they should take one last chance at love, a man both teaching and learning about seducing other men’s wives, a strange new form of entertainment, an acting audition, a woman seeking a way to get her husband’s paycheck back, and a father trying to make his son become a man.

The play is set in the late 19th century in Russia, and Harris, both the director and the set designer of "The Good Doctor," says the stage itself will resemble some of the architecture found in that era.

The cast members are having fun with their roles and are excited to see the final outcome. Harris is directing his first play in nearly seven years ("Lysistrata") because Harlequin Theatre Director Dr. Michael Counts is on sabbatical this semester.

According to Harris, everyone in the production will have some challenges to face as with all productions. "The play had originally cast five people consisting of three men and two women, but, depending on auditions, we cast eleven individual roles instead of that five. The play centers on the life of a writer and we have to ask the audience to believe that as the ideas come to this writer that they can see his ideas spring to life."

As far as technical difficulties go, the only problem Harris sees arising is communication with a costume rental company that is a long distance from the Lyon College campus. "Our costumes will have to appear as though they come from the late nineteenth century … descriptions may sound great over the phone, but I don’t know what I will be getting until I actually see them, but hopefully everything will turn out alright."

The cast includes: The Narrator, Peter Semyonych and the father played by Jance Floyd; General Brassilov, Kuryatin, the Husband and Kistunov played by John A. Earney; Madame Brassilov, Julia, the Wife, and Nina played by Alissa Walter; Cherdyakov and Pochatkin played by Roger Simons II; Madame Cherdyakov and the Prostitute played by Heather Parson; the Mistress, the Older Woman, and Madame Schukin played by Emily Fleming; the Sexton and the Policeman played by Joe Sanchez; the Older Man, the Voice and the Son played by Cory Emerson; the Sailor played by Hunter Stilwell; and nonspeaking roles as audience members played by Shane Russell and Jacob Sperry.

The crew includes: Stage Manager—Amy Hancock; Master Electrician—Melissa Kuehl; Sound Operator—Deidra Brauburger; Properties Mistress—Nell Tebbetts; Grips—Jacob Sperry, Calvin Hagler and Shane Russell; and Stage Carpenters—Rita Ameri and Christy Kirchner.

Opening night will be at 8 p.m. Thursday, April 12, in Holloway Theater on the Lyon Campus. Other show times will be 8 p.m. Friday and Saturday, April 13 and 14, and a matinee at 2 p.m. Sunday, April 15.

Tickets are $6 for adults and $3 for students and seniors. For reservations, call 793-1749.

28^th Arkansas Scottish Festival to feature array of musical entertainers

An ancient Highland practice designed to ward off disease and misfortune gives its name to a unique Celtic rock band set to headline the entertainment at the 28^th Arkansas Scottish Festival.

Scheduled to run April 20–22 on the Lyon College campus, the festival will feature a wide range of events and exhibits, including bagpipers, Scottish clans, Highland dancers, drummers, falconry, athletics, sheepdog demonstrations and Highland Games competitions.

Throughout the day on Saturday and Sunday, Alex Beaton, a renowned Scottish folk artist, will perform, and this year’s other musical act will be Needfire, a five-piece Celtic rock band from Texas.

Needfire’s music is a unique mix of all original high-energy modern rock and traditional Scottish and Irish influences. The band combines the talents of an award-winning Grade I Highland bagpiper, Celt-rock fiddle, and tribal didgeridoo with electric guitars, bass and drums.

Comprised of seasoned performers whose music has been submitted for Grammy awards, won songwriting awards, and has appeared in movie soundtracks and television shows, "Needfire perfects the art of the rock n roll bagpipe," according to the Salina Journal.

With two CD releases to date, Needfire’s music is currently winning over audiences at festivals, theatres, colleges and clubs throughout the U.S.

Beaton is a guitarist and folksinger who makes more than 20 concert appearances annually across the U.S. Known for his powerful stage presence and sense of humor, Beaton frequently interacts and jokes with audiences while performing. He’s also known for his keen knowledge of Scotland's history. Beaton has released 18 albums on CD

Other musical offerings include the annual "Big Show," a student talent competition on Friday evening beginning at 8 p.m. in Brown Chapel Auditorium. The gates open at 8 a.m. Saturday morning. The athletic, individual piping and drumming and Highland dancing competitions begin shortly thereafter.

The United States Piping Foundation qualifier fires off at 7 p.m. Friday on the patio of the Lyon Building, Bell added.

"A $10 admission for some of the best bagpipers in the world," he said of the USPF qualifier.

Two-day passes for the festival are $16 for adults, and $10 for students age 12-17. A Saturday only passes are$10 for adults in advance and $12 at the gate, and $5 for students in advance and $6 at the gate. Sunday only passes are $6 for adults in advance and $7 at the gate, and $3 for students in advance and $5 at the gate.

All children 12 and under accompanied by an adult get in free. For ticket or vendor information, contact Brandi Allen at 698-4382.

During World War II, America’s collective animosity toward the Japanese was so well established that even Dr. Seuss cartoons were filled with overt racism, a Lyon College professor said Tuesday.

Dr. John Weinzierl, assistant professor of history, gave his presentation, "Without Mercy: American Attitudes Toward the Japanese During World War II," in the Mabee-Simpson Library to a capacity audience.

A member of the Lyon faculty since 2002, his areas of scholarship include modern Europe, French Revolution and Age of Napoleon, military history and the Middle East. He earned both a master’s and doctorate degrees from Florida State University.

Weinzierl said American and British racism helped steer their military leaders into making poor battle plans and underestimating the strength of Japanese troops.

The American and British people loathed their Japanese enemy far more than they did the Nazi Germans, Weinzierl added.

Gallup Polls taken during the war revealed those attitudes. Americans and the British both attributed Nazi war crimes, even the wanton slaughter seen in the Holocaust, to German leadership, especially Adolf Hitler.

But the polls showed those same respondents considered the Japanese culture and individuals to blame for their war atrocities such as the Bataan Death March.

"The poll showed that 70 percent of Americans thought the average German was a basically good person," Weinzierl said, "…and more than 70 percent thought the Japanese culture always wanted war and was hungry for power."

Newspapers labeled the Japanese enemy as "yellow monkeys," "yellow bastards," and "japs." Even comic books such as Captain Midnight featured storylines portraying Japanese enemies as animalistic brutes with buck teeth and round glasses.

During the war, beloved children’s book author Theodor Geisel, better known as Dr. Seuss, began contributing weekly political cartoons to PM magazine. His work also depicted the Japanese in a derogatory, animalistic manner.

American sentiments against the Japanese may be best exemplified by the forced removal of approximately 120,000 Japanese and Japanese-Americans from the West Coast of the U.S. during the war.

President Franklin D. Roosevelt authorized the action with Executive Order 9066, which essentially mandated that all people of Japanese ancestry be removed from the entire Pacific coast except for those in internment camps.

No similar actions were taken against German-Americans or Italian-Americans. Of the 120,000 Japanese and Japanese-Americans sentenced to the internment camps, 62 percent were U.S. citizens.

Weinzierl said the Pacific Theatre of the war gave voice to American and British racism against the Japanese, but didn’t create it.

The roots of that racism reach back to Colonialism when Spanish Jesuits visited Japan and described their disdain for the people in journals and letters. Later, America’s involvement with slavery and the Indian wars fomented a nationalistic racism that contributed to the vehement resentment against the Japanese during the World War II.

And that racism may have contributed to the use of the atom bombs dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki.

A new book about a boy’s life as a student at Arkansas College during the turbulent 1960s tells how a "little Presbyterian institution helped shape the lives of lifelong friends who built families and made a difference in their communities."

Bill Rhodes will host a signing for his second book, "Scholar From the Holler," on April 2, at The Paper Chase Book Store, located at 136 W. Main in Batesville, from 10 a.m. – 1 pm. Afterward, he’ll be attending the 28th annual Arkansas Scottish Festival at Lyon.

"Scholar from the Holler" chronicles the college years of a boy from northern Arkansas who had never lived in a city even as large as Batesville, the home of Arkansas – now Lyon – College, or even imagined any career choice other than military service. He links his college years to his childhood, and with his own poetry, his return to his roots.

The book tells about learning to measure up to rigorous academic requirements, college cultural clashes with students from the North, being a student in the '60s, a time of political intrigue and assassinations, when blacks were struggling to integrate into a white-dominated society.

Rhodes speaks about joining the work force every summer to earn money for college. These lessons learned were more than academic. He tells about how the microcosm of "this little Presbyterian institution helped shape the lives of lifelong friends who built families and made a difference in their communities."

"I dedicated the book to Virginia Kirk, my former chemistry professor at Arkansas College," Rhodes said.

Rhodes wrote his first book, "Moving Experiences," about his life growing up in the picturesque little town of Calico Rock, set atop the lichen-covered bluff that gave the town its name. That book led directly to the his latest effort.

"In the last chapter of ‘Moving Experiences,’ I know I'm going to Arkansas College on a scholarship," Rhodes said. "‘Scholar from the Holler’ overlaps a bit in Izard County and then moves onto (my time at) Arkansas College. It includes a considerable amount of my own poetry."

He has already completed the manuscript for a third book, this one called "A Hillbilly in China." It covers the decade after Tiananmen Square.

Rhodes worked as an agricultural consultant in China and also took personal trips to the region. It, like "Holler From the Scholar," also includes a considerable amount of Rhodes’ poetry, consisting of material he wrote or translated from the original Chinese author, with credit given.

Rhodes spent his early boyhood in Benton County in Northwest Arkansas, but in 1958, he moved to Calico Rock to stay with his Aunt Maude and Uncle Guy Majors to help with the work on the farm and to go to school. He graduated from Calico Rock High School in 1960, and in 1964, he graduated cum laude from Lyon (Arkansas) College, majoring in biology and chemistry.

After 26 years as a professor of horticulture at Clemson University, Rhodes had time to reflect on the experiences of his youth spent along the banks of the White River and how they helped shape the man he became. Rhodes now resides in Little Rock.

For more information about his book-signing event, contact the Paper Chase Book Store at (870) 793-4276.

A pair of uniquely engaging musical acts will soon take the stage at Lyon College as part of an Artist in Education program for area for junior high and high school students and teachers

Presented jointly by Lyon, the Batesville Area Arts Council and the University of Arkansas Community College at Batesville, the program is scheduled for Wednesday, April 18, and will be held in Brown Chapel on the Lyon campus.

Fayetteville-based folk duo, Still on the Hill, will perform their show, "Poetry Set to Music," from 9:30 – 11 a.m.

Still on the Hill has prepared a body of work that utilizes the words of great masters of poetry such as Langston Hughes, W.H. Auden, William Black, e.e. cummings, Wallace Stevens, Alan Ginsberg and others. They use the poems in an almost forgotten art form – the Art Song – wherein the poetry is sung instead of spoken.

That makes poetry more accessible for junior high and high school students. This workshop is highly interactive with lots of room for questions and comments.

Following Still on the Hill’s performance will be a show by another duo, Toucan Jam. Their presentation, "Things with Wings," runs from 1 – 2 p.m.

Toucan Jam’s members explore legends about birds, bees, butterflies and other "winged critters" using exotic instruments. Their wacky puppets, costumes and stories were all created using ideas from library books and in this show, Toucan Jam stresses how important the library is to them.

Students at Toucan Jam shows are hardly aware that they are learning about natural science, geography and ecology as they watch these two engaging performers weave their magic.

The program is free and open to the public. Adults and college students are welcome to attend along with the elementary, junior high and senior high students. 

For more information, contact Renee Jeffery, community education coordinator at the UACCB, at (870) 612-2080.

The United Way Youth Advisory Board met last week in Edwards Commons at Lyon College. Members of the board are (from left)  Rachel Bailey, Drew Davis, Arielle Moss, Erica Bolin and Leah Fugett.

Brianna Lee Arford ’05 was killed in Sedgwick, Ark., on April 1 when a train collided with her vehicle.

According to an Arkansas State Police accident report, Arford’s car was traveling south on Lawrence County Road 635 at 5:05 p.m., when it pulled into the path of an eastbound Burlington Northern-Santa Fe freight train.

The Lawrence County deputy coroner pronounced Arford dead at the scene.

The 24-year-old was an English teacher at Newport Junior High School.

Dr. Terrell Tebbetts, Lyon’s Martha Heasley Cox Chair in American Literature, knew Arford well during her time at the College. He said she had a true talent with people.

"Brianna was an outgoing, articulate young woman, very friendly, very verbal," he said. "She had a real talent for working with young people, easily communicating her interest in and appreciation of them while at the same time letting them know her expectations of them. We have lost a fine alumna, and the young people of Arkansas have lost a terrific teacher."

Pipe band members bring home medals

This past weekend (March 30 to April 1), four pipers from the Lyon College Pipe Band traveled to Oklahoma City to compete in a solo competition. Cody Wagnon competed in Grade IV and came away with two fourth places, Vincent Moore competed in Grade I and took straight first places, and Kenton Adler took straight firsts as well in Grade II. Jimmy Bell was the EUSPBA's monitor for the event. The overall winners in each grade received some pretty cool prizes along with their medals, courtesy of some piping vendors.

Sports

Former Scots' basketball standout and current German League pro Norris Weintz has been named to the 2006-07 Eurobasket.com All-Regionalliga West Second Team.