February 15, 2010 CULTURAL AMBASSADOR Jarred Reneau, Mississippi State aerospace graduate student, is the latest Rotary Cultural Ambassadorial Scholar sponsored by our Club. Recently returned from Japan, he reports on his experience today. NEXT WEEK Chris Blount, executive director of the Wilson Research Foundation at Jackson’s Methodist Rehabilitation Center, will detail the institution’s support of research on stroke, and brain and spinal injuries. LAST WEEK Invocation and Pledge: O.A. Cleveland Attendance: There were 105 members (32 exempt) present and 86 (17 exempt, 12 honorary) absent. Guests and visitors: Guests were Michelle Garroway and Rachael Hicks of Debra Hicks, and Lori Bruce of Donna Reese. Club guests were Youth Exchange Students Kasper Eriksen and Francesa Scaravelli. Rotary Minute: Shelton Jones brought a “message from beyond,” invoking a saying of his late father. Rotarian Tom Jones would say, “If a man can just get a little elbow room, he has a very good chance of being self-sufficient and providing for his family.” Applying his father’s wisdom to the District 6820 Kenyan water project, Shelton reported that about $33,000 has been raised with more than $10,000 from our club. This is well over halfway to our goal of $100 per member. Forty-seven members have contributed $4,600. He expressed special thanks for Tommy Prentice’s creative and clever challenges ON STAGE In keeping with a theatrical theme, President Martha presented our annual support donation to Krista Vowell, Starkiville community theatre board president. Vowell expressed thanks for Rotary’s support and invited members to the next performance of The Dixie Swim Club. FRIENDS OF SCOUTING Ernie George invites all Rotarians interested in the local Boy Scouts of America program to an information session tomorrow afternoon at 4:30 at Bulldog Deli. The Pushmataha Area Council executive and advisory boards will be launching this year’s Friends of Scouting. Our club sponsors the annual campaign. INTERACT SOUP'ER BOWL Our Interact Club braved the cold on the two Saturdays before the Super Bowl to solicit soup donations at Kroger and WalMart. More than 500 cans were divided between food closets at Calvary Baptist and Peter’s Rock Churches. The Greater Starkville Development Partnership and Starkville High also hosted soup drop-off points. PROPOSED MEMBERS Three MSU faculty members have been proposed by the Membership Committee and approved by the board:
Barbara Spencer, associate dean for research and outreach, College of Business, classification of Education-Administration. IN MEMORIAM Rotary and the Starkville/MSU community lost a quiet giant with Tip Allen’s passing on Feb. 7. Joining the club in in the early ’60s, he went on to serve as president in 1983-84 and to become a Paul Harris Fellow. The retired MSU political science professor is survived by his wife of 54 years, Margaret Buchanan Allen. Jackson Clarion-Ledger columnist Sid Salter had a moving eulogy in yesterday’s edition. THEATRE MSU Mississippi State University's 53-year-old drama program is “fairly highly regarded” throughout the South because of committed students and faculty. Wayne Durst, associate professor and theatre concentration coordinator in the Department of Communication, described the challenges and rewards of the program. “As a university theatre, we have an obligation to our students to expose them and give them opportunity to work in a variety of genres,” he said. “The result is a choice of plays that may not be as popular as others,” said the 30-year veteran of MSU theatre. “Since we teach as well as perform, this sets us apart from high school and community companies.” Play roles are not limited to theatre majors. Auditions are open to all MSU students To set the perspective, Durst briefly sketched the drama program’s and its facilities’ history:
Durst explained that, for early productions, scenery was constructed in the basement of the Y and carried up hill to a performance venue. He said the joke was that MSU had “the only touring theatre company in the world that never actually left town.” Currently, five faculty members do the bulk of directing and teaching along with other responsibilities. Besides Durst, they are Marianne Ulmer, Donna Clevinger, Melanie Harris and Jo Durst. Five shows are produced each year — three on the main stage, and two in the small laboratory theatre downstairs. The annual student showcase consists of student directed and written one-act plays. When the McComas space, originally designated for a lab stage, became the Art Department gallery, the trap space below the main stage was converted to a 16 by 17.5 ft. acting area. It seats 87 people. From its box office in the lab area, The Lab Rats comedy and sketch improvisation group raises $1,000 annually for a theatre scholarship. Brandishing a 5.25 inch floppy disk, Durst illustrated out-dated production equipment. His demo disk stores productions’ light board data. He stressed that renovations are needed and that the equipment dates to the facility’s 1990 completion date Of note is the fact that the McComas Hall theatre complex is not just for MSU classes. Durst explained that it is a venue for music faculty recitals, honor band clinics, woodwind, jazz and string ensembles, guest lectures, and ROTC commissioning. The North Mississippi High School Drama Festival, founded in 1965 by Cunetto is thriving. Over the past 5 years, an average of 470 participants came from 14 high schools. The annual children’s production, The Emperor’s New Clothes drew 2330 average attendance this year. From this event, teachers go home with complementary lesson plans designed around the particular show. |