Transy Theater opens 2018-19 season under new direction
Transylvania’s theater season kicks off Nov. 1 with an irreverent, contemporary, and very funny remix of Chekhov’s The Seagull by playwright Aaron Posner.
Fine Arts
New program director leads Transylvania Theater’s 2018-19 season
LEXINGTON, Ky.– Transylvania University’s 2018-19 theater season will feature four productions—from the contemporary to Shakespeare—under the leadership of Tosha Fowler, the new Lucille C. Little Chair of Theater and program director. All productions will be in Little Theater and are free to the public thanks to the generous support of the Dixon-White Fund. Transylvania Theater will benefit from Fowler’s extensive professional career in theater as an actor, director, producer, teacher and playwright in both Chicago and Atlanta. Hailed as the “fearless leader” of her founding company, Cor Theatre, she was named “One of the Top People Who Really Perform” by Newcity Chicago. Additionally, Fowler has taught at The Theatre School at DePaul University, Kent State University, Green Shirt Studios and Georgia Southern University. “I could not be more excited to join the Transy faculty and to work with the Lexington theater community,” Fowler said. “It is an exciting time to create theater in this thriving city, and I am ready to get to work. I plan on collaborating with local talent and bring in colleagues from across the country to enrich the Transylvania Theater experience.” From Nov. 1-10, Fowler will direct a production of “Stupid F—ing Bird,” a heartfelt, irreverent remix of Chekhov’s “The Seagull” by Aaron Posner. Featuring an ensemble of writers, actors and those who choose to watch, it will tickle, tantalize and incite the audience to consider how art, love and revolution fuel the pursuit of happiness. On
Read “New program director leads Transylvania Theater’s 2018-19 season”
The Art of Problem Solving
Zoé Strecker Brings Pine Mountain to Transylvania While admiring the view atop Pine Mountain in southeastern Kentucky, you might not notice the reindeer lichen growing at your feet. Even if you happen to glance down at this pillowy plant, odds are you’ll overlook how it curls at the edges, or how it has four shades of green but appears almost silver. You’d get to know the lichen’s subtleties, though, if you were to sit down for hours at a time to embroider on a photograph of it printed onto silk. This kind of focus fosters a sense of connection—one that shows us how stitching a humble lichen can help us address big problems. In this case the problem is: How can we protect and heighten interest in wild places? Other approaches might have you sit through an eye-glazing lecture about the importance of biodiversity, or learn a fact about the amount of carbon absorbed by a certain acreage of forest. While both are well and good, Transylvania art professor Zoé Strecker takes a different approach; she and her collaborators make art that benefits both natural and human communities—from the coal fields of Kentucky to hurricane-ravaged Puerto Rico. A project of hers called “Lavish!” takes on abstract, challenging economic and social issues through creative work. Transylvania’s Morlan Gallery this past spring featured the embroidery exhibit, which is based on organisms living on Pine Mountain, actually a 125-mile ridge running through the heart of Appalachia. Volunteer embroiderers from across the country stitched vignettes from Strecker’s photos, and she hung them within a circular, wooden structure that measured 22 feet across and 10 feet high. To
Unlearn Fear + Hate
An Intervention Into the LIfe of a City Through Art Professors Kurt Gohde and Kremena Todorova have ventured from the corner of Third and Broadway to create art projects that are far from what you might associate with Transy. Their new project, Unlearn Fear + Hate, also takes shape off campus—for instance, as a metal halo bearing the message attached to the 21c Museum Hotel in downtown Lexington. But the saying was so powerful and timely that Transylvania incorporated it into the very fabric of this academic year—from endowed lectures to an embroidery project. Todorova, associate professor of English, didn’t want unlearn fear and hate to become just words that students occasionally heard about something going on “out there”—a noble idea, of course, but not terribly meaningful to them. Gohde, professor of art and chair of the Fine Arts program, was on board with that. “We’ve never done anything where the whole campus community was involved, and that was a really exciting idea,” he said. The theme ties into a dialog happening on the national level—and into the university’s overall calling, said Laura Bryan, vice president for academic affairs and dean of the university. “These conversations and activities are consistent with the mission of the liberal arts education.” Jeremy Paden, associate professor of Spanish and Foreign Languages program director, is helping thread Unlearn Fear + Hate through Transylvania’s academics. This effort raises important questions. “As an institute of higher learning,