1780 – The Official Blog of Transylvania University

1780 | The Official Blog of Transylvania University

New Governor’s School for the Arts session opens June 19 at Transylvania University

LEXINGTON, Ky.—Kentucky’s most talented young artists from 49 counties will assemble on Transylvania University’s campus on Sunday, June 19, to begin the three-week 2011 session of the Governor’s School for the Arts. The latest GSA class is comprised of 225 rising juniors and seniors from all regions of the Commonwealth who will receive top-level training through daily seminars, master classes, lectures, hands-on workshops and field trips to various arts attractions in central Kentucky. The student-artists will receive rigorous instruction in nine disciplines: architecture, creative writing, dance, drama, instrumental music, musical theatre, new media, visual arts and vocal music. More than 4,250 of the state’s most talented high school artists from all 120 counties have attended the 24-year-old GSA summer program following a highly demanding selection process. Each year since the program’s inception in 1987, over 1,500 students have applied annually for one of the available scholarships, valued at more than $3,000, including a record 1,700 this year. Transylvania is among 20 colleges and universities that offer scholarships to GSA alumni. The program will culminate on Saturday, July 9, with an all-day festival that celebrates the achievements of the young artists through performances open to family, friends, and the public. Graduation ceremonies are held at 5 p.m. in Haggin Auditorium. “The presence of the Governor’s School for the Arts on our campus each summer is an eagerly anticipated event,” said Transylvania President R. Owen Williams. “We feel that our urban setting

Transylvania enrollment at 1,110; most academically-talented entering class in Transy’s history

The class of 2014 poses on the steps of Old Morrison. LEXINGTON, Ky.—Transylvania University has enrolled 1,110 students for the 2010-11 academic year, including an entering class of 314 made up of 303 first-year students and 11 transfers. “This is a class about which we can be very excited,” said Brad Goan, director of admissions. “The academic quality of this group is outstanding. Moving forward, we want to accelerate the pace of diversification, but we made some excellent progress this year in recruiting students from outside Kentucky, and we held onto previous gains in the enrollment of minority and international students.” The entering class is the most academically-talented class in Transy’s history, with an average ACT of 27 and an average high school GPA of 3.8. Thirty-four are Kentucky Governor’s Scholars and Governor’s School for the Arts participants and six are National Merit Finalists. Twenty-one percent of the class comes from outside Kentucky and there are four international students from Korea, China, Zimbabwe and the United Kingdom. Eight percent identify themselves as members of a racial or ethnic minority, and 34 percent are first-generation college students. Transylvania, founded in 1780, is the nation’s sixteenth oldest institution of higher learning and is consistently rankedin national publications as one of the top liberal arts colleges in the country.

Final week of GSA 2010 at Transylvania is July 5-10

LEXINGTON, Ky.—The Governor’s School for the Arts 2010 summer session at Transylvania comes to a close Saturday, July 10, highlighted by final student performances and graduation ceremonies. The final week will also feature a reception in honor of Transylvania president Charles L. Shearer, who is retiring at the end of this month following 27 years leading the university. After the reception at the Morlan Gallery, the GSA will put on a showcase performance at Carrick Theater, beginning about for guests and dignitaries attending the reception. Highlights of the final week will also include a performance by Flamenco Louisville on Thursday, July 8, at 9 a.m. The GSA will wrap up its 11th year on the Transy campus on Saturday, with day-long performances in all disciplines preceding graduation ceremonies at 5:15 p.m. in Haggin Auditorium. Final performances, including those in instrumental and vocal music, musical theater, visual arts, drama, new media and architecture, will begin at various campus locations at noon. All final day events are open to GSA parents, friends and relatives as well as the public and media. Previous final day performances have attracted over 1,200 people to the campus. Refreshments will be available at various locations near Old Morrison. Final performances will be held at the Mitchell Fine Arts Center, the Little Theater, the Shearer Art Building, the Haupt Humanities Building, Old Morrison and the Cowgill Center. A total of 225 high school students from 46 counties have

2010 Governor’s School for the Arts session opens June 20

LEXINGTON, Ky.—Some 225 of Kentucky’s best young artists from 46 counties will assemble on Transylvania’s campus on Sunday, June 20, to begin the three-week 2010 session of the Governor’s School for the Arts. The latest GSA class is comprised of rising juniors and seniors from all regions of the Commonwealth who will receive top-level training through daily seminars, master classes, lectures, hands-on workshops and field trips to various arts attractions in central Kentucky. The student-artists will receive instruction in a total of nine areas. Those disciplines are architecture, creative writing, dance, drama, instrumental music, musical theatre, new media, visual arts and vocal music. Over 4,200 of the state’s most talented high school artists from all 120 counties have attended the 23-year-old GSA summer program following a rigorous selection process. Each year since the program’s inception in 1987, over 1,500 students have applied annually for one of the available scholarships, valued at more than $3,000. Currently, 18 colleges and universities, including Transylvania, offer scholarships to GSA alumni. The program will culminate on Saturday, July 10, with an all-day festival at Transy that celebrates the achievements of the young artists through performances that are open to family, friends and the public. Graduation ceremonies are held at approximately 5 p.m. Transylvania and Lexington have hosted the GSA program annually since 2000 and recently announced an agreement to keep the program on campus at least through 2011. “The presence of the Governor’s School for

Transylvania University Theater presents Eugene Ionesco’s "Rhinoceros" with guest director and student assistant director

LEXINGTON, Ky.—Lexington native Sully White is the guest director for Transylvania University Theater’s next offering, Rhinoceros, an absurdist comedy by Eugene Ionesco, and senior drama major Elizabeth Guy steps into dual roles as performer and assistant director. The play opens Thursday, February 18, in the Lucille C. Little Theater. Ionesco’s play is a wild and wacky satire on our willingness to be led over the cliff. In the play, the townspeople of a village suddenly experience a rampaging rhinoceros, and though some questions its meaning, most blindly see it as inevitable, and even choose to join the herd. Sullivan (Sully) Canaday White comes to Transylvania during her short-term break from Wofford College, where she has been on faculty since 2007. White spent five years as director of the Apprentice/Intern Company at Actors Theater of Louisville where she directed more than 50 shows including Proof, Fool for Love, and Reckless. She taught for several years at the Kentucky Governor’s School for the Arts, held on Transylvania’s campus,, and worked for the North Carolina Theater, where she designed a new Conservatory for Performing Arts. She has also worked in New York directing off-Broadway for the American Theater of Actors, New Georges, LaMaMa Experimental Theater of New York and the New York International Fringe Festival. Guy, a drama major from Salina, Kansas, has portrayed Iphiginia in Earthrock of Argos, Elizabeth Proctor in The Crucible, Anna in Closer, Elmire in Tartuffe and Rosencrantz in