April 2009

BLOOMINGTON, Ill. – A play written by Illinois Wesleyan University Professor of Greek and Roman Studies Nancy Sultan was one of three selected for “New Plays from the Heartland,” a regional, one-act play competition sponsored by Heartland Theatre Company in Normal.

“I guess you could say that my lifelong love of language and spectacle stimulated my scholarly interest in Greek drama and music,” said Sultan, who has been acting in plays since she was 8 years old. Her latest play, “No Goodbyes” will be performed May 15-16 at the Heartland Theatre (One Normal Plaza, Normal). The play follows the theme of the competition, “The Patience of Patients: One Act Plays in a Private Hospital Room.” Sultan’s piece “No Goodbyes,” deals with one friend asking permission from another to die.

Playwrights from across seven states were invited to submit one-act plays for the competition. Submissions from Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kentucky, Michigan, Missouri and Wisconsin were judged by directors, critics, playwrights and theater educators. These judges sent their top eight entrees to Ken Weitzman, a nationally known playwright, who chose the final three plays for a staged reading. The three qualifying playwrights will also attend a workshop with Weitzman in May.

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BLOOMINGTON, Ill. – From French patisseries to Italian art galleries and Eastern European news media outlets, Illinois Wesleyan University students have gained a wide variety of career experiences and opportunities from international internships.

Senior international studies major Lauren Nelson, who held an internship last year with Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, an organization that provides uncensored news to countries with regulated media, in Prague, Czech Republic says she gained valuable experience. Nelson’s position involved a wide range of responsibilities from contacting foreign political officials to writing news overviews for broadcast. Although stationed in Czech-speaking Prague, as the Russian information services intern, Nelson had an opportunity to practice her Russian language skills in the office as well as learn some of the Czech language outside of the office.

“The internship allowed me to prepare for future international career opportunities by practicing my linguistic and professional skills in a culturally diverse setting,” said Nelson, who will pursue her master’s degree in Russian, East European and Eurasian studies next year at Stanford University.

Language skills are not the only benefits students reap from international internships. Junior international business major Katie Feriozzi, who worked as an art gallery intern in Milan, Italy last fall and who will return to Italy this summer for an internship with the Peggy Guggenheim Collection in Venice, appreciated the opportunity to connect with professionals in the art world.

“I know that I want to pursue a career in arts business and to live and work in Italy. These internships will provide me with great networking in the field,” said Feriozzi.

International internships are available either as part of a study abroad program or separate from organized programs.

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BLOOMINGTON, Ill. – It was a chance theater students do not have when they perform Shakespeare – to hear what the playwright thinks of their performance, and to offer suggestions of their own.

On Saturday, April 25, successful composer, lyricist and librettist Lawrence Rush attended the Illinois Wesleyan University performance of Winter in the Fall, his musical drama. The next day, Rush spoke with students of the Music Theatre 483 class, who performed in the show under the direction of their instructor, Assistant Professor of the Theatre Arts Scott Susong.

“You did an incredible job. It was thrilling to sit in the audience and watch how you interpreted the show,” said Rush, speaking to students in the E. Melba Johnson Kirkpatrick Laboratory Theatre. “You are helping to bring the show to a whole new place.”

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BLOOMINGTON, Ill. – Laura Murray, a senior Bachelor of Fine Arts (BFA) art major, has been chosen to receive the fourteenth annual Ames Library Art Purchase Award.

Murray’s winning artwork, titled “Design & Music,” is a graphic design poster. Her other pieces in the Senior BA/BFA Art Show included a branding identity, a package design, logo designs, magazine spreads, poster and book layouts and charcoal drawings.

“I feel very privileged to have a piece of work that reflects my college experience at Illinois Wesleyan hanging in a beautiful building where future students can appreciate it,” Murray said.

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BLOOMINGTON, Ill. – When asked to write the captions for the new book, Historic Photos of Hemingway, Illinois Wesleyan University Professor of English and Department Chair James Plath believed it would be a worthy challenge. At the time, he had no idea how great of a challenge it would be.

The book, published in March as part of Turner Publishing’s Historic Photos Series, creates a portrait of the famed author and adventurer using more than 200 photographs taken throughout his life.

Plath decided to depart from the standard format of the Turner series, which usually depicts historical figures and locations. “When you have an author like Hemingway, so many of the photos exist as more than a connection to history, but in the context of his personal life,” said Plath. “I looked at it as a chance not to write 200 captions for 200 photos, but as a chance to write a mini-biography of Ernest Hemingway that actually flows from entry to entry.”

The publishing company found Plath a natural fit to narrate Hemingway’s life. Co-author of the book Remembering Ernest Hemingway (Ketch & Yawl, 1999), Plath is the former director of the Hemingway Days’ Writers Workshop & Conference in Hemingway’s old stomping ground of Key West, Fla. He is also a member of the Hemingway Society, and has lectured at the Museo Ernest Hemingway, the author’s former residence in Cuba.

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