Category: Entertainment

By Rachel Vinciguerra
Transcript Correspondent

The Environment and Wildlife Club (E&W) and the Vegetarian Club educated students about alternative diets with a screening of the film “Vegucated” last Tuesday.

Junior Karli Amstadt and sophomore Kerrigan Boyd hosted the event as a collaboration with E&W. Amstadt and Boyd decided to show the film as an extension of their joint SLU house project to start a vegetarian meal club.

Amstadt said they have hosted several events this semester to raise awareness about eating as a vegetarian or vegan, including two public “veggie meal nights”; a vegan potluck for club members; and tabling to encourage students to take a pledge for “meatless Mondays.”

Boyd said she believes educating people about the effects eating meat has on people and the environment was the most important outcome of the screening.

“People are good; they just don’t know bad things are happening based on the decisions they make about what to eat,” she said.

Released in 2010, “Vegucated” follows the experiences of three New Yorkers who go vegan for six weeks. Their primary motivations for trying the diet are to lose weight, look good and feel healthy. But as the weeks progress, they are also educated about where their meat comes from.

Video clips are included in the documentary showing some of the conditions animals deal with on large industrial farms. Some of these conditions for cows include undergoing procedures without anesthesia, being artificially inseminated and having their babies taken away from them for veal, and being shot through the head with a steel bullet as a means of slaughter.

One of the three participants asked in the film, “How is this allowed?”

In addition to the opposition to animal cruelty, the film also indicates vegans lead a healthier lifestyle, with a 26-percent lower chance of dying from heart disease. The environmental pressures of mass-producing meat are also addressed. The film indicates that by eating vegan for one year, individual carbon emissions can be reduced more than the reductions of driving a hybrid car for a year.

Junior Melodie Beeman-Black attended the film as a member of the Citizens of the World House. She said the film was very informative about the reasoning behind the vegan lifestyle.

“I think this is a film everyone should see at least once,” she said.

Beeman-Black said she tried veganism last spring for two and half months, and watching the film encouraged her to try it again.

“I know a lot of people aren’t aware of these issues as they should be,” she said.

Amstadt said she and Boyd wanted to show the film to educate to the study body, not to preach.

“It’s an ethical issue and conditions are really inhumane,” she said. “And we’re lucky enough to have a choice.”

By Jane Suttmeier
Photo Editor

On Tuesday, April 2, the OWU Chamber Orchestra performed six pieces, including an original by senior Justin Giarrusso, and one with vocal accompaniment by soprano junior Samantha Rammaha, conducted by professor Michael J. Malone.

Giarrusso composed his own piece called “Divertissement Concertante,” which was a work that captured dance aspects such as music used for ballet and featured soloists.

Giarrusso said he was asked to write a piece for the orchestra as part of the “Senior Orchestral Composition” pattern that began last year.

“(Malone) had requested I write something that would feature some of our strong and under-represented players, particularly the concertmaster (first chair, first violinist), principal cello, flute, clarinets, and harp,” he said.

Giarrusso drew inspiration from other composers to create the divertissement, which is often an “inserted segment of ballet.”

“I was thinking a lot about Vivaldi’s concerti while I was writing, especially with the idea of the returning material (ritornello) separated by contrasting sections,” he said.

Giarrusso said he had been working on the piece since November.

“It took all semester worth of rehearsing with the orchestra to prepare for the concert,” he said.

Rammaha sang alongside the orchestra in “Ah! Spietato!” a piece from the 1715 Italian opera “Amadigi di Guala” (“Amadis of Gaul” in English) by Handel.

Rammaha performed as Melissa, a sorceress in a plot of “visions and anguish of the true lovers,” according to the New Grove Dictionary of Opera’s description of the work.

Rammaha said she researched the song and lyrics and translated them from Italian to English before starting to learn the music, as she does with other pieces she performs.

“Understanding the plot of the opera was very important and helped me understand the character I was portraying and interpret the piece better,” she said.

“I also listened to and watched different performances and stagings of this aria so that I could get an idea of how people tended to interpret it.”

She said it takes about five to eight weeks to learn the song and be performance-ready.

“It only takes a week or so to learn notes and rhythms, but assimilating the translation and characterization and memorizing the piece takes the majority of the time,” she said. “It took about another four rehearsals with the orchestra to get the piece to gel with that many musicians.”

Sophomore Connor Stout played the bass for all six pieces, and said it took all semester to learn them.
His favorite was the Haydn’s “Symphony No. 104 in D Major.”

“It was incredibly involved, musically speaking, for its entire length,” he said. “Each movement was had its own infectious tune and it really kept me intrigued.”

Stout also performed in Rammaha’s and Giarrusso’s pieces as a part of the orchestra.

“(Rammaha’s) piece was interesting because the whole orchestra had to monitor their dynamics to match the vocal soloist, as opposed to Justin’s piece that was purely orchestral,” he said.

“Justin’s piece was in a particularly difficult time signature, so that was the main challenge in that piece.”

Rammaha said her vocal training allowed her to sing this type of aria with ease compared to others.

“If you are learning to sing correctly and use your voice as organically and naturally as possible it should not be vocally strenuous,” she said. “You should not feel like it hurts. It takes years to learn this, and I am still learning.”

Stout, Giarrusso and Rammaha all said they plan on pursuing careers in music, whether in graduate school or beyond.

Stout performed in the Chamber Orchestra for the first time this year, but said he enjoyed it and plans on continuing for the next two years.

“I plan on going to graduate school to get a degree either in vocal performance or songwriting, too,” he said.

Composer Giarrusso said he will be pursuing a master’s degree in music composition next fall.
“I hope to eventually become a composition professor,” he said.

Rammaha said she isn’t planning on participating again, but enjoyed this “rare” experience.
“I think it went very well,” she said.

“I was very pleased with the performance and very grateful for the opportunity.”

By Marilyn Baer
Transcript Reporter

Seven acts competed in this year’s Global Outreach Show (GOS) for a grand prize of $500. Rafiki Wa Afrika (Rafiki) hosted the event to raise money for the Ghana Student Education Fund. They raised over $400 in this year’s showcase, according to junior Alisa Nammavong, Rafiki president. The evening featured musical performances, choreographed dance routines and a fashion show with clothing from Ghana, Nigeria, the Ivory Coast and Senegal.

In order to determine this year’s champion, up to 100 points were awarded to each act.

60 percent of the points were awarded by three judges – Sally Leber, the club’s advisor; University Chaplain Jon Powers; and Residential Life Coordinator Jill Auxter. The remaining 40 percent of the points were determined by the volume of the audience’s applause.

This year’s first place winner was Cricketz, a dance group from Calvin College in Michigan.

“We entered GOS as returning champions from last year to try making a mark in a different society other than our own college campus,” said Kofi Akyeampong, a choreographer for the group.

They danced to a mix of songs including “Bad Decisions” by Trey Songz, “I Like to Move It” by Reel 2 Reel and “Kukere” by Iyanya. Akyeampong said they used the different songs to showcase the group’s different talents and styles.

They began preparing for the show by dividing up the choreography among each other and practicing daily.
“Everyone had a song or half of a song to choreograph their dance to,” he said.

“We practiced every weekday for one and a half hours for two weeks.”

Akeampong said he felt “blessed” after winning the competition.

“It just reminds us that God is on our side and he’s going to keep blessing us as long as we don’t doubt him,” he said.

The Cricketz plan on using the prize money to invest in “crew clothing to make us look better while we dance,” Akeampong said.

The second place winner was OSS (OWU Sick Steps), a new dance group comprised of Ohio Wesleyan students interested in hip-hop dance culture. They received a $200 prize for their podium performance in the show.
The dance had three choreographers: senior Yushan Hayman, freshman Nguyen Viet Quang and freshman Linh (Leah) Duong.

Each of the three choreographed their own song in their own style, Hayman said.

Duong said the group entered the show for a chance to “show off (their) talents,” and because it was for charity.

One of the group’s dancers, sophomore Prabhjot Virk, explained the group’s preparation for the show.

“Since there were three different dances to learn, each choreographer set up their own practices, and in the last week we joined them,” Virk said.

“We had practices a couple times a week for two weeks, and then almost every night the week of the show.”
Duong said hearing the group’s victory announced was “incredible.”

“I was completely speechless because we were not expecting to win anything at all,” she said. “We joined GOS with the mindset of just to have fun and do what we love, which is dancing. For us, this was just a show, not even a competition.”

Hayman said they weren’t sure yet how they’d spend their prize money.

“I think there was an idea to start a hip-hop club on campus, in which case some money might go to that, and the rest we might use to go out as a group and celebrate,” Hayman said.

By Spenser Hickey and Sara Jane Sheehan
Assistant Copy Editor and Transcript Correspondent

“Speaking about violence against women because of your mother, your sister, your aunt, your daughter, your girlfriend, your best friend, your wife,” read senior Leah Shaeffer during the introduction of “A Memory, a Monologue, a Rant and a Prayer.”

“Speaking about violence against women because the story of women is the story of life itself,” she continued.

“Memory” was performed at OWU on March 26 by student actors, both men and women, and directed by Shaeffer, also a co-director and producer of “The Vagina Monologues” and campus campaign organizer for V-Day at OWU, a movement to end violence against women and girls internationally.

The play, a series of staged readings, was compiled and co-edited by Eve Esler, author of “The Vagina Monologues.” The OWU production featured 16 student performers: three men and 13 women.

The pieces used at OWU, which were written by fifteen different authors – including poet Maya Angelou, historian Howard Zinn and author Alice Walker – focused on responding to sexual assault and violence against women from both male and female perspectives.

While most acts were solo performances, two – Angelou’s “Women Work” and Robin Morgan’s “Connect: A Web of Words” – had a pair of actors sharing the stage.

The latter featured sophomore Kyle Simon and freshman Zoe Morris. The piece “essentially (tells) a story through a series of singular words all pieced together,” Simon said.

During the production, Morris and Simon alternated between listing off the words, which focused on violence against women, particularly in regard to sexual violence, and the associations between military terms and concepts of masculinity and power.
“Big boy A-bomb; nuclear hardness,” they read back and forth toward the end.
“Deep penetration capacity bomb; potent kill capability; rigid, hardened silo; erector launchers; thrust ratios; soft targets.”

“(A Memory, a Monologue, a Rant and a Prayer) was basically the only way I could get involved (in V-Day) as a male, (and) I jumped at the chance,” Simon said. “Secondly, I really love performing for theater even though I’m not a major, so it’s really fun to do something new every now and again.”

He said the performance was “unexpectedly eye-opening,” particularly Edward Albee’s “The Perfect Marriage,” performed by freshman Margot Reed.

“The Perfect Marriage” is about a woman who reluctantly agrees to her husband’s requests for S&M sex and realizes she no longer knows who she is after doing so for five years.

“(The Perfect Marriage) addressed the fact that someone can still feel violated or manipulated or changed regardless of whether or not they seem willing or whether or not sexual assault has taken place,” Simon said.

“I’ll move past who I was when it all began,” Reed said during her performance. “And I don’t remember that; I don’t remember her!

“But . . . who were we?” she asked, shouting as the piece ended. “Who was I? Who am I? I can’t do anything. I can’t leave. I don’t know who I am!”

Sophomore Brianna Robinson performed the piece “Respect” by law professor Kimberle Crenshaw, a specialist in race and gender issues.

“Respect” is about “the intersectionality between sexual violence and race,” something “we all know, kind of know and never even think about,” Robinson said in an email.

The piece asserted the United States was built on the backs – and through the wombs of – slave women, and that African-American women are still treated unequally today.
“We finally got that ‘respect’ that Aretha’s been talking about all these years,” Robinson read. “Or did we? Has the black vagina received the respect she deserves even today? Is it respected when those who enter our vaginas against our will are least likely to be arrested, least likely to be prosecuted, least likely to be convicted, and when, by some miracle, they are convicted, they will receive only one-fifth the sentence of those who rape white vaginas?”

The play mentions a 1989 violent rape in New York’s Central Park where the survivor was beaten nearly to death. Then-governor of New York Mario Cuomo described the incident as “the ultimate shriek of alarm” in an interview with the New York Post.
Five male minors – four black, one Hispanic – were charged and convicted, but set free in 2002 after DNA evidence implicated a different man who said he acted alone.
“Respect” used this example to point out that eight women of color were raped that same week and that one “was gang-raped, thrown down an elevator shaft, and left for dead,” but there was no national outrage for these survivors as there was for the white woman raped in Central Park.

“It was so powerful to read this piece because there were things that were said in it that I did not know,” Robinson said. “It makes me angry that I didn’t know some of the information about things that could have happened to my mother or sister. It opened my eyes to the beauty and powerful characteristics of all African-American women.”

Freshman Lane Bookwalter read Michael Klein’s piece “Looking for the Body Music,” about a woman who is beaten and harassed throughout her life; it is read in the voice of the woman’s son.

Bookwalter said he got involved with the show after attending other events dealing with awareness of sexual assault. He said the performance was about the “emotional, physical and sexual abuse faced by women around the world and what we can do to help.”

Senior Megan Cook read “1600 Elmwood Avenue” by Monica Szlekovics, in which the narrator recounts seeing her mother in an insane asylum as a child.

In the last line, she reveals, “I myself am now confined to an asylum that has been conspicuously disguised as a correctional institution.”

Cook said she was excited to be in the staged reading because “theater is a very powerful way to convey ideas, and lets the audience see things from a new perspective.”

She said she thought the readings were an important follow-up to “The Vagina Monologues,” which she performed in, because they show “the connections and intersections between gender, race, class, age and ability.”

“These monologues are so diverse that they really expose the audience to issues and views they may have never considered before,” she said. “Even for those of us who are very familiar with feminism and social justice, our perspectives were definitely broadened.”

Cook said her monologue led her to “a better understanding of the way that the prison system is the asylum of today.”

“The ways society treats those with mental illness are as problematic as ever, but now, we are able to forget or disregard them as ‘criminals,’” she said.

Sophomore Audrey Bell read “First Kiss” by “Memory” co-editor Mollie Doyle; “First Kiss” tells the story of a 35-year-old woman who returns to the sports camp where she was forcibly kissed by a coach at the age of 6.

“I took part in (A Memory, a Monologue, a Rant and a Prayer) because I believe that people concerned with sexual violence and gender issues should speak out against them,” Bell said.

“The first step to fixing any problem is to increase awareness.”

Other pieces included Mark Matousek’s “Rescue,” read by junior Gus Wood; and Carol Michele Kaplan’s “True,” read by senior Kamila Goldin.

“Rescue” is about a man who grew up living with his mother and three sisters. He realizes all four of them have survived sexual assaults while meeting with a psychiatrist.

“I was shocked myself, not because the information was new but because I’d never said it out loud, which meant it had only half existed,” Wood read.

The narrator then goes on to struggle with the question of being a man without being a rapist, given that all the men he’s known were, and acknowledges that is why he blocked the memories out.

“I’d blocked the truth to save the faith that men could also be good and trusted, that I would never inflict such pain,” he read.

“I come from a family of raped women, but that no longer makes me a rapist. It makes me a man with a broken heart…This is the tenderness men can give women. This is the story when shame finally ends.”

“True” tells four stories: one of a man in a park who stops himself from punching his young daughter when she cries; the second is of a Janjaweed militia soldier in Darfur who doesn’t shoot a nursing woman.

The third is of a Bosnian boy who defends a Muslim classmate from male rapists, and the fourth is of the narrator, who plans to intervene when she realizes a classmate has been beaten by her parents.

Then Goldin paused.

“I wish this is the way things had happened,” she read.

She revealed that the man in the park still punched his daughter, the militiaman shot the nursing woman and the narrator looked away and said nothing.

“They did not happen as I have said, but they might have,” she finished. “Because of the boy from Prijedor (a town in Bosnia). He stopped. He was the only one.”

Simon said the performance “moved” much of the cast.

“…(H)opefully (that) inspires people to strive to be better to others or might even encourage someone to do another event or project related to women’s issues.”

Bookwalter said he wishes the performance could have reached a wider audience.

“While I loved seeing the faces I did, these are stories and events that everybody should witness and feel moved by because then things will truly begin to change once more and more people begin attending these sort(s) of events,” he said.

Cook said she didn’t think the performance was intended for the whole campus community, but for those already involved in advocating for women’s issues, prompting them to “to think more intersectionally about them.”

“Most of the audience members were people who are already very familiar with the problems women face, but from what I’ve heard, those who were there still gained a lot,” she said.

Bell said she got “a lot” from the production.

“I felt so much closer to an issue I had felt so much for,” she said. “I also ended up relating to the issue a lot more. The problems of sexual violence and stifled sexuality within a patriarchy are much more apparent to me now and I have a much better idea of how wide the range of issues extends within my life and those of others.”

University Chaplain Jon Powers, a member of the audience, praised the cast during a discussion following the performance, calling them “the hope of my heart…and the heart of my hope.”

By Jane Suttmeier
Photo Editor

All secrets will be revealed as the cast of “My Secrets on Beauty,” directed by Ed Kahn of the department of theatre and dance, prepares to premiere the production April 5.

The “devised” theater performance is going to be different than most OWU productions, according to senior Claire Hackett, a member of the cast.
“The writing process is through improvisation, not a traditional playwriting context,” she said.

Senior Andrea Kraus said she has performed in shows like “My Secrets on Beauty” before, but not like this.

“It’s totally different than most of the shows I’ve done at OWU,” she said. “I’ve always been a huge fan of devised theatre. It’s what I grew up doing at home. I love creating my own work and (“Secrets”) has allowed me to learn this new process, which was something I know I enjoy while being something entirely new.”

Freshman Caroline Williams said the cast has been working on the show since the beginning of the spring semester.

“We were cast as an ensemble,” she said. “Based on ideas from the Ovid’s Pygmalion, we created the script together and eventually cast ourselves within it.”

The cast is split into two groups, A and B, who will each be performing on different nights—A on April 5 and 13, and B on April 6, 12 and 13—to create a new experience for the audience in every show.

Williams said the whole cast will be in both groups, but will be playing different roles in each.

“Both shows have a similar plot line, but there are some differences based on how people interpreted their roles,” she said.

According to the Facebook event page, the play draws from the myth of a sculptor named Pygmalion who falls in love with a statute he created, which later comes to life.

The cast, composed of 19 students, has worked collectively to bring the piece to life, Williams said. The ensemble has “worked together on writing, lights, props, publicity, scenic design and other crew jobs to create a beautiful show.”

“Everyone has worked together through-out the entire process,” she said. “We were all a part of the writing, and are now all a part of the acting and crew work. I feel so honored to be a part of it, and love every member of our truly beautiful ensemble.”

Senior April Warner said the process derives wholly from group participation.

“I think a huge thing is how much focus we put into connecting with each other before the show,” she said. “We have to get ourselves in a particular mindset, bring ourselves up to certain energy, be able to sense/connect with each other and remember to not get used to what we’re doing.”

Hackett said this will make the show a “unique” experience for the audience.
Kraus said the cast and director Kahn are using various techniques to directly communicate ideas relevant to today’s world.

Kraus said these themes include, “objectification, beauty, gender, sexuality, domestic violence, community, power and expectations.”

“The messages we want to send to the audience can be found in our own society as well as in Ovid’s Pygmalion,” she said.

Kraus also said “Secrets” will have something different to offer to the department of theatre and dance.

“Each night I can guarantee something still will be unique and new,” she said.
Williams said the cast is not looking to answer the question of what beauty really means.

“We want our audience to ask their own questions and examine what beauty means to them,” she said. “But if I were to give my own little ‘secret on beauty’—it would be that we all deserve to see ourselves as its definition.”

By Jane Suttmeier
Photo Editor

The Bread and Puppet Theatre returned to Ohio Wesleyan on March 24 for a performance of “The Circus of the Possibilitarians.”

Bread and Puppet, which calls their circus, “Possibilitarian – the complete everything everywhere dance circus,” was brought to OWU by The House of Peace and Justice (P&J), the Department of Theatre and Dance, the Humanities /Classics Department, Amnesty International and the Wesleyan Council on Student Affairs.

Senior Leif Sayvetz of P&J was the one who initiated their return; their last performance was about two and a half years ago.

“That would have been my first semester here and this is my last semester here, and if I had left no one would know them anymore,” said Sayvetz. “This is kind of the last chance because no one really in this school has seen them, part of the reason was to remind people they exist.”

Bread and Puppet Theatre was founded by Peter Schumann in New York in 1963, but the company is now based in Glover, Vt., according to its website.

The company brought five members – Gabriel Harrell, Erin Bell, Cavan Meese, Esteli Kitchen and Katherine Nook – in a bus full of props, set and costumes for the show. Harrell said staying in one place for two nights is a luxury.
The company performed its show with a volunteer contingent of current and future P&J residents and other students, all dressed in white.

“We pulled it all together in a day with the volunteers; normally we would come in in the afternoon, rehearse, perform and then head back out,” he said.

Harrell said the Bread and Puppet Theatre is hard to define, but he said several different elements come together to create a circus of possibilities.

“It’s hard to say exactly to distill it down to a sentence but it’s politically conscious theatre,” Harrell said.
“We try to deal with political topics in an accessible and exciting way, to spark political and social discourse through theater.”

The production on Sunday addressed topics like fracking, student debt, god and nuclear warfare.

“(A)s the news changes, we create new acts and bring them into the show, or all of a sudden an act is irrelevant we’ll take it out,” Harrell said.

There are many aspects that make up the Bread and Puppet Theatre. They incorporate puppetry, song, dance, “cheap art,” stilts, politics, clowns, trapeze, as well as acting and the tradition of baking and breaking bread with the audiences.

“We give you a piece of bread with the puppet show because our bread and theater belong together,” said a piece of artwork branded by Bread and Puppet. “Theater is different. It is more like bread, more like a necessity.”
Puppeteer and musician Meese, who performed on stilts during the show, said they make the bread personally during their tour.

“We’ve been baking on the road, so we had a couple stops that we knew we could bake at,” he said. “We carry the starter, the rye and the grind, and we carry it with us.”

After the show, the cast served a rye bread to the audience with homemade garlic aioli.

The five members call themselves “The Dire Circumstance Jubilation Ensemble,” and play music on instruments such as the saxophone, sousaphone and drums during their act.

Puppeteer Erin Bell said she has been playing the sousaphone for about 7 years.

Junior Erika Nininger, a member of P&J who participated along with her housemates and other volunteers, said the Bread and Puppet puppeteers had been performing for a long time.

“This is their 50th Anniversary, and they update it every year with events, international and national,” she said. “It’s always changing.”

Harrell said he has been a part of the theatre for 11 years.

“I used to be full time, and now I am just in and out,” he said.

Kitchen said she used to be an intern with the company, one of 50 the company takes every summer in Vermont.

“I was an intern 6 years ago but I have been doing it full time ever since,” she said.

Along with entertainment, the company sells “cheap art” as a way to make extra money on the road, as well as spread the company’s ideals of what art should be. Meese said the Bread and Puppet “press” sells all of the theater’s artwork.

“The cheap art table is us and our friends,” he said. “A bunch of us make stuff in that style. …We distribute that stuff because it’s cool and then so the puppeteers can make a little extra cash.”

Harrell said they carve a lot of their own work, and then create prints for cheap.

Sayvetz said one of the reasons P&J brought the company back to OWU was its “cheap art” influence.

“We used to do cheap art projects on our own without them for a couple years after, but the projects kind of died down,” he said. “People just didn’t know who they were anymore, so hopefully this will spark some interest.”

Senior Anni Liu said the art is not unfamiliar to her.

“These (cheap artworks) are all over our house, so it looks like Peace and Justice,” she said.

The political circus did not incorporate elephants and balancing acts, but the Bread and Puppet team said they did not want people to think of it as just a “play.”

“Traditionally the circus was just horse, equestrian routines,” Harrell said. “So there is the horse act, the standard dancing bears, a couple clown acts.”

The “circus” aspect does come through the horse costumes that the volunteers wore.

“(There is) definitely a homage in some kind of way to circus horses,” Nook said. “It has a lot to do with tradition and of a three ring circus and a one ring circus and that’s kind of where the word (circus) comes from. The whole production that we put on during the summer as kind of a circus it’s like performance happening in a field in the middle of nowhere.”

Nininger agreed that the circus plays an important role in Bread and Puppet Theatre.

“It’s mainly a circus group, and I think it’s supposed to invoke political and critical thinking,” she said. “Just bring up national issues in an engaging kind of way.”

Liu participated in Bread and Puppet Theatre as one of P&J’s last projects before she graduates.

“I joined in because I wanted to do political theatre that involved humor,” she said.

Senior Joe Lugosch said he doesn’t really pay attention to the politics, but as a theater major he appreciates the work that Bread and Puppet does.

“Personally I am away from any extreme, but I think the whole process and what they’re doing is cool and I’m enjoying being around it,” he said. “It’s a totally different experience.”

Freshman Camille Mullins- Lemieux, who will live in P&J next year, said the short notice for the rehearsal surprised her, but she felt it was a once-in-a- lifetime experience.

“I’m really lucky to be a part of it, I like how joyous it is.” she said. “It’s entertaining but has a lot of depth.”

Emily Hostetler
Transcript Correpondent

Students learned a little bit about ancient choral music, and even more about themselves, on the Chamber Choir’s trip to Italy.

Ohio Wesleyan’s Chamber Choir, a select group of students from the Choral Arts Choir, spent spring break performing and sight-seeing in Venice, Sienna and Florence, Italy as a travel-learning course.

Sophomore Brianna Robinson said she could not believe she had the chance to go to Italy and was grateful for going on such a musical trip.

“We sang everywhere we had the chance to,” she said. “(We sang) in the churches and even in the St. Mark’s square at midnight.”

Sophomore Calla Loadman said she had always wanted to go to Italy, but had never been out of the country before.
“I’ve always enjoyed choir trips,” she said. “They are always the best ‘vacations’ I have been on.”

In between performances, the group also had chances to stop and experience Italian culture authentically.

“We went to several different churches, cathedrals and museums,” Robinson said. “We were able to learn a great deal about architectural and artistic history in Italy.”

Loadman said she was able to pick up interesting details of Italian history while on the trip.

“I learned random pieces of Italian history from specific cities,” she said. “Venice used to be ruled by a doge (chief magistrate) and I learned why people say ‘put their life in your hands’ from Siena.”

Loadman said the Chamber Choir also had the chance to visit specific places choral music was written for.

Some composers created musical pieces for churches that had double choir space – a choir on each side of the church – so the choirs could sing to each other during the performances.

“I expected to learn a lot more about why the music was written for what specific purpose it was written for, and I did learn that because we went to the places (it) was written for,” she said.

While the students became more knowledgeable about culture and history, Loadman said she also learned more about herself during the trip, especially because she has never traveled out of the country before.

“I learned to be more confident in myself while traveling and that I can be more adventurous and I can handle it better than I thought I could,” she said.

Robinson said the trip exceeded her expectations in the best way.

“On this trip I expected to learn a lot about music,” she said.

“I ended learning a lot about myself. I learned how to feel an indescribable connection to my roots, as the Italian people feel towards theirs. I have come back to OWU with a love for this community that grows every day.”

As the choir was traveling through Italy, the new Catholic Pope was being chosen in the Vatican City.

Loadman said one of her favorite parts of the trip was witnessing the white smoke emerging from the conclave.

“We sang at a Catholic monastery for one of their masses, and at the end when we were singing, the bells started going off and we didn’t know why,” she said.

“At the end, we asked the people why the bells were going off, and they said it was because the Pope had been decided.”

Among the various times of scheduled singing performances, Loadman said they also had some spontaneous performances.

“A group of us went to St. Mark’s square, that was flooded, and we started randomly singing in the middle of it and people started watching and videotaping us which was really cool and a good bonding experience,” she said.

Robinson said her favorite moment is one that she will remember for the rest of her life.

“My favorite part was in Sienna while we were singing ‘Ubi Caritas’ in a church,” she said.

“The priest starting singing with us. The sense of connection with someone who is so important to the religious community on the other side of the world was the best feeling I had the entire time. It brought me to tears.”

Loadman said the Chamber Choir plans on going on the trip again in a couple of years, but until then, they will be performing on campus several times this April, as well as performing with the Columbus Opera.

By Sara Jane Sheehan
Transcript Correspondent

Different types of art are on display in the lobby of Beeghly Library for the annual Spring Art Show, where many students’ works are presented for the whole Ohio Wesleyan community to see.

The show contains a variety of media including sculptures, paintings, drawings and jewelry. Over 150 pieces were submitted to the show, but only 59 were selected to be on display.

Junior Hazel Barrera has two pieces in the show: a pair of earrings and a necklace. Barrera said she does not have a concentration in her fine arts major, but she does enjoy working with metals and was happy that her work is being shown.

This is Barrera’s second time in the show, and she is impressed by this year’s show.

“I really like the setup,” Barrera said. “It is amazing how every artist gets to help put up the show and the outcome it’s always fabulous, and we also get to know other people outside our concentrations.”

Junior Ha Le has two pieces featured in this year’s show as well. One is a metals piece called “Phoenix,” and the other is a charcoal drawing of her grandmother called “Grandma.”

Le’s fine arts focuses are drawing, painting and printmaking.

Le said she was also excited to be selected for the show and s that she is hoping to win something for her work.

“It’s a bit smaller than last year’s show,” she said. “The jurors this year seem to be pretty strict, but the show still looks great. We have a variety of medium, scale and subject matter.”

Senior Paige Phillips also has pieces featured in the show, which take on a different medium than others that are displayed.

She has two hand-made books displayed; one is case-bound and the other is Japanese-bound.

Phillips focuses on drawing, graphic design and computer imaging.

“I was excited when I found out I got two pieces selected for the spring show because the jurors were artists and professors from other schools, so you can’t really judge what type or style of artwork they will like,” she said.

Phillips was also happy about how her pieces turned out.

She said there is always something she could do to change a piece slightly, but overall she was happy with them.

The show started on March 4 and will continue through April 4.

By Jane Suttmeier
Transcript Reporter

The Department of Music held a recital for sophomore Zoann Schutte, senior Veronica Duff and sophomore KaitLynn Lynch on March 9 in Sanborn Hall. Instrumentalists Lynch, Schutte and Duff performed for one of the many student recitals this year for their major requirements. Sandra Maynard, academic secretary for the department of music, said she plays a large role in making these events happen.

Maynard said Schutte, Duff and Lynch had to go through in order to put together the recital, perform and receive credit for their work.

“Students must complete an ‘Application for Recital’ – available in my office and also on the music website (http://music.owu.edu) and have it approved by their applied instructor, then by their accompanist (if applicable) weeks or months prior to their recital,” Maynard said. “That form comes to me and at that point they choose a date for their performance and it goes on our departmental calendar.”

Maynard said the average student recital is on a Thursday afternoon and lasts 45 minutes. They usually feature 3 to 5 students, depending on the length of the piece they’ve chosen. Schutte said she chose a piece by Willson Osborne called “Rhapsody for Clarinet” because it was different than the classical pieces she usually performs.

“I enjoyed it most because it was unaccompanied and very avant garde, she said.

Unlike Schutte, Lynch was accompanied by sophomore Connor Stout on bass and Mariko Kaneda on piano for her soprano saxophone piece, “Bachiana Brasileiras #5” by Heitor Villa-Lobos.

“My performance was different than others because it included a cello along with piano accompaniment,” Lynch said. “It was kind of out of the ordinary playing it on soprano saxophone, but the end result was great.”

Lynch said she has been working on the piece since November.

“Villa-Lobos took street musicians and combined it with the feel of classical music,” she said. “It’s a very musical and beautiful piece.”

Maynard said she works hard to make sure the work students do in the music department gets the attention it deserves.

“The music students work so hard preparing for their recitals,” she said. “I feel that it’s important to advertise/recognize their recital dates. Doing it for them validates that it’s important to someone other than themselves.”

Schutte said she had been working on her piece by Osborne on and off for about 8 months, and that it was originally written for a bassoon.

“I played an arranged version for clarinet,” she said. “The piece also featured some very interesting time signatures you wouldn’t usually see in music, such as 16/8 time.”

Maynard said the recital process is important for students who are majoring as well as planning careers in music.

“It’s really quite a nice production and it happens almost every week during the school year,” she said. “The students learn what goes into composing a professional program, which will be helpful in marketing their talents down the road,” said Maynard. “Leftover copies of the programs go into the performing students’ files, as part of their record.”

Schutte and Lynch said they plan on pursuing music in their futures.

Lynch said she plans to make music for the rest of her life,and hopes to get a doctorate as well as own a recording studio.
“I’d love to make a student’s musical dreams come true,” she said.

Schutte and Lynch said they also follow the “dream big” motto.

Schutte said she would like to play for large orchestras and hopes to end up working with the Walt Disney Company.

“I’m currently studying music education but I also have interests in performing on multiple instruments,” she said.

Maynard said the music department is a “close-knit group” because there are only around 60 music majors.

“I do feel close to the students and am perpetually amazed at their talents and skills,” she said. “I am very lucky to work with such a wonderful group of students and instructors.”

Maynard also said there are around 100 students who take musical lessons in Sanborn Hall.

“I get to interact with each of these students at some point….and enjoy it very much,” she said.

Maynard said the music department’s 7 full-time and 15 part-time instructors are dedicated to keep up its success in Sanborn Hall, which it has existed since the 1900s.

“They work very hard to recruit new students and then to help each become the best musician and best person they can be,” she said.

Maynard said she uses advertising to create higher attendance to recitals, but the music department is always looking for new ideas.

“Because they are primarily held during the day and because we’re located so far from other buildings on campus, we (unfortunately) don’t have many guests attend the student recitals,” Maynard said. “We’d like to change that.”

By Sophie Crispin
Transcript Reporter

Students joined Habitat for Humanity in the fight against hunger on Monday, March 4 by making and donating bowls to Habitat’s annual Soup for Shelter event.

Led by junior Elizabeth Warner and senior Haley Figlestahler, the student volunteers met in Haycock Hall to make bowls for the event. Once finished, the group donated the bowls to be sold at Habitat’s Soup for Shelter, scheduled on March 20.

This is the first year both Warner and Figelstahler have been involved with the program, which they learned about in their Ceramics 1 class. OWU students join a wide range of students, some as young as elementary school, in making bowls.

Habitat for Humanity volunteer and Soup for Shelter co-chair Emily Calvert explained what a community effort the program is.

“Students of all ages make these bowls and give them over to our Soup for Shelter volunteers, and soups are donated from several local sources, including restaurants, the community market, and retirement homes. St. Mary’s School allows us to use their cafeteria kitchen,” she said.

In its eleventh year, the Soup for Shelter fundraiser consists of selling both soup and the donated bowls to community participants. The dinner raises awareness about local homelessness and the efforts made by Habitat for Humanity, as well as funds for the Delaware County affiliate.

“Last year we raised a record $10,000 in three hours … and the funds stay right here in Delaware,” Calvert said.

The program charges attendees $10 for a meal and $15 if they want to keep their bowl. Though in her first year of participation, Figelstahler also plans to attend the fundraiser in support.

Both she and Warner appreciated the combination of community service, involvement, and creativity.

“This is a huge way to not only involve the community in a service project, but also involve local artists. It gets their work noticed and appreciated,” Figelstahler said. “People get to see works that are made from all kinds of local artists.”

Ohio Wesleyan has been affiliated with Delaware County’s Habitat for Humanity since 1989.

“We continue to have a strong relationship with OWU, where the campus chapter is very active,” Calvert said.

Soup for Shelter will take place on Wednesday, March 20 from 4:30 pm to 7:30 pm at St. Mary’s School Commons, located at 60 E. William St.