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The School of Music at Stephen F. Austin State University will present the program “I Won’t Dance: An Evening of Great American Song” at 6 p.m. Tuesday, May 7, in the Music Recital Hall on the SFA campus.

“I Won’t Dance: An Evening of Great American Song” is a program of all early 20th century popular music and will feature songs from George and Ira Gershwin, Jerome Kern and Dorothy Fields, Irving Berlin, Cole Porter and others.

The performers are sisters Kayla Roth, music theory and ear-training faculty in the School of Music, and Erin Roth Thomas, a mezzo-soprano who performs regularly in the Dallas area (https://erinroth.webs.com/). Both are SFA graduates.

Among the selections, “I’ve Got You Under My Skin” by Cole Porter was nominated for an Academy Award for best original song in 1936 and later became a signature tune for Frank Sinatra.

“You’ll Never Walk Alone” by Richard Rogers and Oscar Hammerstein is originally from the musical “Carousel.” “This song has been covered by numerous artists, including Judy Garland, the punk rock band Dropkick Murphies and, most memorably, Elvis Presley,” Roth said.

“By Strauss” by George and Ira Gershwin contains some of Ira’s wittiest lyrics, according to Roth. “The singer proclaims that the popular Broadway tunes of Berlin, Kern, Porter, and – in an inspired bit of self-deprecation – even Gershwin, don’t compare to the grand waltzes of Johann Strauss and his son,” Roth said, “with lyrical references to some of Strauss Jr.’s best-known works, such as ‘On the Beautiful Blue Danube,’ ‘Wine, Women, and Song,’ and ‘Die Fledermaus.'”

All pieces will feature Thomas on vocals and Roth on piano. All arrangements are by Kayla Roth.

The Music Recital Hall is located in the Wright Music Building, 2210 Alumni Drive.

Tickets are $8 for adults, $6 for seniors and $3 for students and youth. For tickets or more information, call the SFA Fine Arts Box Office at (936) 468-6407 or visit www.finearts.sfasu.edu.

The Orchestra of the Pines at Stephen F. Austin State University will present “Musical Landscapes” when the student ensemble performs at 7:30 pm. Tuesday, May 7, in Cole Concert Hall on the SFA campus.

Among the highlights of the concert will be a performance of Fort Worth music composition student Travis Wattigney’s “The Awakening Valley.” The work was the winning entry in the 2018 Tennessee Valley Music Festival for Scores and was selected as winner in the most recent SFA School of Music’s Composition Competition, earning it a performance by the orchestra.

The concert will also feature a performance by Dr. Jennifer Dalmas, professor of violin, on Ralph Vaughan Williams’ “The Lark Ascending,” according to Dr. Pierre-Alain Chevalier, visiting director of orchestral activities at SFA and musical director of the orchestra.

Other program selections include “Calm Sea and Prosperous Voyage” by Felix Mendelssohn; “On the Beautiful Blue Danube” by Johann Strauss Jr.; “In the Steppes of Central Asia” by Alexander Borodin; “The Walk to Paradise Garden” by Frederick Delius; and “Finlandia” by Jean Sibelius.

Cole Concert Hall is located in the Tom and Peggy Wright Music Building, 2210 Alumni Drive. Tickets are $8 for adults, $6 for seniors and $3 for students and youth. For tickets or more information, call the SFA Fine Arts Box Office at (936) 468-6407 or visit www.finearts.sfasu.edu.

The student actors SFA Playwright-in-Residence Jack Heifner selected to portray the colorful cast in his production of Tennessee Williams’ “Cat on a Hot Tin Roof” run the gamut in performance experience. Some have acted in many shows at Stephen F. Austin State University, while others are relative newcomers.

“They’ve worked hard to create an ensemble, and this is one of the best casts I’ve had here,” Heifner said. “They have created ‘a family.’ They act like a family on and off the stage.”

In addition to presenting a play that is engaging for the audience and fills W.M. Turner Auditorium, Heifner hopes “Cat on a Hot Tin Roof” teaches his students a great appreciation for its author.

“I want them to appreciate how wonderful a writer Tennessee Williams is,” he said. “I discovered his plays when I was a teenager, and I felt like a window had been opened to the world for me. He truly creates characters that are struggling with trying to connect and find some meaning in their lives.”

“Cat on a Hot Tin Roof” is about a southern family in crisis. Set in the plantation home in the Mississippi Delta of Big Daddy Pollitt, a wealthy cotton tycoon, the play examines the relationships among members of Big Daddy’s family, primarily between his son Brick and “Maggie the Cat,” Brick’s wife. Huffman sophomore Mike Warren plays Big Daddy in the play. As a veteran of the U.S. Air Force, Warren brings a different perspective to the stage.

“Big Daddy is a 65-year-old Mississippi plantation owner who has spent the last five years thinking he was dying of cancer,” Warren explains. “After a positive report from the doctor, he is looking at the world in a new light. My approach to this role was to try and understand real pain – the pain of the body and pain of betrayal by those around you, and to experience letting that pain go.

“Aside from the obvious of playing a 65-year-old dying man, the big challenge for me was playing this larger than life, dominating character with the rest of the cast being more experienced than myself,” he said. “I’m very new to acting, and it’s intimidating to work with people who have experience. Playing this character in that circumstance was difficult.”

Maggie is portrayed by Frisco senior Aubrey Moore, and her challenge in portraying “this feisty woman” was to “create a line to her emotions.”

“Maggie is an incredibly smart woman,” she said. “She can read other people like the back of her hand, and she isn’t afraid to let them know how she feels about them. Maggie is a bit of a wild card as well. Her temper can get the best of her, and her emotions can switch back and forth at a moment’s notice.”

At her core, Maggie wants her husband, Brick, to love her and for their future to be financially secure, Moore explains.

“Throughout the play, the audience can see her trying to achieve these goals with varying degrees of success,” she said. “Maggie goes on a huge journey through the play, and tracking how she feels and reacts to certain characters helped me discover who she really is. We talk in rehearsals about how each character is playing a game of sorts. For Maggie, she has a particular hand of cards, and if she can just play them right then maybe, just maybe, she will get what she wants.”

Reflecting Williams’ poetic writing style, Heifner said he is directing the play in a style that is sometimes called “poetic realism,” and he’s using notes from the original Broadway production.

“Williams called this ‘plastic theatre,'” Heifner said. “It is a method he and his director Elia Kazan employed to heighten awareness of certain events or characterizations. Plastic theatre is the use of props or staging or sound or lights or all of it to impress upon the audience more abstract ideas. It is often very blatant and seems unrealistic, but it adds to the drama of the scene.”

On its deepest level, Williams’ play is about the human condition, Moore said, and about how each individual deals with loss, death and longing. “Williams’ play shows that people are stronger together than apart,” she added. “These characters struggle to connect with one another, but if they can, they will all be better off for it. I hope when the audience sees the show, they realize this and make a conscious effort to be closer with their loved ones.”

Just directing a Tennessee Williams play is enough of a pleasure for a seasoned director like Heifner, not to mention seeing how this cast of student actors has put Williams’ poetry into motion on the stage.

“They are truly dedicated and are giving their very best,” Heifner. “We all realize we are doing a play by one of the greatest American playwrights, and it’s an honor to be part of the process.”

“Cat on a Hot Tin Roof” will be presented at 7:30 p.m. Tuesday through Saturday, April 30 through May 4, in Turner Auditorium in the Griffith Fine Arts Building, 2222 Alumni Drive, on the SFA campus.

Single tickets are $15 for adults, $10 for seniors and $7.50 for youth. Tickets for SFA students are $5. For tickets or more information, call the SFA Fine Arts Box Office at (936) 468-6407 or visit www.theatre.sfasu.edu.

The Stephen F. Austin State University Charter School will celebrate its 10-year anniversary at 3 p.m. May 22 with a meet-and-greet outside the Janice A. Pattillo Early Childhood Research Center on Raguet Street.

Named the No. 1 charter elementary school in Texas by Niche in 2018, the SFA Charter School has set a standard of excellence for its students and educators throughout the decade.

The institution serves both the public and university by existing as a free public school and learning environment for SFA students studying elementary education.

“The SFA Charter School has been an important and successful endeavor these past 10 years. Not only has its teachers and administrators been successful in bringing high-quality education to children, but also the school has been recognized for its fiscal responsibility and its clear audit findings year after year,” said Dr. Judy Abbott, dean of the James I. Perkins College of Education.

During the school’s anniversary celebration, guests can visit with other SFA Charter School teachers, students, families and friends who have been part of the school’s community. Photos, yearbooks, memory book notes and questionnaires will be on display. Cake and punch will be provided. The event is free and open to the public.

“During this milestone, we pause to bring all of our SFA Charter School family back to campus for this celebration,” said Lysa Hagan, director of the SFA Charter School. “Our families know, once you are an SFA Charter kid, you are always an SFA Charter kid.”

It’s the school’s mission to create a responsive social learning community that inspires autonomy, integrity and deep critical thinking.

“Our school environment has been nurtured and supported throughout the years by the work of Dr. Janice Pattillo, a local early childhood educator,” Hagan said.

The SFA Charter School has garnered recognition from several agencies and organizations, including the Texas Comptroller’s Award, which recognizes districts and campuses that achieve academic success through cost effective operations and an “A superior” from the Charter Financial Integrity Rating System of Texas. Also, it met the Texas Education Agency Accountability Rating for the STAAR performance with distinction in English and language arts/reading, mathematics, science, comparative closing the gaps, comparative academic growth, and postsecondary readiness.

By Kasi Dickerson, senior marketing communications specialist at Stephen F. Austin State University.