Everything Nac

Creating costumes for a period play like Molière’s “Tartuffe” takes time, skill and a great deal of preparation. The best designers do extensive research before creating sketches or starting construction.

This past summer, Stephen F. Austin State University Professor of Theatre Angela Bacarisse happened to be in Europe with touring theatre students at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe in Edinburgh, Scotland. She took the opportunity to visit France, as well, to do museum and gallery research for the School of Theatre’s upcoming presentation of “Tartuffe.”

“I was able to see actual paintings up close, instead of in a book or on a website,” she said.

The next step was to begin designing specific costume details by working with the play and character analysis, she explained.

“The clothing of this time period was described by one of my college professors as ‘everyone looks like an upholstered ladder-back chair,” Bacarisse said. “I couldn’t agree more – stiff and upright, with lots of ribbon and froufrou.”

The School of Theatre will present “Tartuffe” at 7:30 p.m. Tuesday through Saturday, Oct. 3 through 7, in W.M. Turner Auditorium on the SFA campus. Set in the 17th century, the play depicts a con man (the title character) who has duped a wealthy businessman named Orgon. Impressed with Tartuffe’s pretensions of moral purity and religious piety, Orgon invites the imposter to move into his lavish Paris home and take full advantage of his hospitality.

Orgon’s family can see that Tartuffe is a hypocrite, but when they urge caution, Orgon takes offense and offers Tartuffe still more access to his property – and even to his daughter and his sensible wife, Elmire. She lays a trap for the lecherous grifter, but not before her husband has been taken for all they’re worth.

Bacarisse’s baroque-era costumes for “Tartuffe” will be beautiful and colorful, and matched with elaborate period wigs, according to Scott Shattuck, professor in the SFA School of Theatre and the play’s director. “Just as much as the quick-paced acting style and designer Richard Ellis’s richly decorative scenery, the costumes will be one of the most enjoyable features of the show,” he said.

Costumes for a play like “Tartuffe” are difficult to build from scratch, Bacarisse said. Two students have been assigned that task, and the costume shop supervisor, Barbara Blackwell, is re-building many costumes drawn from the School of Theatre’s considerable storage. Additionally, the School of Theatre has rented a few costumes from the Texas Shakespeare Festival.

“One of these is from the production of ‘Tartuffe’ that I worked on there,” Bacarisse said, “but it’s being worn here by a different character.”

Movement on stage while wearing the elaborate costumes can be a challenge for student actors, Shattuck said.

“Folks in 17th century France dressed in ways that were more elaborate and restrictive than the T-shirts, shorts and sneakers that today’s college students are used to,” Shattuck said. “They’ll need to learn to move as if they’re accustomed to the period’s long dresses and so forth.

“Also, physical comedy always requires much more detailed planning and precision than the audience should realize,” he added. “Keeping the tempo lively and the surprises coming will be crucial to our success.”

“But gosh, the costumes are pretty,” Bacarisse said. “Assistant costume designer senior Danika Pettyjohn is doing a great job working with the decorations for each costume.”

Single tickets are $15 for adult, $10 for senior and $7.50 for student/youth. For tickets or more information, call the SFA Fine Arts Box Office at (936) 468-6407 or visit www.theatre.sfasu.edu. The play is recommended for mature audiences.

While Stephen F. Austin State University is reporting a fall enrollment of 12,614 students, a 1-percent decrease from fall 2016, there are bright spots to be found in the enrollment numbers.

The highest first-time undergraduate retention rate for fall 2017 is 71.6 percent, representing a 4.3-percent increase during the past five years.

SFA has recorded a five-year increase in the number of first-time undergraduates of 6.6 percent. In 2013, there were 2,016 SFA students who were first-time undergraduates; in 2017, there are 2,150 first-time undergraduates.

“This upward trend is a reflection of the new initiatives we have implemented to create meaningful and sustained enrollment growth,” said Dr. Steve Bullard, SFA provost and vice president for academic affairs. “We are setting tuition and fees earlier so that we can offer financial aid packages sooner, and we’ve increased the amount of scholarship dollars that are available. We created new programs, including an online Bachelor of Business Administration and programs in Houston and The Woodlands. All of these will contribute to future growth in enrollment.”

SFA also awarded more degrees in 2017 than in 2016, when 2,703 degrees were distributed. During the 2017 academic year, the university awarded 2,767 degrees, a 2.4-percent increase over the prior year.

The number of students in each of SFA’s six colleges is:

· Rusche College of Business, 1,848, a 3.4-percent increase from 1,787 in fall 2016;

· James I. Perkins College of Education, 3,968, a 2.6-percent decrease from 4,076;

· College of Fine Arts, 920, a .1-percent increase from 919;

· Arthur Temple College of Forestry and Agriculture, 800, a 4.2-percent increase from 768;

· College of Liberal and Applied Arts, 2,672, a decrease of 1.9 percent from 2,724; and

· College of Sciences and Mathematics, 2,406, down 2.5 percent from 2,468.

While SFA recorded increased graduate enrollment in half of its colleges for fall 2017, overall enrollment in SFA’s Graduate School was down 3.3 percent.

“As market and student demands change, we respond by developing new graduate programs and by offering existing degrees in new ways,” said Dr. Richard Berry, Graduate School dean. “Other such offerings are in the works now and will launch in the coming year. These changes in program delivery are a part of the university’s initiative to ‘meet our students where they are.’”

Among the graduate programs offered by the university are a Master of Social Work in a face-to-face format in The Woodlands and an online Master of Public Administration. This fall, the university also began offering a Master of Science in Nursing with a nurse practitioner focus online. In the coming year, SFA will implement a Master of Science in cybersecurity.

In the College of Sciences and Mathematics, graduate enrollment increased by 13.2 percent with a total of 137 graduate students enrolled. Additionally, graduate enrollment grew in the Rusche College of Business from 128 to 134, a 4.7-percent increase from fall 2016. Also, graduate enrollment in the College of Fine Arts grew from 78 to 82 students, a 5.1-percent increase. Decreases were reported in the College of Education, from 989 to 965; Forestry and Agriculture, from 107 to 91; and Liberal and Applied Arts, from 261 to 220.