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Spontaneity will be at the heart of an upcoming performance by local acting favorites Brad Maule and Rhonda Plymate Simmons when they take the stage together again for the Stephen F. Austin State University Friends of Theatre upcoming fundraiser.

Working together for the first time since the School of Theatre’s production of “August: Osage County,” Maule and Simmons will perform a staged reading of A.R. Gurney’s “Love Letters” at 7:30 p.m. Friday, Sept. 9, in W.M. Turner Auditorium on the SFA campus. Proceeds from the event will provide scholarship opportunities for theatre students.

“I don’t get an opportunity to act that often on stage, so this is a wonderful thing for me,” Maule said, “and it’s great to work with Rhonda again.”

“Love Letters” is a play that depicts a life-long romance conducted almost entirely through the mail. The play is written to be performed as “reader’s theatre” where two actors (a man and a woman) sit side by side with scripts open and perform the play with minimal movement. The relationship between the two characters begins with a simple thank-you note from one child to another and extends through several decades of successful, complicated lives lived mostly separately but always with an undercurrent of powerful connection between the two. Last fall, a national tour of “Love Letters” featured “Love Story” stars Ali MacGraw and Ryan O’Neal.

“I think we’ve all had unrequited love in our lives, and ‘Love Letters’ is a continuing lifetime of romance for two people,” Maule said.

“It’s a little slice of the Hallmark channel,” Simmons said. “It’s a humorously bittersweet journey involving two people and their lifelong letters of communication.”

Doing the reading with only a couple of technical rehearsals, Maule likened this type of performance to “walking along the edge of a cliff.”

“I like that sort of ‘acting danger,'” he said with a laugh. “It’s fun.”

Maule said he hopes the audience gets a sense of the spontaneity involved in the production.

“It’s not over-rehearsed; in fact, it’s not very rehearsed at all. It tends to take on the personalities of the people who are reading it, so we don’t know what the outcome will be, and neither does the audience,” he said. “Even though the words are already written, you never know where the sparks and the connections will happen.”

Because the reading is mounted without the costs of costuming and sets, those who attend get the satisfaction of knowing they personally contributed to the education of theatre students, Simmons said.

“We wanted to do something low cost, so that every dime spent on tickets would allow audience members to feel like they were giving directly to students,” she said. “We’ve done many different fundraisers, but we thought this might have a different appeal. A $50 contribution to scholarships is not a huge amount to ask of two people, especially if you enjoy the evening.”

Maule said there are no “financial motives” for himself or Simmons in committing to the performance, meaning “our intentions are in the right place.”

“It’s not about ego or monetary gain,” he said. “It’s just a good, fun project, and therefore should be a good, fun evening.”

“We’re two people charming an audience, hopefully, with a brief look into ourselves and our own relationships,” Simmons said. “And, we’re promoting the cultural enjoyment of theatre.”

Scott Shattuck, associate dean of the College of Fine Arts, is the director.

Tickets for the reading are $25 for adults and seniors and $7.50 for students. For tickets or more information, visit theatre.sfasu.edu or call (936) 468-6407 or (888) 240-ARTS. Turner Auditorium is located in the Griffith Fine Arts Building, 2222 Alumni Drive.

With a deadline of 4:29 p.m., a team of university students began to generate ideas for the competition. The team was allowed only 30 hours to develop a plan to help Bike Maryland, a not-for-profit organization, rework its infrastructure.

Jacquelyn King, a Stephen F. Austin State University graduate student in the Schlief School of Accountancy from Livingston, Texas, was a participant in the 2016 Project Run With It competition. Her team, comprised of four university students, placed first for its work with Bike Maryland, an organization that promotes bicycling, increases safety, improves conditions and provides a voice for bicyclists in Maryland, according to bikemaryland.org.

“We stayed up for like 20 hours straight, but it was worth it at the end of the day,” King said.

The competition was part of the annual Beta Alpha Psi meeting, which took place in Baltimore, Maryland, this August. BAP is an international honor organization for financial information professionals, and King is a member of the SFA chapter, Epsilon Mu. Members must maintain a high GPA and commit to community service and professional hours.

This is the second consecutive year an SFA student in the Rusche College of Business has been part of a team that placed first at the competition. SFA Epsilon Mu co-faculty advisers Drs. Nikki Shoemaker and Kelly Noe attended the meeting with 11 students who attended professional workshops.

“We are thrilled our students have this opportunity and that two years in a row they have been rewarded for their hard work. The experience gets students out of their comfort zone, and it allows them to meet people from all walks of life and different schools,” Shoemaker said. “It allows them to see that their education here at SFA is on par with other universities, and they are getting to share in the same types of experiences as larger schools.”

The competition involves BAP student representatives from several universities working in 18 teams to develop solutions to real-life business problems for three not-for-profit organizations.

King said her team first analyzed Bike Maryland’s website and social media accounts to help them better understand the organization. Then, the team established a base for Bike Maryland’s subscribers to increase revenue and created a social media campaign to help gain exposure. Team members produced a short presentation, which they delivered to Bike Maryland representatives who then selected the winning team.

“At the end of the day it is about your client, what they need and want. The competition taught me a lot of things, but mostly to get out of my comfort zone,” King said. “It was a great experience to be able to talk to and work with people from different schools and learn about their experiences.”

According to King, the competition also allowed her to tie everything she’s learned at SFA in her accounting, finance, management and marketing classes together.

Fred J. Allen, director of bands at Stephen F. Austin State University, completed a nine-day teaching trip in Tasmania this past summer.

Allen visited Tasmania in 2012 on behalf of SFA to continue developing the partnership between SFA’s School of Music and the Conservatorium of Music in Hobart. The SFA School of Music has had an exchange student agreement with the Conservatorium in Hobart for five years.

“During the 2012 trip, I met several of the band directors in Tasmania, and they invited me to come back to spend some time with their bands,” Allen said. His time was spent in three cities in Tasmania: Hobart, Burnie and Launceston.

“It was great getting to see how many people are active in the school and community bands in those cities,” he said.

Allen described the trip as having several components. “I rehearsed bands, taught conducting and composition lessons and gave classes in flute and clarinet.” In addition, he gave a guest lecture, “Composers Who Wrote for Band,” before the Musicological Society of Australia, Tasmania Chapter.

“The community band movement is very strong in Tasmania,” Allen said. “There is a strong push toward life-long learning and music making.”

Although this trip was self-funded, Allen was always introduced as being from SFA.

“Hopefully, this will lead to some exchange students from Tasmania to come to SFA,” he said.

The Stephen F. Austin State University Office of Multicultural Affairs has developed a new series allowing for open and honest discussion of difficult topics among the SFA and Nacogdoches communities.

Touching on racial tensions, police relations and LGBT issues, the first Brave Space Series will be at 4 p.m. Tuesday, Sept. 13, in the Multimedia Room on the second floor of the Baker Pattillo Student Center.

“Our goal with Brave Space is more conversation rather than a lecture or presentation,” said Dr. Griselda Flores, OMA assistant director. “It was developed with the goal of allowing students to express the way they feel about issues that have been going on recently in our society. So we are providing a space where they can speak about however it is they may feel and agree to disagree. We want their input.”

The Brave Space Series is the first of its kind to be hosted through the OMA. Though the office offers diversity- and unity-based programs throughout the year, the series is new and offers a unique opportunity.

“We specifically called it ‘Brave Space’ instead of ‘Safe Space’ because a lot of times when you say safe space, people think everyone is going to feel comfortable,” said Veronica Weaver, OMA director. “But that’s not necessarily the case. Participants will have to be open to having conversations that might be tough.”

The first Brave Space Series is titled “Your Racial Perspective.” The second will deal with LGBT issues and will take place at 4 p.m. Wednesday, Oct. 26, in the Tiered Classroom located on the second floor of the BPSC.