Everything Nac

An informal, intimate evening with two of the most beloved performers in East Texas is a must-see event when the Friends of Theatre at Stephen F. Austin State University host a 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.

Brad Maule and Rhonda Plymate Simmons will perform close to the audience and conclude the reading with a casual conversation with everyone in attendance. Proceeds from the event will provide scholarship opportunities for students in the SFA School of Theatre.

“Love Letters” is a play that depicts a life-long romance conducted almost entirely through the mail, according to Scott Shattuck, who will direct the reading. Gurney, the play’s author, may be best known for having written the Broadway play and the film “Sylvia,” in which a woman plays a dog adopted by a married couple, according to Shattuck.

“‘Love Letters’ 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 or other theatrical spectacle,” Shattuck said. “Their relationship 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.

“It is funny, poignant and surprisingly suspenseful as the audience becomes rapt in the ups and downs and very human surprises of this singular relationship,” he said.

The inspiration for the reading came when Simmons, who is the longtime president of the Friends of Theatre, expressed a desire to raise funds for the students of the School of Theatre.

“She and Brad had been hoping for a chance to perform together again after the fun they had appearing in the School of Theatre’s Mainstage Series production of ‘August: Osage County’ in the spring of 2015,” Shattuck said. “Gurney’s play presents an ideal opportunity.”

The Friends of Theatre is the local community support organization for SFA’s School of Theatre. Generous Nacogdoches community members contribute and raise funds for scholarships, awards and other projects that benefit theatre students and the school’s theatre productions. They also provide hospitality for guest artists such as the playwrights that come to Nacogdoches for Jack Heifner’s biennial Festival of New American Plays.

“Members also serve as advocates for theatre by influencing other community members to attend productions and support our work,” Shattuck said.

Recently, the School of Theatre used Friends of Theatre funding, in part, to provide scholarships for students who traveled in 2015 to Edinburgh, Scotland, to perform in the International College Theatre Festival at the renowned Festival Fringe and who traveled this past June to Ireland to study Irish theatre, culture, history and literature.

“Hopefully, the proceeds from this reading will replenish these funds to give the school the flexibility to award scholarships or other support for similarly exciting opportunities in years to come,” Shattuck said.

Maule is a faculty member of the schools of Theatre and Art at SFA. Before returning to his alma mater in Nacogdoches, he spent 22 years as a star of television’s “General Hospital,” earning two Daytime Emmy Nominations for his acting, and as a guest star on dozens of primetime series. He is well known in Deep East Texas not only for his television and commercial appearances but for his long-running radio talk show, Maule in the Morning (which recently concluded its run on Lufkin’s KSFA) and his support of countless local charity events and businesses.

Simmons was a professional actor and singer in Dallas and New York City for several years before coming to Nacogdoches to start a family, open a business, and earn a master’s degree in theatre at SFA. As a student here, her roles included Mama Rose in “Gypsy” and Portia in “The Merchant of Venice.” She later appeared with SFA faculty and staff members in “Murder at the Howard Johnson’s” and later in the Summer Repertory Theatre production of “The Beauty Queen of Leenane.” She is also owner of Express Employment Professionals serving Nacogdoches and Lufkin.

Shattuck, who recently became associate dean of the College of Fine Arts after nine years as director of the School of Theatre, is the co-author of the textbook “The Director’s Vision” Second Edition. At SFA, he has directed productions including “The Arabian Nights,” “August: Osage County,” “Romeo and Juliet” and “Little Shop of Horrors.”

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.

Hundreds of Stephen F. Austin State University education students who will soon graduate and begin teaching attended SFA’s Student-Teacher Orientation Thursday, Aug. 18.

Throughout the day, James I. Perkins College of Education faculty members discussed student-teaching guidelines, handbook policies and student-teaching tips, as well as answered questions about this next step in preparing students to become educators.

Dr. Janet Tareilo, associate dean of the college, explained the students’ focus should now be concentrated on student teaching.

“SFA has a tradition of being ‘the’ teachers’ college, as it began as a teachers’ college and is one of the top universities for teacher education in Texas,” Tareilo said. “We continue to mold our students to enter this profession and join in this tradition.”

Senior education major Susan Cortez, a transfer student who completed her coursework online at SFA and plans to student teach world cultures at Birdville Independent School District, said she enjoyed attending the orientation because it brought her to campus where she was able to network with like-minded individuals.

“The information is wonderful and so helpful for student teaching,” Cortez said. “It was great to come here and meet people who are doing the same program.”

During the event, teacher candidates also met with their field supervisors and had the option to attend a résumé-writing workshop.

The Stephen F. Austin State University School of Art will present as its first exhibition of the 2016-17 academic year, “Christopher Troutman: Drawing and Narrative,” which runs Aug. 31 through Oct. 14 in Griffith Gallery in the Griffith Fine Arts Building on the SFA campus.

Troutman’s beautifully rendered drawings portray scenes from urban daily life, defining the form and space of figures within their environments, according to John Handley, director of galleries at SFA.

“His work touches on the idea of illustration,” Handley said. “In the artist’s own words, they ‘examine storytelling inspired by personal narrative.’ His images are complex in their narrative and visual representation as well as in their use of unusual perspective.”

Handley describes Troutman as “a master draftsman, able to create visually compelling imagery that touches on the real and the imaginary.”

“Having a command of drawing is a foundation of great art, even if the artist abandons it for abstraction,” he said.

Born in Kansas City, Missouri, and raised in Peoria, Illinois, Troutman has lived since 2013 in Beaumont, where he teaches all levels of drawing at Lamar University. In his work, Troutman uses drawing to define the form and space of figures and environments, as well as examine storytelling inspired by personal narrative.

He earned a B.F.A. from Bradley University in Peoria. After later moving to Japan, he and his wife opened a conversational English School in Kagoshima City. While living in southern Japan, he was the first foreign resident of Kagoshima to be awarded the Grand Prize at the 52nd Kagoshima Prefectural Art Exhibition in 2005. After completing an M.F.A. in drawing and painting at California State University, Long Beach, Troutman taught in at Eastern Kentucky University, Vincennes University and Eastern Illinois University.

He has had solo exhibitions in Japan and at several locations throughout the U.S. Troutman’s work has appeared in numerous drawing publications and in juried drawing exhibitions. He was recently awarded the Grand Prize (Paris Prize) at the 66th Miyanichi Sougou Art Exhibition in Miyazaki Prefecture, Japan. He and his family return to Japan annually.

Admission to the exhibition, which is sponsored in part by the Friends of the Visual Arts and Nacogdoches Junior Forum, is free. A reception with the artist will be from 5 to 6:30 p.m. Thursday, Sept. 29, in Griffith Gallery.

Gallery hours are from 12:30 to 5 p.m. Tuesday through Friday. For more information, call (936) 468-1131. Griffith Fine Arts Building is located at 2222 Alumni Drive.