Everything Nac

The Rockin’ Axes at Stephen F. Austin State University will present the program “The Sounds of the ’70s” when the ensemble performs at 7:30 p.m. Saturday, Dec. 5, in Cole Concert Hall on the SFA campus.

The concert will feature the music of the widely popular Stevie Wonder; the Bee Gees; Kansas; Billy Joel; the Eagles; Earth, Wind and Fire; and others.

The Rockin’ Axes is comprised of students in the SFA School of Music’s Sound Recording Technology program. Their course focus has been on influential and popular music of the 20th and 21st centuries, according to Andrew Sperandeo, SRT instructor and director/arranger for the Rockin’ Axes.

“This course is designed to assist students in developing the skills necessary to transcribe, rehearse, arrange and perform in an ensemble setting,” Sperandeo explained.

Last year, the students performed some of the more influential rock, pop and rhythm-and-blues music of the 1950s and ’60s.

“This year, I wanted the students to experience the evolution of the popular genres as well as to see how they relate to the earlier artists we covered,” Sperandeo said.

Wonder’s “I Wish” is on the program because the artist is “a great example of a talented songwriter and musician who is very capable of many genres, including R&B, rock and jazz,” he said.

The Bee Gees’ “Stayin’ Alive” was selected to expose the students to disco, while “Carry On My Wayward Son” by Kansas shows “that a rock song can be catchy and still have a lot of substance,” Sperandeo said, adding the song has “soaring harmonized vocals, feel and time signature changes, as well as good ole blues guitar solos.”

No ’70s concert is complete without the music of the Eagles, Sperandeo said, and “Hotel California” features “pleasant harmonized vocals and the iconic guitar solos.”

“This song shows again how popular music does not have to be ‘dumbed down,'” he said. “The chord progression utilizes some basic secondary dominant functions to create the well-known verse section of this tune.”

Earth, Wind and Fire’s “September” is “a great way to end the night on a positive and upbeat note for the students, the audience and the director,” Sperandeo said.

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.

Stephen F. Austin State University School of Theatre will present the student-directed “Bobby Gould in Hell” at 7:30 p.m. Friday, Dec. 4, and at 2 and 7:30 p.m. Saturday, Dec. 5, in the Downstage Theatre on the SFA campus.

Baytown senior theatre major Stephen Davis directs David Mamet’s one-act play that examines the life of the title character and his past sins after he dies and is in the waiting room of hell.

“‘Bobby Gould in Hell’ is a dark comedy in which we find our title character in discussion with the Devil himself about Gould’s immortal soul,” Davis said.

The cast includes Beaumont sophomore Erik Freels-Vargas as The Interrogator; Lufkin sophomore Jacob Carr as Bobby Gould; Port Aransas freshman Maggie Strain as The Assistant; and Houston freshman Christina Gibson as Glenna.

The production staff includes Nicole Freyer, Corpus Christi freshman, stage manager; Austin Davis, Keller senior, scenic designer; Elizabeth Bielstein, Houston sophomore, costume designer; Katy Morton, Marshall senior, lighting designer; Skyler Moore, Plano sophomore, sound designer; Samantha Friedrich, Bay City senior, hair and makeup designer; and Taylor Solice, Dallas sophomore, properties master.

Davis was assistant director for the School of Theatre’s production of “The Arabian Nights” earlier this fall and was stage manager for “August: Osage County” this past spring.

“Bobby Gould in Hell’ is recommended for mature audiences. Faculty production advisor is Scott Shattuck, director of the School of Theatre.

The Downstage Theatre is located in the Griffith Fine Arts Building, 2222 Alumni Drive.

Tickets are $4. For tickets or more information, call the SFA Fine Arts Box Office at (936) 468-6407 or visit theatre.sfasu.edu.

The Stephen F. Austin State University School of Art and the Friends of the Visual Arts will present a free, one-night screening of “Inocente” at 7 p.m. Friday, Dec. 4, in The Cole Art Center @ The Old Opera House in downtown Nacogdoches.

“Inocente” is a personal and vibrant coming of age documentary about a young artist’s fierce determination to never surrender to the bleakness of her surroundings, according to information at inocentedoc.com.

At 15, Inocente refuses to let her dream of becoming an artist be caged by her life as an undocumented immigrant forced to live homeless for the last nine years. “Inocente” is both a timeless story about the transformative power of art and a timely snapshot of the new face of homelessness in America – children. Neither sentimental nor sensational, “Inocente” will immerse the viewer in the real, day-to-day existence of a young girl who is battling a war rarely seen, the website says.

Sean Fine and Andrea Nix direct the 40-minute documentary, which won an Oscar for Best Documentary 2013.

Also shown that night will be “Hola,” a short film by SFA filmmaking graduate student James McMahen about how the language of love transcends all barriers and limitations. McMahen is currently working on his thesis documentary, entitled “Duality,” about female art nude models who are also creators of art involving the female form.

These screenings are part of the School of Art’s monthly First Friday Film Series and are sponsored in part by the Nacogdoches Film Festival, William Arscott, The Liberty Bell, Nacogdoches Junior Forum, Karon Gillespie, Mike Mollot, Main Street Nacogdoches, David Kulhavy, John and Kristen Heath, Brad Maule, Galleria Z, Jill Carrington, Jean Stephens and Jim and Mary Neal.

The Cole Art Center is located at 329 E. Main St. For more information, call (936) 468-1131.

Each spring, the Congressional Institute sponsors a nationwide high school visual art competition to recognize and encourage artistic talent in the nation and in each congressional district. The competition provides an opportunity for members of Congress to encourage and recognize the artistic talents of their young constituents.

This year, the artwork submitted for the competition by students living within U.S. Rep. Louie Gohmert’s congressional district will be displayed in Griffith Gallery on the campus of Stephen F. Austin State University.

The entries will be exhibited beginning Tuesday, Dec. 1, and will be displayed through Saturday, Dec. 5. An awards ceremony will take place at 11 a.m. Saturday in W.M. Turner Auditorium followed by a reception in Griffith Gallery. The exhibition will close following the reception. Griffith Gallery is located in the Griffith Fine Arts Building and is open from 12:30 to 5 p.m. Tuesday through Friday. The exhibition will open at 10 a.m. prior to the awards ceremony.

First place winners will be recognized at an awards ceremony in Washington, D.C.

Since it began in 1982, more than 650,000 high school students have participated. Students submit entries to their representative’s office, and panels of local artists in each district select the winning entries.

First place winning entries will be displayed in the hallway of the U.S. Capitol; second place winning entries will be displayed in Gohmert’s office in Washington; and third place winning entries will be displayed in Gohmert’s district office in Tyler.

The Cole Art Center @ The Old Opera House in downtown Nacogdoches will be open during a portion of the Thanksgiving holiday weekend, gallery officials have announced.

Cole Art Center will be open Tuesday and Wednesday, Nov. 24 and 25, closed Thanksgiving Day and Friday, Nov. 26 and 27, and open Saturday, Nov. 28, for the downtown Wassail Fest and Main Street’s holiday lighting contest.

The theme of the art center’s window display is based on the 1913 stop-action film “The Insects’ Christmas” by Wladyslaw Starewicz, with a few modern twists thrown in. Starewicz is recognized as the father of Russian animation, pioneering his fanciful stop-motion films. “The Insects’ Christmas” is a six-and-a-half-minute silent, animated and captioned film, emphasizing the joy of the holiday season.

Exhibitions showing in the art center include “The Devil You Say! The Saintly, and Not So Saintly, in Folk Art,” which shows in Reavley Gallery through Jan. 16. Two other exhibitions, “The Tenderness of Egocentrism: Drawings by Manuel Miranda” in the Reception Gallery and “25 Veinticinco: Mexican-American Prints from UT San Antonio” in Ledbetter Gallery, will run through Jan. 2.

Normal gallery hours are from 12:30 to 5 p.m. Tuesday through Friday and from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Saturday.

The exhibitions are free and open to the public. They are sponsored in part by the SFA Friends of the Visual Arts and the Nacogdoches Junior Forum. The Cole Art Center is located at 329 E. Main St. For additional information, call (936) 468-1131.