Everything Nac

The Nacogdoches Photographic Association and Nacogdoches Art League will open their 2015 gallery shows with a reception at 6 p.m. Friday, June 19, in The Cole Art Center @ The Old Opera House in downtown Nacogdoches.

Theme for the photographic association show is “Tells a Story,” and serving as juror was Johanna Warwick, assistant professor in the School of Art at Stephen F. Austin State University.

The “Tells a Story” theme was chosen because although many pictures are taken primarily because the subject captures the attention of the photographer to the beauty of the scene, or to the uniqueness of the scene, or because the scene satisfies an assignment, not every picture has an implicit story within it, explained R.G. Dean, member of the NPA. However, the occasional photograph becomes a way of both telling and preserving a story, he said.

“The challenge for the photographer is to combine the skills of composition, framing and proper exposure while recording a message,” Dean said. “Most photographers are occasionally fortunate enough to make a photograph which does that, so we chose a theme which gave us an opportunity to ‘retell’ some of the stories we have recorded with our cameras.”

The images were judged in three categories: “Fits the Theme,” “Appeal (how interesting the picture is and if the viewer wants to keep looking at it)” and “Technical Skill.” Warwick selected 66 images from the 128 that were entered by NPA members. Awards will include Best of Show, first, second and third places and honorable mentions in two categories, including traditional and digitally enhanced. The 2015 Best of Show recipient will be announced at the opening reception.

Since the Nacogdoches Art League embraces all visual art media and has members in numerous media, no theme is adopted for its gallery show. Awards will include Best of Show, first, second and third places and honorable mentions in four categories in each of two divisions – professional and non-professional. The categories in each division are: “Watercolor and Mixed-Media,” “Oils and Acrylics,” “Three Dimensional” and “Photography.”

This year’s juror is Jason Daniel, a native of Nacogdoches who earned BFA and MFA degrees from SFA. He taught studio art at Southern University in Baton Rouge for eight years and has taught art at Jersey Village High School in Houston for 10 years. Recently, his interests have included a more surrealist approach to painting and a renewed interest in ceramics.

The Nacogdoches Art League was organized in 1969. Its purpose is to encourage appreciation of and participation in the various visual art media. Activities include one or more annual exhibitions, art demonstrations and informative programs, and the awarding of one or more art scholarships each year to a Nacogdoches County high school senior who will attend SFA with a major or minor in art.

Regular meetings are held at 6 p.m. the second Thursday of each month September through June at The Cole Art Center, and guests are welcome to attend. Membership in NAL is open to anyone interested in the visual arts. For information, contact Dean at dean@sfasu.edu.

NPA meets at 7 p.m. the first Tuesday of each month (except on field-trip nights) in The Cole Art Center. For more information about the Nacogdoches Photographic Association, contact NPA president Bob Stout at nacvet@hotmail.com, or Dean at dean@sfasu.edu.

Both shows will run through July 18 with the NPA show in the Reavley Gallery and the NAL show in the Reception Gallery.

All receptions and gallery exhibitions are free of charge.

Gallery hours are 12:30 to 5 p.m. Tuesday through Friday and 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Saturday. The Cole Art Center is located at 329 E. Main Street. For additional information, call (936) 468-1131.

While directing the upcoming SummerStage Festival production of “The Emperor’s New Clothes: The Musical,” Angela Bacarisse will not just draw from her experiences as an actor and director. She can also rely on her expertise as a designer of costumes, makeup, scenery, lighting and props, as a dancer and choreographer, as a stage manager, grip, stage electrician … the list goes on … to make this musical just as successful as “Spamalot,” which she directed last fall.

Bacarisse teaches in the design and management areas for the Stephen F. Austin State University School of Theatre – stage/theatre management and beginning through advanced costume technology, design and makeup courses. But when it comes to theatre, she’s done it all.

Originally a dancer, she was cast at 13 in the Voigt Kempson Dancers in New Jersey, cast at 15 in Focus on Dance in Philadelphia and awarded a scholarship at 17 to study at der Tanze Schule in Stuttgart, Germany.

“During that experience, I realized that dance was not going to be a lifelong career,” she said. “So I applied to college to study theatre. I had been doing theatre in high school, both acting and stage managing.”

As a theatre student at the University of Delaware, she auditioned for the Delaware Dance Company, a professional ballet company. As a full time student, she could not be a full company member, but she danced as a soloist in the Nutcracker for two years and taught third-year ballet, advanced jazz, modern dance and also tap for adults.

“When I decided to pursue an MFA in theatre, I finally had to set dance aside as a performer and work primarily as a lighting designer and sometimes costume designer for Project Motion in Memphis, Tenn.,” she said.

She also taught lighting and costume design at her first teaching job for the Department of Theatre and Dance at James Madison University in Harrisonburg, Va. She taught at the College of Charleston and University of North Carolina-Asheville (UNCA) before coming to SFA.

She was a runway model for Macy’s/Bamberger’s department stores and appeared as Strawberry Shortcake at children’s events in the stores. Her varied career also included a stint as a professional cheerleader for the Philadelphia Stars in the former United States Football League.

She was the tailor for the TV series “Elvis: The Early Years,” did extras wardrobe on the film “Great Balls of Fire!” and crafted beadwork for the African villagers in “Ace Ventura: When Nature Calls.” She designed costumes for music videos produced by Joanne Cash and spent a few summers in San Francisco volunteering at Colossal Studios as a grip (the screen arts’ equivalent of a stagehand) and in craft services (catering) while also doing makeup for commercials and music videos before the live action studios closed and became Pixar. She also worked as an electrician and dresser at the Thomas Wolfe Auditorium in Asheville, N.C.

“While teaching at UNCA, I started working summers at the Texas Shakespeare Festival in Kilgore,” she said. “Everyone laughed at me for leaving the beautiful mountains where the summer averages in the mid-80s to live in Texas! But I fell in love with East Texas, and my future husband, so I targeted schools in the area, and when a position came open at SFA, I got it.”

For the SummerStage Festival, Bacarisse chose to direct the children’s favorite “The Emperor’s New Clothes: The Musical” by Karen Boettcher-Tate and Bill Francoeur because of its range in styles of music.

“I was looking for a show that would be appropriate for families and tells a good story,” she said. “I really want to do the story of young King Arthur, but it was just too soon after ‘Spamalot’ to tackle that.

“For some reason, I was thinking that ‘Emperor’ was smaller than ‘Spamalot,’ but it isn’t,” she said. “It is shorter but has almost as many cast members. We are having fun, and the students are working hard. Dr. Tod Fish of the School of Music faculty is working with us on the singing. Students are learning a lot about dance and the physical aspects of a musical as well as the presentational style of the play.”

Additionally, Bacarisse wants her students to “understand professionalism – caring about the work, no matter how minor the detail.” She wants them to have experience in “quick and appropriate problem solving.”

“This involves having a lot of specific technical knowledge in theatre, but also having the life skills of leadership and confidence in decision-making,” she said. “I want them to be the best at what they do, and if that is sweeping the floor, well, by golly, they will do it better than anyone else.”

It’s a busy time for Bacarisse. With all her other duties within the School the Theatre, she doesn’t often direct. But this summer, she is directing three plays.

“First is ‘Emperor’s New Clothes,’ and then I am directing two non-musicals that will be traveling to Edinburgh, Scotland, to participate in the international Fringe Festival,” she said. “I am very excited that I will be working with two new plays – one by SFA playwright-in-residence Jack Heifner and one by SFA graduate Nick Pinelli and senior theatre major Allison Day. I have a great cast lined up as well as student designers to actualize the shows. We will be in Scotland for two weeks performing and seeing all kinds of art and performance.”

This year’s SummerStage Festival is slated for June 26 through July 17, and in addition to “Emperor,” the festival features Tennessee Williams’ masterpiece “The Glass Menagerie.”

Performances of “The Emperor’s New Clothes: The Musical” are at 10 a.m. July 14 and 17; at 2 p.m. July 2, 5, 7 and 15; and at 6:30 p.m. July 2, 11 and 15. General admission tickets for “Emperor” are $7.50. Performances of “The Glass Menagerie” are at 7:30 p.m. nightly on June 26 and 27 and July 9, 10, 14, and 17, at 6:30 p.m. July 16, and at 2 p.m. July 12. General admission tickets are $15 for adults, $10 for seniors and $7.50 for students/youth.

For tickets or more information, visit theatre.sfasu.edu or call (936) 468-6407 or (888) 240-ARTS. All performances are in W.M. Turner Auditorium in the Griffith Fine Arts Building on the SFA campus.