Everything Nac

The Texas Tribune will host an event with Sen. Robert Nichols and Rep. Travis Clardy from 11:30 a.m. until 1 p.m. Wednesday, Oct. 22, at the Stephen F. Austin State University.
Evan Smith, Texas Tribune CEO and editor-in-chief, will moderate the discussion with a focus on the upcoming 84th Legislative Session, followed by an audience question-and-answer session.
Guests must register in advance at www.sfasu.edu/texastribune for the event, which is free and open to the public. It will be held in the Baker Pattillo Student Center Twilight Ballroom.
The Texas Tribune is a nonpartisan, nonprofit media organization that promotes civic engagement and discourse on public policy, politics, government and other matters of statewide concern. Since its beginning in November 2009, the Tribune has won nine Edward R. Murrow Awards from the Radio Television Digital News Association and an innovation award in watchdog journalism.
Nichols, R-Jacksonville, represents District 3 in the Texas Senate and serves as the chair of the Transportation Committee, as the vice-chair of the Intergovernmental Relations Committee, and as a member of the Finance, Health & Human Services, State Affairs, and Natural Resources committees. He has a degree in industrial engineering from Lamar University and served for eight years on the Texas Transportation Commission.
Clardy, R-Nacogdoches, represents District 11 in the Texas House and serves as a member of the Higher Education, Local & Consent Calendars, Redistricting, and Special Purpose Districts committees. He is a practicing attorney, owns the Clardy Law Offices in Nacogdoches and Lufkin, and received his Doctor of Jurisprudence from the Pepperdine University School of Law.
For more information, call (936) 468-2605.

Benefitting the Dr. Raymond Lee Worsham Scholarship, the Lumberjack Homecoming Disc Golf Tournament hosted by the Stephen F. Austin State University Alumni Association will start at 2 p.m. Friday, Oct. 24, at Pecan Park.

The format will be doubles/best shot, allowing two players to tee off for the best lie. In this format, the team will choose which disc to play to complete the hole. The shotgun start is set for 2 p.m.

Registration is $10 for students and $20 for alumni and other community members. Registration is due by noon Friday, Oct. 24. Visit www.sfaalumni.com/event/SFAHomecoming2014 to register online or download a registration form.

Winners will receive prizes ranging from SFA gear to coupons and much more. The SFA Alumni Association, SFA Campus Recreation Center and Olde Towne General Store are the main sponsors for this year’s event.

For more information on Worsham or the Disc Golf Tournament, please call (936) 468-3507 or visit the Campus Rec website at www.sfasu.edu/campusrec/314.asp. You also can contact the SFA Alumni Association at (936) 468-3407 or visit www.sfaalumni.com.

Registration has begun for Stephen F. Austin State University’s 41st Annual Alumni Golf Tournament to be held Friday, Oct. 24, at the Piney Woods Country Club.

The tournament, which kicks off the university’s annual Homecoming weekend, is hosted by the SFA Alumni Association. The entry fee is $150 per person or $600 for a team and includes tournament play, golf cart rental, refreshments, box lunch and post-tournament hors d’oeuvres. Entry forms are available at the Tracie D. Pearman Alumni Center on SFA’s campus or online at www.sfaalumni.com/event/SFAHomecoming2014.

Registration is set for 9:30 a.m. Friday, Oct. 24, with the tournament beginning at 11 a.m. The format is a four-player scramble. Players may enter as a single or assemble their own four-player team.

Prizes will be awarded to gross and net winners, and all players will receive tee gifts. An award presentation will immediately follow the conclusion of the tournament.

The tournament is sponsored by endowments honoring SFA alumni T.P. White, J. Harold Bates and R. Leon Hutchison. Proceeds from the tournament will benefit SFA alumni scholarships. In the last several years, players and sponsors have added more than $350,000 to the SFA Scholarship Fund, which is administered by the SFA Alumni Association.

For more information, contact (936) 468-3407 or visit www.sfaalumni.com.

The Stephen F. Austin State University School of Theatre has been accepted to perform in the 2015 International Collegiate Theatre Festival in

Edinburgh, Scotland.

During a two-week trip to Edinburgh next August, the School of Theatre will produce two new plays, including “Hate Mail” by SFA playwright-in-residence

Jack Heifner and the student-written “Mom and Dad” by Nick Pinelli and Allison Day. Pinelli, The Woodlands senior, and Day, San Antonio senior, wrote the play as an honors project for their class with Heifner.

Angela Bacarisse, professor of theatre at SFA, will direct both plays. The SFA improvisational troupe Improv Strikes Back will also perform at the

festival.

“This will give our students a great opportunity to be seen on the international stage,” Bacarisse said.

In addition to acting in two new shows, SFA students will house manage, run the light and soundboards and stage manage for their performances. Students will get experience touring shows at an international festival and learn organizational skills while being exposed to art, music, theatre and dance from around the world, Bacarisse said.

Bacarisse traveled to Scotland this past summer to scout out the festival and recruit at the American High School College Fair. She will recruit again when she takes the theatre students to Edinburgh next year.

Begun in 1947, the Edinburgh Festival Fringe, one of several festivals that will take place in Edinburgh while the SFA students are there, has become the largest international theatre arts festival in the world. During festival season, which is three weeks in August, the International Festival, the Festival Fringe, jazz festival, art festival and book festival all take place in Edinburgh.

“The city is alive with art everywhere,” Bacarisse said.

In addition to performances, three special events are planned for the SFA students, according to Bacarisse, including an all-day tour of Stirling Castle and the national forest, a Cailleigh (pronounced kay-lee), described as “an evening of Scottish dance and culture,” and the Royal Edinburgh Military Tattoo at Edinburgh Castle, which Bacarisse described as “completely overwhelming” when she attended it last August.

“It was astounding – hundreds of bagpipers and drummers marching in kilts and formation,” she said, “followed by military bands from Trinidad and Tobago (the only military marching steel drum band in the world), Zulu warriors, and groups from several other countries that have had ties to Scotland.”

The School of Theatre is looking for people who may want to help sponsor students and pay for trip expenses or participate in the trip.

“We’re hoping to raise money to help defray the costs for students,” Bacarisse said.

The trip is open to community members who may want to experience the festivals and go along to support student performers.

“We have specific performances that we have to be at, and we ask that community members support our shows,” she said. “But other than that, people are free to explore the city at their leisure. With five festivals going on while we are there, there is plenty to see and do.

“This trip has been described by many students as ‘life changing,’ and I understand that sentiment,” Bacarrise said. “I met with faculty who were participating for the first time and others who were on their second trip. They felt that every minute is valuable for the students.”

For information on accompanying the students, contact Bacarisse at abacarisse@sfasu.edu or (936) 468-1126. Tax-exempt donations can be made at sfasu.edu/giving by clicking on the “give online” tab and writing “Scotland trip” for special instructions.