Everything Nac

The Stephen F. Austin State University School of Music and its Friends of Music Concert Series will present “Zodiacal Light,” a faculty chamber recital, at 7:30 p.m. Tuesday, March 5, in Cole Concert Hall on the SFA campus.

The recital will feature Christina Guenther, flute; Christopher Ayer, clarinet; Lee Goodhew, bassoon; and Ron Petti, piano. They will perform works by Heitor Villa-Lobos, Roger Zare, Kyle Hovatter and Daniel Dorff.

Villa-Lobos was considered one of the most prominent Brazilian composers of the 20th century, according to Guenther. He synthesized Brazilian folk idioms with Western art music techniques to create a unique nationalist style. He composed his set of nine Bachianas Brasileiras (Brazilian Bach pieces) between 1930 and 1945 upon his return from Europe. These neoclassical compositions sought to link Brazilian popular music to Baroque harmonic and contrapuntal procedures, according to program notes by Amanda Cook.

Zare is an American composer and pianist. His “Zodiacal Light” was commissioned by the Flute and Clarinet Duo Consortium in 2018. Each movement is based on rare and awe-inspiring events that light up the night sky. The Aurora Borealis, or Northern Lights, is the inspiration for the first movement. The second movement, False Dawn, is a reference to the composition’s title. The Zodiacal Light is a luminous cone that appears along the ecliptic, or the line along which the sun moves throughout the year.

“Frequently during the movement, the flute, clarinet and later the piano sound create an aural representation of the meteors with quick rising gestures,” Zare writes of the piece. “The music alternates between a rapid fluid moto perpetuo and a more stilted but still energetic imitative texture. Towards the end, the flowing theme from the first movement returns. It is paired with the stilted texture at first, and finally stated in a grandiose manner. One final upward rush of meteors brings the work to a close.”

Hovatter’s works span orchestral, choral, chamber and electronic genres. Like much of Hovatter’s music, “Mutation from ‘The Cascades,'” (written in 2016) is rhythmically driven, according to Guenther.

“Almost incessant murmurings and surprising accents with constant interplay between the three instruments throughout the majority of the trio give way to a slower section with lush piano chords, culminating in a playful, very rag-like ending,” she said. “The keen listener will hear that this piece is based off of ‘The Cascades,’ a rag by Scott Joplin.”

Dorff’s “Three Romances” was composed “by accident” in several stages, he said. Throughout the summer of 2006, Dorff was mainly focused on writing a lengthy piano concerto.

“One day in July 2006, a frisky-sounding duet for flute and clarinet just popped out,” he writes. “It was a complete movement, but too short to be a stand-alone composition, so I decided to write a few more companion movements.”

Recital 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’s SFA Gardens will host a floral design workshop to share methods for creating artistic flower arrangements.

The event will run from 9 a.m. to noon March 9 in the Brundrett Conservation Education Building, Room 101, at the SFA Pineywoods Native Plant Center, located at 2900 Raguet St.

Jordan Cunningham, SFA Gardens greenhouse technician, will explore the principles of floral design including shapes, colors, materials and construction.

“With a bit of basic knowledge and your own creativity, making floral arrangements can be simple and enjoyable,” Cunningham said. “You can apply the principles to a wide variety of materials, including cut flowers and greenery from your own garden.”

Participants will create their own floral arrangement to take home. All materials will be provided.

Cost for the seminar is $25 for SFA Garden members and $35 for non-members. Space is limited and pre-registration is required. To register for the seminar or for more information, contact the SFA Gardens education office at (936) 468-4129 or sfagardens@sfasu.edu.

Jacob Spies of Douglass and Kristine Cross of Houston have been selected as the 2019 Mr. and Miss SFA. The two Stephen F. Austin State University students will be honored during halftime of the SFA men’s basketball game against Sam Houston State University March 9 at 4:30 p.m.

The Mr. SFA title was established in honor of the late Stan McKewen, a 1934 SFA graduate. The Miss SFA title was established in honor of Arnodean Covin, who was named Miss SFA in 1940, 1941 and 1942.

Spies, who received the Stan McKewen Mr. SFA Award, is a senior accounting major. A 2016 graduate of Douglass High School, he is the son of Mark and Stephanie Spies of Nacogdoches.

He currently serves on the executive board for Beta Alpha Psi, an accounting honor society. Previously, he served as president of the Alpha Gamma Rho fraternity at SFA and as vice president for membership development. He has worked as a student assistant for the Department of Residence Life for the past year, as well as a Jack Camp counselor and has been involved with the Order of Omega, a Greek Life honor society.

Spies received the SFA Academic Excellence, AGC of Texas and White Electric scholarships. He also received the Temple Inland scholarship for excellence in accounting. Spies is enrolled in the Bachelor of Business Administration and Master of Professional Accountancy five-year program and hopes to one day serve as a chief financial officer.

Saville Harris, assistant director of student engagement, who nominated Spies for the award, said, “Jacob has a passion for working with and serving others, often challenging them to be the best they can be. He is a dedicated leader and as a result, I have yet to see him get discouraged or give up, even when the result is not what he anticipated.”

Cross, who received the Arnodean Covin Miss SFA Award, is a senior majoring in food, nutrition and dietetics. A 2015 graduate of Elkins High School, she is the daughter of Leslie W. Cross Jr. of Houston.

Cross has been involved on campus since her arrival, initially enrolling in the Freshman Leadership Academy and later serving as a student instructor for the program, which is a specialized section of the university’s SFA 101 freshman success seminar. She currently serves as vice president of the Student United Way, where she is responsible for fundraising and recruiting other students to volunteer for events supporting the Nacogdoches United Way. She also is an Orientation student coordinator, and she previously served two summers as an Orientation leader, where she helped students transition from high school to college life. She also was a counselor for SFA’s extended orientation program, Jack Camp.

Cross received the President’s Volunteer Service Award in 2017 for volunteering more than 250 hours during an eight-month period. She plans to attend graduate school and study student affairs and higher education.

Veronica Beavers, director of multicultural affairs at SFA, who nominated Cross, said, “Kristine’s impact has been remarkable. Throughout her time at SFA, she has grown in her passion for working in the areas of social justice, diversity and multiculturalism. She has developed a strong appreciation for all aspects of diversity at SFA.”

The Mr. and Miss SFA titles are annually presented by the SFA Office of Student Affairs Programs and the alumni association to exemplary students who well represent and promote the univeristy. Recipients are selected based on their scholarship, participation and leadership in academic and co-curricular activities, and service and loyalty to the university. Selections are made by a committee of faculty, staff, community leaders and alumni.

Please contact (936) 468-7249 or visit www.sfasu.edu/studentaffairs and www.sfaalumni.com for more information.

A concert by pianist Hai Jin originally scheduled for Friday night, Feb. 22, in Cole Concert Hall on the Stephen F. Austin State University campus has been canceled due to inclement weather affecting the artist’s travel plans.

Presenting three different plays in three different styles on one stage in one night takes detailed logistical planning and coordination among designers.

That’s what the Stephen F. Austin State University School of Theatre accomplishes when it presents “Three One-Act Plays by Asian Authors” Feb. 26 through March 2 on the W.M. Turner Auditorium stage.

Rick Jones, professor of theatre at SFA, directs the show, which features the one-acts “The Post Office” by Rabindranath Tagore; “The Lady Aoi” by Mishima Yukio; and “Hiding from the Rain” by Gao Xingjian.

Each play has a different student costume designer: Jessica Griffin for “The Post Office,” Jordyn Averitte for “The Lady Aoi” and Kate Berry for “Hiding from the Rain.” They were all students in Professor Angela Bacarisse’s costume design class last fall, and one of their major projects was to work on these plays. Jones visited the class a few times to talk about the plays, look at their concept boards and sketches, and finally to sign off on the designs themselves.

Averitte said going through the design process with fellow student designers was fun.

“It was interesting to see each design form as we went along,” she said. “The biggest challenge for me has been tailoring patterns to match my design during construction. I wanted my designs to be intriguing and represent the characters and their backgrounds.”

Working on “Hiding from the Rain” was a great experience for Berry as a new costume designer.

“This show presented a couple of unique challenges in the design aspect of it in that the two female characters, Bright Voice and Sweet Voice, on the surface, can appear very similar and almost as if they are the same person,” she said, “so it was important for me to show that they were different but also connected in some way. I accomplished this by distinguishing them in color as well as style.”

One of her goals was to showcase the color red.

“In Chinese culture, red symbolizes wealth and prosperity, which the two girls are experiencing, so each of their costumes has red in them,” she said. “Using red also helped to show that the girls are connected. The Old Man presented his own unique challenges because I wanted to convey how he is almost the opposite of the two girls in terms of status in life and attitude towards life, as well.”

Moving three different set designs on and off the stage quickly in between the performances presented a bit of a challenge for scenic designer Kenneth John Verdugo, assistant professor in the School of Theatre.

“He had to devise a system to get one entire set off and another on in only a few minutes,” Jones said. “And our lift really has to stay in one place throughout.

“We went back and forth a few times about what order we should present the plays,” he added. “It makes more sense thematically to do it one way, but it’s better logistically to do it another, and so on. And I’ve never tried anything like this before. We’ve been doing some learning on the fly.”

The first concern for Verdugo was that each set would need to be portable enough for the needed transitions while also being sustainable enough to stand alone to serve the individual play.

“It was important to keep the design essential – not overstated but specific enough to tell a story,” Verdugo said. “For practical purposes, there is one scenic element that is constant – downstage platform – but is only used in one of the three plays.”

“The Lady Aoi” and “Hiding from the Rain” are fairly contemporary – or at least lend themselves to a more current setting, according to Verdugo.

“The fact that these are not three Asian plays but rather are three plays by Asian authors allows for the design to remain within the context of a setting that is familiar to our Western audience,” he said. “‘The Post Office’ felt a bit more timeless and perhaps archaic in some respects. I believe this is reflected in the costumes. As such, I followed the lead of the costume designers.

“The costumes and the language of the text do not feel or read as contemporary,” he said. “How one arrives at what can be considered timeless, or rather not specifically of a particular time period, was a challenge. Design is a combination of such factors, as well as essential collaboration in style, color and scale.”

Verdugo believes the challenge of presenting three different plays on one night has been a good learning experience for students.

“I believe students are seeing that effective design does not have to be elaborate or overstated,” he said. “The three different environments are very distinct, each providing only what is needed to tell the story. They have prepared an evening of performances that are not constructed within a traditional framework.

“Students were given the task of setting and re-dressing multiple units in a single evening of performances,” he added. “They are learning to keep each setting consistent by hitting their mark each night.

“I believe the challenge of the evening is to produce three very different plays that are linked through cultural sensibilities and language that is profound, often poetic and hopefully accessible.”

“Three One-Act Plays by Asian Authors” will be presented at 7:30 p.m. Tuesday through Saturday, Feb. 26 through March 2, in Turner Auditorium in the Griffith Fine Arts Building, 2222 Alumni Drive, on the SFA campus.

Single tickets are $15 for adults, $10 for seniors and $7.50 for youth. Tickets for SFA students are $5. For tickets or more information, call the SFA Fine Arts Box Office at (936) 468-6407 or visit www.theatre.sfasu.edu.