Everything Nac

The Stephen F. Austin State University School of Honors and Department of Academic Affairs will host Emmy-nominated television anchor Suzanne Sena, as she discusses her journey through various genres of news media.

Sena’s discussion, “The Fox Effect: Historical to Hysterical,” which will include stories from her time working on the Fox News Channel, “E! News,” the scripted comedy series “The Onion News Network,” and more, is part of the Wisely Fellow Speaker Series. The event will take place at 7 p.m. Feb. 20 in the Baker Pattillo Student Center Twilight Ballroom.

Jennifer Crenshaw, School of Honors senior program associate, said, “We’re excited to have Suzanne come to SFA. We enjoy having different voices on campus that encourage students to think critically. I think her discussion will be interesting and engaging for everyone who attends.”

Dr. Tom Reynolds, lecturer in the Department of Languages, Cultures and Communication, and also the 2018-19 Honors Wisely Fellow, invited Sena to campus for the speaker series event.

“I’ve invited Suzanne to SFA to share her amazing and hilarious journey through the television jungle,” said Reynolds. “Everyone attending this presentation will learn how fact and fiction can blur together, and that satire and the topic being satirized are often hard to tell apart from one another.”

Sena began her national television career as an entertainment reporter on the E! Network, interviewing celebrities and reporting live from the red carpet at Hollywood award shows. She received an Emmy nomination hosting the network’s primetime series, “Celebrity Homes,” and created, hosted and produced the reality show “Out to Lunch.” Sena then transitioned into a news career, first as an anchor for a CBS affiliate, and eventually as a breaking news anchor for the Fox News Channel. Following her time at Fox, Sena portrayed Brooke Alvarez, the pompous news anchor in the comedic series, “The Onion News Network.”

In addition to her television career, Sena is the founder of Sena-Series Media Training and the author of “So You Wanna Be A Host!: The Definitive Guide to Careers in Hosting.”

Each year, the Wisely Fellow is selected to contribute to the student experience in the School of Honors throughout the fall semester and teach a course in the fellow’s area of expertise during the spring semester. The fellow is encouraged to curate programs, lectures or more that provide students opportunities to engage in undergraduate research.

“My experience as the Wisely Fellow has been the most rewarding of my academic career,” Reynolds said. “My students are thoroughly engaged in the course curriculum and show great enthusiasm for their assigned projects while learning to work and collaborate in a group.”

The Wisely Fellow Speaker Series is free and open to the public. For more information, contact Crenshaw at jmcrenshaw@sfasu.edu or (936) 468-2813.

Story by Emily Brown, marketing communications specialist at Stephen F. Austin State University.

The Lumberjack Express, Stephen F. Austin State University’s new mobile food lab, provides transformational learning experiences for students while offering culinary delights for fans of the university’s hospitality administration program.

With cuisine prepared by hospitality majors under the direction of chef Todd Barrios, service is provided by students enrolled in a customer-relations course taught by Dr. Chay Runnels, hospitality administration program coordinator and associate professor.

“We believe this unique lab will help convey the hands-on experiences that we work hard to provide all of our students,” Runnels said. “We are happy to share this exciting lab experience with the public.”

The Lumberjack Express will begin service at 11:15 a.m. Feb. 26 in the Education Annex Parking Lot No. 15 on the SFA campus.

No cash or credit cards will be accepted at the food lab’s window. Instead, food sales will be handled online at sfasu.edu/lumberjackexpress. Each meal ticket costs $8, and only 50 tickets will be sold for each meal.

Ticket sales will begin Tuesday, Feb. 12, for Lumberjack Express service on Tuesdays and Thursday from Feb. 26 through March 14. Tickets for March 26 through April 11 will be sold March 12. On April 12, tickets for food lab meals from April 23 through May 9 will be available for purchase.

Each day will feature a different type of cuisine, such as Texas barbecue, Creole, European and Latin.

Donna Fickes, SFA clinical instructor, coordinated the effort to obtain the mobile food laboratory to provide students the opportunity to experience active learning in a realistic setting, as well as engage and empower them to create and execute an entrepreneurial business plan. According to National Restaurant Association research, the food truck trend, which began in Los Angeles, will continue to accelerate as entrepreneurs across the nation use them to enter the restaurant industry.

SFA’s mobile food lab also will be utilized at outreach and recruiting events, such as career and college fairs.

For more information, visit sfasu.edu/lumberjackexpress.

By Kasi Dickerson, senior marketing communications specialist at Stephen F. Austin State University.

A unique opportunity to see multiple one-act plays by different authors presents itself when the Stephen F. Austin State University School of Theatre performs “Three One-Act Plays by Asian Authors” Feb. 26 through March 2 in W.M. Turner Auditorium on the SFA campus.

Rick Jones, professor of theatre at SFA, directs the show, which features one-acts by Rabindranath Tagore, Mishima Yukio and Gao Xingjian.

“There are few opportunities to encounter work by non-Western playwrights,” Jones said. “I’m pretty certain we’ve never had anything by an Asian playwright on our Mainstage – certainly not in the 18 years I’ve been here. So this represents an opportunity for local theatregoers to see something they haven’t really encountered before, at least in Nacogdoches.”

Jones describes Tagore’s “The Post Office” as a “sad but beautiful play” about a young boy, Amal, who is dying of an unspecified disease. He remains remarkably upbeat and curious about the wider world, however, and dreams about being a postman, or even receiving a letter.

“He is teased by the bullying town headman, who pretends the illiterate boy has received a letter from the king, who is sending the Royal Physician to assist in Amal’s recovery,” Jones said. “But the Royal Physician really does show up…”

Mishima’s “The Lady Aoi” is an adaptation of a 14th-century Noh play, “Aoi no Uye,” possibly by the greatest of Noh playwrights, Zeami Motokiyo, Jones explains. The Noh play, in turn, is derived from the 11th-century novel “The Tale of Genji” by Murasaki Shikibu.

“In the original, Genji is a prince; in this adaptation, the equivalent role is Hikaru Wakabayashi, a successful businessman,” Jones said. “His wife, Aoi, is ill, and the doctors are unable to find a cause. Hikaru’s ex-lover, Yasuko Rokujo, shows up at the hospital and cheerfully claims that her spirit has left her body and is torturing Aoi.”

The two central characters in Gao’s “Hiding from the Rain” are young women who, as the title suggests, seek shelter under a makeshift tent in a rainstorm.

“As they discuss their jobs, their lives and their dreams, they are unaware of the presence of an old man on the other side of a barrier who silently hears every word,” Jones said.

In selecting a play to direct for this year’s Mainstage Series, Jones said a course in Asian theatre he was scheduled to teach this spring was a consideration. School of Theatre Director Cleo House Jr. suggested Jones direct a show in the intercultural/world theatre category, “so we talked about the possibility of doing something Asian,” he said.

The course includes Indonesia, Vietnam and Korea, but the overwhelming majority of what is discussed is Indian, Japanese or Chinese. Jones said he started thinking about which to do and concluded, “what about all three?” He has previously taught “The Post Office” and “The Lady Aoi,” and he liked the full-length plays he’d read by Gao.

“I looked to see if Gao had written any one-acts,” he said. “I found ‘Hiding from the Rain’ online, and thought the language, even in translation, was beautiful.”

He submitted the evening of three plays as one of his proposals for the season, and that was the one the Mainstage selection committee chose. Jones says it is important to note that two of the three playwrights, Tagore and Gao, are Nobel Prize-winning authors, and the third, Mishima, was a finalist.

“It’s also important that we not be perceived as trying to present ‘authentic’ Asian plays,” he said. Jones has a doctoral minor in Asian theatre, and he taught courses Eastern civilizations for a year at the University of Kansas, but the distinction being made with these selections is that these are not “Asian plays,” but “plays by Asian authors,” he said.

“All of these plays are modern in theatre history terms,” he said. “The oldest, ‘The Post Office,’ was written in the early 20th century. We’re not using any traditional forms – no dance drama, no masks, no exaggerated makeup. The idea is to look at these plays as stories with universal appeal rather than to try to suggest that our students can ‘be Asian.’

“These plays are about people, not Indian people or Japanese people or Chinese people. Gao even crafted his plays so there were never any blood relations between characters who were seldom identified further as more than young or old. This was intentional, so actors of whatever race or body type could play his roles.”

Jones believes that each of the stories is relatable to the audience, and each conveys a message of how people are more alike than they are different from one another.

“These plays might have a couple of character names that don’t sound familiar, but otherwise they’re a romantic fantasy, a ghost story, and a slice of life, and very recognizable to Westerners in those terms,” he said.

“Three One-Act Plays by Asian Authors” will be presented at 7:30 p.m. Tuesday through Saturday, Feb. 26 through March 2, in W.M. 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.