Everything Nac

Stephen F. Austin State University’s Department of History will host Dr. Kurt Kemper for a discussion on “Sports, Values and Anxiety in American Culture” at 7 p.m. Sept. 25, in Dugas Liberal Arts North, Room 142, on the SFA campus.

Kemper, an associate professor of history at Dakota State University, will deliver a wide-ranging lecture on the role and value organized sports play in America. Kemper has authored two books, “College Football and American Culture in the Cold War Era” and “Sports and Democracy: College Athletics Reform, Race and the Birth of Modern College Basketball.”

Throughout his talk, Kemper will discuss how sports have shaped American culture throughout U.S. history.

Dr. Court Carney, SFA professor of history, believes that Kemper’s lecture will be rewarding for the audience, as it will provide engaging and thoughtful material.

“Dr. Kemper aims to reorient Americans’ understanding of U.S. sports by looking at the ways in which athletics redefines American values as much as defines them,” Carney said.

This event is free and open to the public. For more information, contact Carney at carneycp@sfasu.edu or (936) 468-2039.

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

The Music Preparatory Division in the Stephen F. Austin State University School of Music will host its annual fall Middle School All-Region Choir Camp from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. Saturday, Sept. 15, in the Wright Music Building on the SFA campus.

The choir camp is designed to help East Texas area middle school students learn their UIL all-region competition music, according to Pat Barnett, director of the Music Preparatory Division.

Dr. Michael Murphy, director of choral activities at SFA, is the combined conductor for the camp. Clinicians are Charlotte Davis, Music Prep faculty, soprano I; Amanda Sheriff, graduate student, soprano II; Jennifer Weems, NISD choir instructor, alto; Nita Hudson, lecturer of voice and opera, tenor; and Dr. Chris Turner, assistant professor of voice, bass.

Accompanists are Linda Parr, Donna Dear, Nio Ajero, Kaden Harman and Mary Cooper, piano. The Music Preparatory Division’s Advisory Board is in charge of arrangements. Nicole Stewart, Lufkin High School choir director, is the overall camp director.

All participants should bring Region 21 All-Region music, pencil, water and a snack. Concessions will be available for purchase during scheduled breaks. The dining hall in the Baker Pattillo Student Center will be open and serving brunch from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m.

Cost per student is $20. Registration is accepted by calling (936) 468-1291 or by email at pbarnett@sfasu.edu.

A play that speaks to working class Americans with real-life issues opens the Stephen F. Austin State University School of Theatre’s Mainstage Series this fall.

Lynn Nottage’s “Sweat” won the 2017 Pulitzer Prize for Drama. The play opens at 7:30 p.m. Tuesday, Oct. 2, for a five-night run at SFA in what will be the play’s Texas premiere.

Using a backdrop of industry job cuts, downsizing and poverty, “Sweat” gives working class people a voice, according to Cleo House Jr., director of the SFA School of Theatre and of the play.

“We selected this play because it speaks to real issues and real people,” House said. “It speaks to working class people of all races.

“The play is also highly entertaining and funny, all while tackling some serious economic issues for the average working class American,” he added.

“Sweat” is the story of a group of friends who have spent their lives sharing drinks, secrets and laughs while working together on a factory floor.

“But when layoffs, promotions and picket lines begin to chip away at their trust, the friends find themselves pitted against each other in a heart-wrenching fight to stay afloat,” House said.

Veteran entertainment journalist Jeremy Girard called the play “ferociously engrossing” stating, “no play in recent memory has shed more light on the crises and tribulations of America’s great retrenched working middle class.”

Nottage is an American playwright whose work often deals with the lives of marginalized people. She is a professor of playwriting at Columbia University. SFA School of Theatre presented her play “Intimate Apparel” in 2017. Her play “Ruined” won the 2009 Pulitzer Prize for Drama.

Because of its themes, “Sweat” is recommended for age 13 and up. House also recommends the play to anyone who is curious about people and their reactions to adversity.

“The play really does look into how we as a community respond to an inevitable change that threatens our dreams and our plans,” he said.

The play bounces back and forth in the time periods in which it takes place – from 2000 to 2008.

“To be able to clearly communicate time and place without making it about time and place is a delicate balance,” House said.

Student actors will be challenged to portray characters who are older than them and who have more life experiences, House said.

“There’s a certain sense of being grounded that comes with age,” he said. “Getting young actors to find that takes time.”

House hopes audiences will be both entertained and engaged with “Sweat.”

“I hope they leave with a conversation on their lips,” he said. “I hope that they ask themselves, ‘What would I do?’ if they found themselves in these characters’ positions.”

“Sweat” will be presented at 7:30 p.m. Tuesday through Saturday, Oct. 2 through 6, 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.