Everything Nac

The student jazz bands at Stephen F. Austin State University will present their fall fundraiser from 6 to 9 p.m. Friday, Oct. 15, at Fredonia Brewery in downtown Nacogdoches. The event was originally planned for Oct. 1 but was rained out. Donations for the School of Music’s jazz program will be accepted at the event.

“Swingin’ at the Brewery” will feature the Swingin’ Axes, directed by Dr. Deb Scott, and the Swingin’ Aces, directed by Dr. J.D. Salas. New this fall is a third student jazz ensemble, Swingin’ Jacks, directed by Dr. Jacob Walburn, which will also perform.

Food options will be available from Chambers Smokehouse food truck and the brewery’s Rebellion Pizza.

Fredonia Brewery is located at 138 N. Mound St. For additional information, contact the School of Music at (936) 468-4602 or the brewery at (936) 305-5125.

Works on paper by artist and educator Greg Edmondson will be exhibited starting Oct. 25 at The Cole Art Center @ The Old Opera House in downtown Nacogdoches. “The Impermanence of Objects – Works on Paper 2014-2021” will show through late January.

An opening reception is planned for 6 to 8 p.m. Friday, Oct. 29, at The Cole Art Center. An artist talk and walk-through will take place from 5:30 to 7 p.m. Monday, Nov. 15.

This exhibition spans over seven years and includes a wide range of Edmondson’s works from four artist residencies and three published books. The works reveal a significant shift in the artist’s practice, begun in a period of upheaval, and still evolving today.

Edmondson writes in this artist statement: “The works presented in this exhibition span a seven-plus year period in which my imagery began to stray from its initial concepts and became sidetracked or hijacked by discoveries made along the way. I embraced a deliberate decision to become less constrained by a work’s initial intent and attempted to construct images in less premeditated ways – to straddle a line between intention and response. I’ve come to view these works as a kind of “bashful modernism” – formal and abstract, but without certainty or ostentation. In much the way we ourselves are, these works have all been shaped by the unexpected.”

The exhibition presents works on paper ranging in scale from 8.5 inches by 11 inches to nearly 8 feet by 6 feet.

Edmondson earned a B.F.A. from the University of Tennessee – Knoxville and an M.F.A. from Washington University in St. Louis. He is the recipient of numerous grants and awards including Fulbright and DAAD fellowships to Germany, and residency fellowships to Artpark, the Virginia Center for the Creative Arts, the Santa Fe Art Institute and Kuenstlerwerkstatt Munich. His upcoming exhibitions “Dark Matter” with physicist and poet Agnes Vojta at the Smalter Gallery in Kansas City, Missouri, and solo exhibition “Before Language” at the Blanden Art Museum in Fort Dodge, Iowa, are scheduled for Spring 2022. He may be reached at gregedmondson.net or voegel60@gmail.com.

Admission to the exhibition and reception, which is sponsored in part by William Arscott, the Friends of the Visual Arts and The Flower Shop, is free. Cole Art Center hours are noon to 5 p.m. Tuesday through Sunday. For more information, call (936) 468-5500.

The Stephen F. Austin State University School of Theatre will present the student-directed comic play “The Actor’s Nightmare” at 7:30 p.m. Friday, Oct. 22, and at 2 and 7:30 p.m. Saturday, Oct. 23, in Regents Suite A in the Baker Pattillo Student Center on the SFA campus.

Directed by Caitlyn Kirchman, Nacogdoches senior, “The Actor’s Nightmare” is written by Christopher Durang and is about a man who is mistaken for an understudy in a play, and when forced to perform, he doesn’t know any of his lines.

“Have you ever had a dream where you were forced onto a stage to perform a show you didn’t know the lines to?” Kirchman asked. “Durang’s ‘The Actor’s Nightmare’ brings that dream to life through George Spelvin, who is forced to perform multiple plays in front of a live audience after the previous actor broke both of his legs. However, it may be more than just a nightmare.”

The cast includes Dallas sophomore Sami Hurley as George; Houston senior Gabrielle Rincon as Meg; Bournemouth, England, senior Beth Cowan as Sarah; Keller freshman Zoie Dorn as Ellen; and Katy freshman Kaleb Calton as Henry.

Crew includes Ashley Johnson, Richardson junior, as stage manager, and Lynna Levin, Richmond senior, as costume designer.

Kirchman is a senior majoring in theatre education. She describes herself as “passionate” about directing and excited to share what she and her team have created. She has been involved with theatre since second grade when she attended theatre Professor CC Conn’s Junior Jacks theatre program at SFA. She continued to pursue theatre in middle school and high school.

“After my first experience directing in high school, I knew it was something I wanted to continue doing,” she said. “I had a full-circle moment this past summer when I got to direct the show ‘Aesop’s Clinic’ at Junior Jacks, the place where my passions began.”

Faculty production advisor for “The Actor’s Nightmare” is Slade Billew. The play is recommended for mature audiences.

Tickets are $4. To purchase tickets, visit the SFA Fine Arts Box Office online at boxoffice.sfasu.edu or call (936) 468-6407. Box office and online sales end at 4 p.m. on Oct. 22. Available tickets may be purchased at the door. For more information about the play, call the School of Theatre at (936) 468-4003 or visit theatre.sfasu.edu.