University of Central Arkansas

Dr. Stephanie Vanderslice, associate professor of writing at the University of Central Arkansas, has been named Arkansas University English Teacher of the Year by the Arkansas Council of Teachers of English and Language Arts.

Vanderslice said she found out about the award a week ago and, “It was a total surprise.”

She has been teaching at UCA for 12 years and has been teaching college on and off since 1990, she said. She teaches writing, creative writing and teaching creative writing.

“I do a lot of different things,” Vanderslice said. “I work with undergraduates. I write and publish a lot of things about teaching undergraduates.”

She also works with teachers through the Great Bear Writing Project, a professional development project to enhance the teaching of kindergarten through 12th-grade writing. Vanderslice and others at UCA started the Great Bear Writing Project 10 years ago, and she is now the director. It is a site of the National Writing Project, she said.

“It’s really blossomed. I put a lot of work into it ... but it’s also blossomed because we have such wonderful leaders, and the teachers,” Vanderslice said.

Vanderslice added she hopes to “empower teachers to feel like they can teach writing and teach it well. It’s inspiring to work with the teachers.”

She is also involved nationally with leadership in the National Writing Project.

She is serving a two-year term as a program leader for the Rural Sites Network, a program within the National Writing Project. UCA belongs to the Rural Sites Network because, while it is in a suburban area, it serves mainly rural communities, she said, and needs to be aware of issues in rural schools. Rural Sites is having a national conference in Little Rock in 2011, she said.

Along with colleague Dr. Kelly Ritter of the University of North Carolina at Greensboro, Vanderslice has edited and co-written two books on the topic of enhancing the teaching of creative writing nationally and internationally. She also co-edited a special issue of the national journal “College English” last year.

Her work in progress is a book, “Revising Creative Writing in Higher Education: Programs and Practices That Work,” which is under review at Professional and Higher, a new publisher in the United Kingdom.

She also writes creative nonfiction and has published fiction, nonfiction, various anthologies and journals, and her blog www.wordamour.wordpress.com.

Vanderslice concluded, “I think my goal is to inspire people to become readers and writers ... to empower them to reach their fullest potential.”

**This article was written by Rachel Parker Dickerson and  was published in the Log Cabin Democrat on November 3, 2009.  It has been reprinted with the permission of the author.**

The University of Central Arkansas’ new national literary journal, Exquisite Corpse Annual, will host the first Exquisite Corpse Annual HalloweenRockfest at the Bear’s Den on Oct. 31 at 8 p.m.

Five local bands will rock out to raise funds for the printing of the second issue, which will be out in January.

The bands include:

● The local & legendary Boomers, starring English professors Conrad Shumaker, Sara Shumaker and Michael Schaefer, along with J.D. (Habanero) Hatfield and mad scientist Joe Lombard;

● The Strip Malls, the Natural State’s most veteran punk rock phenomenon, featuring bizzaro poet Terry Wright and Patrick Hollingsworth from the boonies of Bigelow;

●  The British-invasion rock-roots power trio of Amsterdamned — aka writing professor Garry Craig Powell, physics professor Jack Gaiser and public defender Brett Qualls;

● The jazzular rocktastic soundscapes of Stoke Newington — political scientist Sujith Kumar and geographer Michael Yoder representing;

● And the post-punk-pop all-girl Conway Twitties—featuring zombie novelist Robin Becker, Y2-Yaay renaissance artist Julee Jaeger and the Dutch sensation Sam Fine-Kumar.

“It’s going to be revolutionary,” Managing Editor Mark Spitzer said. “Nothing like this has ever happened in Conway before. People will be in costume, revelry will fill the air, and there’s going to be dancing and action. So if you want a quiet little dry county that’s not going to stir anybody in any way, then stay home and don’t come out to the Bear’s Den on Halloween night.”

 Andrei Codrescu is editor-in-chief of the Exquisite Corpse Annual, which is published by UCA’s Department of Writing in the College of Fine Arts and Communication. Last year, the publication gained national attention in the Chronicle of Higher Education for bringing its innovative poetic spirit to Arkansas. The second issue will feature artwork by R. Crumb, poetry by Ed Sanders and Bernadette Mayer, prose by Jan Kerouac and work by local authors as well.

 Codrescu said, “Halloween Corpses, please part and make way for The Exquisite Corpse … Queen of the Night Poets, Chevalier de Punk, Sinister Form of Creation! … Strike up the Music!”

The event is free and open to the public, but a $5 donation is suggested. Copies of Issue #1 will be on sale, and music is scheduled to play until 10:30 p.m. The Bear’s Den is located at 235 Farris Road. For more information, call (501) 450-5134.

Printable Flyer

www.corpse.org

Conway’s third annual ArtsFest, a festival celebrating local arts and artists of Central Arkansas and guests, will kick off on Wednesday, Oct. 7 and run through Saturday, Oct. 10.

The festival, sponsored by the Conway Alliance for the Arts (CAFTA), will feature events taking place in downtown Conway, on the campuses of Hendrix College and the University of Central Arkansas and the Faulkner County Library.

ArtFest begins on Wednesday at 7 p.m. with the unveiling of a giant inflatable sculpture, “Pittsburgh’s Painted Pachaderm” in front of the Donald W. Reynolds Performance Hall at UCA. The “Painted Pachaderm” is on loan to ArtsFest from Pittsburgh, Pa., with special thanks to Morton Brown, public art manager with the Department of City Planning in Pittsburgh.

Following the unveiling is a free performance by Latin jazz flutist Marco Granados and the Un Mundo Ensemble at 7:30 p.m. in Reynolds. No tickets are required.

A full schedule of events will continue through 7:30 on Saturday, with something for the whole family.  All events are free and open to the public.  

For a complete schedule of events or for more information, please visit www.artsinconway.com.

The Arkansas Shakespeare Theatre, based at the University of Central Arkansas, will open its first production in Little Rock as a co-production with the UALR Department of Theatre and Dance.

The production, set to begin its run Oct. 15 at UALR’s University Theatre, is Shakespeare’s classic cross-dressing romantic comedy, Twelfth Night, and will feature the mixture of local professionals and student workers that generally characterizes the ensembles of the Arkansas Shakespeare Theatre productions. 

“This is a tremendous opportunity for us and for Little Rock,” said Matt Chiorini, producing artistic director of the Arkansas Shakespeare Theatre. “Little Rock has no consistent source of professional Shakespeare, and to be able to offer one of his funniest and most accessible comedies with the amazing talent at UALR is a real treat. Our festival in Conway always seeks to marry artistic excellence with broad appeal, and this is the first chance we’ve had to share that with Little Rock.”

Performances of Twelfth Night will be Oct. 15-17 and Oct, 22-24 at 8 p.m. and Oct. 18 and 25 at 2:30 p.m. There will also be a special student performance at 10 a.m. on Friday, Oct. 23. All performances will be at the University Theatre. Tickets are $5 for children/students and $7 for adults. Tickets and more information are available at 501-569-3456 or www.arkshakes.com. The running time is approximately 2½ hours; the production is suitable for all ages.

The Arkansas Shakespeare Theatre is a three-year-old professional theatre company producing a repertory of Shakespeare and other works at the Reynolds Performance Hall every June. The 2010 festival will include artists from all over the country working alongside local talent and students from all over Arkansas creating outstanding productions of Shakespeare’s Henry V and Comedy of Errors and the classics Dracula and Alice in Wonderland. More information is available at www.arkshakes.com.

For more information about Arkansas Shakespeare Theatre, please visit www.arkshakes.com

Dr. Rollin Potter, Dean of the College of Fine Arts and Communication at the University of Central Arkansas, recently accepted a formal nomination to serve as a Governing Member of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, beginning in August 2009. 

As indicated in Potter’s invitation, Governing Members are an “elite group of business, cultural, and civic leaders, who can serve as strong advocates and will work toward maintaining the stature and world-renown acclaim of the CSO.” Members serve on various committees and also cast votes on selection of new orchestra trustees. 

Long recognized as one of the world’s most prestigious musical organizations, the CSO was founded in 1890 and has performed throughout the world under legendary musical directors and with the most distinguished of guest artists. Maestro Ricardo Muti was recently appointed as musical director of the CSO, beginning with the 2010/11 season.

Potter has had more than a 30-year relationship with the orchestra due to his authorship of the first official biography of Fritz Reiner, the CSO’s musical director from 1953 to 1962. His research and publications about Maestro Reiner have appeared in several media and in scholarly works about conductors and symphony orchestras. More recently, two subsequent Reiner biographies referenced Potter’s research and earlier publications.  

In referencing the nomination and invitation, Potter said that he is “looking forward to the many opportunities that this appointment will provide to meet CSO orchestra members and patrons, in addition to hearing outstanding performances.”

Shauna Colclasure Meador, assistant professor of theatre and resident costume designer for UCA Theatre, was chosen to have her costume designs exhibited during the International Organization of Scenographers, Theatre Architects & Technicians (OISTAT) World Congress meeting in Seoul, South Korea, which was held Sept. 17-21.

The World Congress of OISTAT holds the World State Design competition every four years for costume, lighting, scenery and sound designers. Open entries are accepted from all over the world and usually exceed 1,500 individual designers. The designs are juried; approximately 250 are chosen for exhibit at the meeting.  Cash prizes and medals are awarded during the meeting, with each category to name gold, silver and bronze winners.

Entries are received from professional theatres from around the world, including Istanbul, Tokyo, Hong Kong, Vienna, Moscow and Florence, as well as professional and university theatres in the United States, including Ohio State, Stanford University, UCLA, University of Pittsburgh, Oregon Shakespeare Festival, Old Globe in San Diego, and Julliard, among numerous others.

“Shauna Meador has joined an elite group of faculty who are presenting their scholarship and artistry in an international arena,” said Dr. Rollin Potter, dean of the College of Fine Arts and Communication at UCA. “Her display of works in South Korea is an important form of recognition for our theatre program and the College of Fine Arts and Communication.” 

Meador entered digital renderings and five digital photos of her costume designs for The Threepenny Opera, produced by UCA Theatre in 2006 and presented at the Reynolds Performance Hall on the UCA campus. After receiving word that her work had been chosen for the exhibition, Meador forwarded additional photos and framed exhibit pieces to Seoul for the meeting.

“This competition brings international recognition to UCA Theatre’s design program and the university as a whole,” Meador said.

Meador is also active in the United States Institute for Theatre Technology. Two of her designs (for One Flea Spare by Naomi Wallace in 2003 and The Learned Ladies by Moliere in 2008) have won Excellence in Costume Design at the Arkansas Kennedy Center American College Theatre Festival

Meador, originally from Conway, earned her bachelor’s degree from UCA in 1991 and her M.F.A. from Purdue University in 1999. She returned to her alma mater in 2003. Meador teaches courses in Costume Design, Stage Makeup, Fundamentals of Theatrical Design and Costume History. Besides UCA Theatre, she has also designed at Arkansas Shakespeare Theatre, Theatre Squared in Fayetteville, Purdue University, the Civic Theatre of Greater Lafayette, In., Texas Shakespeare Festival, Arkansas Repertory Theatre and the Illinois Shakespeare Festival. She also designed costumes for the UCA film Table at Luigi’s, which  will be released April 2010.