College of Fine and Applied Arts

The Department of Theatre and Dance Presents “A Still Life with Iris,” by Steven Dietz

Wednesday, Oct. 28, through Saturday, Oct. 31 7 p.m.

Sunday, Nov. 1 2 p.m.

Tickets are $12.00 for adults and $6.00 for students. The Box Office is open Monday-Friday, 2-5pm, and one hour prior to show time. Purchase tickets in person, by phone at (828) 262-3063, or online at http://www.theatre.appstate.edu/performances/.

Still Life with Iris, by Steven Dietz is a fantastical adventure which centers on a little girl’s search for the simplest of things: home. Iris (Ariel Nicastro), lives with her mother in the land of Nocturno, a magical place in which workers make, by night, all the things we see in the world by day. For example: flower painters are busy painting all night the colorful blooms of the next day. In Nocturno, memories do not reside in people’s minds, but in their coats, called “PastCoats.” The rulers of Nocturno, the “Great Goods,” are determined to have the “best” of everything on their island, and therefore take Iris away from her home and bring her to Great Island to be their daughter. The Great Goods take her PastCoat away in order to ease the pain of being taken from her family. Fortunately, Iris was able to keep a single button from her coat, which serves as a clue to help her get back home. With the help of friends she meets along the journey, Annabel Lee (Colleen Longo) and Mozart (L.B. Brown), she frees herself from the Great Goods and returns to Nocturno, having found her past and her home once again.

A beautiful story full of magic, empowerment and hope, Still Life with Iris is the first play for young audiences to receive the Kennedy Center’s Fund for New American Plays Award.

Currently one of the most widely-produced plays for young audiences in the country, Still Life with Iris is an interdisciplinary art experience, with stunning visual images, magic effects, and an underscore of music by Mozart. Teresa Lee directs the production.

The Valborg Theatre is located at 480 Howard St., behind the Turchin Center for the Visual Arts. Parking is available on campus in faculty lots, the parking garage behind the Carol G. Belk Library and Information Commons, and behind the Turchin Center.

Photo by Marie Freeman, Appalachian State University photographer

The Office of General Education at Appalachian State University recently honored Dr. Paulette Marty, assistant professor in the Department of Theatre and Dance, with the Wayne D. Duncan Appalachian State University Faculty Enrichment and Teaching Fellowship.

The Wayne D. Duncan Appalachian State University Faculty Enrichment and Teaching Fellowship is named for Duncan, a past chairman of Appalachian’s Board of Trustees and a current member of the Appalachian State University Foundation Board of Directors. The annual fellowship is awarded to a full-time faculty member who has demonstrated extraordinary dedication and excellence in performing their duties as a teacher in general education courses.

Marty is a member of the General Education Council and served on the General Education Task Force that developed Appalachian’s signature program that builds the foundation of a student’s academic experience.

Marty earned a bachelor’s degree in theatre from the College of St. Benedict, a master’s in English and European renaissance drama from the University of Warwick, U.K., and a PhD in theatre from the University of Wisconsin-Madison. She joined Appalachian in 2004.

Her teaching specialties include theatre history, dramatic literature, dramaturgy and cross-disciplinary topics.

“I consider teaching students in the liberal arts classroom to be the most important part of my professional life,” Marty said. Her teaching style develops students’ integrative thinking skills.

“By examining the diverse relationships between theatre practices and their historical contexts in a variety of eras, I strive to help students recognize that various events, forms, ideas, systems and policies are interconnected in complex ways in any given cultures” and so “they will be more likely to look for such interconnectedness in their own cultures and lives,” she said.

In nominating Marty for this award, department chair Marianne Adams described Marty as “a committed ‘idea’ person. She has been instrumental in developing the most innovative courses our department has proposed for the new general education program,” Adams said.

Marty also serves as the production dramaturg for student productions and creates Web sites and lobby displays in order to explain the historical contexts behind the plays. She has been published in various theatre journals and is currently working on a book about a festival held in 1575 in honor of Queen Elizabeth I.

Regina Gulick-James from the Department of Theatre and Dance organized the third consecutive Summer Dance Series.

This unique series gave opportunity to over 300 people including Appalachian faculty, staff, and students across campus, local and neighboring communities, and summer residents to gather and share in the joy of dance in all its forms.

Teachers from Appalachian faculty, current and retired, and guest teachers from far and near donated their time and talents in offering diverse dance technique classes and bodywork in an array of cultural styles and traditions. Ages ranging from three to seventy-three shared the dance floor whirling, twirling, and leaping. And of course, laughing together.

Gulick-James also received certification in Zena Rommett Floor-Barre® Technique in August in New York City.

Ray Miller from the Department of Theatre and Dance delivered a paper, “Biography and Autobiography Teaching Strategies for Dance History in a Mediatized World” at the Congress on Research in Dance Conference held at the Centre for Excellence in Performing Arts at De Montfort University in Leicester, UK, June 25-27.

In the spring and summer of 2009, the Department of Theatre and Dance offered its third comprehensive teacher-training program in Pilates.

Pilates is a method of body conditioning that develops core strength and improves flexibility. Anyone who is interested in fitness can benefit from this gentle but effective mind-body approach. Since the emphasis is to work in a balanced, efficient and mindful way, it is particularly good for rehabilitation. Appalachian’s program offers the chance to experience the true, authentic Pilates method as founder Joseph Pilates intended it.

The Pilates Teacher Training program is co-sponsored by the Department of Theatre and Dance and the Office of Conferences and Institutes. The program is under the supervision of dance faculty Marianne Adams and Rebecca Quin. Pilates elder Romana Kryzanowska comprehensively certified both in New York City in the classical method of Authentic Pilates.

The Pilates Teacher Training Program at Appalachian is unique in many ways. The emphasis of the program is to produce quality teachers who are trained in the authentic, classical style of Joseph Pilates. The 600+ hour program begins with six credit hours of academic coursework in Pilates and culminates with a spring/summer intensive, exams, and a full-time apprenticeship leading to certification. The program combines rigorous daily practice in Pilates with an academic study of Joseph Pilates’ philosophy and concepts.

Over the last one and a half years, eight apprentice teachers completed the comprehensive training program, and during the final phase last spring/summer, the apprentices taught approximately 250 clients. Students, faculty, staff and community members participated in private Pilates sessions utilizing all of the Pilates apparatus. Appalachian has a fully equipped Pilates studio, housed in Varsity Gym. Many of these clients came three to five days a week for lessons.

The apprentice teachers are trained to work with various populations and are skilled to work with any injury or condition that a client may present. The program was a big success, according to Adams, and the newly certified instructors, as well as previous graduates, have found jobs in diverse studios in cities such as Kuwait; New York City; Washington, D.C.; and Columbus, Ohio, and a variety of cities and throughout the southeast region.

The next spring/summer certification program will be held in 2011, and interested students are already taking the required coursework to make them eligible for the next certification. For more information about the program or the Pilates method, contact Rebecca Quin at pilates@appstate.edu.