September 1, 2009, 7:30 p.m., Reves Recital Hall 

“Word and Image”

Keynote speaker Francine Prose will open this year’s programs with a discussion of the power that word and image acquire when they merge with one another. She is a fiction writer, essayist, journalist, and has taught at Harvard and Sarah Lawrence, among others.  She is the author of fifteen books, including Blue Angel (2000), which was a finalist for the National Book Award.  Her nonfiction book Reading Like a Writer (2006) was a New York Times bestseller.

September 11, 2009, 7:30 p.m., Cabe Theatre

Playwright’s Theatre: Life During by Ashlie Atkinson and Lesley Dancer

Playwright’s Theatre, an extension of the Foundation’s Playwriting Contest, produces dramatic readings of new plays by current or former Hendrix students. Cast, crew, and director are also Hendrix alumni and students.

In a futuristic society where academic freedom and freedom of speech are suspended, Life During focuses on the relationship of Jack, a tenured university professor who is arrested, and his teaching assistant, Janie, as they turn to insurgency in order to get to the bottom of this new world order. An audience and cast discussion will follow the reading. Co-sponsored by the Department of Theatre Arts and Dance.

September 25-26, 2009, 6:00 p.m. Friday and Saturday, 2:00 p.m. Saturday, Campus Lawn

Word and Image: A Play for Children (Title TBA)

An original play, based on work with children from the Lehi Boys and Girls Club in Scottsdale, Arizona, will be performed on the campus lawn.  Written and directed by Associate Professor of Theatre Arts and Dance Ann Muse, it is co-sponsored by the Department of Theatre Arts and Dance. No reservations or tickets are required.

October 6, 2009, 7:30 p.m., Staples Auditorium

“Comix 101.1: The Development of a Literary Comic Genre”

Art Spiegelman, an American comic artist, editor, and advocate for the medium of comics, explores this year’s theme with a lecture on the evolution of comics, the value of this medium, and why it should not be ignored. He is perhaps best known for his graphic novel memoir, Pulitzer Prize-winning Maus. Spiegelman was named one of Time Magazine’s “Top 100 Most Influential People” in 2005. This event is co-sponsored by the Crain-Maling Jewish Cultural Center.

October 9 – 10, 2009, 7:30 p.m. Friday and Saturday, 2:00 p.m. Saturday, Reves Recital Hall

“fragments from Sappho”

“fragments from Sappho,” text arranged and translated by Rebecca Resinski, is a collage of poetry, movement, and music that will invite audience members to make their own connections among and within the arranged pieces. Brigitte Rogers, director. Karen Griebling, musical composer.

October 22, 2009, 7:30 p.m., Reves Recital Hall

“Fantasy: A Child’s Playground When Learning to Read”

Frequently described as “cinematic,” the wordless storytelling in the books of children’s author David Wiesner implies what comes before and after the captured image. He has illustrated more than twenty award-winning books for young readers, including three Caldecott Medal winners.

November 10, 2009, 7:30 p.m., Reves Recital Hall

Poetry Reading by Murphy Visiting Poet Jorie Graham 

Jorie Graham is the author of numerous collections of poetry, most recently Sea Change, Never, and Swarm. The Dream of the Unified Field: Selected Poems 1974-1994 won the 1996 Pulitzer Prize for Poetry. Her many honors include a John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Fellowship and the Morton Dauwen Zabel Award from The American Academy and Institute of Arts and Letters. She is currently the Boylston Professor of Rhetoric and Oratory at Harvard University.

December 10, 2009, 4:30 p.m.

Hendrix-Murphy Student and Alumni Playwriting Contest deadline

The Student and Alumni Playwriting Contest is designed to cultivate the skills of fledgling playwrights who are current or former Hendrix students. A professional playwright judges competitions, one for students and the other for alumni. Cash prizes are awarded to plays of significant merit, and every entrant receives an evaluation by the judge. Please contact Henryetta Vanaman (vanaman@hedrix.edu or 501-450-4597) for formatting and other entry regulations.

February 24-27, 2010, 7:30 p.m. W-S, 2:00 p.m. S, Cabe Theatre

Cymbeline by William Shakespeare

Kirk Boyd, this year’s Murphy Visiting Theatre Director, will direct a student theatrical production of Shakespeare’s Cymbeline. Rich in poetry and imagery, the play deals with such modern day dilemmas as the role of love in a marriage and family fidelity. Boyd has 30 years of theatrical management and artistic experience, including 17 years with the Oregon Shakespeare Festival and nine years as artistic director of the Willamette Repertory Theatre in Eugene, Oregon, which he founded.

March 2, 2010, 7:30 p.m., Reves Recital Hall

The Oxford Project:  Stephen G. Bloom and Peter Feldstein

The Oxford Project is equal parts art, history, cultural anthropology, and human narrative—at once personal and universal, surprising and predictable, simple and profound. Photographer Peter Feldstein photographed almost every resident of Oxford, Iowa twice—once in 1984 and again in 2004. When the residents were photographed for the second time, they discussed how their lives had changed. Author Stephen G. Bloom compiled these stories, and together these two men created the book The Oxford Project.

March 30, 2010, 7:30 p.m., Reves Recital Hall

“Blake’s Enlightened Graphics: Illuminated Books and New Technologies”

Joseph Viscomi, a noted William Blake scholar, explores this year’s theme with a lecture on Blake’s illuminated books, how he created them, and how we may recreate them today. Dr. Viscomi is a professor at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

April 6, 2010, 7:30 p.m., Reves Recital Hall

“The Writer as Image: Words, Personae, and the Media Between”

Clint Catalyst, a Hendrix alumnus, further examines this year’s theme with a presentation of the idea of personal image as relating to the writer. He is an author, stylist, model, spoken word performer, club personality, and contributing editor at Swindle Quarterly in Los Angeles.

April 22, 2010, 7:30 p.m., Reves Recital Hall

“Words on the Screen: Film Blogging, Cinephilia, and Internet Film Culture”

 Internet film writer and cinephile Girish Shambu, a professor at Canisius College in Buffalo, New York, maintains a blog on the Internet that has attracted a number of well-known film scholars and critics as regular discussants. His presentation brings this year’s theme to an end as he looks at the way Internet criticism provides new modes of thinking, writing, and talking about cinema.

April 29, 2010, 4:30 p.m., Murphy Seminar Room

The Aonian/Murphy Programs Literary and Visual Art Contest Winners’ Reception, Reading, and Exhibit

This annual celebration will present the winners of the Murphy Program Literary and Visual Art Contest who will read and display their entries during a reception which will also celebrate the debut of this year’s campus literary magazine, the Aonian.