2010-2011 Campus Events

September 10, 2010, 7:30 p.m., Cabe Theatre

Playwright’s Theatre: Disfarmer by Werner Trieschmann

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.

Disfarmer is based on the life of the famed reclusive photographer from Heber Springs, Arkansas, Michael Disfarmer. Traveling through time, the play tells the story of the portraitist as he established himself in the 1930s and 1940s through 2005 when two New York City galleries descended on Heber Springs to buy as many Disfarmer prints as they could find. An audience and cast discussion will follow the reading. Co-sponsored by the Department of Theatre Arts and Dance.

September 23, 2010, 7:30 p.m., Reves Recital Hall

Simon Critchley, "How to Laugh at Foreigners"

Keynote speaker Simon Critchley will open this year’s programs with a discussion on comedy. Author of On Humour, professor of philosophy, and scholar of many related fields, Critchley integrates humor, comedy, and laughter into broader social and humanistic concerns. His work exemplifies his belief that humor has the capacity to reveal the absurdities of the world, render them laughable, and thus facilitate social change for the better. He is currently Chair and Professor of Philosophy at The New School for Social Research in New York City.

September 24-25, 2010, 6:00 p.m. Friday and Saturday, 2:00 p.m. Saturday, Cabe Theatre

Make ‘Em Laugh

An original play about laughter for the whole family, Make ‘Em Laugh will be performed in Cabe Theatre. 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 5, 2010, 7:30 p.m., Mills C

"Reading an Ancient Magician’s Code: The Case of the Amulet from Lisbon"

Joey Williams, class of ’04, will return to his alma mater to explore the inscriptions contained on an ancient magical amulet. His lecture will demonstrate how attention to ancient language provides a key to unlocking questions about ancient religion and culture. A young scholar at work, he is currently pursuing his doctorate in Classics and Archaeology at the University of Buffalo in New York.

October 20, 2010, 8:30 p.m., Worsham Performance Hall

"The Language of the Stand-Up Comic: Reflecting and Affecting Society"

Known as "The Biggest Name in Comedy," Costaki Economopoulos creates little "a-ha" moments with humor often described as smart, hip, insightful, and socially relevant. His jokes have appeared on The Tonight Show and The Late Show, but he is best known for "The Economonologue," a weekly segment on the syndicated Bob and Tom Radio Show.

October 28, 2010, 7:30 p.m., Staples Auditorium

"An Evening of Humor with Lydia Davis"

Acclaimed fiction writer and translator Lydia Davis is an innovator of the short story form. Her work is known for its brevity and humor, as well as her stylistic hallmarks of minimalist wordplay. She is the author of four collections of short fiction, including Varieties of Disturbance, a finalist for the 2007 National Book Award; Break It Down; Samuel Johnson Is Indignant; and a novel, The End of the Story.

November 4, 2010, 11:10 a.m., Murphy Seminar Room

Director’s Discussion: "When Conversation was an Art"

Shepard Sobel, Murphy Visiting Theatre Director, will discuss his interpretation of The Rivals by Richard Brinsley Sheridan. (See November 10-13 for play performance schedule.)

November 10-13, 2010, 7:30 p.m. Wednesday-Saturday, 2:00 p.m. Saturday, Cabe Theatre

The Rivals by Richard Brinsley Sheridan

Shepard Sobel, this year’s Murphy Visiting Theatre Director, will direct a student theatrical production of Sheridan’s The Rivals. Set in the late 18th century, this farcical comedy of manners satirizes the pretentiousness of English society through the use of clever wordplay, false identities, romantic entanglements, and parental disapproval. Co-founder of the OBIE award-winning Pearl Theatre Company in New York, Sobel has experience acting, directing, and teaching in various venues throughout the United States.

November 18, 2010, 7:30 p.m., Staples Auditorium

Jonathan Safran Foer is an internationally acclaimed author whose first novel, Everything Is Illuminated, won numerous awards and was adapted into a highly successful Hollywood film. Named one of Rolling Stone’s "People of the Year," Foer is a modern literary warrior who provokes laughter and thoughtful dialogue. Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close, his second novel, went straight to the bestseller list and has been optioned for film production. His latest work, Eating Animals, documents the year he spent exploring the ecological crisis at farms across the country. This event is co-sponsored by the Crain-Maling Center of Jewish Culture.

February 10, 2011, 7:30 p.m., Mills C

"Names and Naming in Sallust’s Catilinarian Conspiracy"

Michael Johnson has research interests in Roman religion, history and Latin epigraphy and Latin prose, and is currently working on a book on the pontifical law of the Roman Republic as well as a monograph on all the Latin and Greek inscriptions at Johns Hopkins University. He is currently an Assistant Professor at Vanderbilt University and a fellow of the American Academy in Rome.

February 17, 2011, 7:30 p.m., Reves Recital Hall

"Musin’s and Thinkin’s"

Jack Pendarvis is the author of two novels, Awesome and Shut Up, Ugly, as well as two collections of short stories, The Mysterious Secret of the Valuable Treasure and Your Body is Changing. He is a contributing editor for The Oxford American, The Believer, and the music magazine, Paste. His work has appeared in many other publications, including McSweeney’s and The New York Times. A first-rate humorist, he is currently the Grisham Writer-in-Residence at the University of Mississippi.

February 18-19, 2011, 6:00 p.m. Friday, 3:00 p.m. Saturday, Cabe Theatre

Ten-Minute Play Festival

Winning entries of the Ten-Minute Play Contest will be read during this weekend festival. The Ten-Minute play form debuted in 1977 at the Actor’s Theatre of Louisville’s Humana Festival of New American Plays as a way of encouraging the theatre-going public to see new plays.

March 8, 2011, 7:30 p.m., Mills C

"Making the Past Come Alive: A Reading and Discussion with Children’s Literature Author Tracy Barrett"

Children’s author and Classics scholar Tracy Barrett unites her interests in the ancient and medieval worlds in her fiction and nonfiction. She is the author of numerous works that include the award-winning young-adult novel, Anna of Byzantium, as well as The Beast of Blackslope and On Etruscan Time. Her most recent publications include The Case That Time Forgot, the third book of "The Sherlock Files," and King of Ithaka, a young-adult novel based on Homer’s Odyssey. She currently teaches Italian, Women’s Studies, and Humanities at Vanderbilt University.

April 14, 2011, 7:30 p.m., Reves Recital Hall

"An Evening with Murphy Visiting Poet Alan Michael Parker"

Alan Michael Parker is the author of five collections of poetry, most recently Elephants & Butterflies, as well as a novel, Cry Uncle. He is the winner of a Pushcart Prize and the Lucille Medwick Memorial Award from the Poetry Society of America. He currently teaches at Davidson College, where he is Professor of English and Director of Creative Writing. He is also a Core Faculty Member in the Queens University low-residency Masters of Fine Arts program.

April 28, 2011, 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.