I entered Patricia Gallagher Newberry’s classroom a little nervous the first day of class.
Although I’d written news stories over the course of my college career, I knew JRN 421 (“Beat Development”) was going to be different. It was going be tough.
After I chose the Miami “Fine Arts” beat I started to feel a little more confident. After all, I went to Cincinnati’s School for the Creative and Performing Arts for high school. This was my turf! I could handle this.
Well, I had a lot to learn. As I began generating story ideas and contacting potential sources, I realized that succeeding in this course wasn’t going to be a piece of cake.
Between working a 40-hour week and managing other class work, fitting in interviews and writing time became a challenge. I found myself at the mercy of sources’ schedules – which never seemed to fit mine. I motored from Newport, KY to Oxford before work most days, my digital recorder in tow, hoping each time my source wouldn’t stand me up. It didn’t always work out.
Scoring the important interviews did turn out to be the most challenging part of “Beat Development.”
While I may have set up meetings weeks in advance, I definitely spent my fair share of afternoons checking the time on my cell phone, re-checking notes, and never getting the story.
The absolute necessity of having a back-up plan for those situations was the most valuable lesson I learned in this class. I found that when a well-researched, carefully crafted interview goes off without a hitch and leads to a good story, it is the most rewarding experience a writer can have – and blowing a deadline due to poor preparation is the worst.
As a result of taking this class, my interviewing confidence has grown, my organizational skills have increased, and I have learned the value of getting out from behind you desk and hitting the street to get the best news.
--Veronica Strickler
Dec. 11, 2007
Tuesday, December 11, 2007
Monday, December 10, 2007
Classic Tragedy Captures Modern Issues
BY VERONICA STRICKLER
SEP. 20, 2007
War. Torture. Intolerance. Love. Terror.
It isn't a breaking news report on the situation in Iraq. It's Euripedes' “The Trojan Women,” part of the Social Justice Series presented by Miami University's School of Fine Arts.
The play, which debuts on Oct. 4 in the Gates-Abegglen Theatre at the Center for Performing Arts, tells the story of four Trojan women after their city has fallen in battle against the Greeks. Surrounded by torture, intolerance and violence, the women are faced with enslavement and death as their families are torn apart.
Such a serious topic, together with a script first produced in 415 B.C., proved daunting for the cast of “Women” – which is completely composed of Miami students.
"I think there was more fear at least starting out -- than anything else," Assistant Director Nicole Wilder said. "Classic texts tend to be a little bit dense. You know, there's a lot of monologues, a lot of narrative. Modern audiences aren't necessarily used to watching that. So the actors are feeling the pressure of how to keep the audience engaged."
Wilder herself edited the script for the Miami production, cutting and interweaving many of the long monologues characteristic of classical plays to seem more like modern realistic dialogue.
"I think you need to keep common sentiment in mind if you're trying to make a point," Wilder said. "I think it's a strategic choice that we made to make it a little more accessible."
William Doan, associate dean of the School of Fine Arts and professor in the Department of Theatre at Miami, is one of many educators trying to impart what they see as the enduring value of classical works upon their students.
"We've started prepping them for ‘Trojan Women’," says Doan, "and started talking about theater and social action, and the difference between theater as art and social drama -- the ways in which people can use theater as a way to interpret what's happening in society. So far I'm impressed not only with the ability but with the willingness of these students to kind of go along for the ride and try this out."
But while Director Bekka Eaton has allowed alterations to the script and let her crew draw on modern influences for inspiration (the costumes in “The Trojan Women” are heavily influenced by the “Star Wars” films), she has striven to maintain the classical spirit of the play.
Eaton brought in language and movement specialists to do intensive workshops with the actors in an effort to help them connect with their roles mentally and physically. Furthermore, the set -- which is meant to resemble harsh, quarried rock -- was deliberately designed to pose a challenge to the cast.
"It's big," Wilder said. "In a play like this we're trying to really get them to connect physically to their body. Otherwise you start memorizing these long monologues and they start coming out sort of robotically. This will help to prevent that. But also, it relates to the hopelessness of the situation that the characters are in right now. It's sort of a metaphor."
Part the reason “The Trojan Women” was selected for production is its relevance to current events. Many elements of the play are echoed in modern headlines every day: the rape and torture of conquered people, the destruction of families, and the inevitable and irrevocable damage to noncombatant victims in the course of war.
While the Miami production is not set specifically in a modern war zone, Wilder said she and Eaton are well aware that it could be.
But that might mean missing a bigger point.
"Most of the production photos that I have seen actually have made it really obvious where they're setting it -- as in Vietnam or in Afghanistan or something like that," Wilder said. "Bekka's real goal was to point out that people continue to not learn from history. That's why this play still needs to be done. So by not situating it specifically in Afghanistan or Iraq I think makes that statement."
James Lentini, dean of Miami's School of Fine Arts, agrees that drawing specific comparisons between modern and ancient events isn't the most important element of this production.
"You wouldn't necessarily connect something so far removed in the timeline of things," says . "How do you make it relevant? Is it important to make it relevant?"
In the end the answer may be no.
"It is about social justice. Whether it's for women or Trojan women or whoever."
SEP. 20, 2007
War. Torture. Intolerance. Love. Terror.
It isn't a breaking news report on the situation in Iraq. It's Euripedes' “The Trojan Women,” part of the Social Justice Series presented by Miami University's School of Fine Arts.
The play, which debuts on Oct. 4 in the Gates-Abegglen Theatre at the Center for Performing Arts, tells the story of four Trojan women after their city has fallen in battle against the Greeks. Surrounded by torture, intolerance and violence, the women are faced with enslavement and death as their families are torn apart.
Such a serious topic, together with a script first produced in 415 B.C., proved daunting for the cast of “Women” – which is completely composed of Miami students.
"I think there was more fear at least starting out -- than anything else," Assistant Director Nicole Wilder said. "Classic texts tend to be a little bit dense. You know, there's a lot of monologues, a lot of narrative. Modern audiences aren't necessarily used to watching that. So the actors are feeling the pressure of how to keep the audience engaged."
Wilder herself edited the script for the Miami production, cutting and interweaving many of the long monologues characteristic of classical plays to seem more like modern realistic dialogue.
"I think you need to keep common sentiment in mind if you're trying to make a point," Wilder said. "I think it's a strategic choice that we made to make it a little more accessible."
William Doan, associate dean of the School of Fine Arts and professor in the Department of Theatre at Miami, is one of many educators trying to impart what they see as the enduring value of classical works upon their students.
"We've started prepping them for ‘Trojan Women’," says Doan, "and started talking about theater and social action, and the difference between theater as art and social drama -- the ways in which people can use theater as a way to interpret what's happening in society. So far I'm impressed not only with the ability but with the willingness of these students to kind of go along for the ride and try this out."
But while Director Bekka Eaton has allowed alterations to the script and let her crew draw on modern influences for inspiration (the costumes in “The Trojan Women” are heavily influenced by the “Star Wars” films), she has striven to maintain the classical spirit of the play.
Eaton brought in language and movement specialists to do intensive workshops with the actors in an effort to help them connect with their roles mentally and physically. Furthermore, the set -- which is meant to resemble harsh, quarried rock -- was deliberately designed to pose a challenge to the cast.
"It's big," Wilder said. "In a play like this we're trying to really get them to connect physically to their body. Otherwise you start memorizing these long monologues and they start coming out sort of robotically. This will help to prevent that. But also, it relates to the hopelessness of the situation that the characters are in right now. It's sort of a metaphor."
Part the reason “The Trojan Women” was selected for production is its relevance to current events. Many elements of the play are echoed in modern headlines every day: the rape and torture of conquered people, the destruction of families, and the inevitable and irrevocable damage to noncombatant victims in the course of war.
While the Miami production is not set specifically in a modern war zone, Wilder said she and Eaton are well aware that it could be.
But that might mean missing a bigger point.
"Most of the production photos that I have seen actually have made it really obvious where they're setting it -- as in Vietnam or in Afghanistan or something like that," Wilder said. "Bekka's real goal was to point out that people continue to not learn from history. That's why this play still needs to be done. So by not situating it specifically in Afghanistan or Iraq I think makes that statement."
James Lentini, dean of Miami's School of Fine Arts, agrees that drawing specific comparisons between modern and ancient events isn't the most important element of this production.
"You wouldn't necessarily connect something so far removed in the timeline of things," says . "How do you make it relevant? Is it important to make it relevant?"
In the end the answer may be no.
"It is about social justice. Whether it's for women or Trojan women or whoever."
Tuesday, December 4, 2007
Performing Arts Series Production Loses Star
BY VERONICA STRICKLER
OCT. 2, 2007
Live theater can be incredibly unpredictable -- long before the curtain even rises.
Stacey Keach, veteran television and film actor, has pulled out of his starring role in the touring production of “Top Secret: The Battle for the Pentagon Papers,” which is scheduled to appear in Miami University’s Hall Auditorium Oct. 24.
Students who noticed flyers advertising “Top Secret” might have recognized Keach from his role as warden Henry Pope on the popular FOX drama “Prison Break,” though he is most famous forportraying the title character on the CBS series “Mickey Spillane’s Mike Hammer”. While no official cast list has been released, John Heard (also of “Prison Break”) has been tapped to take over Keach’s role, according to Miami officials.
Patti Liberatore, director of the Performing Arts Series, said Keach’s decision was partially caused by a looming actors’ strike in Hollywood, though no further explanation could be given. While she admits Keach’s dropping out of the production is inconvenient, Liberatore remains confident that “Top Secret” will be well received.
“He was just a quasi-recognizable name for some people,” Liberatore said. “I don’t know that it was a huge audience draw. I liked the idea that there was a recognizable name in it, but really what attracted me to the project was far more the content of the play and the issues that it takes on.”
What “Top Secret” takes on is the story of one of the most significant U.S. Supreme Court victories in the history of the American press.
The “Pentagon Papers” were commissioned by then-Secretary of Defense Robert McNamara in 1966 to review the history of the U.S.’s involvement in Vietnam. Some sections of the report detailed efforts by the U.S. government to manipulate the media and military information. In 1971, the New York Times was leaked a copy of the “Pentagon Papers” and ran a series of excerpts from the classified document. Shortly after, the Times was hit with a federal injunction forbidding further publication on unprecedented grounds that the papers content posed a threat to national security. Shortly after, the Washington Post acquired a copy, and that is where the play picks up with Ben Bradlee, editor of the Post deliberating over publishing the document, and continues through the trial that ensued.
Given its journalistic, political and historical significance, a Social Justice Series performance of “Top Secret” is far from surprising. For professors seeking to find a fresh way for their students to connect with their curriculum, the play is goldmine.
“A lot of what we do is try and reach the students through their professors,” said David Sheldrick, assistant director of the Performing Arts Series. “A lot of student attendance we’re expecting to be from curricular ties. We’ve been talking with theater professors, journalism professors, poli-sci. We’ve got a couple of connections in there. Some are going to require their classes to attend and that’s really how we try to get the students to attend, and think about activities, and get involved.”
But for people like Liberatore, a former journalism student who is well aware that a growing number of college students get their news from Jon Stewart and not Brian Williams, the hope is that students will want to connect with “Top Secret” for their own benefit.
“What I would really, really hope is that people who are coming to this production are coming with a critical eye thinking, ‘What can I take away from this?’” Liberatore said. “I think theater can transcend any time.”
Sheldrick agrees, and also hopes students and professors will see the production’s relevance to current events.
“The Pentagon Papers, that Vietnam era, and arguably the biggest Supreme Court decision on freedom of the press...But it’s extremely relevant based on what’s going on today,” he said. “That was another key point to us bringing it in. It’s something that can really connect with everything going on right now.”
“When it comes to thinking about a lot of these issues, we’re sort of in a bubble,” Liberatore added. “Until it starts effecting us personally we can sort of live our lives and forget the fact that we’re at war. We might remember it when we go to fill up our gas tank.”
Additionally, issues like government accountability are key to social justice. The theme that ties together several projects from the School of Fine Arts this year.
“I think that politicians at all levels -- federal, state, local, as well as corporate leaders at all levels do look to the arts, not only for the way to answer certain questions but the way we ask the questions,” said William Doan, associate dean of the school. “I think smart and savvy leaders in various kinds of capacities, even if they don’t want to openly admit it, will secretly turn to the arts.”
Liberatore agrees. She believes that her job makes her responsible for presenting Miami’s student body with the type of art that spurs discussion and opens forums for important and controversial issues. That is why she pounced on “Top Secret.”
“I believe that art’s supposed to change your life,” Liberatore said. “Sometimes you have to challenge people. Sometimes you can do things artistically and accomplish things that can’t be accomplished any other way. Maybe seeing something on-stage which is sort of not real makes it easier to think about the real thing that it’s portraying.”
OCT. 2, 2007
Live theater can be incredibly unpredictable -- long before the curtain even rises.
Stacey Keach, veteran television and film actor, has pulled out of his starring role in the touring production of “Top Secret: The Battle for the Pentagon Papers,” which is scheduled to appear in Miami University’s Hall Auditorium Oct. 24.
Students who noticed flyers advertising “Top Secret” might have recognized Keach from his role as warden Henry Pope on the popular FOX drama “Prison Break,” though he is most famous forportraying the title character on the CBS series “Mickey Spillane’s Mike Hammer”. While no official cast list has been released, John Heard (also of “Prison Break”) has been tapped to take over Keach’s role, according to Miami officials.
Patti Liberatore, director of the Performing Arts Series, said Keach’s decision was partially caused by a looming actors’ strike in Hollywood, though no further explanation could be given. While she admits Keach’s dropping out of the production is inconvenient, Liberatore remains confident that “Top Secret” will be well received.
“He was just a quasi-recognizable name for some people,” Liberatore said. “I don’t know that it was a huge audience draw. I liked the idea that there was a recognizable name in it, but really what attracted me to the project was far more the content of the play and the issues that it takes on.”
What “Top Secret” takes on is the story of one of the most significant U.S. Supreme Court victories in the history of the American press.
The “Pentagon Papers” were commissioned by then-Secretary of Defense Robert McNamara in 1966 to review the history of the U.S.’s involvement in Vietnam. Some sections of the report detailed efforts by the U.S. government to manipulate the media and military information. In 1971, the New York Times was leaked a copy of the “Pentagon Papers” and ran a series of excerpts from the classified document. Shortly after, the Times was hit with a federal injunction forbidding further publication on unprecedented grounds that the papers content posed a threat to national security. Shortly after, the Washington Post acquired a copy, and that is where the play picks up with Ben Bradlee, editor of the Post deliberating over publishing the document, and continues through the trial that ensued.
Given its journalistic, political and historical significance, a Social Justice Series performance of “Top Secret” is far from surprising. For professors seeking to find a fresh way for their students to connect with their curriculum, the play is goldmine.
“A lot of what we do is try and reach the students through their professors,” said David Sheldrick, assistant director of the Performing Arts Series. “A lot of student attendance we’re expecting to be from curricular ties. We’ve been talking with theater professors, journalism professors, poli-sci. We’ve got a couple of connections in there. Some are going to require their classes to attend and that’s really how we try to get the students to attend, and think about activities, and get involved.”
But for people like Liberatore, a former journalism student who is well aware that a growing number of college students get their news from Jon Stewart and not Brian Williams, the hope is that students will want to connect with “Top Secret” for their own benefit.
“What I would really, really hope is that people who are coming to this production are coming with a critical eye thinking, ‘What can I take away from this?’” Liberatore said. “I think theater can transcend any time.”
Sheldrick agrees, and also hopes students and professors will see the production’s relevance to current events.
“The Pentagon Papers, that Vietnam era, and arguably the biggest Supreme Court decision on freedom of the press...But it’s extremely relevant based on what’s going on today,” he said. “That was another key point to us bringing it in. It’s something that can really connect with everything going on right now.”
“When it comes to thinking about a lot of these issues, we’re sort of in a bubble,” Liberatore added. “Until it starts effecting us personally we can sort of live our lives and forget the fact that we’re at war. We might remember it when we go to fill up our gas tank.”
Additionally, issues like government accountability are key to social justice. The theme that ties together several projects from the School of Fine Arts this year.
“I think that politicians at all levels -- federal, state, local, as well as corporate leaders at all levels do look to the arts, not only for the way to answer certain questions but the way we ask the questions,” said William Doan, associate dean of the school. “I think smart and savvy leaders in various kinds of capacities, even if they don’t want to openly admit it, will secretly turn to the arts.”
Liberatore agrees. She believes that her job makes her responsible for presenting Miami’s student body with the type of art that spurs discussion and opens forums for important and controversial issues. That is why she pounced on “Top Secret.”
“I believe that art’s supposed to change your life,” Liberatore said. “Sometimes you have to challenge people. Sometimes you can do things artistically and accomplish things that can’t be accomplished any other way. Maybe seeing something on-stage which is sort of not real makes it easier to think about the real thing that it’s portraying.”
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