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Show Arts & Entertainment THE SIGNPOST Greek seek audiences FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 10,2010 Paint a little painting for the blues and bores Depression, anxiety and moodiness can be worked out with simple self-expression Alexandra Nisula columnist GRAPHIC BY ANN JOHNSON | THE SICNPOST Greek Festival performs classic tragedies and comedies for free by providing WSU faculty for a series of lectures correspondent I The Signpost and other events about classical Greek culture. The Zeus Almighty! Father of festival will present a series gods and men! Ruler of the of lectures and a reader's daytime sky! Throw down the theater performance of thunderbolts, for Weber State Aristophanes' The Clouds, as University's Greek Pestiyal js well as a classical Greek play. nigh! WSU Honors presents^ TrV'Kathy'iPayne, Who' is the 13th annual WSU Greek returning for her third year, • Festival in conjunction with presents historical research ; the Classical Greek Theatre for the festival. Festival. "What I'm doing is The festival originated in offering a historical support of the Classical Greek background for Euripides Theater production hosted and Aristophanes for people j;> by the WSU Department of who may hot be familiar ^.-Performing Arts every fall, with the time period," Payne By Christopher Shenefelt said. "Between the two of them, they covered one of the most creative periods in Greek history, the so-called Golden Age." A multitude of people comes together each year to make this event happen, making sure everything is scheduled, the right material chosen and the right speakers selected. "Greek culture, in all its myriad aspects, played an important role in our own history," Payne said, when asked why she puts forth the effort to participate each year. "Many of the leaders of the United States and other western countries had strong classical backgrounds. They studied Greek and Roman authors, often in the original language, and were familiar with the political and philosophical concepts." This year the festival will feature a performance of Alcestis, one of the great Athenian tragedies written by Greek tragedian Euripides. "Euripides' plays strike people as very modern/' Payne said. During the 2009 WSU Greek Festival, WSU English professor Dr. Robert Hogge led a djscussion on Euripides' play The Bacchae and its relation to late classical antiquity. For those uninterested in theater, the menu may be See Greek page 9 The No. 1 mood disorder in America affecting the college age group: depression. We've all heard of it. Most of us think that it has a simple fix, that can be taken care of with a pill or a little therapy, but an intriguing approach to treat depression is through art therapy. Perhaps an old secret kept by the greatest minds of all time, artists have been taking advantage of art therapy without knowing the great effects it has had. By art therapy, I mean channeling any ill, sad or sickening thoughts into a form of art. I see this in my own personal life through poetry. I get to journal, vent and create art through my poems while I'm going through a hard time or struggling with something personal. This is usually when some of my hardest emotional battles have been overcome and my most beautiful poems have been born. Many brilliant artists caught on to this cheap form of therapy long ago. One famous example would be that of Vincent van Gogh. This talented artist was impoverished, yet he couldn't keep himself away from the brothel. Indebted to his lover, he cut off his ear as payment. This alone is the definition of an insane act. Another result of his risque lifestyle was suffering from syphilis, which eventually led to his ultimate craziness. Yet through this, van Gogh was somehow inspired to create captivating works of art, such as Starry Night and The Night Cafe. You may say a bit of his insanity was pulled out of his brain and tossed onto the canvas. Whatever it was, van Gogh used his sickness and, in spite of it, he created art. One of my favorite examples is the author Jane Austen. One that has read her novels might think she led quite the romantic life, but it was just the opposite. She grew up in a big family with lots of drama and little money. Her one true love in life stood her up right before marriage and instead married into a family with more money. This left Austen devastated and caused quite a bit of sadness and bitter feelings throughout her life. She watched everyone around her marry while she remained single. Because all of this happened, Austen had great anecdotes from her own life to use as storylines. Many of her novels were reflections of family stories she observed and her own personal feelings, such as Pride and Prejudice and Sense and Sensibility, She was able to work through and assert her feelings in a way that was still productive. I think as students we sometimes get so wrapped up in schedules, jobs and homework that we forget to stop and take care of ourselves. It is important to stop and process devastating events in our life. Ignoring them only invites them back later, which can then lead to depression. So why don't we fight this by allowing those feelings to help influence and create works of art through our melancholy, our depression and our deepest fears? Who know§? Maybe you'll be thejafixt van Zinn's The People Speak to be performed ^Performance reaches students at WSU next week in SUB By Kirk Edwards correspondent I The Signpost The Weber State University Department of Performing Arts will present Howard Zinn's The People Speak on Thursday, Sept. 16, at 10:30 a.m. in the Shepherd Union Lair. This is a free performance and open to the public. The performance will be delivered in a style called* "reader's theater." Caril Jennings, marketing director for the Department of Performing Arts, described it as "dramatic readings celebrating' the enduring spirit of dissent." Some of the characters Zinn presents include Frederick Douglass, John Brown, Mark TWain, Helen Keller and Emma Goldman. "It provides a forum for voices we might otherwise forget," said Jan Hamer, WSU English professor* and a performer in the production. "It will provide a view of American history beyond the limited scope of a high school history class." - Originally produced in 2003 as a celebration of the millionth sold copy of Zinn's People's History of the United States, the script was read by a distinguished cast of actors and writers SOURCE: WWW.OUTFRONTONMA1N.COM like James Earl Jones, Alice WalRer, Kurt Vonnegut, Alfre Woodard, Marisa Tomei and Danny Glover. "Enthusiastic response to that event led to the idea that theater companies, as well as high schools and colleges, might want to do their own readings of this highly charged material," Jennings said. The cast at WSU is*composed of faculty, staff, students and members of the community. In addition to Hamer, Claire Hughes, the WSU Writing Center coordinator, is among the members of the cast. "I very much enjoy being involved with this reader's theater piece," Hughes said. "It's exciting to see the evolution of our country through this lens and to understand that the process of making this country its best requires ongoing, earnest effort and consciousness." Reader's theater, although one of the oldest forms of theater, is also one of the least performed and seen, according to Bingham High School drama director Michelle Willden. "This type of theater consists of Comment on this column at See Speak page 9 wsusignpost.com. |