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The Daily Eastern News' weekly arts and entertainment section
Ensemble to perform selections from operas
By Greg Sainer Verge Reporter
EASTERN ILLINOIS UNIVERSITY CHARLESTON, ILL. D A I LY E A S T E R N N E W S . C O M T WIT TER.COM/DEN_NE WS
Verge takes on “Fifty Shades of Grey”
Panthers set for first place battle
Section B
Page 8 ANCIENT GREECE
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Residence halls to keep up with Wi-Fi demands
Booth Library presents... Z ACHARY WHITE | THE DAILY EASTERN NE WS
Anthony Morrison, a sophomore music major, blows into a pan-pipe during practice Wednesday.
petry was the larger aspect for this year’s performance because he plans to perform at schools in the surrounding area. “This production is purposefully minimalist because we are planning to visit a few area schools,” Killen said. “I won’t give away all of the secrets, but one of the puppets is 16feet long and glows.” Killen said his previous experiences aided in his approach to preparing the performance for the audience. “I performed with the Cincinnati Opera for three seasons prior to moving to Charleston,” Killen said. “I learned so much from being around some of the finest conduc-
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ues to Grow
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A night with Mozart
puppets that were created in collaboration with the theater department. “I have collaborated with my colleagues in the theater department to design and build puppets that will be used in the scenes from Die Zauberflöte,” Killen said. Killen said that theatre department faculty Karen Eisenhour and Christopher Gadomski volunteered their time to make the puppets. In past performances by the Music Theatre/Opera Ensemble, scenery has been incorporated to set the tone for each piece, Crews said. Killen, however, said the pup-
OC TOBER 26, 2012
dubstep Contin-
October 26, 2012
The Eastern Illinois University Music Theatre/Opera Ensemble will be performing selections from three operas by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart Friday and Saturday. Both performances, titled “Mozart’s Women: An Evening of Opera Scenes,” begin at 7:30 p.m. in the Recital Hall at the Doudna Fine Arts Center. Dan Crews, the director of patron services at Doudna, said the performance is a yearly inter-department effort between the music department and the theater department. Faculty ensemble director Seth Killen said selections from “The Magic Flute,” “The Marriage of Figaro” and “Thus Do They All” will be performed. “The Music Theatre/Opera Ensemble will be performing scenes from three different operas composed by W.A. Mozart: Die Zauberflöte, Le nozze di Figaro, and Cosi fan tutte,” Killen said. Killen explained that the theme of “Mozart’s Women” was chosen because of the number of female singers in the ensemble. “This semester, I had a large group of talented female singers, and I wanted to showcase them,” Killen said. “For me, Mozart was an obvious choice because he writes so well for the female voice and because his female characters are incredibly multi-faceted and powerful.” Killen said the pieces were selected based on his own academic standards and a desire to engage the audience’s attention. “When I put together the program, I have two main requirements: the music must be something that will allow the students to grow musically and dramatically, and the program must be interesting for audiences,” Killen said. Part of this effort to interest the audiences will include the use of
D
I won't give away all the secrets, but one of the puppets is 16-feet long and glows.
SETH KILLEN, FACULTY ENSEMBLE DIRECTOR
tors, directors and administrators in the business.” Killen also said his experience from the Opera has helped him train the ensemble’s student performers. “I carry a lot of those experiences over into the classroom,” Killen said. “One of my greatest objec-
tives is to train young singers what it means to be a professional singer-actor.” Killen said he focuses on cooperation, rehearsal techniques and character creation with his students. Greg Sainer can be reached at 581-2812 or gpsainer@eiu.
By Robyn Dexter In-depth Editor
MIR ANDA PLOSS | THE DAILY EASTERN NE WS
Leeann Kirchner, a senior English major, and Stormie Kelley, a freshman theatre major, perform during “Daughters of Dionysus” Thursday in the Atrium of Booth Library. “Daughters of Dionysus” is a collections of greek play, and was presented as part of the symposium on Ancient Greece.
‘Daughters’ play fills ‘amphitheater’ Symposium on Ancient Greece: a series focusing on the culture during the time of Ancient Greece. By Amy Wywialowski Assistant Daily Editor
As more than 50 students, faculty, staff and community members filed into the Booth Library Atrium Thursday, five women wearing red and gold flowing dresses walked on to a stage. The stage was made of plastic blocks, black curtains and a large image of the Temple of Athena in Athens, Greece. The scene was the beginning of a collection of Greek plays titled “Daughters of Dionysus,” which was performed as a part of the Ancient Greek Symposium in Booth Library and featured Amina Baker, a sophomore theatre major; Shelbie Kearfott, a freshman recreation administration major; Meghan Kegeris, a junior communication studies major; Stormie Kelley, a freshman theatre major; and Leanne Kirchner, a senior English major. “We will show you stories of women of
strength, women of power, for we are the Daughters of Dionysus,” the women said in the introductory scene of the play. Dionysus is a Greek god, who is often associated with theater. Allen Lanham, the dean of library services at Booth Library, helped arrange the stage and said it was created to simulate a Greek amphitheater, which is where many of the plays in Ancient Greece were performed. “We thought the area chosen would make a nice mock amphitheater, and filled the balconies last,” Lanham said. “It is a library, so there were book carts going through and some books fell over, but in Ancient Greece there also would have been disruptions, maybe not cars, but possibly sporting events or other things.” The collection was comprised of three plays, “Medea,” “Antigone” and “The Trojan Women” all written by Euripides. Although the cast was all female, there were two male roles, which were portrayed in the collection. In order to distinguish the male characters from the fe-
male, the actresses wore masks. Kirchner, who portrayed the role King Creon in scenes from “Antigone,” said she really enjoyed playing one of the male roles because it allowed her to act as someone completely different than herself. The performance was also the first time she performed with a mask, which she said was extremely interesting and was glad she was given the opportunity. “You can’t show expression with your face while using it; you have to use the mask,” Kirchner said. “Even the slightest movement speaks wonders.” Along with using the mask for her first time, the performance was also the first time Kirchner and the cast had performed in the Booth Atrium. “It was a little smaller than where we had rehearsed but we adjusted and I think it went really well,” Kirchner said. The symposium will take place until Nov. 7.
As the world continues its route to a wireless society, Eastern is making an effort to keep up with the growing Wi-Fi demands from students. Mark Hudson, the director of University Housing and Dining Services, said upgrades have been made in the residence halls each year, as well as upgrading the bandwidth Eastern needs to keep campus wireless. “There’s an incredible infrastructure of bells and whistles on campus that make all of this work,” he said. “There’s no doubt that the technological footprint of this campus is bigger than it ever has been because technology has become such an invasive part of our world.” In 1999, Hudson said all the residence halls were hardwired for Internet access so students could connect via Ethernet. “At the time, Eastern was so cutting edge,” he said. “People had no objection to plugging into the Internet because they were working on desktop computers.” However, as years went by, Hudson said he became aware of changing technology and the need to make the switch to a wireless campus. While putting in sprinklers in Stevenson Hall that summer, Hudson said the first wireless system on campus was put in. “The most recent project was putting wireless in the Triad,” he said. “All of the residence halls now have wireless on the floors except Carman and Pemberton halls.” Hudson said those two in addition to Greek Court and University Court are the next project buildings for Wi-Fi. “The folks from Information Technology Systems come in and go from room to room figuring out what sort of work will need to be done to install (the wireless systems),” he said. Hudson said when it comes to bandwidth, there is a group on campus that assesses the amount of bandwidth Eastern uses every other week. “When the usage gets up to 90 percent of what we have available, we up the number we put out,” he said. Funding for the bandwidth is supplied through room and board rate development. “We have money that we set aside each year for additional bandwidth,” he said. Cord Hackett, the administrative coordinator for user services at University Housing and Dining Services, said the university currently has around 470 megabytes of bandwidth for the residence halls. “A couple of weeks ago, we upped it 30 megabytes because there was a lot more activity at night,” he said. Hackett said one megabyte of bandwidth costs about $1,000 annually. “There are occasions where (usage) will reach the top (of capacity) but as soon as it starts to plateau, we’ll start movement on how much bandwidth we have and need,” Hackett said. Hudson said Eastern has an agreement with Consolidated Communications that enables the university to increase or decrease bandwidth in a very short period of time. “Bandwidth is the highway that technology flows on, so if you don’t have enough, it’s going to be a problem campus-wide,” Hudson said. “We carefully monitor it all the time to make sure students have exactly what they need.”
Amy Wywialowski can be reached at 581-2812 or alwywialowski@eiu.edu.
Robyn Dexter can be reached at 581-2812 or redexter@eiu.edu.
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Challenge to test students’ endurance, strength By Tim Deters Features Editor
Eastern students will have the chance to test their physical strength and experience a summarized Marine Corps training exercise Saturday.
The Marine Corps will host the Marine Corps Combat Fitness Challenge from noon to 3 p.m. at O’Brien Field. All students with a Panthercard can participate. Capt. August Christhilf, a Marine Corps officer selection officer, ex-
plained the challenge is a modified version of the Marine Corps Combat Fitness Test all Marines must complete annually to measure their fitness level. The challenge “is an opportunity for students to test themselves against that measure,” he said.
The challenge will be shorter and easier so that students can experience what it takes to be a Marine while still having fun, Christhilf said. “It’s basically a drill which tests your speed, agility, endurance and overall determination,” he said. O’Brien Field will be divided into
four lanes, and the challenge will involve several steps that correspond to actual Marine Corps training. Students will start the challenge crawling on their hands and knees then zigzag their way through a series of traffic cones on their feet. CHALLENGE, page 5