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Volume 52, Issue 57 | friday, december 1, 2017 | ndsmcobserver.com
PEMCo show to commemorate 20 years “20 Seasons of Love” on Saturday night will feature a song from each of the group’s previous musicals By ALEXANDRA MUCK News Writer
For a free musical theater experience Saturday night, the Pasquerilla East Musical Company (PEMCo) producers would recommend attending “20 Seasons of Love: A PEMCo Review” at 7 p.m. in Washington Hall. The show will feature one song from each of PEMCo’s productions over its 20-year history, senior Kelsey Dool, PEMCo’s executive producer, said. “When you’re watching this show, it’s like you’re watching 20 years of PEMCo on fast forward,” Dool said. While PEMCo typically produces one fall and one spring
show, senior Brynn Alexander, PEMCo’s production management producer, said the producers decided to host an additional show this year to celebrate the company’s 20th anniversary. “[The idea for the show] was kind of an egg in our brains at one point and then hatched into this monumental, exciting concert that’s about to happen,” Alexander said. The four PEMCo producers began reaching out to alumni in the summer to gauge interest, according to Alexander, and once they saw it was there, they made plans to produce the show. The show is directed by Katie
Photo courtesy of Denise Dorotheo
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The cast of PEMCo’s “20 Seasons of Love: A Review” gathers onstage during a rehearsal. The students will be joined by PEMCo alumni during the Saturday night show as they perform numbers from previous shows.
Author discusses passion, beliefs about death By NICOLE CARATAS Senior News Writer
Kate Sweeney, author of “American Afterlife,” said she began her journey of writing about death when she heard about “green burial,” an ecologically friendly alternative to traditional burial. “Like so many Americans, I don’t have a comfortable relationship with the idea of death
— it frightens me,” she said. “I didn’t know why I was writing the story. … I was writing the story because it was kind of interesting. I had never thought much about burial at all and now I’m at this place with ecological burial, and I ended up learning a lot about the conventional funeral industry.” Sweeney, who gave a reading of excerpts from her book as part of the Visiting Writers
Series at Saint Mary’s on Thursday, said her initial story snowballed into an exploration of how Americans approach death and mourning. “I realized as I was writing that, to me, it was also about this horrible fear I have of death,” she said. “I’d love to be able to tell you that I overcame that because I met so many cool see AUTHOR PAGE 3
Alumni promise gift to University, Congregation Observer Staff Report
Alumni donors, along with the University, have pledged $50 million to support Notre Dame and the Congregation of the Holy Cross, the University announced in a press release Thursday. According to the press release,
members of the class of 1979 Mary and Jay Flaherty — the benefactors of Flaherty Hall — will donate $20 million to Notre Dame for the renovations of Corby Hall, as well as “a separate $5 million gift to the Congregation [of the see DONATION PAGE 3
Badin fair trade sale benefits Nepal residents By CIARA HOPKINSON News Writer
Photo courtesy of Ann-Marie Conrado
Students purchase fair trade goods from Nepal as part of Badin Hall’s annual Conscious Christmas event. The sale is inspired by the work of Badin Hall’s faculty fellow Ann-Marie Conrado and HOPE Initiative.
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For the past nine years, Badin Hall’s signature event Conscious Christmas has supported the rural population of Nepal through HOPE Initiative, a charity founded by their faculty fellow, anthropology professor Ann-Marie Conrado. The fair trade sale will take place Friday from noon until 6 p.m. in the ballroom of LaFortune Student Center and features unique crafts from baskets to jewelry made by Nepalese artisans.
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“We [in the HOPE Initiative] basically work in education in some sense — how do we expand and create educational opportunities?” Conrado said. “Some of those are in the area of working with handicraft artisans, which is where the sale comes in.” Each summer for the past ten years, Conrado has brought Notre Dame design students to Nepal, where they work side-byside with local artisans to create marketable products. Many of those products will be featured see BADIN PAGE 4
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