The South Texan The Award-Winning Texas A&M University-Kingsville Student Publication
Thursday, September 26, 2019 Volume 94, Issue 4 TheSouthTexan.com
How to Adult
International Award
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article on task-based teaching.
Need to learn how to do your laundry?
Sherris wins award for his co-authored
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The Show
Must Go On Leaving it all off the stage
Awards continued on Page 10
JUMP into TAMUK
International students get help acclimating to a new culture.
ARYSSA ENRIQUEZ Campus Editor With hunger to thrive despite their dreary surroundings, the story of Sam, Rose and Avery in The Flick becomes an award-winning production for the TAMUK Theater Department. Actors Robin Machuca, Lexi LaCour and Etta Enow all earned recognition for their hard work and talent during last weekend’s performance of The Flick. Caroline Dietz was also recognized for her makeup design in the play. A representative of Kennedy Center American College (KCACTF) visited The Flick, Saturday afternoon and awarded several students for their outstanding performance. The cast and crew walked out with two Irene Ryan Acting awards, two Meritorious Achievement for Performance Awards, Makeup Design and Scene Design recognitions. Enow and Machuca were recognized for their performance with the Irene Ryan Acting Award. This recognition is awarded to students looking to pursue their education and provides honor and credibility for award receivers. “After receiving the award, I felt so humbled and honored. There’s a saying in theater, ‘The theater doesn’t owe you anything,’ which is true hence why I was so surprised when I was awarded with an Irene Ryan…This achievement symbolizes my growth as an actress, it also shows how much I’ve matured throughout my time here in TAMUK Theater,” Enow, who plays Avery in The Flick, said. LaCour earned a Meritorious Achievement for Performance for her excellence in the production. LaCour played the role of Rose, a projectionist in a theater in Massachusetts. Creativity was the star of the show, as it also earned an award for scene and makeup design. The cast also received the Meritorious Achievement for Performance award in the category of Ensemble Actors. “I was very happy about it, mostly because of how simple the idea came up…When we were jumbling around ideas for the play and The Flick came up [I thought] ‘Oh yeah, you can just flip it, just have the show take place in the audience instead of it
The South Texan
ILIANA FLORES Managing Editor
background crew,” Canizalez said. Often times, stage hands, or the stage crewmembers, are thought to be the ones who only move around props and put up trees, but it is quite the contrary. “Pretty much everything in theater, from set building to light design, to sound, to stage managing, to pretty much everything in there that makes the production happen. Box office, concession…. It’s not just moving props around, it’s the whole thing to make the actual show happen,” Canizalez said. Robin Machuca, one of the main actors in The Flick, was building the set as he prepared for the opening of the show. Being an actor has not stopped Machuca from designing or building in the TAMUK theater group. Machuca was also sound designer for The Flick. When designing the sound of a production, Machuca asks himself, “Can I make the music into its own character for the show?” Having many jobs does not thin the ability of these hard working hands. The efforts each student, and non-student, put into a production may not be
Alone, jet-lagged and often unfamiliar with the culture and language, international students at Texas A&M University-Kingsville (TAMUK) are given a one-day crash course orientation to familiarize themselves with campus. As this is often not enough time to help students feel comfortable living in a new place, the Office of International Studies & Programs created the Javelinas United Mentoring Program (JUMP). JUMP is a new program on campus that partners first semester international students with students who have been attending TAMUK for at least one year; these students can be domestic or other international students. The program “is designed to help international students connect with American students, experience American traditions and customs, and develop friendships that will last,” according to the program’s webpage. In 2018, the Office of International Studies was given the task of hosting the onsite orientation for incoming international students. This orientation lasts one day and is usually held one week prior to the first day of school. At this orientation, students are given all required information regarding university regulations. However, as students often step off flights that were 10 hours long or more, they arrive to orientation disoriented and tired making it harder to understand the important information, especially since they are not familiar with the language and accents in America. The Office of International Studies noticed that the one-day orientation did not completely prepare international students. “It (orientation) has some impact [and] helps some people, but not the best. So, what we did is that we expanded our new international orientation... into pre-arrival international orientation that targets students who are still in their home country who have been admitted then we contact them immediately... we want to make them
Theater continued on Page 10
International continued on Page 10
Photo By Erica Ginnett
Backstage at the Little Theater.
These hands wear many hats ERICA GARCIA GINNETT Contributing Writer The theater group of Texas A&M University—Kingsville might be small in numbers, but this does not keep the crew from stacking their hats and getting to work. Ignoring how tall their stack may stand, they keep balanced and do it all with conviction and pride. Acting on stage, designing a set and building part of the set of a production is not uncommon for a single student at TAMUK to accomplish. Corey Ranson, associate professor and director of theatre activities, has been with TAMUK since 2008 and has helped students put on many productions. Ranson said 16 to 18, possibly up to 20, students were involved in their most recent production The Flick, including completing painting, set building, inventory, lights, sound and cleaning. Everyone involved in a theatrical production at TAMUK work together to make every production a success. Stage crew member Diana Canizalez has best been known for her backstage work, feeling most comfortable with the technical needs of a production. “Everyone in theater, even actors, everyone helps out, it’s not just the