THE DAILY COLLEGIAN
NRT holds spring auditions
By Hannah Rishel
COLLEGIAN STAFF WRITER
Almost every week of the semester, No
Refund Theater turns 111 Fbrum from a
classroom into a stage. But in order to do
this they need to select actors.
This week the theatre club held audi
tions for the shows of the first half of the
spring semester. On Monday through
Wednesday, actors participated in audi
tions, with callbacks held on Thursday.
Kristen Glaser had never tried out for
an NRT show before, but heard about
auditions in an e-mail.
"I did musicals and plays in high
school," Glaser (junior-information sci
ences and technology and visual arts)
said. "Also, every NRT show I've seen I've
loved."
Fbr auditions the actors could either
read a monologue from one of the shows
they were trying out for or they could
select one of their own choice. If they
wanted to try out for the musical "Songs
For a New World, - they also needed to
sing 16 bars of music.
Jason Cassidy, who is directing
Kelley King/Collegian
Erin Blose (freshman-secondary education) swing dances with Eric Margusity (freshman
graphic design) at Sugar On Top Thursday night.
Dancers 'sizzle,' swing
at Sugar on Top event
By Joshua Glossner
COLLEGIAN STAFF WRITER
The Sizzle Sticks and the Penn State
Swing Dance Club took over Sugar On Top,
121 1/2 E. Beaver Ave., Thursday night with
moves that swept attendees off their feet.
Jennie Lavine, clarinetist of the local
swing band the Sizzle Sticks, planned the
swing-dancing event.
"I walked in [Sugar On Top] one day, and
I saw how the floor was a perfect set-up for
something like this," Lavine (graduate
biology) said, adding she likes to support
local businesses in any way she can.
Last night's event was the debut per
formance for the Sizzle Sticks, Lavine said.
The band formed a few months ago.
"The members of our band are already
great by themselves, but in the past few
months, we have been able to work well
together," she said.
The band, which features guitarist Stacy
Glen Tibbetts, bassist Andre La Velle and
violinist Jeff Yelton, covers swing music
from the 1920 s to the 19405, Lavine said.
They also played an original song from
Tibbetts' upcoming album "Out on the
Town," set to be released on Dec. 8.
Tibbetts said the song from the album
that the band played, "Little Black Thing,"
is about a woman getting dressed up to go
out for a night of fun.
"It's such an honor and privilege to play
my own music," Tibbetts said.
"And having other people play my
music is an even bigger honor"
Students address LGBT
issues with skits, poems
By Hannah Rishel
COLLEGIAN STAFF WRITER
One theatre class isn't afraid to talk
about the elephant in the room.
The School of Theatre's Diverse
Cultures Workshop class performed "Out
and About Out" Thursday afternoon in 114
Theatre Building.
The performance, directed by theatre
professor Charles Dumas, comprised of 10
short skits and 10 poems, dealt with
lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender
issues from being in the closet to stereo
types published in a book by the same
name.
Denny Chheang attended the perform
ance because four of his poems, which
were published in "Out and About Out,"
were read aloud, which he said was "very
flattering."
"I had no idea they were going to read
them until a few days ago," Chheang
(sophomore-math and Italian) said. "I was
very impressed with the actors. For the
most part they got across the points I was
trying to convey."
He added that he liked all the perform
ances, but his favorite was the last one,
entitled "Surrender," about the aftermath
of Rutgers University freshman Tyler
Clementi's recent suicide.
"It was very touching," Chheang said.
"One of my poems they read was about sui
cide, so I guess they planned reading it
right before that skit"
Kelly Arbogast, one of the actresses in
"Othello" this semester, said that one of
the challenging things about auditions
from a director's perspective is looking
into the future.
"A lot of people can do a role well but not
audition well," Cassidy (graduate-higher
education administration) said. "I always
approach it as fitting puzzle pieces togeth
er."
He added that he gives actors callbacks
because he knows he wants them in his
show somewhere, but he needs to see how
they work with other actors.
Glaser said that she looked online for
monologues, settling on Maria's final
monologue from "West Side Story." She
also decided to sing the Barbra Streisand
classic "Don't Rain on My Parade" for her
music selection.
"Right as I'm walking in the door I feel
the nerves, but when I get in and start act
ing it all goes away," Glaser said.
Bram McGinnis had a different
approach: He didn't come in with a pre
pared monologue because he already
knew he wanted to do one from a specific
show
He said that going about auditions in
Andrew Selzer, a co-president of the
Swing Dance Club, said swing dancing is a
very sociable experience and a great alter
native to a typical college party.
"Plus, cupcakes don't give you hang
overs," Selzer said, referring to Sugar On
Top's cupcakes.
Club member Stephanie Helmick (jun
ior-art education) said one of the first
things she learned in swing dancing was
how to read her partner's body and move
ments.
"The girl normally [follows], so it's
almost like we are a shopping cart," she
said.
"We just have to follow wherever the guy
leads us and feel the emotion he feels."
Elaine Meder-Wilgus, owner of
Webster's Café, said she was happy with
the turnout for the event.
can't keep still when I see the students
dancing," Meder-Wilgus said. "They make
it look so easy."
Gina Domenick, baker for Sugar On 'Dv
and Sweet-Gees, said she didn't know so
many students were interested in swing
music and enjoyed dancing to it.
Swing Dance Club member David Smith
(junior-physical education) said he came
from a football practice to the swing dance
event.
"It's a cheap workout, and it's a lot of
fun," Smith said. "It's great because [the
Swing Dance Club] accepts any level of
dancers."
To e-mail reporter: jdgs299@psu.edu
of putting the performance together was
challenging.
"Because I'm not gay I was afraid I
would offend people," Arbogast (junior-phi
losophy) said. "It's kind of like how men
don't feel like they can have a voice for fem
inism; straight people can't really com
ment on gay issues."
She added that "Who's BHT?" one of
the skits she was in, which dealt with
stereotypes of LGBT people was bor
derline taboo, so she and the other actors
were worried people would be offended.
Arbogast said her favorite poem of the
event was "Transgender," written and per
formed by Iris Guo.
"I have no idea what it's like to be trans
gender," she said.
"It was probably so hard to put herself
into that role."
Dr. Susan Russell, a Penn State theatre
professor, attended one of the Diverse
Cultures Workshop classes to help the
actors and actresses.
"It's extraordinary to watch young peo
ple who desire to make real change," she
said. Russell added the actors had deeply
endowed voices that professional actors
long to have.
"There was a vibration in the room," she
said. "None of us wanted to get up and
leave."
Russell added that she couldn't pick a
favorite part of the performance.
"From 3 o'clock to 4:15 was my favorite,"
she said, checking her watch with a laugh.
LOCAL
this manner used to make him nervous
but over time he's adapted to doing it.
"A lot of auditions I've had for NRT have
been cold reads," McGinnis (senior-man
agement), who most recently played
Ronnie in "The House of Blue Leaves,"
said. He added that he's somewhat nerv
ous when he starts auditions, but the feel
ing goes away as he gets into the role.
After her audition, Glaser was at ease
because of the positive feedback she got
from the directors. Her hard work paid off
when she got a callback for one of the
shows.
NRT veteran Elaina Mercurio got two
callbacks on Thursday night, which she
said was exciting because "any callback is
a good callback" In order to prepare, she
spent the day reading over the parts she
had been called back for.
"I'm always more nervous for call
backs," Mercurio (senior-human develop
ment and family studies) said. know
who my competition is."
The actors received an e-mail with the
final cast list late Thursday night.
To e-mail reporter: hmrso27@psu.edu
Art exhibit to examine fakes
DETROIT When a painting attrib
uted to Vincent Van Gogh was bequeathed
to the Detroit Institute of Arts in 1990, it
was met with immediate suspicion from
scholars and art experts.
"Still life with Carnations," an unsigned
painting of flowers, was to be sold to help
fund an endowment to buy modern art,
said museum director Graham Beal.
Instead, auction houses refused to sell it.
Van Gogh specialists questioned its
authenticity.
And the painting remained at the muse
um, where despite extensive study the
question of whether it was by the famed
artist or an imitator remains unanswered.
"It's gone into this rather unfortunate
area of not being trusted," Beal said
Thursday. "But as tests have shown,
there's nothing in it that says this cannot
be a Van Gogh. All of the paints, all of the
technique, everything is commensurate
with the way Van Gogh was working at that
time."
The painting is being displayed along
side a genuine Van Gogh as part of "Fakes,
Forgeries, and Mysteries," an exhibit at
the museum opening Sunday about the
science and research behind figuring out
whether art works are authentic.
The show, which runs through April 10,
includes about 60 artworks.
Its aim is to highlight mistakes and
By David Runk
ASSOCIATED PRESS
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FRIDAY, Nov. 19, 2010 I 5
A student practices lines for a callback during
NRT auditions Tuesday night.
other discoveries made over the years
about pieces of the museum's extensive
collection.
One gallery displays works once thought
to be authentic but later found to be copies
or stylistic replicas.
Another room shows forgeries made to
deceive.
A mock lab offers the chance to learn
about investigative techniques such as pig
ment analysis, and a final gallery focuses
on lingering puzzles about certain works.
"Nothing is written in stone. - said
Salvador Salort-Pons, associate curator of
European paintings and curator of the
exhibit.
In the gallery on forgeries, a painting
titled 'A Female Saint" that once was
attributed to Italian artist Sandro Botticelli
is exhibited alongside "The Resurrected
Christ," a Botticelli painting from around
1480.
The display invites visitors to compare
the works, looking to details such as brush
strokes that were clues to museum cura
tors.
"Still life with Carnations," which is
hung in the gallery on mysteries, came to
the museum from the collection of dime
store heiress Catherine Kresge Dewey
It had been accepted as a Van Gogh in
the 19205.
But doubt cast in the 1990 s by Van Gogh
experts left the museum unable to say
with confidence that it was by the artist,
Beal said.