Harold Pinter's Political Plays Staged by the Riverside Players, April 27, 28

Chestertown, MD, April 24, 2007 — Washington College's Riverside Players present "Three Plays by Harold Pinter: 'The New World Order,' 'Precisely,' and 'One for the Road,'" directed by Erika Salomon, Friday, April 27, at 8 p.m., and Saturday, April 28, at 2 p.m. and 8 p.m. in the College's Middle Hall Theatre.

Consisting of three separate plays by Harold Pinter, the British playwright and 2005 recipient of the Nobel Prize for literature, the evening commences with "The New World Order." Dark and intense, it centers on a blindfolded man held captive by two women who verbally torture him.

Next in the lineup is "Precisely," a conversation between two women working for the government who want to convince their country to engage in nuclear war. The show culminates with "One for the Road," a series of short interrogation scenes involving one interrogator and one family who vocally oppose their government.

"I fell in love with Harold Pinter's political pieces when I studied abroad at Hull University," Director Erika Salomon notes. "The picture Pinter paints is not a pretty one, but each play that I chose speaks a message that is imperative to today's society. These shows are not specific to any government, time period, or war. They can be any and every society and that was what was most important to me."

The three plays production stars senior Kyle Woerner; junior Rachel Holland; sophomores Hester Sachse and Aileen Brenner; and freshmen Jory Peele, Katie Skarwecki, and Jess Dugger. Admission is $2 for students, $3 for adults, and reservations are required. For reservations, e-mail drama_tickets@washcoll.edu or for more information, please contact Erika Salomon at esalomon2@washcoll.edu.

WC Talent on Display in Second Annual Music Video Challenge

Chestertown, MD, April 23, 2007 — A fun time was had by all at the Washington College 2007 Music Video Challenge, hosted by the Multimedia Production Center (MPC) on April 19. With entries from nine teams consisting of dozens of actors, production crews and editors, this year's entries definitely raised the bar to a higher level.

In addition to encouraging a traditional approach, this year the MPC encouraged students to experiment and to consider using less traditional methods to gather their source video. Some students gathered public-domain footage from sources such as Archive.org, or even carefully selected clips from favorite movies.

Another team used a sequence of hundreds of photos they shot with a digital camera, and then carefully synchronized the images to the music to create a stop-motion animated video, with touches of traditional video. This approach allowed them to bring a sock to life, which left its owner's dorm room to explore the surrounding areas.

Judging was performed remotely earlier in the week by an international team of judges who are professionals in the video and film industry. Each judge scored the videos in four categories, giving a 1 through 5 score in each of the following categories:

• Originality - Is the concept either original or an original approach to a traditional concept?
• Videography - Is camera work smooth, well framed, focused, and well lit? If the person is using "found footage," they cannot get credit for the quality of the video, but they can get credit for locating and choosing appropriate footage.
• Editing - Is the editing done well? Were appropriate clips selected to convey the message, and excess trimmed? Was timing accurate?
• Effects - Does the use of any effects (created during production or post-production) add to the overall piece? Do titles appear readable and placed logically?

Award winning videos

First Place

Christina Izzo and Piper Owens, with their video titled "One Of These Mornings," took first place with a score of 18.83 out of 20. With three judges giving a perfect 20 out of 20 score, Izzo & Owens received glowing comments from judges: "Clever and creative, and funny too!" "I swear that sock had personality." "Charming and clearly a labor of love." "Wow! The planning that went into this!" and "Very witty, well paced, synced and edited." First prize was a Canon ZR500 MiniDV camcorder kit, which will help this team to participate in future video projects.

Second Place

Jesse Wolcott, with his video titled "Make Mine Freedom," took a close second place, just one point behind the lead team, with a score of 17.83 out of 20. His video was the only other to score a perfect 20 from one of the judges, and received such comments as, "Blown away! Impeccable production!" "BRILLIANT use of video segments—creative and clever," and "If I saw this on TV, I would be impressed, let alone in a student contest like this." Wolcott won a $50 gift card to B&H Photo Video.

Third Place

Corey Holland, with his video titled "I'll Bet My Girlfriend," took third place with a score of 15.83. Judges' comments included "Effectively captured a cool and goofy mood with this video," "The video paired with the music provided moments of great dramatic tension. Nicely done," and "Looking forward to WAC Zombies 2!" Holland won a $25 gift card to B&H Photo Video.

Rookie Award

The Rookie Award, going to the highest scoring entry from a student who has not previously entered one of the MPC Challenges, was awarded to Karen Ferguson, with her video titled "Sacrifice of War." Judges' comments included "Powerful!" "The music moved very well with the film," and "Solid. Clear message underscored by dramatic and sometimes gory video footage." Graciously donated by Apple, the Rookie Award prize was a $50 iTunes card.

Al Fresco Afternoon Theater with WC Drama Department's Dancing at Lughnasa, April 27, 28

Chestertown, MD, April 23, 2007 — Experience theater al fresco with the Washington College Drama Department's presentation of an excerpt from Dancing at Lughnasa, by Brian Friel, directed by Professor Polly Sommerfeld, Friday, April 27, at 3:30 p.m., and Saturday, April 28, at noon, at the library terrace ramp in front of the College's West Hall.

Inspired by the memories of the playwright, Dancing at Lughnasa recalls the lives of the Mundy family living in a poor, Irish village during the Autumn of 1936. Through the eyes of Michael, a seven-year-old at the time of the telling, the lives of his mother, Christina, and her four sisters—Maggie, Agnes, Rose, and Kate—unfold on the eve of the annual Festival of Lughnasa, a traditional Celtic harvest festival.

Featuring an ensemble cast of seniors Alaina Anderson, Sarah Byrne, Val Larson, Keighty McLallen, Greg Schaefer, and Molly Weeks, the Washington College vignette charmingly portrays the power of family, music, and memory.

Admission to the show is free, and audience members are invited to bring blankets or chairs, as they will be seated on the College's Campus Green. In the event of rain, the show will be performed in Norman James Theatre. For show information, call 410-778-7835 or e-mail drama_tickets@washcoll.edu.

Annual Student Art Exhibition, 'Materiality and Meaning,' Opens April 20, Runs Through April 28

Chestertown, MD, April 20, 2007 — Washington College's Annual Student Art Exhibition will be held in the Constance Stuart Larrabee Art Center and the Rose O'Neill Literary House from April 21 to 28, 1 to 5 p.m. daily. The exhibition kicks off with an opening reception in the Larrabee Art Center on Friday, April 20, from 5 to 7 p.m.

Curated by Monika Weiss, Assistant Professor of Studio Art, "Materiality and Meaning: An Interdisciplinary Exhibition of Studio Art Senior Capstone Experiences" showcases works by Emily Bisulca, Amanda Finley Boutwell, Aimée Kidd, Anna Lodwick, Laura Nace, Kaitlyn Ruitenberg, Ali Sutton, Lindsey Webster, Emily Willie and Joy Woppert "Materiality and Meaning" offers a glimpse into the respective practices of these 10 young women artists graduating this year in Studio Art from Washington College. "While being simply that, a compilation of Senior Capstone Experiences works for the 2006-2007 academic year, I also hope that this exhibition conveys a thematically coherent and enticing curatorial vision," said Dr. Weiss.

"The assumed conceptual opposition between the two notions explored throughout 'Materiality and Meaning' inspired the show's title: the material and the physical on the one hand, and the meaning or idea on the other.

"How do they coexist in contemporary artistic practices? More importantly, how do they coexist in the works by these 10 young artists? To understand the multiple and overlapping connections, it is also important to remember that these artists are women, creating their works in the time of the second and third waves of post-feminism, certainly acknowledging their gender implications while at the same time striving to overcome any simplifying categorizations."

Emily Bisulca has developed a series of small-scale paintings that take a new approach to portraiture via a feminist glimpse into enlarged fragments of famous European paintings, articulating and contextualizing feminine representations in the classical tradition.

Amanda Boutwell invites viewers to share her private recollections of specific places in the form of painted vignettes/landscapes that seem both utterly familiar and foreign, accompanied by site-specific sounds recorded by the artist.

Language and its visual form as both powerfully meaningful and abstract is presented as a series of images and choreography of signs performed by the artist's family members and friends in Aimée Kidd's multi-media installation.

Playing with ambiguity of form and material, Anna Lodwick proposes an investigation of material structure in her installation built from colored fabrics as abstract and repetitive sculptures.

Portraiture as deconstruction of meaning inspired Laura Nace, who built an interactive and ever-changing sculptural environment where visitors are welcome to take part in altering her work.

For Kaitlyn Ruitenberg an abandoned barn, situated in a local landscape, becomes a site of meditation on the relationship between the artist's body and architecture, as well as the investigation of photography as a means to capture the ephemeral moment.

Exploring the theme of the degradation and destruction of the natural environment, Ali Sutton works with sensuous and organic objects that deal with the notion of collapse and change both aesthetically and ethically.

Investigating change in the development of an organism and questioning humankind's ability to alter life, Lindsey Webster based her watercolor installation on scientific research of Zebrafish embryos.

Memory and its traumatic, transient and manipulable relationship with image-making processes are the subject of Emily Willie's digitally altered family images.

Visual memory also is investigated by Joy Woppert, whose intimate etchings and color prints demonstrate the tension between the arguably universal quality of architecture and the fragmented and remote recollections of things past in her found photography.

The exhibition is accompanied by "Open Studios," a selection of works by students of diverse divisions—Beginning Drawing, Advanced Painting, Contemporary Practices and Methods in Studio Art, Digital Imaging, Ceramics and Printmaking—in the Department of Art, on view at the Constance Stuart Larrabee Art Center. An outdoor sculptural installation by Sara Simonsen is on view in the backyard of the Rose O'Neill Literary House.

"I am exceedingly grateful to my colleagues teaching studio art—Robbi Behr, Marilee Schumann and Andrew Wapinski—for their input in overseeing various aspects of the production of the senior theses as well as in making this exhibition possible," said Dr. Weiss.

"I am also very grateful to my colleagues in art history—Donald McColl and Aileen Tsui—for their advice and consultation; and to Josh Shenk, director of the Rose O'Neill Literary House, for hosting one of the works in the exhibition. Additional thanks go to Amanda Boutwell for her assistance in preparing and installing the exhibition."

Psyches Analyzed in WC Drama Department's Psychopathia Sexualis, April 20, 21

Chestertown, MD, April 16, 2007 — Washington College's Drama Department will presentPsychopathia Sexualis, a senior thesis directed by Eric Schiffer, written by John Patrick Shanley, on Friday, April 20, at 8 p.m., and Saturday, April 21, at 4 p.m., in the basement of the College's Reid Hall.

Packed with punchy dialogue and twists of plot, the play explores the psyche of Arthur, an obscure painter with a rather odd fetish; he must have his father's old argyle socks around him or he cannot make love. Coached by his psychiatrist Dr. Block, Arthur tries to overcome his obsession before his wedding to Lucille, a witty, Texan belle, but, to Arthur's shock, his psychoanalyst steals the socks just days before the big event.

Beneath the humor and fun, Psychopathia Sexualis raises issues about love, friendship, and the help or harm of psychiatry. "I chose this play because it shows that everyone has some type of neurosis," says Director Eric Schiffer, "but it doesn't mean that things can't be worked out. It's a play about real issues, and I've loved seeing it evolve."

Psychopathia Sexualis stars freshman Lauren Guy, junior Kwadwo Frimpong, freshman Tony Reisinger, senior Bob Jones, and Laura O Sullivan. Admission is free, but reservations are required. For show information, call 410-778-7835 or e-mail drama_tickets@washcoll.edu.

Message from President Tipson

Chestertown, MD, April 16, 2007

The terrible news of the shooting rampage at Virginia Tech University has stunned all of us here at Washington College. Our profoundest sympathies go out to our friends and colleagues at Virginia Tech, and our prayers are with the victims and their families.

Washington College Announces Summer 2007 Graduate Courses in English, History and Psychology

Chestertown, MD, April 13, 2007 — Students, teachers and mental healthcare professionals are invited to register for Summer 2007 graduate courses at Washington College. The College offers Master of Arts degrees in English, History and Psychology that can help to meet requirements for advanced professional certifications. The Summer 2007 terms runs from June 4 to July 26. The following courses will be offered:

• ENG 516-10 Chaucer, TTH, 7:00-9:30 p.m.
• ENG 598-10 The Lyric Imagination, MW, 7:00-9:30 p.m.
• HIS 598-10 The Age of Discovery: 1400-1650, TTH, 7:00-9:30 p.m.
• HIS 598-11 Architects of Independence, Sculptors of a Nation, MW, 6:30-9:00 p.m.
• PSY 598-10 SpTp: Family Counseling, TTH, 7:00-9:30 p.m.

All Summer Semester classes will be held on Washington College's Chestertown campus. Students must pre-register by May 15 to guarantee texts. Students may contact the Washington College bookstore in person or at http://washcoll.bncollege.com to place an order or check on books required for summer study. Graduate tuition is $875 per course plus a non-refundable course registration fee of $75. A late registration fee of $150 per course will be assessed to students who register after the first week of classes. Pre-registration forms will be accepted at the Registrar's Office in person, by mail, by phone at 410-778-7299, or by fax at 410-810-7159.

For complete information on Washington College's graduate course offerings, including detailed course descriptions and registration forms, visit http://grad.washcoll.edu, or contact the Registrar's Office, Washington College, 300 Washington Avenue, Chestertown, MD 21620, phone 410-778-7299.