The Glass Menagerie

The Glass Menagerie Performed at Peru State College

April 17-19 in the Peru State College Theater, a talented group of individuals presented three performances of a play on which they had worked for months. ( To see their names and the roles they played, simply click on the image to the left.)

Watching a video of two of plays pivotal scenes will give those who did not have a chance to see the performances a glimpse of the artful entertainment they missed.

Others will enjoy recalling their time in the theater.


The video also contains a series of still photographs; as usual, you can view a brief slide show and download individual images or the entire collection.

Sadly, Mark Klemetsrud, the play's director and an Instructor in the Department of English, passed away weeks before the play opened.

To see something of Mark's extraordinary acting talent, take a look at a couple scenes from his Performance of Clarence Darrow: Attorney for the Damned from November of 2007 in the PSC Theater.

And do read the biography at the conclusion of this posting.

The help of Joshua Young--who stepped in to direct Williams's play for the three performances--and his cast and crew ensured that the college community experienced the continuing renaissance of drama at Peru State College.

Birds and Poems in Beatrice

Paddock Lane School Fifth Graders

Visit to Paddock Lane School in Beatrice, Nebraska

On Friday, April 17--around the time last year that I traveled to Arthur, NE--I visited fifth graders in Beatrice, NE, where we all took pleasure in Feathers and Verses fun.

I interacted with the 45 students at Paddock Lane School from 12:30-3:00 and enjoyed a wonderful experience with Dianne Aveyard's students and others.


This enthusiastic group of youngsters wore me out and produced some excellent results, writing, coloring, and drawing with both imagination and enjoyment.

The images that open and conclude this posting come from two Paddock Lane students, who gave me their work as gifts that adorn the wall now in my house.

Peru State College graduates successful and impressive teachers who work throughout the state. And at Paddock Lane, I discovered that PSC student Jarod Remmers completes soon his student teaching; he joined in the fun.

I hope the slide show shows how much pleasure these youngsters take from learning, in this case about birds as part of my Feathers and Verses program.


And for some additional fun, I posted a video of the students' showing off their coloring and their bird calls, even responding to the curve I threw: what does a Doorknob Sucking Who Bird sound like?


I look forward to vising third graders next week in Auburn, NE.


Enjoy the video and the photographs.

Madrigal Singers on Broadway, April 14

The Peru State College Madrigal Singers

At 7:30 Tuesday evening, Dr. Tom Ediger once again directed the colorful Madrigal Singers in another excellent production of Broadway hits from Les Miserables, South Pacific, and many other productions.

The large and energized crowd responded with glee to familiar songs such as "Anything You Can Do I Can Do Better" and "I Enjoy Being a Girl."

To get a feel for some of the color and fun that informed the 75-minute show, check out the photographs from the show that include group shots taken the previous evening.

I also created a video (for best results, use the preceding link and click "HQ" for best quality) that includes three songs from one of my favorite Broadway Shows, Rogers and Hammerstein's South Pacific: "You are Beautiful," I'm Gonna Wash That Man Right Out of My Hair," and There is Nothing Like a Dame."

The video also features some of the photographs linked earlier.

Enjoy the show!

Alpha Chi National Conference

This year's Alpha Chi National Conference met in the Hyatt Regency in Indianapolis, Indiana, from Thursday to Saturday, April 3-5. Every two years, Alpha Chi organizes a National Conference.

And this year's gathering drew over 400 student scholars, many of whom gave presentations over the course of the conference. Alpha Chi focuses on students, and consequently no faculty members present papers at these gatherings: only students, who also receive prizes in many categories for their efforts.

Fitting in very well with this year's focus on and efforts in support of literacy, Children's author and poet, David L. Harrison, gave a inspiring keynote address on the power of the individual to make a significant effect on literacy.

Give his web page a look, and you will realize why I will work hard to ensure that we bring David to Peru State College to talk with all of us.

He even has a poem for the "beloved" tick" "a tick's friends"

A tick has
no friends.

Therefore,

my story

ends. (From Bugs Poems about Creeping Things)

And Alpha Chi underscored what David insists about the need for active involvement in the community to increase literacy.

This year's theme, Literacy 500, centered on a service event that met with tremendous success. The society challenged everyone to bring at least one children's book to the conference to support the literacy project and to receive for their efforts a free t-shirt.

Well, our hope of collecting 500 books resulted in over 2,000 texts, as this photograph of the green-shirted adorned Alpha Chi members underscores:
To deliver the books, fifteen students and a number of faculty went to the Children's Hospital.

And at Riley Hospital for Children, Alpha Chi members treated the youngsters to books, cookies, a coloring station, a chance to make book marks and picture frames, book readings, and a chance to meet Clifford--and this pooch is a huge hit.

I posted some photographs (Download what appeals to you) of our uplifting and heartbreaking visit to the hospital.

You can also view a photo film on You Tube of the event at the hospital (Make sure to click HQ for High Quality:

These youngsters inspire, and the hospital will make great use of the gifts Alpha Chi provided.


Much more, of course, went on at the National Convention, including the opening night banquet on Thursday, which, after an excellent meal and keynote address previously mentioned, included some instruction in Line Dancing and other fun.

I posted as well a series of photographs that try to capture some of the general conference activities, from meetings and presents to pictures of friends and the new stadium.

Part of the pleasure these of these national meetings comes from meeting old friends and making new ones--and celebrating in the success of those you know.

This year, for example, David Jones, Alpha Chi Sponsor of Westminster College in Region IV, where Peru State Resides, got elected to the Alpha Chi National Council.

And Evangel University of Region IV--where last year's regional conference took place, in Springfield, MO--won Alpha Chi's highest chapter award, The President's Cup.


I posted photographs of all the awards from the meeting on Saturday morning so that people can download any images they want. The files are quite large so you will have no trouble making 8 X 10 prints for your collections.

I will continue to edit this page and perhaps had some additional material.

Enjoy the links and look into Alpha Chi. We will induct a new group of students into Alpha Chi at Peru State on 19 April.

Sandhill Cranes Along the Platte River

For the past few years, for one reason or another, I have not had the opportunity to view the Sandhill Cranes along the Platte River during their annual migration. This area attracts between 600,000 to 800,000 very noisy birds.

Prior to my trip to Orlando and the IAFA convention, I made reservations at the Rowe Sanctuary

not far from Kearney to view the cranes. But at IAFA, during one of the lunches, I enjoyed the company of Terry Bisson, an SF author I have admired for years as mentioned in the previous post.

A fan of Nebraska writer Mari Sandoz, as matters turned out, Terry and his wife, Judy, planned to attend the annual Sandoz gathering in Chadron. They did get to visit the High Plains Heritage Center but missed the conference because of a nasty storm in Valentine.

I am sorry that Terry could not meet my colleague Dr. Dan Holtz, for the two would have enjoyed some excellent conversations about Sandoz and other Nebraska writers.

At any rate, over the discussion at lunch, Terry determined to join me to view the Sandhill Cranes at Rowe Sanctuary.

And so after Matt Mason's reading and some vote counting for a Student Senate election, I jumped in the car and enjoyed a three-hour drive to the sanctuary, watching the cranes in the fields as I motored along Interstate 80.

Terry, Judy, and I ventured into one of the blinds, and I worried lest the cranes decided to settle elsewhere. But they did not disappoint--thousands filled the air and our ears, numbers and noise.


As the preceding photograph and others I posted underscore, the birds literally fill the sky.

The Sand Hill cranes remain in the area through the first week in April--and you will not find much better entertainment for $25.00 than what a couple hours in one of the blinds offers at this special time of the year along the Platte River.

I posted a film version of the fun on You Tube.

IAFA in Orlando 2009

Great Blue Heron

This year in Orlando, FL, the International Association for the Fantastic in the Arts celebrated its 30th conference in our second year at the Orlando Airport Marriott, from Wednesday, March 25 to Saturday, March 28.

Information for the 31st conference already appears on the conference web page--this conference will feature wonderful authors Nalo Hopkinson, who read a few years ago at Peru State College, and Lawrence Yep.

Serving as treasurer puts me in contact with all the guests, which I enjoy a lot more than taking responsibility for the financial records; and I love seeing old friends such as Donald Morse pictured with me on the right.

I also have a chance to make new friends as well. Among others, for example, I enjoyed a long conversation with Maria Nikolajeva, a most-charming person and an expert on Children's Literature whose books I look forward to reading.

You might find her blog of interest. Of herself, she writes, "I was born in Russia, lived thirty years in Sweden, two years in the US, one year in Finland, and now I live in the UK."

I hope someday to bird watch around Cambridge where Maria teaches.

I loaded a series of photographs from the conference which attracts many authors, from Joe Haldeman (whom I had the pleasure of introducing) to Suzy Charnas (a long-time friend), from Peter Straub to John Kessel--and excellent scholars from the United States, Canada, and numerous other countries.

Oh, if you want to watch a film version of the photographs, I loaded one on You Tube.





I love the IAFA conference for a number of reasons, including the local birds featured at the opening and conclusion of this entry, a Great Blue Heron and a Mocking Bird.

And as noted with respect to Maria, I enjoy making new friends and seeing familiar faces. The photograph on the right features old friend Suzy Charnas previously mentioned and new friend, the Hugo and Nebula winning author Terry Bisson.

At the conference, Terry read his "shop story" Catch 'Em in the Act featured on Tor Com. You can also read one of the dialogue stories for which he is well regarded, "They're Made Out of Meat."

Oh, a short film version of the story appears on You Tube.

Terry and his wife Judy joined me at the Rowe Sanctuary this past Thursday, March 25, to view the Sandhill Cranes, the subject of my next blog entry.

Mocking Bird

Matt Mason at Peru State College

Matt Mason, Nebraska Best Poet Under 40, reads at Peru State College

On Thursday, March 26, at 11:30 in the ARC Conference Room, The PSC English Club and Creative Writing Series sponsored Matt Mason, who shared his thoughts and his poetry.

Though lightly attended, the reading affirmed Matt's excellence. As the images from the fun attest, the audience heard and watched an excellent performance.

I recorded a number of poems on You Tube for your viewing pleasure. The poetry includes the wonderfully humorous "When The Baby Goes to Sleep, We Celebrate" and the biting satire of "Code Orange."

Coffee and Astronomy will also make you smile, as will Thirteen Ways of Looking at a Baby.

I also recorded two of Matt's most well known Slam Poems, The Baby That Ate Cincinnati and Make Star Love and Not Star War.






You will learn a lot about Matt Mason and his partner in poetry and in life, Sarah McKinstry-Brown a various sites on the internet, but their dual site offers the best information, including many photographs and video performances.




As his profile on Wikipedia notes, he has one more than one Nebraska Book Award: "His full-length book, Things We Don't Know We Don't Know (2006), was published by the Backwaters Press and debuted at #12 on The Poetry Foundation's Contemporary bestsellers list. The anthology Slamma Lamma Ding Dong (2005), which Mason co-edited, was made available through iuniverse and won the 2006 Nebraska Book Award for Best Anthology."

"Slamma Lamma Ding Dong" contains a wonderful collection of Slam Petry by various Nebraska poets.

As you will discover, that Matt and Sara have won Slam Poetry Contests all over the country. And he will certainly pay Peru State College another visit.

Matt also read a bird poem, which act, as you might imagine, pleased me a great deal. I sent him the following photograph. He wrote that the image fits perfectly with the poem, so I will certainly make available a video to match the picture of a Red-winged Blackbird in sunset flight.

Children's Literature and Snow Geese

March 5-8, I traveled to and returned from Athens, Georgia, where I attended and presented a paper at the 40th Annual Children's Literature Conference.

The conference invited a couple special guests whom I enjoyed, including Gail Carson Levine, author of Ella Enchanted, and Peter Sis, illustrator and writer whose latest publication is Wall; this beautifully illustrated picture book addresses the author's growing up behind the Iron Curtain.

I took in a Georgia Bulldog baseball game and enjoyed a long walk across the University of Georgia campus and into Athens--as usual, I posted a few photographs.

The U of Georgia campus is impressive and at some 45,000 students quite large. And, well, at the image at the top of the page indicates, the people in and around the area do love their bulldogs.



On the way back from Kansas City Airport, I stopped at Squaw Creek for some photography and took a brief video of the Snow Geese.

As the preceding photograph indicates, that evening more than a few thousand geese populated the water and the air at the park. The video captures something of the numbers and the noise from my visit.

Green Eggs and Ham in Iowa and Missouri

Display at College Springs School

On Monday, March 2, Chet Harper and I continued our "Green Eggs and Ham" fun, visiting for the first time College Springs, Iowa, to entertain youngsters.

And for the fifth or sixth year in a row, we read books and once again embarrassed the spirit of Dr. Seuss with our antics at Tarkio Elementary School in Missouri.

As we did last year in Tarkio, Chet and I read books to the Kindergarten and First-Grade youngsters in addition to entertaining them with our "Green Eggs and Ham" skit.

For the folks at the schools in both College Springs and Tarkio and for general fun, I posted some photographs from both schools on Flickr, where you can, as usual, download images that appeal to you.

Chet and I thank everyone at Tarkio for continuing to invite us back each year.

Special thanks go as well to Jaime Apperson, a Peru Sate College Education Major who presently student teaches in College Springs and who arranged for our visit.