OH NO, OHIO!
STEVENS SHUT OUT
MARROW MATTERS
The Eastern women’s basketball team suffered its fifth loss of the season, 77-69 to Cleveland State on Tuesday.
After spending four years as the offensive coordinator of Eastern’s football team, Greg Stevens is no longer with the program.
Colleges Against Cancer hosted a drive to help people register to become donors on Tuesday.
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“TELL THE TRUTH AND DON’T BE AFRAID” Wednesday, November 29, 2017 C E L E BRATI NG A CE NT UR Y OF COVE RA GE E S T . 1 915
VOL. 102 | NO. 67 W W W . D A I L Y E A S TE R N N E W S . C O M
Program has plans to expand in future
Black Box beats
Women’s, gender and sexuality studies adds new classes, changes name By AJ Fournier Campus Reporter | @DEN_News
QIAN CHENG | THE DAILY EASTERN NE WS
Music performance majors Grayson Proffitt (left), Craig Buckner (middle) and Jackson Frosch (right) perform at the reception for Ron Himes’s speech “Black Theater: Filling The Void” Tuesday night at the Black Box in the Doudna Fine Arts Center. Guests were served food and drinks during the reception.
Director talks about impact of theater By Tom O’Connor Contributing Writer | @DEN_News Ron Himes, an award-winning director who created the St. Louis Black Repertory Company, addressed the value of theatrical performance and its ability to impact people on an emotional level in a speech Tuesday in the Doudna Fine Arts Center. Himes said the theater possesses an unparalleled ability to unify emotions while also having the capacity to spur on societal change. During his talk, Himes set a stage scene familiar to the common playgoer. The audience filed into the auditorium, the lights dimmed and the curtain rose. These attendees shared in the same emotions implicit to the theatrical stage, regardless of race, sexual orientation or economic status, Himes said. “What you do realize is that they laughed when you laughed, they gasped when you gasped, they reached for a tissue and you handed it to them,” Himes said. “If we can experience in the dark of the theatre, we must learn to share when the lights come up.” Theatrical performances elicit a dialogue distinctive in comparison to conventional discourse, Himes said. The performances developed by Himes’ production company have touched on contemporary themes and addressed injustices experienced by the African-American community. “The theater, at its best, is a mirror of the community,” Himes said. “So, it gives us the opportunity to see an issue and to be able to talk about it in a context that allows us the freedom and some distance.” Many emotions are ubiquitous to society as a whole and fully manifest on the main stage, Himes added. He said although audience members may be different in one way or another, some experiences could be viewed as relatively analogous. Himes said theater can be universal as well because people all share the same feelings and problems.
MARY ELLEN GREENBURG | THE DAILY EASTERN NE WS
Ron Himes, an artist-in-residence at Washington State University, gave a presentation Tuesday night in the Lecture Hall of the Doudna Fine Arts Center.
“When you are hungry, it is no different than when I am hungry. You love the same. We have cultural differences,” Himes said. Himes narrated his own experiences in play productions, recalling a situation in which his friends told him the university had impeded African-American students from participating in theater. He reminded them that they were paying tuition, thus they were entitled to the art facilities on campus. Himes told them that if the university would not cast them in school plays, they could start their own productions. This chain of events paved the way for the Phoenix Theatre Troupe which, over the years, evolved into the St. Louis Black Repertory Company. In one of his first attempts at theater, Himes auditioned for “Death of a Salesman” as a student at
Washington University. While Himes made the final stages of auditions, the stage director cut him from the play, telling Himes that he could not see any way he could cast him in the play. Himes said he knew full well the reason behind his dismissal, as he was the only African-American left in the cast pool. The National Black Theatre Festival decorated Himes with the 2017 Larry Leon Hamlin Producer Award, an honor given to those producers who have made major contributions to the American theatre and entertainment industries. During his time at Eastern, Himes has collaborated with students to perform a theatrical piece, which he said will highlight social justice and change. Tom O’Connor can be reached 581-2812 or troconnor@eiu.edu.
The women’s, gender and sexuality studies department at Eastern has plans to expand and offer new classes as part of a nationwide movement. Jeannie Ludlow, English professor and coordinator of the program, said this movement began about 10 years ago. Ludlow said when women’s studies originally started being taught, was a corrective to change the curriculum and broaden students’ knowledge about women’s lives and experiences. “What we found out when we did that was it was not just enough to learn about women’s lives and experiences,” Ludlow said. “When we think about gender and how it shapes our lives, we need to look at relationships because of how much they tie together.” Ludlow said realizing this led to changing the name of the program from women’s studies to women’s, gender and sexuality studies. “Some women’s studies programs changed their name to gender studies, some changed their names to gender and sexuality studies. But a lot of us are keeping women’s studies in the name to honor the history,” Ludlow said. The women’s, gender and sexuality studies program at Eastern will be adding two new classes this fall and spring as part of this broader expansion. French professor Ryan Schroth will be teaching Introduction to Sexuality and Gender Diversity, which is the first of the two courses being offered. “It will educate students more on gender as a system of analysis and how gender and sexuality work together,” Ludlow said. The goal is for students to learn about the history and importance of sexuality in society, AIDS activism, global queer rights and more. “In this course, we will discuss about queer history, trans history and all about the terminology of (the LGBTQ+ community,)” Schroth said. Schroth said readings for the class will be a combination of theoretical articles and different types of queer arts. “We might engage with short films or documentaries and graphic novels,” Schroth said. Ludlow said the difference between the two courses is that Queer Theory will be an advanced class about how being a gender minority group shapes a person’s reality. “The Queer Theory class will be a mirror of the Feminist Theory class,” Ludlow said. Ludlow said the department hopes to add additional classes within the next few years, though a low amount of faculty members makes this challenging. Sexuality and Gender Diversity will begin in spring 2018. It will be offered Tuesdays and Thursdays from 2 p.m. to 3:15 pm. Queer Theory will be offered fall 2018. AJ Fournier can be reached at 581-2812 or ajfournier@eiu.edu.