features F E AT U R E S
TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 8, 2016
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‘Marat/Sade’ evokes past experiences A musical that is being performed at Temple Theaters is a play within a play. By IAN WALKER Arts Beat Reporter
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s José Mangual paced around Mitten Hall’s Temple Opera Theater, he pretended to seize an invisible head and snap it towards him. The imagined head was that of his character’s rival, Marquis de Sade. “There are times when [Sade] is challenging me or pitting others against me, that I want to just take his head, and sometimes it’s just a sharp turn like, ‘Look at me!’ but other times I want to complete the motion and snap his neck,” Mangual said. Mangual, a sophomore musical theater major, plays the role of Jean-Paul Marat in Temple Theater’s production of “Marat/Sade.” The play will open Wednesday and run until Nov. 19. “Marat/Sade,” structured as a play within a play, is set in an insane asylum in 1808. The characters are patients who stage a play about the 1793 assassination of French Revolutionary Jean-Paul Marat. Guillermo Alonso, a master’s acting student and theater professor, plays Marquis de Sade, the namesake of sadism. Sade is the director of the play and a historical figure imprisoned for publishing pornographic writing. Alonso studied theater as an undergraduate at the University of Notre Dame while he completed pre-med coursework. Although Alonso still views organic chemistry as his favorite college class, he said he decided in his junior year to commit to a career in theater. “I realized that if I really wanted to be great at one or the other, I had to pick one and stick to it and devote all my time to that,” Alonso said. For Alonso, studying theater represented a break from the rigidity of his science education. “Now let’s be real, you gotta get good grades, you apply to [medical] school, you get into school, you apply to a residency program,” he said. “It’s a series of steps that you follow and that’s it, and I lived my life that way forever.” “[Acting] kind of put my life back in my own hands,” he added. “As opposed to just following the rules, I can create my own path.” Despite opting out of a career in medicine, Alonso said his scientific
THEATER | PAGE 12
BRIDGET O’HARA FOR THE TEMPLE NEWS The cast of Temple Theaters’ “Marat/Sade” lifts sophomore musical theater major José Mangual during a rehearsal in Randall Theater on Nov. 3. Mangual plays the titular character of Jean-Paul Marat.
Homeless take ‘next steps’ through running program Temple University Running Club meets Back on My Feet participants twice a week at 5:30 a.m. By KAIT MOORE For The Temple News
instruments will be recorded and sent to David Lang, an Academy Award recipient and Pulitzer Prize winning composer, who will create a composition that nearly 400 musicians from Philadelphia will perform next fall. All of the instruments will then be repaired and returned to the School District of Philadelphia for students’ use by Fall 2018. Temple Contemporary received a $300,000 grant from the Pew Center for Arts & Heritage to fund SFABO’s concert. The Barra Foundation will also
For members of Back on My Feet — a national program that helps reintegrate homeless people into society — the Spring Garden Station on Broad Street is a symbol of progress. BoMF holds group runs every Monday, Wednesday and Friday for people living in shelters or recovery houses. Members of the Temple University Running Club meet with BoMF for joint runs twice a week at 5:30 a.m. BoMF participants and TURC meet up at Spring Garden Station where they start the morning with stretches and a prayer huddle. “Everyone running is encouraging each other, which is really neat,” said TURC member Carli Showmaker, a sophomore media studies and production and advertising major. “I know sometimes I will be running [at] a slower pace, but then you have the guys that are even behind you and they are encouraging you.” In honor of National Hunger & Homelessness Awareness Week, which begins on Saturday and is also known as Sneaker Week, club members will work to raise $1,000 for BoMF from Nov. 14 - 17 with tables at the Bell Tower and the lobby of Alter Hall. They encourage students and faculty members to raise awareness for BoMF by wearing sneakers on Main Campus that week. They will also accept donations — in the form of cash or sneakers — with a chance for donors to win raffle prizes. Ramon Laboy, the program director of BoMF’s Philadelphia
INSTRUMENTS | PAGE 14
RUNNING | PAGE 15
JACOB MCGLEW FOR THE TEMPLE NEWS Broken instruments line the walls of Temple Contemporary in the Tyler School of Art, as part of the Symphony for a Broken Orchestra exhibit.
Restoring instruments for ‘next generation’ Symphony for a Broken Orchestra will give 1,000 kids the opportunity to play an instrument. By GRACE SHALLOW Deputy Features Editor The Symphony for a Broken Orchestra began when Robert Blackson, the director of exhibitors and public programs at the Tyler School of Art,
came across a room of abandoned pianos in the now-closed Edward W. Bok Technical High School on 8th Street near Mifflin. “That caused me to ask the question, ‘How many instruments are out there [owned] by the district that are in some state of disrepair that aren’t being used?’” Blackson said. SFABO is a two-year initiative with three phases, starting with the exhibition of more than 800 broken instruments donated by the School District of Philadelphia in Temple Contemporary. Next, sounds made by the broken
ELECTION | PAGE 8
FILM | PAGE 8
MEALS | PAGE 8
PUBLIC ART | PAGE 16
Several students have interned with local politicians and helped prepare for Tuesday’s election.
A film professor’s latest work touches on being an artist in the LGBTQ community.
A freshman biology major is using leftover meal swipes to feed homeless people in the city.
The university’s landscape master plan includes creating a public arts program.