Grossmont College to present 'family-friendly' season at Stagehouse Theatre

EL CAJON -- Grossmont College will offer a “family-friendly” schedule of theater productions in the 2013-2014 season, starting Oct. 3-12 with Pygmalion, the George Bernard Shaw play that was converted into the musical My Fair Lady, and ending May 8-17 with “a new spin” on Alice in Wonderland, according to Beth Duggan, chair of the Theatre Arts Department.

In between those two offerings, students will also act in, design costumes and build sets for such productions as To Gillian on Her 37th Birthday by Michael Brady (Nov. 14-23);  Follow Me by artist Dominic Pangborn (Dec. 6-7, followed by a tour of local elementary schools); Inside the Actors Process by Grossmont faculty member Jerry Hager (Feb. 7 and 8, followed by a tour of local high schools);  and You’re A Good Man, Charlie Brown (Mach 13-22)
Whereas in some Grossmont College theatre seasons, plays with “adult language” have been featured,  and may again in the future, this season the theater arts department has decided to reach out to families so that they will feel comfortable bringing their children to the campus, said Steve Baker, the college’s dean of arts, language and communication.

Baker said that “family-friendly shows” were “a choice, not a mandate, at this college, where academic freedom is an important value.  Because this is a college, the arts cover a full range of subject matters, sometimes including controversial, adult subjects.  For this theater season, we have chosen a family-friendly theme.”

Duggan said that in selecting the plays to do in the 2013-2014 season, her department also took into consideration such factors as budget, the size of stage needed (The Stagehouse Theater seats 141 guests) and the necessity of exposing students to many different types of plays, ranging from a classic production such as Pygmalion to a musical like You’re A Good Man, Charlie Brown.

Pygmalion, written by Shaw in 1912, is over a century old and therefore may be produced royalty-free, Duggan said.  The money saved in doing such a play can help defray the expenses for a musical that requires the hiring of a choreographer as well as a band, she said.

To put on Pygmalion, students will build three sets, two of which can be rotated on a turntable and the third of which can be moved on a track on and off the stage.  The sets will include the outside of an opera house, Henry Higgins’ library, and a room in his mother’s house.   Faculty member Jeannette Thomas will direct the play.

Duggan will direct the next play, To Gillian on Her 37th Birthday, which tells of a family’s efforts  to get a young widower to resume his life after the death of his wife.  “This beautiful and poignant play examines the process of grief and the tenuous hope that comes with trying to move forward,” Duggan said.

She added that she has long wanted to produce this play, in part because she is drawn to productions set at the beach.   Previously the theater arts department had produced Seascape by Edward Albee, and Duggan confesses she’s been waiting for another opportunity to put a great big sandbox onto the stage.

Faculty member Jerry Hager, who became a beloved San Diego figure during the quarter century he worked as a mime at Seaport Village, will take both Follow Me and Inside the Actors Process respectively to elementary and high schools in a continuing Grossmont College program to expose public school pupils to the dramatic arts.   Never wanting to overlook Grossmont College audiences, Hager will showcase  Follow Me at the Stagehouse Theatre Dec. 6 and 7, and Inside the Actors Process on Feb. 7 and 8.   Faculty member Susan Jordan DeLeon takes the director’s reins March 13-22 in the production of You’re A Good Man, Charlie Brown.  Grossmont College tries to produce at least one musical every two years, and the Charles Schultz cartoon strip-based musical comedy featuring Charlie, Snoopy, Linus and Lucy fits right in with the overall “family friendly” theme.

Hager will be back May 8-17 as director for Alice in Wonderland which takes Alice not through a rabbit hole, but in this version, into a carnival.  As Hager describes the play for a brochure, “Odd and eccentric characters and imaginative devices help set the stage for this fairytale adventure into a festival of mystery and magic. Alice is led down the road to discovery and haunted by questions about the astonishing illusions she encounters.  Come enjoy the enchantments and fantasy in this new adaptation of a beloved fable.”

Talking about this play, Duggan suddenly displayed a smile not unlike that of the Cheshire Cat.   “There’s a big surprise in it!” she said.  And, of course, she won’t tell anyone what it is!

In addition to the full productions, the Theater Arts Department will offer two staged readings to help raise funds for the drama program.   On Sept. 6 and 7,  at 7:30 p.m.,  faculty, staff and students will read selections from the poetry of Edgar Allan Poe. “The Raven?”  Duggan was asked.  “That will be in there,” she promised.

On February 21 and 22, Jeannette Thomas will bring to the stage a play she wrote.  Misbehaving Women is based on the bumper sticker quotation that “well-behaved women seldom make history.”   In Thomas’s production, audiences meet such history-making women as Mary Shelley (author of Frankenstein);  labor leader Mary Harris Jones;  women’s suffrage leader Elizabeth Cady Stanton;  stagecoach driver Mary Fields; Planned Parenthood founder Margaret Sanger;  civil rights Activist Rosa Parks; and astronaut Sally Ride.

“It’s going to be a fun year!” Duggan said.

Tickets for all Stagehouse Theater productions as well as a discounted season packages can be obtained online at www.grossmont.edu/theatrebrochure, or the box office’s 24-hour message line at (619) 644-7234.  All major credit cards are accepted.

Wellness program helps keep employees fit

EL CAJON –Grossmont College is providing employees with opportunities and resources to improve their health through fitness classes, access to wellness resources, and workshops on healthful life styles.

During the just-concluded summer session, for example, faculty and staff members during lunch breaks and after regular working hours exercised at Yoga, Zumba, swimming laps and walking.  The idea was not only to improve their physical fitness but also to reduce their work stress, said Sharon Vilarino, an Exercise Science and Wellness (ESW) instructor who coordinates the program.

“We want to promote wellness both in the course of the employees’ daily living and within the workplace,” Vilarino said.  Recently, Vilarino demonstrated standing and sitting exercises that can be done in a person’s office.  She was a featured presenter at a convocation held earlier this month for classified staff.

“As wellness coordinator, I have gone across campus handing out flyers, and I’m always struck by the fact that a lot of our faculty sit many hours grading papers and preparing lectures,” Vilarino said.  “Classified staff members too, often spend many hours looking at computer screens.   That much sitting can be hard on the body, so we try to show employees some of the things that they can do to help themselves during the day. For example, we encourage taking a five-minute stretch break, getting out on the campus and walking, or attending exercise classes that are free for Grossmont College employees.”

Vilarino is an adjunct instructor of exercise science. Additionally, she has performed athletic training duties for the X Games and Gravity Games and worked with orthopedic surgeons in clinic for several years.  She always has been a sports enthusiast. In high school she played volleyball, softball and basketball, switching during undergraduate studies at San Diego State University and masters studies at Adam State University in Colorado to more individualized sports such as martial arts, cycling and swimming. 

Over the summer session, in cooperation with California Schools Voluntary Employee Benefits Association (VEBA), the Wellness Program began with a health assessment (biometric) session measuring employees’ weight, height, blood pressure, resting heart rate, lung capacity, body fat and body age, with employees able to discuss their results and set wellness goals.  Forty four staff and faculty participated.

The program also held an easy Summer Wellness Scavenger Hunt that encouraged participants to get out and try new activities, such as finding a new hiking trail or walking to a new restaurant in their neighborhoods.  As an incentive for participating in the health screening or scavenger hunt, employees received an entry into a raffle for a $50 gift card.

The summer session also saw an average of 17 persons per class participate in Zumba (an aerobic exercise/ dance routine) and Yoga, and 10 persons per class in lap swimming.  All three classes met twice a week.

In the upcoming Fall Semester, Vilarino said, free employee fitness classes will be available. Zumba classes will be offered to employees Mondays and Wednesdays at 5:15 p.m.;  lap swimming on Wednesdays from 4 p.m. to 5 p.m. and Fridays from 12 noon to 1 p.m.; and Yoga at 12:45 p.m. to 1:45 p.m. Tuesdays and Fridays.

Beginning the last week of September, she said, there will be an eight-week walking challenge for which participants can sign up to get a pedometer. She said “we have created some walking paths on campus, and if people would like to access them, they can.  We’d like to encourage them to be more active during their day and encourage activity on their breaks.  They will log their steps and there will be giveaways throughout the challenge.”  She said the eight-week session was scheduled so as to conclude before the Thanksgiving holiday.

Another wellness opportunity for employees will be workshops on plantar fasciitis, a very painful foot condition that limits activities of daily living and physical activity.”  EWS Laura Sim will lead the workshop.  “She’s a marathoner and has personal experience with this condition. Having researched the topic she has great advice and practical treatments that will help people get moving pain free a lot sooner. She is passionate about the subject,” said Vilarino.

Other workshops will deal with healthy holiday eating; helping caregivers to alleviate stress; and post-employment health benefits for retirees. 

“Wellness is not just physical,” Vilarino advises.  “A lot of things make up wellness, including intellectual, social, spiritual, occupational, emotional, and yes, physical, activities.  The Wellness Initiative at Grossmont College is intended to help employees in all these areas.”

-DHH-

Sculptor Stephanie Bedwell exhibits at Hyde Art Gallery

El CAJON -- The Hyde Art Gallery at Grossmont College opens its Fall 2013 Semester with “From This Place” – a Sculpture and Installation Exhibition that will feature the work of Stephanie Bedwell  from Monday, August 19, through Thursday, September 12.

“From This Place,” according to Art Professor Malia E. F. Serrano, is a “study in consciousness that calls us to notice the material world and the paths we take through it. The exhibition includes diminutive objects, such as bones, bees and hearts fashioned from beeswax and clay, which sound a personal and vulnerable note. We are reminded of our human frailties, emotional and otherwise, by the organic forms nestled carefully into Brown Valise. Larger installations of stick and wool-tied boats, such as Predicting Vulnerability, or hammocks knitted from silken fibers, such as Turmeric Hammock, encourage contemplation of individual or collective narratives. It may prove difficult for a viewer to traverse this exhibit without moments of self-reflection. Bedwell’s concern with themes of life and rebirth will intuitively register with the viewer.”

As a sculptor, Bedwell “embraces the detritus of our mundane existence and uses it in new ways that can best be described as alchemical,” Serrano said.. “From the discarded, cast-off, or overlooked, she recognizes and claims materials for a new life. In Skeletal she binds electrical wires, guts from her son’s discarded Yamaha organ, to construct a backbone. From whittled twigs and fallen branches, she fabricates boat hulls and the pilings to which they are moored.  In Wrought and Escape Route, tarpaulins and upholstery foam, salvaged from old couches and backyard sheds, become ground cover.

“The practice of turning discarded material into substantive works of art is important to Bedwell, as a metaphorical component of her art. But it is also motivated by the artist’s interest in sustainability and commitment to minimize contributions to, as she calls it, the ‘toxic burden’ of the planet. In addition to using found media, she may use natural dyes from turmeric, or tea, or shellac, a resin made from beetles, to saturate or otherwise enhance the patina of many of her sculptures.

“Issues of origin are inherent to the meaning of each object. Bones of a dolphin carcass scavenged during a beach walk in Ventura become the sculpture, Fear. Slabs of shale collected while camping in the White Mountains generate a base for Lost. The exhibition title, “From This Place” is meant to acknowledge the starting points of a creative process that can accommodate an intuitive, generative process, and sculptures that become markers of place and documents of her journey as an artist, mother, teacher, and healer.

Bedwell is a prolific fiber and mixed media artist with an extensive background as an art educator. She includes among her recent exhibiting credits the first one-woman show at the newly renovated art gallery at Mesa College, and a Sculpture Installation commissioned by Chaffey College for the atrium of their new Center for the Arts building. Her solo exhibitions include Body and Spirit, San Diego State University, Archetypes, J. Dewers Gallery, and imago mundi: Reflections on the Whole, Mesa College Gallery.

The Hyde Art Gallery, located in Building 25,  is open free to the public  Monday to Thursday, 10 a.m. to 6:00 p.m.  It  is closed Friday to Sunday and legal Holidays. Parking is available during the exhibition with the purchase of a permit from the vending machine in lot #1F. 

‘Week of Welcome’ to Greet Grossmont College Students August 19-23

EL CAJON—There will be a “Week of Welcome” at Grossmont College starting Monday, August 19, when the Fall Semester begins. Grossmont College President Sunita V. Cooke says the week will kick off another term in which emphasis will be placed on enriching student life through interdisciplinary studies while emphasizing the need to complete their associate’s degrees and certificate programs.

“Last year, we did everything we could, such as taking special pains to schedule classes needed by students in their majors, to make certain that they could complete their requirements without delay,” President Cooke stated.  “The result was that 2,159 degrees and certificates were awarded this last June – an increase of over 32 percent over the 1,631 degrees and certificates awarded the previous year.  This year, we hope to improve upon that accomplishment!

“This year, we’ve again placed special emphasis on assuring that the classes that students need to complete their course of studies are on the class schedule.  Overall, with more than 1,570 class sections offered, we are expecting an enrollment in excess of 18,200  full-time and part-time students,” Dr. Cooke said.

During the first two days of the Week of Welcome (Monday, Aug 19 and Tuesday, Aug. 20) students, staff members, faculty, deans and vice presidents will be among the volunteers at three information tables strategically stationed around the campus to help students find their classrooms or nearly a score of specialized campus venues including Admissions & Records; Adult Re-entry, Student Employment & Career Center; ASGC. Inc Student Activities Window; Assessment Center; Bookstore; Calworks/ New Horizon; Cashiers Office; Counseling Center; Disabled Students Programs & Services (DSP&S); EOPS/CARE; Financial Aid; Griffin Dining Services; Learning Technology & Resource Center; Public Safety; Student Affairs; Student Health Services; Transfer Center;  Veterans Resource Center.

On the third day, Wednesday, August 21, an informational fair will be held on the Main Quad of the campus, where students will be able to meet representatives of various academic departments and student clubs, sign up for a variety of activities, and enjoy some demonstrations by Grossmont College’s dance department.

“Students who become involved in our various activities tend to spend more time on our campus, and thereby enrich their educational experience,” commented Sara Glasgow, interim associate dean of student activities, who is coordinating the event.

Interdisciplinary activities throughout the year are planned at Grossmont College in an effort to demonstrate to students how the subjects they study in the classroom mesh well with classes offered by other disciplines.

English Prof. Tate Hurvitz said under the interdisciplinary “One Campus, One Book” program, classes in many departments will be reading from their own academic perspectives the Pulitzer Prize-winning Emperor of All Maladies: A Biography of Cancer by Siddhartha Mukherjee.  The English Department will examine the use of metaphors in the book; the Nursing School will study various aspects of the disease; Health Sciences in cooperation with the Culinary Arts department will consider best possible diets for cancer patients, and the Art Department plans to sponsor a show of faculty work to raise money for cancer research.   Media Communications is considering production of a documentary film illustrating the interdisciplinary approach to the study of cancer.

Meanwhile, at the Grossmont College Library, under a grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities, a bridge-building program to understand Muslim culture has gotten underway.  Called “Muslim Journeys,” the program involves making available 25 books and three films about Muslim culture, according to librarian Nadra Farina-Hess. In each ensuing year, she said, another culture will be studied, in an effort to build bridges among the world’s peoples, according to Farina-Hess.

--DHH-

Grossmont College Library wins ‘Muslim Journeys’ grant

EL CAJON—The Grossmont College Library will put on its reserve bookshelf this Fall Semester a special collection of 25 books and three films on “Muslim Journeys,” made available through a grant provided by the National Endowment for the Humanities,

Students will be able to check out the reserve items for three days at a time – shorter than the usual time span in order to make the books and films in the collection available to more students during the semester.

Librarian Nadra Farina-Hess told faculty members during “Flex Week,” which is the professional development week prior to the August 19 start-up of classes, that the books and films on Muslim culture constitute the first segment in what is expected to be a multi-year bridge-building exploration of different religions and cultures.  Grossmont College Library was one of 842 libraries throughout the United States that have been awarded the grant.

Farina-Hess told faculty members that for the ease of study the collection is divided into six inter-related topics dealing with Muslims.  These topics are American Stories; Connected Histories (between Muslims and other groups); Literary Reflections; Pathways of Faith; Points of View; and Art, Architecture and Film.  

Information about specific films and books in the collection may be accessed through a Grossmont College web page: http://libguides.grossmont.edu/muslimjourneys

Faculty members teaching courses in history, humanities, languages, religion, and other disciplines were encouraged by Farina-Hess to review the books to determine whether any of them would fit nicely into their class studies. 

She also said a panel discussion on campus to explore Muslim culture is in the works along with the showing of two films, Islamic Art: Mirror of the Invisible World and  Prince Among Slaves.  Dates and times are not yet determined. -- DHH

Dr. Chris Hill receives Distinguished Faculty Award

                                          Grossmont College President Sunita V. Cooke presents
                                          'rock star' award to Dr. Chris Hill, Distinguished Faculty
                                          Award winner.   (Photo: Stephen Harvey)


EL CAJON -- Dr. Chris Hill, geology professor and former president of the Academic Senate who filled in last college year as acting Vice President for Academic Affairs, was honored as Grossmont College's Distinguished Faculty Member of the year at an academic convocation held on the campus Monday, August 12.

In announcing the award, Sue Gonda, current president of the Academic Senate, said that Hill had created a course studying natural disasters, and had re-instituted courses on California geology and California natural parks. Additionally, Gonda noted, Hill had written numerous articles, papers and abstracts in the field of geology, including those studying landslide movements in California and geologic processes in the Sierra Nevada.

The choice of Hill was clearly a popular one as faculty collectively leaped to their feet to give her a standing ovation in salute of not only her academic work but also her seemingly inexhaustible willingness to volunteer for some of the tougher, drier, but necessary jobs required to make a college campus run smoothly.

For example, Hill helped lead a group of over 80 staff, faculty and administrators, who, over a two-year period, developed a comprehensive self-evaluation of Grossmont College. This nine-part document will be utilized by an accreditation visiting team drawn from administrators and faculty from throughout the California Community College system. The accreditation team will make an extensive fact-finding visit to Grossmont College Oct. 14-17 to determine who well the college lives up to its educational mission.

Now having volunteered to serve as acting senior dean for college planning and institutional effectiveness, Hill is currently leading the effort to implement new software for outcomes assessment and implementation of the college's planning goals.

A 12-year-employee of Grossmont College, Hill typically is among the first faculty members to volunteer to participate in such campus activities as the development of plans for assessing the basic skills of students and remedying those that are found deficient, as well as creating programs for the professional development of her faculty colleagues.

Hill also has participated in an accreditation institute for the statewide Academic Senate and has presented at conferences focused on curriculum, planning and institutional effectiveness.

Even at the convocation at which her honor was announced, Hill assisted in the planning and execution of another event -- a game of "Jeopardy" (after the television quiz show) in which teams of faculty, staff and administrators matched their knowledge of campus processes and accomplishments.  In that exercise, in which she played the role of the game's television moderator, "Alex(is)" Trebek, Hill read the answers and judged how well the contestants supplied the correct questions in response.

Although by now Hill should be used to the accolades of her faculty colleagues, it was clear as she gave her acceptance speech that she was touched by the honor. She said that as a little girl she enjoyed learning and always had her nose in a book or was watching 'Schoolhouse Rock,' and to this day can recite the preamble to the U.S. Constitution. Along life's path, she figured out that she liked to help other people learn as well, and not just in the classroom, but also as a coach (basketball) and in other settings as well.  Teaching is "who I am, what I do," she said, and it is "just humbling" that her colleagues recognize it. She said it was amazing that with the schedule she keeps, her partner Jeanine has willing to hang with her for 21 years, and she introduced her to general applause.

Given that Hill is a geologist, Grossmont College President Sunita V. Cooke was prompted to present Hill with a special award -- a large, ornamental, mineral star. After all, noted Cooke, in Grossmont College's book, Hill is a "rock star." -- DHH