UIS Celebrates Homecoming – With Mashed Potatoes?

They're doing the mashed potato for the University of Illinois Springfield Homecoming celebration this year.

We're not talking about the dance. We're talking about the actual mashed potatoes.

That would be 25 pounds of mashed potatoes, to be exact. That's what students used Tuesday during the campus lunch rush to express themselves creatively during Homecoming Week.

The mashed potato sculpting event was featured in a WICS-TV 20 report on September 29, 2009.

Read the story online:
http://www.wics.com/newsroom/top_stories/videos/wics_vid_625.shtml

Garrison Keillor cancels appearance in Illinois

Humorist Garrison Keillor has canceled an appearance at the University of Illinois-Springfield a week after suffering a minor stroke.

Keillor, host of A Prairie Home Companion, on Monday canceled the performance scheduled for Sept. 21. It will be rescheduled.

The news was featured in a September 14, 2009 article in the Chicago Tribune.

Download a PDF of the article.
20090915-Trib-Garrison-Keillor.pdf

Gallery displays rarely seen art of critic, philosopher

The stunningly stark woodcut print “DEAD MAN, BLACK BIRD” displayed at the University of Illinois Springfield’s Visual Arts Gallery seems to bring to life artist ARTHUR C. DANTO’s preference for the black-and-white woodcut.

A world-renowned author, philosopher and artist, Danto used that art form to permit the “directest” statement with the greatest economy of means.

“ARTHUR C. DANTO: PRINTS” will be displayed from 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. weekdays through Sept. 23 at the arts gallery at UIS.

The gallery was featured in an September 3, 2009, Tamara Browning column in the State Journal-Register.

Download a PDF of the article.

20090902-SJR-ArtGallery.pdf

UIS' production of "As You Like It" will be opening April 17

Opening night has been set - April 17 - for UIS' production of William Shakespeare's As You Like It, and rehearsals are in full swing. It’s the first time UIS Theatre has attempted to stage Shakespeare.

The production was the subject of a feature story in the April 10, 2009, State Journal-Register.

Download a PDF of the article
20090410-SJR-AsYouLikeIt.pdf

"Cloud 9" not subtle

Caryl Churchill's play "Cloud 9" deals with the politics of sexuality and sexual identity and relies heavily on cross-gender casting and role-doubling. The results are not subtle.

"Cloud 9" opened UIS Theatre's 2008-2009 season on November 7 and the State Journal-Register's Brian Mackey was there.

His review appeared in the November 8, 2008, SJ-R.

Download a pdf file
20081108-sjr-TakeBrazenCloud9.pdf

Author finds inspiration in Brookens' oral history collection

Melinda McDonald, of Springfield, is the author of Water and Fire, a work of historical fiction set during the city's 1908 race riot.

When she was researching the book, one of McDonald's principal sources was the oral history collection housed in the archives at Brookens Library at UIS. "Those were very, very helpful," she noted.

An article about McDonald and her book appeared in the June 9, 2008, Mattoon Journal Gazette/Charleston Times-Courier.

Download a pdf file of the article

20080609-JGTC-AuthorUsesOralHistoryCollection.pdf