News and Events

Announcements

Department of Art + Design, Art History, Art Education

Riselle Abrams, Art + Design, Art History, Art Education, was selected to present at the National Art Education Association convention in March 2011 in Seattle, Washington. The presentation is entitled "The Baltimore Mural Project."

Kay Broadwater, Art + Design, Art History, Art Education, won the Individual President's Diversity Award for her excellent work in support of advancing the university's commitment to diversity.

Jim Condron, Art + Design, Art History, Art Education, announced that an exhibition of his paintings, The Pattern More Complicated, continues through October 14 at the Notre Dame of Maryland University. Condron's work focuses on elements within the landscape, the patterns and colors in the trees, grass and ground. His work appears nationally and internationally in galleries and museums as well as in corporate, university, public and private collections. An artist reception will be held October 10, with a gallery talk on October 5.

Peter Frantz, Art + Design, Art History, Art Education, is quoted in Despite budget woes, public art endures--and brings controversy. Bendbulletin.com [Bend, Ore.], August 3
• Professor Frantz, Art + Design, Art History, Art Education is the primary artist and curator for the exhibit, "Peace Should Not be this Fragile -- A Portrait of Panzi". An art exhibit centered on the conflict in DR Congo held at the Virginia Holocaust Museum, 2nd Floor Gallery.

Karl Fugelso, Art + Design, Art History, Art Education, is currently writing articles on "Pictorial Treachery as Narrative Faithfulness: Virgil's Gaze in the Yates Thompson Miniature of 'Inferno' 33," "Renaissance References as (Neo)Medievalism in Tom Phillips' Illustrations of Dante's 'Divine Comedy'," and "Articulating Authority: Manuscript Layout as 'Commedia' Response." He currently serves as Editor-in-Chief for the journal Medievalism, Main Editor for the book series Medievalism, and one of three associate editors for Medievally Speaking: Medievalism in Review.

• Professor Ring presented her paper, "Map Design and Social Awareness: An Ideal Combination for Graphic Design Students," at the 5th International Conference on Design Principles and Practices in Rome on Feb. 2.

Michael Yeager, Art + Design, Art History, Art Education Student, won the Grand Prize for the Sony Pictures motion picture trailer challenge. Michael's one minute trailer was selected from over six thousand entries. Michael is one half of a fledgling film studio that just got a nice bump. Please check out the Sony Pictures announcement.
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Department of Dance

Jane Bernasconi, Dance, is featured in the article, "Fulfill your superman fantasy at Yoga-on-York" in the Towson Patch, Sept. 17

Shodekeh Talifero, Dance Accompanist, was selected by a jury of national experts to receive the 2011 Mary Sawyers Baker awards along with two other local artists. Each artist will receive $25,000 and be featured in an exhibition at The Baltimore Museum of Art (BMA) from September 7 – October 2, 2011, including a celebratory Late Night event on October 1 where Ms. Chen and Shodekeh will perform. The winners were presented on Maryland Public Television’s ArtWorks Special: The Baker Artist Awards 2011
• For more about The Baker Award Winners
• For more about Shodekeh: "Embody", A Festival & Series of The Vocal Arts -
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Linda-Denise Fisher-Harrell, Dance, performed with the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater at the Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C., on Feb.1. The program includes Revelations, Anointed, Forgotten Time, In/Side, The Hunt, Prodigal Prince, Three Black Kings, Night Creature, Cry and The Evolution of a Secured Feminine.
• Press Release 2011 (Optimized PDF)

Department of Electronic Media and Film

Elsa Lankford, Michael Angelella, Caryn Clippert, and Jennifer Lackey, Electronic Media and Film, are organizing the Women and Minorities in Media Festival (WAMMFest) starting March 31st to April 3rd.
• WAMMFest Website

Elsa Lankford, Jessica Baroody, Darcy Accardi, and Lambda Kappa Tau, Electronic Media and Film, are organizing the MediaActive Festival starting March 29th to March 31st.
• MediaActive Website

Peter Lev, Electronic Media and Film, is the 30th recipient of the President's Award for Distinguished Service to the University.

Department of Mass Communication and Communication Studies

Amy Becker, Mass Communication and Communication Studies, is quoted in Should Obama Go on Vacation While Markets are So Skittish? CNBC, August 12
• Professor Becker has published an article to appear in Social Science Quarterly exploring what factors influence public support for same-sex marriage. The article, "New Voters, New Outlook? Predispositions, Social Networks, and the Changing Politics of Gay Civil Rights," examines public acceptance of homosexuality and support for same-sex marriage across age cohorts.
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• She attended The White House Twitter Town Hall  primetime news conference with President Obama on Wednesday, July 22 at 9 p.m. Eastern Time. Becker will be among the 140 individuals who follow the White House Twitter feed and signed up for a chance to attend.  The 140 is the number of characters allowed in a tweet.
• Becker recounted her experience as one of about 30 "tweeps" in the audience at President Barack Obama's July 6 Twitter Town Hall, in her blog, Fresh Politics, New Media.

Jennifer Potter, Mass Communication and Communication Studies, submitted two entries on Arab feminism and Islamic feminism for the Encyclopedia of Women in Today’s World published in March 2011.

Richard E. Vatz, Mass Communication and Communication Studies, debated the keynote speaker, Theodore Sheckels, Randolph-Macon College, at the Maryland Communication Association Annual Conference on Oct. 14. The topic was “Resolved: Maryland and the Nation Would Benefit from a Healthy Dose of Conservatism Over the Next Two Years.” Vatz also helped arrange for the conference reception speaker to be former Gov. Robert L. Ehrlich.
• Professor Vatz announced the publication of The Only Authentic Book on Persuasion: The Salience-Agenda/Meaning-Spin Model, which argues why other standard works on persuasion are thicker, but ultimately mostly irrelevant to pragmatic and practical persuasive discourse. It is published by Kendall Hunt publishing company.
• He commented on the first photos of Giffords since attack reveal little about difficult recovery, National Post [Canada], June 12
•He chaired a panel discussion, "Presidential Rhetoric and the Rhetoric of the 2020 Congressional Elections," participated in a panel, "Politics in the Potomac Region," and presented a paper, "Rhetorical Intensity and Turnout: The Key to the 2010 Congressional Elections,” at the Eastern Communication Association (ECA) Annual Convention, April 14-17.
• Professor Vatz has been appointed to the editorial board of the Quarterly Journal of Speech, the preeminent journal in communication studies.
• He was interviewed by Bill Vanko on WBAL AM on March 29. Vatz critiqued President Obama's March 28 speech on Libya, saying it seemed to be an ad hoc policy which permits the United States to intervene when it wishes when people’s lives are in danger, but does not tell us why there will be no intervention in, say, Syria or Iran.

Department of Music

Cristina Magaldi, Music, won Irving Lowens Article Award by the Society for American Music for “Cosmopolitanism and World Music in Rio de Janeiro at the Turn of the Twentieth Century” Musical Quarterly, Volume 92 (March 2011).

Dana Rothlisberger, Music, the Towson University Symphonic Band conductor, has been selected to perform at the gala opening concert for the Eastern Division of the Music Educators National Conference Bi-annual Convention. The concert is on March 31, 2011 featured with the TU Symphonic Band will be the Towson University Faculty Brass Quintet including Luis Engelke and Rene Hernandez, trumpets; Gabrielle Finck, horn; Natalie Mannix, trombone; and Michael Bunn, tuba in a premiere performance of a commissioned work for brass quintet and band by James Stevenson.

Reynaldo Reyes, Music, Performs the 3rd All-Beethoven Piano Sonatas Concert at CCP The Web Magazine [The Philippines], August 5.

Carl Schmidt, Music, published his annotated bibliography on composer Francis Poulenc in the new Oxford University Press Bibliographies On-Line series.
• He presented a pre-concert lecture on Franz Liszt for André Watts' Shriver Hall Concert Series debuted on March 6. Watts replaced the ailing Nelson Freire.

Department of Theatre Arts

Georgia Baker, Theatre Arts, reviewed costume design portfolios at the national conference of the U.S. Institute of Theatre Technology, March 7 to 11 in Charlotte, N.C.
• Her legacy of costume research, design and production continues to enrich the experience of Towson students today. Read her story in the Towson Alumni Magazine.

Tom Cascella, Theatre Arts,, is the dance team coach, who led The Towson University Dance Team to win the 2011 National Dance Alliance (NDA) Collegiate National Championship their 13th Consecutive National Championship, in Daytona Beach, Fl, Friday, April 8.  The competition took place at Florida’s Peabody Auditorium and at the Dayton Beach Band shell.
• Web cast video
• CBS Local News
• Fox Local News
• Press Release 2011 (Optimized PDF)

Tom Casciero, Theatre Arts, has recently completed a series of master classes in Physical Comedy and Commedia del Arte for the International Baccalaureate Program of St. Timothy’s School. As a result, Theatre Program Director Harvey Doster has invited him to collaborate on the development of a new teaching block for that program. To begin that process next fall, Casciero will teach a workshop intensive and co-create and co-direct an original production in the Commedia style.

Daniel Ettinger, Theatre Arts, did scenic design for 3 plays, Two Rooms, Apartment 213, and All My Sons that were in the top 10 in Baltimore City Paper.

Jose David Gregory, MFA Theatre Arts Alumnus, owns Teatro 101, which produced Side Show. The production was part of the top 10 in Baltimore City Paper.

Andrew Peters, Theatre Arts Student, was the artistic director and director of Antarctica at the Glass Mind Theatre Co. The production was part of the top 10 in Baltimore City Paper.

Juanita Rockwell, Theatre Arts, directed Jennifer Nelson's "24, 7, 365," for Theatre of the First Amendment (TFA); Fellow TU Professor Daniel Ettinger designed the set. It is currently running on a three-theater tour: It just closed at D.C.'s Atlas Theater; opened March 4 at Manassas, Va.'s Hylton Arts Center; and plays this week at TFA's home theater in Fairfax, Va.
• Read a review of the production

Joseph Ritsch, MFA Theatre Arts Student, wrote, directed, and performed in Apartment 213 at Iron Crow Theatre for his MFA Thesis in co-production with Towson University. The artistic director was Steven Satta and company and thesis advisor was Juanita Rockwell. The production was part of the top 10 in Baltimore City Paper.
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Scene from Apartment 213 Photo Courtesy of Joe Castor

Juanita Rockwell and Yury Urnov, Theatre Arts, translated and directed the production Playing Dead at the Single Carrot Theatre as a result of the New Russian Drama Project at TU. The production was part of the top 10 in Baltimore City Paper.

Yury Urnov, Theatre Arts, Russian Play, Stage: One Hour Eighteen Minutes was written about in Baltimore City Paper, Apr. 27.

David White, Theatre Arts, The Wright Stuff: WordBRIDGE wants to bring playwrights, theater communities together in Baltimore City Paper, June 8.

Arts and Culture

Suewhei Shieh, Asian Arts and Culture Center, Performers from Japan take stage in Towson despite fears over disasters at home,
• Carroll County Times, March 22

Calendar of Events

Recognized as a thriving visual arts center for Maryland, the college offers music performances, films, dance concerts, debates, lectures and workshops, theatre productions, a daily campus television show, and art exhibitions.

• Calendar of Events
• Box Office

College of Fine Arts and Communication
Center for the Arts, Room 3001 (map)
Hours: Monday - Friday, 8 a.m. - 5 p.m.

Phone: 410-704-3288
Fax: 410-704-6026

	Gerald Cleaver, internationally acclaimed percussionist and composer, presented master classes, workshops and concerts during his week long residency coordinated by professor Dave Ballou. Read More.