|
Photo Caption: |
|
Award-winning poet and playwright Jeanne Murray Walker |
LHU’s WriteNow series returns
Events for university and community with
award-winning poet, playwright
Feb. 10, 2012
LOCK HAVEN, Pa. -- Lock Haven University is pleased to announce the next events in its popular WriteNow series. Award-winning poet and playwright Jeanne Murray Walker will participate in a variety of events at the university and in the community, February 28 – March 1.
Write Now: Community Conversations with Contemporary Authors, is a series designed to bring members of the community—young and old, from secondary schools, the university, and the community at large—together in dialogue about contemporary works. The authors write about contemporary issues that interest and impact members of the community and their children.
One of Walker’s plays, “The Chosen Daughter,” is recommended for high school and college theatre departments, and it is this script—with its emphasis on finding independence, weighing choices, and examining family relationships—which makes it a good fit for WriteNow.
Walker’s website provides a brief summary of the play: “After her premier at Carnegie Hall, Dawn Seitz realizes that more than she loves the violin, she hates it. It was not her choice, but her mother’s. Dawn was selected to bear the gift. Throwing over her role as the chosen, she begins trying to rid herself of her musician ancestors, a struggle which nearly destroys her.”
The Chicago Sun Times described the play as “A unique script with fresh ideas, which examines the role of a parent in determining the future of a child and how the past affects us all.”
Ms. Walker’s first event, “On the Page and on the Stage,” will take place on the evening of February 28 in the Multipurpose Room of the Parsons Union Building at 7:30 p.m. Walker will speak about writing in several genres and the processes of drafting and revising her play “The Chosen Daughter.” In addition, members of the LHU University Players and Dangerously Improv will present a brief scene and audience members will be encouraged to ask questions. Books will be available for purchase and signing. This event is free and members of the public are encouraged to attend and ask questions
A “Booked for Lunch” program at the Annie Halenbake Ross Library in Lock Haven is scheduled for Wednesday, February 29, 12:00-1:30 in the Gross Community Room. The program is free; lunch will be provided for $7.00. Those who are planning to attend are asked to RSVP by calling 748-3321.
On Thursday, March 1, the community conversations continue as Ms. Walker travels to Central Mountain High School. Her visit to CMHS will include a student dramatization of a scene from “A Chosen Daughter.”
Professor of English at the University of Delaware, Jeanne Murray Walker is the author of seven volumes of poetry -- including her most recent “New Tracks, Night Falling” and “A Deed to the Light” -- and numerous plays and essays. Her scripts include “Inventing Montana,” “Tales From The Daily Tabloid,” “Rowing Into Light on Lake Adley,” “The Queen’s 2 Bodies: The Double Life of Elizabeth I,” and “The Chosen Daughter.” They have been produced in Boston, Washington, Chicago, throughout the Midwest, and in London. Her work has been honored with prizes and awards including a National Endowment for the Arts Fellowship, seven Pennsylvania State Arts Council Fellowships, the Prairie-Schooner Reader’s Choice and Strousse Awards, many new play prizes, and the prestigious Pew Fellowship in the Arts.
For more information on the author, please see http://www.jeannemurraywalker.com/
For more information on the WriteNow series and the upcoming events with Ms. Walker, please contact co-chairs of WriteNow Marjorie Maddox Hafer and Dana Washington at mmaddoxh@lhup.edu or dwashing@lhup.edu
Lock Haven University is a member of the Pennsylvania State System of Higher Education (PASSHE), the largest provider of higher education in the commonwealth. Its 14 universities offer more than 250 degree and certificate programs in more than 120 areas of study. Nearly 405,000 system alumni live and work in Pennsylvania.
###