- University News Archive - ��Vlog��ý Little Rock

��Vlog��ý Little Rock to Host BodyWorks 2022 April 22-24

John Hill — Thu, 14 Apr 2022 13:15:35 +0000

The University of Arkansas at Little Rock will present a three-night spring dance concert showcasing the professional faculty and students from the . BodyWorks 2022: BARE BONES will be held April 22-24 in the University Theatre in the ��Vlog��ý Little Rock Center for Performing Arts. The performances will take place at 7:30 p.m. April 22 and 23 as well as 2:30 p.m. April 24. The annual spring dance concert will feature two live works as well as the working draft of a new dance film which is the outcome of a collaboration with ��Vlog��ý Little Rock Music. BodyWorks 2022 will include “Place,” choreographed by Stephanie Thibeault, associate professor of dance, with music by Radiohead, arranged and performed by Sybarite 5. Performers include Lillian Berry, Jali Chandler, Savannah Davis, Stephen Glass, Madison Price, Lizzie Schaefer, and Laney Smith. The second piece is a new dance film “A Boy and a Girl,” directed, filmed, and edited by Stephen Stone, associate professor of dance, with music by Eric Whitacre. Performers Stephen Glass and Bonnie Puska will be joined by the ��Vlog��ý Little Rock Chamber Singers. The third and final performance is “Bare Bones,” choreographed by Stone, Thibeault, and ��Vlog��ý Little Rock dance students with music by Pink Floyd, Man in a Shed, Shigeru Umebayashi, Ludovico Einaudi and Daniel Hope, and Haoli Lin and Hai Jin, Meredith Monk, and DeVotchka. Performers include Makayla Allman, Lillian Berry, Alexis Brooks, Jali Chandler, Savannah Davis, Stephen Glass, Madison Price, Elizabeth Schaefer, Morgan Smith, and Kiara Willis. Don Bolinger, costume shop manager, completed costume design, and Mike Stacks completed lighting design for all the performances. General admission tickets are $10, while tickets for ��Vlog��ý System faculty, staff, and students are $5. Tickets go on sale April 11 and can be purchased by calling the Department of Theatre Arts and Dance at 501-916-3291 or online at . For more information, contact Geneva Galloway at gegalloway@ualr.edu.

Faller Earns National Awards in 2021 National Federation of Press Women Conference

John Hill — Thu, 19 Aug 2021 13:43:01 +0000

A ��Vlog��ý Little Rock communications professional was one of many Arkansas professionals who received national awards from the National Federation of Press Women’s 2021 communications contest.�� Angelita Faller, news director at ��Vlog��ý Little Rock, earned second place in the Writing, Specialty Articles, Science and Technology category for a story detailing the COVID-19 research of Dr. Nitin Agarwal and his student researchers in COSMOS (Collaboratorium for Social Media and Online Behavioral Studies) who are working to inform the public of scams and misinformation related to the coronavirus pandemic through a public website and a partnership with the Arkansas Attorney General’s Office.�� The judges noted that, “The author has taken what might seem like a typical side topic of the global pandemic – misinformation about the virus – and turned it into a strong article that not only informs the reader, it might save lives.”�� She also earned an honorable mention in the Writing, Specialty Articles, Arts and Entertainment category for an article that describes Dr. Angela Hunter’s efforts to translate and publish the most complete edition of 18th-century French philosopher Louise Dupin’s unpublished treatise “Work on Women” and the $133,000 grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities that will help complete the professor’s long-time research goal.�� A second honorable mention in the Writing, Speciality Articles, Religion category came for a story detailing fall 2020 graduate Jason Littleton’s research into the life of Arkansas missionary Pearle McCain. Arkansas journalists earned a total of 35 awards during the National Communications Contest sponsored by the National Federation of Press Women. The winners were among more than 2,000 entries in the 2021 national contest. State awards were presented June 10 during an awards ceremony hosted by the organization’s Arkansas affiliate, Arkansas Press Women, held at the Bailey Alumni and Friends Center. These national award-winning entries had previously placed first in the Arkansas Press Women’s 2021 professional communications contest before advancing to the NFPW competition. More than 50 Arkansas first-place entries competed at the national level. Faller took top honors during the Arkansas Press Women’s statewide contest, earning the 2021 Sweepstakes Award.�� She also earned the following honors in the 2021 Arkansas Press Women contest:

First Place in Writing, Specialty Articles, Science or Technology for “��Vlog��ý Little Rock Researchers Help Identify Covid-19 Misinformation and Myths in New Public Website”
First Place in Writing, Specialty Articles, Arts and Entertainment for “��Vlog��ý Little Rock Professor Receives National Endowment for Humanities Grant to Publish Book on Unpublished Works of Louise Dupin”
First Place in Writing, Specialty Articles, Religion for “��Vlog��ý Little Rock Grad Jason Littleton Details Heroic Life of Arkansas Missionary Pearle McCain”
First Place in Writing, Publications Regularly Written by Entrant Newsletter/other publication, non-profit, government, or educational for “��Vlog��ý Little Rock Now”
Second Place in Writing, Specialty Articles, Hobby for “��Vlog��ý Little Rock’s Costume Shop Manager Creates Unique Line of Face Masks”
Second Place in Writing, Specialty Articles, History for “Professor’s Research Leads to Historic Marker for Elaine 12 Member Frank Moore”
Second Place in Writing, Specialty Articles, Social issues for “Care Team Makes Difference in Lives of ��Vlog��ý Little Rock Students in Need”
Second Place in Writing, Feature Story, Online publication for “Wilkerson Fulfills Dream of Earning College Degree 55 Years After Graduating High School”

Bolinger creates costumes for Arkansas PBS programming on women’s suffrage in Arkansas

John Hill — Tue, 22 Sep 2020 17:44:16 +0000

Don Bolinger, costume shop manager at the University of Arkansas at Little Rock, was selected to create the costumes for a professional development program for educators in Arkansas that will commemorate the history of the women’s suffrage movement. The program, created by Arkansas PBS, is part of Arkansas IDEAS, which connects K-12 educators with quality professional development and educational opportunities approved by the Arkansas Department of Education that helps teachers meet licensure requirements. The women’s suffrage project comes as the country is celebrating the 100th anniversary of the passage of the 19th amendment, which gave women in the U.S. the right to vote. “The program features seven people from Arkansas history,” Bolinger said. “The actors who play them are being filmed and will be put through a filter that looks like an oil painting talking. It’s very similar to Harry Potter when all the portraits suddenly start talking and come to life.” Corey Womack, a producer for Arkansas PBS, wrote and filmed the program. The project filmed on Aug. 11-12 and will be shown in Arkansas elementary schools during the 2020-21 school year. Bolinger’s job was to create costumes that accurately matched the historic time period of the people featured in the documentary. “I was given historic portraits of all those involved. I could approximate their look in the time frame between the biggest event of their career and when they died,” Bolinger said. “Most of the costumes turned out to be between 1870 to 1890, even though Charlotte Stevens, whom Stevens Elementary is named for, lived until 1951.” To complete the period pieces, Bolinger used items from The Rep and ��Vlog��ý Little Rock’s previous productions of “Waiting Room,” “On the Verge,” and “Scotland Road” as well as purchased items from Historical Emporium. “I constructed the remaining garments, a black lace mantle, and an ecru wool capelet. These items also piqued my interest in terms of patterning and construction and generated period stock items for the department,” Bolinger said. Bolinger noted that this project is important because it highlights Arkansas’s role in the national suffrage movement while also providing work for actors and technicians during the pandemic, when not many productions are taking place. The costumes he created will also become a part of the university’s collection and can be used in future productions as well as serve as examples of historic dress for students. The historic figures featured in the documentary include Elizabeth Cady Stanton, who is credited with initiating the first organized women’s rights and women’s suffrage movements in the U.S.; Lizzie Dorman Fyler, founder of the Arkansas Woman Suffrage Association; and Clara McDiarmid, founder of the Arkansas Equal Suffrage Association. Another figure in the documentary is Catherine Cunnigham, editor of the Woman’s Chronicle, the leading publication for women’s suffrage in the South. Also featured are Mary Church Terrell, who helped found the National Association of Colored Women and the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, and Charlotte Andrews Stephens, the first Black woman to teach in Little Rock. John Riggs, the only male historical figure represented in the documentary, introduced legislation to allow women to vote in Arkansas primaries in 1917. After the bill passed, Arkansas became the first Southern state to allow women to vote in primary elections. In the upper right photo, Felecia Richardson, who is playing Charlotte Andrews Stephens, is wearing one of Bolinger’s costumes.��

��Vlog��ý Little Rock’s costume shop manager creates unique line of face masks

John Hill — Wed, 16 Sep 2020 21:17:52 +0000

Students and faculty members in ��Vlog��ý Little Rock’s Department of Theatre Arts and Dance began the fall semester with a fashion-forward surprise. Don Bolinger, ��Vlog��ý Little Rock’s costume shop manager, put his creative license to the task to create masks for the department’s more than 60 students and seven faculty members. While his regular job of creating costumes and other props for the university’s theatrical productions has been put on hold due to the COVID-19 pandemic, this has given Bolinger another outlet for his talents. Rather than just cranking out mask after mask as soon as possible, Bolinger has taken the time to carefully explore the types and patterns of masks that work best. “Don began researching cloth mask patterns that were used around the world,” said Dr. Yslan Hicks, chair of the Department of Theatre Arts and Dance. “He discovered or drafted the mask patterns and began a process of searching for the most effective, comfortable, and wearable masks. He made the patterns into masks and began a testing process during which he and I and multiple others within our circle of friends began wearing the masks in public. Don accomplished this on his own time. He made the effort and funded the endeavor as a support to each of us during this terrible time.” So far, Bolinger has made hundreds of masks, including those for the students, faculty, and his family and friends. The masks come in a wide variety of patterns, including comic book heroes, ballerinas, a nod to Arkansas tourism, Peanuts characters, an African Ankara print, and even a medieval doctor mask from the Black Plague era.

Don Bolinger created hundreds of face masks of various prints and patterns for faculty and students. Photo by Ben Krain.

“I found some fun stuff and a lot of abstract fabrics,” Bolinger said. “I’ve found lips, mustaches, animal noses, interesting things like that. That’s the fun part for me, finding novelty prints that make people smile.” He’s also enjoyed the challenge of creating masks that fit best for different people. “I guess fit is what I was most concerned about while making the masks,” Bolinger said. “I want them to fit for different-sized faces. The very first mask I made smashed my nose, so I realized that wouldn’t be comfortable for everybody. I looked on YouTube and Google for inspiration for my masks. One of mine is a hybrid that is shaped like a Korean mask on the top but has pleating. I elongated it to adapt it for men with beards.” Bolinger’s creative juices haven’t been put to rest. In the future, he is considering creating gaiter-style masks that also cover a person’s neck or face shields using two-liter pop bottles.

Hollywood costume designer offers advice to ��Vlog��ý Little Rock students

Janea Snyder — Wed, 28 Nov 2018 22:48:26 +0000

Students in ��Vlog��ý Little Rock’s Department of Theater Arts and Dance got an inside scoop on what it takes to be a professional costume designer from ��Vlog��ý Little Rock graduate Jacqueline Saint Anne, who is an Emmy Award winning costume designer and president emeritus of the Costume Designers Guild. Saint Anne has worked as a costume designer in theater and film now for nearly 50 years. Her films include “Seeing Other People,” “Lady in White,” “Normal Life,” and “Pippi Longstocking” while television credits include “Arli$$,” “Columbo,” “Quantum Leap,” “Webster,” and “Sliders.” She’s worked on more than 100 Movies of the Week and miniseries including “An American Story,” “Fatal Vision,” “Max and Helen,” and the “Munsters.” She also teaches at the Los Angeles-based , where she is the creative director the for film and TV costume design. A resident of West Hollywood now, Saint Anne returned to Arkansas over the Thanksgiving holiday to visit her sister in DeWitt. On Monday, Nov. 26, before she returned home, she led a master class for theater and dance students in the Haislip Theatre in ��Vlog��ý Little Rock’s Center for Performing��Arts, where she first got her start in costume design as a student at ��Vlog��ý Little Rock in the 1960s. Saint Anne remembered the theater’s closet of costumes that she remade over and over again. “Because I had some sewing skills, that made me the the costumer,” she said. At that time, she wasn’t planning on a career in design. She was a biology major and was on a pre-med track that her parents wanted for her. “The great thing about a university education is that you become educated about what’s around you,” she said. She earned a Bachelor of Science but never made it to medical school. Instead she went to the University of Miami for a master’s degree in costume design. Her first job out of college took her to Grand Ledge, Michigan, where she worked the summer at the Boars Head Theater and costumed 12 shows in 13 weeks. The hectic pace was valuable training. It’s where she learned to work within a budget and on tight deadlines, developed her work ethic, and started making a reputation for herself. She returned for three more summers and taught theater at State University of New York’s Auburn campus the rest of the time. After four years, she returned to Miami and became entrenched in theater costume design. She turned down several offers to work on films before she finally said yes to “Shock Waves,” a 1977 horror film (starring Peter Cushing) about underwater Nazi zombies. “They presented unique costuming challenges,” Saint Anne said. “The uniforms couldn’t be made of wool because of the water. Filming would go on for months, so the costumes had to hold up and maintain color.” Students were interested in how Saint Anne crossed over from theater into film. “The way a costumer succeeds is having a sense of the medium in which they are working,” she told them. “The most important thing in theater is the audience. I feel my success comes from my ability to see what my audience sees, so if it’s a big opera house or a small intimate stage, or film being shot on HD or 35mm, there are differences in the communication that I’m making with my audience.” She also gave the students practical advice – from having a label for their costumes to having a website they can show to clients on their phone – to ��professional advice on working with difficult people, collaborating with set designers and directors, and staying current with industry trends. “It was nice to hear her talk about the difference between theater and film projects,” said Kat Hall, a senior design student who has worked on both theater and film projects and hopes to work as a wardrobe supervisor at a regional theater after graduation. Saint Anne’s advice was also helpful for senior dance major Emily Shellabarger, who is taking a course in flat patterning and drafting this semester from ��Vlog��ý Little Rock costume shop manager Don Bolinger. Unlike the students, Saint Anne learned stitching skills on her own. A self-described “Air Force brat,” she was was born in Panama and moved around a lot growing up. “One of the fortunate places I lived was Paris,” she said. As a teen, she saved up money to buy fabric, and her mother showed her how to thread her sewing machine. “I would go to design shops in Paris and look at clothes,” she said. “Then I’d go home and try to figure out how to make them. I taught myself pattern making. My skills were not taught to me. They were intuitive, the result of trial and error, just wanting to know how things were made and having curiosity about how things are put together.” Early on in her career, while working on “Little Mary Sunshine,” Saint Anne developed a disciplined approach to how she works, and she’s stuck with it ever since. “I was still sewing a piece for Act 2, after the Act 1 curtain went up,” she recalled. “I was physically destroyed. I said I will never do this again. And fortunately, I haven’t. I’m in my 48th year as costume designer. I would not be able to do that without taking care of myself and knowing what I need. Some people thrive in chaos. That’s not me. To this day, I finish anything I’m working on three to four days before opening, so that if I need to change something, I have the time and clarity to do it. “My preparation is never last minute,” she said. “If I’m going to do an all-nighter, it’s going to be a week before the show. It won’t be the night before because that makes me feel out of control.” For the past 13 years, Saint Anne has designed mainly for opera. She doesn’t do modern TV projects anymore, prefers instead to costume period pieces or fantasy. She also offered this nugget of advice to young people just starting out: “At a certain place, when you are the master of your craft, you have little forbearance for people who are ignorant or rude,” she said. “It’s important you learn how to be considerate and kind. Your collaborators – and your competition – will be with you your entire career.” Top Right Photo: Costume designer Jacqueline Saint Anne greets freshman theater student Kaitlynn Mitchell after a master class in Haislip Theatre. Above: Costumer designer and ��Vlog��ý Little Rock graduate Jacqueline Saint Anne poses for a group photo with students, faculty and staff in the Department of Theatre Arts and Dance.

- University News Archive - ����Vlog��ý Little Rock

����Vlog��ý Little Rock to Host BodyWorks 2022 April 22-24