AGGIELIFE
THE BATTALION
Page 3
All tlje 6;t0i*lh ts a stage
innual Shakespeare Festival starts up third year of celebrating playwright's life
imar
Science Building fi>
i fonner student.
ilrary Arb Committee's
mkespeare Festival, one ma\'
ant to keep in mind a few
lies from William Shake-
are's “A Midsummer
light's Dream”: “Say, what
ibridgetncnt have you for this
inservatives whostippoti sening?... flow shall we ho
le tire lazy time, if not with some delight?"
arpolus said these are pet Still considered by many to be one of the
rrocess. Their support lififi reaiestand most brilliant playwrights in lustu-
y, Shakespeare produced 37 plays and a col
ection of sonnets during his lifetime. Shake-
ipeare has not yet been forgotten and will not
leas his life and times are remembered and cel-
McCain or they don’bdj fated so frequently that they have become a
ioIus said. “ThequestM basic element of literature.
For the past three years, Texas A&M has
joined in the celebration of Shakespeare's life
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and works with the annual MSC Literary Arts
Shakespeare Festival.
“I think the title of this year’s Festival,
‘Much Ado About Shakespeare,’ really captures
a lot," said Vicky Sherrousc, MSC Literary Arts
Programming executive and a sophomore in
formation systems major. “For people who are
not involved with the festival, it must seem
strange to see so many people getting so caughi
up in an author from hundreds of years ago. In
reality, it is about more than Shakespeare him
self it is about Ids legacy, and it is about fans
of literature from every academic discipline
coming together to enjoy some of the most uni
versal tales ever told.”
The MSC Literary Arts Committee (LAC)
has been responsible for the festival right from
the beginning. An evaluation was conducted
during the 1997-1998 school year to find out
what A&M students wanted on campus in the
form of literary arts. The results prompted „
LAC to hold the first annual Shakespeare
estival to increase student consciousness of
the literary arts in 1998.
“Our mission is to pro
mote awareness of the liter
ary arts on the A&M cam
pus and provide the students
and community with educa
tional and entertaining programs
focused in the literary arts.” said
Suzanne Spencer, MSC Literary
Arts chairperson and a senior
English major.
“The Shakespeare Festival of
fers a broad range of themes that would interest
anybody. We are offering not only education
about Shakespeare but also entertainment,” said
Terrell Rabb, LAC Shakespeare marketing exec
utive and a sophomore political science major.
While LAC is primarily in charge of the fes
tival, there is also another group that has been
in on the action from the beginning — The MSC
Film Society.
“The MSC Film Society has been involved
with Shakespeare Festival for at least the past
three or four years. Literary Arts wanted to in
corporate some Shakespeare-interpreted films
into the festival and asked us to help with that
aspect of the program,” said Jason Puckett co-
vlee chair and director of audience education for
MSC Film Society and a junior environmental
design major.
The Film Society has contributed the Audi
ence Education Lecture Series to the festival.
“This program is aimed at showing
the student body that motion pictures
are made for more than just entertain
ment. We try to find a film that deals
with a certain topic and find a speak
er to discuss the relation of the top
ic and the film,” Puckett safd.
\ Companies such as Norton
Publishing and Barnes and No
ble have also played a role in
making the Shakespeare Festival
a success.
“They (Norton Publishing)
provide us with books and other
goodies that we can give as door
prizes and as gifts for our guests. Barnes and No
ble has also been of great assistance with our
Sonnet Contest and Open Mic.” said Sherrouse.
Prizes for the Sonnet Contest were awarded
Sunday at 2 pm at the Barnes and Noble on
Texas Avenue.
“Norton has been great by supplying us with
books, T-shirts and tote bags that we can give
away as door prizes at each event. The books are
all Shakespeare oriented. Without the Norton
contribution, we could not give away any
prizes,” said Spencer.
Rabh said that Barnes and Noble helped out
by donating prizes for the Sonnet
Contest.
“It has effected
us all positive
ly. I think it
has given
all involved
some expe
rience in
planning a
major event,
coordinating
with differ
ent groups to j
have everything prepared as well as managing
every thing so it is finished on time. The best part
of working on Shakespeare Festival is seeing all
the planning and hard work everyone pul in come
together,” Rabb said.
“The main thing the students have enjoyed
is being there for the finished produet. Not
everyone gets the chance to take a Shakespeare
class, or discuss Shakespeare with any member
of the A&M faculty, and this program has al
lowed for them to do so," Puckett said.
The students have also put effort into making
this year's Shakespeare Festival different and
better than the last to try and encourage new and
old festival goers to come. Rabb said one change
this year was that the festival is held in Febru
ary. Rabb said he thinks this will give students
a better chance to attend the events as opposed
to last year’s festival which w’as held around the
time students were preparing for finals.
Something new that has been added to this
year’s festival is the Masquerade Ball.
“1 think this will be the best festi
val ever. F-very year we learn
where we went right and where
we w ent wrong, and now I feel
that we’re really getting to un
derstand what the University
and the community as a whole
is looking for in a Shakespeare
Festival,” Sherrouse said.
“This festival will be one of
the best attended in our history
and for those who attend they wall
be exposed to Shakespeare in a
new and interesting way,” Rabb said.
“Everyone enjoys watching people act, and
Shakespeare’s plays arc the hardest to act out,
that in itself is always fun to see. Oh, and did
I mention this stuff is free? Who doesn’t like
to watch free shows? There’s history, poetry,
acting, films and tours, what’s not to enjoy?”
Puckett said.
Story by Kelly Preiser •Photo by Chad Adams • Graphics by Emily Harrell
Awards, presentation by Rodriguez wrap up Texas film festival
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BY MATT McCORMICK
The Battalion
The seventh annual Texas Film Fes-
al drew acclaimed director Robert Ro-
\pitz{EIMariachi) and films featured
the Sundance Film Festival, but it did
it draw the size of audience the festi-
efiective ad campaign# il’sorganizers expected.
The chairs of the MSC Film Society
id they hoped that by bringing in a eas-
the media, an iffy prop ,'recognizable director like Rodriguez,
vlonday is a holiday* terest would be promoted in the festi-
will be away fromi)?' iland attendance would reflect that.
TV. “We are hoping to fill up a large
were debating whette irtionofthe [Rudder] Auditorium,”
to get attention. Oneii id Logan Youree, vice-chair of Film
major spending-cut f5 iciety and a junior speech communi-
ling was in a flux. An major.
McCain advisers pilf “Attendance was not as high as we
none marketing been pected, but Rodriguez was amaz-
zay to influence voteti g,”said Ryan Whitworth, chair of
n Society and a senior biomedical
e into play when Rep! Ience rna j° r -
ed from Bush’s camp S' 1 H £ said attendance for other events
or for visiting whatert 1
versity.
t-mail out of the
use phone bankstosp
he state’s huge pop#
irly on the McCain-fe’
ichigan.
Editor
, Graphics Editor
Graphics Editor
it News Editor
, Radio Producer
, Web Editor
ence & Technology Editor
, Bradley Atchison, (timber H«l
Turner, Patric Schneider, Cariii
lith, Elizabeth O' Farrell, MeW
nueva & Susan Redding,
enes, Eric Andraos, Jeffrey
Richard Horne, David Spatziert'-'
vin Turner, Sean Gillespie.
t: Cristina Padron; Beth Aldqui* 1
Bennett, Brooke Corse, Marc
Carrie Jacobs, Melissa Mancie,
egel & Audrey Bohlmann.
ni Sridhara; Whitney Stover,
acker, Chris Carter,
Lr Judy White, Scott Jenkins 4
Division of Student Media, a
jne: 845-3313; Fax: 845-2647; P'
in. For campus, local, and naiioiral 1 ?
5 Reed McDonald, and office In*®* 1 '
ngle copy oflhe Battalion. First*'
ter and $17.50 for the summer.^’
d spring semesters and Monday 4®
M University. Periodicals Postage
IcDonald Building, Texas ASM
was also disappointing, particularly for
the workshops.
“I think advertising for individual
events could have been a little better. Peo
ple knew about festival, but they didn’t
really know about many of the details. In
fact, next year we are going to have sem
inars that deal with advertising,” said
Casey Starr, festival director and a senior
industrial distribution major.
However, the lower-than-expected
attendance has not discourage the Film
Society members, Whitworth said.
“We will keep putting this festival on
until the students notice how great it is,”
he said.
The festival received a great response
from the students in attendance.
“Overall, 1 thought the festival was a
great success and 1 have to say it was due
to the great efforts we got from the staff
and people who helped to put it on, as
well as the filmmakers themselves,”
Starr said.
This year’s festival showed a variety
of independent films. Several of the di
rectors have attended other festivals, in
cluding ones held in New York and Los
Angeles, and they all commented about
the high quality of the festival.
“We’ve made several festivals in the
past few months and this is by far the
most professionally run festival we have
attended. The people of the Film Society
have just done a great job and are so po
lite,” said Scott Barlow, director of The
Last Late Night.
Workshops at the festival were open
to the public and offered participants
the chance to interact with and ask
questions of directors and actors in an
intimate setting.
Bob ,V Video showed at the festival on
Friday night and, before the film started,
director Dino Andrade had a few words to
say to the audience. In an emotional scene,
he discussed the suicide of his wife, Mary
Kay Bergman. One of the great voice over
talents in Hollywood who
voiced the females characters
on TV’s “South Park” and
several of Disney’s feature-
length cartoons, Bergman had
an undiagnosed mental ill
ness. She has her only on
screen performance in Boh s
Video, which Andrade dedi
cated to his wife.
The film festival wrapped
up Saturday night with an
awards ceremony and a
screening of E/ Mariachi with
a special guest appearance by
director Robert Rodriguez.
Honored at this year’s fes
tival were the films: Now and
Then, Best Documentary;
Standing on Fishes, Best
Feature Film; Culture, Best
Short Film and the acclaimed JP beato/the battalion
short George Lucas in Love Director Robert Rodriguez answers questions on the making of E/ Mariachi and
won the Audience Award. low budget filmmaking Saturday night in Rudder Auditorium.
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