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Mount Hood

One Acts: Directed by women, acted by women, written by women

Chrys Weedon | Entertainment Editor

On Nov. 19, in a small, black-box type room in the Math and Nursing building, a handful of ten-minute plays were showcased. Audience members sat in a semi-circle, humming in anticipation to see the four ten-minute plays being performed: “Koffee,” “The Role of Della,” “Bending Over Backwards” and “Is It Me?” All of the plays were directed by students, all of which were women; all the actresses were women as well. Additionally, two of the short plays were written by their student-directors.

Madeline Weinstein, a junior in the Western theatre program, was featured in “Koffee” and “The Role of Della.”
“My favorite part was watching myself and the other actresses around me grow into their roles,” said Weinstein, “we started off basic and then gradually melded more into our characters and created our own versions.”

“Koffee” was a short vignette into the life of a woman having a heated, posthumous conversation with a friend from high school who recently died in a car accident.

In “The Role of Della,” an actress gets put through the wringer in an audition by a ruthless director, who is later revealed to be an imposter attempting to steal her acting technique.

“Is It Me?” showed a scene of two women waiting in a lobby to be called in for an interview. The audience hears every thought in the women’s heads: sizing each other up, judging each other, putting themselves down, wondering who forgot to put on deodorant.

The scene of “Bending Over Backwards” showed a young writer pitching a TV show to her zanny and sexually explicit boss who had a knack for acting out various positions.

“Since the shows are only 10 minutes, they didn’t require much rehearsal,” said Weinstein of the preparation process. “Because I was in two shows, I had double the rehearsal, but even then, they were more fun and chill rather than worrisome and scary.”

 

Contact the author at howlentertainment@wou.edu

SPECTRUM!: Putting student works on stage

Chrys Weedon | Entertainment Editor

Among a cluster of student concerts being held the week of Nov. 26, “SPECTRUM,” a free-for-students concert consisting solely of works created by student composers, was one of them.

“SPECTRUM!” included seven pieces written by six different artists. Most of the compositions were performed for the very first time at the concert. There were three pieces that included a vocal performance with piano accompaniment, two pieces by a string quintet, a vibraphone performance and a song that included vocals and a pre-recorded music track.

Two of the performances were created by the same composer, Tommy Leinonen.

“These are two songs from a musical-in-progress called ‘Human,’” prefaced Leinonen on stage, “it follows a family that is seeking asylum.”

According to Leinonen, the two songs are sung from the perspective of the heroine in the play. The songs are titled “Human” and “Why Me?” Both compositions were sung by Suzy Herbert and accompanied on piano by Tommy Leinonen himself. Not only did the composer exhibit his talent, Herbet did as well with her skillful and emotion-laden vocals.

Student composers included Drew Swatos (“A Poem of Gratitude”), Tommy Leinonen, Levi Polasek (“Space Adventures”), Jinho Choi (“The Lord of Light”), Ben Kroeker (“String Quartet No. 1”) and Washington Plada (“Tango de Invierno”).

The purpose of this concert was to showcase student talent, and it fulfilled its purpose with ease. All of the compositions showed a fine and promising level of musicianship. It was obvious that these students worked hard to hone their craft and hold themselves to a performing standard.

 

Contact the author at howlentertainment@wou.edu

Monmouth spreads holiday cheer with first ever “Making Spirits Bright”

Caity Healy | Editor-in-Chief

‘Twas the week before finals, and the town of Monmouth was ready to make spirits bright. As a way to celebrate Small Business Saturday as well as kick of the holidays, the Making Spirits Bright committee held their first annual event on Saturday, Nov. 24. 

“We decided that Western Oregon University and the city are in a very good partnership, and we wanted to do more. (We) tied that in with Small Business Saturday…so we brought in this event this year to bring our community back in a little more,” said Chuck Thurman, one of the planners of the event and a member of the Making Spirits Bright Committee.

The committee chair who was in charge of putting the entire event together was Susan Fuller, who participated in several of the games and made the event an enjoyable one for all involved.

The event itself was held in Main Street Park, and it incorporated several smaller events, such as a Central High School’s Mainstreet Singers performance, games like bingo and limbo, a kids craft corner held at MaMere’s carriage house and a conclusion to the night which was the lighting of Santa’s Workshop and the Gingerbread Village.

The events didn’t stay within the boundaries of Main Street Park, however. Those in attendance were invited to take part in a Polar Express Passport activity. The objective was to visit each of the small businesses that had been listed on their passport, get a stamp at each, bring it back and be entered into the drawing. Walking down Main Street, participants made stops at businesses including Yeasty Beasty, Fine Pickens, Petals and Vines, Windermere Real Estate and much more. There were several prize packages available to those who filled their passport, each comprised of a collection of donations from the small businesses who made this event possible.

Several smaller businesses took part in the event as well, with small booths set up throughout the park, by selling bags, some baked goods, beverages and more. With a steady flow of attendance, the event proved to be a success for its kick-off year.

 

Contact the author at howleditor@wou.edu

Photo courtesy of Caity Healy

Engaging in undergraduate research

Bailey Thompson | News Editor

Focusing on academics the week before finals, Western’s Program for Undergraduate Research Experiences, or PURE, organized an event called Sharing Undergraduate Research Experiences, or SURE, that was designed to help students brainstorm ideas for future research projects and learn from the experiences of people in their community. For this particular event, which was the first of its kind, five faculty and four students shared their wisdom with students on Nov. 26 in the Willamette Room of the Werner University Center.

In turn, these different pairs of faculty and students shared a bit about their research processes and topics that they had researched — from food insecurity to measuring creativity to early childhood development and more.

In discussing her research with food insecurity, senior Paula Waldron described why she appreciated the research she had performed.

“I think the most valuable part of this whole thing is being able to use the skills,” said Waldron. “It’s something I’ll be able to take with me when I go to graduate school, and it’s definitely helped to boost my self-confidence.”

Amongst other things, the presenters stated that getting to work on research can be beneficial to students as a resume-builder, a networking opportunity, an opportunity for collaborative learning and even things like the possibility of publication and traveling.

Reflecting on what had led to this event, Gregory Zobel, an education professor and the director of PURE, stated that the inspiration to organize such a gathering had come from wanting to offer more occasions for Western students to be exposed to the research that is already being conducted in their area.

“One of the greatest things about Western is that we have a very low student to faculty ratio and we have a lot of faculty doing really interesting things and they have opportunities to do research,” said Zobel. He added that “even if your research interests don’t align exactly with what (the presenters) are doing, they may very well know other faculty that can help you out with an interesting research project or experience.”

Since professors tend to be very excited about the research that they conduct, Zobel conveyed that it was easy to find faculty who would be willing to share their wisdom with interested students.

If students are interested in pursuing a research project, the number one thing that Zobel suggested was to start talking with faculty and peers who they think might be valuable to their project and who they get along well with.

“Knock on doors and talk to people,” said Zobel. “It is possible to do interesting, meaningful research — all you have to do is reach out and find people. There’s no special qualification that you need.”

If students would like to learn more, the next SURE event is scheduled to occur in March of 2019.

 

Contact the author at howlnews@wou.edu

Photo courtesy of Bailey Thompson

Get to know a major: Humanities

Bailey Thompson | News Editor

With finals week approaching, senior humanities major Madeleine Hannah set aside time on Nov. 26 to talk in Hamersly Library about the impact that being a humanities major has had on her college career.

With the humanities major at Western, students are able to choose two different focus areas from a variety of language-related departments: communication, English, French, German, Spanish, Philosophy and Religion. In doing so, the goal of the humanities department is for students to learn about language, “not only for communication but also in culture, literary art, and philosophical and religious thought,” according to the mission statement found on their website.

For Hannah, two of her greatest passions are English and Spanish, so she is grateful for a major that has allowed her to focus so heavily on both.

“I find that a lot of people (in humanities) start out doing other things,” said Hannah. “I was a linguistics major and I thought about being a Spanish major, and I feel like most people who wind up in humanities start somewhere else but realize that humanities is a better option for them.”

In terms of the community within the humanities major, Hannah shared that she has grown close with her classmates and professors in both her concentration areas, but that her major itself is actually quite intimate due to its small size.

“I’m in the capstone class now and there’s three people including me,” said Hannah. “But, because of that, when you find another humanities majors you’re instant best friends.”

And while there are a number of people who may dismiss the humanities major because they don’t know very much about it, Hannah shared that the things she has learned because of her major have already helped her in academic and professional settings.

After having taken a poetry class with Dr. Henry Hughes last year, Hannah remarked, “I had worked on the craft of poetry and so I felt more confident entering the Peter Sears contest. So, I entered the contest and I wound up winning first place. And that was a really cool experience for me as a writer.”

In addition to her scholarly work, Hannah has also proven that she can be successful in the workforce with the help of her major.

“People kind of write humanities off, but I’ve gotten several jobs,” said Hannah. “I’ve worked at a publishing company for a while as an internship, I work at the Writing Center right now and it is, without exaggeration, the best job I’ve ever had.”

Looking to the future, Hannah is set to complete her undergraduate degree at the end of Fall Term and to begin her MAT at Western in the Winter Cohort.

“It’s exciting to see where that goes because I never would have done that had I not taken the classes that I took and been around the professors that I was around,” said Hannah. “Humanities is something that transfers over to a lot of other areas, so regardless of what you’re interested in, humanities gives you a really good start.”

For any students who would like to learn more about the humanities major, information can be found on Western’s website at wou.edu/humanities.

 

Contact the author at howlnews@wou.edu

Photo courtesy of Bailey Thompson

What’s what: Western’s women’s soccer club

Mikaela Wong | Freelancer

Freshly formed in 2017, the Western women’s soccer club has attracted some campus attention. The team has recently won the championship title for the Division 2/Division 3 league for Oregon’s Women’s Club Soccer Tournament.

Haylie Shinsato, a senior chemistry major, started the club in Winter term of 2017. After realizing that many girls who played in the spring intramurals soccer league were interested in playing year-round soccer at a higher competitive level, Shinsato looked into starting the club.

It seemed like the team was formed just in time as Shinsato explained.

“Actually, Oregon didn’t have a women’s (club) soccer league because there weren’t enough schools participating. But because we were one of the last clubs to be formed, we made that breaking point and were able to establish that league,” Shinsato said.

On Nov. 18, Western and the University of Oregon faced off for the overall championship title for all participating schools of Division 1, Division 2 and Division 3 levels. Although they had come up short of a win with a final score of 4-1, Shinsato said that she was not disappointed in the playing of her team.

“I think we did fairly well considering how new we are to the scene… we’re a newer team and probably needed to get used to playing with each other a little more to gain some more playing chemistry,” said Shinsato.

The women’s soccer club has seen immense support, especially for a team that has been around for less than a year. Although Shinsato is set to graduate this year, her hopes for the future of the club remains strong.

“Hopefully they will continue the competitive trend that was started and the league will grow into something even bigger. Hopefully we can get more funding from the school which could help us travel (further) to play more teams.”

Most of the girls on the team have had some sort of experience playing on competitive teams in the past, but it is not a requirement to join the club. Even though there is a higher level of commitment involved than intramurals, Shinsato was reassuring when it came to prioritizing responsibilities.

“We’re looking to go to the next level (of competition) but we understand that we’re students first and there’s work and class and other priorities. It’s also a good way to make friends and hang out,” Shinsato noted.

If you are interested in joining the women’s soccer club, go onto IMleagues to sign up or email Haylie Shinsato at hshinsato14@wou.edu.

 

Contact the author at mwong16@wou.edu

Photo courtesy of Lake Larsen

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