ENGLISH-SPEAKING UNION
PO Box 10235
State College, PA 16805-0235
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BRANCH HOME PAGE
ABOUT THIS WEBSITE
[[5/9/08]]-
This is the website of the English-Speaking Union, Central Pennsylvania Branch. We are centered on State College, and the great majority of our members reside within 10 miles of the Penn State Campus. We will use this site for what we think is its most important function, that is, as a mode of communication with our members. The display of such communication will round out the picture of who and what we are. For the convenience of our members, most of this Branch Home Page will be devoted to fairly timely information; with the topmost items being of present or recent interest. The Calendar of Events page is also timely, and the remaining three are of only occasional interest; we'll call them the timeless pages. A common characteristic of many websites is cybersenility, which forces surfers to waste time trying to determine what parts have been made irrelevant by the passage of time. Inspired by the dairy industry, we will begin a policy of dating our products. Since we do not know how well they keep, we cannot supply a sell-by date. Instead, we will indicate when they were fresh, or at least thought by the webmaster to be fresh. This paragraph shows how it will work. You may have noticed the structures of the form [[m/d/y]] on the line preceding and the line following this paragraph. They differ only in the position of the - , and they mean that everything between them was either written or checked and possibly edited on the date shown. Only a single paragraph is between the starter and stopper lines in this example, but more generally they can confer their blessing on all that lies between them.
-[[5/9/08]]
| NEWS, IN REVERSE TIME ORDER .
[For scheduled events see Calendar of Events page.]
NEW WEBSITE UPDATE SCHEME -- SEE ABOVE
[[11/18/08]]-
NOVEMBER 2008 POETRY EVENING EQUALLY SUCCESSFUL
At our recent poetry evening we were favored by the presence of guests who have been studying poetry under Helen Manfull's guidance. We all enjoyed
having a number of found and original poems recited for us. Members Gloria Thompson and William Toombs brought impressive original works, as did guest Margaret O'Brien. We aim to post all these on the membership page. The poem by Bill Toombs is there now; it was written when he was Dean of Men at Drexel and is a good lyric for a drinking (but not on campus) song. We await the contributions from Gloria and Margaret. The poetry evening wound up on another high note, the delicious refreshments. For these we thank Christine Bailey and Linda Gardner.
-[[11/18/08]]
[[6/4/08]]-
POETRY EVENING A BIG SUCCESS; YOU SHOULDN'T HAVE MISSED IT
Although attendance was a bit light, all present at the May 14 branch poetry evening clearly enjoyed it and several members thought it the best meeting of the year. Original poems were presented by Wes Glebe, Christine Bailey, E-Tu Zen Sun, Bob Brand, Karen Blair, and Jean Brown Forster. Lisa Herzog presented a poem written by her granddaughter at age 12; it seems that poetry runs in the family. Quite a few found poems were also presented; all were well-chosen and well received. We thank Jean Bemis and Barbara Lee for the delicious refreshments. These combined with a lot of lively discussion to make for a socializing time longer than at most of our regular meetings. The original poems are posted on the Membership Page. When I asked Jean Forster to submit her poem she said that it should be heard, not read. Since our branch webjack doesn't know how to put sound bytes up on the site and doesn't want to learn, I persuaded her to submit in writing. A note arrived today (5/20), with a beautifully written poem, and in only about two hours I was able to type a copy that came close to imitating it. The poem describes her struggle to write something fitting for the May 14 event. I noticed she didn't get round to writing a title for it, so have contributed a title without her permission. This is no problem since she won't be aware -- computers are her bugbear. Mum's the word.
-[[6/4/08]]
[[5/9/08]]-
SHAKESPEARE CONTEST NEWS - NATIONAL
The final of the 2008 English-Speaking Union National Shakespeare Competition was held on April 28th, 2008 in the Vivian Beaumont Theater, Lincoln Center, New York City. The winners were
Bronwyn Reed, first-place winner from Los Angeles, California;
Deon Pressley, second-place winner from Ft. Lauderdale, Florida
Christian Pineda, third-place winner from San Diego, California.
The full story of the competition will be posted soon on the national
site www.esuus.org .
SHAKESPEARE CONTEST NEWS - LOCAL
Central Pennsylvania will be represented at the English-Speaking Union's National Shakespeare Competition in New York on April 28 by Tara Shilling, a senior at Northern Cambria High School. Tara will recite a monologue by Constance from "King John" (3.4.23-36) and Sonnet 17.
The second-place winner, our alternate for the National event at Lincoln Center, was Amanda Sapio, a junior at Carlisle High School. Her monologue character was Phoebe in "As You Like It" (3.5.109-117, 119-129); her Sonnet, 29.
We had a wonderful competition March 8, orchestrated by host teacher Marilyn Knoffsinger at Bellefonte Area High School in Centre County. This was our 21st. Central Pennsylvania has participated ever since the New York ESU competition went nationwide.
The ESU doesn't have a monopoly on 21-year-old Shakespeare opportunities. Another will be held in two months! This one -- the 21st Annual Central Pennsylvania Shakespeare Festival for Secondary Schools -- is scheduled for Big Spring High School, Newville, Thursday, May 22, from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m.
Each school group will present a 30-minute scene. For information, contact Bob Hankes or Sue Biondo-Hench
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Thank you to all who held preliminary school contests and sent winners and runners-up to the March 8 competition program. If you couldn't join us this year, think about next year!
-Nadine Kofman
-[[5/9/08]]
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