by Jamin Craig | Apr 3, 2015 | News Slider
Lipscomb’s cinematic arts program is ready to kick off its second annual 5 Minute Film Festival. The festival is open to all students on campus who want to unleash their inner filmmaker. Steve Taylor, the cinematic arts department’s artist in residence, said that now is the perfect time to get students involved in making films. “With interest in filmmaking at an all-time high and the cost of filmmaking equipment at an all-time low, we thought a film festival would be a good way to get the rest of the campus collaboration on making short films,” Taylor said. “They don’t even have to be made using professional equipment — some of last year’s winners were shot on iPhones.” Taylor said he is optimistic that the amount of films turned in this year will be at least twice that of last year. “We launched it last year and got 14 submissions from students all over campus,” Taylor said. Students can either make a narrative-fiction film, or a mini-documentary. Judges will select the top two films in each category and award a cash prize to the filmmakers. The grand prize winner will receive $500 for the best film. Josh Link, a graduate film student, won last year’s grand prize. He noted that anyone that is thinking about making a film needs to block out any doubts or excuses. “My number one suggestion is to forget about all of the reasons why you shouldn’t make a film and just make one anyway,” Link said. “Some of the highest regarded movies in the independent circuit look like garbage, but the content and the story...
by Jamin Craig | Mar 24, 2015 | News Slider
Lipscomb’s theater department is gearing up to put on its final main-stage show Dancing at Lughnasa — only this time it will be held in the University Theater to emphasize the story’s intimacy. Beki Baker, the theater department chair and director of the show, decided to do it in the University Theater because she wanted the audience to be close to the story. “It’s a really lovely, intimate play that explores the idea of memory, identity, family and things like that — that are really worthy of taking a moment, and it’s told in such a wonderful Irish storytelling way,” Baker said. The show is an Irish play that revolves around Michael, who reflects back to his life in summer of 1936. He and his mother and four sisters lived in a small house in Ireland, and he was not married yet. The play visualizes the struggles and joys Michael and his family had during that time. Doing a main-stage show in the University Theater is rarely done in the theater department, because it is heavily used as a class and studio space on a regular basis. “Right now, we’re housing two departments — the theatre and cinematic arts program,” Baker said. “We have classes in here all the time, so it’s just kind of working the space out with having all of our classes and other activities and events working in house right here. It proves some challenges for sure.” However, Baker noted that working in a challenging space often brings out more creativity in the cast and crew. “It’s just a great challenge for the designers and the...
by Jamin Craig | Mar 5, 2015 | News Slider
Student Life dove into sexual purity from a Biblical viewpoint at Wednesday night’s “Unfiltered” series – a study that allows students to discuss difficult topics. Sam Smith, Dean of Student Life, came up with this series from a conversation he had with Josh Roberts, Dean of Student Development. “Josh Roberts and I went to a conference with some of our sister-school deans, and we were talking about what our campuses should look like, what our students are struggling with and how we can address those issues,” Smith said. “We realized there was this void on our campus when it came to these types of discussions, and instead of trying to avoid it, we’re going to do our best to address it.” “Unfiltered” is a four-part series, and each meeting covers a different topic. The topics include: online identity in social media, pornography and faith, sexual purity and substance abuse. Smith and Roberts decided to purposely not make the series available for chapel credit or a requirement for any Bible classes. They didn’t want students to feel forced in any way to attend the meetings because they knew they were difficult topics to confront. This week, the topic was sexual purity. Dr. Earl Lavender, a bible professor, led the discussion for the evening. He focused on maintaining a Christ-centered identity in a world focused on self-interest and sexual pleasure. “[Students need to] believe that God wills for you to flourish,” Lavender said. “He’s not giving you laws to frustrate you and tell you what you can’t do. He’s created you for His glory, and His teachings on appropriate sexual behavior are...
by Jamin Craig | Feb 14, 2015 | News Slider
Colorful lighting and the whimsical set brought Lipscomb theater’s Seussical to life this weekend in Collins Alumni Auditorium. The production design team created an instantly recognizable world on stage while keeping technical elements from interfering with the performance of the cast. Andy Bleiler, set designer and technical director, said that he really wanted the set to stay faithful to the source material, so he based the set off of Dr. Seuss’ “Oh, the Places You’ll Go!” “The colors that we chose were really based on the ‘Oh, the Places You’ll Go!’ book,” Bleiler said. “If you look at the cover of that book and you look at the set, you’ll see they’re really, really close.” Bleiler intentionally chose muted colors so that the set would not clash with other visual elements of the show. “One of the intentions was to have the set be sort of a lighter version [of the ‘Oh, the Places You’ll Go’ colors], and that way the colors of the costumes, which are in a similar palette, could pop off of that,” Bleiler said. The set is built in two levels. The stage floor is the first level, and the second is a large stairway that goes across the back of the stage, forming a large arch. That stairway is covered with many colorful, arched doorways to add the classic Dr. Seuss touch. The stairway takes up a small amount of the stage, allowing the cast to have more room for acting and dancing. David Hardy, assistant professor of theater and lighting designer, had the challenge of lighting the already colorful stage. “Ironically, the intent was to keep it...
by Jamin Craig | Feb 6, 2015 | News Slider
The Department of Music celebrated the golden age of radio with a special concert called “Your Hit Parade 1936″ Thursday night in Shamblin Theater. The Great American Songbook concert series is devoted to showcasing classic American tunes from specific eras. For this concert, the music department put together a recreation of a popular radio show from the 1930s that played the weekly top 15 songs. This show was the precursor to today’s American Top 40 music charts. Patricia Roberts, a music department adjunct professor, created this Great American Songbook show. “I always try to come up with a new way to present it each year that’s kind of exciting and different,” Roberts said. “I got the idea to do the ‘Your Hit Parade,’ which was an old-time radio show, and I just started looking at all different kinds of music, and I began to see that I really loved the music from 1936, so then I picked out enough music to do a whole program with it.” A small jazz trio — composed of pianist Jeff Burnham, bassist Ike Harris and drummer Chris Nelson — provided the music for the evening. Music students came up to the front microphone to serenade the audience with the classic songs. Blake Farmer, news director and reporter for WPLN Nashville Public Radio, served as the evening’s MC. Farmer noted that as a radio personality, getting to host a 1930’s radio show was a huge joy. “When you’re in radio, this is sort of the era that everyone looks back to,” Farmer said. “This was literally when people crowded around the radio to listen...
