Posted on Feb 16, 2001

Prometheus Bound, the central play in the trilogy by Aeschylus in which the defiant hero is punished by Zeus for teaching man how to use fire, fits perfectly into the Yulman Theater's “Season of Science.”

In fact, the 400 B.C. tragedy may be the original play about the man's empowerment through science, according to director William Finlay.

“In many ways, this was the first play about science,” Finlay said. “Prometheus gave fire to mankind, and it also touches on medicine and the healing arts, farming, mathematics and the ability to write one's thoughts ('the-all remembering skill').”

The play runs Thursday, Feb. 22, through Saturday, Feb. 24, at 8 p.m.; Sunday, Feb. 25, at 2 p.m.; March 1 through 3 at 8 p.m.; and March 4 at 2 p.m.

Ardelle Striker, artistic director of the Blue Heron Theater in New York City, wrote the contemporary adaptation.

Yulman Theater's three-part “Season of Science” began last fall with a Commedia Dell' Arté production, The Big Bang. It concludes next term with Electrifying Acts, a commissioned play by Jon Lipsky about the relationship of Thomas Edison and Nikola Tesla.

“The Season of Science has given us the opportunity to work closely with our colleagues in the sciences, particularly physics,” Finlay said. “Combining the two is a hot topic in both the arts and the sciences,” he added, noting several popular plays that deal with the themes: Copenhagen, Proof and Arcadia.

Tickets are available at the Yulman box office, ext. 6545.

Posted on Feb 16, 2001

Toby Fulwiler, director of the writing program at the University of Vermont, will present two seminars: “Writing to Learn” on Friday, Feb. 23, from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. in Hale House; and “Learning to Write” on Saturday, Feb. 24. from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. in Hale House.

Faculty who attend both days of the workshop will receive a small stipend. Lunch will be provided.

Contact Kathy Hopper (ext. 6234) by noon on Friday, Feb. 16, to sign up.

Posted on Feb 16, 2001

Chuck Brumley, author and licensed guide, will speak on “Adirondack Guides from the Hudson's Headwaters: A Short Season, Hard Work, Low Pay” on Wednesday, Feb. 21, at 7 p.m. in the Nott Memorial.

His talk is the fourth in the six-part seminar series, “The Hudson River: From the Wilderness to the Sea,” sponsored by Environmental Studies and the Association for the Protection of the Adirondacks.

Brumley, of Saranac Lake, is a licensed guide and operator of Birchbark Tours, a guiding service. He is also an instructor of Adirondack history at North Country Community College, and has written for regional publications such as Adirondack Life, Barkeater, and The Franklin Count Historical Review. He is author of the book, Guides of the Adirondacks: A History. With his wife, Karen Loffler, he performs in the folk music duo Wood-Heat.

Remaining lectures in the series, on Wednesdays at 7 p.m. in the Nott Memorial, are:

• Feb. 28 – “The Hudson River School Painters” with Robert T. McLean, art gallery proprietor; and
• Mar. 7 – “Folk Music Along the Hudson” with George Ward, singer and folk historian.

Posted on Feb 16, 2001

Edward Pavlic, assistant professor of English, has received the American Poetry Review/Honickman First Book Prize (selected by Adrienne Rich) for his book of poems, Paraph of Bone & Other Kinds of Blue, to be published this year by Copper Canyon Press. The award, one of the top first book prizes for poetry in the country, carries a $3,000 prize and a grant for a book tour. Also, Pavlic's critical book, Crossroads Modernism: Descent and Emergence in African-American Modernism, is to be published by the University of Minnesota Press.

Thomas Werner, Florence B. Sherwood Professor of Physical Sciences; Peter Tobiessen, professor of biology; and Karen Lou, chemistry laboratory coordinator, wrote an article, “The Water Project: A 'Real-World' Experience for the Quantitative Analysis Laboratory” published in the latest issue of the journal Analytical Chemistry. The article, which was one of the feature articles for this issue, describes the author's efforts to bring practical problems into undergraduate chemistry labs.

John Miller, technical director and lighting designer at Yulman Theater, did the lighting design for Curtain Call Theatre's production of Dial “M” for Murder, which runs through Feb. 24 at the theater at 210 Old Loudon Rd., just east of the Latham Circle. For information and reservations, call 877-7529.

John Sowa, professor of chemisty, is chair of the technical advisory commission for the town of Glenville. Over the past year, the commission has been concerned with the Glenville Energy Park, the proposed electric generation facility for the Scotia-Glenville Industrial Park. Set up to advise the town on technical matters of the proposed plant, the commission also includes Carl George, professor emeritus of biology; and Phillip Snow, associate professor of civil engineering.

Robert Baker, professor of philosophy, has written a paper, “The Facts of Bioethics,” to appear in American Journal of Bioethics. He also has written a chapter, “Transplantation: A Historical Perspective,” in Advances in Bioethics: Vol. 7: The Ethics of Organ Transplantation, W. Shelton, ed. (Elsevier Science Publications).

Posted on Feb 16, 2001

Lynn Margulis, internationally recognized for her research on the evolution of eukaryotic cells (those with a nucleus), will deliver the main address at the Founders Day convocation on Thursday, Feb. 22, at 11:30 a.m. in Memorial Chapel.

She is to receive an honorary doctor of science degree.

Margulis, the distinguished university professor in the Department of Geosciences at the University of Massachusetts at Amherst, is the leading proponent of the idea that symbiogenesis (the merger of previously independent organisms) is of great importance to evolutionary change. She originated the Gaia theory, or the idea that the Earth's temperature and chemical composition are actively regulated as a consequence of metabolism, growth, death, and evolution of interacting organisms.

Union's Founders Day convocation, celebrating the 206th anniversary of the College's founding, will include an academic procession and the presentation of the Gideon Hawley Teacher Recognition Award by a student to her former high school teacher.