Hi, good afternoon. Happy Palm Sunday. Pass over any other seasonal holidays that are going on.
And welcome, of course, to the 48th Annual Showcase of the Arts, presented by the Bloomington Chapter
of the National Society of Arts and Letters. My name is Eric Anderson, Jr., and it has been, of course,
my honor and pleasure to host
and MC this event for the last two years. It's wonderful to be invited back to do it for a third year.
And as some of you might know, it will probably be my final year since I am moving to Boston later on
this year. But as I understand it, Boston does not have an NSAL chapter. So I assume I will have my
work cut out for me and my NSAL affiliation will continue. Speaking of NSAL,
It is the mission of the organization to identify, encourage, and assist young people talented in art,
dance, drama, literature, music, and musical theater. And the Bloomington chapter does that through
a series of eight competitions each spring. More than $27,000 in combined awards is bestowed to the
winners in each category, 13 of whom are with us here today to share their talents. And we're going
to kick it right off.
We begin this year's showcase with Todd Allworm, an IU sophomore pursuing a bachelor of fine arts in
musical theater. In the past year alone, he has appeared in Sunday in the Park with George, IU's orientation
musical, Welcome to College, Lord of the Flies, Chicago, Catch and Release, and Lacey and Ashley live
in a trailer now. Todd, who is from Crown Point, also plays the cello and, we are told, loves to whistle
while walking around Bloomington. And as often, well, often but occasionally,
is the case when a musical theater accompanist is not to be found. I'm going to make my way over to
the piano and accompany Todd as he sings, Isn't This a Lovely Day from Top Hat. Good thing going from
Merrily We Roll Along. Please welcome Todd Alworm.
talk about this, sir, if you don't mind me by saying, I don't think it's too late. The way I see it,
two reasons why it makes sense to give me back my job. I'm a hard worker, yes, but that's only one.
And yes, I am a hard worker. But the other, sir, is that I think this is all just a big misunderstanding.
And I really do believe that we could put this morning's ugliness and pain behind us. God, it was ugly.
And I thought it was painful. But what about you?
Do you remember that earlier this morning in your office? Oh, God, thinking back on it now, I'm like,
whoa, what a scene, you know? I'm sorry that I cried. I went like a little girl, and that was wrong,
but it was what I was feeling. A lot of people cry when they're confused and when they're sad.
What about you? I don't know. You just seem like a big waller, a great, big, thick-skinned creature
from another age.
7th Sense, sir, you seem brave. I don't know if you cry at all. But there are so many questions. Like,
what is a layoff? And what is inappropriate use of office materials? And what exactly is the sense of
a situation where one is downsized, then escorted to the elevator by security and that woman from UN
Resources? I think it's bad for the company, sir.
And that's the point I'm here to make with you this morning, that the company and you personally are
better off with me than without me.
She's originally from Chicago, where she started her training 18 years ago and is blessed to have worked
with many professionals in the dance community over the years. And after graduating, Lorena plans to
join those ranks of dance professionals, either with a dance company doing commercial work or on Broadway.
This afternoon, she will be performing. Excuse me, consonance. She will be performing her very first
original piece, Scar Runs Deep. Ladies and gentlemen, Lorena Sanchez.
by the German continuous. This day is set upon the
That's it.
The Japanese have accepted fully the surrender terms of the United Nations. This, ladies and gentlemen,
is the end of the Second World War.
Thank you, Lorena. Moving now to the spoken word, I would like to introduce Ifejudeni Oputa, who is
currently at IU, pursuing both an MFA in poetry and an MA in African-American and African diaspora studies.
She is a Cave Canem and Kalaloo fellow. She has been featured in WFIUs, The Poet's Weave, and her work
has appeared or is forthcoming in Pink Online, Kinfolks Quarterly, Crab Orchard Review, Kalaloo,
and more. A native of Fresno, California,
She shares with us today Mosaic in Nine Lives. Please welcome Ife Judeni. Thank you all for being here.
Mosaic in Nine Lives. One.
The pearl-sized hole in my sister's arm is all that remains of our messy ritual after she cuts and drains
the perpetual blackhead that swelled and abscessed to the size of a golf ball. The muck that oozes out
reeks, has been building up beneath her skin for years, only a hint of it sputtering onto my thumbs
each time I tried to push the puss out like a sigh.
my fingers not nimble enough to coax the body of its secrets. Two. When we are still young enough to
find the same things wondrous, she teaches me to play dead. This is a drill we run, one of us going
limp mid-sentence while the other runs for help or screams until the dead one says stop.
Three, the neck bone's connected to the head bone, the head bone's connected to the jaw bone, the jaw
bone knows to lock down when too much truth starts scratching. Four, I am 23 and it is spring, so I
break open a new silence and pull queer out like hair from the throat. She is not surprised.
says, as a girl, I had a dream where we were lovers. What else could that mean? Five. A cocktail or
two, and my sister is loose-lipped and earnest, pouts out stories she's forgotten not to tell, will
forget she's told in the morning. Six. We are women. We land in New York for New Year's Eve,
We walk down the airplane aisle and my sister goes limp. Seven. My sister does not want to go to the
emergency room, although she cannot zip her own shoes. She cannot walk. She cannot stand. We have not
trained for this. So I recite the blackout back to her. Slumson seat.
Eyes roll back, bottom lip slack. Then to a flight attendant, two EMTs, our mother slumps in seat. Eyes
roll back, bottom lip slack. A nurse, another nurse, a doctor, our father slumps in seat. Eyes roll
back, bottom lip slack.
The specialist shows us the blood clots effloresced across her lungs like so many dandelion seeds, so
many unspoken things. Eight. The funny bone, though connected to the arm bone, is not a bone at all.
It is the nerve that after days sleeping upright beside my sister's bed, head heavy atop my right fist,
elbow compressed onto the corner of the armrest radiates a warning down my forearm to my pinky and ring
fingers to go numb so that I cannot hold a pen or bend my arm or write at all. Nine. The body wants
to be a private thing. This I understand. There are things I still won't tell her
even when she asks. Thank you. Thank you so much. The next artist on our program is Jeremy Curtis, who
is a second year master's student at the Jacobs School of Music, studying oboe with Linda Stroman.
Unfortunately, he's...
not able to perform for us today because his accompanist has a prior commitment. Don't know why he didn't
call me. So we turn instead back to the theatrical stage. We welcome Evelyn Gaynor, a native of Acton,
Massachusetts, now completing her third year as an MFA student in acting, having previously received
a BFA in acting from Syracuse University. She was most recently seen in King Lear as goneril, her thesis
role, which capped off an impressive run at IU
which has also included Cloud Nine, The Imaginary Invalid, The School for Scandal, The God of Carnage,
When the Rain Stops Falling, Cabaret, A Midsummer Night's Dream, and Liz Estrada, as well as The Taming
of the Shrew and You Can't Take It With You for the Indiana Festival Theater. Today, with monologues
from As You Like It and other desert cities, please welcome Evelyn Gaynor.
you insult, exalt, and all at once over the wretched. What, though you have no beauty, as by my faith
I see no more in you than without candle may go dark to bed. Must you be therefore proud and pitiless?
Why, what means this? Why do you look on me? That's my little life. I think she needs to tangle my eyes
too. No, faith, proud mistress, hope, not after it.
Tis not your inky brow, your black silk hair, your bugle eyeballs, nor your cheek of cream that can
entain my spirits to your worship. You foolish shepherd! Wherefore do you follow her like foggy sows
puffing with wind and rain? You are a thousand times a proper man than she a woman. It is such fools
as you that make the world full of ill-favored children.
Tis not her glass, but you that flatters her, and out of you she sees herself more proper than any of
her lineaments can show her. But, mistress, know thyself down underneath, and thank heaven fasted for
a good man's love. For I must tell you, friendly, in your ear, sell when you can. You are not for all
markets. Cry the man mercy, love him,
Make his offer. Foul is most foul, being foul to be a scoffer. So take her to the shepherd.
Fare you well. Yeah. No. I'm not gonna do that. You're asking me
shut down something that makes me possible. Your argument for suppression means that I would die well.
I've been dead before. I'm not going back. And if that means that we are over, well, then it means we're
over and life will go on.
against the book isn't that it's meretricious, but that I should wait for you to die before publishing
it. Yeah, yeah, yeah, maybe it was crazy for me to try to write it. But I did. So I owe myself more
than that. And I owe Henry a lot more. And you're asking me for help. Henry asked you for help. He made
a brutal, terrible, awful mistake, and you shunned him. And with that, you have to live.
Relationships are hard earned things. There's a reason and a logic to them. Well, I cannot go backwards
into my cave. Mother, when you criticize and you find fault with every last move I make, yeah, I know,
for whatever reason. This is just how you were made. And I know you tell yourself that it's because
you're pushing me and you only want what's best for me. But you make it impossible for me to see the
love in that. And all I see is a bully.
who's lost touch with gentleness or kindness. That is what I see. There are many different ways of being,
and yours. I just fail to understand it. Thank you very much. Thank you, Evelyn.
Next, we have our first taste of ballet for the afternoon, performed by Kelsey Byrne. Originally from
Southern California, where she attended the Orange County High School of the Arts as a student in the
Classical and Contemporary Dance Department, she is now a sophomore in the Jacobs School of Music Ballet
Department and plans to graduate in the spring of 2015. Performing the prayer variation from Capella,
please welcome Kelsey Byrne.
Now to conclude the first half of the program, which will be followed by a strict 10-minute intermission,
we welcome bass baritone Adam Walton, a native of Orham, Utah. He is now pursuing a doctorate in vocal
performance at the Jacobs School in the studio of Costanza Cucaroe. He received his bachelor's degree
from Brigham Young University, where he was named the 2009 Male Singer of the Year and completed his
master's degree here at IU in 2013.
He has performed roles in a wide variety of operas, including The Tales of Hoffman, Johnny Skiki, A
View from the Bridge, Albert Herring, The Marriage of Figaro, Don Giovanni, and two world premieres
at our very own musical arts center, Vincent and The Tale of Lady T. Kin. Performing a reverse order
of what's in your program, Schubert's Auf der Donau and Bizet's Con la Flamme de l'amour. Please welcome
Adam Walton, accompanied at the piano by Professor Edwin Ponorwood.
It's always nice to see the audience return after intermission. So we'll continue with the showcase
today with Terence Manning. Having grown up in McKeesport, Pennsylvania, he earned his bachelor's degree
in creative writing and literature from the University of Pittsburgh.
He is currently an MFA candidate in fiction at Purdue University, where he is the fiction editor at
the Sycamore Review, teaches freshman composition and creative writing, and recently he was a top 25
finalist in the Glimmer Train Fiction Open, as well as the Cincinnati Review Schiff Awards for pros.
He also received the chapter career award in literature from NSAL in 2012. Here to read for us, Andretti
and the El Camino. Please welcome Terence Manning.
Thank you for having me. This story is about many things, but one of the central conflicts is that my
character Jay is trying to rebuild his father's old El Camino. In this scene, he's just bought it from
his uncle who owned it since Jay's father's death, and they're standing in the garage with the car after
the tow truck leaves, and they're kind of discussing the legend of the Camino. Andretti and the El Camino.
This car has become
Quite the legend, my Uncle Ricky said. Your daddy and me picked it up together. All the way in Allentown.
Few hours, but worth the trip. He lit a cigarette. Your daddy heard about it from a buddy. Got it in
his mind, and that was it. That's how he was. Got an idea, and he'd drive it home. He wouldn't let up
about this damn Camino. Called it a gentleman's ride, a real American muscle car. And he hadn't even
seen the thing. I laughed and kicked the tire, looking down at it.
Faded black, rust rising up like flames eating away at the body. Come a long way since that night,
hasn't it? Sure has, he said. And the legend stands? Sure it stands. People say Andretti touched it.
They say maybe even owned it. That's bullshit, Jay. You know better. He looked inside the car toward
bits of bark, leaves, and dirt accumulated on the cracked interior. More than touched it. I was there
and I seen it myself.
I grabbed a milk crate full of greasy bolts and gasket shards and dumped it on the floor. Turned the
crate and sat down. Dean told me you guys bought the car and left. He said Andretti might have been
there, but he never touched the Camino. Dean got no imagination, my uncle snapped. He don't see something
with his own eyes. He thinks it's not the truth. He got no hope, no nothing. Sometimes, I swear to God,
I believe that boy was born a goddamn log.
You think your daddy's the kind of son of a bitch to hear Mary Andretti touch this car and leave?
He's not, and neither am I. He smoked. Your daddy was a dreamer, not like Dean. He heard about that
car and didn't let up until we drove out mid-summer, hot like July should be hot. That was 1974. We
didn't stay inside an air-conditioned house. We went out to sweat in the sun. That summer, heat kept
up into night.
We took the breezeway past Allentown, where the locals race fast cars, real cars, strong cars, the way
they used to be. And there it was, the 72 El Camino, just like your daddy described it. Black like the
night, chrome mirrors, chrome rims, enough goddamn chrome to keep a boy busy polishing for months. Enough
rust now to polish for years, I laughed. Shut your mouth, he said, not smiling. Let me tell you this.
His daddy and me intended to buy it and come home. Things changed. Andretti wasn't just there. He was
leaning on the hood of the Camino. This hood, this hood, he said, tapping the hood with his middle finger.
Said he'd heard about it too, and he'd come there to race it. I wanted to laugh as my uncle told the
story. Mario Andretti racing my father's Camino, but he kept pausing, staring into the Camino as if
he could see it there again.
pearl black and running, before the wreck or the rust or the vanished glow, and it was alive again,
humming, breathing from the exhaust, a monster engine with a pretty hood and power beneath it. I couldn't
lie. Instead, I felt frightened watching him, sad for him, uncomfortable. And he raced it, I asked.
Sure did, he said. Your daddy and me leaned on the fence like everyone else, shaking the metal with
our fists when Andretti passed, engine roaring. My God, we were kids in our 20s. Your crazy son of a
bitch daddy was thrilled, smiled like a fool. Hell, so did I. Andretti won. Of course he won. He's Mario
Andretti, the king. Pulled off that track and handed those keys to me right in front of everyone. Yeah,
it's hard to believe, I said.
meaning it less sneeringly than it had sounded. It's the truth. He handed us the keys and left. I'd
have liked to see that, I said, trying to imagine a look on my father's face. My father, in his twenties,
red-cheeked and stupid, thinking he'd witnessed something unreal, that he'd been handed a gift, a legacy,
that he'd driven away from Allentown and more than an El Camino. He'd driven away laughing and stunned
with his brother close behind.
smiling still at each other in the mirrors, probably wishing the entire time to talk about what they'd
seen but unable to for hours. Must have killed him. My father got excited. He carried it with him. I
remember that much. When he was happy, he was happy as hell. When he was angry, we sure as hell knew
it. But in the garage with my uncle, I didn't talk about the reality of my father, the one I'd known.
I wanted Uncle Ricky's story to be the reality, the man my father might have been. Uncle Ricky was a
better source of truth. Said things about my father like, a good man, a dreamer, a big heart, a hard
working son of a bitch. And I was too ashamed to tell him that I wish I could see it that way too. Wish
I wasn't left with little else but the marching. A few images of him closing a window in the bedroom
or chopping wood out back of the house. Thank you.
Thank you, Terrence. We welcome now to the stage Mara Leffler, a second year MFA student in acting at
IU with a BA from Southern Utah University. While at IU, she has appeared in King Lear, Cat on a Hot
Tin Roof, The School for Scandal, and Richard the Third. A native of Salt Lake City, she is here today
to perform monologues from Time Stands Still and Two Gentlemen of Verona. Please welcome Mara Leffler.
I was sitting in a cafe with the Reuters guys and a car bomb went off a block or two away in this market.
And I just ran to it. Took off without even thinking. The carnage was ridiculous. Exploded produce.
Body parts.
Women keening. They were digging in the rubble for their children. And I started shooting. Then suddenly
this woman burst out of the smoke, covered in blood. Her skin was raw and red and charred and her hair was
And she was screaming at me, go away, go away, no picture, no picture. And she was pushing on me, she
was pushing on my camera with her hand on my lens. And I kept shooting. And somehow I ran the hell out of there.
to catch my breath and to check on my cameras. And there was blood on my lips.
totally wrapped with suspense. I might have waited the rest of the afternoon. So brava. Thank you. So
we move back to dance. And like one of our previous dance winners, Amani Adele-Sailors is also a native
of Chicago, where she began her dance training at the age of three at the Chicago Multicultural Dance
Center. Now a freshman at IU, Amani is a Hudson and Holland scholar and a member of the Hutton Honors College,
pursuing a bachelor of science in ballet performance with an outside field in political science, as
well as a minor in French. Performing for us now Aurora's wedding variation from Tchaikovsky's The Sleeping
Beauty, here is Amani Adele, Sailors.
Imani. Returning now to musical theater, we welcome to the stage Emily Schulteis, a junior BFA musical
theater major at IU. While here in Bloomington, she has appeared in the Truman Show at the Bloomington
Playwrights Project, Swing the Musical for Indiana Festival Theater, and Sunday in the Park with George
for IU Theater, in addition to being a three-year varsity member of the Singing Hoosiers.
Most recently, she was on stage again at the BPP, where she originated the role of Jordan in Island
Song by Sam Carter and Derek Rigger, and earlier this month was invited by the writers to perform her
11 o'clock number from the show at 54 Below in New York City. Now performing Gotta Get Out from Ordinary
Days, Not Getting Married Today from Company, and a monologue from Just Looking, please welcome Emily
Schulteis.
up today I said I hope it's something I can play she said it was fast. So moving on to Leah Fournier
who began dancing at age three at a local dance studio in Auburn, Maine. She continued her training
at the Portland School of Ballet in high school where she performed in several shows with the school
and the Portland Ballet Company.
with soloist and demi-soloist roles in productions of the Victorian Nutcracker and Giselle. She is currently
a junior at IU, majoring in contemporary dance, where she is co-founder and board member of the new
student organization, The Movement Cooperative. Dancing her original piece entitled Woman, here is Leah Fournier.
We now welcome flutist Daniel Carlo, a first-year master's student at the Jacobs School in the studio
of Thomas Robertello. Daniel earned a bachelor of science degree in mathematics from Wheaton College
in Wheaton, Illinois, where his musical endeavors included study with Jenny Brown, playing in the Wheaton
Symphony Orchestra and performing as a member of the Wheaton Flute Ensemble. He was a finalist in the
2013 Skokie Valley Symphony Orchestra Young Artist Competition, as well as the 2012 Masterworks Festival
Concerto Competition.
And next month, he will represent the Bloomington Chapter at the NSAL National Woodwinds Competition
in Charleston, West Virginia. Performing the ballad for Flute and Piano by Frank Martin and accompanied
by Nikolai Varevkin, please welcome Daniel Carlos.
our final performer of the afternoon, mezzo-soprano Denise Usen, who comes to us from Mannheim, Germany.
She received her bachelor of voice degree at the University of Music Karlsruhe and Mannheim, appearing
at the National Theater Mannheim during that time. In addition to earning several awards and prizes,
she performed in two productions of the Young Artist Program of the Baden-Baden Easter Festival. She
is now at the Jacobs School of Music pursuing an artist diploma in the studio of Andreas Pulimenos.
And in classic opera house style,
I will let you know that she has been lately feeling under the weather. However, she will perform for
us today, and she will be performing Rossini's Cruz de Sorte and Bizet's Segue Día, accompanied at
the piano by Paul Pisano. Thank you.
And many thanks to all of you for joining us and being such a great audience this afternoon. And now
that the performance portion of our program has concluded, I will happily cede the podium to our Bloomington
chapter co-presidents, Ruth Albright and Dennis Organ for the award presentations. Thank you so much.
We didn't rehearse yesterday. Jenny wanted me to remind you that CATS is here recording this program
today and it will be shown on Channel 3 frequently in the next few weeks, I think, and you can check
that online to see what the schedule is.
I wanted to thank Eric Anderson Jr., who's been such a wonderful emcee for the last three years.
And Eric, perhaps we'll just fly you back from Boston. I don't know. We may not be able to do it without
you. Thanks.
I'm Ruth Albright and this is Dennis Organ and we're co-presidents of the Bloomington Chapter this year.
And I'm just delighted you could join us for our 48th annual Showcase of the Arts. We're obviously getting
near 50 and that will be a fun time. The National Organization is celebrating its 70th anniversary this
year. We were founded in 1944. I want to thank all of the wonderful, generous donors who have made it
possible for us to give
more than $27,000 in awards to 48 amazing young artists in visual arts, ballet, contemporary dance,
drama, literature, instrumental music, voice, and musical theater. Although our visual arts winners
do not perform in the showcase, they had a wonderful exhibit here in the Rosemary P. Miller Gallery
in January, which I hope some of you saw. It was really very nice. We were very proud of them as well
as our performing artists. A special thanks to Ivy Tech Community College for being an underwriter for
the showcase. We really do appreciate their support and enjoy working with them. We like this space
here in this auditorium. It just sort of fits us just right in that performers are sort of right there
with us and we enjoy being here.
I'm going to turn the program over to Denny to call up our competition chairs, but I would like to say
a word about these competition chairs. They are really what makes everything happen. They, you know,
send out the applications.
the applications back, and they schedule the students, and as I said, we have eight competitions each
year, so it's a really very, very large job, and they do a great job, and we absolutely could not do
it without them. So I'm going to turn it over to Danny to introduce them and let them present awards
in their categories. Thank you, Ruth. First, we'll call on Katherine Johnson-Rare to distribute the awards.
in the visual arts category. I know we had a few people contacted me and said they couldn't come. We
had the show in January, which obviously is this year, especially was not the greatest year to come
downtown and trudge through the snow and ice to see an art exhibit.
But we do have a slideshow running just outside the door. If you haven't had a chance to look at it
yet, we've got all the pieces that were in the show or in this slideshow. So thank you three for coming
today. I'm going to read through them. And if your name is called, just come up. We have the Pygmalions
Art Supplies Merit Award in Visual Arts goes to Zachary Carlisle Davidson.
We have the Alan Kahn Memorial Award in Visual Arts goes to Matisse Strath. The Grace L. Dyer Memorial
Award goes to Christina Weaver. Congratulations. We have a Pygmalions Art Supplies Merit Award to Zach
Koch. The Klein Merit Award.
goes to Tom Kolkord. Another Pygmalions Art Supplies Merit Award, thanks very much to Pygmalions this
year, goes to Izzy Jarvis. The Chris Merit Award goes to Alicia Hartzok. The Alma Eichermann Memorial
Award goes to Sean Hurley.
The Ilkner P. Ralston Memorial Award goes to Autumn Busen. Seth Dalton receives two awards, the Pygmalions
Art Supplies Merit Award and the Alma Eichermann Memorial Award.
And unfortunately, our chapter career award winner was not able to join us today. He has to take down
a show elsewhere. But Martin Beach won that award this year. So thank you very much. Next, the ballet
competition coordinator, Anne-Marie Parker.
more ballet dancers, please come down. I'm very happy to present the Marina Stutlova Memorial Award to Andrew
The Joanne Athanas Memorial Award for Colin Ellis. Thank you. And the Marina Stotlova Memorial Award
to Kelsey Byrne. And the Joanne Athanas Memorial Award for Amani Saylor.
the Contemporary Dance Awards and for that we call on Celine Carter. Could I invite the Contemporary
Dance Awardees to join me please? Thank you all so much for your support. It's such an honor
to receive awards. And I had a friend once tell me in dance that awards were good because you got to
practice receiving goodness. And as I reflected on that advice today, I thought about how much all of
you make that possible. Your generosity and support allows them to receive goodness. And then I thought
about how much being a teacher to these talented young people is another way of receiving goodness.
It's just wonderful that this chapter is here to give goodness. And thank you dancers for giving us
goodness in your work. The first award I'd like to present is to Christian Long for the Marina Svetlova
Memorial Award. Next to Erin Blair, the Joanne Athanas Memorial Award.
Jessalyn Givas is the winner of the Shiner Merit Award in Contemporary Dance. Where's Lorena? Okay,
good. I'll put that aside for her. Lorena Sanchez is the recipient of the Marina Svetlova Memorial Award.
And finally, we have the Chapter Career Award in Contemporary Dance goes to Leah Fournier.
Announcing and presenting the Drama Awards, I will call on Don and Debbie Brighter.
Okay, we have the Drama Awards going to Ian Demont Martin. Adam Gregory St. John, who cannot be with
us today. Emily Harp. Samuel Evans Barkley.
Evelyn Gaynor. And last but not least, Marta Leffler. Thank you. We thank you very much for all the
donations and all the awards that have been bestowed upon our wonderful talent here at IU. Thank you.
The Literature Awards, Rick and Lois Hall. We had 27 entries this year and three fabulous judges.
The judges asked to do it again this year, which was very nice. And they picked some fine winners.
The first, of course, was our chapter winner, Ify Oputa.
Joanne Athanas Memorial Award in Literature goes to Terrence Lee Manning. Natalie Lund was not able
to be with us today and she regrets that very much, she said. But the next one for the David Albright
Memorial Award goes to Leslie Aguilar.
Elizabeth Cooley, I don't believe this is here. No. The Mira Merit Award in Le Truco is to Paul Cuanion
Austin. Congratulations.
The coordinator for the instrumental music, Emma Dederich, is not here today. However, Ruth has the
proper papers. The Hamm Merit Award goes to Samantha Johnson who plays the clarinet. She was not able
to be with us today because one of her professors was retiring in Indianapolis and it was a very special
occasion for her.
Oh, I forgot to call them up. Oh, jeez. And I write these rules. Daniel, I know you're here somewhere.
Come on down. And Jeremy, did you make it? He's here. Good. Jeremy was not able to play for us today
because his accompanist was unable to play.
And so the Mrs. Granville Wells Memorial Award, which in instrumental music goes to Jeremy Curtis. This
is an award that was left to us in an endowment by Herman B. Wells, our former president and chancellor.
Congratulations, Jeremy. Thank you very much. And as you've heard, Daniel's going to be going with us
to West Virginia.
and compete for a $10,000 top prize in woodwinds. So we're excited about that and I hope he is too.
He receives the Donald Traub Tribute Award in Instrumental Music 2014. Daniel. Coordinator for the
vocal music competition, Mary Alice Cox. Can all the voice winners please come forward? I think we have
two people who could not be with us today. And the first one that I will mention is the winner of the Helen
and Linton Caldwell Memorial Award and the Davis Merit Award. And that was Elise Marie Kennedy. She
is actually out of state auditioning right now. But we do have the winner of the Joanne Athanas Memorial
Award and that goes to Martha Eason.
Also, the winner of the Cox Cook Merit Award is Elizabeth Toy, and she is at this moment performing
with the Bloomington Chambers Singers. So she couldn't be here. The winner of the Donald Felton Memorial
Award goes to Jacqueline Matava. The winner of the Spence Merit Award and the Jacobi Merit Award goes
to Denise Ozan.
She can barely talk. I gave her a very potent lozenge and I think that saved the day. The winner of
our chapter award goes to Adam Walton.
The conclusion of our awards presentation activities will be carried out by George Penny, who coordinated
the musical theater competition. Well, today is technical rehearsals for guys and dolls, and many of
the students are at that technical rehearsal. There should be seven students standing up here.
The first one actually is Todd Alworm, who performed in Act One of our Showcase Day, and he's behind
the scene crewing to make sure the set doesn't fall down, so we congratulate him. He received the Scott
Burgess Jones Tribute Award. Elaine Cotter, the Bloomington Chapter, is receiving the Rogers and Hammerstein
Award. Bea Fitzgibbon, the Joanne Athanas Memorial Award.
Kayla Eilers, the David E. Albright Memorial Award and Shiner Merit Award. Who's not here? Caitlin Mays,
the Helen and Lytton Caldwell Memorial Award and the Ilfner P. Ralston Memorial Award in musical theater.
Hannah Slayball, Robinson Merritt Award, and Covener Merritt Award. I might say she's not in Guys and
Dolls, but she's at the moment still in New York, and she'll be flying back tonight. We just finished
our New York Showcase, and she's been there for two weeks. I'm very happy to say that she's been cast
in the national tour of Annie as Star to Be. And the Chapter Career Award goes to Emily Schulteis.
Again, I would second what Ruth said about the work, the core work really of our chapter is done by
the competition coordinators. They do a lot of work and at times a lot of worrying too. Things don't
always work out smoothly, but they hang in there, they make do, they make the most of the moment, they
call on credits and favors, and somehow it all comes together in what we've done today.
It's just amazing and heartwarming to see it turn out like that. I'm glad that Rick Hall mentioned the
judges. We couldn't do these things without competent, informed, and conscientious judges,
and they do it. It's a labor of love.
We have to give them credit, at least some of the credit, for just how well some of our winners here
have done when they went on to the national competition. And I would be doubly remiss if I didn't close
my words here with a big vote of thanks to our production, our theater production crew. That includes
Hank McDaniel or Henry McDaniel, if you want to be proper about it.
He headed it up. The work of Aaron Bowersox and the lighting, critical part of what makes this thing
nice, in my opinion. Matt Herndon certainly did a lot all around. Not just in
you know, what their designated duties were, but things like putting this Marley floor down last night.
It was midnight when I left, and Hank said it was about two o'clock in the morning when he got home.
So this tells you something about the schedule we're on as we get into the countdown here to showtime.
Ruth, did you want to final word, or do you want to comment on the reception?
We hope that you all will join us downstairs in the lobby and the galleries for the reception in honor
of the young artists. And we hope you will come down and get to know them a little bit better. And thanks
so much for coming. We really enjoyed your being here. Thanks.