UAB Briefs: Scrooge redeemed, graduates walk, artists show off
Welcome to another installment of UAB Briefs, in which we keep track of interesting people and events on campus.
Know people, places and programs on the UAB campus that deserve a mention? Email Iron City Ink at sydney@starnespublishing.com and jchambers@starnespublishing.com
A special Christmas Carol
The Alys Stephens Performing Arts Center presents “A Dickens Vest Pocket Christmas Carol” – a kid- and family-friendly holiday production – on Sat., Dec. 17, at 2 p.m. and 7 p.m., according to a UAB news release
The original adaptation of Charles Dickens’ classic “A Christmas Carol” stars ASC staffer Jerry Sims as Scrooge.
Sims also created the adaptation and directs the show.
The ASC premiered “A Dickens Vest Pocket Christmas Carol” in 2008 and has since presented the show about seven times, according to Sims, who serves at the ASC as general house events manager and volunteer coordinator.
The ASC also regularly presents another kid-friendly holiday show called “Yuletide in Dogtown.”
There is no accident that Sims adapted Dickens. “I love the character of Scrooge and ‘The Christmas Carol,’” he said.
Sims said that he also played several parts in other stage adaptations of the piece during his years as an actor on the road.
Dickens wrote “A Christmas Carol” originally as a stage play and later performed the play in a one-man show he brought to America, according to Sims.
Sims used Dicken’s script for his one-man show as the basis for his adaptation. “I tried to adhere to his script and make what adjustments I had to,” he said.
He derived part of the title for his adaptation from the name of a series of books he read when he was growing up, the “Vest Pocket Books.”
They were “a paring down or distillation of great, classic works,” Sims said.
Is it a challenge to take something like “The Christmas Carol” that people are so familiar with and make it fresh?
Sims said that using Dickens’ script was one way to meet that challenge, but added that doing a live play is the “greatest advantage.”
People can watch TV while eating or playing video games, according to Sims.
However, “live theatre, while some may say that it is archaic, is still the most immediate conveyance of both live entertainment and information,” he said. “You actually have to make an effort to come to a live production, and as an audience member you are investing something in it.”
Scrooge “holds such fascination for people” because virtually anyone is attracted to the “redemption of the human spirit” that his character experiences.
Despite the many classic novels Dickens wrote, “oddly enough he is remembered best for this,” Sims said.
“He wrote it in a very short time, but thematically it was very much in keeping with many of his greater novels – the cruelty of life but also somehow redemption,” Sims said.
Tickets are $13 for adults and $8 for children.
The ASC will also present a free, sensory-friendly performance for children or adults diagnosed with an autism spectrum disorder or other sensitivity issues, plus their families and friends, on Wed., Dec. 14, at 10 a.m.
To order tickets, call 975-8858 or visit alysstephens.org
UAB fall commencement
An estimated 745 students will graduate from UAB this fall, and approximately 625 are expected to walk in the commencement ceremony to be held at Bartow Arena on Sat., Dec. 17, at 9:30 a.m., according to a UAB news release
Doors will open at 8:30 a.m. Tickets are not required, but seating for the general commencement ceremony is first-come, first-served.
Information for graduates and guests is available at uab.edu/commencement.
The ceremonies will be recorded for online viewing at the web site about a week after the ceremonies.
Making their marks
Three graduating UAB students will have their work on display for a Bachelor of Fine Arts exhibition at Abroms-Engel Institute for the Visual Arts through Dec. 17.
Lucy Allen of Huntsville and Amber Gomez and Anna-Kate Marcum of Birmingham are graduating with BFA degrees from the Department of Art and Art History, according to a news release.
Allen uses gestural mark-making to give form and structure to internal notions of coincidence and perceived reality, according to AEIVA curator John Fields.
Gomez uses photographic portraiture to engage and explore the younger generation of middle-class black America.
Marcum uses digital software and a variety of hand-drawn patterns to design illustrative posters and products inspired by the uniqueness of America’s National Parks.
A reception is planned for Fri., Dec. 16, from 6-8 p.m. The reception and the exhibition are free and open to the public.
AEIVA is open Monday-Friday from 10 a.m.-6 p.m. and Saturday noon- 6 p.m. It’s closed Sundays and holidays. For information, go to uab.edu/cas/aeiva.
Breaking ground for business
UAB officials, alumni and business and community leaders are expected to attend a groundbreaking for the new Collat School of Business and B.L. Harbert Institute for Innovation and Entrepreneurship building on Fri., Dec. 9, 10 a.m.-11 a.m., according to a news release
The site is located on a parking lot on University Boulevard between 12th and 13th Streets South.
Among those expected to attend are UAB President Ray Watts, Mayer Electric Chairman Emeritus Charles Collat and Medical Properties Trust CEO Ed Aldag.
WBHM general manager
Following a national search, Charles W. “Chuck” Holmes – a veteran reporter and newsroom leader at NPR in Washington, D.C. – has been named the general manager of Public Radio WBHM 90.3 FM at UAB.
He begins work on Jan. 9, 2017, according to a news release.
Holmes has led NPR’s daily news operation as deputy managing editor since 2013 and previously served as supervising senior editor of the popular “Morning Edition” program.
“My family’s roots run deep in Alabama, and my commitment to the mission of public radio runs deep, too — serving the audience and making the community a better place to live,” Holmes – a Tennessee native – said in the release.
Prior to joining NPR in 2009, Holmes was a foreign editor and a foreign correspondent for Cox Newspapers.
He covered such events as the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, the war in Kosovo, the Rwandan genocide and civil war, and the war in Afghanistan.