UAB Briefs: A visiting scholar's 'Emergency,' getting a charge
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?
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A very special ‘Emergency’
Internationally acclaimed writer, composer, actor and singer Daniel Beaty has been chosen to receive UAB’s Ireland Distinguished Visiting Scholar Award for 2017.
Beaty will offer a free public performance of his 2006 off-Broadway solo play, “Emergency,” at the Alys Stephens Center on Friday, March 10, at 4 p.m., according to a UAB news release.
The Ireland award is given each year to a distinguished intellectual from the UAB community whose work is groundbreaking and transformational in his or her field. The awardees come to campus to lecture or perform and to meet informally with students and faculty.
In an acting tour de force, Beaty plays more than 25 characters in the funny, explosive “Emergency,” which features song and slam poetry.
The play, which Beaty has toured nationally and internationally, takes place in New York City, where a slave ship mysteriously appears in front of the Statue of Liberty during the finals of a nationally televised spoken word competition called “America’s Next Top Poet.”
Beaty “challenges our thinking regarding the fundamental nature of race relations and the influences of economic class structures on our society through his performances, comedy and writing,” said Robert E. Palazzo, dean of the UAB College of Arts and Sciences, in the news release.
Beaty has performed at The White House and The Kennedy Center and appeared in opera, theatre and television around the world.
He has many awards, including an Obie Award for writing in 2007.
Just charge it
Drivers of electric vehicles can now charge their cars on the UAB campus. A total of eight new charging ports were opened recently at three locations, according to a UAB news release.
They were installed at Parking Lot 5A adjacent to the Hill University Center; Parking Lot 77 adjacent to CHSB19; and Express Lot 4, the new remote parking lot on Fifth Avenue South.
Drivers will need to download the ChargePoint mobile app to use the EVSEs, and there is a $1 per hour fee.
The ports are not the first installed on campus, but six ports opened in 2016 required that a vehicle be charged overnight, the release states. The new stations are the same type of plug-units but are capable of fully charging a battery within four hours.
Additional units will be added as demand increases.
A well-suited program
The UAB Commission on the Status of Women is collecting donations of gently used clothing for My Sister’s Closet, an outreach program of the YWCA of Central Alabama.
The annual Suits for Success drive will accept donations at the Alys Stephens Center, Monday-Friday, April 3-7, from 7-10 a.m.
Women’s clothing items accepted include clean suits, jackets, skirts, casual pants, shirts, formal and casual dresses, as well as accessories, including shoes, handbag and jewelry.
Gently used clothes and accessories for men and children are accepted, as well.
There will several other drop-off locations across the UAB campus.
Those interested in volunteering should contact Nicole Wright at ncwright@uab.edu or Laura Tull at laurawtull@uab.edu.
Whodunit?
Theatre UAB will present British playwright Tom Stoppard’s metaphysical murder mystery, “The Real Inspector Hound,” at the Alys Stephens Center from Feb. 22-26, according to a news release.
Originally performed in 1968, Stoppard’s hilarious lampooning of murder mystery conventions features theater critics Moon and Birdboot, who are caught up in a whodunit they are viewing in a play within a play.
Theatre UAB is presenting Stoppard’s piece to expose its students to acting styles different from the familiar reality-based style of Stanislavsky, according to the play’s director, Jack Cannon.
“Inspector Hound” is actually based in three separate acting styles, according to Cannon – the farcical acting style of British comedy, the melodramatic acting style of Agatha Christie-style thrillers and the style of Theatre of the Absurd.
Shows at the ASC’s Sirote Theatre are at 7:30 p.m., Feb. 22-25, and at 2 p.m., Feb. 26.
Tickets are $12 and $15; $10 for UAB employees and senior citizens; and $6 for students.
For tickets, call 975-2787 or go to alysstephens.org.