Readers Theatre Production

HILARITY ENSUES, a Comedy in Two Acts by Brian A. Blankenship, will be performed as a staged reading on the campus of Millikin University in Decatur, Illinois at 5:00pm Tuesday, May 6, 2008 under the direction of the playwright, Brian A. Blankenship. (K128)

Hilarity Ensues
a comedy in two acts

by
Brian A. Blankenship

5:00 PM • Tuesday • May 6, 2008
Kirkland 128

HILARITY ENSUES was written during the Fall of 2007 through the Spring of 2008 at Millikin University in Decatur, Illinois. The script was intended as a project of the James Millikin Scholars Program, the thesis being an experiment into discovering the motivations and objectives of characters of the dramatic farce. The project was overseen by Honors Program Director Dr. Michael O’Connor and Project Advisor Dr. Randy Brooks.

Readers & Dramatis Personae:

Kevin Buscemi as TONY CLIFTON – An actor in his mid to late twenties.
Brian Blankenship as DREW HAMLIN – His roommate. A writer in his mid to late twenties.
Adam Stefo as JOHN MCWILLIAMS – The landlord. Late fifties/early sixties.
Karin McNamara as ROSIE MCWILLIAMS – His niece. Mid-twenties.
Kate Adams as MAXINE CLIFTON – Tony’s mother. Late fifties/early sixties.
Bob Skosky as SPENCER GOLDMAN – Tony’s agent. Mid-twenties.

Dr. Randy Brooks as the Narrator

Global Haiku Traditions Reading

Thursday, May 8, 2008
10:30 am – 12:30 pm
Pilling Chapel

Students in the Humanities Honors Seminar: Global Haiku Traditions will read from their collections of haiku written in the Spring of 2008 as well as share their final haiku projects which connect haikai arts to other areas of research and artistic achievement. See the class web site at:

http://www.millikin.edu/haiku/courses/globalSpring2008/

Celebration of Scholarship Day
English Department Events

Friday, April 25, 2008
Photos & Highlights

Honors in English Awards

8:30-9:30am • SH418

Graduating seniors who have maintained a 3.7 grade-point average in their English courses and a 3.5 grade-point average overall are awarded Honors in English. These awards will be presented at this session, where each student is invited to present one of their best academic accomplishments. List of May 2008 Honors in English students:

(1) Brian Blankenship
(2) Ryne Inman
(3) Patrick Steadman
(4) Nicole Piontek
(5) Sarah Corso
(6) Sarah Scharnett
(7) Justin Baer

Creative Writing Showcase Reading

9:30-10:30am • SH418

This session features creative writing completed by undergraduate students at Millikin University. It features the Conant Literary Creation award winners and other creative writing students, reading original poetry, fiction, creative nonfiction, and dramatic works.

List of creative writing students who will read:

(1) Brian Blankenship
(2) John Wright, “A Holocaust Narrative, "Confession"
(3) Mark Beanblossom
(4) Rick Bearce, “Selected Haiku & Senryu”
(5) Blake Bergson, “the wicked thought.”
(6) Natalie Perfetti, “A Series of Tanka”
(7) Caitlyn Hennesy
(8) Ryne Inman, “The Course (So Far)"

Undergraduate Publications Showcase

10:30-11:30am * LIB 014 Media Arts Center (Mac lab)

The Millikin University English department has gained national recognition for its integration of publishing instruction into its curriculum. This session features student leaders of the current variety of undergraduate publications traditions at Millikin. Each presentation includes an exhibit of recent publications and a discussion about the development and learning behind those publications. Undergraduate Publications Featured and Discussed at the Showcase:

(1) Decaturian, the Millikin University student newspaper

Student Presenters: Chris Linden & Ashley Fromm, Co-editors
Faculty Advisor: Dr. Priscilla Meddaugh, Assistant Professor of English

(2) Bronze Man Books, a Millikin University Press

Student Presenters: Brian Blankenship, Production Manager; Mark Beanblossom, Senior Editor, Michael Gurney, Art Director; and John Wright, Director of Marketing
Faculty Advisors: Dr. Randy Brooks, Professor of English & Ed Walker, Associate Professor of Art

(3) Collage, the Millikin University literary magazine

Student Presenters: Patrick Steadman and Brian Blankenship, Co-editors
Faculty Advisors: Dr. Stephen Frech, Assistant Professor of English & Dr. Carmella Braniger, Assistant Professor of English

(4) Major English Authors Web Site

Student Presenters: Kelle Sills & students
Faculty Advisors: Dr. Purna Banerjee

(5) Indian Popular Culture Web Site

Student Presenters: Harley D. Eades, III & students
Faculty Advisors: Dr. Purna Banerjee

A Night of Poetry

6:30-9:00 pm • April 21, 2008
Decatur Area Arts Council, Madden Arts Center
125 N. Water St. Decatur, IL 62522

sponsored by
Decatur Area Arts Council & Bronze Man Books

6:15-6:30 Musical entertainment provided by Emily Henderson
6:30-6:55 • Professor Sandra McKenna
6:55-7:20 • Dr. Carmella Braniger
7:20-7:45 • Natalie Perfetti
7:45-8:00 Intermission/Musical entertainment
8:00-8:25 • Dr. Stephen Frech
8:25-8:40 • Open Mic
8:40-9:00 • Dr. Randy Brooks

The Twelfth Annual Conference
of the
Illinois Philological Association

April 11-12, 2008
Millikin University

Illinois Philological Association Conference

Congratulations to the following Millikin faculty and students who participated in the Twelfth Annual Conference of the Illinois Philological Association April 11-12, 2008. Special thanks to Professor Sandra McKenna for helping to organize this event, and to the many Millikin faculty and staff who helped host it at Millikin University.
 

Millikin Student Presentations:

Klay Baynar, Toni Morrison’s Beloved: Institutionalized Trauma, Selfhood, and Familial and Communal Structure

Joel Booster, Who is Beloved?

Allison Lingren, “Rememory” through Repetition and Revision—Storytelling and Jazz Techniques as Narrative in Toni Morrison’s Beloved

Brian Blankenship, Become Your Own Writer through Challenging the Five-Paragraph Essay Format

Jeremy Davault, The Journal in the College Writing Course: Creating Better Learners through Self-Awareness

Phillip Crim, Aristotle Would Have Loved Power Point: Examining Ancient Greek Writing’s Effect on Dr. Michael W. George’s Critter Course

Sarah Corso, The Ultimate Subaltern: Singles and Pairs in T.S. Eliot’s The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock

Kelle Sills, Liminal Identity and Creative Genius: Christina Rossetti as a Subaltern Poet

Stacey Fackler, Performing the Smallest God: Arundhati Roy and The God of Small Things

Shaunessy Quinn, The Performance of the Poor Beck Swim Team

Jessie Whalen, Performing the New Female: The Negotiation between Traditional and Modernity in Bombay Cinema

Christine Paul, African American Women’s Rhetoric: The Rhetoric of Inclusiveness

Natalie Perfetti, “What about Pathos?”: A Historical Survey of Value and Gender

Aubrie Cox, Two Decades of Terrible Twos: A Psychoanalytical Analysis of Beloved

Gordon Gilmore, Nommo Barriers: Finding Bonds in the Chaos

Patrick Steadman, Binaries in Beloved

Millikin Faculty Presentations

Michael George, Ecocriticism and Medieval Literature: The Anglo-Irish Land of Cokaygne’s Colonial Ecology

Purna Banerjee, Here the Subaltern Speak: Teaching the English Canon with a Postcolonial Deconstructive Difference

Sandra McKenna, Mariska: A Memoir of Life in a Slave Labor Camp

Randy Brooks, The Transactional Art of Haiku

Peiling Zhao, Advance Feminist Rhetoric in an Advanced Writing Course

Dan Guillory, The Lincoln Poems

Millikin Faculty & Staff Hosts:

Carmella Braniger
Anne Matthews
Sandra McKenna
Judi Crowe
Cindie Zelhart
Peiling Zhao

Wednesday, December 12
1:00-2:30 pm
Shilling Conference Room (SH206)

Refreshments will be served. See you there!

commas & ampersands is a collection of original short drama written by Steve Moore. While postmodern and seemingly solemn in nature, the pieces also include elements of playfulness and whimsy, captured in a way that only Moore can.

Join us for the release party, this Friday, December 7th, at 5pm at the Blue Connection/Beacon Art Gallery down town, where the author will be reading from and signing copies of commas & ampersands, which will be on sale throughout the evening. There will also be pieces on display by featured ceramics artist, Brandy Isbell.

We hope to see you all there.
—Brian A. Blankenship, Production Manager, Bronze Man Books

Join Pi Beta Phi and Sigma Tau Delta in celebrating the culmination of
Jingle Book Rock - a book drive for underprivileged children in the Decatur area.

The book drive will continue all this week from 9am to 3pm on the first floor of Shilling Hall, where representatives are anxiously standing by to accept children’s books and other donations.

The celebration is open to the campus and community, and begins Saturday, December 1st, from 9am to 1pm in the Fireplace Room of Lower RTUC. There will be free food, games and entertainment for kids and adults, as well as live music from Millikin’s own male vocal group, 5one.

We hope you’ll all come out to celebrate the generosity of Millikin University’s faculty and students this Saturday.

Brian Blankenship, Sigma Tau Delta
Katy Cryns, Pi Beta Phi

Please join Dr. Dan Guillory as he tells the story behind the presidential cartoons, memoirs, letters, and notes collected by the Block family over a period of 60 years. The Block Documents cover about 100 years of American history, but the bulk of them are concerned with the Civil War period and the career of Abraham Lincoln. The most notable items are the controversial Currier and Ives political cartoons dealing with the 1860 presidential campaign. The exhibition provides a rare opportunity to inspect letters and papers that literally made American history. Dr. Guillory has spoken about the Block Documents at the McClean County Historical Society Museum in Bloomington and at the Oak Park Historical Society. The exhibition is sponsored by the Macon County Conservation District, the Illinois State Historical Society, and the Illinois Humanities Council.

The Twelfth Annual Conference
of the
Illinois Philological Association

April 11-12, 2008
Millikin University

Come and share your work with interested colleagues and delight in the quality and diversity of Illinois scholars and writers. The Association invites submissions in four categories:

   1) From faculty members, scholars, and graduate students

   2) From creative writers

   3) From undergraduate students

   4) Panels from any category of participant

Each submission must also include a proposal summary of no more than 50 words. Visit the IPA website at www.illinoisphilological.org Questions? Contact Barbara Cass at bcass1@uis.edu

Submission Deadline: January 31th, 2008

The Millikin University Literary Festival features two days of workshops, craft lectures, and readings. See the MU Literary Festival web site for more details. Please join us in these activities:

Friday, November 9

    5:00-6:30 - check in & registration

    7:00 - Reading by Rebecca Barry

    8:30 - Collage Reading

Saturday, November 10

    10:00-12:30pm - Writing Workshops

    1:30-2:30pm - Fiction Craft Lecture (panel)

    3:00-4:30pm - Poetry Craft Lecture (panel)

    5:00-6:00pm - Awards Reading

    7:30-9:00pm - Reading by Wayne Miller

English Event Archives

Archive of English Events

English Events 2007-08

English Events 2006-07

English Events 2005-06

English Events 2004-05

English Events 2003-04

see event photos:
Poe in the Cemetery

Martha Miller

Lidia Rozmus