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SCT alumni, faculty earn Barrymore glory

Six Barrymore Awards for Excellence in Theatre went to Temple University School of Communications alumni and faculty Oct. 2. The awards are presented annually by the Theatre Alliance of Greater Philadelphia.

The SCT winners are:

OUTSTANDING OVERALL PRODUCTION OF A MUSICAL
The Flea and the Professor — Arden Theatre Company
(Assistant Professor Ed Sobel is associate artistic director)

OUTSTANDING SUPPORTING ACTOR IN A PLAY
James Ijames, THEA ’06 — Superior Donuts — Arden Theatre Company

OUTSTANDING SUPPORTING ACTRESS IN A PLAY
Krista Apple, THEA ’09 — In the Next Room, or the vibrator play — The Wilma Theater

OUTSTANDING ENSEMBLE IN A PLAY
In the Next Room, or the vibrator play — The Wilma Theater
(featured former student Kate Czajkowski; Krista Apple, THEA ’09; and Luigi Sottile, THEA ’07)

F. OTTO HAAS AWARD FOR AN EMERGING PHILADELPHIA THEATRE ARTIST
James Ijames, THEA ’06

TED AND STEVIE WOLF AWARD FOR NEW APPROACHES TO COLLABORATIONS
Adjunct Professor Robert Smythe and the Chamber Orchestra of Philadelphia — Stravinsky’s l’Histoire du Soldat — Kimmel Center for the Performing Arts

SCT alumni, faculty earn Barrymore glory

Six Barrymore Awards for Excellence in Theatre went to Temple University School of Communications alumni and faculty Oct. 2. The awards are presented annually by the Theatre Alliance of Greater Philadelphia.

The SCT winners are:

OUTSTANDING OVERALL PRODUCTION OF A MUSICAL
The Flea and the Professor — Arden Theatre Company
(Assistant Professor Ed Sobel is associate artistic director)

OUTSTANDING SUPPORTING ACTOR IN A PLAY
James Ijames, THEA ’06 — Superior Donuts — Arden Theatre Company

OUTSTANDING SUPPORTING ACTRESS IN A PLAY
Krista Apple, THEA ’09 — In the Next Room, or the vibrator play — The Wilma Theater

OUTSTANDING ENSEMBLE IN A PLAY
In the Next Room, or the vibrator play — The Wilma Theater
(featured former student Kate Czajkowski; Krista Apple, THEA ’09; and Luigi Sottile, THEA ’07)

F. OTTO HAAS AWARD FOR AN EMERGING PHILADELPHIA THEATRE ARTIST
James Ijames, THEA ’06

TED AND STEVIE WOLF AWARD FOR NEW APPROACHES TO COLLABORATIONS
Adjunct Professor Robert Smythe and the Chamber Orchestra of Philadelphia — Stravinsky’s l’Histoire du Soldat — Kimmel Center for the Performing Arts

Associate Professor Erickson named finalist for Adobe Design Award

Associate Professor LeAnn Erickson, FMA, is one of three finalists for the annual Adobe Design Achievement Award in the “Innovation in Motion and Video Education” category.

The winners of the international competition, for college and university faculty who use Adobe products in their classrooms, will be announced in Taipei, Taiwan, on Oct. 23.

Erickson teaches Adobe Photoshop, Illustrator and After Effects in her classes and uses her recent documentary, Top Secret Rosies, as an example of how these programs can enhance a film. Specifically, she says the film uses archival photo manipulation, image layering, motion graphics and compositing.

More than 4,600 entries were submitted for consideration throughout all categories.

Watch the trailer of Top Secret Rosies here to see some of the visual techniques used in the film.

 

TUJ faculty members examine social media after tsunami

Professor Cornelius Pratt, STRC, along with TUJ Professors Irene Herrera and Ronald Carr, have written a chapter titled “Social Media for Crisis Communication on Japan’s 2011 Tōhoku Earthquake: A Critical Textual Analysis,” which will be published in The New Media and Public Relations (second edition), New York: Peter Lang, 2012. In it, they write that social media platforms “are redefining Japanese cultural values and assumptions vis-à-vis communications — those that no longer depend solely on conventional outlets and cultural practices, but are being expanded to incorporate alternative media platforms as channels for the public good as well as for public vehemence and outrage.”

Associate Professor Feistman discusses reputation management at conference

Associate Professor Gregg Feistman, STRC, recently gave a presentation on Reputation Management at the Insurance Marketing Communications Association’s annual conference in Toronto, Canada. Speaking before a room of marketing communications professionals, Feistman’s presentation, “Reputation Management: Building It, Maintaining It and What it Means for the Bottom Line,” is based on his reputation management class in the Strategic Communication Department’s M.S. program.

“Most people have a misconception of what reputation and reputation management is,” Feistman notes. “It’s not branding or advertising. It’s a very high-level strategic approach dealing with the expectations of an organization’s stakeholders. Whether it’s a Fortune 500 corporation, a non-profit organization or an educational institution, reputation is critical to sustained success. It’s very fragile, and understanding what makes up reputation and how it can be managed through effective communication is of vital importance to communicators and businesspeople in all organizations.”

Feistman’s message of aligning business strategy, marketing strategy, brand management and employee engagement was well received by those in attendance.

“Similar to what I discuss with my students, I tried to get the marketing communications professionals in the room to think about reputation in a definitive, measurable way, not just as some intangible concept. Reputation has real value, and a real impact on the bottom line, and professional communicators have a vital role in building and protecting it in any organization.”

Associate Professor Gluck: Social media allows people to participate in Casey Anthony verdict

When Casey Anthony was found not guilty on charges that she killed her daughter, people raced to their computers to voice their opinions on the verdict.

Associate Professor Paul Gluck, BTMM, says people tend to connect to news stories like this on an emotional level. And now, technology provides them a platform to tell the world how they feel.

“Social media in particular has provided people with a lot of impetus to participate, to observe, to connect,” he told NBC 10. “It’s a gut-level story. It doesn’t just engage you intellectually.”

Click here to watch the full story.

Theater professors’ shows rank among Philly’s best — Philadelphia Weekly

Philadelphia Weekly writer J. Cooper Robb ranked his top ten shows from the 2010-11 Philadelphia theater season.

Among them were [title of show], staged by Mauckingbird Theatre Company, of which Assistant Professor Peter Reynolds is the co-founder and artistic director, and Superior Donuts, directed by Assistant Professor Ed Sobel at Arden Theatre Company.

Click here to read the full story.

Professor Cai trains Afghanistan workers in gender communication

Professor Deborah Cai, STRC, spent five days in Rome this spring in an effort to help a group of government workers from Afghanistan improve their gender communication and leadership skills.

From May 23 to 27, she and a team from Women’s Campaign International trained 25 Afghanistan government employees as part of a seven-week program organized by the Italian Foreign Ministry that covered topics such as public policy and project management. The participants – both men and women – were from government departments such as Justice, Agriculture, Women Affairs and more.

“My primary role was to cover gender and intercultural communication — talk about being a competent communicator, how to build trust, types of personal power we can have and how to develop them — and then to work with the students on public speaking — how to project, how to organize a speech, and how to deliver it,” Cai says.

Other WCI trainers covered leadership and managing the media, while Marjorie Margolies, president of WCI, and Valerie Biden Owen, who creates political campaign ads for radio and television, talked about crisis management in the workplace and delivering messages effectively through the media.

The training sessions helped the civil servants create five-year plans and develop speeches about their personal visions for their work in Afghanistan. They shared their speeches and critiqued one another on their delivery.

“The Italian Foreign Ministry see this training as one way to bring about long term change within Afghanistan, by working with those that work in the government to help them learn how to do what they do better and to gain a vision for the future,” Cai said. In December, she and her WCI colleagues trained diplomats from Afghanistan on similar topics.

Cai noted that the women in the class were particularly interested in learning more about the trainers and their abilities to balance their personal and professional lives to achieve success.