Performers in "Single and Sexy" include Dave Metcalfe (Damon), who also serves as the musician); Lynne Craven (Heather); David Couture (Curtis); Garth Graham (Steve); David Lam (Ho-Li); Jocelyn Urquhart (Nona); Matthew Schirripa (Nick); and Kate Teddiman (Beth). Photo by Michael Davenport.

Updated 'Sexy' hits stage tomorrow

by Patricia Bow

In love. Hates roommate. Hung over. Midterms looming. Massively homesick. Suicidal.

In short, a first-year student. Not a real UW student, although it could be. It’s a composite of the characters in Single and Sexy 2007, billed as “the highlight of Frosh Week.” The acclaimed play, now in its 19th year, depicts many of the situations and problems young people could face when they’re on their own for the first time, and far from home.

The play helps students get off to a good start at university by making them aware of potential pitfalls in the path to second year. At the same time, it directs them to resources on and off campus that could help deal with such problems, says Sandra Gibson, health educator with UW's health services, which produces the play.

Single and Sexy is UW’s answer to the traditional orientation week health lecture: an entertaining, high-energy mix of song, dance, and drama designed to hold students’ often distracted attention and persuade them to hear and absorb the embedded information. “We made it really current,” says director Ashley Burton, an actor/choreographer/producer with stage experience in Toronto and Stratford. “For the opening, for example, we took a new Justin Timberlake song and changed the lyrics to fit Single and Sexy.”

It helps that the cast of three women and five men are students talking to students, and that they update the script themselves as they rehearse, working with the director from issues identified by health services. This annual updating is the key to keeping the play fresh and timely. The script is completely overhauled every few years, Gibson says, although that didn’t happen in 2007 — this is a tweaking year, not a rewrite year.

Most of all, what makes the play work is that it doesn’t shy away from tough issues, such as problems with homophobia, plagiarism, alcohol abuse, and date rape. This year, plot lines about sexual harassment, suicide and eating disorders have been developed. And the plot is realistic, Burton says. “Things don’t get tied up with pink bows at the end.”

Somewhat less gut-wrenching are what Gibson calls the “normalizing issues” — homesickness, stress, trouble with roommates, academic problems – troubles that could afflict anyone and often do. The play reminds students that they’re not alone in their misery. “And there’s an element of dispelling myths”: for example, misconceptions that students might have about marijuana.

Besides director Ashley Burton the production team includes stage manager Michael Kolodziej, who works in peer education in health services, “and we rely heavily on the help and technical expertise of Peter Carette of the UW Theatre Centre,” Gibson says.

Staff and faculty members, as well as family, friends, and community members, are invited to the premiere performance this Friday at 11:30 a.m. in the Humanities Theatre. Admission is free. Performances for students will take place in the Humanities Theatre during orientation week, next Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday, with performances at 10 a.m., 1 p.m. and 4 p.m. each day.

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St. Jerome's sets Catholic lectures

Gone but clearly not forgotten, Michael Higgins will make a return to St. Jerome’s University this fall as the first lecturer in a new series that will bear the name of the Michael W. Higgins Lectures.

Higgins, the ebullient president of St. Jerome’s from 1999 to 2006, will speak under a suitably modest title: “It’s Tough Being God These Days”. His lecture is scheduled for Friday evening, September 21, as the first event in the 2007-08 series from the college’s Centre for Catholic Experience.

Myroslaw Tataryn, who served as acting president in 2006-07 after Higgins’s departure and is dean of St. Jerome’s, will also speak in the Centre’s lecture series this year. His talk, under the title “God Keep our Land”, will be the year’s Waterloo Catholic District School Board Lecture and is scheduled for January 11.

Ken Coates, UW’s dean of arts, will speak November 30 on “Losing the Arctic? The Role of the North in Canada’s Future”. And Frederick Bird of the department of political science will speak February 29 on “Rethinking the Bottom Line: International Business and Poverty”.

Louise Fréchette, a fellow of the Centre for International Governance Innovation and former deputy secretary-general of the United Nations, will speak February 8 under the title “Empowering Women: A Sound Investment”.

Other speakers in the coming months are John Bentley Mays (“The Creative City: The Future of Christian Urbanism”, October 19); Stephen Bede Scharper (“Facing Our Ecological Reality: Ecological Crises as Issues of Faith and Justice”, November 2); Ruben Habito (“Awakening to Compassion: Buddhist Wisdom for a Wounded World”, January 25); and Dawn Martin-Hill (“Let’s Become Again: Indigenous Health Care and the Healing of a Nation”, March 14).

The Centre will also host a book launch for Michael Adams’s Unlikely Utopia: Is Canada the Experiment that Worked? on Friday, November 9. All the lectures will be given in Siegfried Hall at St. Jerome’s, starting at 7:30 p.m.

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Other notes as the term approaches

Departments across campus had a memo the other day from Joanne Wade, the director of student awards and financial aid, with a reminder of the International Undergraduate Work-Study Program for the term ahead. "If you would like to employ an international student on a part-time basis using this program, please read this memo," she writes. "International students are not eligible for provincial government financial aid (OSAP) and may find themselves in need of supplemental funds to assist in the cost of their education. . . . The UW International Undergraduate Work-Study Program is intended to assist in creating part-time meaningful employment opportunities for international students who require additional funding, are willing to work, and can demonstrate financial need. The cost of the plan is shared on a 75/25 arrangement between a central university fund and your department. Up to 25 positions may be funded this Fall." Details and more information come from Linda Jajko at ext. 35726.

More than fifty people were invited to the patio of the Bombshelter pub on Tuesday for a sneak peek at the fall menu. New appetizers (I’m told by a colleague who was there) include popcorn shrimp, calamari and rice-wrapped spring rolls. The menu will also include a grilled vegetable wrap, turkey sausage on a bun, and the Canadian Burger (cheese and peameal bacon). “They have also resurrected the Philly melt due to popular demand. The Bomber is also expanding its breakfast offerings with a new breakfast combo called The Bomb, plus build-your-own omelets and the introduction of peameal bacon as a side order.”

Says a memo from the registrar’s office: “OSAP loans, Canada and Ontario Student Loans, as well as some other provincial loans, will be available from the Student Awards and Financial Aid Office beginning Tuesday, September 4. The Student Awards and Financial Aid Office is located on the second floor, Needles Hall. Office hours are 8:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. Monday to Friday.”

And from the same source comes a reminder that fall convocation is scheduled for Saturday, October 20. As usual there will be two ceremonies: one at 10 a.m. for applied health studies, arts, and social work, and one at — well, there’s a change. The morning ceremony “is expected to be very long”, says the registrar’s office (no doubt because of all the “double cohort” students who arrived in 2003 and are now graduating from arts). So the afternoon ceremony, which traditionally starts at 2:00, has been moved to 2:30 p.m. It’ll see the presentation of degrees in engineering (including business, entrepreneurship and technology), science, math and environmental studies. Detailed convocation information is online.

Electrical and computer engineering professor Mohamed Kamel (left) chaired the International Conference on Image Analysis and Recognition, ICIAR 2007, August 22-24 in Montréal. The conference brought together more than 120 researchers from 26 countries, including 8 UW faculty members and students.

Arlene Sleno retires officially September 1, ending 18 years as administrative assistant at St. Paul's College. • St. Jerome's University has filled the job of librarian there, hiring Lorna Rourke from the University of Guelph; she'll make the move in December. • Tuesday’s article in this space referred to UW’s “department of physics”, which in fact has been the “department of physics and astronomy” for more than a year.

Bernice Michalofsky, a former member of the staff in UW’s plant operations department, died July 27. She was the curator of plans in the design section of plant ops, where she started work in October 1981 and retired August 1, 1989.

The plant operations department warns that a crew will be painting lines tomorrow on the section of the ring road that was recently repaved. "There may be temporary one-lane closures during this procedure local to the area where they are painting."

And . . . yesterday's Daily Bulletin pictured a Smart Car, part of a promotion for commercialization of university research results, which (though I didn't know it at the time) is on display in the Davis Centre great hall. The question addressed by various readers of the Usenet newsgroup uw.general was, how did they get it there? That in turn led to an ingenious suggestion: "We can solve the parking crunch if UW subsidises purchases of Smart Cars for faculty/staff and perhaps grad students, then use the wide hallways in DC for parking. Must be able to fit at least 30 or 40 vehicles if you can use an elevator to get them up to the second and third floors."

CAR

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