Friday Center to offer courses on children’s literature, Chekhov

By STEPHANIE GUNTER
UNC News Services

CHAPEL HILL -- The works of Anton Chekhov and children’s literature will be the subjects of two new fine arts courses at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill’s William and Ida Friday Center for Continuing Education beginning in May.

"Writing Literature for Children and Young Adults with Ruth Moose" will meet on Tuesdays May 4 to June 8 from 7 p.m. to 9 p.m. at the Friday Center. "Summer Evening Acting Classes: Approaching Chekhov with Julie Fishell" will meet on Mondays and Thursdays May 24 to June 21 from 7 p.m. to 9:30 p.m. at UNC’s Center for Dramatic Art (where the Paul Green Theater is located).

"The Friday Center is pleased to offer these new courses in collaboration with the creative writing program and PlayMakers Repertory Company," said Mary Morrison, continuing education specialist at the Friday Center. "The courses are open to participants with diverse writing or acting backgrounds."

"Writing Literature for Children and Young Adults" will focus on what makes a children’s or young-adult book a classic. Classes will include writing assignments, as well as personal critiques. Moose has invited well-known writers in the field, such as William Hooks, Barbara Younger, Joy Frelinger and Marney Brooks, to make presentations.

"Literature for children is the most important literature because it is a child’s first introduction to reading," Moose said. "But that does not make it easy to write. It has to appeal to both adults and children."

Moose is a lecturer in UNC’s Creative Writing Program, where she has taught a popular course on writing children’s literature for six years. She is the recipient of several writing awards. The University of Odense in Denmark chose Moose, along with Maya Angelou and Alice Walker, as the only living female writers included in "Through Random Gates We Wandered," an anthology about Southern women. She also has received five PEN Syndicated Fiction Awards for her short stories, the MacDowell Fellowship and the N.C. Writers Fellowship.

The workshop is limited to 16 participants. The registration fee is $375 before April 16 and $425 after. Registration is available online at http://fridaycenter.unc.edu/cni/childlit.htm.

Students in the "Summer Evening Acting Classes: Approaching Chekhov with Julie Fishell" will gain a deeper understanding and appreciation of the works of Chekhov. Fishell will use monologues and selected scenes to show how Chekhov portrayed the coexistence of comedy and tragedy in everyday life. All students will rehearse scenes and complete acting exercises.

"Continuing-education courses in drama most often explore the literary aspects without the benefit of acting the text," Fishell said. "Chekhov is the perfect playwright to confirm that plays are to be experienced off the page because so often what is happening in Chekhov is never stated in the words."

Fishell is an adjunct assistant professor of dramatic art at UNC. She directs for the Studio Series and the Professional Actor Training Program and performs with PlayMakers. She is spending the spring semester in artistic residency at the Juilliard School while leading "Learning Theatre Live in New York," a Burch Research Field Seminar Fishell created for undergraduates. She is the recipient of the Juilliard Performance Award and the Kennedy Center Award for Excellence in Acting, and directed the N.C. Women’s Prison Writing and Performance Project "Doing More Than Time," which received the 2003 Independent Weekly’s Humanitarian Award.

Registration for the workshop is $325 before May 7 and $350 after that date. Registration is available online at http://fridaycenter.unc.edu/cni/acting.htm.

For more information, contact Morrison at (919) 843-4483 or mmorriso@email.unc.edu.

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(Gunter, of Raleigh, is a senior majoring in journalism and mass communication.)

Friday Center contact: Mary Morrison, (919) 843-4483 or mmorriso@email.unc.edu