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Equipment Reservations on the New Website
Attention Students: Making an equipment reservation on the new website is fast and easy:
- From the top navigation bar, click on Technology and Facilities.
- On the right, under Related Links, click on Make an Equipment Reservation.
- Fill out the form as before.
School News
- SCT News in Brief
- MURL Student Terrence Lee Covers the Pennsylvania Primary
- WORLD PREMIERE SCREENING:The Bloodlines Video Diary Project
- Kelly Mendoza Wins 2007 Media Smart Research Award
- FMA students spend time with cinematographer, director
- Post production space, classrooms undergo transformation
- FMA Department praised in Film School Confidential
- Renee Hobbs brings media literacy program to the Middle East
- SCT students reach out to the neighborhood
- SCT alumnus Michael Gozzard honored with Diamond Excellence Award
- SCT programs ranked in Top Ten in eight research areas
- Renee Hobbs to present major research findings in Washington, D.C.
- Jarice Hanson speaks at Digital Democracy webconference
- Fall lectures announced by SCT
- SCT alumni receive Barrymore, Emmy nods
- Temple's MURL, Tom Petner, cited in Quill
- Temple student filmmakers garner top awards
- MFA student receives inaugural Fulbright-mtvU Fellowship
- Alumnus Alan Kosher establishes endowment for theater students
- Honorees for 7th Annual Lew Klein Awards Announced
- Young journalist seeks to change media landscape
- SCT Grad Student Tracy Pereira receives prestigious scholarship
- Grads help plug Philadelphia ‘brain drain’
- Meet the graduates of Commencement 2007
- Eugene Martin awarded $7,500 grant from Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences Foundation
- Hobbs Wins MacArthur Grant to Explore Media Copyright Issues
University News
People in the News
- Three Temple students earn scholarships, connections for the future
- Alumnus Vince Manze Promoted at NBC Entertainment
- Screenwriter for Pride Is a Temple Grad
- Photo Seminar students are covering the Pennsylvania Presidential Primary.
Their day-to-day efforts may be viewed at:
http://primaryproject2008.blogspot.com- Linn Washington, associate professor of journalism, discussed the history and reporting of the Mumia Abu Jamal case during an interview with Art Fennell. A new sentencing has been ordered in the case. Washington was also quoted in a story in the Philadelphia Inquirer. To read the article, click here.
- Kelly Mendoza, a doctoral student in the Mass Media and Communication program, was recently honored by leaders in the cable television industry for her paper, "Mapping Parental Mediation and Making Connections with Media Literacy."
- Congratulations to Journalism Professor Karen Turner who, with Tyler Professor Pepon Osorio, received a Provost's $50,000 Seed Grant for their project titled "In Memory Of: A multidisciplinary Community Arts Program to bring awareness of the impact of violence on North Philadelphia."
- Theater major Nia Davis is one of two winners of the Philadelphia Young Playwritghts festival who will have works performed by Temple theater students and other professional actors as a part of Philadelphia's "40 Days of Nonviolence" this month. Charles Dumas, director of the Acting in Media program in the theater department, is directing the plays.
- MFA student Tom Quinn won the grand jury prize at the Slamdance Film Festival in Utah for his feature-length narrative film The New Year Parade, a family drama that is set and shot among the South Philadelphia String Band.
- BTMM Lecturer Eugene Martin was awarded a $5,000 fellowship for Documentary and Narrative work in Media Arts from the Pennsylvania Council on the Arts. This prestigious award is given only to 73 artists, from all disciplines, across the state. Martin is currently in post production on his feature length documentary, The Bloodlines Video Diary Project, and is also editing his television show, The Beirut Boys, for Independence Media Channel 35 for their original series Philadelphia Stories.
- Journalism senior Karen Shuey, who is focusing her studies on news/editorial journalism, is one of several students who will be writing opinion pieces for the Philadelphia Inquirer as part of its new "College Board." Shuey is also a writer for Temple's office of University Communications.
- Journalism Professor Linn Washington contributed to an article in The Guardian newspaper, out of Great Britain. The article, called "Marching on Washington," features a number of African Americans discussing Barack Obama's presidential candidacy. To read the article, click here.
-Theater Professor Charles Dumas was the focus of a Martin Luther King Jr. Day article in the Philadelphia Inquirer titled "One Man's Journey on 'Road to Freedom': Temple Professor retraces a troubled past." To read the article and view photos, click here.
-SCT rang in 2008 with several big news stories. The Theater Department's production of In Conflict (adapted for the stage by Doug Wager) was named the "biggest surprise" in the Philadelphia theater season by Philadelphia Weekly, and journalism student Leah Kauffman was named to Philadelphia Magazine's annual "People to Watch" list in the "Power and Politics" category. Kauffman has garnered national media attention for her online political satire videos including "Obama Girl."
- Journalism chair Dr. Andy Mendelson was quoted in a Dec. 26 New York Times article on the famed illustrator Norman Rockwell and his impact on photojournalism. The article, titled "Photographing the Life That Rockwell Depicted," can be accessed by clicking here.
-The following students received a Lew Klein Scholarship to be used for an internship, independent project or international program:
- Samuel Cunningham, FMA
- Minka Daniel Farthing-Kohl, FMA
- Kennedi Greenwood, Journalism
- Lauren McCulligan, Communications
- Madison Salavec, Advertising
- Matthew Chachula, FMA
-Professor Jo Ann Caplin's article about the restoration of art damaged by Katrina (being done in Delaware at Winterthur) has just been published in the Winter 2007/2008 Chemical Heritage Magazine. The article is based on some of her research and filming while she was the Societe Fellow at the Chemical Heritage Foundation. To read the article, click here.
-Congratulations to the following SCT scholarship recipients:
- Michael Bixler, Journalism (George P. and Martina Jennings Endowed Scholarship Fund)
- Caroline Pennartz, StOC (Communications and Theater Scholarship Fund)
- Madison Salavec, Advertising (Michael Buser Endowed Scholarship Fund)
- My Pop Studio (www.mypopstudio.com), created by a team at Temple's Media Education Lab led by Renee Hobbs, was featured in a Seattle Times opinion piece titled "Encourage young girls to be savvy media critics."
- The Theater Department's widely praised production of In Conflict, adapted and directed by Professor Doug Wager from a book of the same name by Yonne Latty, has been selected to be performed at the Region II Kennedy Center American College Theater Festival in Pittsburgh, Pa., in early January. In addition, the show will be playing at the highly regarded Long Wharf Theatre in New Haven, Conn., on the evening of January 22th, and will play in New York City at Tisch School of the Arts on January 25-27th. To read an article from the New Haven Register on the Long Wharf production, click here.
When news cameras make their way into the Bella Vista neighborhood, they usually go no further than the Italian Market. But there has always been more to the neighborhood. The residents of Bella Vista have opinions as well and not just the customers at the Italian Market. Temple student and MURL Reporter TERRENCE LEE talked with some residents about the upcoming election and the Pennsylvania primary:
http://ugv.abcnews.go.com/player.aspx?id=3249018
In addition, Terrence will be doing a live web chat on ABC News on April 22. He's also going to shoot a polling package and voice over tomorrow for the network.PA Primary: Temple Univ. Student Reporting
Terrence Lee shares his journalism experience at a local voting precinct.
http://abcnews.go.com/Video/playerIndex?id=4706629
The Media Education Lab invites you to the WORLD PREMIERE SCREENING of
The Bloodlines Video Diary Project
Two inner-city Philly kids -- Ebony from North Philadelphia and Dennis from Port Richmond -- were given video cameras to chronicle a year in their young lives, including their experiences at home, at school and with their friends. Filmmaker Eugene Martin edits their stories into a fascinating look into their worlds. For the 2005-06 school year, Temple University professor Eugene Martin -- in conjunction with Temple's Media Education Lab -- gave two Philadelphia 8th graders cameras to create video diaries about their school, family and neighborhood life. Ebony is a 14-year-old from North Philadelphia who goes to St. Malachy School, and Dennis is a 13-year-old from Kensington who attends Community Education Partners School. The footage they created is interspersed with interviews with their families and teachers and other footage taken by Martin and his crew. The result is an intimate and fascinating glimpse into the lives of two pretty average kids, including their families, schools and day-to-day emotions and desires. The film also has a surprisingly poetic aspect to it, capturing magical urban moments like brick city blocks in the glow of dusk and the light from the moon and streetlights falling on stray cats. As a whole, the film works as an interesting and moving record of Philadelphia community life at the beginning of the 21st century. -- Noelle Reilly
SCREENING EVENT:
Saturday, April 5th at 7pm at International House 37th and Chestnut St.
SCREENING EVENT:
Saturday, April 12th at 2pm at The Prince Theater
Produced and Edited by Eugene Martin, Associate Director of the Media Education Lab
Directed by Dennis Midiri, Ebony Graves, Tracy Periera, Ron Mears, Jr., and Eugene MartinLink to purchase tickets: http://www.phillyfests.com/pff/film-details.cfm?id=7535
Film website: http://www.videodiaries.org
Kelly Mendoza, a doctoral student in the Mass Media and Communication program, was recently honored by leaders in the cable television industry for her paper, "Mapping Parental Mediation and Making Connections with Media Literacy."
Her scholarship provides a theoretical review of the recent literature on parental mediation and parental intervention in children’s media use. Mendoza offers a critique of research methods and a map that articulates the relationship between media literacy and parental mediation. This paper is of interest to those interested in developing innovative approaches to reach parents about their important role in managing media and technology use in the home.
The Media Smart Research Awards program is a program sponsored by Cable in the Classroom. By publicizing and supporting the research of emerging media literacy scholars, Cable in the Classroom helps expand the knowledge base on the status and effectiveness of media literacy.
Kelly presented her research to an audience of leaders in the field of cable television and education at a special event held at the Mayflower Hotel in Washington, D.C. on March 25, 2008. She received a cash award of $2000 and a crystal plaque. Congratulations, Kelly!
For more information: http://mediaeducationlab.com/index.php?page=273
On Wednesday, February 6, students in SCT's Film and Media Arts Department had the chance to meet with and ask questions of a cinematographer and director when the professionals visited Annenberg Hall and screened some of their work.
Cinematographer Tas Michos spoke to a cinematography class, showed clips and conducted a lighting demo in a filmmaking course, and gathered with students for a question and answer session in the Joe First Media Center. He has worked on numerous blockbuster films, including Perfect Stranger, Freedomland, and Mona Lisa Smile.
Also on campus was writer, producer and director Celia Fox, who showed her not-yet-released film, Days of Wrath, staring Wilmer Valderrama, Laurence Fishburne and Taye Diggs. After screening the film, Fox took questions from the students which ranged from where she got her inspiration to how she made sure the characters were translated accurately from the page to the big screen.
Below, Tas Michos and Celia Fox during their respective visits.
[Photos by Frank Sauerwald]
This winter, major upgrades were made to the post production space in Annenberg Hall. Though students have access to the Tech Center equipment and software to work on editing projects, this renovation will allow them to do more of their work in a professional space within the School of Communications and Theater.
The post production space is composed of three different areas: the post production lab, post production classroom, and seven audio suites. The updated classroom space is configured in an open design, providing room for enhanced collaboration. The post production lab, connected directly to the classroom, is home to dub racks, telesyne and editing stations that provide the foundation for making professional-caliber projects.
In addition to the post production updates, classroom A002 and lab 310 received new IMac computers, fitted with both Windows and Mac platforms, allowing students and professors to use the programs that best suit their needs. Furthermore, the PCs at the teaching podiums throughout the building were upgraded to Dell Optiplex 775 computers.Below, post production and computer lab manager Ritch James works in the lab space.
Below, the newly renovated post production classroom space is laid out with professional work stations in an open atmosphere.
Congratulations go out to our Film and Media Arts Department for its stellar
mention in the 2nd edition of Film School Confidential: An Insider's Guide to Film School.
The authors' entry on Temple notes the department's "conservatory" approach to learning, with professors who are also film professionals, access to a wide variety of professional equipment and the TECH Center, and Temple's prime location in the heart of the nation's 4th-largest media market.
Congratulations also to the SCT equipment office and technical staff, praised for always striving to keep cameras well-maintained and for making sure "students get what they need."
The Middle Eastern nation of Qatar, a peninsula on the Arabian Gulf, is the home of Al Jazeera, the influential satellite television news network started in 1996 to bring quality news reporting to the Arab-speaking world. But it was also recently the site of an innovative effort to bring critical thinking about mass media and popular culture to the children and youth of that country, in a program developed by SCT Professor Renee Hobbs.
The Media Literacy Institute for Educators was held on December 11 – 12, 2007 in Doha, Qatar, and represented the first-ever teacher education program for media literacy in the Middle East. The program included more than 40 educators from primary, secondary and tertiary sectors. Educators came from Qatar Academy, Qatar Leadership Academy, the Um Ayman School, the Al-Shaima Governmental School and Qatar University. It was sponsored by the Qatar Foundation and was developed as a result of the influential March 2007 UNESCO Conference on Global Literacy for the Middle East in Qatar.
The Media Literacy Institute for Educators was designed to enable educators to understand key concepts of media literacy and integrate innovative instructional practices into their work with students. “When teachers help children and youth respond to mass media and popular culture and to create their own messages using digital media, they strengthen critical thinking and communication skills,” said Professor Hobbs. To accomplish this, the program used a wide range of instructional practices, including screenings and discussion, small group work, role playing/simulation, media production, and the presentation of model lessons with analysis. While some participants were accustomed to the innovative instructional practices used, for others, these practices were new and unfamiliar, since many teachers in the Middle East rely on lecturing as the dominant mode of instruction.
Participants gave the program high marks, judging it a success. Said Dr. Rana Sobh of the Department of Management and Marketing at Qatar University, “I learned that media literacy doesn’t only involve the ability to “read” the impact of the message, but also involves the “writing” or creation of media content in order to understand the complexity of media as a cultural and social tool.”
“I learned as an individual how to evaluate media,” said Sudha Konnanath, a librarian at Qatar Academy. “As a mother, I learned how to teach my children to be media literate. As a librarian, I learned how to make students aware of media literacy and I learned how to help teachers implement media literacy skills.”
Hobbs will continue to develop global outreach initiatives to the Middle East, as the Media Education Lab at Temple University has been invited to be a participating member of the Alliance of Civilizations media education initiative, to be inaugurated at a conference hosted by the President of Spain in January, 2008. The Secretary-General of the United Nations has launched this global initiative, co-sponsored by the Prime Ministers of Spain and Turkey. Professor Hobbs will speak at the event, which brings together political leaders, representatives of international and regional bodies, donor agencies, civil society groups and foundations to explore ways of addressing the growing polarization between nations and cultures worldwide and develop partnerships to promote cross-cultural understanding globally.
It was a time for celebration on Friday, December 14, when students of Eugene Martin’s Community Media Production class held a screening in co-operation with The Village of Arts and Humanities here on Temple’s campus. More than 150 people from the local neighborhood joined with Temple students and faculty for a celebration of video, music and dance.
Works from the undergraduate class in Community Media were screened, along with video works and dance pieces produced by local teens from the Village. In this innovative community-university partnership, Temple students learned how creative media production activities can create a bridge between themselves and the teens in North Philadelphia.
Teens from the Village of Arts and Humanities created a narrative video, “Dreaming,” a magical story about a boy who is frustrated at home. He wants to be treated like an adult. After an altercation with an adult, he becomes an adult—and then realizes he wants the simplicity and security of childhood.
In addition to supporting production of the teen-produced video, Temple students created their own video documentary about the making of the teen-produced video as part of their coursework. "For Temple students, experience of field-site work completely shatters the glass wall between these two worlds," noted filmmaker Eugene Martin, a BTMM lecturer who developed the course as part of the undergraduate Honors program. "Students lost their inhibitions and fears about people in the neighborhood by making important connections to local youth and their families."
At the Temple University Young Alumni’s 10th Annual Business Card Exchange on November 8, Michael R. Gozzard (RTF ’96) received the Diamond Excellence Award. Gozzard, a screenwriter, producer and director based in Hollywood, wrote the screenplay for Pride, which starred Terrence Howard and Bernie Mac and debuted in the Top 10 of the U.S. box office on the weekend of March 23, 2007.
Before turning to screenwriting full time, Gozzard was the senior VP of development for Fortress Entertainment, as well as a story editor for Morgan Freeman’s production company, Revelations Entertainment. He helped develop such films as Bruce Almighty and Million Dollar Baby.
Another SCT alumnus, Jim Smith, Jr. (JOUR '94), presented a lecture on business networking at the event, and then ran the guests through a speed networking workshop. Smith is a motivational speaker and trainer, and is president and CEO of JIMPACT enterprises, Inc.
A new service from the Communication Institute of Online Scholarship (CIOS) ranks leading programs in Communication and Journalism across an array of research areas and topics. Rankings are based on faculty publication records and departmental affiliation for those faculty.
Departments in the School of Communication obtained a total of nine Top Ten rankings in eight different research specialties.
Specifically, Broadcasting, Telecommunications and Mass Media (BTMM) was ranked No. 7 in Critical Theory, No. 9 in Demographics research and No. 9 in Visualization. Journalism was ranked No. 3 in mass communication research on the Pacific Rim, No. 6 in mass communication research on Asia, No. 9 in Visualization and No. 10 in Intercultural research. Strategic and Organizational Communication (STOC) was ranked No. 9 in both Public Relations and Presidential Figures.
The School of Communications and Theater Doctoral Program in Mass Media and Communication recently ranked 10th in the 2005 Faculty Scholarly Productivity Index, as reported in The Chronicle of Higher Education on January 12, 2007.
This September, BTMM professor Renee Hobbs will join colleagues from American University to release the findings of their report, The Cost of Copyright Confusion for Media Literacy. Evidence from 63 intensive interviews with educators at colleges and universities, K-12 schools and after-school youth media programs reveals that while media literacy educators rely on copyrighted materials for their teaching, ignorance of copyright laws negatively affects their ability to present such media material to their classes.
Hobbs will join a panel of scholars to discuss these issues at a conference at American University’s Washington College of Law on Tuesday, September 25, at 2 p.m. Panelists will address questions such as:
- What do teachers know (and don’t know) about copyright?
- How does copyright confusion limit the quality of student learning?
- What are effective solutions to this problem?
The conference will be webcast at www.wcl.american.edu/go/medialit. For those who would like to attend the free event in Washington, D.C., please register at www.wcl.american.edu/secle/cle_form.cfm.
For more information on Renee Hobbs or the Media Education Lab at Temple, visit www.mediaeducationlab.com.
Jarice Hanson, Temple’s Verizon Chair in Telecommunications, served as the moderator for four expert panelists at WHYY’s “Digital Democracy and Freedom of Speech” webconference on October 9. The conference, which is accessible online across the globe, addressed questions such as:
- Can today’s digital technologies improve the average citizen’s ability to exercise their freedom of speech?
- Has the United States government created institutional structures and a bureaucracy that encourages or discourages open dialogue in a virtual state?
- Has the intersection of public policy and technology created a soapbox or a minefield for the negotiation of freedom of speech and access to information for all?
Hanson is the author of 17 books, including 24/7: How Cell Phones and the Internet Change the Way We Live, Work, and Play.
To date, more 12,000 have access the webconference at www.whyy.org/digitaldemocracy. It will be posted until December 31, 2007.
This fall semester, The School of Communications and Theater will host two special lectures in Mitten Hall’s Great Court.
The Martel Leadership Lecture will take place on Thursday, September 27, at 4 p.m., and will feature Dr. Kenneth Dautrich. A professor of public policy at the University of Connecticut, Dautrich will speak on “The Future of the First Amendment: Building Leadership in a Democratic Society."
Jean Chatzky will be the featured speaker at the Charles and Elaine Sherman Lecture on Thursday, October 11, at 4 p.m. Chatzky is the financial editor for NBC’s Today and is a money coach for Oprah’s “Debt Diet” series. The Pennsylvania Association of Broadcasters will host a complimentary reception in Mitten Hall following this lecture.
The SCT lectures are free and open to all students, faculty and staff.
An impressive group of School of Communications and Theater alumni were recently nominated in numerous categories of two of the Philadelphia regions biggest annual awards: The Barrymores and The Mid-Atlantic Emmys.
The Barrymore Awards honor those Philadelphia theater artists who have both achieved excellence in and increased awareness of local theater. The following five alumni from the Theater Department received nominations this year:
Jerald Forsythe (MFA ’86): Outstanding Lighting Design, two nominations (Dex and Julie Sittin’ in a Tree, Arden Theatre Company; The Pillowman, The Wilma Theater)
Millie Hiibel (MFA ’02): Outstanding Costume Design (La Ronde, Lantern Theater Company)
David O’Connor (MFA ’07): Best Director and Best Overall Production of a Play (“Master Harold”…and the boys, Lantern Theater Company)
Christie Parker (MFA ’98): Outstanding Leading Across in a Play (Desdemona, Othello, Philadelphia Shakespeare Festival)
Janus Stefanowicz (MFA ’89): Outstanding Costume Design, two nominations (The Tempest, Villanova Theatre; The Life of Galileo, The Wilma Theater)
The School of Communications and Theater also had an impressive showing on the nominations list of the 2007 Mid-Atlantic Emmy Awards. SCT’s nominees are:
Vince DeMentri (RTF '87): Magazine Program or Special (Host/Reporter, NBC10 Investigates); Public/Current/Community Affairs Program or Special (Anchor, “Making a Safer City: New Hope for a New Year," NBC10)
Sean Murphy (RTF ’91): Feature News Report (Reporter/Producer, “Hardcore Electric Violin Inventor,” CBS3); Historic/Cultural Program Feature or Segment (Reporter, “A Philadelphia Tribute to Martin Luther King,” The CW Philly)
Mike Strug (COMM & THEA ’64): Reporter (Feature, Human Interest); Reporter (General Assignment); General Assignment Report (Reporter, “Soldier’s Mom Murdered,” NBC10); Crime News (Reporter, “Cop Remembers Mumia,” NBC10); Feature News Report (Reporter, “Street Musicians,” NBC 10)
Bill Vargus (RTF ’80): Anchor (Sports) (Fox29)
Michelle Williams (JOUR ’88): Feature News Report (Producer, “Terror Bricks,” Fox29); Business/Consumer News Feature or Series (Reporter, “Fear of Flying,” Fox29)
Marc Zumoff (RTF ’92): Sports Analyst/Play-by-Play (Comcast SportsNet)
The Mid-Atlantic Emmy winners will be announced on September 15 and The Barrymore winners will be announced on October 1.
Temple University and the Multimedia Urban Reporting Lab (MURL) at TUCC were mentioned in a recent issue of Quill, published by the Society for Professional Journalists. Tom Petner was also quoted extensively.
Three Temple MFA graduate students recently received major national and international awards in student filmmaking.
Derailed, a film by Scott Calvert, received the Eastman Scholar Gold Award, America’s highest student film award. Diorama, by Ben Kalina and Tom Quinn, was the winner of the Best Feature Grand Prize at the Sehsuechte International Film Festival in Germany, which is Europe’s largest international student film festival. According to FMA Chair Warren Bass, this places Temple at number 1 among the world’s top film schools in 2007, as these awards are each important indexes of the quality of student filmmaking.
All three awardees studied Cinematography and Screen Directing with Bass, who has had more students receive national Eastman Scholar Awards than any other film professor — or film school — in the nation.
MFA student Phally Chroy was one of just four students nationwide to receive a Fulbright-mtvU Fellowship. The new program is designed to extend the benefits of the traditional Fulbright to scholars conducting international research on the social power of music.
In September, Chroy will travel to Cambodia, where he will film a documentary about the resurgence of the music that was nearly eradicated during the years that the Khmer Rouge ruled the country.
“There was never a question about why I wanted to do this project,” said Chroy. “I just had to do it. I’m excited about the opportunity to preserve something that is almost gone. For a long time, I have felt a personal responsibility to tell the story of this music.”
Chroy, like his fellow awardees, will share his experiences during his year abroad via blogs, podcasts and video reports on mtvU and mtvU.com. In addition to the funding from the fellowship, Chroy will also receive all the video equipment he will need to make his documentary.
Candidates for the Fulbright-mtvU Fellowship were reviewed and recommended by a panel of musicians including Fiona Apple, Common and the Shins’ James Mercer. Final selections were made by the presidentially appointed Fulbright Foreign Scholarship Board.
For more information or to apply for an upcoming Fulbright-mtvU Fellowship, visit https://us.fulbrightonline.org/thinking_mtv.html.
Alan Kosher says that to hold a job like his, one has to “go with the flow. You have to be ready to adapt.” For the past five years, Kosher, THEA ’69, has served as company manager for Disney’s touring musical The Lion King. In his 27-year career, he has managed more than 25 Broadway touring productions and traveled over a million miles. Although he started out working in the box office of Philadelphia’s Forrest Theatre immediately following his Temple graduation, he began life as a company manager on Christmas Eve of 1980; more proof, indeed, that flexibility is an integral component to success in the theater management business.
Asked about a typical day in his job, a laughing Kosher responds, “There’s no such thing as ‘typical’ in this business.” Basically, he says, he manages all the finances and logistics of the touring company, including its 109 cast and crew members. That means making everyone feel comfortable in new homes and new offices whenever the company moves to a different city.
Kosher says that before he entered college, he knew that although he wanted a career in the theater, he didn’t want it to involve acting or directing. He adds that during his undergraduate days it was Professor David Hale who was “instrumental not only guiding my academic path, but in allowing me to explore various aspects of management while at Temple.” Kosher’s memory of those days — and his knowledge that today there are many students like him — inspired him to created the Alan Kosher Fund in Temple’s School of Communications and Theater.
“Few people know that positions such as this exist. Everybody wants to be an actor because they think they have the talent; everybody wants to be a designer because they think they have the talent; some want to be technicians because they think they have the skill. I always knew there had to a place for someone like me who has neither talent nor skill,” he says with the same dry wit that peppers his conversation. “My talent and skill is in organization and logistics.”
The fund will enable the selected student to experience a one-week student internship with a first-class theatrical touring company, such as Disney's production of The Lion King.
“I thought it would be interesting for students to observe the practical side of the business,” he says, “This is a major part of the industry that just isn’t well known, but is very vital. This is especially true for shows that travel, as the company manager handles all the touring logistics. I’m so fortunate that I have been given a role in educating Temple’s students about this.”
Though he admits that the pace of life on the road is frenetic, Kosher says he wouldn’t trade his career for anything. He daily enjoys the excitement of live theater, and his career affords him the opportunity to travel throughout the country and work with nationally recognized theater talents.
Two years ago, in May of 2005, Kosher was honored by Broadway when the League of American Theatres and Producers presented him with the Career Achievement Award for Touring Broadway Theater.
Philadelphia sports legend Dick Vermeil will receive the Excellence in Media Award at the 2007 Lew Klein Alumni in the Media Awards, which will take place on October 30, 2007. Vermeil, a longtime football coach who led the 1980 Eagles to the Super Bowl, was selected for his prestigious career in sports broadcasting and his distinguished community service.
Six alumni from the School of Communications and Theater will also be inducted into the School’s Hall of Fame. They are: Barbara Attie, ’96, documentary filmmaker; Bill Daly, ’77, senior vice president of post production at Warner Brothers; John Dotson, Jr., ’58, Pulitzer Prize-winning newspaper publisher; Bob Pantano, ’71, WOGL radio personality; Linda Munich, ’75, vice president of public affairs at WPVI; and Marc Rayfield, ’85, vice president and general manager of WIP.
Amy Caples, an alumna, Philadelphia broadcaster and faculty member at SCT, will serve as master of ceremonies for the event, which will be held in the Great Court in Mitten Hall on Tuesday, October 30, from 11:30 a.m. to 1:30 p.m.
To purchase tickets or for more information, please contact Natalie Wisdo at 215-204-3055 or natalie.wisdo@temple.edu.
Congratulations to Tracy Pereira, BTMM MA grad and current FMA MFA student, who was recently awarded the Fred Rogers Memorial Scholarship.
Every year the Academy of Television Arts & Sciences, in association with Ernst & Young LLP, awards two upper division undergrad or graduate students scholarships of $10,000 each to pursue a career in children's media that furthers the values and principles of Fred Rogers' work.
The recipients demonstrate a commitment, either through coursework or experience, to any combination of at least two of the following fields: early childhood education, child development/child psychology, film/television production, music, animation. The recipients also indicate their intention of working in the field of children's media.
For more information, click here.
Tracy's project is based on a the concept of an interactive video blog initiated by various children from different countries across the world who would (ideally) be given video cameras and computers to record their lives / loves / hopes / dreams. Tracy is interested in studying communication between children on a global scale that would further goals of traditional and non-traditional literacy, expression, empowerment and interaction. BTMM professor Eugene Martin served as advisor.
The funding from AMPAS will allow Professor Martin to greatly expand his Community Media Production course to include Master Classes and Workshops for Editing and Cinematography. Funding will also be used for a Guest Speaker series on Documentary Filmmaking.
The impact on the quality of the students' education and the understanding and insights they will gain on their careers will be invaluable.
To read the full story, click here.
Temple faculty member Renee Hobbs, one of the nation’s leading experts on media literacy education, has received a $600,000 grant from the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation to tackle one of the thorniest issues in her profession: In this age of burgeoning digital media and litigious intellectual property owners, how can educators effectively teach students how to analyze mass media without the threat of lawsuits every time an image, audio clip or video clip is used in class?
Hobbs, director of Temple’s Media Education Lab and an associate professor of communication in the School of Communications and Theater, and her co-investigators, Patricia Aufderheide of American University’s School of Communication and Peter Jaszi of American University’s Washington College of Law, will use the grant over the next two years to develop and distribute a “code of best practices” that reflects the emerging consensus among educators concerning the application of fair use and copyright clearance to media literacy education.
The Mass Media and Communication (MM&C) doctoral program at Temple University’s School of Communications and Theater has been ranked among the 10 leading PhD programs in mass communication and media studies at top research universities. The list of top research universities in the 2005 Faculty Scholarly Productivity Index was compiled by Academic Analytics, a company owned partially by the State University of New York at Stony Brook, and published in The Chronicle of Higher Education.
Temple joins Penn State, the University of Wisconsin at Madison, New York University, and Northwestern in the top 10. Traditionally, communications programs have not been evaluated and ranked by publications like U.S. News & World Report or the National Research Council.
“We’re proud that Temple University’s Mass Media and Communication program stands with such prestigious peer institutions,” said Concetta M. Stewart, dean of the School of Communications and Theater. “Raising the research profile of the School has been a priority, and our faculty and students have been working toward this goal by pursuing exceptional scholarship and research.”
The 2005 Faculty Scholarly Productivity Index by Academic Analytics is a comprehensive ranking that quantitatively measures the overall productivity of faculty by measuring the number of publications, the amount of grant dollars awarded, and honors and awards received.
Temple University is a comprehensive public research university in Philadelphia, Pa. with more than 34,000 students in 17 schools and colleges. Temple’s School of Communications and Theater (SCT), located in the nation’s fourth-largest media market, is among the most comprehensive schools of communication in the nation. SCT’s doctoral program in Mass Media and Communication (MM&C) is an interdepartmental program consisting of 15 faculty members from five departments.
School of Communications and Theater alumni Diane Heery ’76 and Jim Smith ’94 were inducted into Temple University’s Gallery of Success on Sunday, October 29 during the University’s 2006 Homecoming celebration weekend. The Gallery of Success, which is sponsored by the Temple University General Alumni Association and Career Development Services, honors alumni who have attained success through their professional accomplishments and will serve as an inspiration to current Temple students. Two alumni from each of Temple’s 17 schools and colleges are inducted each year.
Diane Heery, founder of Heery Casting, Inc., earned a bachelor’s degree in theater in 1976. She has acted in and directed more than 25 regional and touring shows and movies. Over the past 14 years, Diane has cast principal actors in several independent and studio films, including Jersey Girl, The Sixth Sense, and Rocky Balboa.
Jim Smith earned his master’s degree in journalism in 1994. He founded JIMPACT Enterprises, an organization that focuses on leadership, personal and professional development, diversity, and development of professional trainers, speakers, and facilitators. Previously, Jim spent 16 years in corporate training and development positions. He is the author of From Average to Awesome: 41 Plus Gifts in 41 Plus Years.
MURL Building Blocks is one of 10 innovative community news experiments to receive 2006 funding from New Voices, a project of J-Lab: The Institute for Interactive Journalism. Building Blocks, which was selected from 185 applicants, will partner Temple journalism students with residents of an under-covered Philadelphia neighborhood and public broadcaster WHYY-TV to push hyperlocal newscasts.
MURL is the cornerstone of the Journalism Department's mission to better tell stories in the under-covered and under-served neighborhoods of Philadelphia and to educate students for careers in journalism across media platforms.
For more information on MURL, visit http://www.temple.edu/murl/
At a promotion for the inspirational film “Pride,” based on the story of swim coach Jim Ellis, actors gathered on a swimming pool blue carpetl. Among the first on the carpet was Michael Gozzard, one of the screenwriters and a Temple University graduate. "This is amazing," he said beneath the twinkling lights, a searchlightprobing the skyscrapers. "I left Philadelphia with two bags and a dream to be a screenwriter.”
Congratulations to alumnus Vince Manze '01, who was recently named president of program planning, scheduling, and strategy at NBC Entertainment. The new position was created specifically for Manze, who was previously president and creative director of NBC Agency. Read the full Variety.com article here.