Huge book sale!Ã‚Â Break up the long cold winter by looking over hundreds of books to read while waiting for spring.
SUNY Oswego theater students work with crew from The Acting Company in February on the set shared by productions of Shakespeare's "Hamlet" and Tom Stoppard's tragicomedy "Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead." The Acting Company has chosen SUNY Oswego to lead one of four regional consortiums in the famed touring troupe's new three-year performance and education initiative, featuring the Bard's "Julius Caesar" and a new play by Marcus Gardley based on the assassination of Malcolm X.
OSWEGO — The Acting Company has chosen SUNY Oswego as one of four lead institutions to participate in a new national performance and education initiative made up of colleges and universities, high schools and community organizations.
SUNY Oswego theater students work with crew from The Acting Company in February on the set shared by productions of Shakespeare’s “Hamlet” and Tom Stoppard’s tragicomedy “Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead.” The Acting Company has chosen SUNY Oswego to lead one of four regional consortiums in the famed touring troupe’s new three-year performance and education initiative, featuring the Bard’s “Julius Caesar” and a new play by Marcus Gardley based on the assassination of Malcolm X.
Under the lead of SUNY Oswego, Arizona State University, Towson University and University of Missouri-Kansas City, each consortium will offer professional development opportunities with playwrights, actors, designers, directors and educators over the next three years.
Partnering with SUNY Oswego in the Northeastern consortium are Hamilton College, Hobart and William Smith colleges and Le Moyne College.
“We’re delighted that our partnering colleges have been selected to participate in this groundbreaking regional residency model,” said John Shaffer, director of arts presentation at SUNY Oswego. “Over three years, there will be many opportunities to support both theater education and a broad range of initiatives in the humanities. The energy comes from the intentional pairing of plays — one classic and the other newly commissioned.”
Shaffer said representatives of The Acting Company and the four collegiate partners in the Northeast consortium are scheduled to gather for a planning conference Oct. 20 in SUNY Oswego’s Marano Campus Center, as part of the first year’s design and development process.
Oswego audiences will remember February’s residency and performances by The Acting Company — “Hamlet” and “Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead” — at Waterman Theatre on campus.
The new consortiums’ initial performance and educational activities will focus on Shakespeare’s “Julius Caesar” and a new play by Marcus Gardley based on the assassination of Malcolm X. The Acting Company commissioned the new play to launch the project.
“Race, religion, power, politics and rhetoric are central to both plays,” said Margot Harley, co-founder and producer of The Acting Company. “Ian Belknap, our artistic director, chose this repertory to encourage faculty to examine the causes and repercussions of assassination from historical, political and philosophical perspectives.”
Gardley is a multiple award-winning poet and playwright and a professor at Brown University. His play “On the Levee” was nominated for 11 Audelco Awards, including outstanding playwright, when it premiered at Lincoln Center in 2010.
The new initiative is designed to forge long-term relationships among The Acting Company, colleges and communities-at-large.
“This new initiative continues The Acting Company’s 42-year history as America’s leading national-touring repertory theater while adding new emphasis on developing concentrated and sustained relationships with schools and communities,” according to Earl D. Weiner, the company’s board chair.
Founded by Harley and the late John Houseman in 1972, the New York-based Acting Company has toured to 48 states and 10 foreign countries, earning a Tony Award for Excellence in Theater, Obies, Audelcos and Los Angeles Critics Circle Awards.
Actors Kevin Kline, Rainn Wilson, Patti LuPone, Cristin Milioti, David Ogden Stiers and Jesse L. Martin are among the hundreds of performers who began their careers on tour with The Acting Company.
ALBANY (April 20, 2010)â€” The Senate Agriculture Committee today voted to reduce taxes, fees and mandates for farmers and against a bill that would add new regulations and labor expenses. Sen. Darrel J. Aubertine as chair of the committee said todayâ€™s votes show a commitment to New Yorkâ€™s number one industry.
â€œTodayâ€™s votes were in support of our agriculture industry, the farmers, the farm workers and the consumers who enjoy locally grown, high quality and fresh New York produce,â€ Sen. Aubertine said. â€œOur farms are a critical piece of our economy, our stability, our security and our future. Protecting the bottom line for our farms is the best way to ensure that we have a safe, stable food supply that is produced responsibly here in New York.â€
The committee reported out the much needed Farmer Tax, Fee and Mandate Relief Act (S.6782) and voted down the hotly debated Farm Worker Fair Labor Practices Act (S.2247). The meeting was held at 9:30 a.m. in Hearing Room B of the Legislative Office Building.
The Farmer Tax, Fee and Mandate Relief Act, sponsored by Sen. Aubertine, will alleviate some of the costs and regulations that limit profitability and burden farmers.
This bill will help farmers ensure their land is recognized as part of an agricultural district, obtain tax credits for farm investments, exempt farm wineries from sales tax reporting requirements, ease corporation filing fees for farmers, ease payroll tax and vehicle supplemental registration fees within the Metropolitan Transit Authority service region, and reduce permit fees with the Department of Environmental Conservation.
â€œThis bill will help farmers to raise their bottom line and increase the profitability of our farms,â€ Sen. Aubertine said. â€œFarmers are struggling in a system where they cannot set the price for their milk, fruits and vegetables to cover their costs, so the best way for us at the state level to help our farmers is to reduce costs. This bill addresses several different issues which will help our farms stay in business.â€
The Farmworker Fair Labor Practices Act would have imposed new regulations and mandates on farms large and small, with or without full-time employees, as well as add new costs such as additional overtime expenses.
Sen. Aubertine visited farms and met with agricultural interests across the state last fall to discuss agriculture issues, including this legislation, and held a public hearing in Watertown that included discussion on the issue.
The Senate Agriculture Committee held a public hearing on March 1 exclusively on this legislation to gather input from supporters and critics of the bill.
â€œThis bill would have a dramatic negative impact on consumers, farm workers, and farmers in New York State,â€ Sen. Aubertine said. â€œWe have taken every step to ensure that there has been a full, open and healthy discussion on this legislation before we vote on it. In this situation, we are seeing the process work. What must come out of this discussion is legislation that helps farmers, farm workers and consumers alike. I am of the opinion that this legislation does not accomplish that goal, and the vote today was a vote in support of farm workers, consumers and farmers alike.â€
â€œWe need to do everything we can to support agriculture and our Upstate economy,â€ said Sen. Catharine M. Young, Ranking Minority Member of the committee. â€œOur farmers already operate under many costly and burdensome regulations. Our farm workers are protected under these regulations and for that reason I am voting no. We need to do everything we can to rebuild the economy and that means doing what we can to support agriculture.â€
â€œOur agricultural industry is one of the driving forces of the state’s economy,â€ said Sen. David J. Valesky of Oneida. â€œThough well-intentioned, I believe this legislation would irreparably damage the industry’s viability and hurt the very workers it seeks to protect. We must enforce the laws that are already on the books, not add new regulations that burden law-abiding farmers.â€
“The farm families of New York Farm Bureau are hugely grateful to Senator Aubertine for his leadership during debate of this bill that surely would’ve wrecked our industry,” said Dean Norton, president of New York Farm Bureau. “Senator Aubertine led a careful and thorough debate that gave full consideration of the viewpoints of the agricultural community. We spoke out loud and large against this bill and Senator Aubertine heard our voice. We are hopeful that from here on out, Albany takes on legislationâ€”including the Farm Tax, Fee and Mandate Relief Actâ€”that will help our industry prosper and grow to the benefit of the Upstate rural economy and the farm towns of Long Island.”
FULTON, NY – Financial donations and volunteer help are needed for this year’s Community Thanksgiving Dinner to be held on November 22 from noon until 2 p.m. at First United Church of Fulton at 33 S. Third St., Fulton.
The free sit-down dinner is open to everyone and features a complete Thanksgiving menu and an opportunity for good food and fellowship.
Checks can be sent to the First United Church of Fulton, 33 S. Third St., Fulton, NY 13069; interested volunteers may call dinner chairperson Carol Dexter at (315) 592-5162.
An organizing committee consisting of representatives of several Fulton churches and the Salvation Army is busy planning the seventh annual dinner.
”It has become such a community effort and a wonderful holiday tradition,” Dexter explained. “More than 200 meals were served last year.”
The Fulton Lions Club installed its new slate of officers for 2011-12 and presented club awards for the 2010-11-club year at their June 9 meeting.
The 2011-12 Fulton Lions Club officers and board members installed at the club’s June 11 meeting are, from front left: Robert “Chip” Pierce, second vice president; James Sokolowski, president; and David Dingman, first vice president. Back row, from left: Charles McIntyre, tail twister; Kenneth Ruscitto, third vice president; Theresa Stephens, treasurer; Jacqueline Zaborowski, secretary; Michelle Stanard, assistant secretary; Brett Tallents, two-year director; Fred Aldrich, immediate past president; and Leonard Kellogg, past president and Melvin Jones Fellowship Award winner.
James Sokolowski succeeds Fred Aldrich as president. Other officers installed included: David Dingman, first vice president; Robert Pierce, second vice president; Kenneth Ruscitto, third vice president; Jacqueline Zaborowski, secretary; and Theresa Stephens, treasurer. Other officers installed include: Steve Chirello, membership chair; Michelle Stanard, assistant secretary; Deana Michaels, assistant treasurer; Ronald Browning, lion tamer; John Hansen, assistant lion tamer; Charles McIntyre, tail twister; Kathleen Knopp, assistant tail twister; Brett Tallents and William Conners, two-year directors; and McIntyre and Leonard Kellogg, one-year directors. Lion Robert Seibert of Liverpool, past Lions International director and past district governor, presided over the installation.
“Three outstanding Lions received some of Lions Clubs International’s most prestigious awards,” Sokolowski said. “Leonard Kellogg was the recipient of a Melvin Jones Fellowship Award, Steve Chirello received the Distinguished Service Award and Jesse Yardley received a Presidential Citation.
“A Melvin Jones Fellowship is the highest honor that Lions International can bestow. This award recognizes a person’s commitment to humanitarian service. Lion Kellogg, a past president and longstanding member, is always there to help on every project and he is an ‘anchorman’ for Lionism in Fulton.
Lion Past President Leonard Kellogg, right, receives Lions Clubs International’s Melvin Jones Fellowship from Fulton club President Fred Aldrich. A Melvin Jones Fellowship is the highest honor that Lions International can bestow, Aldrich said. This award recognizes a person’s commitment to humanitarian service.
“Lion Steve Chirello has been a member of the club for 29 years and has co-chaired our White Cane Sale for many of those years with his father, Past President Leo Chirello. In addition, Steve handles public relations for the club and chairs the Oswego Falls Park Clean-Up Project every year.
“Lion Yardley has been a member of the club for more than 27 years and has assisted or run our Sight and Hearing committee for much of that time. This year alone, our club has donated $7,000 in new eyeglasses and eye exams thanks to Jesse’s management of that program.
“Chartered in 1953, our club continues to be the largest and most active in our district with 50 active members. We look forward to our Labor Day Duck Derby to kick-off our next year of service to the greater Fulton community and our annual Lions Loot Sweepstakes in October.”