Arts & Events

At this time in a person’s life, it can be commonplace to wonder if you will make anything of yourself or if you are headed down the path to success. If your find yourself in this place, think about Puget Sound alumnus Ryan Payton and professor Jeff Matthews. Payton is an alumnus from the University, graduating in 2003, and was one of Matthews’ first students in the fall of 2000, when he began teaching here. Matthews described Payton as being “the best B- student ever had.” Matthews came to Puget...

By CASEY DEY Looking for a fun and festive way to spend an evening this holiday season? Head down to the Point Defiance Zoo and Aquarium to see Zoolights, an annual Christmas celebration combining the beauty of a nighttime light display with the appeal of a zoo and its many creatures. The first thing guests see as they walk up to the zoo entrance is a lighted “Zoolights” sign welcoming the cold and excited travelers inside. A Cheshire cat blinks on and off on the roof, its eerie grin remaining...

By OLIVIA PIERCE FREEMAN   It is well known that the University has a terrific music program. Perhaps not so well known, however, is that for those who feel they are not necessarily musically calibrated enough to be a performance major, the campus offers non-credit music instruction to the public through a program called Community Music. What’s more? Community Music provides its students with the opportunity to showcase their new music chops through various showcases throughout the school year. They have an upcoming recital on Dec. 20 at 7 p.m....

By SABINE GLOCKER   Although a short event, Tubachristmas was so highly anticipated and so crowded that people were sitting on the floor, standing against the wall and even listening in from the hallways. The audience was full of students, family members, community members, even children. The ensemble of tubas and euphoniums played 16 classic Christmas songs, including “Deck the Halls,” “Silent Night,” “Jingle Bells” and “Pat a Pan.” An ensemble of tubas and euphoniums is not one that is commonly heard. People are more used to hearing an entire...

By KATHRYN STUTZ   Last weekend’s Adelphian and Voci d’Amici masterpiece, A Winter’s Hope, showed off the vocal talents of the Puget Sound students involved, and served as a sort of Christian-flavored multi-faith holiday worship service for the greater Puget Sound community. The Saturday night performance, with the backdrop of Kilworth chapel’s gold-gilt pipe organ and the tall rain-streaked windows showing the lamp-lit grounds outside, felt heavily Victorian—a glimpse into the way songs could hold a community together in a very different time. The candlelit chandeliers and glowing Christmas tree...

By KATHRYN STUTZ   The final project of the students in Professor Jess Smith’s Directing Class, the One Acts Festival—beginning on Dec. 9—includes 15 different shows by 15 different directors. All of the plays, whether short dramas, monologues or scenes from larger works, will be spread out over the course of the three days. There will be five productions each night, creating an exciting and concentrated theatrical event in under an hour—no intermissions. “Half the class has been about learning: styles of visual storytelling, and figuring out how to block...

By SABINE GLOCKER   Guests were greeted by a long line full of family members of the performers and supportive students at Rausch Auditorium. The doors to the performance venue opened and the audience filled the room, leaving very few seats open once the show started. The audience filled the room with excited chatter as they waited the start of the show in anticipation. The lights dimmed and the co-presidents of Curtain Call Clara Sciortino and Emily Doyle walked onto the stage to introduce the show. The show consisted of...