When we think of theatrical productions, we usually imagine ourselves in the audience of an upscale theatre watching the magic of a well-written play unfold before us. We rarely consider what goes on behind the scenes and that is because, in a well-organized production, the technical aspects of producing a ghost in Shakespeare’s Hamlet or a rain storm in Lear seem to be effortless and natural. This is actually not the case, and it is well-trained theatre technicians such as Cal Poly Pomona alumna Roxanne Rosas who make it all happen. After all, without make-up artists, sound technicians, and light designers, our theatre experiences would be bland indeed.
Rosas got her first taste of life behind the curtain when she was in high school. After helping with lighting and scenery projects for her junior year theater program, she decided to pursue theater in college. At Cal Poly Pomona, Rosas excelled in theater production to the extent that she was honored as the Theater department’s Outstanding Graduate during Commencement 2005.
“I chose Cal Poly Pomona because it offers hands-on training,” she says, noting that her senior production gave her an opportunity to design a show and get a feel for the professional theater world. “The staff and faculty have all been professional artists at some time in their lives and their experience really helped create a true sense of what theater requires in the real world.”
With guidance from her professors, Rosas gained employment with Princess Cruise Lines as a production technician. As part of the crew of Cunard’s Queen Mary 2, she sails around the world, traveling along the coast of South America and to major cities in Europe and the Caribbean . Rosas’ main job is to assist with production for shows held in the Royal Court Theater , but she also helps with entertainment in the 15 other venues throughout the ship. With her fellow backstage technicians, she sets up lighting, sound, and equipment for lectures, shows and performances all over the ship.
“My normal day begins at 9 a.m. and ends at around midnight, when passengers are at their busiest,” says Rosas.
It might seem odd to sail around the world and work in theater production simultaneously, but Rosas has a larger goal for her career. The intensive, consuming experience she is accumulating aboard the Queen Mary 2 is teaching her what it takes to manage a large production. Being a member of a small team ensures Rosas will learn all aspects of her profession the Cal Poly Pomona way—by actually performing the tasks herself. She is not only learning what it takes to organize and produce large scale projects in a short amount of time, but she is also gathering the tools necessary to be a leader and designer in her industry.
According to Rosas, theater, art and literature are important to society.
“Entertainment is a key to happiness, and theater is a great way for artists to comment on society and humanity,” she says. “I’d love to become part of a company that will influence the world and promote arts as a daily part of every person’s self-expression.”
Originally Posted Cal Poly Pomona Alumni Spotlight
This article first appeared online here. Story and Photos courtesy Alumni Affairs
Michaela Brooks, a freshman kinesiology major, performs during a rehearsal.Cal Poly Pomona’s Institute of New Dance and Cultures is celebrating its 10th anniversary with a special Gala Concert on Nov. 30 and Dec. 1.
The event commemorates the milestone by bringing together student dancers with established choreographers in the Southern California dance community who are also past lecturers or alumni.
“It’s important for this gala to represent what the institute is about,” says Gayle Fekete, the gala’s artistic director. “We really enjoy the creative storytelling process through contemporary dance.”
The dance institute aims to be student-centered, culturally diverse and artistically inclusive. It has a humanistic, cross-cultural, interdisciplinary approach to the way art functions in society on a personal, local, national and global levels.
In this routine the dancers never leave their chairs, yet still manage to use the whole stage.The eight dances at the Gala Concert vary greatly offering several styles of dance and perspectives. Domestic violence and crimes against women are two topics addressed by the dramatic routines.
“Contemporary dance is progressive and embracing,” Fekete says. “Some of the pieces have political agendas and others offer insights into cultural and societal issues.”
The choreographers include Suchi Branfman, Phyllis Douglass, Kim Gregg, Carla Lubow, Valerie Vera-Mineer, Shyamala Moorty, David Mullen and Deborah Rosen.
Originally Posted Cal Poly Pomona Polycentric Week of 11/19/2006
This article first appeared online here. Story and Photos courtesy PolyCentric
SAN BERNARDINO – In the span of the last century, the city has evolved from a dusty trading hub to a thriving community of 200,000 people.
But one thing remained the same: No black person had ever risen to captain in the Police Department.
Until now.
Police Chief Michael Billdt promoted Ted Henson, a 29-year department veteran, to the rank of captain at Monday night’s City Council meeting.
Henson, a 52-year-old Colton resident and father of two daughters ages 10 and 12, was also the department’s first black lieutenant.
Henson said the color of his skin is of little significance. His promotion is based on his devotion to the job, specialized knowledge and people skills, he said.
“Results are what matter. Outcomes are what matter,” said the tall, soft-spoken and affable Henson in his new office at the Police Department.
As captain, Henson will oversee the department’s administrative support services division that encompasses the personnel and training unit, the financial unit, police dispatch, the records bureau, volunteer services and the police firing range.
Some are duties Henson is already familiar with. As a lieutenant, he supervised the personnel and training unit and oversaw the recruitment of new officers, one of the department’s main orders of business.
The city is embarking on a mission to hire about 26 new police officers in the next 30 months, an effort funded through Measure Z, a quarter-cent sales-tax increase that will also bring in money for youth programs.
The city funded 14 police officer positions before the passage of Measure Z in November. The 26 new positions will be funded through the sales-tax revenues, officials said.
Part of Henson’s role in cleaning up San Bernardino will be seeing to it that the expansion goal is met by the 2009 target date.
And with the number of officers expected to retire in the next five years, the Police Department will actually need to hire about 116 new officers, Henson said.
“That is a very, very Herculean task, given the fever-pitched competitiveness of police officer recruiting,” Henson said.
Billdt expressed no doubt that Henson will rise to the level of expectation.
“Capt. Henson is a steadfast and loyal professional who’s dedicated to the principles of our profession and to the community we serve,” Billdt said.
“We go back to the late ’70s together. We worked patrol together. We worked specialized details, including narcotics. We served in a variety of capacities, including sergeants. He’s well prepared to assume this new role with the agency.”
Although Henson downplays the historical significance of his promotion, others have voiced enthusiasm over it.
“This adds much needed diversity to the management structure (of the Police Department),” Rikke Van Johnson, the only black person on the City Council, said at Monday night’s council meeting.
Johnson said that Henson’s promotion makes the department “more reflective” of the community it serves.
Officer Michele Mahan, who has been working with Henson in the personnel and training division for about two months, praised her boss for being honest and fair.
“He gives his employees credit for the hard work they do, and he gives us honest feedback of our strengths and shortcomings, which I think is important for a leader,” said the 11-year veteran of the Police Department.
She also worked with Henson when he was commander of the department’s Eastern District substation.
The Rev. Reggie Beamon, a longtime community activist in San Bernardino, said Henson serves as a role model to the community’s black youth who are coming of age in the city.
“I think it is a real positive sign for our young people to look at the opportunity afforded an African-American,” Beamon said, adding that Henson isn’t one to stay cooped up in his office administering.
“I see him all the time. He’s a very visible person in our community, and I think we’ll be seeing him a lot more,” Beamon said. “And he’ll have a bigger voice for African-Americans in the community.”
During Monday night’s council meeting, the Council Chambers were packed with people solely attending on Henson’s behalf, including a number of black community leaders.
One, the Rev. Joshua Beckley of Ecclesia Christian Fellowship, said Henson’s promotion was a major step forward.
“This is really a positive step toward meeting the challenges the Police Department has long had in terms of reaching the African-American community,” Beckley said.
“Not only is this a great step in enforcement of the law, but in the all-important aspect of community relations,” he said. “One hundred and one years was a long time.”
Henson began his career as a patrol officer in 1977 and was promoted to detective in 1985. He became a sergeant in 1986, the same year he earned a master’s degree in public administration from the University of La Verne. Previously, he earned a bachelor of arts in political science from Cal Poly Pomona in 1982.
In 2002, Henson got his lieutenant’s bars in a promotion met by a $1.25 million reverse-discrimination lawsuit filed by Sgt. Dale Blackwell, who charged he was better qualified for the job and that Henson’s promotion was a bow to political demands for more diversity.
The lawsuit failed.
Henson looks at it as a natural tendency of competitiveness.
“When it comes time to go to the next level, people are going to compete to the best of their ability, and they’re going to prepare and prepare and prepare,” Henson said. “It’s a human quality, and some people just handle it in different ways.
“It’s a competitive process. Life is a competitive process.”
Henson becomes the Police Department’s third active captain, joining Steve Klettenberg and Walt Goggin, also both longtime department veterans.
For man who once considered a career as an elementary school teacher, it seems fitting that Henson chose still another aspect of public service.
“I have been blessed with this opportunity. I care about helping others,” Henson said. “It’s been very life-affirming to have the life I’ve had.”
29-year veteran first black to rise to rank of SBPD captain
Joe Nelson and Robert Rogers, Staff Writers for the Daily Bulletin
This article first appeared in the Daily Bulletin online here.
Contact writer Joe Nelson at (909) 386-3887 or via e-mail at joe.nelson@sbsun.com.
Contact writer Robert Rogers at (909) 386-3855 or via e-mail at robert.rogers@sbsun.com
Professor Bernardo Solano gives instructions to high school students taking part in the peer theatre program.
A Cal Poly Pomona youth theatre program has received funding to expand its programs for local teens to address youth issues.The Pomona Peer Theatre program recently received a $10,000 National Endowment for the Arts grant, making it the only university/school district partnership of its kind to receive funding in this grant cycle.
“It’s a competitive, nationwide grant, so we’re really happy to receive it and raise the profile of the program,” says theatre professor Bernardo Solano, who oversees the program.
The program is a six-year partnership between the Pomona Unified School District and Cal Poly Pomona. High school students meet weekly at the Cal Poly Pomona Downtown Center to work on their materials under the guidance of Solano and university students. The troupe writes, produces, and performs original plays about teen issues to hundreds of peers.
Theatre student Elizabeth Zimbrano, right, works with high school students.“There’s a benefit for all the students involved,” Solano says. “The university students get a total immersion into youth-based, issue-based theatre. They’re involved in a huge service-learning project that’s not just theoretical, but in the field. The high school students are given a lot of freedom to create a play about themselves and their issues. That’s very empowering because they’re involved from day one. These are issues they care about.”
Many of the students in Peer Theatre come from difficult backgrounds and use theatre as a method to express themselves. The youths write plays based on their own experiences and include difficult subjects like incest, date-rape, gang violence and suicide.
This year’s play, which has been in development since the beginning of the school year, will address abuse. By winter, rehearsals take place in preparation for performances in spring. The plays are premiered at the Peer Resources Summit, and then staged at the Cal Poly Pomona Downtown Center and in schools throughout the Pomona Unified School District.
Originally Posted Cal Poly Pomona Polycentric Week of 11/12/2006
This article first appeared online here. Story and Photos courtesy PolyCentric
