Category: Features

On September 17th at 7:00pm, eight theater-loving students and alumni, along with a helper and the production team, joined to create, write, memorize, and block two short ten to fifteen minute plays. 24 hours later, they performed both these plays to a live and virtual audience. These twenty-four hours were filled with chaos, creativity, and comradery, both as a whole, and within the groups that created each play.

I was a member of one of these groups and would love to share some of the experience with you. After some acting warm ups and games, the eight of us who signed up were split into two groups of a writer, director, and two actors. Then each group headed off to come up with a story from scratch, and find ways to include some strange and curious props in the process.

My group sat down and started throwing around ideas, while also trying to figure out how to include a watering can, a book, an old clock, and a metal bin in our story. After a bit of discussion, the idea of fairy tales and storytelling became ingrained in our fledgeling play, and there was no turning back. Magic relics quickly swallowed up our everyday props, from the Chalice of Ultimate Power… and Destiny, to the great viking warrior Rafthormoryor’s stump gauntlet (AKA the bin). A plot built slowly yet surely around these concepts, until before midnight we had the start of a script.

In the middle of this wonderful creation, each role—directors, writers, and actors—was called away for a special session to learn tips of the trade. After the sessions finished, each person returned to their groups. Soon some short—and rather messy—run-throughs of the plays commenced on stage before we each returned to our groups’ rooms, and some of us fell asleep. 

By morning, the scripts were complete and the process of final blocking and memorization began. We had about ten hours left. With breaks for food, and also rest for the mind body, we work our way to confident skill with our plays. 

Finally, we all gathered in the auditorium for the final rehearsal. This was the first time the groups had the opportunity to see each other perform. They blew each other away. I know for me sitting there watching the other group perform, I was left stunned, wondering how they had created this masterpiece in under 24 hours. Additionally, the producers also created and put on a fantastic skit of their own that we all enjoyed. After that, all we had left to do was wait, and double check our lines.

At long last, 7:00pm on September 18th rolled around, and we found ourselves in a dark auditorium with people there to view us. We climbed on stage, the spotlights turned on, and it was time.

I could describe the details of the fantastic performances put on that night. Or I could let you go watch it on the Eastern Fine and Performing Arts Facebook page. It is available freely to any who want to watch it, and I highly recommend you do. I’ve been told it was fun to watch, and it certainly was a blast to act in!

I bet you can guess what all of us involved in the project did once the lights came back on and the show was done. 

We went home and slept. 

“Midway upon the journey of our life, I found myself…” in a college dorm room watching a video lecture about Dante’s “Divine Comedy.” Yes, these haunting, yet compelling opening lines are from Dante’s “Inferno”—minus the college dorm room part.

Baylor University’s Honors College has partnered with Eastern’s Templeton Honors College and other schools across the country to bring fans of the “Divine Comedy” together. Self-proclaimed as “the world’s largest Dante reading group,” 100 Days of Dante is bringing readers of the 1300s poet together for a 100 day journey through the classical narrative. The project also includes schools such as the University of Dallas, Gonzaga University, Biola University and Whitworth University.

From Sept. 8, 2021 to Easter 2022, various teachers passionate about the “Comedy” will provide lectures for each canto in “Inferno,” “Purgatorio,” and “Paradiso.” They are covering three cantos a week (Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays) with videos to complement each one. Readers are encouraged to enjoy the cantos of the “Divine Comedy” at their own pace, watching the videos when and if needed.

“For our project, we decided to move at a slightly slower pace, hopefully to allow everyone more time to enjoy reading each canto,” Hilary Yancey, 100 Days of Dante Project Manager, said in an intro video by Baylor Honors College.

Along with providing ways to access the videos, 100 Days of Dante also has a translation of the text on their website. This makes reading the “Comedy” even more accessible if you don’t have a copy or don’t want to buy one. However, if you prefer a certain translation (I’m reading the Mark Musa, Penguin Classics translation), you are encouraged to read what you are comfortable with and will enjoy.

Eastern’s Templeton Honors College has been asked to take part in the 100 day event, with various professors asked to contribute canto videos to walk readers through interpretations of the text. For many, this is a chance to revisit the classic poem not only with one professor, but with several.

“If you or anyone has wanted to (re)read the “Comedy” and be taken through it by thoughtful guides (like Mr. P, Dr. Cary, Dr. Smith, Dr. Boyer, Dr. Anika Prather, etc.), now is your chance,” Dr. Williams, Dean of Templeton Honors College, said in his “Dean’s Weekly” email sent to members of the college.

Gaining insight from professors of different schools is a valuable experience as well. Dr. Ralph Wood, Dr. Fred Sanders, Dr. Jane Kim and Dr. Theresa Kenney are some of the other guides that were highlighted thus far.

If you are interested, you can subscribe to the “100 Days of Dante” email list, where you will receive Canto videos every Monday, Wednesday and Friday. 100daysofdante.com has a “subscribe” button that pops up after the “Welcome” screen as soon as you enter the site. If you want to watch the videos through their website, they are all archived as each video comes out.

It’s never too late to begin reading the “Divine Comedy” and follow along with the videos. The cantos are short and easy to read, and the flexible structure of 100 Days of Dante makes catching up a breeze. “Abandon every hope, all you who enter” this dark and mysterious Inferno, and read some Dante!

Sources: Baylor Honors College, “Dean’s Weekly,” The Divine Comedy (Penguin Classics), 100 Days of Dante

If you are a bored college student looking for some fun activities to do on the weekends or in your free time, this article is for you. Keep reading to discover fun local activities for both free and great low prices. 

Are you looking for a quiet, lowkey place with countless options for aesthetically pleasing photos? Wayne is the home of Chanticleer,  a beautiful romantic garden with stunning roses and a variety of other plant life. It’s an amazing modern display of various colors. Take advantage of the amazing fall weather and enjoy a picnic in the gardens of Chanticleer. Enjoy the historical aspect Chanticleer offers with some featured architecture dating back to 1912, the year they opened. The address is 786 Church Road, about a 10-minute drive from campus. Come visit Chanticleer before they close for the season on Oct. 31. For more information visit https://www.chanticleergarden.org/. 

Are you interested in exploring new art, taking classes, or connecting with a community program? Wayne Art Center is the place for you. It offers amazing opportunities to gain knowledge about art, take art classes, view art exhibits and connect with a community outreach program. The Wayne Art Center offers seven scenic gardens, five striking gallery exhibits, and four studios for different mediums. Registration is still available for art classes, with choices for all levels of experience.  A few class options are Figure Drawing, Still-Life Painting,  Exploring Mixed Media, and many others. They also offer a music education program featuring private lessons for piano, violin, viola, cello, double bass, guitar, flute, oboe, and voice.  The address is  413 Maplewood Ave, a nine-minute drive from campus. To find out more information about class offerings or events visit wayneart.org. 

Do you want to design your own art with various choices of colors? Check out Color Me Mine, a creative studio where you can paint your own ceramics or attend a fun workshop. Color Me Mine offers opportunities to create festive holiday keepsakes, vintage looks with antique paint techniques, and even paint trees. The address is 109 W Lancaster Ave, a six-minute drive from campus. Visit  https://wayne.colormemine.com/  for more information. 

Are you looking for fun local live music events? 118 North may be the answer for you. They offer live music featuring their Tailgate Under the Tent series on Fridays and Saturdays and various affordable food options available for purchase. The Tailgate Under the Tent is free live pop-up concerts from under the Wayne Picnic Grove. The address is  118 N Wayne Ave, a six-minute drive from campus, or about a twenty-minute walk. Check out their website 118northwayne.com for more information on artists performing and the food menu. 

Do you enjoy the experience of shopping at strip malls?  Check out Eagle Village Shops, an outdoor shopping experience with fashion, jewelry, home decor shops, specialty shops, and fine dining options available. The address is 503 Lancaster Ave, a seven-minute drive from campus. Visit their website https://www.eaglevillageshops.com/ for more information about shops and restaurant options. 

Are you interested in rock climbing? Well, The Gravity Fault is the perfect place for you. They are an indoor rock gym with options for first-time climbers, experienced and groups. With over 16,000 square feet of climbing space, more than 100  rope stations, a moon board, rappel tower, and chimney there are plenty of opportunities for fun and adventure. Weekly specials are also offered with buy one get one free adult day passes on Mondays, $12 day passes on Wednesdays, and half off adult day passes on Fridays after 5 p.m. The address is 175 King of Prussia Road, a four-minute drive from campus. Check out their website gravityvault.com for more information. No matter what you’re interested in, there are fun things to do just around the corner!

Sources: http://www.tripbuzz.com/free-things-to-do/wayne-pa/page-3https://www.tripadvisor.com/Attractions-g53933-Activities-Wayne_Pennsylvania.html

When you first encounter the club list for Eastern University, you may be thrown off by how many clubs we have. If you’re looking for something fun, check out the Habitat for Humanity and Model UN.

Habitat for Humanity is a club that focuses on educating people about building affordable housing. They are also a part of the campus ministry. While they cannot offer credit for service learning this year, they hope that they will be able to change that in the coming years. In previous years, students would have the option to do their service learning through Habitat for Humanity; it is the only club on campusthat offers the opportunity to get your service learning done while participating in club activities. Usually, Habitat for Humanity has three big events each year. The big three events would be their Habitat Day in October, their trip to North Carolina during spring break, and their Act, Speak, Build Week, accompanied by smaller events throughout the year. If you are interested in joining the club, you can either email Habitat for Humanity at habitat@eastern.edu or message the habitat instagram “Habitat_EU”. The meeting times are every other Monday starting Sept. 13 at 7:00 p.m. (location to be determined). Club member Chris Metheny said, “I enjoyed going around campus and trying to raise awareness,” when asked about his experience with Habitat for Humanity.

Model UN is a club that helps students prepare for the Model UN conferences. During the conferences, each member is assigned a country and then makes arguments on the behalf of the assigned countries for various topics. Countries can also form blocks; these blocks can then work together and build their case to support their claim on the topic at hand. Once a year, there will be a special conference that takes place outside of Eastern, which is what the club trains for. If you do well enough, you will be able to earn a gavel, which is the equivalent of a first place trophy. In previous years, they have gone on trips to Boston and Montreal for their big conference. Besides being a fun way to immerse yourself in international political discourse, Model UN looks great on law school resumes.

These clubs are just two of the many activities Eastern offers. I encourage the readers to go on the school’s website and search for these clubs as well. There are a variety of enjoyable and easy clubs available for people of all interests!

Dr. Christopher Bittenbender has been a part of Eastern’s staff since 1998, making him the longest-tenured English professor currently on the staff. Bittenbender grew up in Northeastern PA, close to the Wilkes-Barre area, and was raised on a farm. “I do miss it,” said Dr. Bittenbender when asked about the farm life. He now resides in Center City Philadelphia, a far cry from the country, though he finds that the city lifestyle also has its perks. He loves going to museums in the city—he specifically noted the Philadelphia Museum of Art, where his fiancé works—and enjoys the fact that they showcase local artists. 

Art is obviously a big part of who Bittenbener is, as he has an appreciation of film, music, and literature. “Art has an ability to tap into the world in creative and innovative ways,” said Bittenbender. His love for literature stemmed from professors he had back in college. He was originally a history major, and while he still does have a lot of passion for history, his love for literature overtook that. 

For seniors out there beginning their thesis project, Dr. Bittenbender was also once in the same position. His thesis was focused on David Jones, who wrote In Parenthesis, a World War I epic poem that drops readers right into the trenches. His graduate school program took him all the way to Scotland, where he spent four years. He studied Irish and Scottish literature at the University of St. Andrews, which was founded in 1413. After coming back to the United States, Dr. Bittenbender worked as an adjunct professor at Villanova before taking a job at Eastern. The rest is history, and he is now coming up on his 25th year here. He cites the community, environment, and the students as reasons for his love of Eastern. 

For those who only know Bittenbender as an English professor, he has two children of his own that are in college and is also an outdoorsman. He loves hiking, canoeing, and skiing, which stemmed from his time studying at Middlebury College in Vermont. In between his undergraduate program and graduate school, he helped his father and brother build a log cabin in the Poconos. 

While the beginning of the year can be stressful, Bittenbender wanted to remind students to take risks. While college is a time where it can be easy to stay content, Bittenbender said that students should jump on opportunities such as internships, jobs, and clubs on campus—words of wisdom from a professor like Bittenbender who has been at Eastern for nearly a quarter of a decade. 

On September 11 2021, I attended the 20th anniversary ceremony at the Flight 93 Memorial. Family members of the passengers and the former Architect of the Capitol took turns reading the names of the heroes that day, and remarks were made by Captain David Kurtz of the USS Somerset, (named in honor of Somerset County, Pennsylvania where the plane went down),  US Secretary of the Interior Deb Haaland, Pennsylvania Governor Tom Wolf, Former President George W. Bush, Vice President Kamala Harris, and Gordon Felt, brother of passenger Edward Felt. Their speeches paid tribute to those who on that day sacrificed their lives so that others may live and also warned about how risks to our nation not only come from the outside but also from within.

Even now, twenty years later, the memory of the day itself is clear in my mind. I started work at Eastern in 1999 and was on campus the day of the attacks. 

I was working at the circulation desk in the library at the time. Around 9 a.m. my supervisor’s wife called and asked to speak to her husband. I overheard him ask something about a bomb. After he hung up, he walked over to me and said, “Terrorists just bombed the World Trade Center”. Details were still sketchy and he had thought someone managed to reach the upper floors. I attempted to reach several news websites to find out more, but due to the massive number of people accessing them, all the sites I tried to access were overloaded, and a few of them were down.   

Knowing the Walton lounge had a television, I asked my supervisor if I could be excused. When I got there, people were gathered around watching events unfold. Students walking down from the dining commons, unaware of what was going on, were chatting happily with friends and noticed all the distraught people watching the television. Once they realized what happened, the  expression on their faces changed. By this time, both towers had been hit. Virtually every channel, both on the radio and television, cancelled their regular programming to run coverage of the attacks. 

I returned to the Walton lounge and saw news of the Pentagon being hit coming on CNN’s ticker, and I was there later when the towers fell; a number of students began to hold hands and join each other in prayer and others broke down in tears. 

Then came the announcement that classes had been cancelled for the remainder of the day. That night, an impromptu prayer vigil was held on the ball field. University Chaplain, Joe Modica spoke to me recently saying, “Simply, our entire community on the St. Davids campus gathered on the men’s baseball field for prayer and support at around noon after all classes and events were canceled. Hundreds of people gathered with many tears, worries and confusion. We prayed as a large group as well as in smaller groups. It lasted for about an hour (I think)”.

I did not attend the service on campus as I went to my local church instead. At the end of the service the pastor announced that, despite all the day’s events, he would conduct his benediction in the usual manner. His concern about how people may react to him saying “render to no person evil for evil” in light of what happened was understandable.

In the aftermath, Tony Campolo, who had been scheduled to give a Windows on the World presentation that Friday, was forced to reschedule it until the spring semester as he was out of the country and unable to return home due to all civilian air traffic in the country being shut down. 

Now, most, if not all of our students were not born yet or were too young to remember that day.  It is my hope that these students will now have some insight about how some members of Eastern’s community responded to the day’s events.