An educator who's spent time at a "Disneyland for nerds" will lead the next event in the fourth annual Chautauqua Lecture Series Thursday at Chattanooga State Community College.
Theater associate professor Evans Jarnefeldt will present "Reclaiming Play: Nontraditional Voices and Space in Theater," an exploration of unconventional theatrical space and some of the 20th-century artists, such as Adrienne Kennedy, Ana Margineanu and Basil Twist, who have redefined the relationship between performer and audience.
The program will start at 4 p.m. in the mobile classroom of the Augusta Kolwyck Library on the main campus, 4501 Amnicola Highway.
Named after the lake in upstate New York where the first of its kind was held in 1874, a Chautauqua brings members of the community together to enjoy inspirational performances and lectures. The gatherings aimed to bring communities together in an environment of cultural enrichment and questioning. The Humanities and Fine Arts Division sponsors the Chattanooga State series.
Evans JarnefeldtJarnefeldt is no stranger to the Chautauqua concept, having previously participated in the Chautauqua Theatre Company.
"After my first year at grad school, I was cast in the Chautauqua Theatre Company, a summer theater conservatory at the Chautauqua Institution in upstate New York. As a graduate acting student, with an undergraduate degree in English, Chautauqua provided me the opportunity to immerse myself in both scholarly and artistic realms," he says.
Locals refer to the Chautauqua Institution as a "Disneyland for nerds," and Jarnefeldt says the environment helped shape his academic and theatrical interests.
Jarnefeldt says Thursday's presentation "draws from my experience as artist and nerd. As an artist, I love electric performances that skirt the line between audience entertainment and engagement. As a nerd, I want to understand the historical models that set the stage for our current revolutions in the audience experience."
Following Jarnefeldt's lecture, three other Chatt State faculty will present lectures in their field of study. The final installment in the series, now in its fourth year, will be a special event offered in partnership with the Humanities Department's Writers@Work program, titled "Writers@Work: Banter and Banjos." This event on April 5 will feature authors George Singleton and Clyde Edgerton as they discuss writing, read from their works, swap stories and play some music.
The first of these lectures, a talk on Jane Austen's Regency England, attracted a large crowd in September.
Each Chautauqua lecture lasts about an hour and includes a Q&A period. All sessions are offered free of charge. A complete schedule can be found on Facebook as "Chattanooga State's Chautauqua Series," Instagram as "chautauqua_series" and Twitter as "@ChautauquaSeries." For additional information, contact associate professor Keri Lamb at keri.lamb@chattanoogastate.edu or 423-697-2546.