Madison Magazine Puts Kelly Center Stage
A recent issue of Madison Magazine offered an in-depth profile of Baron Kelly, professor in the Department of Theatre and Drama, outlining the four time Fulbright Scholar’s journey from performing with the Metropolitan Opera as a child in New York to helming lauded UW–Madison theatre productions.
Kelly, who joined the School of Education in 2020, starred in and directed a production of August Wilson’s “Joe Turner’s Come and Gone” for University Theatre earlier this year. Set in a Pittsburgh boarding house in 1911, the play captures the lives of Black migrants seeking new opportunities in the North during the Great Migration, as well as people running from their pasts.
Kelly told Madison Magazine how he has been drawn to August Wilson’s work throughout his career, admiring the playwright’s ability to give voice to
marginalized people, elevating their stories.
“There’s a lot of wisdom in those folks,” Kelly said. “These people talk like older relatives that I’ve been around all my life.”
University Theatre hosted special matinees of the production that brought hundreds of students from local and regional high schools to campus.
Kelly told Madison Magazine the production, which included professional and student actors, aimed to bring to life the deep, evocative tone of Wilson’s masterpiece.
“I try to coax actors to get into the gut,” Kelly said. “I want to see sweat on stage and spit coming out of mouths. A visceral experience.”
Whoopensocker Residency Highlighted in Verona Press
A story in the Verona Press, a local newspaper, highlighted a vibrant partnership between the Verona Area School District and Whoopensocker, an arts education residency program co-founded and run by School of Education faculty member Erica Halverson.
This February, third graders from Sugar Creek Elementary School saw their ideas come to life at a performance showcasing some of the more than 700 stories they authored with support from Whoopensocker teaching artists over the course of the six-week residency. As the news story notes, the students’ creations included a slew of fantastical characters, from time-traveling dinosaurs to a princess pursuing knighthood.
In the story, Whoopensocker artist Meredith Milliron noted the third graders entered the creative process eager to envision new worlds.
“We started and they were ready to go – pencils ready,” she said.
Whoopensocker is part of UW-Madison’s Community Arts Collaboratory, also known as the Arts Collab, which is housed in the School of Education’s Office of Professional Learning and Community Education (PLACE).
In Other Reports
Jenni Torres, the new executive director of WIDA, was recently featured in Education Week. Torres outlinedher priorities for WIDA as: “Continuing to work alongside multilingual learners, their families, and the educators (who) serve them, ensuring that we can really provide best-in-class, multilingual instruction with effective and measured outcomes.”
Christina A. West, an associate professor in the Art Department, was spotlighted by the Los Angeles Times for her “audacious installation” at the American Museum of Ceramic Art in Pomona, California. Her installation, “Strut,” includes two ceramic stumps, or armatures. On the opening day of the exhibition, a nude model in his late 40s climbed on the structures and struck a variety of poses.
Erika Bullock, associate professor in the Department of Curriculum and Instruction, was featured in the documentary, “Counted Out.” The film focuses on the concept of numeric literacy —whether we can speak “the language of math” — and how it is a critical determinant of social and economic power.