On November 7th, on a Wednesday, Oswego Theatre Department premieres their play “Shape of Things” originally written by Neil Labute.

Students in all years participate in this production and it is all prepared for the showing of the new show. Students such as Cassandra Slough and Adam Sommer took on the lead roles of this play.

Mya Brown, Director of the play and Assistant professor of theater tells her experience directing and the significance of the play. “There are some special messages within the play I would the audience to reflect on those things, what they think there are, so I don’t want to give anything away but I think the audience will definitely be challenged in their perspective of what beauty is, what art is, and how far in creating art.” She said. “I love to direct and it was amazing working with the other cast/staff members.” She also said.

Shelby Gilbert, one of the assistant director of the play also commented about the production. “It’s a great show. It is. This cast has worked so hard on this show. They have really put their all into the show and done some amazing work and I feel like everybody can learn a little something from the show and they can relate to different parts of the show.” She said.

Based on the story of Neil Labute, it emphasizes on the topic of relationships, identity, choices, and morals. With the main characters, Evelyn (Cassandra) and Adam (Adam), they both will play out the theme of the play.

“You should come see it!!”- Mya Brown

The play extends from November 7th to November 11th at Waterman.

For more theatre plays, you may visit https://www.oswego.edu/theatre/theatre-0

Several Oswego State students and faculty gathered in front of the peace memorial for a candlelight vigil last Friday in honor of the victims of the Pittsburgh synagogue attack.

The vigil was held shortly after the suspect of the Pittsburgh attack, Robert Bowers, plead not guilty for the 44 criminal charges held against him in court last Thursday.

“We’re here to send a message of love and hope, and that hate is not welcome here,” Oswego Student Association President Omar van Reenen said. “Anti-semitism, gun violence, racism, and marginalization in all forms are not welcome on our campus, in our communities, or in our states.”

Van Reenen worked with the Student Association on campus to organize the vigil. Students and faculty held candles and signed a poster that read “Stronger than Hate.” Students gathered around the peace memorial for statements read by various members of the campus community including Sarah Nehama, vice president of Jewish Life on campus.

“I just want people to realize that anti-semitism is still a big thing,” Nehama said. “We had a 60 percent spike in anti semitism in 2017 which is crazy and this week we also had a synagogue defaced in California.”

The attacks in Pittsburgh and the defacement of a synagogue in California are just part of the growing problem with violence being expressed in America. The issue of gun violence in America continues to grow.

The annual Funnelle-O-Ween party took place last Tuesday night at Funnelle Hall.

According to the organization, this year they have had the highest attendance so far, with activities that ranged from a haunted house to raffles or face painting. “I like the haunted house and the food the best,” says student Mikayla McGarry.

“You know, I mean, it’s definitely interesting to see a lot of people will have like different costumes and you see people from… we have a lot people in this school from different countries and stuff so they’ll have a different variety of costumes as well, something you may not typically see,” Resident Advisor Seth Prevratil says.

“We’ve been doing this program for, I believe, it’s  four years now here in Funnelle. It’s basically just an alternative for the residents to have something fun to do for Halloween. The residents really seem to enjoy it every year, so this year we decided to make it bigger and better. We added a haunted house, there’s new activities like pumpkin painting, a donut eating competition… As a person, having a diverse amount of people come to the program is really awesome, especially being here like I said for my third year just seeing all different people come together as a community and get involved and just not in Hart or at whatever building they live in, but coming to Funnelle from different parts of campus,” says Emily Vogt.

Students had a spook-tacular this year, so if you were not able to attend “boockle” up for next year.

OSWEGO, NY — The Zonta Club of Oswego has taken their celebration of Halloween to the next level with their second annual Witches Ball at the Lake Ontario Conference Center. According to the Witches Ball chairperson, Tammy Elowsky, the Zonta Club of Oswego serves as a service and advocacy group for women.

“Our friends of ours do a Witches’ Night Out, and they told me about their event. And I thought it was fantastic,” Elowsky said. “And so we decided to do a different spin on it and call it a Witches’ ball, some of the wizards are allowed to come. But we have all kinds of vendors and dancing and fun but it’s all for a great cause.”

The event had supported the Oswego County Opportunities’ Safe Services program to provide aid to survivors of domestic violence. Chairperson Elowsky strives for the Witches Ball to improve and evolve into a bigger and better event than ever before.

“So last year we had about 300 people that attended at our first year. We were absolutely amazed at that. We’ve outgrew our venue and we’ve come to the convention center this year,” Eloswky said. “And we’ve had more people, I don’t know what the final count is now. We’re obviously hoping to grow, looking for more vendors, whatever we can do to raise more money for this awesome cause.”

Former NBA player Etan Thomas visited SUNY Oswego last Monday to lead a panel discussion and q&a about activism and media exposure within professional sports. The discussion was held at the Marano Campus Center auditorium as a part of the “I am Oz” Diversity Series.  

“There’s this new surge of athletes using their voices and speaking out.” Thomas said.

Since Thomas’ retirement he has become a writer and a commentator, with a life devotion to advocating for social change on and off the court.

“I grew up admiring the athletes of the past,” Thomas said. “like Kareem Abdul Jabbar, Bill Russell, Muhammad Ali. Those were the athletes I have always admired (because of) the way they used their positions and platforms to be able to speak on different issues and create change.”

Several students attended the panel with many questions of discussion including players taking a knee during the national anthem, how athletes present themselves in the media, media criticism, and the evolution of social media use by players.  

After the panel, students had an opportunity to purchase an autographed copy of Thomas’ book entitled “We Matter- Athletes and Activism.”

“I want them to read the stories of these different athletes who they admire seeing on the court or the field,” Thomas said, “by seeing the courage that they have and the passion that they speak with, and become inspired themselves to become activists in their own way.”

On October 21st, Award winning and international pianist takes the stage as he plays multiple of well known classical melodies from impactful pianists/musicians such as Mozart, Bach Busoni, Carter Pann and much more.

Rob Auler, currently professor of music and chairperson of Oswego’s Department of Music, explains the significance of classical piano music in today’s society and the importance of the focus on faculty series in the community.

“I have to explain to my own two children that classical piano is terrific, it’s something that we should celebrate, we should listen to. I’ve designed these five pieces to be highly accessible for audiences who have never heard classical piano playing and in fact, I’ve actually got some of my soccer team kids coming to the show and I particularly want kids like that to come to a recital, see classical piano music that they have never seen before and leave with a very great experience.”  Auler said.

“One of the neat things that the music department does we provide public recitals. Not only for the college community, not only for our student, not only for our faculty, but just for the community at large. And not only we are an educational provider but we also provide cultural offerings for the entire community.” Auler also said.

For the students who are trying to get into the profession of music, Auler simply said “persistence and keep on trying new things.” Being in a profession like this isn’t easy but it requires practice and perseverance. Students who attended his concert simply said it was “incredible.” Later this year, the series will continue bringing in other musicians.

For more information, you can visit their website. https://www.oswego.edu/music/music-department-0.

The Oswego State Swimming team is ready for a new season full of fast swimming and adrenaline. The team comes from accomplishing a 10-0 on the men’s team and an 8-2 on the women’s team last season. The team has experienced an exponential growth this year as a 24-strong class of 2022 has stepped into the game. Led by Coach Holman, Oswego State Swimming is looking forward to an exciting season.“All the international swimmers that we actually have here, you know, have been, you know, pretty serious about what they do,” says swimming coach Michael Holman. Assistant Coach Dragunas is experienced on the national level in Canada.“I think they bring a little bit of diversity and different perspective, you know, from where they come from,” says assistant coach Andrew Dragunas. This year the Oswego State Swimming team has three international swimmers. Luis Perez of Colombia is a sophomore this year. “I was once top 10 in all ages in all the country, so that was like really big for me. My main goal is to break the 100 and 200 backstroke records, school records, and hopefully to get a medal at SUNYACs,” said Luis. Alex Davie was born in Malaysia and is a junior this year. “When I was younger I was really focused on trying to make an Olympic team or make a national team because I have like five different nationalities, but as I’ve gotten older I realized that swimming just takes a lot from your life,” said Alex. Gigi Hon, a New York native, believes this is a great experience.“I learn a lot about everyone else’s culture, even if like you’re from a different state, but especially if you’re from out of the country,” Gigi says.

The Fulton Art Association held their annual photography show last Saturday at the Fulton City Hall community room. This event, which has been held every October since 2013,  showcases various types of photography, drawings, and paintings by local citizens of Fulton. The event was organized by the president of the Fulton Art Association, Kathryn Mihalek.

“I took over in 1999 when they (art association) were coming close to folding, and we revitalized it and enlarged the number of events you could put in.” Kathryn Mihalek said. “We have our annual show every May, the weekend before Memorial Day. We have our high school show in March. This will be the 13th year we’ve done a high school show between Fulton, Phoenix, Hannibal, and Oswego. Then we hold our photography show in October and we may hold a couple more events.”

Besides her work with the Fulton Art Association, Kathryn Mihalek works with the Oswego County Humane Society. She fosters at least 20 rescue cats in her home. Several of those cats went up for adoption at the event.

Jess Bullard, member of the Oswego County Humane society who hosted the cat adoption, said she felt it was a great opportunity to get involved in another community event and to showcase their cats.

The photographers and artists competed in five categories,

– Landscapes

– People

– Buildings,

– Animals

– Objects

The winners were picked by a viewer ballot where spectators voted for their favorite piece.  We got a chance to speak to Jose Ortiz, who won the viewers choice ribbon for his photography piece entitled, “Dapper Dog.”

“He (my dog) is my inspiration behind all that I do.” said Jose Ortiz. “I love black and white photography because I feel that our eyes are so focused on color, yet with black and white, you’re drawn towards the whole image. I feel like taking that concept for the same instance in life. You’re only drawn to what catches your eye but the whole picture is what really counts.”

The Fulton Art Association also provides scholarships for talented high school seniors at various schools from Phoenix to Oswego. To learn more about the Fulton Art Association visit cnyarts.org.