The Oakridge School Video Production Class Presents the Official Trailer of the 2014 Richard III Colloquium!

Thanks to Melissa Triebwasser and her video production team here at The Oakridge School for putting together yet another great trailer for Oakridge's second annual paper colloquium! On March 21, 2014, seven ISAS schools of the metroplex region came together to present papers and share scholarly insights about William Shakespeare's history play, Richard III. The conference was a huge hit, and I would like to thank, once again, all the schools, students, and faculty that participated in the event. We hope to host more collaborative inter-institutional get-togethers in the near future.

 

Thank You to all Presenters, Participants, and Special Speakers for making the 2014 Richard III Colloquium such a Great Success!!

Thank you everyone who attended, participated, or presented this last Friday at the 2014 Richard III Colloquium at The Oakridge School. The event was a tremendous success! Thanks to Dr. Kevin Curran, Associate Professor of English at UNT, for concluding the day with the perfect keynote address. I love how Dr. Curran invited all of us to explore and appreciate the timelessness of Shakespeare by calling our attention to the fact that it is the questions Shakespeare poses, not the answers he gives, that make plays like Richard III so meaningful for all audiences. How do we read, respond to, or make sense of a character like Richard? How do we make sense of his villainy and his humanity? What is being determined by Richard and what determines him? As Dr. Curran pointed out so convincingly, the questions are what remain relevant to all of us, and the conversation, hopefully, may never end. With that in mind, we at Oakridge do intend to continue to plan similar opportunities for collaborative conversations like last Friday’s, and we encourage other schools and campuses to envision similar engagements as well.

Oakridge Choir performs at Commencement Ceremony

Once again, I want to thank the other special speakers from Friday: Beau DuBroc, Adjunct Professor of Anthropology at Richland College, and John Dement, Associate Professor of Performance at Midwestern State University. Mr. DuBroc’s session on mortuary archeology and the recent excavation of Richard’s remains received accolades from many students, faculty, and attending parents; and students sung many praises about both of Professor Dement’s theatre workshops. So thank you to both of them for enhancing the day’s festivities for students, faculty, and parents! 

John Dement leads a workshop on Acting

Greenhill student presents
in the Library

Again, I want to thank all the participating schools, their students, as well as their faculty, for participating in this endeavor to make it so successful. Specifically, thank you All Saints’ Episcopal School of Fort Worth and Nancy Crossley, Chair of English Department. Thanks as well to Fort Worth Country Day School and its upper school instructors, Spencer Smith and Catherine Collins. Much thanks to Trinity Valley School as well as Lucas Jacob, Dean of Curriculum & Instruction, and Dr. Andrea Wright, Upper School Instructor. Thank you to Cistercian Preparatory School and Gary Nied, Chair of English Department, and thanks so much also to Greenhill School and Joel Garza, Upper School Instructor. Thank you as well to The Hockaday School and Dr. Katherine Downey, Upper School Instructor, and Dr. Deborah Moreland, English Chair. This event would not have been possible without everyone’s collaborative input and participation; we at The Oakridge School are so appreciative!

TVS student presents in the Skybridge

At this time, there are no plans for a similar event for spring 2015. We do, however, intend to continue to plan, promote, and even host similar conferences for ISAS students in the near future.  We encourage some of you to think of similar opportunities, thereby helping us grow a vision that could potentially be a tradition which transcends a single campus or one group of planners. Again, thank you so much for taking the time to make this event successful and meaningful for all the students involved. I hope we’re all in touch in the near future in order to keep such future collaborative engagements at the forefront of our visionary planning as educators.