The long search for a new vice president of university advancement at Henderson is over.

After several months of ac-tively looking for the right person to fill the position, the search committee and Glendell Jones, president, made the final decision to hire Jennifer Boy-ett, executive director of devel-opment from the University of Central Arkansas at Conway.

“We’ve made her an offer,” Dr. Jones said, “and she has ac-cepted it.”

Recently, Boyett was the only one of three candidates to complete the public interview process held on campus in Sep-tember.

The other two contenders ac-cepted employment elsewhere before completing the full in-terview process at Henderson.

“It left us with a strong can-didate, and she will serve us well,” Jones said.

The board, which consists of six alumni of Henderson, made their approval to hire Boyett based on her competency, abil-ity, character and compatibility.

“We had to make sure that whoever we hire fits that dy-namic,” Jones said.

Ultimately, Dr. Jones made the final decision to hire Boyett.

“We are excited to welcome Jennifer and her family to Hen-derson as we work to strength-en our advancement efforts,” he said in a press release is-sued to The Oracle by the university development office. “Her breadth of administrative experience will serve the uni-versity well as we continue to galvanize the support of alumni and friends in support of Hen-derson.”

Boyett, an Arkansas native, first graduated from the Uni-versity of Central Arkansas at Conway in 2001 with a bachelor of arts in journalism. Boyett then attended the University of Arkansas at Little Rock and

graduated in 2005 with a mas-ters of arts in journalism.

Boyett has had an extensive 12-year career in the advance-ment division at UCA. She has held several positions while employed at UCA, the most re-cent as the executive director of development.

She is also a member of the Council for the Advancement and Support of Education and the Association of Fundraising Professionals.

“I am honored and humbled to be the new vice president of university advancement at Henderson,” Boyett stated in an email to The Oracle. “I love the work of advancement in supporting students and fac-ulty in higher education. It’s critical for Henderson State to be engaged with its alumni and friends, to maintain those lines of communication and to in-spire and enable donors to pro-vide private support. My family and I look forward to making Arkadelphia our home and to becoming a part of the Hen-derson family. It’s an exciting time to be a Reddie, and I look forward to working with the faculty, staff, students, alumni and friends as well as serving

on president Jones’ executive team.”

The Henderson State Uni-versity Foundation will vote on Wednesday to appoint Boyett as executive director of the foun-dation. This will be in addition to her position as vice president of university advancement.

“The foundation at Hender-son has enjoyed a strong base of support since its inception in 1982,” Billy Tarpley, chair-man of the Henderson State University Foundation board of directors said in a press release issued to The Oracle, “and the board looks forward to visiting with Jennifer about her role in carrying out our vision for the foundation.”

Boyett has her work cut out for her as expectations and concerns were raised and dis-cussed in her public interview forum about what she could ac-complish by Henderson’s 125th anniversary, which is fast ap-proaching in 2015.

“First thing to do is cele-brate,” Jones said. “We are the second oldest university in the state. We will build upon our great legacy. It is our responsi-bility to tell our story compre-hensively.”

Dr. Lewis Shepherd is ex-cited and is looking forward to Boyett’s arrival.

“She has a great passion, as she said in her presentation for higher education,” Shepherd, vice president for students and external affairs, said. “She said, ‘This is where I belong and this is where I feel my life’s work is to make a difference,’ and that resonated with me on two particular things. Number one: I appreciate people who have a passion for a particular mission, issue or field. Second thing is: I appreciate them not only for having a passion, but working in that field where they have that passion and want to make the biggest difference. They want to see it enhance the lives of people.”

Boyett has a passion for fund-raising and will hopefully leave no stone unturned in the world of contributing financially to Henderson.

“I look forward to raising funds to increase the availabil-ity of private student scholar-ships,” Boyett said. “Private gifts through the foundation can provide many additional enhancements that will benefit the student body.”

Rick Nance, an artist whose work can be seen on ABC’s hit TV show, “Nashville,” will be presenting his work in an exhi-bition held by Henderson’s Rus-sell Fine Arts Hall for the entire month of October.

Nance visited campus on Sept. 30th and Oct. 1st. He spoke with classes and gave a small workshop on his art tech-niques in “Design Program and Digital Arts.” David Stoddard, professor of art, is a close friend of Rick Nance.

“He has a wicked sense of irony and fun,” Stoddard said. “Most of his pieces have an ironic quality to them.”

Nance does not compose what most would perceive to be stereotypical art, but rather elaborate creations from a tech-nique known as scratchboard.

Stoddard commented that a common theme amongst Nance’s pieces was “pop cul-ture, with a nostalgic edge, and an ironic bent.”

Nance’s ability to capture so many different ideals and viewpoints proves that his work stands alone in a sea of masses.

Nance had always drawn. From a young age, art had fu-eled his passion for expres-sion. With an “illustrative style not unlike cartooning,” Nance said, “I was introduced to block printing and linoleum by a sign painter friend.” Nance contin-ued to speak of how he gravitat-ed to scratchboard from there.

In much of Nance’s work, in-cluding several pieces provided in his exhibition, he would com-bine the worlds of traditional and modern art, as he would

create a work from scratch-board and then digitally layer work that he created via Photo-shop.

Nance explained that his work was picked up by ABC’s “Nashville” after a member of the production team came across his work and asked him to submit a piece.

Specifically, two of Nance’s posters can be seen on season one, episode 15, “When You’re Tired of Breaking Other’s Hands,” among other episodes throughout the show.

Along with his success in television, Nance was recently announced as a winner in the poster category for the Print Re-gional Design Annual Awards. His winning piece, featuring the image of a devil, surrounded by the words, “The Music Was So Hot, That the Devil Played Air Guitar,” will be viewable during the exhibition.

Within his seventeen works provided in the exhibition, Nance commented that his work is divided into two sepa-rate categories: Photoshop col-lage and digital scratchboard.

“The collage pieces have more of a fine arts feel,” said Nance, “while with the digital scratch board pieces, that line is blurred and they have more of a graphic design element.” Among his scratch works and Photoshop collages, Nance has provided two music posters that feature “A Prairie Home Com-panion” and “Buddy Guy,” as a form of artistic advertisement.

Within the exhibition, an “Artist Statement” has been provided.

“I don’t set out to produce art,” said Nance, “but instead graphic design, and yet my art-

work winds up in a place that blurs a line between fine art and commercial art.”

As the exhibition remains open for the month of October, students outside of the world of art and digital design have had the opportunity to view Nance’s work.

Jeanne Miller, junior early childhood education major, vis-ited the Russell Fine Arts Gal-lery to view the exhibition.

“I loved the combination of techniques he used, as well as the fact that it was timeless,” Miller said. “All of his pieces were the perfect combination of modern and vintage art.”

This style of art, which, ac-cording to Stoddard, “channels things like a wood cut look with old letterpress layering textures and motifs,” truly ap-peals to the generation that ap-preciates pop culture and has an ever-growing fascination to pushing boundaries.

“His style lends itself to mu-sic culture,” Stoddard said, “but may be making fun of pop cul-ture at the same time. It’s a lot of fun to see.”

Nance favors one particular piece over the others.

“My favorite piece is the ‘Prai-rie Home Companion’ poster that I designed,” Nance said. Nance continued to say that with this poster design, he got to meet Garrison Keillor, a well-known American author and ra-dio personality.

Nance mentioned in his dis-cussion on Oct. 1st that he is better known for his grudge theme throughout his work. An example of this is seen in one of his scratchboard pieces that contain the images of multiple guitars.

This take on art is what sets Nance apart from other artists, as his work appeals to a variety of fans.

Before the plan of bringing Nance to Henderson’s campus was set in motion, one of Stod-dard’s Digital Image courses last year involved themselves in multiple Skype sessions with various artists, Nance included.

The idea of having his work brought to Henderson came from Aaron Calvert, a mem-ber of the art faculty and the one responsible for shows in the Russell Fine Arts Gallery. All agreed that Nance’s work should be brought to campus, as well as the possibility of a workshop, to show students his particular technique.

Professor Stoddard then wrote a proposal for a “Margin of Excellence” grant that would allow for Nance to make the trip from Kentucky to Arkansas.

A specific presentation was

given on Oct. 1st in Huie Li-brary where students and staff members attended and learned more about this art form and Nance’s personal story for mak-ing it into television.

“It’s good to see an artist that starts to get some traction and starts to actually make a living off his art, rather than working for somebody else,” Stoddard said. “Rick has made it to that point, so I thought he would be a good inspirational story for everybody, because his work is so rich and wonderful.”

Heath Sims, graphic design major, was present at the pre-sentation and had the opportu-nity to view the gallery as well.

“Rick Nance was a great visitor for the art department,” Sims said. “His style is very specific to him. This has helped me realize that even though ev-eryone may not like the style of work I do, there will be that group that does appreciate it.”

‘Nashville’ artist creates works for TV, music festivals

OracleThe

MONDAY, OCTOBER 7, 2013 HENDERSON STATE UNIVERSITY VOLUME 16, ISSUE 8

Victoria CulliverStaff Writer

VP of advancement hired after months of searchingMoe SkinnerStaff Writer

News: page 2 | Opinions: page 3 | Feature: page 4 Features: page 5 I Sports: page 6

79 45

Monday

79 45

Tuesday

82 48

Wednesday

86 59

Thursday

91 59

Friday

90 59

Saturday

90 59

Sunday

INDEX

BOYETT

Photo courtesy of Kacy Mathews

ARTIST VISITS Rick Nance is shown speaking with a student during his show’s opening at Hender-son. Nance’s art has been seen on ABC’s ‘Nashville.’

PAGE 2 OCTOBER 7, 2013Reddie to ServeNews Briefs

Homecoming week kicks off tonight with Cocoa Brown. Brown is a comedian who will be performing in the Lecture Hall. The show starts at 7 p.m.

All lights will be on in the Arkansas Hall Studio Theatre tonight as well. “The Laramie Project” performance starts at 7:30 p.m. and will also be performed later in the week on Thursday, Friday and Sat-urday at the same time.

Henderson will get the magic touch on Tuesday, Oct. 8. Mike Super, a magi-cian, will perform his act in the Arkansas Hall auditorium starting at 8 p.m.

Homecoming voting offi-cially starts on Wednesday, Oct. 9 at 9 a.m. Students can vote at any point throughout the day until 4 p.m. The vot-ing will be across from the Information Desk. It will con-tinue for the same time in the same place on Thursday, Oct. 10.

Thursday is National De-pression Screening Day. The counseling center will be screening throughout that day from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m.

Voting for Homecoming queen will be on Friday, Oct. 11, also from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. across from the Information Desk in the Garrison.

For those students with a sweet tooth, the Internation-al Dessert Festival, put on by HISA, is the place to be. It will be held on Thurday, Oct, 10, during the lunch hour in the Banquet Room.

The Homecoming game will be this Saturday against Southwestern Oklahoma. Before the start of the game, the homecoming queen will be crowned on the field.

Arkadelphia, you got servedEvery fall semester, Henderson students come together to show their support for the community in the form of odd-jobs

around town. “Reddie To Serve Day” has become an appreciated tradition in Arkadelphia, as Reddies work together to rake yards, walk dogs, paint houses and assist in any way they can. This tradition began in the fall semester of the 2010-2011 school year in hopes of increasing student involvement in the betterment of the city. In the last few years, the 2010 Strategic Plan, from which the idea came, has come to life. Even though the weather didn’t fully cooperate, Henderson students grabbed their tools and put on their smiles for a day full of hard work and meaningful labor. Waking up early

on Saturday morning is tough, but not for the willing orginizations, clubs and students eager to spruce up Arkadelphia. Students began the day by receiving breakfast on the Quad to the sound of the Henderson band and the spirit-filled chants of the cheer squad. Spirits were high despite the fact that it was 7 a.m. on a Saturday. After breakfast, the 70 different groups separated and went to their different locations throughout town. After they worked, they returned to the Caddo cafeteria for lunch and to share stories about the activities. The tradi-tion will continue next semester for the spring Reddie To Serve Day.

Photos by Ali Freeman

OPINIONS October 7, 2013

PAGE 3

The Oracle StaffEditor-in-Chief

Morgan Acuffnewantiquity@gmail.com

Faculty AdviserMike Taylor

taylorm@hsu.edu

Copy EditorAshley Loftin

amk.loftin@gmail.com

News EditorStephanie Hartman

stephwithahart@gmail.com

Sports EditorKaitlyn Kitchens

kk175413@reddies.hsu.edu

Photo EditorRyan Klare

rk167403@reddies.hsu.edu

Editorial CartoonistHouston Fryer

hf179598@reddies.hsu.edu

Graphics DesignerBrett Little

cblittle2010@yahoo.com

Web DesignerIzhar Buendia

izharbuen@gmail.com

Business ManagerJames T. Allen

ja165078@reddies.hsu.edu

Distribution ManagerVictoria Culliver

vaculliver@yahoo.com

What’s going on with TV shows these days?

I remember when we had good, family programming like “Happy Days” and “The Andy Griffith Show.”

Now we’ve got nonsense on television.

Like your “The Big Bang Theorems,” “Mad Man,” “How I Wifed Your Mother,” and “Breaking Brad.”

Nothing makes any sense these days.

When I was a youngster, the big bang theory was like com-munism. You knew what it was, but you weren’t allowed to talk about it.

What’s this “Breaking Brad” thing? It’s all over the Tweeters and the Facebooks.

Who’s Brad and why would anyone want to break him?

Surely it wouldn’t take five sea-sons to break a person.

Back in the day, we had some-thing called “Dallas.” That was a good, plot twisting drama. You know what made that show great? It was about a family.

That’s what’s wrong with America. We don’t have enough family TV.

As a boy, we used to sit around the tube and watch “The Howdy Doody Show” and “Leave It to Beaver.” Now those were some shows.

We’ve become wrapped up in our shows tighter than Werther’s Originals.

Watching TV was a privilege back in my day.

Now we got TV everywhere. TV on our computers. TV on

telephones. TV on every high-falutin gadget we got.

Next we’re going to have TV on the X-Box Circles, or what-ever they’re called.

When I say family televi-sion, I’m not talking about your “Teen Moms” and your “Jersey Shores.”

Back in the day, every mom was a teen mom.

Having a kid at 18 was a point of pride. If you didn’t have kids by then you were falling be-hind.

Now you got these meat-heads in New Jersey? That’s what happens when teens have babies. I had a cousin from Jer-sey. He was a pale diabetic. He couldn’t tan or go to the gym.

I’ll tell you about a good show.“Family Ties.” Now that’s a

heck of show. Why don’t young men dress like Alex P. Keaton anymore? Hey boys, pull up your pants, comb your hair and throw on a tie and maybe a sweater vest. That’s how you get the ladies.

Ladies, you know who was re-ally something to look at?

Lori Beth Allen-Cunningham from “Happy Days.” She was a looker with her turtlenecks and scarves.

Another thing that’s gotten out of hand are these darn su-perhero programs.

Who cares about the guys, who helped out the guys, who helped out Iron Man?

I don’t.You know who I don’t give

a flying fart about? The Green Arrow.

The heroes who were on tele-vision when I was a squirt were Superman, Adam West’s Bat-man and Steve Austin, the Six Million Dollar Man.

Here’s what we need to do: We need to take out all the non-sensical garbage and just play reruns.

You think we’d be at war if they were playing reruns of “M.A.S.H.” or “The Jeffersons?”

Because fish don’t fry in the

kitchen and beans don’t burn on the grill.

It’s going to take a whole lot of trying just to get up this hill I like to call pointless, garbage television.

I’ll tell you want I’m going to do. I’m going to start a petition and a letter writing campaign to get shows like “The Brady Bunch,” “The Dukes of Haz-zard” and “Three’s Company” back on television.

Don’t worry America, I’m gonna clean this place up, and I’m starting with the crap that’s on the picture box.

Let’s make a promise to each other America. You stay golden like the programming that used to be on the boob tube, and I’ll keep fighting for your right to party and your right to a good old-fashioned America.

Always remember: keep your heart medication close and your life alert closer.

Get off my lawn!These happy days are yours and mine

I was about 10 minutes late to Little Rock’s first gay pride parade. My friends and I were lost, trying to find it, when we saw a group carrying a giant rainbow flag.

And I thought, “Yeah, that’s it.”

We made our way to a street corner and watched the first few floats pass. All around us were people, some decked out in rainbows, some just look-ing lost and confused. People in rainbow tutus rode on the back of cars, a group of “free thinkers” dressed as pirates

walked by and talked to my friend about their eye patches. We were given leis, and bubble gum was thrown from the back of cars.

A person even wore a knitted full-body rainbow suit, a brave feat in the heat of the day.

What surprised me the most, other than the number of peo-ple who showed up despite the rain, was the number of church-es who participated.

It seemed like one after an-other, groups marched by hold-ing signs that read “So-and-So Church Welcomes Everyone!”

I honestly didn’t expect that level of support in Arkansas.

I’ve attended many gay rights

protests and events in this state, and this was the first one I didn’t see a single counter pro-test at.

This was the first one I didn’t have at least one person flip me off or yell out slurs.

I was glad to see the amount of representation that was in the parade: gays, lesbians, trans* people, pansexual peo-ple, children, the elderly, etc. It seemed so progressive. It made me think that maybe Arkansas could finally start moving for-ward into the right direction.

For a parade that many called last minute, it was extremely well put together.

Even the rain couldn’t ruin it.

It only brought out the rainbow umbrellas.

The Center for Artistic Revo-lution (CAR) had a float that sported a giant fist holding a rainbow flag that whipped around frantically in the wind.

The last float was my favorite.

It had balloons in rainbow arches on each side while a woman dressed as the Statue of Liberty danced with a man dressed as Uncle Sam.

People holding balloon bou-quets marched along beside it. My friends and I followed them.

We followed the parade for its entire route as the people be-

side us chanted “On the right side of history!”

It felt like we were both a part of and witness-ing something big, something impor-tant.

Little Rock’s first pride parade had a good turn out and left me with a posi-

tive feeling. My friends and I talked to a

few of the participants after as they dismantled their floats. They were beaming with pride.

If it was this successful for its first year, then I can’t wait to see how amazing next year will be.

Tiffany PitcockGuest Columnist

Student gleans hope after LR gay pride parade

L E T T E R ST O T H E E D I T O R

Have an opinion on a controversial is-sue or response to this week’s column? Write the Oracle at oracle@hsu.edu to have your voice heard. Opinions should be between 400 and 600 words and emailed as a word document. Include your preferred name. No anonymous submissions, please.

Cecil B. OldmanGuest Columnist

Is Chick-fil-A a fair presence on campus?

Chick-fil-A opened this past week and has left me feeling very unsettled. I r e m e m b e r very vividly “Chick-f i l -A Day” a few s u m m e r s ago, a day I more appro-priately nicknamed “hate day.”

On Chick-fil-A Day, customers, primarily fundamentalist Chris-tians in support of Chick-fil-A’s funding of anti-gay organizations, flocked to Chick-fil-A to purchase sandwich-

es and vote with their wallets, if you will.

I had to work that day, and my job at the time was in the same shopping center as a Chick-fil-A. I remem-

ber driving through the parking lot and seeing a line of cars that stretched across the parking lot and

into the street. I had never seen a

line so long for any other event in Hot Springs, and have never seen one so long since. Later that day, I went on my break and the line size had not changed. I had never

felt so alone in my own town. A few months after this event, top media outlets such as CNN and ABC re-ported that Chick-fil-A stopped funding anti-gay organizations, but with further research, it was easy to see that this is not the case.

Chick-fil-A stopped funding the most ex-treme of the anti-gay organizations, the Win-Shape Foundation, so it let them slide under the radar.

This has only re-sulted in a one percent decrease in funds to anti-gay organizations, according to an article by Carlos Maza of Me-dia Matters.

Now they are on our campus, and while I re-fuse to eat there, I still am forced to pay Garri-son fees that ultimately fund Chick-fil-A.

There is no way for me to get around this.

As an open lesbian, it makes my stomach churn to think that my money and my univer-sity is going to support these organizations, even if it is indirectly and even if it is not their intention. I was having a discussion with some friends about this is-sue a few nights ago. Someone mentioned that they may be pay-ing rent to stay in the Garrison and if this is true, then we are not

supporting them with student fees. Even if this were the case, I would prefer that they weren’t here at all.

My question is: Why didn’t the students get a choice about which restaurant came to the university? Why not a place with healthier choices and one that doesn’t support hate?

My complaint isn’t with the workers or the quality of the food, but with the corpora-tion. Even if not a dime of my money funds them, there is still a part of the Garrison building that I’m not comfortable using. It makes me wish we had a choice.

Kelly ThomasGuest Columnist

PAGE 4 OCTOBER 7, 2013 Feature

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Mike Taylor(Oracle Adviser)taylorm@hsu.edu

Henderson brought the trag-edy of “The Laramie Project” by Moises Kaufman to campus when the play opened this past week. It is based on the story of Matthew Shepard, 21, who was murdered as a homosexual hate crime in Laramie, Wyo. in 1998.

“The Laramie Project” was selected as the 2013 Reddie Read.

Judy Shepard, mother of Matthew, was the Reddie Read guest speaker, and on Oct. 3, the Henderson theatre depart-ment opened their production of the play to a full house. Dr. Claudia Beach directed the play.

It was written as a docudra-ma based off interviews from people who lived in Laramie. Henderson’s production cast eight students, including Justin Holkenect, Ethan Jones, Jason Lane Moore, Eric Mouton, Jor-dan Sereal, Brittany Sproles, Shaina Tippitt and Daphne Wil-lis.

With 90 characters in the script, each cast member played 10-14 different roles. Daphne Willis, 21, played 10 roles in the production.

“When we were first cast, we

weren’t given our specific char-acters,” Willis said. “We would read a new set of lines each night. Then, once we finally got our specific characters, we researched them and reported back at rehearsal.”

There were no major cos-tume changes during the pro-duction, only mild ones. Each cast member would remove a jacket or wear a new hat and try

out a slightly different accent to show a character change.

They each played the part of narrator, and introduced their fellow cast members as the character they portrayed after their first line.

These weren’t just characters though. These were real peo-ple who had lived through the events in Laramie.

“We always had to remember

that these are actual people, and so we had to have an hon-est performance,” Willis said.

Judy Shepard, Reddie Read speaker and mother of Mat-thew, spoke with the cast after her session to offer some in-sight to the cast on their char-acter development.

“It really helped us when Judy Shepard came to speak because afterwards she came

and met with the cast to answer our questions,” Willis said.

Each cast member did their research on the community members they were portray-ing, and it showed.

Chad Sproles, 24, of Bryant, said that the students played the roles perfectly.

Throughout the production, the dialogue was anything but light. The actions and words from each person were deep, and they each wanted their opinions to be clearly known as honestly as possible.

This was something that Kaufman and the original cast had to research as they wrote the play. Ushers informed the audience that this show was for mature audiences only as you walked through the doors.

Although the message pre-sented was controversial, the people on Henderson’s campus were still glad the school had brought “Laramie” to Arkansas.

“It sheds light on a subject that is too often swept under the rug,” Sproles said.

It had a lasting impact on one cast member.

“It has meant the world to me being in this show,” Willis said. “I love my cast and the story, and I’m so honored for this show to be my first show of my senior year.”

In 1968, Stanley Kubrick made a movie that would go down in film history as a mas-terpiece and a game changer.

“2001: A Space Odyssey” is still regarded as the best sci-ence-fiction movie ever made, but every once in a while a movie comes along that tries to knock down the champ.

After four years in develop-ment hell, Alfonso Cuarón’s ambitious film, “Gravity,” has finally made its way to the-aters. A movie surrounded by all kinds of buzz, including a tension-filled plot and 13-min-ute opening shot, “Gravity” is a movie-going experience that cannot be missed.

The film opens up miles above the earth’s atmosphere, where a skeleton crew is fixing the Hubble Telescope.

The crew is lead by veter-an astronaut Matt Kowalski, played by George Clooney, on his last mission. Along for the ride is Dr. Ryan Stone, played by Sandra Bullock, on her first mission in space.

Before the mission can be completed, debris from a de-stroyed Russian satellite makes contact with the crew, killing

everyone but Stone and Kow-alski.

The two begin making their way to a nearby space station in order to escape to earth. As they make their way to the sta-tion, Stone begins opening up about why she’s there.

She had lost her daughter in a tragic accident and has been lost ever since. She finds space silent and peaceful.

The two make it to the sta-tion, but, of course, something goes wrong and sacrifices are made. It isn’t long before Bull-ock’s character is on her own in the lonely, vastness of space.

Now the rookie astronaut must fight for her survival in a place where nothing can sur-vive. There is no other way to put this: “Gravity” is a modern day masterpiece.

A film like this has never been attempted before, and Cuarón uses visuals to perfor-mances and everything in be-tween to make a truly beautiful and moving film.

Visually, nothing can com-pare to it this year. Cuarón captures the beauty, the emp-tiness, and above all, the ter-ror of space. Filmed almost completely in front of a green screen, “Gravity” is incredibly realistic and scientific from

start to finish. The cinematog-raphy is out of this world. Cu-arón uses it to drive his story. Remember this: “Gravity” will win Best Cinematography at the Oscars in February. There is no doubt about that.

After the visual aspect of the film, it is the acting that really drives the movie out of this at-mosphere. I don’t normally care for Bullock, but I can say with absolute confidence that she kills it in this movie.

Movies like this are driven by solo performances, and Bull-ock gives the best solo perfor-

mance of her career.Clooney is charming as usual

and once again proves that he is a well-balanced actor, using both his dramatic and comedic skills.

The tension in the film is overwhelming at times. I spent most of the movie either on the edge of my seat or up against the back of it. It never subsides, but the movie never drags. This movie is a game changer.

“Lord of the Rings” shook things up when it came out, and “Avatar” changed the way mov-ies were made, but it is “Grav-

ity” that will change movies as a whole.

Of course, it will be a while before it gets to the level of “2001: A Space Odyssey,” but that’s not to say that it won’t.

This is a movie you can-not miss, and if you are near an IMAX theater, I beg you to spend the extra cash to see it the way it was made to be seen.

“Gravity” is the best movie of 2013 so far, and is well de-served. It is a tense, emotional roller coaster that will make you remember why people love going to the movies.

OCTOBER 7, 2013 PAGE 5Features

JD RobertsStaff Writer

Heath SimsStaff Writer

‘The Laramie Project’ comes to life on Henderson stage

‘Gravity’ is full of suspense and does not disappoint

WHEN IT RAINS The theatre department will perform ‘The Laramie Project’ on Oct. 7, 10, 11, 12 and 13 at 7:30 p.m. The show is based on the common book.

Courtesy of Claudia Beach

Courtesy of Warner Bros. Pictures

EVERY BREATH YOU TAKE Dr. Ryan Stone, played by Sandra Bull-ock, fights for air as her oxygen levels quickly begin to deplete. Making her way through the wreckage of the International Space Staion, Bullock must find a way inside before she suffocates. ‘Gravity’ is available in theaters, as well as IMAX 3D.

“Gravity” is not meant to be experienced by iPhone, iPad or the box where you watch Robin Williams and Michael J. Fox try to turn back the clock. No, director Alfonso Cuaron says. Part with a dime for “Gravity,” get yourself immersed.

“You’ll want to find an IMAX screen, 3-D, Dolby Atmos sound,” says Cuaron, “The visu-als and the sound are most im-mersive in this setting. This is a film that was created for depth and scale. I want audiences floating in space, partaking of the journey with the charac-ters.” And judging from the ec-static reviews for Cuaron’s film, in that he has succeeded.

The “hypnotic” (Entertain-ment Weekly) science fiction movie about an accident in space is “one of the most awe-inspiring achievements in the history of special-effects cin-ema” (Time Out), a movie that sends the viewer “into free fall” (The Village Voice) along with

its marooned astronauts. Cuaron, the director of “Y Tu

Mama Tambien,” “Children of Men” and “Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban,” spent years setting this project up, years planning effects, years waiting for his stars, Oscar winners Sandra Bullock and George Clooney, to become available “because I could not imagine telling this story with-out them.

The challenges that they had to endure just to get across a performance intense, pre-pro-grammed shots with computers and robots, actors strapped into very restraining harnesses.

On top of that, the exercise of abstraction that is required for an actor to convince you that they’re going through this ter-rifying thing is truly their gift, as performers.” Cuaron knew it took great, empathetic stars to win our sympathy with only their presence, their voices and their history.

Bullock and Clooney would be only faces and voices, seen through the visors of space hel-

mets as they faced the terror of a collision in space and its after-math, the fear of dying alone “up there.” “This film takes place, entirely, in micro-grav-ity,” Cuaron says. “’Apollo 13’ got across the sense of micro-gravity with just a few, brilliant scenes.”

Ron Howard took his actors up into the Vomit Comet (NASA training jet) for transitional scenes, and those convinced you. Here, our entire movie is outside, in the micro-gravity of near Earth space.

Long, continuous takes in this environment. We had lights and computerized cam-eras and actors in rigs and we created the illusion of floating and spinning.”

The “Gravity” of the film’s ti-tle is both literal and metaphori-cal, Bullock told Space.com, with the “lack of gravity” being “the perfect way to describe not being able to ground yourself.” Cuaron says that is by design.

“It’s what bonds us to Earth. It’s fundamental to human life. We have a character drifting

into the void because she has lost her ground, a victim of her own inertia.

She is literally drifting fur-ther from human communica-tions and connections. She has to learn to fight her inertia, to come out of her bubble and find the grounding that she has lost.”

But beyond the metaphor, beyond the film’s emotional depth, Cuaron wanted his first film in seven years to be a tense, edge-of-your-seat thriller, which is why there are no apol-ogies for the barrage of worst-case scenarios that pile up on our hapless space-walking as-tronauts space junk, crashes, decaying orbits and shrinking oxygen supplies.

“All these worst-case sce-narios are things we never, virtually never, saw in 50 years of space exploration,” Cuaron, a self-confessed “space nut,” says with a laugh. “It’s extraor-dinary that sending people into the most hostile place you can think didn’t produce disaster af-ter disaster. But that didn’t hap-

pen because of the wisdom and the brilliance and commitment of the people who sent astro-nauts up there. But their space suits? Probably not as tough and durable as we make them out to be.”

The Mexican director, who turns 52 in November, has a long-established reputation for making emotional moments work. As concerned as he was to get the stunning effects and as insistent as he is that viewers get the primo-immersive, digi-tal 3-D experience out of “Grav-ity,” he was skeptical that this big-budget sci-fi picture would bring viewers to tears. But that response in early screenings “has been the happiest sur-prise.

My co-writer (his son Jonas) insisted, from the start, that people would react this way. He thinks if you tell a tense story, put people on the edge of their seats and make people invest in the characters, audiences will be disarmed _ rationally. And being disarmed, they let in emotions. “I hope he is right.”

Roger MooreMCT News Service

‘Gravity’ director lends gravitas to the IMAX medium’s quality

PAGE 6 OCTOBER 7, 2013SportsHSU ranked 8th after 42-0 victory

Kaitlyn Kitchens Sports Editor

FALLING SHORT Henderson’s volleyball team falls to Southern Nazarene in three straight sets (25-12, 25-19, 25-11) to make their overall season record 1-12 and 0-5 in GAC.

Photo by Ryan Klare

Lady Reddies defeated in three straight sets in game

Kaitlyn Kitchens Sports Editor

Henderson State Reddies came out confident in their fifth game of the season, and they did not disappoint.

The Reddies played North-western Oklahoma State (0-5) in Alva, Okla. Saturday night where they took home a 42-0 win.

Henderson is now eighth-ranked and 5-0 in the season.

The Reddies played in heavy wind gusts of 25 mph.

Henderson scored their first touchdown with a rush by Ryan McDonald for 17 yards barely 37 seconds into the game, with 14:23 remaining in the first quarter.

With 6:05 left on the clock for the first quarter, Chris King re-covered the ball from a blocked field goal attempt and ran the ball for 70 yards to complete a Henderson touchdown.

The Reddies completed one more touchdown in the first quarter when Keaton Stigger rushed the ball for a 1-yard touchdown.

Henderson ended the first quarter with a 21-0 lead over Northwestern Oklahoma.

During the second quarter no one scored until 4:54 re-maining in the first half of the game when Stigger rushed the ball for 2 yards for a touch-down, making the score 28-0.

Barely over a minute later, Tim Llewllyn intercepted a pass to return the ball 25 yards and completed another Reddie touchdown with 3:09 remaining in the first half.

The Reddies ended the first half of the game leading 35-0 over the Rangers.

The third quarter of the game, the Reddies made the last touchdown between the two teams with another inter-ception made by Zach Rich-ardson, who returned the ball 36 yards, and for a touchdown

with 1:45 remaining in the third quarter.

Henderson scored in every way possible during the game, except they did not score by a passing touchdown for the first time since 2011.

The Reddies totaled 155 yards rushing and had a season low for passing yards of 219.

Kevin Rodgers completed 20-of-30 passes for 181 yards while having three interceptions in the game.

Receiver Robert Jordan had eight receptions for 94 yards in the game.

Daniel McCoy led the Reddies with rushes, hav-ing 70 yards on 21 carries. McDonald had 68 yards on 15 carries for the game.

Northwestern Oklahoma only had 129 yards on 55 plays.

Ricardo Mendez and Stigger both had five tackles each in the game and lead the Reddie defense with their first shutout since a 71-0 win over Arkansas-Monticello on Oct. 6, 2012.

The Reddies commited four turnovers and was limited to its lowest offensive output of the seaon.

Henderson is scheduled to play Southwestern Oklahoma on Saturday, Oct. 12.

Kick off is set for 3 p.m. at Carpenter-Haygood Stadium.

This game will be Henderson State’s Homecoming game.

Tailgating events will begin at 11 a.m. and Homecoming festivities begin at 2:30 p.m., including the announcement of the 2013 queen and her court.

Thursday night will the the traditional Sigma Phi Epsilon bonfire, and the top 10 for the Homecoming court with be an-nounced.

Also, the annual drum beat, hosted by Phi Lamda Chi, will take place on the intramural feilds beside the football sta-dium.

Additional reporting by Troy Mitchell.

The Lady Reddie volleyball team (1-12 overall, 0-5 GAC) fell to Southern Nazarene (12-5 overall, 4-0 GAC) in three straight sets Saturday night at the Duke Wells Center.

The Lady Reddies fell 25-12 in the first set.

Henderson made the first two points in the game with a kill by Katrina Goulbourne and a kill by Jessica Moss.

SNU would take a 5-3 lead until the Lady Reddies scored again with a kill by Moss.

Henderson was down 8-3 when they decided to take a timeout.

The Lady Reddies were down 15-7 when Cheyanne Derr made two kills, followed by two kills by Goulbourne to make the score 17-11.

Henderson failed to make a comeback in the first game, and SNU ended the set with a kill by Jamie Hope.

The Lady Reddies fought harder in the second set but still fell to SNU 25-19.

The second set began with a kill by Goulbourne, but South-ern Nazarene came back to make the score 3-1.

The Lady Reddies tied the set at 5-5 and again at 8-8.

Henderson took the lead from an attack error to make the score 9-8.

The Lady Reddies tied the set up again at 12-12 but failed to take the lead any more in the set.

In the third set, the Lady Red-dies were unable to take the lead or tie the game up at any point.

They lost 25-11 to end the match for the Lady Reddies and

Southern Nazarene took home another win for their season.

Goulbourne had a team-high with eight kills from the team’s 25.

Henderson’s defense was led by Raegan Large, who had a season-high of 12 digs.

Jami Jackson had two solo blocks and one assist for the defense.

The Lady Reddies will play again on Saturday, Oct. 8 at 7 p.m. in the Duke Wells Center.

The team will host their an-nual fundraiser drive for cancer and breast cancer.

All fans can pledge for every serve that results in a point dur-ing the game.

Henderson will also auction off pink jerseys after the match to raise money for breast can-cer.

Additional reporting by Maile Keeney.