Mike Wiley introducing his students' work in progress, a play about the Freedom Riders, April 2010. Photograph by Bonnie Campbell.
Playwright and actor Mike Wiley, who has more than twelve years of credits in theater for young audiences and in film, television, and regional theater, is the Visiting Joint Chair Professor in Documentary Studies and American Studies at Duke and UNC–Chapel Hill in spring and fall 2010. The Center for Documentary Studies coordinates the Lehman Brady Chair professorship, which brings distinguished writers, photographers, filmmakers, and other practitioners and scholars of the documentary arts to Duke and UNC to teach courses on both campuses and engage in lectures, screenings, and other events for students, faculty, and the general public. Mike Wiley’s work focuses on expanding cultural awareness through dynamic portrayals based on pivotal moments in African American history, which he hopes will unveil a richer picture of the total American experience. His expanding repertoire of original productions displays his acclaimed ability to bring to life multiple intertwined characters, with Wiley often portraying more than two dozen persons in a single “one-man” drama.
special opportunity for new duke students: august 28 performance of dar he: the story of emmett till
On August 28, Duke students will have an opportunity to go behind-the-scenes at one of Mike Wiley’s productions. In a trip to the legendary Manbites Dog Theater in downtown Durham, students will learn about how a regional theater produces new and challenging pieces, showcases and nurtures developing playwrights, directors, and actors, and facilitates cross-displinary and cross-community projects. Wiley will be performing Dar He: The Story of Emmett Till. Duke students can register for this opportunity on the Student Affairs website.
fall 2010 course
This fall Wiley is also teaching a course, “Staging History.” Utilizing the research and development garnered in his spring 2010 undergraduate course, this class will shape, rehearse, and stage the world premiere of Breach of Peace, a documentary play based on the 1961 Freedom Rides. Freedom Riders were integrated groups of black and white civil rights activists who rode Greyhound buses into the South to challenge segregation laws. This hands-on course is intended for undergraduates and community members. It will delve into race, gender, and class identity in 1961 America. This is an opportunity to step into the shoes of a powerful variety of Civil Rights icons. No experience with historical research or theatrical production is necessary. Many kinds of talent are necessary and anyone can make a valuable contribution on stage or off.
CDS director Tom Rankin began photographing African American sacred rituals and expression in the Mississippi Delta in the late 1980s. Interested in the confluence of land and faith, place and time, and the profane and the sacred, this early work resulted in the book Sacred Space: Photographs from the Mississippi Delta (1993). Over the years he has continued to photograph in the Delta, returning to many of same places and subjects with his 8 x 10 view camera. This exhibition at the Ogden Museum of Southern Art includes over forty recent prints from his sustained look at this storied region and the nature of hallowed and changing landscapes.
Kendra McNair-Worley, CDS intern, experiencing the DiVE on Duke's campus. Photograph by Christopher Sims.
a dive into virtual reality
While working as an intern at the Center for Documentary Studies (CDS) this summer, I was offered the opportunity to visit the Duke Immersive Virtual Environment, also known as the DiVE. Created in November 2005, it is currently located at the Pratt School of Engineering on the campus of Duke University. Rachael Brady, a Pratt research scientist and adjunct associate professor in the computer science department, oversaw the planning and construction of the DiVE, one of only seven such systems worldwide at the time. She was also the host for my visit and welcomed my CDS colleague, Chris Sims, and I late one afternoon in June.
DiVE is often times described as a six-sided “cave” — a chamber measuring roughly 9.5 feet per side. The four walls, as well as the ceiling and the floor, are used as screens onto which computer graphics are displayed.
CDS undergraduate instructor Kelly Alexander was recently recognized for her teaching excellence. During the spring semester 2010, her course evaluations were among the top 5% of all undergraduate instructors at Duke. You can read more about her course, Our Culinary Cultures, here.
Kelly Alexander is a writer based in Chapel Hill, North Carolina. She is a consulting editor to Saveur magazine and the author of numerous feature stories for that publication. Her article “Hometown Appetites,” an homage to the great American food writer Clementine Paddleford, won the James Beard Journalism Award and was the basis for a biography and cookbook published by Penguin in 2008. Prior to joining Saveur, Alexander worked as the restaurant editor of Microsoft’s New York Sidewalk and as an assistant editor at Food & Wine magazine. Her work has appeared in the New York Times, the New York Times Magazine, O: The Oprah Magazine, Newsweek, and many other publications. Her story “Multicultural Meat,” about the cross-cultural significance of brisket, was nominated for a Bert Greene Award for Food Journalism from the International Association of Culinary Professionals. Alexander is also a regular contributor on the subject of food to the NPR program “The State of Things,” which airs daily on WUNC, North Carolina Public Radio. She is a graduate of Northwestern University, where she studied journalism, creative writing, and anthropology.
