Latest news with #All'sWellThatEndsWell
IOL News
5 days ago
- Science
- IOL News
How barn owls are reshaping the ecological narrative at the University of the Free State
New owl chicks born in their nest high above the library of the University of the Free State (UFS) Image: UFS High above the hushed study spaces of the Sasol Library at the University of the Free State (UFS), a remarkable conservation story unfolds, intertwining the realms of academia and urban wildlife. Nestled within the library's rafters, a pair of barn owls has not only found a home but has also become a symbol of ecological resilience and community engagement. Their journey, marked by challenges and triumphs, reflects a profound narrative of coexistence, prompting students and staff alike to reconsider the role of educational spaces in fostering biodiversity. As these owls raise their chicks amidst the backdrop of scholarly pursuits, they invite us to explore the delicate balance between nature and knowledge, reminding us that even in the heart of urban environments, life thrives in unexpected ways. Professor Vasu Reddy, the Deputy Vice-Chancellor for Research and Internationalisation, who oversees libraries within the institution, said the owls embody a deeper meaning. 'If we consider Shakespeare's play, All's Well That Ends Well, then the presence of the owls in the Sasol Library confirms another meaning of that play,' he said. 'Love is not always considered noble but is something persistent, and our library exemplifies a living ecosystem where documents, people, and even animals can interact in nurturing ways.' The owls have resided in the library since 2016, but the turning point came in 2023 when a distressed owl was spotted outside the building, triggering a grassroots conservation initiative led by concerned staff and students. Tanya Scherman from the Centre for Teaching and Learning was the first to respond, discovering that the owl had likely suffered secondary poisoning from a contaminated rodent. 'That moment became the catalyst for a grassroots conservation initiative,' she explained, as she reached out to local wildlife experts and veterinary assistance. A pair of barn owls have been nesting in the library's roof space Image: UFS Professor Francois Deacon from the Faculty of Natural and Agricultural Sciences stepped in with enthusiasm. 'As someone passionate about urban wildlife conservation, I saw a great opportunity—not just to support the owls, but to involve students in hands-on learning,' he noted. 'These projects offer rare chances to study animal behaviour in real time, outside the confines of a lab.' With postgraduate students Ruan Higgs and Kaitlyn Taylor, Deacon's team assessed the owls' behaviour and designed a nesting structure. The effort to build the nesting box turned personal for Scherman, who collaborated with her father on the project, symbolising a connection that extends beyond academia. The results of this collaboration have already shown promise. In 2023, the barn owls successfully raised two owlets, and now, another breeding attempt has resulted in six eggs, with three visible owlets emerging. According to Professor Deacon, the installation of a motion-triggered infrared field camera has provided invaluable insights into the owls' behaviour, aiding student research into their diet and nesting preferences. 'These owls are teaching tools,' he asserted, linking them directly to real-world ecological applications. The ecological role of these owls on campus is significant. Each pair can consume hundreds of rodents in a single breeding season, contributing to a reduction in the need for toxic pesticides. Scherman noted, 'We found remains of small birds and insects in their regurgitated pellets, showing how adaptable they are in an urban setting.' However, urban life is fraught with challenges for these birds, and both Scherman and Deacon advocate for awareness and caution among campus visitors to protect them from disturbances and potential dangers. Night cameras are keeping an eye on the owls, which also are used for research Image: UFS The emergence of this conservation project is also shifting cultural perceptions of owls. Often cloaked in myths and fears, it is essential to raise awareness about owls as symbols of wisdom and protectors of the ecosystem. Scherman explained, 'The presence of owls among us is a living testament to the rich biodiversity that thrives even in urban spaces.' As the initiative gathers momentum, its implications extend beyond the immediate conservation goals to encompass community and collaborative relationships within the UFS. Professor Reddy emphasises the broader narrative of coexistence and compassion emerging from the project. 'It's clear that what may be seen as disruptive has become a pedagogical tool,' he reflected. 'Our library is not just a repository of books but a space where stories merge with nature, nurturing our collective future.' Looking forward, the desire for further collaboration and expansion of cross-campus initiatives is growing. Professor Deacon envisions new projects that may conserve other species and promote biodiversity on campus, fostering a culture that recognises the importance of ecological balance alongside academic pursuits. As the owls continue to thrive above the Sasol Library, their presence serves as a powerful reminder of the harmonious coexistence possible between nature and knowledge. In the words of Professor Reddy, this odyssey 'shows how we connect to the world by sheltering not just precious books, but also crafting an important ecosystem of empathy.'
Time Out
28-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Time Out
New York Classical Theatre kicks off its free Shakespeare plays in Central Park next week
Clear your evening plans: New York Classical Theatre is returning to Central Park for its 26th season, and they're bringing one of Shakespeare's most overlooked comedies with them. All's Well That Ends Well opens Tuesday, June 3, at the West 103rd Street entrance to the park, offering a rare chance to catch this twisty, witty tale of love, ambition and unexpected redemption, with no ticket required. Directed by NY Classical's founding artistic director Stephen Burdman, the production stays true to the company's signature approach: free, fast-moving and totally accessible. You can show up any night (except Mondays) through June 22 and catch professional Off-Broadway-caliber performances under the open sky. There are no seats, no stage and no boundaries between cast and audience—just a story unfolding around you in real time. This year's cast includes Anique Clements as the determined heroine Helena and Paul Deo Jr. as Bertram, her reluctant love interest, alongside Carine Montbertrand, Karel Heřmánek and others. It's a spirited lineup that blends returning favorites with fresh talent, all performing for and with the city that raised them. And while the Bard is the main event, this season also adds some delightful extras. On Dog Night (June 4), you're invited to bring your pup, pose for pics in matching ruffs and snag some free swag. Family Nights on June 12 and 21 include pre-show crafts, crowns and circus performers to entertain younger theatergoers. And on June 20, Pride Night starts with a happy hour at VERS in Hell's Kitchen before a festive crowd caravans uptown for the show. Performances begin at 7 pm sharp, with special activities kicking off at 6:30 pm on themed nights. While reservations are free and encouraged (you'll get weather alerts and a digital program), walk-ups are more than welcome.
The Guardian
03-04-2025
- Entertainment
- The Guardian
Lee Montague obituary
The start of postwar theatre in London was signalled by the birth of the Old Vic school in the rubble of the bombed theatre in Waterloo in 1948 and the reopening of the Old Vic itself in 1950. The actor Lee Montague, who has died aged 97, was a founding student at the school and 'walked on' in Twelfth Night, the first professional production in the postwar era at the Vic. His subsequent stage career included Old Vic seasons separated by 10 years. He played Face (his great friend, Leo McKern, was Subtle) in the visionary genius Tyrone Guthrie's production of Ben Jonson's The Alchemist, the last show on the Old Vic stage before Laurence Olivier moved back in at the head of the new National Theatre company in 1963. Montague, a powerful and sturdy presence on stage, film and television for over six decades, went with Olivier and Vivien Leigh on the famous 1957 European tour of Peter Brook's sensational revival of Titus Andronicus (he was Demetrius, killed and baked in a pie served to his mother, Tamara, queen of the Goths). This production had first been seen during the 1955 Stratford-upon-Avon season (five years before the RSC was formed by Peter Hall), during which Montague also appeared alongside Olivier and Leigh in Twelfth Night (moving up the cast list as Fabian), Keith Michell and Joyce Redman in All's Well That Ends Well, and Olivier as Macbeth. His film career, which later included two Franco Zeffirelli movies – Brother Sun, Sister Moon (1972), in which he played the father of the future Saint Francis of Assisi, and the TV four-part epic Jesus of Nazareth (1977, starring Robert Powell) in which he played the prophet Habakkuk – as well as Ken Russell's Mahler (1974), began in 1952 when he played the club owner Maurice Joyant, in John Huston's Moulin Rouge starring José Ferrer and Zsa Zsa Gabor. He was also the first ever storyteller on BBC television's long-running children's programme, Jackanory, relating 15 episodes in 1965-66. His stage career covered seasons at the Bristol Old Vic and the Royal Exchange in Manchester in the 1970s while, on television, he starred in an acclaimed production of Harold Pinter's The Birthday Party, directed by Joan Kemp-Welch, in 1960 – the play had been excoriated by most theatre critics two years earlier – as the sinister Goldberg. For this, he won a TV actor of the year award from the guild of TV producers and directors. Coincidentally, he was born as Goldberg – Leonard Goldberg – in Bow, east London, where he was educated at the Coopers' Company school before training at the Old Vic school and changing his name. His mother was Lithuanian, his father, who was a tailor in the East End, Russian; they had met on the boat bringing them to Britain. In the Old Vic's second season, 1951-52, he played major supporting roles in two Guthrie productions: the euphoniously named warrior general Usumcasane in Christopher Marlowe's epic Tamburlaine starring Donald Wolfit (whom he also understudied) and Flaminius in Timon of Athens. He was also Edmund ('God, stand up for bastards!') to Stephen Murray's King Lear, with Coral Browne as Regan. He made an auspicious Broadway debut in 1952, as the lead character, Gregory Hawke, in Moss Hart's last play, The Climate of Eden. Hawke joined a family of missionaries in the jungle of British Guyana, discovering that love can help solve the problems of civilisation – and of Hawke's accumulated doubts and neuroses. Back in Britain, he was Ambrose Kemper in Thornton Wilder's The Matchmaker (template for the musical Hello, Dolly!) at the Haymarket in a company led by Ruth Gordon as Dolly Levi and, after the Titus tour, the bartender Rocky – 'funny, dour and truthful,' said Kenneth Tynan – in Peter Wood's landmark first British production in 1958 of Eugene O'Neill's The Iceman Cometh (with Ian Bannen in the lead) at the Arts and the Winter Garden. He confirmed his leading actor status in that last Old Vic season, playing, as well as Face, Shylock in The Merchant of Venice and Angelo in Measure for Measure. And in 1965, at the Royal Court, he played a leading role (alongside Liz Fraser and Roy Kinnear) in Charles Wood's Meals on Wheels, a satire on provincial conservatism and censorship, the first and only play ever directed by John Osborne. In the same year, he returned to Broadway in the US premiere of Joe Orton's Entertaining Mr Sloane, alongside Sheila Hancock as his sister and Dudley Sutton (as he had been a year earlier in London) as the titular object of their not so fraternal affections. Both play and performances were enthusiastically reviewed. One of his favourite roles was that of Irving Spaatz in Paddy Chayevsky's The Latent Heterosexual for the RSC, directed by Terry Hands, at the Aldwych in 1970. He played a gay writer who marries a woman for tax purposes and ends up enjoying himself. Another favourite was Iago (to Alan Badel's Othello) at the Oxford Playhouse in 1970, followed by a season at the Bristol Old Vic in 1971-72 in two more tremendous roles, Ben Jonson's Volpone and Lophakin, the serf's son turned property owner, in Chekhov's The Cherry Orchard. Over 10 years in Manchester, he played three cracking roles in Thornton Wilder's surreal 1942 farce The Skin of Our Teeth; the lubricious Barney Cashman in Neil Simon's Last of the Red Lovers (this transferred to the Criterion in London); and Cyprien, a prime minister of justice caught (nearly) with his trousers down in Court in the Act, a Feydeau-esque French farce directed by Braham Murray. His last London stage appearances, in 1981-82, were as a bullying tailor in Jean-Claude Grumberg's The Workshop, translated by Tom Kempinski, at Hampstead theatre (Michael Billington said that 'with his constant look of hurt [Montague] is the very embodiment of the good-natured slavedriver, the put-upon exploiter who reserves his compassion for outside office hours'), and a colourful double as Raymond Chandler and a disgruntled cop in a witty Chandler pastiche, Private Dick, at the Whitehall Theatre, co-written and directed by Roger Michell, with Powell as Chandler's Marlowe. Montague's later television work included Whose Love Is It Anyway (2008) by David Renwick, in a BBC 'Love Soup' series, co-starring Tamsin Greig and Sheridan Smith, in which Montague, as the dying husband of a gold-digging wife, annoyingly (to her) recovers after suddenly falling in love with his housekeeper/ironing lady. Living in Hampstead, north London, with his wife, the actor Ruth Goring (nee Gorb), whom he married in 1955, Montague led the campaign to save the Keats Grove library as a community library, after Camden council decided to axe it. Ruth died in 2023. Monty, as he was generally known, is survived by their son, Danny, and daughter, Sophie. Lee Montague (Leonard Goldberg), actor, born 16 October 1927; died 30 March 2025
Yahoo
24-03-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
Chiodos ends show just a few songs into sold-out concert in Minneapolis
Chiodos ended its performance just a few songs into the show at The Fillmore in Minneapolis on Sunday night. The Michigan band said in a statement that its lead vocalist, Craig Owens, had "become quite ill" before the sold-out show began. "With the intention of doing his best to proceed on with the show, it soon became apparent that this was not possible," the band said. Chiodos added that it is arranging a rescheduled date with promoters, and all previously purchased tickets for Sunday's concert will be honored for the new date. The band also said it's figuring out a plan for refunds to those who can't attend the newly scheduled show. "Again, we are truly upset and sorry to have this happen, and we will make it up to you – in the meantime please extend your good vibes to Craig to get better soon," it aded. Those in attendance said the show only lasted for a handful of songs before the band ended it early. It happened only a few dates into the band's "All's Well That Ends Well" 20th anniversary/reunion tour, with the band saying that the tour will continue as scheduled. Prior to Sunday night, the last time the Chiodos made an appearance in Minnesota was on May 16, 2014 at The Garage in Burnsville, according to Concert Archives.
