Play runs May 9-10 and 16-17

May 7, 2013 (El Cajon) – A woman of a certain age contemplates suicide when the phone rings in her San Diego apartment. The caller, believing she is contacting an analyst she read about in a health magazine, launches into her own tale of woe.

So begins “An Ordinary Day,” a one-act play by Dario Fo and Franca Rame, and directed by Martin Katz, a Grossmont College theater arts instructor. The lead character, Julia, finds herself trying to help the woman on the phone, in between encounters with her neighbors, the police and two flower-delivery men. As the tragic-comedy unfolds, it illuminates the themes of zealous commercialism, relationship stress, the notion of betrayal and the exhilaration of contributing to someone else’s life.

April 2, 2013 (El Cajon) –  “The Anatomy of Hate; A Dialogue to Hope,” an award-winning documentary film directed by Michael Ramsdell and focusing on individual and collective ideologies of hate will be shown during a free screening and Q&A with the director at 3:30 p.m. April 3, in Building 26, Room 220 at Grossmont College.

The 90-minute film follows the director’s six-year journey with groups like the white supremacists and Palestinian militants, as well as U.S. embedded troops in the Middle East. It is juxtaposed with interviews from leading experts in sociology, psychology and neurology to reveal both the emotional and biological factors that make everyone susceptible to acts and ideologies of hate. At the same time, this film posits, these are the very same traits that enable people to rise above the negativity.

March 1, 2013 (El Cajon) – The Hyde Art Gallery at Grossmont College presents “Works by Berning, Burkett and Wilson” a Ceramics exhibition by Trent Berning, Richard Burkett and Lana Wilson March 11-April 11.  These ceramic works all share the concept of merging utilitarian forms with a personal vision and expression that goes beyond their utility.

Though some of their works may function to various degrees as a vase or platter or teapot, their use of additive elements, texture, image, color, theme and form take these pieces well beyond pure utility.  These works are unique and individual pieces of art that express the artists interests and visions while still honoring their connection to utility.

By Kathy Carpenter

Stagehouse Theatre, Grossmont College

Playing December 6, 7, 8th at 7:30, and Dec. 8th at 2 p.m. 

http://www.grossmont.edu/theatrebrochure/plays1213Season.asp

Based on La Culisine Des Anges - by Albert Husson

December 4, 2012 (El Cajon)--As a reviewer, I appreciate the fresh ways theatres keep coming up with to take care of housekeeping at the beginning of plays. The dos and don't of the theatre. In this case, the rules were read in French and then repeated by someone with a French accent, setting the tone of the play which takes place in the back of a store in Cayenne, French Guiana, on Christmas Eve 1910.

October 15, 2012 (El Cajon) – Make plans to build a better future today! In partnership with the Grossmont-Cuyamaca Community College District, the Grossmont Union High School District is hosting its ninth annual Got Plans? Career & College Fair for high school students and parents on Saturday, October 20, 2012, from 1 p.m. to 4 p.m. at Grossmont College.

Performances continue Oct. 5, 6, 11, 12 and 13 at the Stagecoach Theatre, Grossmont College

Reviewed by Kathy Carpenter

Directed by Alumni Stephen Schmitz

October 5, 2012 (El Cajon)--It's the errors that make them valuable: stamps and people. Five simple characters or not so simple. Mauritius is the story of two half-sisters whose mother recently passed away The plot and arguments revolve around a stamp collection.

Mauritius was originally produced in New York by the Manhattan Theatre Club.

September 13, 2012 (El Cajon) – The Grossmont College Career Center will present “Doing What Matters to Find a Job,” a free informational workshop for job seekers, from 11 a.m. to 12:15 p.m. on Wednesday, Sept. 19, at the Career Center on the El Cajon campus. Speaking will be Pamela Benge, Grossmont College student services specialist.

By Miriam Raftery

March 14, 2012 (El Cajon)--Students at Grossmont College may be surprised to see who's hanging out just off campus.  ECM editor Miriam Raftery spotted these deer grazing on a sunny slope adjacent to the community college.

 
January 29, 2012, (La Mesa) -- The Grossmont College Theatre Arts Department kicks off 2012 with its production "Inside The Actor's Process: Readers Theatre - The Theatre of the Imagination."  In this unique form of oral storytelling, space and time can stretch to create fantastic worlds and marvelous journeys that soar through the imagination.

December 1, 2011 (San Diego)—Leaping cossacks and flurries of snowflakes--See them all leap across the stage in the 22nd annual production of the Nutcracker by the San Diego Ballet Company Ballet.

Productions of the cherished holiday favorite by Peter Tchaikovsy will be presented Dec. 3-4 at the Birch North Park Theater in a co-production with the Grossmont College Symphony Orchestra and Master Chorale. Additional shows will be presented December 17-18 at the UCSD Mandeville Auditorium, directed and choreographed by Robin Sheretz-Morgan and Javier Velasco.

Half a million in Madrid sing Beethoven's "Ode to Joy" as peaceful protest

“Move Your Money” campaign urges transfer of money from big banks to local financial institutions by Nov. 5; “Solidarity” leader Lech Walesa joins forces with Occupy Wall Street

By Miriam Raftery

October 17, 2011 (San Diego’s East County) – Inspired by the Occupy Wall Street movement and similar demonstrations against financial institutions and corporate power in Spain and Germany, a “Global Day of Protest” on Saturday, October 15 brought millions of people into the streets in protests held in 950 cities worldwide.  The  largest occurred in Madrid, where an estimated half million Spaniards joined together to sing Beethoven’s “Ode to Joy” and raise hands to show that theirs was a peaceful protest. (Click video to view).

The movement is attracting some strange bedfellows—drawing support this week from labor leaders, Solidarity's Lech Walesa, and even a co-founder of the conservative Tea Party movement. 

September 4, 2011 (El Cajon)--To mark the 10th anniversary of the Sept. 11, 2001 terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center in New York City, the Pentagon in Washington, D.C. and Flight 93, Grossmont College will plant an olive tree of remembrance on the El Cajon campus.

The tree planting ceremony will be held at 10 a.m. on Friday, Sept. 9 at a lawn area adjacent to building #53.

The Grossmont College Adult Reentry Program will host “Recreate Yourself,” a free orientation meeting for adults interested in returning to school to learn a new career, earn a college diploma or upgrade workplace skills for a job promotion, from 9:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. on Tuesday, Aug. 2.

May 10, 2011 (El Cajon) – As construction funded by a 2002 bond measure nears an end, East County applicants are being sought for four upcoming vacancies on the citizens’ committee responsible for ensuring that money from the $207 million bond for projects at Grossmont and Cuyamaca colleges is spent as promised.