Molly Harper during her “Diversity Monologues” performance last fall.

Sweet Briar College senior Molly Harper literally stumbled into acting in high school. After failing to make the volleyball team, the Maryland native spotted a theater flyer on her way out of the gym.

“I went home and told my mother that I was going to audition,” she says. “Once I got into that show, I never left the theater.”

This month, Harper will present her final directing project, “Lies,” at 7:30 p.m. Friday, April 19, and Saturday, April 20, in Babcock Studio Theatre at Sweet Briar College.

Written and directed by Harper, who also composed all of the music, the play is a collection of monologues documenting lies by various characters and the reasoning behind them.

“As the audience watches the pieces move together, the … entanglement of lies develops into other issues of self-consciousness, self-perception, doubt, loneliness, depression and a strive to work for something honest and hopeful,” Harper says. “I hope that this play shows the universality of human emotions and how everyone feels the same way at one point or another.”

Molly Harper in a promotional photo for “Lies.” Photo by Margret Wood ’13.

The characters’ struggle and fragmented self-image are also reflected in the set, which Harper designed.

“Set design is one of my favorite hobbies, and it just so happens that our set is based on broken mirrors,” she says. “[It’s] a physical manifestation of the misinterpreted image … these characters have developed about themselves and the lies they have told over time.”

Harper, who will graduate in May with a Bachelor of Fine Arts in theater and music and an Arts Management Certificate, started developing the play when she wrote her first monologue for the College’s “Diversity Monologues.” That text later became part of “Lies.”

Started in 2011 to promote dialogue on campus, “Diversity Monologues” features performances by several Sweet Briar students who talk about their personal experiences to spark conversations about diversity and civility. Staged during first-year orientation, the monologues are among a number of commitments on Harper’s calendar. She’s also a member of Paint and Patches, Earphones, Taps and Toes, GLOW, Silhouettes, and served as InterClub Council president for the SGA board this year.

Inducted into Alpha Lambda Delta and Alpha Psi Omega, Harper has been a Dean’s List honor student since her first year at Sweet Briar and in 2012 made the Who’s Who in American Colleges and Universities list. In addition, Harper, who is a Work Study assistant for the theater department and a theater tutor, received the theater department’s award for Excellence in Academics two years in a row.

“I love my department, because they’re always extremely helpful and willing to work with you on anything,” she says, remembering what it was like when Bill Kershner, director of the performing arts department, gave her a large role during her first year at Sweet Briar.

“I was so intimated,” she admits. “But as we worked together, he showed me what real acting was, and I knew that acting was what I was good at.”

Molly Harper in “The Beauty Queen of Leenane.”

This summer, Harper is taking her experience one step further. Along with other Sweet Briar theater students and faculty, she will travel to Scotland for the Edinburgh International Fringe Festival to perform in “Chops,” a play by Kirin McCrory.

“I play the lead, Marg, who has been accused of killing off all the men in town, but as most comedies go, nothing is as it seems. It’s quite a funny piece.”

Harper’s previous theater credits include “The Bacchae” (Second Messenger), “Under Milkwood” (Second Voice), “Dsvelada: Senior Show” (master carpenter), “The Secret Garden” (Mrs. Medlock), “Glass Menagerie” (master carpenter), “Crimes of the Heart” (stage manager), “Aladdin Jr.” (set designer/master carpenter), “As You Like It” (Touchstone), “The Beauty Queen of Leenane” (Mag), “Doubt” (Sister Aloysius), “The King and I” (master carpenter) and “Waiting for Godot” (Pozzo).

“Lies” stars fellow seniors Noelle Ames and Catherine Ramos, as well as Taneal Williams ’16, Patricia Morgan ’15 and Mariah Skalka ’14. Behind the stage, Harper is getting help from stage manager Madeline Skiba ’16, props master Julia Green ’13, master carpenter Sarah Capen ’15, sound designer Charlotte Hopkins ’15 and video projection operator Latoya Letmon ’14.

Tickets are free, but seating is limited. Email boxoffice@sbc.edu for ticket reservations starting Monday, April 15. For more information, contact Shelbie Filson at (434) 381-6228 or sfilson@sbc.edu.

— Janika Carey

“New York Voices” focuses on music by New York composers, as well as songs inspired by the city — a natural choice for Kuhar, who directs the College’s arts management program.

“[I]n the arts world it is viewed as the center of the universe, a cultural mecca, and I’ve had so many memorable moments in the city: seeing a show on Broadway and an opera at the Metropolitan Opera for the first time, performing at Carnegie Hall, my first major audition season as a young artist, and my first New York trip last year with the Arts Management Program here at Sweet Briar,” she said.

“It’s a place near and dear to my heart and always will be.”

Ursula Kuhar

In addition, Kuhar says she loves programming innovative, thematic recitals rather than a “standard” of songs in various languages.

“It allows me to really flex my muscles as an artist.”

The contemporary repertoire includes John Corigliano’s “The Cloisters” (1969) and the Virginia premiere of “One Sweet Morning” (2011). Other highlights are songs by Ned Rorem, John Musto, Ricky Ian Gordon, Gene Scheer and Stephen Sondheim.

“All of the pieces are new to my repertoire, and without a doubt, some of the most challenging I have ever worked on — both musically and contextually — but most rewarding,” the mezzo-soprano said.

Rorem’s “A Visit to St. Elizabeth’s” is one such example. It was inspired by poets Elizabeth Bishop and Ezra Pound when Bishop visited Pound in a sanitarium.

“It’s extremely difficult on all facets: melodically, rhythmically and psychologically, and for these reasons it is not programmed frequently,” Kuhar explained.

Similarly, singing “One Sweet Morning” has been an “intense but worthwhile process,” she said. The piece was written in honor of the 10th anniversary of 9/11.

The creative theme and musical challenges aside, there’s another advantage to Kuhar’s repertoire: All of the composers are still living.

“I have been corresponding with them and [have had] some fabulous conversations, and [I] look forward to more as we progress,” Kuhar said.

For more information, call (434) 381-6350 or email ukuhar@sbc.edu.

More about Ursula Kuhar

Kuhar’s areas of expertise include Leonard Bernstein, contemporary American vocal literature, opera/orchestra management, cultural diplomacy and arts policy. She holds a B.S. in arts administration and a Master of Music in music education, both with honors from Butler University, where she was a Hampton Scholar and teaching fellow. Kuhar also earned a “Diplôme d’études en langue française” from the Université Paris-Sorbonne. In 2011, she graduated with a Doctor of Music in voice from Indiana University’s Jacobs School of Music.

Kuhar has been praised for her “ability to accurately convey emotion” (The Indianapolis Star) and her “charming characterization and fine musicianship” (WFIU). Featured in The New York Times, she most recently made her international debut in the title role of Händel’s Orlando at the Siena Music Festival in Siena, Italy. Kuhar has toured throughout Europe and South America. This March, she performed in Mozart’s “The Magic Flute” (2nd Lady) with Opera on the James in Lynchburg.

— Janika Carey

Sarah O’Brien ’13 catalogs old farm tools from the plantation and dairy.

Sweet Briar College’s agrarian past is the focus of the upcoming exhibition “ ‘I have lately bought me a Plantation’: A Brief Survey of Farming and Land Use at Sweet Briar,” which opens at 1 p.m. Thursday, March 21, in Whitley Gallery at Sweet Briar Museum. It will be on view through March 2014.

The result of a practicum project undertaken by senior Sarah O’Brien, the exhibition provides a brief overview of Sweet Briar’s farming history, from the days of the Fletchers, who founded the College, to the later 20th century, when the dairy was still in operation. O’Brien, a history major, says her interest in the subject was not just academic.

A milk bottle from the old dairy farm at Sweet Briar.

“I was born and raised on a farm, so I wanted to know the history of farming at Sweet Briar before it became a college,” she said, adding that it was her intention to create a narrative through which visitors can access the College’s past. The hardest part, she said, was deciding which items to include.

The final selection features an eclectic mix of artifacts, such as early 19th-century letters in which Elijah Fletcher wrote to his brother about farming; ceramic drainage tiles from the old tilled fields (courtesy of the archaeology lab); old farm tools; documents and photos related to the College’s early days farming for profit; and milk bottles, milk cans and signage from the era of the dairy.

Museum hours during the academic year are 1 to 4 p.m. Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday. For more information, contact Karol Lawson at klawson@sbc.edu or (434) 381-6248.

Craig Pleasants, “Taino,” sculpture installation, ca. 2012. Photo courtesy of the artist.

This spring, Virginia-based artist Craig Pleasants will display drawings and a site-specific sculpture installation in Babcock Gallery at Sweet Briar College. “New Work” opens with a reception and gallery talk by the artist at 5 p.m. Thursday, Feb. 14. The exhibition is on view until May 5.

The focus of the show will be a large-scale piece constructed of various materials, such as wood, cardboard, used clothing, BFK Rives drawing paper, aluminum foil and the existing, movable walls in the gallery. Pleasants is well known for his functional in- and outdoor installations, but this time, he’s adding a twist: Instead of completing the entire sculpture beforehand, he will be adding to it as the exhibition progresses.

“I have challenged myself to try to do something that can be visited many times over the course of a semester and remain new and fresh,” he said.

“In effect, I will come into the gallery at intervals during the semester and add things or take things away or change things or create large-scale drawings onto the form.”

Sweet Briar galleries director Karol Lawson believes Pleasants’ emphasis on site-specific, unfolding art will fit right in with the College’s dynamic academic (and architectural) landscape.

“Craig’s work will resonate with classes such as Professor Tracy Hamilton’s popular art history course ‘The Land as Art,’ as well as with a new initiative … from the Friends of Art to commission an original sculpture for the Cochran Library renovation and addition.”

Craig Pleasants, untitled drawing, ca. 2012. Photo courtesy of the artist.

Pleasants is the artistic director at the Virginia Center for the Creative Arts (VCCA), an artists’ retreat in Amherst. He has exhibited in numerous venues across the country and in Europe for more than 30 years. His shows have included site-specific installations, life-size sculptures, drawings and multimedia performances. He is the recipient of several grants, including three fellowships from the Virginia Commission for the Arts. Pleasants studied at the University of North Carolina, receiving his Bachelor of Fine Arts in sculpture in 1976. He went on to study at L’Institut d’Arts Visuels in Orleans, France, before moving on to Converse College in Spartanburg, S.C., where he completed his M.Ed. in humanities in 1983. To learn more, visit craigpleasants.com.

Babcock Gallery is open from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday through Friday, and closed when the College is not in session. It is recommended that visitors call ahead to confirm hours. For more information, contact Karol Lawson at klawson@sbc.edu or (434) 381-6248.

Current research suggests that the cabin was built during the antebellum period to house enslaved laborers, who lived in dozens of similar dwellings on the Sweet Briar Plantation. This cabin, located behind Sweet Briar House, is the only one that survives.

Sweet Briar’s 19th-century cabin in 1927

Indiana Fletcher Williams’ overseer, Logan Anderson, likely lived in it during the 1880s. When the College was founded in 1901, Sterling Jones Sr. and his family resided in the cabin until the mid-1920s. Following that period, the cabin was used to house the alumnae office, a theater classroom, a coffee shop, a chapel and a farm tool equipment museum. It has been in continuous use for about 170 years.

In 2012, the College was awarded a Virginia Foundation for the Humanities grant to re-interpret the complex history of this building and to create an exhibition that highlights the history of African Americans at Sweet Briar. For now, the historic structure is open to the public on the following days:

November:
Friday, Nov. 9: 1-5 p.m.
Tuesday, Nov. 13: 10:30 a.m.-1:15 p.m.
Thursday, Nov. 15: 10 a.m.-noon
Tuesday, Nov. 27: 10:30 a.m.-1:15 p.m.
Thursday, Nov. 29: 10 a.m.-noon
Friday, Nov. 30: 1-5 p.m.

December:
Tuesday, Dec. 4: 10:30 a.m.-1:15 p.m.
Friday, Dec. 7: 1-5 p.m.

Hours are weather-dependent. In case of freezing conditions, please check the cabin tours website at tusculum.sbc.edu/africanamericans.

For more information about the cabin’s history, contact Lynn Rainville, director of the Tusculum Institute, at (434) 381-6432 or lrainville@sbc.edu, or visit the institute’s website at tusculum.sbc.edu.

Historian and journalist Marc Leepson will present a talk on the history of Thomas Jefferson’s home, Monticello, at 6 p.m. Tuesday, April 5 in Josey Dining Room.

Leepson will focus on the role of the Levy family in the preservation of the third president’s home. In 1834, U.S. Navy Commodore Uriah P. Levy bought the deteriorating estate. He repaired and restored the home, and opened it to visitors. Years later, his nephew Jefferson M. Levy would again save Monticello from ruin, acquiring and maintaining control of it until its sale to the foundation that owns it today.

Leepson is the author of seven books, including “Saving Monticello: The Levy Family’s Epic Quest to Rescue the House that Jefferson Built.”

A book signing will follow the talk. The lecture is presented free with sponsorship from the Tusculum Institute, the history department and the arts management program. Attendees may choose to purchase dinner at the dining hall. Dinner for non-SBC adults is $8.25, payable at the door.

For more information, contact Christian Carr at ccarr@sbc.edu or (434) 381-6246.

According to the publisher’s Web site, “Art and Upheaval” recounts “remarkable stories from Northern Ireland, Cambodia, South Africa, United States (Watts, Los Angeles), aboriginal Australia, and Serbia, about artists who resolve conflict, heal unspeakable trauma, give voice to the forgotten and disappeared, and restitch the cultural fabric of their communities.”

Cleveland is the founder and director of the Center for the Study of Art & Community in Bainbridge Island, Wash. The center seeks to build working relationships between the arts and businesses, schools, criminal justice agencies and other institutions that make up the broader community.

He also is the author of “Art in Other Places,” which explores the emerging community arts movement in the United States.

For more information about the book discussion, please contact Carrie Brown atcbrown@sbc.edu or 381-6236.