On Friday, May 14, Carleton will host its sixth annual Empty Bowls Project fundraiser at noon on the College’s Bald Spot. The event will feature homemade soup served in handmade bowls created by ceramics students. For a suggested minimum donation of  $15 per bowl, participants will be able to enjoy a simple meal of soup and keep their handmade bowl. All proceeds from this event will go to the Northfield Community Action Food Shelf.  This popular annual event is free and open to the public.

The Empty Bowls Project is a nation-wide movement that was started in 1990 by a rural Michigan art teacher and his students. The simple concept spread across the country and the world, and art teachers and students hold Empty Bowls Project fundraisers of various sizes annually from the elementary to the college level.  Last year, participants at Carleton College raised $5,605 for the Northfield Area Food Shelf.

The bowls serve as a reminder of the empty bowls in our community and all over the world. Under the guidance of Assistant Professor of Art Kelly Connole, students are creating over 450 bowls for this year’s event. In addition, residents of various interest houses on campus will cook up pots of homemade soup.  This event is sponsored by the Carleton College Art and Art History Department.

The Carleton College Bald Spot is located behind Skinner Memorial Chapel. In case of rain, the event will be moved to the Evans Dining Hall, which is located on the first floor of Evans Hall, off First and Maple Streets on the Carleton campus. For more information about this event, please contact Patt Germann at [email protected].

Carleton Players Partner with Chicago’s Lookingglass Theatre Company to Present Innovative Stage Adaptation of “Independent People”

After months of creative collaboration with members of Chicago’s famed Lookingglass Theatre Company, the Carleton College Players will present an innovative staging of  “Independent People,” an Icelandic novel by Nobel prize-winning author Halldor Laxness. This innovative new stage adaptation opens Friday, May 14 at 8 p.m. and continues through the weekend with performances on Saturday, May 15 at 2 p.m. and 8 p.m., and on Sunday, May 16 at 2 p.m. Presented in the Carleton College Arena Theater, performances of “Independent People” are free and open to the public; reservations are recommended.

Considered to be Iceland’s pre-eminent 20th century author, Laxness won the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1955 for his socially conscious novels. Through the story of a struggling farming family, “Independent People” criminates materialism and capitalism, and exposes an unvarnished picture of economic hardship and social injustice. Set during the first twenty years of the twentieth century, the story follows a peasant family’s struggle to attain independence in a world that is dead set against it. Within an array of colorfully down-trodden Icelandic folk, we meet a son, Nonni, and join in his return journey to Iceland to finally “see” the father(Bjartur of Summerhouses) he couldn’t comprehend as a boy, and to understand the connection he and his father share to the girl he always called sister (Asta Solillja).

The novel has been adapted for the stage by Lookingglass Theatre Company members Eva Barr (director) and John Musical (set design and projections). The unique production integrates original film footage using shadow puppet images created by Carleton students under the guidance of Minneapolis puppeteers Daniel Polnau and Kristi Ternes and features a music score composed by Chicago musician Rock Sims.

The cast includes Carleton seniors Jared Evans (Cedar Hills, Utah), Kristen Johnson (Lubbock, Texas), Alex Higgin-Houser (Burnsville, Minn.), Chasya Hill (Bessemer, Ala.), and Lilly Dominguez (Chicago); juniors Kai Knutson (Bloomington, Minn.) and Tadayoshi Littleton (Spruce Pine, N.C); sophomore Chelsea Lau (Hastings, Neb.); and freshmen Ben Stroup (Pittsburgh) and Chris Densmore (Williamstown, Mass.). Other students involved include dramaturg Sarah Frances Price ’13 (Birmingham, Ala.), stage manager Jenny Fink ’12 (Miami Beach, Fla.), assistant to the director Rachel Simon ’11 (Lexington, Ky.), and sound design assistant Jimmy Rothschild ’12 (Evanston, Ill.).

For reservations, please call (507) 222-4471 and leave a message with your name, the date and time of the performance you wish to attend, and the number of seats needed.  For more information on “Independent People,” including disability accommodations contact Patt Germann in the Department of Theater & Dance at (507) 222-4341.