Pellissippi State student Maria Ortiz Quiñones has been sworn in as an American citizen and celebrated her accomplishment with classmates.
After years of hard work and dedication, Maria Ortiz Quiñones, a first-year student majoring in Nursing at Pellissippi State, has been sworn in as an American citizen.
“Seven years ago, I left my country and came to America as a refugee,” shares Maria, who was born in Colombia. “I left everything behind. It was hard to leave my family, my country and my hometown to start a new journey here, but I made it!”
Typically friends and family celebrate with new citizens at a naturalization ceremony, a formal event that includes taking the oath, patriotic music and a call of countries. Due to COVID-19, however, these naturalization ceremonies have been cancelled or significantly shortened.
When Pellissippi State Associate Professor Lora Bagwell found out that Maria would not get to experience a naturalization ceremony, she decided to host one for her at the College.
“I said, “We’re going to have to do something about that,’” recalls Bagwell. “That’s too big of a deal to not celebrate!”
Bagwell thought that this milestone deserved acknowledgement, so she planned a small in-class celebration for Maria on Tuesday, Feb. 1. Students in both Bagwell’s College Success and her Academic and Personal Reading classes were invited.
Associate Professor Lora Bagwell hosted an in-class celebration to recognize Maria’s accomplishment.
Bagwell talks to her students almost daily about developing grit and a growth mindset, using examples such as Michael Jordan, Inky Johnson and Olympia LePoint. “Now we have our own example,” says Bagwell. “Maria’s process to become a citizen started in 2015, and she’s had to remain gritty and maintain a growth mindset in order to accomplish this.”
During the in-class ceremony, Maria shared her story about becoming a U.S. citizen. She expressed how thankful she is for the people who helped her learn the things she needed to survive and be successful in America – things like how to get her driver’s license.
“Through this process, I met a lot of people who helped me be strong and learn a lot of new things,” Maria explains. “I’m so happy for everything I have today and every single person that I met during the process.”
Please join us in congratulating Maria on this incredible accomplishment! We are proud of her and her dedication. Maria is truly #PellissippiStrong!
Dom Flemons will perform a concert and hold a banjo workshop at Pellissippi State on Wednesday, Feb. 23.
It’s not every day that you get to hear and learn from a Grammy Award-winning musician, but Pellissippi State Community College offers that opportunity to the public next week – for free.
Dom Flemons, a 2020 United States Artists Fellow, will perform a free concert at the Clayton Performing Arts Center on the college’s Hardin Valley Campus at 11:45 a.m. Wednesday, Feb. 23, as part of the college’s Black History Month celebration.
Flemons also will hold a free workshop on the African roots of the banjo and its influence on American music at 3:45 p.m. Wednesday, Feb. 23, also in the Clayton Performing Arts Center, 10915 Hardin Valley Road, Knoxville.
No tickets are required for the performance, which also is part of The Arts at Pellissippi State series.
“Dom Flemons is an internationally sought-after expert on the history of American music and particularly the influence of the music brought by enslaved people and continued by African Americans,” said Matt Spraker, director of Student Engagement and Leadership for Pellissippi State. “There is not a better musician and historian to come share the history of the banjo and perform than Flemons.”
Flemons has branded himself “The American Songster” because his repertoire of music covers over 100 years of early American popular music. He is considered an expert player on the banjo, guitar, harmonica, jug, percussion, quills, fife and rhythm bones.
Flemons won a Grammy Award in 2011 for Best Traditional Folk Album with the Carolina Chocolate Drops, an old-time string band he cofounded in 2005. In 2018, Flemons’ solo album “Dom Flemons Presents Black Cowboys” received a Grammy nomination for Best Folk Album. He also had his major solo debut at the Grand Ole Opry and was nominated for two Emmys for the PBS episode “Songcraft Presents Dom Flemons” and for the song “Good Old Days” he cowrote with songwriter Ben Arthur.
“Pellissippi State is located in a region that continues to embrace and advance Appalachian music, in which the banjo plays a critical role,” Spraker explained of the college’s decision to hold Banjo Week during Black History Month. “For over 200 years the banjo has accompanied changes in American culture and music from minstrel shows, blues, Dixieland jazz, bluegrass and beyond.”
Banjo Week is presented in collaboration with Pellissippi State’s Music department, Audio Production Engineering concentration within the Media Technologies program, and Student Care and Advocacy. Other events will include a performance by Pellissippi State’s bluegrass ensemble, Hardin Valley Thunder, at 12:30 p.m. Tuesday, Feb. 22, in the former cafeteria in the Goins Administration Building as well as interactive displays about the banjo.
Masks are not required on any Pellissippi State campus, but are recommended when social distancing cannot be maintained.
For a list of Pellissippi State’s upcoming music events during spring 2022, visit www.pstcc.edu/arts. To request accommodations for a disability for this or any Pellissippi State event, call 865.539.7401 or email accommodations@pstcc.edu.
For more information on Pellissippi State, visit www.pstcc.edu or call 865.694.6400.
Pellissippi State’s first disc golf team is headed to the national championships this April under the guidance of Assistant Professor Leslie Adamczyk, far left, and Coach Brock Evans, far right. Teammates include, from left, Shade Powell, Clay Pittman, L.J. Griffin and Austin Housewright, who is ranked 17th in the nation. Not pictured is teammate Kellen O’Donnell.
Pellissippi State Community College’s first disc golf team is ranked in the top 25 in the nation and has earned a bid to the sport’s national championship in April, despite being the only team fielded by a two-year school.
“I like playing for a community college because no one knows who we are,” said player Clay Pittman, who was ranked in the top 25 individual players earlier this season. “Then we get out there, and they’re shocked.”
Teammates Pittman and L.J. Griffin went to Powell High School, where they competed in Ultimate Frisbee against Housewright, then a student at Hardin Valley Academy.
“Growing up just a few miles from Pellissippi State and practicing Ultimate Frisbee there all four years of high school, it means a lot to me to be able to represent Pellissippi State in disc golf at the college level,” said Housewright, adding that he plans to go on tour after he graduates from college and travel the country playing disc golf at the highest level.
Along with teammates Shade Powell, who played baseball for Powell High School, and Kellen O’Donnell, who graduated from Cathedral Catholic High School in San Diego, the five Pellissippi State students are taking the college’s first disc golf team straight to the top.
“We really lucked out because these guys are some of the best players in the region,” said Leslie Adamczyk, an associate professor of Chemistry who helped start the team this fall. “It was really serendipitous.”
Adamczyk and Brock Evans, cohort and certificate program specialist for the college, are both avid disc golf competitors and wanted to start a team at Pellissippi State, which has a nine-hole disc golf course on its Hardin Valley Campus. They recruited the team members after seeing them in action at local tournaments.
“We have had a ton of support from the administration,” noted Evans, who previously coached college football at Union College. “President Wise has been a big support.”
Shade Powell throws a disc on Pellissippi State’s nine-hole disc golf course on the Hardin Valley Campus while Austin Housewright waits his turn. This hole is a par 4, with the basket 600 feet from the tee.
Each College Disc Golf regional qualifier is comprised of three rounds: a team round, an individual round and a final team round. Scores are based on an average of team and individual players’ scores. The top scoring teams earn bids to the national championship, which will be held April 6-9 in Marion, North Carolina.
Pellissippi State first competed in Bowling Green, Kentucky, in November, but missed out on a bid to nationals, finishing third when only two bids were available. The team sealed their shot at the national championship in their second competition, held in Raleigh, North Carolina, on Feb. 12. Pellissippi State finished fourth overall, but earned one of the three available bids because a team that placed ahead of them already had earned a spot at nationals.
“We shot the second best in doubles,” Evans said. “And we actually beat the No. 1 team in the country in the last round.”
Although Pellissippi State already has earned a bid to nationals, the team will continue to compete as practice for the upcoming championships and to improve their national rankings.
“Disc golf tends to be a more individual sport, so the guys need more practice playing doubles and in competing in high pressure situations,” Adamczyk said.
Housewright agreed.
“What I like about disc golf is there’s always room to improve,” he said. “You can never be satisfied with yourself because there’s always something to work on, and that’s what makes me love the game even more.”
With six Knoxville-area disc golf courses and 12 more within a 50-mile radius, according to the Knoxville Disc Golf Association, the Pellissippi State team makes a point of practicing on courses similar to the terrain where they’ll be competing.
Pellissippi State’s disc golf teammates Austin Housewright, Shade Powell, Clay Pittman and L.J. Griffin, from left, show some of their favorite discs on the college’s Hardin Valley Campus, which has a nine-hole disc golf course. Not pictured is Kellen O’Donnell.
“The tournament in Raleigh was heavily wooded, so we practiced in Tommy Schumpert Park,” Evans explained. “All the area courses offer something different.”
Pellissippi State’s own disc golf course is only nine holes, but if the college expands it to 18 holes, the team would be able to host a qualifying tournament right here in Hardin Valley.
“It’s been great, getting to travel to different states and play different courses and meeting a bunch of new teams from all over the nation,” Griffin said.
For more information on Pellissippi State’s disc golf team, contact Coach Brock Evans at btevans@pstcc.edu.
Pellissippi State’s debate team celebrates their recent wins in the Bill Haslam Center for Math and Science. From left are Coach Shaq Marsh, Charles Wilhite, Abigail Burdine, Angela Wilhite, Anika Schultz, team president Dylan Bass, Jake Porteous, Vic Rutherford and Coach Jesse Cragwall. Not pictured are Sadal Ali, Tristan Hamilton and Wesley Reagan.
Despite never having competed in a tournament, the nine members of Pellissippi State Community College’s debate team – and one fellow student who filled an open spot on the team at the last minute – brought home the championship trophy at the Tennessee Valley Invitational Tournament.
The team, coached by Assistant Professor Shaq Marsh and Instructor Jesse Cragwall, racked up 11 awards at the Feb. 26 event held on the college’s Hardin Valley Campus. Pellissippi State’s students competed against teams from Cleveland State Community College, Tusculum University and Walters State Community College.
“I was not surprised the team did so well in their first competition because they’ve shown incredible commitment since day one,” Marsh said, noting this is the third consecutive time Pellissippi State’s debate team has won a tournament it hosted.
The two-person team of Dylan Bass and Anika Schultz won the tournament, bringing home Pellissippi State’s 7th championship in school history and extending the team’s winning streak to 20 consecutive tournaments.
“I’ve watched debates on YouTube, but that’s the equivalent of backyard wrestling,” said Bass, who was named president of the team and quit his job as a DoorDash driver to prepare. “It was very nerve wracking in the beginning – mainly the public speaking for me.”
For Schultz, who loves public speaking, her fears centered on the research teams must do before debating their opponents.
“You only have 15 minutes to prepare your argument, so I was afraid we wouldn’t find enough sources,” she said.
The two-person team of Anika Schultz and Dylan Bass won the Tennessee Valley Invitational Tournament, bringing home Pellissippi State’s 7th championship in school history and extending the team’s winning streak to 20 consecutive tournaments.
She needn’t have worried, as the Pellissippi State students rallied around to help each other research the topics they’d been randomly assigned, including “The U.S. should remain neutral in the matter of Ukraine to avoid World War III” and “The game Wordle is a fad.”
“Keeping up with the news is important,” Bass said. “We all had a feeling Ukraine would be brought up, and it was.”
In a tournament, two-person teams are assigned a topic and a position to argue, either in the affirmative or the negative. The teams have 15 minutes to research and formulate their arguments, and then individuals on the teams take turns debating their points and counterpoints in a 40-minute round.
“It’s really about persuasion,” Cragwall said. “The harder part is to be in the negative, and our championship team was in the negative.”
Students have no choice about whether to argue for or against a topic, regardless of how they feel about it.
“You have to go into the debate leaving your own opinions aside,” Schultz said.
Bass agreed.
“It’s important to remember that, as Dr. Marsh has taught us, you are attacking the arguments, not the topic itself,” he said. “Still, you will often get assigned topics you would have never thought to have an opinion on!”
Pellissippi State’s debate team paired off into twos to compete: Bass and Schultz, Sadal Ali and Jake Porteous, Abigail Burdine and Tristan Hamilton, Wesley Reagan and Vic Rutherford, and Angela and Charles Wilhite.
The teams and the individual members of the teams receive scores from the judges. Pellissippi State students who won speaking awards in the Novice division include:
Burdine, 8th place
Rutherford, 7th place
Porteous, 5th place
Schultz, 3rd place
Bass, 2nd place
Debate Team Coach Shaq Marsh, right, confers with Charles and Angela Wilhite about their scores at a recent tournament. “Angela and I have greatly enjoyed the opportunity to participate in a ‘normal college activity’ being that we are nontraditional students,” Charles Wilhite said of he and his wife.
Meanwhile, Pellissippi State’s team of Angela and Charles Wilhite, who are married to each other, advanced to the semifinal round in the Open division, which is typically filled by upperclassmen. They laughed about being “thrown to the wolves” not because they had more debate experience, but because as nontraditional students, they have more life experience than their younger teammates.
Angela Wilhite won the 8th place speaker award in the Open division while Charles Wilhite won 3rd.
“We usually take topics and debate them until my head explodes,” joked Angela Wilhite.
“We complement each other well,” Charles Wilhite insisted.
The team will continue practicing at least twice a week in preparation for a tournament scheduled for later in March. As team president, Bass keeps track of students’ time by setting intervals on his watch, and he uses a random topic generator to help students practice transitioning from one argument to another.
“I think too quickly so my challenge is organizing my thoughts,” said Porteous, who jokingly noted his previous debate experience was limited to debates with his parents.
Pellissippi State will next host the Tennessee Intercollegiate Forensics Association state championships 8 a.m.-9 p.m. Saturday, March 26, and 7 a.m.-6 p.m. Sunday, March 27, on the Hardin Valley Campus. Tournaments are open to the public, and Pellissippi State’s debate team would love to have a supportive crowd to cheer them on.
In addition, Pellissippi State could use more volunteers to help staff or judge its debate tournaments. To volunteer, contact Marsh at somarsh@pstcc.edu.
Jessica Wilson strives to show “human layers” with her art through her glazing palette.
Pellissippi State Community College’s art gallery shifts its focus from fabric to sculpture as the Arts at Pellissippi State presents Hunter Stamps and Jessica Wilson: Ceramics.
The works of these two artists will be on display through April 1 in the Bagwell Center for Media Art Gallery on the college’s Hardin Valley Campus, 10915 Hardin Valley Road, Knoxville. The gallery is free and open to the public 9 a.m.-5 p.m. Mondays through Fridays.
“Like good art, I feel that worthwhile exhibitions should present a conversation, so in keeping with the mission of the Bagwell Gallery to exhibit regional artists, I combed the internet for someone who would excite a dialog with Mr. Stamps’ work,” said Professor Herb Rieth, who encountered Stamps’ muscular work at an exhibition in Asheville, North Carolina, three years ago. “Jessica Wilson’s ceramic conversations on beauty/decay and surface made an obvious counterpoint to Hunter Stamps’ bold and structural essays, while both artists also addressed the immediate connection between ceramics and the body.”
Hunter Stamps is an artist and associate professor of Ceramic Sculpture at the University of Kentucky. He received his Master of Fine Arts from Indiana University in Bloomington and creates mixed media sculptures incorporating ceramics, fabricated metal, molds, encaustics, rubbers and resins. Stamps’ work has been exhibited in more than 100 juried, invitational and solo exhibitions in galleries across the nation as well as in China, Germany, Austria, Croatia and Spain. His work also has been published in Ceramics Art and Perception, Ceramics Monthly and other scholarly journals.
“This body of work investigates how the mind collects and organizes fragmented images from memory in order to continuously recreate a sense of history and self,” Stamps said in an artist statement. “The work manipulates, abstracts and conceptualizes the body’s material and psychological reality. The intent of my work is to seduce and engage the viewer with temporal surfaces and organic formal abstractions that trigger meditation on the mutability of the mind and body.”
Jessica Wilson is an assistant professor of Ceramics at Tennessee Tech University. She earned her Master of Fine Arts in Ceramics from the Rhode Island School of Design and has served as a studio technician at The Penland School for Crafts, The Brambleton Center, The Long Beach Island Foundation of Arts and Main Line Arts Center. Wilson completed residencies at both Odyssey Center for Ceramic Arts and St. Petersburg Clay Company and has had her work included in more than 50 exhibits across the nation.
“Human beings are composed of many layers, created by life experiences,” Wilson said in an artist statement. “I strive to show these ‘human layers’ through my glazing palette. The use of heavy, cracking slip conveys a guarded layer, covering an area that was once beautiful or adorned. The two contrasting elements allow the viewer to question whether the piece is being covered or revealed, if layers are being accumulated or shed.”
The Arts at Pellissippi State includes visual arts exhibits as well as theatre and music performances, all of which are open to the public. For a complete list of this semester’s events, visit www.pstcc.edu/arts.
Advent Electric Inc. co-CEOs Kevin Ramsey, left, and Nicholas Hodge, will accept the Tennessee Small Business Development Center’s 2021 Rising Star Award on Wednesday, March 16.
Knoxville’s Advent Electric Inc. will be honored Wednesday, March 16, by the Tennessee Small Business Development Center with its 2021 Rising Star Award.
The Rising Star Award is the highest honor TSBDC has to recognize growing small businesses in the Knoxville area. The award honors business owners who have achieved sustainability and success and who contribute to the growth and development of Tennessee’s economy.
“Advent has managed its operations through a difficult time, maintained a seasoned employee workforce and has made great strides in creating positive working relations with contractors in the East Tennessee area,” said Laura Overstreet, director of TSBDC’s Knoxville office, which is hosted by Pellissippi State Community College. “Co-Chief Executive Officers Nicholas Hodge and Kevin Ramsey have managed Advent through a difficult storm and have impressively returned the business to profitability in the current year and for the foreseeable future. Advent is a true success story due to the assistance provided by the Small Business Administration and the TSBDC.”
Advent has been serving both commercial and residential markets in the East Tennessee area for over 20 years, with projects ranging from single-family homes to heavy industrial facilities. In addition to traditional construction services, Advent Electric has vast experience and expertise in specialty fields, including metering, load testing and analysis, major and minor restoration, electrical network reliability and electrical failure prevention.
Hodge and Ramsey purchased Advent in 2019 and were off to a successful transition of ownership when the COVID-19 pandemic struck East Tennessee. They sought the assistance of the TSBDC to help update their financial position and create a more accurate accounting system to report the company’s operating revenue.
TSBDC CARES Act Consultants Larry Johnson and Gregg L. Bostick assisted Advent in obtaining more than $2.1 million in federal relief funding that helped the company retain 90 jobs during the pandemic. Advent also refinanced up to $1 million in commercial and building debt in early 2021, providing additional funds at lower interest rates and lower payments.
“The guidance Larry and Gregg provided during uncharted times was invaluable and contributed to the ongoing success of Advent,” Hodge and Ramsey said in a statement. “We are very thankful for all the TSBDC, Larry and Gregg did for Advent during the COVID-19 pandemic and continue to do for us. The opportunity to have them in our corner was a blessing, and we are glad to have them on our team.”
Advent has emerged from the pandemic with a significant backlog of profitable contract work. The service side of their business, which was significantly affected by declines in hospitality service contracts during the pandemic, is returning impressively, with Advent being awarded a state contract for servicing repair needs associated with Tennessee parks and recreational facilities. Advent also has been awarded replacement lighting contracts from city and other government agencies to provide more efficient lighting options.
Media are invited to join Pellissippi State President L. Anthony Wise Jr., Pellissippi State Executive Director of Economic and Workforce Development Teri Brahams, TSBDC team members and Advent staff and friends for an award ceremony at 10 a.m. Wednesday, March 16, at Advent’s headquarters, 5901 Walden Drive, Knoxville.
Retired U.S. Air Force Col. Paula Penson, an adjunct instructor at Pellissippi State, will headline the college’s upcoming Pellissippi Strong luncheon on April 20.
Celebrate Pellissippi State Community College’s outstanding alumni and support current students at the college’s Pellissippi Strong luncheon April 20.
The event, presented by FirstBank and hosted by Tearsa Smith of WATE-TV, will be held 11:30 a.m.-1 p.m. Wednesday, April 20, at the Hilton Knoxville Airport, 2001 Alcoa Highway, Alcoa. Individual tickets are $50 and include lunch. You can purchase tickets or select levels of sponsorship here. All proceeds benefit the college’s Greatest Need Fund.
“After two years of alternate solutions to in-person events, the Foundation is thrilled to gather together our alumni, industry partners and community friends to celebrate what it means to be Pellissippi Strong,” said Aneisa Rolen, executive director of the Pellissippi State Community College Foundation. “We are focused on sharing the stories that bring our Pellissippi State mantra ‘start strong, stay strong and finish strong’ to life.”
Retired Air Force Col. Paula Penson, an adjunct instructor at Pellissippi State, is a perfect example of what it means to “stay strong” and will kick off the event by sharing her remarkable story. Raised in deep poverty, Penson joined the military to get away from home, but later attempted suicide. She has married and divorced three times, held her 17-year-old son as he died from injuries sustained in a car accident and survived cancer. And yet she persisted, serving 40 years in the Air Force before retiring in January 2015.
“My mother taught me that education is the only guaranteed road out of poverty, and even though she died when I was 18 years old, I never forgot it,” Penson said. “It took 15 years for me to get my bachelor’s and master’s degrees, taking one class at a time. From that education, I made rank in the military all the way up to Colonel.”
Following Penson’s keynote, Pellissippi State will present the college’s annual alumni awards. The Distinguished Alumni Award, announced by FirstBank, highlights an outstanding graduate in recognition of significant professional achievement and service to the community, while the Peggy Wilson Volunteer Alumni Award, sponsored and announced by Discovery Inc., highlights an outstanding graduate in recognition of extraordinary service to the Pellissippi State community.
“We are delighted to help honor Pellissippi State’s distinguished alumni,” said Brent Ball, Knoxville president of FirstBank. “It shows both the amazing work they are accomplishing in the community and the real value of education. The time you spend in school will pay dividends your entire life.”
Did you know that you can complete three career programs at Pellissippi State Community College’s Division Street Campus without driving to another location?
The college’s original campus, located at 3435 Division Street in Knoxville, will hold an open house 5-7 p.m. Thursday, March 31. Those who attend the Pellissippi Preview will have an opportunity to tour the campus, meet with faculty, learn about the degree programs offered and student resources available, and complete an application right on site.
There is no cost to attend, and Pellissippi State never charges prospective students an application fee.
“Pellissippi Preview is an opportunity to let Knoxville citizens know that the Division Street Campus has new program offerings,” said Esther Dyer, dean of the Division Street Campus. “We are looking forward to fall 2022, and we hope to interest a new group of students to join us on their academic journey.”
Pellissippi State’s Division Street Campus was the college’s first location when it was founded in 1974 as State Technical Institute at Knoxville. The Division Street Campus serves 436 Pellissippi State students this semester as well as members of Knoxville’s Latino community through its on-site partnership with Centro Hispano of East Tennessee.
In addition to general education courses that are required for Pellissippi State’s two-year career programs and transfer pathways to four-year universities, Division Street also offers three Associate of Applied Science degrees that can be earned completely on site: Paralegal Studies, Criminal Justice, and Business with a concentration in Entrepreneurship.
For more information about Division Street Campus’ Pellissippi Preview, email John Cochrane at jfcochrane@pstcc.edu or call 865.971.5200.
Families with children 8 and younger are invited to join Knox County Mayor Glenn Jacobs next week at Pellissippi State Community College’s Family Literacy Night.
The free event will be held 6-8 p.m. Thursday, April 7, on the college’s Hardin Valley Campus, 10915 Hardin Valley Road, Knoxville.
Hosted by Pellissippi State’s Early Childhood Education program, the evening will include hands-on parent and child learning in fun play-based ways, door prizes and a book walk, during which Mayor Jacobs will read to children. Friends of Literacy will also be on hand with books for children to take home.
“The foundation for reading begins at birth and families play a critical role in literacy development,” said Associate Professor Hope Denny, Pellissippi State’s program coordinator for Early Childhood Education. “With third-grade reading proficiency scores in Knox County on the decline, it is imperative that we support families and young children’s literacy experiences.”
Family Literacy Night is made possible by support from United Way of Greater Knoxville and East Tennessee Child Care Resource and Referral Network. Educational activities will be provided by Pellissippi State Early Childhood Education students as well as Dolly Parton’s Imagination Library, Knoxville Association for Children’s Early Education, East Tennessee PBS and Parents as Teachers.
For more information about Family Literacy Night or Pellissippi State’s Early Childhood Education program, contact eced@pstcc.edu or 865.539.7034.
Brooklyn-based playwright Jake Brasch, far left on the top row, visits with Pellissippi State Theatre students who are performing his new play “Our Tempest.” The play is directed by Associate Professor Grechen Wingerter, center of bottom row.
Theatre students at Pellissippi State Community College have collaborated with a Brooklyn playwright on a new play that will debut this weekend.
“Our Tempest” by Jake Brasch will be performed six times at Pellissippi State: at 7:30 p.m. Fridays and Saturdays, April 1-2 and April 8-9, as well as 2 p.m. matinees on Sundays, April 3 and 10. All performances will be held in the Clayton Performing Arts Center on the college’s Hardin Valley Campus, 10915 Hardin Valley Road, Knoxville. Tickets are $12 for adults and $10 for students and seniors.
This marks Pellissippi State’s second collaboration with The Farm Theater in New York. Brasch wrote the first draft of the play in collaboration with Austin Peay State University in Clarksville, Tennessee, in fall 2021, culminating in a workshop with minimal technical elements. Brasch then revised the play based on that experience and worked with Pellissippi State to bring “Our Tempest” to life in a full-scale production this spring.
“Having the playwright in the room with us was amazing!” said Associate Professor Grechen Wingerter, who is directing the play at Pellissippi State. “The students loved it. One of the things it allowed us to do was ask lots of questions. When you work on an already published play, you rarely get an opportunity to talk with the playwright about what they are intending with any particular line or moment. You can’t just call or text William Shakespeare or Tennessee Williams and ask them what something means.”
“Our Tempest” follows a group of Theatre students from a small liberal arts college in Tennessee as they devise a production focusing on climate change using Shakespeare’s “The Tempest” as a starting point. Things don’t go exactly as planned, and as the students reveal their individual fears and insecurities, they discover they need each other, too.
“In between there are some wacky and wild and magical things that happen in the woods,” Wingerter noted.
“Our Tempest” stars 10 Pellissippi State students, with a crew that includes both students and alumni. In addition to climate change, the play also delves into issues of race, gender, sexuality and religion – with one role double cast so that the audience and actors can look at one of the characters through those different lenses.
“I hope the audience will connect to the struggles the characters are going through and that there are no easy answers to the questions raised,” Wingerter said. “I also hope they have fun and enjoy this wacky romp in the woods.”
“Our Tempest” is part of The Arts at Pellissippi State, which includes visual art exhibits, theatre and music performances, all of which are open to the public. For a complete list of this semester’s events, visit www.pstcc.edu/arts. To request accommodations for a disability for this or any Pellissippi State event, call 865.539.7401 or email accommodations@pstcc.edu.
