Pictured (from left): Honors Professor Dr. Melissa Fulgham, Sarah Hamlin, Emily Hamlin, Jennifer Gardzina, and Sarah Dierflinger at the Gilmer Starbucks before the “As You Like It” production, 28 February, in Kilgore.
By: Dr. Andrew Yox, Honors Director
In Aldous Huxley’s Brave New World, the Savage, John, who knows only the works of William Shakespeare, critiques the utter plasticity of a dystopian world order. Shakespeare has become a great touchstone of what the English language can do, and trips to experience the plays of William Shakespeare have greatly enriched the Honors Program at NTCC over the years. On 28 February, thanks to honors patrons Jerald and Mary Lou Mowery, and others, members of the honors program were able to witness a Shakespeare production for the sixth time. “As You Like It” is a pastoral comedy featuring the adventures of heroine, Rosalind, and it was a special spring feature of the Texas Shakespeare Festival at Kilgore College (TSF-KC). The TSF-KC is the only professional theatre that has been sustained in the Northeast Texas region. Mary Lou (Russell) Mowery of Mount Vernon has been a long-term member of its board of directors.
The other Shakespeare plays witnessed by members of NTCC’s honors program since 2018, thanks to the Mowerys, and others, have been: Julius Caesar, King John, King Lear, Romeo and Juliet, and the Taming of the Shrew.
This spring, Honors Professor Dr. Melissa Fulgham drove to the festival, and high-achieving students, Emily and Sarah Hamlin, and Sarah Dierflinger came along.
Also, Jennifer Gardzina, the wife of the new plant services director, Jeff Gardzina, attended. Jennifer has already become an established presence on campus, helping in the HR department, and holding an on-campus Bible Study. She has also expressed an interest in helping with the college’s Phi Theta Kappa-Honors Northeast endeavors.
Honors Director, Dr. Andrew Yox, notes: “To just have free Shakespeare tickets come our way and other kinds of support is a remarkable dispensation that we in honors have enjoyed since 2018. Great poetry is the ultimate key to exceptional scholarship, and we have been all the better for these opportunities.”
