Arts & Sciences

Lisa KohlerCharles MacKayCharles MacKay, general director of Opera Theatre of St Louis, will speak on “The Next Four Hundred Years of Opera” for the Department of Music in Arts & Sciences. MacKay has led Opera Theatre for more than 20 years, during which time the company has won national and international acclaim for its innovative repertory and discovery of important young singers.

Arts & Sciences juniors A.J. Singletary and Paul Moinester have been awarded 2007 Harry S. Truman scholarships. Open to juniors interested in public-service careers, the scholarships provide $30,000 toward graduate study. Truman awarded 65 scholarships this year, selecting from among 585 candidates nominated by 280 colleges and universities. Washington University is one of only eight colleges to have more than one student selected for 2007.

Washington University’s Writing Program in Arts & Sciences will present a two-day “Publishing Weekend” April 6 and 7. The event will focus on various aspects of the publishing industry and will include talks and panel discussions with publishers, editors, authors and agents from both mainstream and independent presses.

Acclaimed author Kelly Link will read from her work at 8 p.m. Thursday, April 5, for The Writing Program Reading Series. Link is the author of two story collectins, Stranger Things Happen and Magic for Beginners, and editor of the anthology Trampoline.

David Kilper/WUSTL Photo Services*House of Desires*Mistaken identities, hidden lovers, mischievous servants and duels in the dark. Welcome to House of Desires, a romantic comedy-of-errors written in 1683 by Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz, a proto-feminist Mexican nun today considered one of the most brilliant writers of the Baroque period.

The George E. Pake Professorship, established by the JSM Charitable Trust and John F. McDonnell to honor one of the University’s most influential leaders, was bestowed upon William E. Buhro, Ph.D., professor of chemistry in Arts & Sciences.

Legendary blues vocalist and harmonica player Big George Brock will perform for the Jazz at Holmes series at 8 p.m. March 29 in Holmes Lounge.

Devin DeWeese, Ph.D., a noted scholar of Islam in Asia, will discuss “Survival Strategies: Interpreting Islam in Central Asia, Past and Present” at 11 a.m. March 30 in Duncker Hall, Hurst Lounge.

Recent alumna Carolyn Kras’ historical drama “Highness,” winner of the 2006 A.E. Hotchner Playwriting Competition, receives its world premiere March 29.

April 2-8, students will perform “365 Plays/365 Days” by Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright Suzan-Lori Parks, part of a yearlong grassroots festival of more than 600 theater companies, arts organizations and universities across the nation.