On Cloud Nine

John StadlerMale characters played by women, female characters played by men, a dutiful matron who morphs into a vulnerable gay man, a patriarchal husband who becomes a mischievous five-year-old girl. In November, Washington University’s Performing Arts Department in Arts & Sciences will present an all-new production of Cloud Nine, the classic, gender-bending satire of colonial and sexual conquest by London playwright Caryl Churchill.

Noted essayist, baseball fan Gerald Early says St. Louis Cardinals’ striking history deserves national attention

EarlySt. Louis’ “striking history” in baseball is not getting the national attention it deserves, says Gerald L. Early, Ph.D., the Merle Kling Professor of Modern Letters at Washington University in St. Louis and a noted essayist and baseball fan. “Boston is the big story,” says Early, an American culture critic who served as a consultant on the Ken Burns documentary “Baseball” for the Public Broadcasting Service. “All the stuff about the Red Sox curse, how it’s been so long since they’ve had a World Series win, how they’re the sentimental favorite to win, the East Coast bias — it’s all about Boston.

Matthea Harvey

Matthea HarveyPoet Matthea Harvey, author of Pity the Bathtub Its Forced Embrace of the Human Form and Sad Little Breathing Machine, will read from her work for Washington University’s Writing Program Fall Reading Series at 8 p.m. Thursday, Nov. 4.
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