Nobel Laureate Helps Celebrate Weinberger Anniversary

Wole Soyinka, 1986 winner of the Nobel Prize in literature, will come to UC Thursday, Nov. 30 in a visit co-sponsored by UC, Ensemble Theater of Cincinnati's Theater of the Mind program (co-founded by Norma Jenckes) and Miami University.

A former Nigerian exile, Soyinka is considered Africa's most distinguished playwright, but is also a poet, novelist and lecturer. During the Biafran Civil War, he was held in solitary confinement (1967-1969). His verse collection "Poems from Prison" (republished as "A Shuttle in the Crypt") and the prose work "The Man Died" are two of the works that resulted from his imprisonment.

Soyinka is the third top playwright to visit UC this fall as part of 10th anniversary celebration of UC's Helen Weinberger Center for the Study of Drama and Playwriting. The term began with a two-day visit by renowned South African playwright and apartheid critic Athol Fugard. And earlier this month, Obie Award winner Jose Rivera spent time at UC.

Founded in 1990, the center is headed by UC Associate Professor of English Norma Jenckes, its founding director and the woman behind the fall quarter programming.

"What a magnificent synergy has occurred this fall quarter, with not one, not two, but three world-class playwrights visiting the campus," said Richard Hess, chair of CCM's drama department. "It is unprecedented."

Schedule of events with Wole Soyinka
An Afternoon with Wole Soyinka
When: 3-5 p.m. Thursday, Nov. 30
Where: Robert J. Werner Recital Hall, CCM
What: CCM students will present a scene from one of his plays. Discussion of the state of the art will follow.
Admission: free and open to the public.
Information: (513) 556-2560.

NOTE: Soyinka will also read and make a presentation at the ETC downtown at 8 p.m. Thursday, Nov. 30 Tickets are required. For tickets, call ETC at (513) 421-3555.