With facilities closed and performances halted, the arts community at West Virginia University has turned its attention to helping supply WVU Medicine with the products it needs while fighting the COVID-19 pandemic.

Working with specifications from WVU Medicine, the costume shop in WVU’s School of Theatre & Dance has started production on N95 masks. Five volunteers from the school are spread out and working in the Falbo Theatre at WVU’s Loulie, Valerie and William Canady Creative Arts Center.

When students return to campus, the beloved home of the West Virginia University College of Creative Arts will have a new name in honor of a leadership gift from the Valerie Canady Charitable Foundation. Beginning today, the former Creative Arts Center on WVU’s Evansdale campus will be known as the Loulie, Valerie and William Canady Creative Arts Center.

The newly established Canady Fund for Excellence and Innovation in the Arts will provide for arts programming, educational enrichment opportunities, building improvements and discretionary support to benefit students, faculty and staff within the College of Creative Arts.

The Canady Chamber Series was established by the Valerie Canady Charitable Foundation in 2018 in order to bring in professional chamber musicians to perform and teach for WVU students and the Morgantown community.

“The Canady family has long supported artistic presentations of the highest quality to benefit the CCA and broader Morgantown Community,” said Dean Keith Jackson. “As with previous initiatives, the importance of guaranteeing significant interactions between artists and CCA students is what makes the Canady Chamber Series unique as it includes tremendous performances and the opportunity for our students to work with full-time performers that are outside of their normal sphere of influence.”

Ibsen is a formidable figure in modern drama. What about his dramaturgy challenges you and excites you?

Ibsen is credited as being the father of theatrical realism. His writing is spare. The characters in his plays are complex. There are a lot of things going on at once in his plays, with his people. There is a lot going on between the lines. What people don’t say is as compelling as what they do say. In Ibsen plays, actors have a real opportunity to take a deep emotional dive without the heavy trappings of production. There are no technical fireworks, no “bells and whistles,” no sweeping declamatory speeches. Just some very real, complex people trying very hard to live their lives. For the actor in an Ibsen play, the work is less about “acting” and more about “being."

It was 2005 when Jennifer Tober moved to Pittsburgh and took a yoga class in the Squirrel Hill neighborhood. When she came across the natural amphitheater in Frick Park, Tober knew it would be the perfect place to bring to life the works of William Shakespeare.

Tober has been a Shakespeare aficionado for decades. After graduating from West Virginia University in 1995 with a master’s degree in acting, Tober moved to New York City, where she spent 11 years acting in regional Shakespeare productions including Hudson Valley Shakespeare Festival and New York Classical Theatre. A versatile performer, Tober also acted in television shows, films and as an extra on many sets.