April 4th at Coker College: Bloodworth to deliver her Last Lecture

Deborah Bloodworth, retired associate professor of theater, will present a lecture titled “The Mystique of the Aesthetic” at 7 p.m. April 4 in Watson Theater of the Elizabeth Boatwright Coker Performing Arts Center.

Bloodworth, who retired last year, joined the Coker College faculty in 1974.  In addition to her teaching responsibilities, she directed main stage shows each year at the College and appeared in numerous productions.

She served on a wide array of college and community committees including as coordinator of the theater program and as chair of the department of dance, music and theater.  Nationally, Bloodworth served as an adjudicator for the American Association of Community Theater.

In 1999, Bloodworth performed the role of Mother in Coker’s original play, “Timing,” off Broadway, which production was sponsored by Samuel French, Inc. and the Black Creek Arts Council.

Shows she directed on campus ran the gamut from mysteries, tragedies and comedies such as “Mousetrap,” “Blood Wedding,” “Blythe Spirit” and “Of Mice and Men,” and many pieces that straddled genres, like the award-winning “Vanities.” She has also directed a number of classics, such as “Lysistrata.”

Bloodworth currently serves on the college-community committee to commemorate the life of Hannah Lide Coker.  The committee has commissioned a play, by Atlanta-based playwright Peter Harty based on “A Story of the Late War” by Mrs. Coker, which Bloodworth hopes to direct in the near future.

Among the many professional associations of which she was a member were the American College Theater Association, South Carolina Theater Association, Southeastern Theater Association, Humanities Scholars Forum and the Editorial Advisory Board in San Diego, Calif.

The Last Lecture Series, established by President Wyatt last year to celebrate academic excellence and individual achievements of retiring Coker faculty, “invites students of all ages to pay tribute to excellence and step into stories that will inspire greater individual and shared successes than we have yet imagined.”

Bloodworth’s lecture is free and open to the public.  It will be immediately followed by a reception in the Stein Gallery.

The 2012 Last Lecture series will culminate with a talk titled “Outside of a Dog” by Professor of Geology Fred Edinger at 7 p.m. April 10 as part of Coker’s annual Celebration of Academics, sponsored by Wells Fargo.

For more information about the Celebration of Academics, visit www.coker.edu/celebration-of-academics.html.