The Harbinger

June 20, 2005

Tyst performs Jussi Wahlgren’s Dead and Gone to Granny’s

Let Tyst take you on a ride to Granny’s house in July.


Tyst, a Cleveland-based performing arts organization specializing in modern Scandinavian performances, is presenting Jussi Wahlgren’s Dead and Gone to Granny’s from June 30 through July 17 as part of a summer-long partnership with Hiram College.

Performances will be held in Bates Hall’s Hayden Auditorium on the Hiram College campus at 8 p.m. on Thursdays, Fridays and Saturdays and 2 p.m. on Sundays. Ticket prices range between $15 and $20. To order, call 216-771-9118 for individual sales and 330-569-5900 for group sales.

The second of four plays in the partnership between Tyst and Hiram College, Wahlgren’s Dead and Gone to Granny’s is a macabre tragi-comedy from Finland about Patrick, a depressed businessman and aspiring violinist who has lost all his money and his wife and kids. When he attempts to film his suicide for his brother Freddie’s TV show, things go awry. Patrick returns as an angel to play violin and discuss with Freddie their bitter past.

Director Chad Stutz holds bachelor’s degrees in dramatic arts and radio, television and motion pictures from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and is a cofounder of manhattentheatersource, where he worked as the producing director from the fall of 1999 through the summer of 2001. His past directing projects include: January 1, 2000 by Anton Dudley; Katherine Calamity by Sheila Callaghan; The Ends of the Earth by Morris Panych; and Seagulls by Caryl Churchill.

Hiram graduate develops unique program for veterans

Parma resident Nicole Kapsar (pictured, center), a 2005 graduate of Hiram College, recently worked with Employers United for a Stronger America (EUSA) to create an online database which will be the ultimate resource center for employers and veterans. The purpose of the online database, to be called the EUSA Resource Center, is to provide a complete one stop site for employers who have questions relative to their employees who are in the Guard and Reserve. Additionally, it will be a one stop site for veterans who are seeking assistance.

EUSA President Roger Herman says that the organization is seeking input from non-governmental groups as to what they provide to veterans in the way of assistance. “We recognize that various government agencies provide information for employers and veterans, but the government agency sites generally only cover the data relative to their charter,” said Herman. “We wanted a complete listing of all assistance available to employers and veterans.  We wanted a single site where one could find information on the various forms of assistance that could be coming from a non-profit, a religious organization, a home owner’s association, schools, etc.”

Kapsar began the database work this spring while completing a virtual internship with EUSA. “We were fortunate to have Nicole,” said EUSA Vice President Ted Daywalt (pictured, left, with Hiram President Tom Chema), the project manager for the resource center. “She is an outstanding student, she has been active on behalf of the troops, and she is from a military family. Nicole has graduated, but the project will be an ongoing effort as we constantly learn of new organizations offering assistance both to employers and to the active duty military, Guard, Reserve and veterans. We anticipate the database to be live on the EUSA site by the end of June.”

Kapsar is best known at Hiram for founding the institution’s Support the Troops Campaign.  Since 2004, she has organized food and clothing drives at the College for the troops overseas.  It was no surprise that when Kapsar learned of the position through the Career Center at Hiram, she became immediately interested and sent her cover letter and resume to Daywalt, a retired Naval Captain and CEO of Vetjobs.com who is working with EUSA officials to launch the site.

Organizations included in this comprehensive list may contribute scholarships, grants, benefits, employment opportunities, grocery certificates, and/or family support.  Kapsar will continue to work with the database this summer in preparation for the site’s launch.  Any company that would like to be added to the database should forward their information to Nicole@employersunited.org for consideration.

Kapsar is the daughter of Ms. Gretchen Kapsar.  She earned a bachelor of arts degree with a major in history.