ACTU combines the gifts and energies of Thomas University personnel and students (Act One) with those of community members (Act Two) to provide excellent arts events for the community. For this reason, we have named this organization ACTU: Arts for the Community at Thomas University.
ACTU programs include:
+Art Talks at Six
Short, virtual art history lectures/discussions and guest artist interviews with host Rich Curtis. (www.facebook.com/actu31792)
+Fridays at Noon
ACTU’s Fridays at Noon offers lunch-time concerts that feature regional and national performing artists.
Ayonna Charese and Chris Seepersaud
September 22, 2023 Thomas County Public Library
Ayonna Charese is a powerful and versatile vocalist, and Chris Seepersaud is an engaging guitarist, multi-instrumentalist and teacher. Together they present their Soul and R&B stylings featuring an eclectic mix of oldies, folk songs, country songs, pop, R&B, and jazz.
Duo Arpeggione
October 20, 2023 Thomasville First Church
Duo Arpeggione features renowned cellist Claudio Jaffé, who has been hailed by The New York Times as “an elegant and accomplished artist” and pianist Dr. Catherine Lan, who earned her Doctor of Musical Arts from University of Miami and currently serves on the faculty of Broward College and as co-artistic director of Rosemary Duffy Larson Classical Series.
Bish-Thomas-De Cock Trio
November 17, 2023 First Missionary Baptist Church
The Bish-Thomas-De Cock Trio features FSU College of Music faculty in a clarinet trio with clarinetist and award-winning teacher Dr. Deborah Bish; violinist, chamber musician, soloist, and recitalist Dr. Shannon Thomas, and internationally renowned pianist Dr. Stijn De Cock.
Carla Connors and Timothy Hoekman
February 23, 2024 Thomasville First Church
Dr. Carla Connors is acclaimed as “a fresh, steady lyric soprano” by The New York Times and “a radiant voice, and an equally radiant manner” by the Grand Rapids Press. Her husband, Dr. Timothy Hoekman, is retired Professor of Vocal Coaching and Accompanying at Florida State University, and is a highly experienced performer, teacher, and distinguished composer.
Kevin Jones and Bill Peterson
March 22, 2024 First Missionary Baptist Church
Dr. Kevin Jones is Associate Professor of Jazz Trombone, and Bill Peterson is Professor of Music in Jazz Studies and Music Theory/Composition at the FSU College of Music. Their duo album “Singularity” was released by Centaur Records in 2021, and they both have performing credits with a wide range of jazz and commercial artists.
Southern Twang
April 19, 2024 Thomas County Public Library
Southern Twang is an old-time string band from Tallahassee, Florida that performs throughout the southeast and is known for fierce fiddle tunes and fun energy! The trio consists of award-winning fiddler Aisha Ivey, clawhammer banjo player Pam Monfore, and string bassist Ray Monfore.
+Georgia Poetry Circuit
Founded at Mercer University in 1985, the Georgia Poetry Circuit is a consortium of 10 Georgia colleges and universities working together to bring three poets of national and international repute to all member campuses each year. This provides important access to the literary arts for Georgia residents across the state.
At each school, each circuit poet gives a free and open reading of his/her work. Visiting poets also meet with creative writing students at each campus for workshops, talks or extended question-and-answer sessions. In addition to the opportunity to hear work from diverse writers, circuit events provide Georgia students with an immensely valuable educational opportunity for interaction with excellent contemporary poets in the United States.
CM Burroughs is Associate Professor of Creative Writing at Columbia College Chicago and author of The Vital System (Tupelo, 2012) and Master Suffering (Tupelo, 2021), which was longlisted for the National Book Award, and a finalist for the Lambda Book Award and LA Times Book Award. Burroughs’ poetry has appeared in journals and anthologies including Poetry, Ploughshares, Cave Canem’s Gathering Ground, and Best American Experimental Writing. Burroughs has been awarded fellowships and grants from Yaddo, MacDowell, Djerassi Foundation, Virginia Center for the Creative Arts, and Cave Canem Foundation.
Patrick Rosal is an interdisciplinary artist and author of five full-length poetry collections including “The Last Thing: New and Selected Poems,” which was listed among the best books of 2021 by The Boston Globe, in addition to winning the Poetry Society of America’s William Carlos Williams Book Award. He has received fellowships from the John Simon Guggenheim Foundation, the National Endowment for the Arts, the Fulbright Research Scholar program, and the Civitella Ranieri Residency. His writing and visual work has been published in The New York Times, The Nation, e-flux, Best American Poetry and many other journals and magazines. He has taught at Bloomfield College, the University of Texas at Austin, Princeton University, and he is the inaugural campus Co-Director of Institute for the Study of Global Racial Justice at Rutgers-Camden, where he is a Professor of English. A winner of the Lenore Marshall Prize from the Academy of American Poets, he has performed as poet and musician throughout the world for more than twenty years.
Chen Chen
Monday, April 8, 2024 12:30 p.m. Flowers Foods Executive Classroom, TU’s Smith-Bonvillian Hall
Chen Chen’s second book of poetry, Your Emergency Contact Has Experienced an Emergency, is out now from BOA Editions and Bloodaxe Books (UK). His debut, When I Grow Up I Want to Be a List of Further Possibilities was longlisted for the National Book Award and won the Thom Gunn Award, among other honors. Chen is also the author of five chapbooks, including the forthcoming Explodingly Yours (Ghost City Press, 2023), and the forthcoming book of craft essays, In Cahoots with the Rabbit God (Noemi Press, 2024). His work appears in many publications, and he has received two Pushcart Prizes and fellowships from Kundiman, the National Endowment for the Arts, and United States Artists. He holds an MFA from Syracuse University and a PhD from Texas Tech University. He has taught in UMass Boston’s MFA program and at Brandeis University as the 2018-2022 Jacob Ziskind Poet-in-Residence. Currently he is core poetry faculty for the low-residency MFA programs at New England College and Stonecoast.
+Jazz Ensemble
The Thomas University Jazz Ensemble performs at a wide range of community events in Thomasville, Tallahassee and throughout the region. Visit the ACTU Facebook page for performance dates, venues and updates.
+Sundays at Four
October 8, 2023
Chamber Music
Boston Events Center
Bring the family and join us for our annual Chamber Music concert in a special location with a stringed instrument petting zoo, and a limited number of recorder flutes to try and even take home with you.
November 12, 2023
American Music
Trinity Anglican Church
From popular to classical music composers and performers, the sounds of America ring out!
December 10, 2023
Community Cantata Choir
The First Church
Local choirs, choir members, and singers join forces under the direction of Tim Peck for this program featuring Mozart’s Vesperae solennes de Confessore.
January 21, 2024
January Jazz
TBA
The Thomas University Jazz Ensemble will perform a variety of traditional and contemporary jazz standards as well as Latin, fusion, and popular music selections.
February 11, 2024
Musical Valentines
St. Thomas Episcopal Church
Local musicians perform enchanting selections about love and pieces that are dear to their hearts.
March 3, 2024
Thomasville Performing Arts Concert and Scholarship
Thomasville Center for the Arts
Celebrate Thomas and Grady Counties’ young musicians as they perform to receive up to $1,000 in scholarships, sponsored in partnership by Thomas University, Thomasville Entertainment Foundation and Thomasville Center for the Arts.
April 14, 2024
Community Cantata Choir
Thomasville First Church
Local choirs, choir members, and singers join forces under the direction of Tim Peck for this spring program.
+Ariadne Magazine
April 18, 2024
6 pm
Ariadne Virtual Release Party
Ariadne is Thomas University’s student-run Literary Arts Journal. Founded in 2010 by Sandra Simonds as The Night Hawk Review, the journal transitioned online in the Spring of 2021.
+Theatre
TU Theatre features annual productions with free admission as part of the ACTU programming. Productions include staged readings, scene work, and short classroom presentations in the fall, and a one-act play in the spring.
Peggy Brady has been practicing theatre for the past 30 years as a Director, Educator and Playwright and looks forward to learning more from her students, actors and colleagues as the practice goes on. She has been directing and teaching theatre in all settings from commercial to higher ed, community to K-12 schools. As a playwright, she has 12 plays in production around the world at one time or another and 3 new ones still marinating. She just recently ended a 25-year run of her professional theatre company that toured the country and Canada making people laugh at our crazy world through musical comedy. A passionate advocate for the arts, Peggy served as Executive Director of the Council on Culture and Arts (COCA) in Tallahassee for many years bringing artists, arts educators and arts organizations together to build a stronger community.
Join us as a Partner in the Arts!
We hope that you will join us as a Partner in the Arts because we can’t ACT without “U”. You are bringing great artists to the Thomasville community. The reach of our programming has been expanded by the efforts of the community behind it. Please consider becoming a partner and join a community that makes a difference in the Thomasville area.
All donations are tax-deductible to the extent allowed by law.
For more information, or to become an ACTU Partner in the Arts, call 229-227-6964 or e-mail actu@thomasu.edu
ACTU Live Performances
ACTU will live stream performances throughout the season. You can view them here at their scheduled dates and times.
