At the end of the 2021-2022 school year, Missy Johnston, long-time theatre professor, and costume designer, retired after 15 years working with Transylvania University and decades in the theatre industry as a whole. To commemorate Johnston’s illustrious career and her immense impact on Transy specifically, Morlan Gallery is currently hosting “Missy Johnston: A Fitting Retrospective”, an exhibition celebrating Missy Johnston’s theatrical art and career. In addition to the exhibit, Carrick Theater hosted a discussion between Johnston and the director of the Transy theatre program, Tasha Fowler, on September 15th. 

Missy Johnston grew up in Statesville, North Carolina, and first experienced theatre at the Stratford Shakespearean Festival in Stratford, Ontario during her sophomore year of high school. She would go on to earn a Bachelor of Arts in Theatre and Contemporary Humanities from Converse University and a Masters of Fine Art in Theatre Design and Playwriting from Trinity University. The bulk of Johnston’s graduate work took place at the Dallas Theater Center, where she stayed on as a journeyman after receiving her degree while receiving her first experience in set design and playwriting. She worked as a set designer at the Oklahoma Theater Center and Niagara University before moving to Lexington and working with several local institutions as a costume designer, such as KET, the UK Opera Theater, and the Lexington Children’s Theater. Johnston was hired by Transylvania in 2007 as a costume designer for the play Noises Off and worked with the theatre program all the way up until The Ballad of Bride and Blue in May of 2022. 

The Morlan Gallery exhibit “Missy Johnston: A Fitting Retrospective” is a snapshot of Johnston’s life and career, from acting to teaching as a theatre professor. But the majority of the exhibit consists of some of the various costumes that Johnston designed and created while working with the Transylvania theatre department. One of the shows most prominently featured in the exhibit is Tartuffe, a classic Mouliere comedy dating back to 17th century France, which was performed at Transy in 2009. During the discussion, Johnston described creating all costumes for the show from scratch from 1980s drapery fabrics left in the costume workshop. This led to many last-second additions to the show, including the addition of the ornate coat the titular character adorns in the second act of the show, which was given to the actor on the night of the first performance. Johnston recollected during the discussion, “ I went running from the costume shop over to Little [Theater], threw it on him backstage, and said ‘You go, baby!’” 

Johnston was able to collaborate with both the Transylvania and Lexington community during her time at Transy, which is demonstrated by the section in the exhibit for the play She Kills Monsters, a 2011 play about a woman who copes with a family tragedy through Dungeons and Dragons, which was performed at Transy in 2016. The exhibit features a large stuffed dragon that Johnston designed and created with the help of the Lexington Children’s Theater. In addition, many of the costumes for the show were designed with the help of Transy students. Students in a design class helped design armor and weaponry for the show, and gave sketches to Johnston, who interpreted them into actual costumes. Johnston was happy that students were able to see their visions come to life, saying, “To get to completely imagine something and then have it become real and have somebody walk on stage in it, that’s the great pleasure of this job.” 

Many more of Missy Johnston’s shows are highlighted in the Morlan Gallery exhibit “Missy Johnston: A Fitting Retrospective”, from Marie Antoinette to Mr. Burns, a Post-Electric Play. The Morlan Gallery is open from 12 p.m. to 5 p.m. on weekdays and will be displaying this exhibit until October 7th.

Each year, Transylvania’s own Morlan Gallery holds a Juried Student Art Show, with the highest prize in the show being a “Dean’s Purchase Award,” which is placed in a permanent collection on campus with past winners. I had the opportunity to talk with the winner of this Dean’s Purchase, Brooke Holleran, to get her thoughts on this great achievement.

Here is a transcript of my Q & A session with Brooke. My voice will be J and Brooke will be referred to as B.

J: So, starting off, tell me a bit about this piece — what do you like about it, what inspired it? Is it a real location or an invented landscape?

B: It’s a mix of impressionism and realism as I see it, or at least, I tried to make it as realistic as possible, though it ended up being impressionist. It’s not an exact location, though, it’s a bunch of things blended together… I don’t know, I was mostly going for, like, a traditional “nature landscape” painting, but it turned more impressionist and fantasy-ish with my color usage.

J: And did you select it to be in the gallery, or did a professor advise you to?

B: I just chose four paintings I had laying around to turn in (for the gallery).

J: Okay, so there were others?

B: I had to pick a few and turn them in. Those were some of the only ones I had in my room with me that I could submit, since most of my (art) stuff is at home.

J: Oh okay, so then has visual art been a lifelong passion of yours — I know we attended Governor’s School For the Arts together back in 2019 and you were there for visual art — but how long has this been a part of your life now at 21?

B: I’ve been drawing since sixth grade, painting since eighth. So, I don’t know, I guess it’s pretty “lifelong” by now.

J: So is it something you plan on pursuing for a career?

B: I would like to go into graphic design, or, I guess I could always get my Masters (degree) in art and teach it, maybe at the college level.

J: Okay, so what does this Dean’s Purchase do for you? What are the implications on the rest of your art career?

B: It definitely looks good on a resume. It also shows me I’m on a pretty good level, based on, like, where I am in college.

J: Right, it boosts confidence.

B: Yeah, it lets me know I’m not awful.

J: Right, right. So, during your years of visual art, have you found any particular artist or artists that have great influence over your work?

B: Yeah, my favorite painter is definitely John Singer Sargent, and my favorite, like, line artist is probably Gustav Klimt. He’s mostly known for his paintings, but a lot of his linework in his sketches is really good.

J: Could you elaborate on what you mean by “line artist?”

B: I just really love his sketches, like his beginning art. You can look it up online, I just like it a lot better than his finished work. He’s mostly a painter and uses mosaics and stuff, though.

J: What do you like most about their works that you try to strive for in your own work?

B: It’s very expressive. They mostly do, like humans and stuff, like portraits. Though, I guess my painting is nature. I just love their usage of color, their usage of balance and stuff… they’re also really professional.

J: And do you seek to move towards more humanistic territory with something like portraiture?

B: I mostly paint portraits, yeah, but people seem to like my landscapes, so maybe I should try that more.

J: Okay, so do you have any landscape artists you like, or are you exclusively drawn to portraits?

B: I like portraits, definitely.

J: Do you think there’s a reason why? Like, an aspect of the human form in art that’s just more inherently interesting to you?

B: I think people are just more interesting. I like the personality in each portrait, and it’s also really challenging to capture that, so that’s probably why I like them so much. Like, painting a landscape, no one’s gonna know if it’s imperfect, you know?

J: So do you value the realism or the personality of portraiture?

B: Definitely the personality. John Singer Sargent is definitely a more “realistic” artist, but there was still a ton of personality in his stuff. I’d say his stuff was even a little less realistic than what you’d think of as “realism” today.

J: Man, I wish I’d looked into some of these artists before the interview, but I guess that’s on me.

B: Ha, it’s okay.

J: Well I think that’s honestly all I got for you. Thanks for sitting down and talking with me, Brooke.

B: Yeah, of course.

This semester at Transy we have had the honor to open the Center for Entrepreneurship here on campus directed by Mrs. Jeni Al Bahrani. 

The center operates as a space where students can bounce ideas off of each other and gain knowledge in the field of entrepreneurship. Mrs. Al Bahrani describes it as a space that “encourages entrepreneurial thinking and innovation by providing hands-on, experiential learning opportunities for all Transylvania students to help prepare students for the Conceptual Age and learn to be agile while going through those career changes.” President Lewis and Mrs. Al Bahrani have talked a lot about this Conceptual Age that college students are living in, in which “the typical college grad will hold not just multiple jobs but multiple careers, and Covid has redefined what work means and [our] relationship with work.” The center has a space for students of every major and discipline to collaborate. Each and every major brings a different perspective and sheds a new light on ideas that others may have. 

The Entrepreneurial Young Professionals meet every Tuesday from 12:20-1:15 pm in Campus Center room 118 and it is open to any students. This is a space where students “learn how to lead, initiate, recruit talent, offer viable and tested solutions, and have the confidence to pitch the right content to the right audiences.” for the rest of the semester and into next year, the center will “initially focus on engaging students with extracurricular experiential programs and events, including competitions, workshops, a speaker series, and opportunities to introduce Transy students to alumni, our campus community, entrepreneurs, businesses, and community organizations.” The office is also always open for one-on-one conversations and mentorship with students.

Mrs. Al Bahrani speaks a lot about having an entrepreneurial mindset and how that “allow[s] you to build something great that will push yourself to the limits to achieve big goals. AND this something great is YOU! This is a way of thinking that will empower you to overcome challenges, adversity, make decisions, and take responsibility for your own actions and decisions.” She encourages every student to get involved in the Center for Entrepreneurship, learn what it is, and start to make connections. 

Throughout the rest of the semester, the Center for Entrepreneurship will be offering a couple of different events. On April 13th Brian McCarty, “co-founder of Bluegrass Hospitality Group, that houses Drakes, Malones, Aqua Sushi, and OBC Kitchen … [to] share his entrepreneurship story and the highs and lows of being an entrepreneur.” Food will be provided and the event is open to the first 30 students to register at https://transycfespeakerseries.eventbrite.com . 

There is also a Green Pitch Competition being hosted on May 12 which is “a one-day sprint focused on ideation and creating solutions for a more sustainable eco-friendly campus,” this event is also available to any student and can be registered for at https://transycfepitch.eventbrite.com .

With the Center for Entrepreneurship being in startup mode Mrs. Al Bahrani is looking for a Summer intern (housing and credit offered) to help get the office up and running and assist in planning for next semester. For more information on this opportunity and any questions in general about the Center for Entrepreneurship please reach out to Jeni Al Bahrani at jalbahrani@transy.edu ! We are so excited to have this opening up on campus! 

Greek life is a point of contention among students in our Transylvania Community as well as around the nation. Sorority and Fraternity life has been portrayed in various ways through all forms of media. In movies and television, we can see sororities shown as shallow and with harmful beauty standards like in Legally Blonde. And fraternities showed as disorderly and with heavy usage of drinking, drugs, and sexual activity in movies like Animal House. These portrayals have negatively impacted perceptions of Greek life among those who are not in it and set expectations for those that are.

Our Student Government Association (SGA) held an open forum that invited affiliated and non-affiliated members of campus to have an open conversation about Greek life at Transylvania University. The President of SGA, Lindsey Steffen, led the discussion and provided questions for the panel to answer. The panel had presidents from Panhel as well as 3 sororities and fraternities, while all presidents were invited to attend. 

Steffan began the conversation by asking, “do you consider frats and sororities to be clique-like? How can we combat this?” There were answers from both panelists and students in attendance. One of the major points brought up was that at times it can be clique-like, especially on a small campus. So to combat it would be to serve the school as a whole and the community. Others said that any organization on campus can be clique-like and a way to combat this in any organization would be to be a part of other things on campus. The final point made on this question was that cliques form out of fear in Greek life because people are afraid to look outside of their comfort zone. 

The following questions had to do with the mechanics of recruitment and how they are flawed and how it affects those who choose to rush. Many agreed that parts of both systems of recruitment need to be fixed and changed. But a major change that needs to be made is the lack of inclusion and diversity among sororities and fraternities at Transylvania University. However, students discussed that this is not just a greek issue, but a Transy issue. The lack of diversity stems from the university as a whole and it is not uniquely a sorority and fraternity issue.

In addition to the lack of diversity, there is also a lack of overall inclusion. The rush process from both sides uses gendered language that can leave students feeling alienated. Sororities and fraternities were also directly spoken to about how certain sororities and fraternities are not doing enough to be inclusive and do not use non-gendered language.

Another critique on inclusion was that joining Greek life is expensive and therefore is unobtainable for many students on campus. The final commentary on inclusion was about people’s physical appearances. Unconfidence in one’s body reportedly causes people to not go through the recruitment process because of known prejudices held against them. 

However, despite the points brought up in the discussion, affiliated members who sat on the panel said that all students should consider going through the rush process. The process will be able to provide different perspectives, break down stereotypes, and help gain friends from outside one’s comfort zone.