{"id":1178,"date":"2009-04-07T09:31:37","date_gmt":"2009-04-07T09:31:37","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.deltastate.edu\/news-and-events\/2009\/04\/07\/actress-to-portray-welty-at-100th-birthday-event\/"},"modified":"2013-09-03T12:55:09","modified_gmt":"2013-09-03T12:55:09","slug":"actress-to-portray-welty-at-100th-birthday-event","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.deltastate.edu\/news-and-events\/2009\/04\/actress-to-portray-welty-at-100th-birthday-event\/","title":{"rendered":"Actress to Portray Welty at 100th Birthday Event"},"content":{"rendered":"<p align=\"center\">\n<table cellspacing=\"1\" cellpadding=\"1\" width=\"45%\" align=\"center\" summary=\"\" border=\"1\">\n<tbody>\n<tr>\n<td><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" height=\"206\" alt=\"\" width=\"135\" src=\"\/Images\/univ_relations\/EudoraWelty.jpg\" \/><\/td>\n<td><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" height=\"206\" alt=\"\" width=\"199\" src=\"\/Images\/univ_relations\/robinson_jo_ann.jpg\" \/><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td>Eudora Welty <\/td>\n<td>Jo Ann Robinson<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n<p align=\"center\">&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p align=\"left\"><font size=\"2\">Delta State University will celebrate the 100<sup>th<\/sup> birthday of beloved Mississippi author Eudora Welty on Monday, April 13, with an evening of drama, photography, regional culture, and cuisine.&nbsp; <\/font><\/p>\n<div>&nbsp;<\/div>\n<div><span>Featured will be a solo dramatic portrayal of Welty&rsquo;s short story &ldquo;Why I Live at the P.O.&rdquo; by Equity actor Jo Ann Robinson of Jackson. The event begins at 7:30 p.m. in Jobe Auditorium.&nbsp; Robinson will also entertain questions from the audience at the end of the show, sharing the wealth of information from her research for the role.<\/span><\/div>\n<div>&nbsp;<\/div>\n<div><span>A &ldquo;birthday party&rdquo; reception following the performance will include a sampling of reception foods described in Welty&rsquo;s popular book &ldquo;Delta Wedding<em>.<\/em>&rdquo;<em>&nbsp; <\/em>Alongwith birthday cake and white wedding cake, the nostalgic treats to be served will include <\/span><span>punch, cheese straws, mints, tiny sandwiches, beaten biscuits, and pickled peaches.<\/span><\/div>\n<div>&nbsp;<\/div>\n<div><span>On display throughout the evening will be an exhibit, from the university&rsquo;s permanent collection, of black-and-white photographs taken by Eudora Welty in the 1930s.&nbsp; The highly-acclaimed, captivating images record life in Depression-era Mississippi. <\/span><\/div>\n<div>&nbsp;<\/div>\n<div><span>Robinson has been acting professionally for thirty years in television, film, regional theater, voice-over work, and corporate training films. She was based in Los Angeles from 1978 to 1989, and her credits include co-starring roles in &ldquo;The New Love American Style&rdquo; and the nationally syndicated &ldquo;Comedy of Comedies.&rdquo; She has also appeared as a stand-up comedienne at Hollywood&rsquo;s Laugh Factory and The Ice House, famous for headlining Jay Leno and Joan Rivers.&nbsp; Robinson was a founding member and writer for the L.A.-based comedy group &ldquo;Half-a-Deck,&rdquo; named by the <em>L.A<\/em>. Times a &ldquo;Best Bet.&rdquo; She has been a regular at New Stage Theater in Jackson for the past fifteen years, and she travels around the U.S. performing in regional theater.<\/span><\/div>\n<div>&nbsp;<\/div>\n<div><span>Miss Welty, born 100 years ago on April 13, 1909, received international acclaim as a quintessential 20<sup>th<\/sup>-century American and Southern writer, authoring novels such as &ldquo;Delta Wedding,&rdquo;&ldquo;The Ponder Heart,&rdquo; and &ldquo;The Robber Bridegroom.&rdquo;&nbsp; She also gained recognition for the strength and variety of her short stories.&nbsp; Miss Welty lived a sedate life in Jackson, writing about Mississippi and the South.&nbsp; She was awarded the Pulitzer Prize in 1972 for &ldquo;The Optimist&rsquo;s Daughter.&rdquo;<\/span><\/div>\n<div>&nbsp;<\/div>\n<div><span>This celebration is a special event on the calendar of Delta State&rsquo;s fourth annual Arts in April festival, initiated and organized by the Special Programs Committee.&nbsp; The event, which also celebrates the university&rsquo;s year-long theme of &ldquo;partnerships,&rdquo; is sponsored by the Special Programs Committee in collaboration with the Division of Languages and Literature, the University Archives, the Center for Delta Heritage, and the Department of Art. <\/span><\/div>\n<div>&nbsp;<\/div>\n<div><span>The public is encouraged to attend this unique celebration.&nbsp; There is no charge for admission. For more information, call Dr. Mark Butler at (662) 846-4619. <\/span><\/div>\n<div>&nbsp;<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Eudora Welty Jo Ann Robinson &nbsp; Delta State University will celebrate the 100th birthday of beloved Mississippi author Eudora Welty on Monday, April 13, with an evening of drama, photography,&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":4197,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1178","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-general"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.deltastate.edu\/news-and-events\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1178","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.deltastate.edu\/news-and-events\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.deltastate.edu\/news-and-events\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.deltastate.edu\/news-and-events\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1178"}],"version-history":[{"count":12,"href":"https:\/\/www.deltastate.edu\/news-and-events\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1178\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":41722,"href":"https:\/\/www.deltastate.edu\/news-and-events\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1178\/revisions\/41722"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.deltastate.edu\/news-and-events\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4197"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.deltastate.edu\/news-and-events\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1178"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.deltastate.edu\/news-and-events\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1178"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.deltastate.edu\/news-and-events\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1178"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}