StudioTulsa

What does it take to be a successful diplomat? How does one best "train" or prepare for this type of work? And how, if at all, does the art of diplomacy differ from how it was, say, twenty or thirty years ago? A recent change of leadership at the U.S. State Department --- in the wake of last year's deadly attack on the American Consulate in Benghazi, Libya, which resulted in the death of Ambassador Chris Stevens as well as three other Americans --- has reminded us, once again, of the serious challenges now facing the U.S. Foreign Service.

Move over, Oscar; your uber-hyped, high-octane night of movie-making awards and accolades is now done with. This evening, Monday the 25th, at 7pm here on the University of Tulsa campus --- in the Gussman Concert Hall of the Lorton Performance Center --- the TU Film Studies Department will present its Fifth Annual Spring Film Festival, which is free to the public. This will be a juried festival, wherein prizes will be awarded after the screenings for Best Film, Runner-Up, Best Original Score, and Audience Choice. Our guest on this edition of StudioTulsa is Prof.

On StudioTulsa today, we speak by phone with Dr. Steve Perry, a passionate, down-to-earth, and plainspoken --- make that outspoken --- education-reform advocate who's best known as the founder and principal of Capital Preparatory Magnet School in Hartford, Connecticut. This school has sent one-hundred percent of its predominantly low-income, minority, first-generation high-school graduates to four-year colleges every year since its first class graduated in 2006. Dr.

On February 23rd, March 1st, and March 3rd, Tulsa Opera will present Frank Loesser's masterful "Broadway opera" --- as some have called it --- "The Most Happy Fella," with all three performances happening at the Tulsa PAC. A classic American musical that dates back to the middle 1950s, "The Most Happy Fella" is the show that gave us the beloved pop tunes "Standing on the Corner" and "Big D." Our guest on StudioTulsa is the internationally renowned baritone --- and current associate professor of voice at the University of Oklahoma --- Kim Josephson, who stars in this production.

Our guest on this installment of ST is Richard Blackett, the Andrew Jackson Professor of History at Vanderbilt University, who joins us by phone.

For this installment of ST, on the day after Presidents' Day, we are looking back on the war-torn tenure of our nation's greatest president, Abe Lincoln. Our guest is the author and journalist David Von Drehle, whose widely acclaimed and most recent book, "Rise to Greatness: Abraham Lincoln and America's Most Perilous Year," was named one of the Kansas City Star's Top 100 Books of 2012.