In a new seminar, "Developing the Trial Story: Lessons from Thinking Fast and Slow and the Art of Filmmaking," Penn State University Dickinson School of Law professor Gary Gildin and Penn State Public Broadcasting creative director Joe Myers will share a novel approach to winning at trial. The goal of the program is to help civil and criminal litigators, jurists and other practitioners become more effective advocates and negotiators by finding the most persuasive story of the case and telling it in the most compelling manner possible. The day-long CLE (Continuing Legal Education) program is set for March 15, in the Law School's Apfelbaum Family Auditorium and Courtroom in Lewis Katz Hall, Carlisle, Pa. It will be simulcast to Room 232 in the Lewis Katz Building at University Park.

"Recent developments in neuroscience and cognitive psychology have dramatically changed my thinking in teaching trial advocacy," Gildin said. He has been leading the law school's award-winning trial advocacy program for 30 years and said he wished he had access to this data in prior years. "It struck me that the very skills a lawyer needs to develop the most compelling trial story are similar to those of a documentary filmmaker," he added. Gildin has teamed up with Myers who has created a number of documentaries including "Telling Amy's Story," which is about a domestic violence homicide.

The Center for the Performing Arts at Penn State's 2010-11 season features an array of professional touring music, theater and dance presentations, including classical violin superstar Joshua Bell in a solo recital and the Centre County debuts of the touring Broadway musicals Monty Python's "Spamalot," as well as "The Color Purple" and "Spring Awakening." The musical theater line-up also includes the classics "A Chorus Line" and "Fiddler on the Roof."

The Penn State School of Music kicks off the school year with the entire voice faculty performing in "Fall Faculty Favorites" at 8 p.m. on Friday, Aug. 28 at the Penn State Downtown Theatre Center in the Citizens Bank Theatre at the corner of South Allen Street and Beaver Avenue in State College, Pa. Now in its third year, this annual concert is a casual, fun evening when the audience gets "up close and personal" with the seven singers as they perform memorable songs from their college days and current favorites.

Performers will be Susan Boardman, Ted Christopher, Richard Kennedy, Jennifer Trost, Raymond Sage and Mary Saunders, with Sue Haug, Beverly Patton and Ed Barton at the piano. Norman Spivey is on sabbatic this fall.

Reserved seating is $8 for adults, $2 for students. Tickets are available at the theatre or at the Eisenhower Box office. Call 814-863-0255 to order.

Travel back in time as performer Benjamin Bagby presents the Old English poem Beowulf at 7 p.m. on Monday, March 2 in Penn State Altoona's Paul R. and Margery Wolf Kuhn Theatre of the Misciagna Family Center for Performing Arts.

The Center Theatre Players' production of "Into the Woods," Stephen Sondheim's Tony Award-winning musical, will be presented at 7:30 p.m., Friday and Saturday, July 25 and 26, and 7:30 p.m., Friday and Saturday, Aug. 1 and 2, in the auditorium of the Penn State Beaver Student Union Building. The musical, which is part of the Brodhead Cultural Center's 32nd summer programming series, is directed by Sandy Reigel, Monaca, who also is the director of the Center Theatre Players.

Frustrated by failure, actor Charles Dumas abandoned the theater in the 1960s for Yale Law School and a career in law and politics. But in 1983, Dumas, now associate professor of Theater and African and African American studies at Penn State, returned to drama. "I kept thinking, 'I want to try this theater thing one more time,'" he says.

A vintage armoire, a straight-backed chair, a telephone, a sturdy, worn table, and an open suitcase that starts out empty but is eventually full. A dark-haired woman, late twenties, perhaps thirty. She speaks aloud. Her emotions are strained. It is apparent the conversation she is having with herself is a rehearsal for one she'll have later with her husband:

"Storytelling is theatre in its oldest, simplest, and perhaps richest form," writes acting student Anthony Irons. "Before the use of stages or elaborate effects, the deeds of human and heaven-kind were kept alive by the storyteller."

Irons' retelling of the Uncle Remus story, "The Farmer and the Snake" tied for first place in the Performance Option of the Graduate Research Exhibition last March; pianist Svetlana Brandt, who performed several of Scriabin's preludes, was the other first-prize winner.