University Players will close its 2016 season with a fast-paced spectacle of extravagant costumes and outrageous behaviour. The Double Dealer: a comedy features a resourceful villain, love, marriage, and adulterous relationships, proving that life in high society of the 1690s was anything but boring.

William Congreve puts Machiavellian treachery and romantic knavery centre stage when Maskwell, plotting to marry into money, joins forces with Lady Touchwood to break up the match between the innocent lovers Cynthia and Mellefont. Cheating wives, jealous husbands, conniving rivals and foolish fops make for a witty comedy of manners where no one but the two young betrothed is what he or she seems.

During a time when men showed off their calves and women their bosoms, sensual innuendos and boudoir intrigues were the norm. The Double Dealer is a satire of the rakish behavior and silliness that were part of the upper class life.

“Cheating didn’t start during the restoration period—it just improved,” says director Brian Taylor. “But in the end, justice triumphs, love prevails and we all laugh.”

The play will run April 1 to 10 in the Essex Hall Theatre. Wednesday through Saturday performances are at 8 p.m.; Saturday and Sunday matinees are at 2 p.m. A “talk back” discussion with the actors will follow the April 3 performance.

Tickets can be ordered online at www.UniversityPlayers.com or by calling 519-253-3000, ext. 2808.

UWindsor languages expert Giuliana Salvato says hand gestures are vital tools for fully communicating, so when teaching adults a new language, it should become common practice to teach culturally-specific gestures along with speech.

In her new book Looking Beyond Words: Gestures in the Pedagogy of Second Languages in Multilingual Canada, published by Cambridge Scholars Publishing, Dr. Salvato explains the communicative and cognitive value of gestures and their repercussions in language education.

“If you are Italian, you belong to the Italian community and growing up you will naturally acquire a repertoire of cultural gestures specific to the Italian community,” she says. “It is a disservice to not teach gestures to students who are trying to become truly bilingual or multilingual.”

Salvato, an associate professor of Italian studies, says there is an issue with Italian gestures being stereotyped—people focus more on the stereotype than on the reason why speakers produce gestures. As part of her research, Salvato asked Canadian students to interpret Italian cultural gestures.

“To truly learn Italian, or any other language, I think students need to become acquainted with the cultural gestures that belong to the target community as well as the values that that community attributes to gestures.”

She says some gestures are recognizable only to native speakers, though some have become internationally understood—the high-five, the thumbs-up, or a looped forefinger and thumb to indicate that everything is okay.

“Through experience of living in a community of speakers and learning your native tongue in that community of speakers, you basically develop ability of communicating appropriate to that particular community,” she says.

In addition to cultural gestures, Salvato says there are cognitive value gestures as well, which are entrenched in the expression of thought. When delivering information, people automatically and naturally use these gestures in concert with words.

“We don’t even think about it, but when we communicate we express our thoughts, and in expressing our thoughts we use the verbal and non-verbal channels,” she says. “This defines humanity. No matter what the culture of origin of that humanity, everybody does it.”

Examples of cognitive gestures include someone pacing their speech by hand gestures, using hands to show the size of an object, or tapping on the table to emphasize a point, all in an effort to deliver information. Salvato says people use these gestures even when their hands cannot be seen, such as when speaking on the telephone.

Salvato’s research centres on university-aged adults learning a third or fourth language. After a decade of studying the use of gestures in communication, she says she cannot look at them in the same way.

“In the beginning, I used to look at gestures from a folkloristic or stereotypical perspective, but now I see it as a serious, complex matter that is intricate and mysterious,” she says. “For most of us, it is beyond our control, but our gestures define us culturally and help us fully express thought—this is intricate and mysterious.”

The University will celebrate the dedication and commitment of employees who have contributed 25 years of service at a luncheon reception April 29.

The list of 25 honorees is available on the Department of Human Resources website at http://www1.uwindsor.ca/hr/25-years-of-service. All reached the milestone in 2015.

Faculty and staff interested in joining in the celebration can purchase tickets for $25 each. Ticket information can be found online at http://www1.uwindsor.ca/hr/tickets or contact Oliga Tserakhava at oligat@uwindsor.ca.

Global projections indicate that demand for freshwater, energy and food will increase significantly over the next decades under the pressure of population growth, economic development, and changes to culture, technology and climate.

Slobodan Simonovic, a civil and environmental engineering professor at Western University, will discuss ways to mitigate and adapt to these global pressures during a presentation Friday in the Joyce Entrepreneurship Centre.

His free public speech, titled “A Systems Approach to Modelling Water-Energy-Food Nexus,” will present an innovative society-biosphere-climate model. The model consists of nine individual sectors that reproduce the main characteristics of the climate, carbon cycle, economy, land use, population, surface water flow and water demand and water quality sectors at a global scale. The model also explores the manner in which interactions or feedback between these subsystems determine the behaviour of the whole Earth-system.

Dr. Simonovic is a globally recognized and award-winning expert in water resources systems engineering and engineering chair of the Institute for Catastrophic Loss Reduction. His primary research interest focuses on the application of a systems approach to management of complex water and environmental systems.

The one-hour presentation will begin at noon March 18 in the second-floor EPIC Innovation meeting room. It is part of the University of Windsor’s Centre for Energy and Water Advancement Distinguished Speakers Series. Find more information on the engineering website.

The Campus Bookstore is offering 25 percent off all its UWindsor insignia glassware—tumblers, steins, shot glasses—March 17 as its True Savings Thursday special.

“We have a selection to choose from,” says marketing coordinator Martin Deck. “Come get yours while they’re on sale!”

The Chef to You station in the CAW Student Centre’s Marketplace will take on a green hue Thursday, with foods of Ireland to celebrate St. Patrick’s Day.

The lunch menu, from 11:30 a.m. to 2 p.m., will feature:

• corned beef and cabbage with marmalade whiskey glaze with side, $8.99
• steak and stout pot pie with side, $6.99
• spinach ravioli stuffed with portabella mushroom, served with garlic toast, $7.99
• and for contrarians, homemade English-style fish and chips with green coleslaw, $8.99

The dinner menu, from 4:30 to 7 p.m., will serve:

• corned beef and cabbage with marmalade whiskey glaze with side, $8.99
• spinach ravioli stuffed with portabella mushroom, served with garlic toast, $7.99
• Irish chicken and dumplings with side, $7.99

And for dessert: green cupcakes! Try a taste of the emerald isle March 17.

Green and red aren’t paired only at Christmastime—Canadian Blood Services is hoping to see plenty of both during a campus blood donor clinic on St. Patrick’s Day.

The clinic runs 11:30 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. Thursday, March 17, in the Ambassador Auditorium, CAW Student Centre.

“Students can come dressed in green for St. Patrick’s Day,” says Paula Talbot, event coordinator for the organization’s mobile unit. “That would be fun!”

As a special incentive, donors who send a selfie to local radio station Mix 96.7 will enter a draw for tickets to a Rihanna concert. Get the details.

Walk-in donors are welcome, but appointments will better accommodate donors’ working schedules. To book an appointment, call 1-888-2DONATE (1-888-236-6283).

As with previous clinics, the Department of Human Resources encourages all eligible employees to participate in this worthwhile process and asks any employees who wish to donate to make the necessary arrangements with their supervisors regarding the possibility of extended lunch or break periods.