Wushu combat with sword is one form of choreographed martial arts performed by the Shaolin Wariors.

Shaolin Warriors To Demonstrate "Art" of Martial Arts

For nearly 1500 years, the monks of Cbina's Shaolin Temple have practiced a form of martial arts that enhances the harmony between mind, body and spirit. Now they bring a fully choreographed theatrical martial arts production to the Lied Center for a 7 p.m. Oct. 17 performance.

The Shaolin Temple in central China has been the heart of Chinese martial arts since its founding in A.D. 525. Forced by the need for protection in battle-prone feudal China, the monks embarked on the development of a defense system based on the movements of animals living near the monastery. Known for its disciplined spiritualism and martial arts prowess, this Buddhist sect quickly became known for its prowess.

The Shaolin monks train in this system of fighting, which they call wushu, for several hours each day. They practice hand-to-hand as well as weapon combat. The monks are required to be proficient with each of the over 20 weapons and master of one. Among all of the weapons, the cudgel, spear, sword and broadsword are known as the major weapons of the Shaolin.

But the monks' greatest training comes from hours of seated mediation, which allows each monk to sustain severe discomfort and pain and endure the hours of physical training required. The Shaolin use Ch 'an (Chinese for Zen) to achieve a highly focused mental state.

Even with their amazing fighting capabilities, the Shaolin monks' skills are not put to aggressive use. These Buddhist monks believe in the philosophy of non-violence and their martial arts training is used as a means of creating harmony between the body and soul. You will notice that the Shaolin monks fight mostly in silence, creating a serene, mystical effect.

Kit Voorhees, director of UNL's Arts Are Basic program, will deliver a pre-performance talk in the Lied's Steinhart room 30 minutes prior to curtain.

Tickets are $36, $32 and $28, half-price for students.

Weill 100th Sparks Opera Omaha, Symphony Work

The Lied Center is collaborating with Opera Omaha and the Omaha Symphony in a 100th anniversary celebration of the birth of composer Kurt Weill.

Symphony for Celebration 100: Kurt Weill, An American Journey begins at 7:30 p.m. Oct. 20 in the Lied Center.

Weill was a Jewish composer who immigrated to the United States in 1935 to escape Nazi persecution. After previous success in Europe, Weill quickly made a name for himself as a Broadway composer in America. Celebration 100 will pair Weill's The Seven Deadly Sins with a second act featuring songs Weill composed in or about America.

The Seven Deadly Sins was written in Paris in 1933, at the beginning of Weill's exile from Nazi Germany and before his emigration to the United States. It is an allegory of moral decay reflecting Weill's view of the European environment of that time. The piece features soprano Anne DeVries, dancer Kelly Holcombe, baritone Curtis Olds, bass Wayne Tigges and tenors Hal Cazalet and Creighton James. Holcombe created the choreography for this piece.

The second act of the Weill tribute includes selections from Street Scene, Knickerbocker Holiday, Lady in the Dark, One Touch of Venus, Lost in the Stars and The Rise and Fall of the City of Mahagonny. The cast features the five singers of the first act, joined by mezzo-soprano Jill Anderson. Making a cameo appearance will be mezzo-soprano Ariel Bybee of the Metropolitan Opera, who currently is an artist-in-residence at the UNL School of Music.

The son of a cantor, Weill was born in Dessau, Germany. He displayed musical talent at a young age, and by the time he was twelve, he was composing and holding concerts and plays in his family's home. As an adult, he became immersed in the artistic society of inter-war Berlin. Weill often drew his lyrics from the works of poet and dramatist, Bertolt Brecht. After his emigration to America, Weill continued to incorporate the words of celebrated authors in his works, including those of Ogden Nash and Langston Hughes. Weill is probably best known by today's audiences for the ever-popular "Mack the Knife."

This performance is produced with special permission and funding from the Kurt Weill Foundation for Music, Inc.

Hal France, artistic director and principal conductor of Opera Omaha, will give a pre-performance talk beginning 30 minutes before curtain in the Lied's Steinhart Room.

Tickets are $32, $28 and $24, half-price for students.

Fritz and Gawel Exhibit in South Dakota

The University of South Dakota Art Galleries will host two exhibitions by Lincoln artists Dana Fritz and Larry Gawel between Oct. 14 and Nov. 8.

The main gallery will feature the installation Floodplain which explores issues of local interest: natural disasters, surplus grain and the changing demography of the great plains region. An assemblage of fabricated and found objects, video projections, recorded sound and corn create the scene of a farm where abundance can be read as misfortune.

Also on view in Gallery 110 is Parallel Lines: Photographs 1994-2000, featuring solo work by Fritz and Gawel. These color and black and white images examine issues from land use to personal history. They trace the work of the past six years and provide a frame of reference for the concepts and images in the concurrent installation Floodplain.

Lincoln artists Fritz and Gawel work both together and alone on projects ranging from installations to performances to photographs. Fritz is an assistant professor in the UNL department of art and art history. Gawel is a former visiting professor at UNL, a member of the Nebraska Arts Council's Artists in Schools and Communities Roster and currently teaches photography studio and history courses at Metropolitan Community College in Elkhorn.

Fritz's photographic work from the series "divide + conquer" will also be exhibited in a two-person show at the Dublin Arts Council in Dublin, Ohio, from Nov. 1 to 30.

All's Well Ends on Oct. 28

Shakepearean Comedy Opens Centennial Season

Shakespeare's comedy All's Well That Ends Well opens the Theatre Department's 100th season at 7:30 p.m. Oct. 19 in Howell Theatre. Additional performances are at 7:30 p.m. Oct. 20, 24, 25, 26, 27 and 28 and at 2 p.m. Oct. 22.

This comedy of mismatched lovers concerns the efforts of Helena, daughter of a renowned physician, to make Bertram, the count of Rossillion, her husband.

According to director Shirley Carr Mason, "On one level, All's Well That Ends Well is a series of archetypal folk stories: the sick King who is cured by the Maiden, and the trials by which a lover proves him or herself worthy of the one who is beloved. Shakespeare has taken a sophisticated look at these simple, happy-ending stories."

The all undergraduate student cast features Kaitlin Byrd as Helena and John Wachter as Bertram. Mollie Cox portrays the Countess and Kyle Johnston is Parolles. Other cast members include: Aaron DuPree, Eric Lauritzen, James Dunn, Stephanie Dodd, Jessica Hutchinson, Jody Christopherson, Eric Salonis, John Marinovich, Tim Hammer, Brad Cox, Brian Lucas, Eric Underwood, Carmen Bailey, and Matt Bross.

Individual tickets are $12 patrons, $10 faculty/staff/senior citizens, and $7 student/youth. Individual and season tickets, which include one admission to each of the five productions, available at the Lied Center Box Office. Season ticket prices are $60 patrons, $50 faculty/staff/ senior citizens, and $30 student/youth.

Lyle Victor Albert To Deliver Razor Sharp One-Man Show

Lyle Victor Albert will bring his one-man show, Scraping the Surface, to the Johnny Carson Theater at 7:30 p.m. Oct. 24 and 25. Scraping the Surface is part of the Lied Center for Performing Arts' Discovery! Series, which aims to bring the freshest creative works and newest performers to the Lied stage.

To a physically challenged man, the simple act of shaving can be an adventure and somewhat dangerous. Writer/actor Lyle Victor Albert, who has cerebral palsy, uses shaving as a metaphor for the challenges of life. As Albert likes to put it, "Some men bungee-jump; some men race automobiles; some men jump out of airplanes. I shave." With wit and superb comic timing, he takes the audience on a thought-provoking journey exploring adolescence through the eyes of a young man with cerebral palsy.

Scraping the Surface, Albert's autobiographical one-man play, is part stand-up and part storytelling. Because he not only wrote the play, but also lived it, Albert uses unflinching honesty to relate his struggles on the road to manhood. He relates his true stories to give us a glimpse of what life is like with cerebral palsy - when lack of muscle control and jerky movements make an everyday task a risky endeavor.

But don't think the Albert dwells on his disease; he doesn't even discuss it in his show. "I don't even say I have cerebral palsy," says Albert. "I say I'm just a bit jumpy. The underlying theme is about self-reliance and self-acceptance. I want to show that I have more in common with most people than I have different. I hope first of all the audience will be entertained, but I would also like them to gain an acceptance of someone who walks or talks differently."

Tickets for this performance are $25. University of Nebraska-Lincoln, Nebraska Wesleyan University and Doane College students as well as youth 18 and younger, with proper identification, can purchase tickets for half-price. Call the Lied box office at (402) 472-4747 or toll free, (800) 432-3231 for ticket availability.

Exhibit Opening in Robert Hillestad Textiles Gallery

Patterns of Thought: Quilted Constructions By Michael James opens in the Robert Hillestad Gallery on Oct.13. The mini-retrospective exhibit spans James' career and includes some of his most recent works. The exhibition will continue until Nov. 10.

James writes, "The patterns that you'll see in the quilts assembled in this exhibition represent either directly or indirectly, consciously or subconsciously, my thinking processes. They are textile documents that reflect my search for order and for my place, as an artist, in a frequently chaotic and unpredictable world."

James is a senior lecturer in the Textiles, Clothing and Design department at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln.

Ulysses Dietz, curator of decorative art at the Newark Museum in New Jersey declared that "[James is] the single most important figure in the transformation of the quilt from a folk art to a fine art in the late 20th century." (Arts & Antiques Magazine, March 2000).

The exhibit is sponsored by the International Quilt Study Center and the Hillestad Textiles Gallery.

Judith Slater Guest on Welsch Program

Fiction writer and professor Judith Slater will be the guest on Roger Welsch & when the interview series airs at 8:30 p.m. Oct. 20 on the statewide Nebraska ETV Network. The program will repeat on NETV2 (EduCable), the cable television service of Nebraska Educational Telecommunications, at 2 p.m. Oct. 22.

Roger Welsch notes: "Judith Slater is the author of a book I sure wish I had written, 'The Baby Can Sing and Other Stories.' And what stories they are - they take the reader's mind back and forth so fast, I was thinking I might have suffered some mental whiplash along the way! This is one of those books that made me unhappy when I got to the last page and had no more wonderful images to roll around in my mind. Join me as I talk to the creator of this remarkable book."

Slater is an associate professor of English at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. A native of Oregon, she has lived in Nebraska for 13 years. Her work has appeared in Redbook, Colorado Review, Greensboro Review and other publications. She has won awards at UNL for her teaching of creative writing and is also the 1998 winner of the Mary McCarthy Prize in Short Fiction from Sarabande Books, publishers of "The Baby Can Sing."