Stringing Along: Robert Bluestone brings his unique blend of classical guitar and woven tapestry to the Johnny Carson Theater Feb. 15.

Bluestones Weave Harmony on Johnny Carson Stage

Renowned artists Robert and Rebecca Bluestone will bring Woven Harmony, a unique and creative collaboration of classical guitar and woven tapestry, to the Johnny Carson Theater for a performance at 7:30 p.m. Feb. 15. The Carson Theater is located in the Lied Center for Performing Arts.

This performance is part of a five-day residency program in Lincoln. Other events in the residency are a seminar with Rebecca Bluestone from 6 to 9 p.m. Feb. 12 at the Home Economics Building and an artists' reception at 7:30 p.m. Feb. 16 at the Great Plains Art Collection. All events are open to the public.

Classical guitarist Robert Bluestone has an international reputation as an artist of the highest rank. His programs celebrate the diversity of the classical guitar and music of four continents and four centuries. He is the most-requested solo artist on the Western States Arts Federation Performing Arts Tour Roster, and recently received the Mayor of Santa Fe's Outstanding Achievement in the Arts Award. Recent tours have taken Bluestone to Mexico City, San Salvador, Berkeley, Sydney, Juneau, and Carnegie Hall.

Rebecca Bluestone is a tapestry weaver and teacher with a full-time weaving and dye studio in Santa Fe, N.M. Hher techniques come from the cultural traditions of the Native American, Spanish and contemporary European influences found there. Bluestone has received numerous commissions and is featured nationally in exhibits and The New York Times, American Craft, Fiberarts, and Shuttle, Spindle & Dyepot. Her creations will also be on display following the residency program from Feb. 16 to March 2 in the Great Plains Art Collection at the Christlieb Gallery, located at 1155 Q St., Hewit Place.

Tickets for the performance are $25, half price for students. Call the Lied box office at 472-4747 or (800) 432-3231 for tickets.

VIDA explores music from around the world Feb. 13 at the Johnny Carson Theater.

VIDA Brings A Cappella Voices to Carson

The four women of VIDA will bring their distinct and powerful voices to the stage of the Johnny Carson Theater for a performance on at 7:30 p.m. Feb. 13.

VIDA is an a cappella group who explores voice, traditional song, movement and new sounds with spirited vocals. Through original songs and the exploration of a broad sweep of music from Eastern Europe, the Appalachians, and Africa, as well as American gospel, John Prine and the Beatles, VIDA captures the integrity and soul that illumines each artist's work.

The members of VIDA are as diverse as their program. Sarah Ferrell, Stephanie Heidemann, Jessica Pease and Moira Smiley are graduates of Indiana University. Originally, they come from New Zealand, Germany, New England and the Midwest.

While not traveling with the group, members of the ensemble spend their time doing anything from teaching piano lessons to co-founding music performance camps.

VIDA's diverse and captivating style has taken the group to concert halls and festivals throughout the United States, Canada and Europe. The singers have appeared with Peter, Paul and Mary; Bob Dylan; and Ani Difranco, have collaborated with Howard Levy and the Windfall Dance Company, and were finalists in the Paul Simon Capeman auditions in 1996.

Tickets for this performance are $22, half price for students. Call the Lied box office at 472-4747 or (800) 432-3231 for ticket availability.

Die Fledermaus is directed by Ariel Bybee, with the University Orchestra conducted by Tyler White. Performances are at 7:30 p.m. Feb. 16 and 3 p.m. Feb. 18 in Kimball Hall. Tickets are available at the Lied Box Office, 472-4747.

Friends Group Sings Praises for UNL Opera Program

By Kim Hachiya, Public Relations

The newly formed Friends of the Opera at UNL group hopes its upcoming gala, held in conjunction with performances of the Strauss favorite Die Fledermaus, will spark support for this most-expensive of art forms.

Ariel Bybee, senior lecturer/artist in residence at the School of Music, said the group, formed under the auspices of the NU Foundation, aims to build an audience for opera, build awareness of the UNL program and raise funds to support performances.

"Opera is the most expensive art form," said Bybee, who has enjoyed a long career as an opera singer in New York. "It's like a play with an orchestra in the pit. It has huge casts because of the need for a chorus. All of them need costumes, usually period costumes, which are expensive. It needs sets."

Currently UNL produces three operas or operettas each year. Bybee would like to see that increase, but that would take more resources than are available. The friends group could help shoulder some of that financial responsibility, she said.

A mailing last fall produced about 50 initial members, she said. An executive committee consisting of Bybee, William Shomos, director of opera programs at UNL, and Larry Mallett, interim dean of the Hixson-Lied College of Fine and Performing Arts, and three community members, has formed.

Bybee, who came to UNL three years ago, said there is a deep well of interest in opera in Lincoln. "But it's isolated and separate from the university," she said, adding that most opera fans were getting their fix at Opera Omaha performances or Saturday afternoon Metropolitan Opera broadcasts on public radio.

"So there are great opportunities to build an opera community in Lincoln and to extend that to Omaha," she said.

Bybee said the level of opera talent in Nebraska is surprising. The vocal department has about 92 majors, she said, and most opera scholars are graduate students with an average age of 30.

"Opera is an advanced art form that requires vocal maturity. It's bigger than life and requires a bigger than life presence on the stage," she said. "As a performer, it's very challenging because you are singing and acting at the same time, and often wearing a 10-pound costume.

"I have singers here with terrific potential."

Die Fledermaus will be performed at 7:30 p.m. Feb.16 and 3 p.m. Feb. 18 in Kimball Hall. Bybee will sing in the Feb. 16 performance. The opera is a collaborative production. The UNL Orchestra, directed by Tyler White, and the University Singers, directed by Peter Ecklund, will fill the ranks. Lisa Fusillo, professor of dance, has choreographed the production.

Bybee said Die Fledermaus is a good opera to introduce the art form to someone unfamiliar with it. Sung in English, the opera is musically accessible with an easy to understand plot of mistaken identities, misadventures and revenge. Written by Johann Strauss, the opera premiered in Vienna in 1874. It was last performed at UNL 11 years ago during the Lied Center's inaugural season.

Bybee compared her love of opera to a die-hard football fan's love of the pigskin. "We have the same passions. Football fans can see a great play and remember it forever. Opera fans can remember every word of every aria. It's unforgettable; you remember it with your ears."

Opera is an evolving art form, she added. New operas are written each year, particularly by American composers. The classics, such as Verdi's Aida or Puccini's Madama Butterfly, are part of the standard repertoire.

"Just as no one tires of Monet or Rembrandt, no one tires of a classic opera," she said. "A new performance with a new conductor, new singers, a new set makes it fresh all over again."

Those who have only experienced opera through recordings should consider Die Fledermaus, she said.

"Give opera a try," she said. "Listening to opera live is even more rewarding."

The Friends of Opera group is hosting an invitation-only gala reception after the Feb. 16 performance. Those interested in joining the Friends of Opera at UNL can get more information by calling Bybee at the School of Music or by contacting Megan Clark at the NU Foundation, 472-2151.

The Sound of Silence: directed by Josh Aronson and produced by Roger Weisberg, Sound and Fury documents the struggle between hearing and deaf family members and the future of 6-year-old Heather Artinian.

Sound & Fury Explores Cochlear Implant Controversy

Sound and Fury, a documentary directed by Josh Aronson, and produced by Roger Weisberg, winner of the Golden Spire at the San Francisco Film Festival and favorite at the Sundance Film Festival, opens at the Mary Riepma Ross Film Theater on Feb. 15.

Sound and Fury explores one family's ongoing struggle for identity in the seldom seen world of the deaf.

Through the eyes of Heather Artinian, a precocious 6-year-old, we are witness to a family battle over a controversial medical device, the cochlear implant, which would help Heather to hear. Some of her family members celebrate the implant as a long-overdue cure for deafness while others fear it will destroy their cherished sign language and way of life.

Heather's two brothers and her parents, Peter and Nita Artinian are all deaf. Peter is an outspoken leader of the anti-implant Deaf community on Long Island, and his world is turned upside down by his daughter's desire to hear. Peter and Nita suspend their long-standing opposition to the implant, but they discover that implanted deaf children are often mainstreamed into the hearing world. They become afraid that with an implant their daughter would reject American Sign Language and Deaf culture. The family conflict escalates when Peter's hearing brother and his wife learn that their newborn child is deaf and decide to have an implant installed in him. The battle reaches a heated climax as the hearing members of this extraordinary family fight for Heather's right to be part of the hearing world, while deaf family members fight to preserve her deaf identity.

Sound and Fury is showing on Feb. 15 through 18. Screenings are at 7 and 9 p.m. on Thursday and Friday; at 1, 3, 7 and 9 p.m. on Saturday; and at 3, 5, 7 and 9 p.m. on Sunday. This film is presented with subtitles.

Tracy Lord, You Are Magnificent!

Philadelphia Story Is Howell Valentine Treat

UNL's University Theatre continues its 100th Anniversary season with the Philip Barry comedy The Philadelphia Story. Performances are in Howell Theatre, first floor of the Temple Building at 7:30 p.m. Feb. 15, 16, 17 and 20, 21, 22, 23 and 24. Tickets are available through the Lied Center Box Office, Monday through Friday from 11 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. Phone orders may be placed at 472-4747 or toll free at 800-432-3231. Tickets are $12 for patrons, $10 for faculty, staff, and senior citizens, and $7 for students with ID and youth 18 and under.

Both the witty 1939 Broadway hit and the 1940 Academy Award-winning film starred Katherine Hepburn as the irrepressible Tracy Lord, of the Philadelphia Lords, a family of Pennsylvania blue bloods. Divorced from the sardonic C.J. Dexter Haven, Tracy, longing for genuine romance, becomes engaged to the successful young snob, George Kittredge. As the wedding day approaches Tracy begins some soul-searching and doesn't like what she sees. Macauley Connor, streetwise but romantically timorous reporter sent to document the wedding arrangements, sees beyond Tracy's rebellious socialite exterior and quickly becomes infatuated with her. What ensues is utter hilarity and mayhem.

A classic comedy, The Philadelphia Story provides pure entertainment with all of the grace and sophistication of the 1930s. The UNL cast stars graduate acting students Amber C. Irvin as Tracy Lord, Steve Barth as her ex-husband C.K. Dexter Haven, and Richard Smith as the fiance George Kittredge. The reporter and photographer are played by undergraduate theatre major Kyle Johnston and graduate acting student Katherine Nora LeRoy. Other cast members are undergraduates Jody Christopherson, Abby Miller, Brynn O'Banion, Kelly Cambell, J. Eric Lauritzen, Jason Pope, John L. Marinovich, Justin Rae, Kristopher Anderzohn, and Brian Michael Lucas. Graduate acting student Timothy Horner plays Uncle Willie Tracy.

The show is directed by Virginia Smith, a new faculty member in the Department of Theatre Arts.

"The Philadelphia Story isn't a cautionary tale," Smith said. "It is a reminder that we are more than our rules and that the way to live and grow in wisdom is to keep choosing the qualities about us that make us good human beings. Tracy begins to understand this when she is able to lose her belief in her own perfection and begin to listen to her heart. This is a lesson we all need to be reminded of from time to time."

Poetry Reading Features Smelcer and Garcia

John Smelcer, regarded by Allen Ginsberg as "among the most brilliant younger poets in recent American literature," will join Ricardo Garcia, UNL poet and professor, at a poetry reading and book signing at 7:30 p.m. Feb. 23 at Lee Booksellers, Edgewood Shopping Center, 56th Street and Highway 2.

Garcia will read from his new volume of poetry, On the Way to San Francisco Bay (Salmon Run Press, 2001). In the spirit of Chaucer's Canterbury Tales, the book describes the journey of a van-load of university professors on the way to a technology conference in San Francisco. To while away the long hours of the drive, they tell stories, using one simple rule: "You can speak at any time so long as you speak in rhyme." Their 33 stories cover frivolous lawsuits, cowboy poetry, fishing and hunting lore, and many other topics. They include half a dozen Hispanic tales, three Native American stories, and two feminist stories. Diversity issues are interwoven throughout.

Garcia is a storyteller for the Nebraska Humanities Council, and author of "Coal Camp Days," a monthly feature in the Raton Range. His novel, Coal Camp Days in Cicorico, will be published this fall by the University of New Mexico Press.

Smelcer, a Native American, is part Cherokee on his mother's side and part Ahtna Indian on his father's. He grew up in Alaska on "the same land as my father and his mother's ancestors before him for a thousand years. I learned to love nature, to listen to the wind and to know the rise of a river by the way gray clouds move low overhead." He fished in glacial rivers, hunted, even climbed out of an icy crevasse by digging hunting knives into its walls.

Now Smelcer writes poetry in both English and Ahtna, a disappearing native language. He owns Salmon Run Press. He is also publisher and poetry editor of the literary magazine, Rosebud, the highest circulated literary quarterly in the nation. He edited and published Durable Breath, an anthology of contemporary Native American poetry. Smelcer will read from Songs from an Outcast, his poetry collection published by UCLA's American Indian Studies Center (2000, $12).

For more information, call 420-1919.

Ballet Puts Lied Center Stage on Ice With Cinderella

The St. Petersburg State Ice Ballet will appear in Cinderella at the Lied Center for Performing Arts at 7:30 p.m. Feb. 16, and 2 p.m. and 7:30 p.m. Feb. 17. Like Cinderella's transformation from an ordinary servant into a beautiful princess, the St. Petersburg State Ice Ballet changes this familiar fairy tale into an enchanting performance for the eyes, mind and heart.

Audiences are familiar with traditional ballet performances. They aren't used to seeing dancers perform on an ice-covered Lied Center stage. St. Petersburg State Ice Ballet's Cinderella creates a winter paradise with elegant ice dancing, over 100 magnificent costumes, and a full opera house set created in the grand Russian tradition.

Cinderella is the story of a girl who is treated like a servant by her step-mother and two step-sisters. Her dream of falling in love with the prince eventually comes true with some magical help from her fairy godmother.

The St. Petersburg State Ice Ballet was founded in 1967 and is based in St. Petersburg, Russia. The 35 Champion skaters provide a unique combination of art and entertainment specializing in full-length productions such as Swan Lake, Sleeping Beauty, Romeo and Juliet, and The Nutcracker. Each production is inspired by traditions of the Russian Kirov Ballet, which is internationally known for its classical elegance and artistic freedom.

As part of the Lied Center's education program a pre-performance talk will be held in the Lied's Steinhart Room 30 minutes prior to curtain.

Tickets for this performance are $36, $32 and $28. University of Nebraska-Lincoln, Nebraska Wesleyan University, and Doane College students as well as youth 18 and younger, with identification, can purchase tickets for $18, $16 and $14. Call the Lied box office at 472-4747 or (800) 432-3231 for ticket availability.

Local Artists, Authors Part of Art on the Edge

The Open Studio Community of Artists and Authors will hold Art on the Edge, an art show and sale, from 3 to 5 p.m. Feb. 18 at St. Mark's on the Campus, 13th and R streets. The art show begins at 3 p.m. and poetry reading begins at 4 p.m.

For more information, call Carol Prentice at 441-6019.

Statewide Profiles Young Nebraskans on Capitol Hill

Why would anyone want a job with long hours, low pay and no real security? Find out when Statewide, the Nebraska ETV Network's weekly magazine series, profiles six young Nebraskans working as Congressional staffers in a special report airing at 8 p.m. Feb. 9. Statewide, which includes up-to-the-minute news reports from across the state and other features of interest, repeats at 7:30 p.m. Feb. 10, at and at 1:30 p.m. Feb. 11. This episode of Statewide repeats on NETV2 at 3 p.m. Feb. 11.

Statewide correspondent Brad Penner introduces viewers to Nebraskans in their 20s and early 30s working on the Congressional staffs of U.S. Rep. Tom Osborne, R-Neb. 3rd, Sen. Chuck Hagel, R-Neb., and Sen. Ben Nelson, D-Neb. The staffers reveal why they sought the high pressure jobs and what it's like to live and work in Washington, D.C.

Penner's report features: Osborne staff: Lisa Knott, South Sioux City; Tucker Omel, Grand Island; Kim Wellman, Kearney; and Kelly Sokol, Omaha. Hagel staff: Liz Scanlon, Omaha. Nelson staff: Anne Armitage, Omaha.

Leta 'Kalamity Kate' Drake Is Q&A Guest

Meet the woman behind the makeup when thespian and television host Leta Powell Drake appears at 7 p.m. Feb. 15 on Q&A, the statewide Nebraska ETV Network's weekly interview series. This episode of Q&A repeats on NETV2 at 3:30 p.m. Feb. 18, and 8 a.m. Feb. 20.

Drake became one of the best-known faces on Nebraska television beginning in 1960 when she began writing, producing and appearing on live television commercials on KOLN/KGIN-TV, Lincoln/Grand Island. She hosted and produced the station's morning television show for 25 years, but is probably best known for hosting Kalamity Kate's Cartoon Corral, an afternoon children's program.

Drake joined Nebraska ETV in 1989, where she selects and schedules the programs that appear on the Network. She also appears on air during Nebraskans for Public Television pledge drives.

Lincoln-area theater patrons will recognize Drake from her appearances on stage in dozens of plays.

Hospice Nurse Is Welsch Guest Feb. 10

Lisa Church, a nurse at St. Elizabeth Hospice in Lincoln, will be the guest on Roger Welsch & when the interview series airs at 8 p.m. Feb. 10, and repeats at 2:30 p.m. Feb. 11 on the statewide Nebraska ETV Network. The program will repeat on NETV2 at noon on Feb. 12.

A Geneva, Neb., native, and nurse since 1989, Church has worked with St. Elizabeth Hospice in Lincoln since 1997. She was motivated to go into hospice nursing after the death of her young son made her realize how much terminal patients and their families need compassionate assistance and direction from knowledgeable, caring professionals whose goal is the quality as well as the quantity of life.

In a letter to Welsch, Church said, "I view natural death like a natural birth. They both take time and much patience . . . The beginning of life and the end of life are a reality for all. I am here to befriend those special souls and make their journeys a little easier."