The cast of Footloose to perform at the Lied Center May 8-12.

Lied Center To 'Cut Loose' With Footloose

In 1984 the movie Footloose was introduced and soon the film and its multi-platinum soundtrack were sweeping the country. The Footloose phenomenon has been recaptured as a Broadway musical and will make its Nebraska debut at the Lied Center May 8-12. Performances begin at 7:30 p.m. on May 8, 9, 10 and 11 and 2 and 7:30 p.m. May 12.

Footloose tells the story of a teen-age boy who moves from Chicago to a small town and finds himself at odds with the town's "no dancing" policy. In struggling to overcome the strict rules, the boy learns a lot about himself as well as reminding the establishment what it's like to be young. The stage production captures the same energy and sense of fun that made the film one of the most popular movies of the 1980s and a cult classic.

This high-energy musical combines nine original songs with multi-platinum hits such as Footloose, Let's Hear it for the Boy, Almost Paradise and Holding Out for a Hero with nine new tunes.

Rhonda Lake and Rob McKercher of the Lincoln Community Playhouse,and Alisa Belflower of the UNL School of Music, will deliver preperformance talks 30 minutes prior to curtain in the Lied's Steinhart Room. Tickets are $40, $36 and $32, half-price for students.

The Lied Center, Time Warner Cable and Lincoln Journal Star, will be holding a Footloose shoe drive, with donations to benefit Cedars Youth Services and The Gathering Place. Citizens can donate "gently used" shoes at any of the three sponsors (during business hours) and they will receive a voucher for $5 off a ticket to Footloose. The discount is good for the May 8, 9 and 10 performances only, withsome other restrictons.

Call the Lied box office at 472-4747 or (800) 432-3231 for information.

Hunter to Present Harris Lecture on Screen Writing

Lew Hunter, a former program executive for Disney and two networks and self-described "vagabond screen writer," will lecture at UNL at 3 p.m. May 3 in Howell Theater.

The lecture is presented by the Film and New Media Studies area of the Department of Theatre Arts. The lecture, free and open to the public, is part of the Ron and Chris Harris Lectureship Series. Hunter's lecture, "Everything You've Wanted to Know About Screen writing But Were Afraid to Ask: Now's the time!", will be followed by a question and answer session.

Writer of many produced feature-length screenplays and dozens of television episodes, Hunter was a top-level programming executive at Disney, where he worked with Walt Disney, ABC, NBC, and was director of Program Development from 1975 to 1986.

Hunter earned a bachelor's degree in 1955 from Nebraska Wesleyan University, his master's degree in radio and television from Northwestern University in 1956 and a master's in film from UCLA in 1959. He received a Doctor of Letters from Nebraska Wesleyan in 1966.

Hunter will convene screen writing workshops for faculty and advanced screen writing students during his residency. Contact faculty member Sharon Teo at 472-1614 or steo2@unl.edu to reserve a seat in the workshop or to sign up for office hours with Hunter. Some workshop sessions are open to members of the university community who have had prior screen writing experience.

Dazzling Bio-Pic Pollock Screening at Ross

The troubled life of influential American abstract expressionist painter Jackson Pollock and his marriage to fellow artist Lee Krasner make for absorbing drama in Ed Harris' first directorial effort, Pollock, opening at the Mary Riepma Ross Film Theater on May 10.

While on the surface Pollock is a highly competent but conventional biographical film, it is distinguished by its quiet, intelligent, admirable restrained approach and by two finely wrought performances in the leading roles from Harris, who received an Oscar nomination for his efforts, and Marcia Gay Harden, who won the Oscar for Best Supporting Actress.

Pollock is showing on May 10 through 13 and May 17 through 20. Screenings are at 7 and 9:15 p.m. on Thursdays and Fridays; at 1, 3:15, 7 and 9:15 p.m. on Saturdays; and at 2:30, 4:45, 7 and 9:15 p.m. on Sundays. Admission is $6.50 for adults and $4.50 for students, senior citizens, children, and members of the Friends of the Mary Riepma Ross Film Theater.

"Jackson Pollock, one of the key figures in Abstract Expressionism and America's first postwar art star, was a man destined to be consumed by his own internal fires. As insecure as he was gifted, a full-blown alcoholic prone to frightening rages, he was often on the edge of agony, a prisoner of demons he could no more identify than control. Putting a figure like this on film, someone so close to the stereotypical Hollywood view of the artist as tormented and self-destructive, is a chancy enterprise. Though it's taken him nearly a decade of involvement to make it happen, Ed Harris, working as star and producer as well as first-time director, has managed to bring it off successfully. It's not that Pollock doesn't have its share of standard, conventional elements - it does. But the intensity of Harris' performance - the best of his career, and that's saying a lot - and his gift for guiding co-star Marcia Gay Harden and cameo performers like Amy Madigan to an equally high level make everything else less important. More than that, Pollock stands out among creative biopics for an ability to show art being made in a way that's as realistic and exciting as it's ever been on screen. To watch Lisa Rinzler's expressive shots of Harris as Pollock create his paintings, especially the famously acrobatic drip canvases, to Jeff Beal's Aaron Copland-influenced music is little short of thrilling," Kenneth Turan, Los Angeles Times.

NPRN's Connections Features Cather Scholar

Literary scholars and storytellers will be featured in May on Connections, the cultural and humanities series funded by the Nebraska Humanities Council and heard statewide on the Nebraska Public Radio Network at 3 p.m. on Sundays.

Hosted by the Nebraska Public Radio Network's William Stibor and produced by Jerry Johnston, Connections brings the richness of Nebraska's cultural heritage and the power and depth of the human imagination to listeners.

The May 13 Connections program will present Susan Rosowski, Adele Hall Professor of English, speaking on the topic of Nebraska author Willa Cather's comedies of nature during the most recent International Cather Seminar. Rosowski, a leading Cather scholar, is the general editor of The Cather Scholarly Edition and was director of the seminar.

On May 20 and 27, Connections will feature highlights from last summer's Nebraska Storytelling Festival, an annual event celebrating the art of storytelling of all cultures and sustaining the storytelling community of tellers and listeners. The festival participants include professional and nationally known storytellers as well as local tellers just beginning the art.

Connections will be pre-empted on May 6, by The Life of Willa Cather: Journey of an Artist, a national distributed public radio special.

The Decades Exhibition Features Work of Alumni Artists

The Eisentrager-Howard Gallery in Richards Hall will feature a special alumni exhibition this summer. The Decades: 1940-1980 UNL Studio Art Alumni runs May 14 to Aug. 24. The exhibition will feature the work of selected artists from the Department of Art and Art History studio program 1940-1980, with a special display of three works by Aaron Douglas, BFA 1922. The works of Douglas are on loan from the collection of the Sheldon Memorial Art Gallery and Sculpture Garden, Nebraska Art Association collection, and the Museum of Nebraska Art. Art and Art History. Some 75 to 80 works are expected to be on display. A reception for this exhibition will occur from 5 to 7:30 p.m. Aug. 24 in the gallery.

The Eisentrager-Howard Gallery's summer hours will be 9 a.m. to noon and 1 to 4 p.m. on Wednesday and Thursday; and 1 to 4 p.m. on Saturday. The gallery will be closed July 4-5. Please call ahead at 472-5025 to confirm hours or call the department for more information at 472-5522.

Fountain Frolics Return May 24

University Programs Council is again sponsoring Fountain Frolics for 13 consecutive Thursdays this summer. The event, held from noon to 1 p.m. on the fountain plaza north of the Nebraska Union, features live music and cheap lunch. A hot dog, chips and Pepsi product can be purchased for $2. The event kicks off May 24 and runs through Aug. 16. Beginning in late June, UPC will sponsor Movies on the Green on Wednesday evenings.