12th Season Features 30-plus Events

Lied Center Announces New Schedule

The Lied Center for Performing Arts celebrates the opening of its 12th season with a Sept. 22 performance of the Philadelphia Orchestra. This year's season features more than 30 shows ranging from Broadway to classical music to Family Series events.

Season brochures are available and season ticket orders may be placed. Sales for individual event tickets for the season being Aug. 20. To receive a free Lied Center brochure, call the box office at 472-4747. For more information about individual events, check the Lied's Web site, http://www.unl.edu/lied/ or http://www.liedcenter.org.

Season events, in chronological order, are:

• The Philadelphia Orchestra, Sept. 22, 7:30 p.m.
• John Prine & Iris DeMent, Sept. 28, 7:30 p.m.
• Nebraska Jazz Orchestra with Dave Stryker, Oct. 5, 7:30 p.m.
• National Ballet of China, Oct. 9, 7:30 p.m.
• Rent, Oct. 12, 7:30 p.m.; Oct. 13, 2 and 7:30 p.m.; Oct. 14, 2 p.m.
• Dance Consort: Mezzacappa-Gabrian/Charles Weidman Centennial, Oct. 19, 7:30 p.m.
• The Gizmo Guys, Oct. 22, 7 p.m.
• Ballet Hispanico, Oct. 29, 7:30 p.m.
• Michael Moschen, Nov. 2, 7:30 p.m.
• Karrin Allyson, Nov. 9, 7:30 p.m.
• Trio Voronezh, Nov. 13, 7:30 p.m.
• Perlman/Nikkanen/Bailey Piano Trio, Nov. 16, 7:30 p.m.
• DynamO Théâtre/Lili, Nov. 19, 7 p.m.; Nov. 20, 7 p.m. (Johnny Carson Theater)
• Glen Campbell's Rhinestone Christmas, Nov. 29, 7:30 p.m.
• The Canadian Brass, Dec. 4, 7:30 p.m.
• A Celtic Christmas, Dec. 19, 7:30 p.m.
• Nebraska Artists Showcase with John De Haan, Jan. 29, 7:30 p.m.; Jan. 30, 7:30 p.m. (Carson Theater)
• Budd - The Buddy Holly Story, Feb. 1, 7:30 p.m.; Feb. 2, 2 p.m.; Feb. 2, 7:30 p.m., Feb. 3, 2 p.m.
• Opera A La Carte The Mikado - Feb. 7, 7:30 p.m.; HMS Pinafore - Feb. 8, 7:30 p.m.
• The Clerks' Group, Feb. 12, 7:30 p.m., St. Paul United Methodist Church - 1144 M St.
• Eileen Ivers, Feb. 16, 7:30 p.m.
• MOMIX, Feb. 22, 7:30 p.m.
• St. Petersburg Philharmonic Orchestra, March 2, 7:30 p.m.
• Harlem - Kennedy Center Imagination Celebration, March 4, 7 p.m.
• Annie Get Your Gun, March 9, 2 p.m.; March 9, 7:30 p.m.; March 10, 2 p.m.
• Regina Carter, Violin, March 13, 7:30 p.m.
• Mermaid Theatre of Nova Scotia, March 19, 7 p.m.; March 20, 7 p.m.
• Titanic, March 26, 7:30 p.m.; March 27, 7:30 p.m.
• Aquila Theatre Company, The Wrath of Achille, April 3, 7:30 p.m.; The Tempest, - April 4, 7:30 p.m.; The Tempest - April 5, 7:30 p.m. (Carson Theater)
• Peter, Paul and Mary, April 6, 7:30 p.m.
• Alfredo Rolando Ortiz, Harp, April 13, 7:30 p.m. (Carson Theater)
• Van Cliburn International Piano Competition Gold Medal Winner(s), April 15, 7:30 p.m.
• Riverdance, April 17, 7:30 p.m.; April 18, 2 p.m.; April 18, 7:30 p.m.; April 19, 7:30 p.m.; April 20, 2 p.m.; April 20, 7:30 p.m.; April 21, 1 p.m.; April 21, 5 p.m.
• Lincoln Symphony Orchestra/Carmina Burana, April 26, 7:30 p.m.
• Disney's Beauty and the Beast, May 28, 7:30 p.m.; May 29, 2 p.m.; May 29, 7:30 p.m.; May 30, 7:30 p.m.; May 31, 7:30 p.m.; June 1, 2 p.m.; June 1, 7:30 p.m.; June 2, 2 p.m.

Nebraska Rep Features Art, Jake's Women Into August

UNL's Nebraska Repertory Theatre continues its 2001 season with two popular Broadway plays in rotating repertory.

Art, a new play by Yasmina Reza translated by Christopher Hampton, opened July 6. Additional performances are July 13, 18, 20, 26, 28, Aug. 1, 3 and 9. The play is in rotating repertory with the Neil Simon comedy Jake's Women, which opened July 11. Additional performances of Jake's Women are July 14, 19, 21, 25, 27, Aug. 2, 4, 8 and 10. All performances are at 7:30 p.m.

Art is performed in the Lied Center's Johnny Carson Theater. Jake's Women is in the Howell Theatre at the Temple Building.

Tickets may be obtained from the Lied Center Box Office or by telephoning 472-4747 or toll free (800) 432-3231. The Lied Center Box Office is open from 11 a.m to 5:30 p.m. Monday through Friday and will open one hour before performances at the Carson and Howell Theatres. Individual ticket prices are $20 patrons, $18 UNL faculty/staff and senior citizens, and $9 for students with ID. Neither production is recommended for youth.

Great Plains Film Festival Runs July 12-29

The sixth edition of the Great Plains Film Festival unspools July 12-29 at the Mary Riepma Ross Film Theater. More than 40 films and videos are in contention for cash awards totaling $15,000. Special retrospectives honoring Latino culture and featuring Nebraska-made films also are part of the festival.

All events occur in the film theater, located inside the Sheldon Memorial Art Gallery

Co-presented by the Ross and the Nebraska Film Office, the festival includes a number of panel discussions and Q&A sessions with filmmakers and film technique experts.

A daylong seminar, Nebraska on Film, occurs from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. July 14. Seminar tickets are $50 per person, which includes a full-festival pass. Films and videos made in Nebraska will screen July 12 and 13, culminating in the Nebraska premiere of The Truth About Tully at 8 p.m. July 14. The film's director, Hilary Birmingham, producer Annie Sundberg and star Anson Mount will participate in the seminar and screening.

A selection of films by, for and about Latino people will also be part of the festival.

Film categories include documentary features and shorts, narrative features and shorts, films made for public television, youth media and Nebraska films.

Complete schedules, film synopses and information about the festival can be found at <www.rossfilmtheater.org> or <www.greatplainsfilmfest.org> or by calling the Ross Theater at 472-5353. Festival passes, good for all screenings are $30 ($20 for students, seniors, children or Friends of the MRR). Tickets for individual screenings are $6.50 at the door or $4.50 for the above groups.

Anne Kennedy's prize-winning watercolor illustration of Eastern redbud won last year's Nebraska Statewide Arboretum's contest.

Arboretum Seeks Botanical Illustrations

Plants, education and art often go hand in hand. Those elements are part of the Nebraska Statewide Arboretum's annual botanical print competition. The arboretum is soliciting color illustrations of native trees and shrubs for its 2002 print.

The deadline is Sept. 1. Any of the following plants may be the subject matter for entries:

Trees: hop-hornbeam, Kentucky coffeetree, basswood, black cherry, ponderosa pine, bur and red oak, cottonwood and black walnut.

Shrubs: aromatic and smooth sumac, prairie wild rose, New Jersey tea, buttonbush, mountain mahogany, wild plum, leadplant, false indigo, wahoo and clove currant.

McCook watercolorist Anne Kennedy won last year's competition with her watercolor illustration of Eastern redbud.

The winning entrant will receive a $100 prize. The artist will retain the original artwork and copyright, with NSA having use of the illustration for educational and promotional pieces. Copies of the prints will be made available. The past three years' botanical prints, still available from NSA, include Eastern redbud, prairie coneflower and shell-leaf penstemon.

For an entry form, contact the Nebraska Statewide Arboretum at 472-7923, e-mail <klarsen1@unl.edu> or write NSA, P.O. Box 830715, Lincoln, NE 68585-0715. Information about the competition and previous botanical prints is also available at <http://arboretum.unl.edu/booksandgifts.html>.

Drawings, Watercolors are Focus of Sheldon Exhibition

More than 30 drawings and watercolors from Sheldon's collection are featured in a new exhibition that highlights contrasting approaches to drawing by artists working between the mid-19th century and 1970.

The Artist's Hand: Drawings and Watercolors from the Permanent Collection is on exhibit at the Sheldon Memorial Art Gallery and Sculpture Garden through Sept. 30. The pieces were selected by Sheldon Director Janice Driesbach.

Artists generally create paintings and sculptures over an extended period of time and may modify their initial ideas significantly while developing these images. In contrast, drawings and watercolors are often less formal and more spontaneous, and thus have the capacity to offer additional insights into the creative process.

Among the earliest works in the exhibition are a sketch of a tree by Ralph Albert Blakelock and an ink and graphite study by Alfred Jacob Miller. Both most likely were made during extended travels these artists undertook - in Miller's case to Wyoming with his Scottish patron Sir William Drummond Stewart in 1837.

Examples by European and American masters are featured, including Pablo Picasso's Study for Woman with Loaves (1906), a charcoal sketch for one of the artist's most accomplished early paintings. Amaryllis (also from 1906) by the Dutch-born Piet Mondrian is an example of the detailed floral studies the artist created in the early years of the century, before pursuing rigorous abstraction. Max Pechstein's Portrait of a Woman of 1910 is a vibrant document of the interest of the German Expressionist artist in creating a bold statement with simplified forms and in exploring other cultures.

American modernist artists - a strength of Sheldon's collection - are well represented. Watercolor was a popular medium for many painters engaged with avant-garde pursuits during the early 20th century, and it is prominent in this section of the exhibition. Charles Demuth's Apples, recently returned from an exhibition at The Phillips Collection in Washington, D.C., is one example of the fruit and vegetable still-lifes the artist created in watercolor in the mid-1920s. In Blue Nude (Leah), Georgia O'Keeffe effectively renders the human figure in monochrome with just a few brushstrokes, while Arthur G. Dove's Centerport #2 of 1941 shows the artist's ongoing engagement with the expressive potential of abstract forms.

A number of the drawings on view are by artists best known as sculptors and demonstrate their concern for three-dimensional form. Constantin Brancusi's bold Head of a Girl of 1905, for instance, evinces striking naturalism while Male Nude by Gaston Lachaise is convincingly described with a minimum of spare, sure pencil lines. Also included are works by Leonard Baskin, Henry Moore and Marino Marini.

The Artist's Hand: Drawings and Watercolors from the Permanent Collection also features examples by Milton Avery, Lovis Corinth, Giorgio Morandi,and Elihu Vedder, as well as other major artists of the period.

To See The Artist's Hand: Drawings and Watercolors from the Permanent Collection is on exhibit at the Sheldon Memorial Art Gallery and Sculpture Garden through Sept. 30. For more information, call 472-2463 or visit http://sheldon.unl.edu.

Geographic Photographer Exhibiting at State Museum

The photographs of National Geographic photographer Joel Sartore are on exhibit at the University of Nebraska State Museum until Sept. 4.

The show, Under a Big Red Sky: The photography of Joel Sartore, displays 38 images of Nebraska from his book, Nebraska, Under a Big Red Sky.

The exhibit is in Cooper Gallery at the museum, 14th and U streets. The museum suggests a donation of $2 per person. UNL faculty, staff and students are free.

A 1985 UNL journalism graduate, Sartore has been associated with National Geographic since 1990, completing 14 stories for the magazine. He has published two books, Nebraska, Under a Big Red Sky and The Company We Keep, and contributed to many others. He recently completed a film, Endangered America.