November 29, 2001

Rachel Brown, left, and Bertram Cates, right, confer with lawyer Henry Drummond in the UNL theatre production of Inherit the Wind. The actors are, from left to right, Abby Miller, David Ackroyd and James Dunn.

Inherit the Wind blows into Howell Nov. 29

The classic courtroom drama Inherit the Wind opens Nov. 29 in Howell Theatre. Produced by University Theatre, the play, written by Jerome Lawrence and Robert E. Lee, is directed by Tice Miller, professor of theatre arts. Performances are at 7:30 p.m. Nov. 29 and 30, and Dec. 1, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, in Howell Theatre, first floor of the Temple Building.

Based on the famous Scopes "Monkey" trial, Inherit the Wind paints a portrait of American culture when the teaching of creationism came head to head with the teaching of Darwin's theory of evolution.

Leading the cast are guest Equity actor David Ackroyd as Henry Drummond, the Clarence Darrow-inspired character, and graduate student Timothy Hornor as Matthew Harrison Brady, the William Jennings Bryan-inspired character. Undergraduate and graduate theatre students compose the cast of 42.

Ackroyd is a graduate of the Yale School of Drama and was a charter member of the Yale Repertory Theatre, where he played more than 25 roles in three seasons in plays ranging from those of William Shakespeare to Terence McNally. He made his Broadway debut in Phillip Roth's Unlikely Heroes. He is touring in the one-man show Barrymore, a look at the life of American actor John Barrymore, and appeared as Ebenezer Scrooge in last year's A Christmas Carol at the Lied Center.

Ackroyd has appeared in many Hollywood feature films and television productions with actors as diverse as Dolph Lundgren, Burt Reynolds, Bette Davis, Farrah Fawcett, Michelle Pfeiffer and John Lithgow.

Costumes for Inherit the Wind are designed by Shawn Adrian DeCou, with scenery by Rob Dutiel and lighting by Adam Mendelson. Brynn Taylor designed sound. Stage manager is Carmen Bailey.

Tickets are available from the Lied Center Box Office, 472-4747. Individual tickets are $12/ patrons, $10/UNL faculty/staff and senior citizens, and $8/students.

Canadian Brass at Lied in encore performance

The Canadian Brass makes a return trip to the Lied Center for Performing Arts at 7:30 p.m. Dec. 4. In additional to classical works, the Canadian Brass will celebrate the season with several holiday selections.

The Canadian Brass, which begins its 31st season in 2001/02, consists of Ryan Anthony, trumpet; Joe Burgstaller, trumpet; Jeff Nelsen, French horn; Eugene Watts, trombone; and Charles Daellenbach, tuba. The group has a long touring and recording history, with a special affinity for Baroque music.

The Canadian Brass sprang from modest roots in Toronto, Ontario, in 1970. Brass quintets were not considered "serious" ensembles at that time, and making such a breakthrough proved an irresistible challenge to Watts and Daellenbach. Thanks to that pioneer status, the Canadian Brass developed a unique status among audiences.

The five members of the Canadian Brass spend most of their time on tour and have performed with major symphony orchestras around the world, as well as garnering a large international following for their solo performances. In addition to their busy touring schedule, the group has performed on such television programs as The Tonight Show, Today and Entertainment Tonight. They have appeared as guest artists on Evening at Pops with John Williams and the Boston Pops, Beverly Sills' Music Around the World and many PBS specials.

The Canadian Brass concerts feature a wide variety of musical styles. Having started with a very limited based of traditional works for brass, the Canadian Brass set out to create that framework by transcribing, arranging and commissioning more than 200 works. They not only perform classical works but also leap into jazz, contemporary music and popular songs.

Scott Anderson, assistant professor of trombone with the UNL School of Music, will deliver a pre-performance talk in the Lied's Steinhart Room 30 minutes before curtain

Tickets are $42, $38, and $32; half-price for students. Call the Lied box office at 472-4747 for tickets.

Eriq Ebouaney stars as Patrice Lumumba in Lumumba, opening Nov. 30 at the Mary Riepma Ross Film Theater.

Ross screening bio-pic of African leader Lumumba

Lumumba, a biographical film about legendary African leader Patrice Lumumba, will show at the Mary Riepma Ross Film Theater Nov. 30 through Dec. 2.

Lumumba is a gripping political thriller that tells the story of the legendary African leader Patrice Emery Lumumba. Brilliant and charismatic Lumumba rose rapidly to the office of Prime Minister when Belgium conceded the Congo's independence in June 1960.

Lumumba's vision of a united Africa gained him powerful enemies: the Belgian authorities, who wanted a more paternal role in their former colony's affairs, and the CIA, who supported Lumumba's formed friend Joseph Mobutu in order to protect U.S. business interests and their upper hand in the Cold War power balance. The architects behind Lumumba's brutal death in 1961 recently became known and are dramatized for the first time in Lumumba.

Screenings for Lumumba are at 7 and 9: 15 p.m. on Friday; at 1, 3:15, 7 and 9:15 p.m. on Saturday; and at 2:30, 4:45, 7 and 9:15 p.m. on Sunday. Admission is $7 for adults and $5 for students, senior citizens, children and members of the Friends of the Mary Riepma Ross Film Theater.

Country legend Campbell brings holiday magic to Lied

Hit songs such as Rhinestone Cowboy and Wichita Lineman made Glen Campbell a household name. The country music legend brings his talents to the Lied Center with the Glen Campbell Christmas Show at 7:30 p.m. Nov. 29.

One of 12 children born to an Arkansas sharecropper, Campbell started as a child music prodigy and by the age of 16 had quit school to devote his life to music. By the time Campbell hit Los Angeles at age 24, he was already an accomplished guitarist and soon was in demand as a studio musician, playing on records by Frank Sinatra, the Beach Boys and Elvis Presley. The Beach Boys were so taken with Campbell's talent that he was asked to join the band and toured with the band for 18 months in the mid-1960s until his solo career flourished.

While Campbell had some modest recording success in the early '60s, it wasn't until 1967 that Gentle on My Mind made him a star. In the late '60s, Campbell's hits such as By The Time I Get to Phoenix and Galveston were on the radio.

After appearances on other variety shows, Campbell was offered his own show, The Glen Campbell Goodtime Hour.

Into the 1970s, Campbell's career continued its upward climb with hits such as Rhinestone Cowboy and Southern Nights. Campbell has recorded several gospel CDs in the 1990s and has continued to tour.

Campbell has sold more than 40 million records in more than 40 years in the music business. Campbell has 12 gold albums and has had 75 songs on the charts, 27 of them in the Top Ten.

Tickets are $40, $35 and $30, half-price for students. Call the Lied box office at 472-4747 for tickets.

Performance Glen Campbell Christmas Show is at 7:30 p.m. Nov. 29 at the Lied Center. Tickets are $40, $35 and $30; half-price for students. Call 472-4747.

Percussion Ensemble performs tonight

The School of Music presents the UNL Percussion Ensemble, at 7:30 p.m. Nov. 29 in Kimball Recital Hall.

The ensemble is directed by Albert Rometo, director, and Anthony Falcone, associate director.

The program will begin with a short piece for hand-held instruments titled Roof Garden Music. Dance Barbaro, with guest conductor Lori Payne Falcone, features the usual percussion membraniphones and claves. Arrangement of Funhouse (Flim and the BB's) by Anthony Falcone is in the pop genre and utilizes myriad keyboard percussion instruments. The anchor of the program will be a work commissioned the University of Utah Percussion Ensemble called Stained Glass by David Gillingham. The three movements were inspired by stained glass. The concert will conclude with Sabre Dance by Aram Khachaturian.

The concert is free and open to the public.

Chagoya work explores cultures

Two prints from the Sheldon permanent collection augment several loaned by the San Francisco Gallery Paule Anglim as the Sheldon Gallery presents The Prints of Enrique Chagoya. The exhibition celebrates the unique and profound aesthetic of one of the more influential printmakers working in the contemporary art world and runs Dec. 1 to Jan. 27.

A public reception begins at 5:30 p.m. Jan. 18. It will feature a gallery talk by the artist.

Born in Mexico City in 1953, Chagoya has been fascinated with the indigenous peoples of Mexico and their history. His interest in Mexico's ancient traditions also is combined with a sharpened political consciousness, shaped by his student days at the University National Autonoma de Mexico in the early 1970s and an eight-month stint as an laborer in Texas in 1977. These interests and experiences have created visual imagery that finds an appropriate means of expression through his technical facility and ingenuity as a printmaker.

Chagoya's complex and fascinating imagery is derived from his interest in the politics and clashes of cultures with modern Mexican and American cultures, ancient Mexican and American cultures, and the unique means of expression that these traditions used. These clashes, which are often, but not always, expressed through violence, are expressed by Chagoya through a collage aesthetic that invites disparate images, appropriated and re-connected to create complex and intricate relationships between images.

The Return of the Macrobiotic Cannibal, from the Sheldon's collection, takes the form of a pre-Columbian codex that "records" the encounters between Europeans and Aztec and Mayan Cultures. This work combines woodcut, color lithography and chine collé, a format that allows Chagoya to tell and shape ancient histories as clashes between cultures.

Chagoya's social conscience and his belief that artists have a social and political responsibility are evidenced through a suite of prints after Francisco Goya's famous Disasters of War series of etchings. Chagoya's use of aesthetic language to engage contemporary events is seen in The Rat Hunter, painted on a 19th-century print depicting men and children killing rats, which is a cynical allusion to California's controversial Proposition 209 that eliminated affirmative action.

Music Extravaganza Dec. 2

The School of Music presents its annual December extravaganza, A Choral Garland, at 3 p.m. and 7 p.m. Dec. 2 in Kimball Recital Hall.

The performance will feature five of the university choirs and more than 400 singers. The event will open and close with the combined choirs and brass ensemble in settings of O Come All Ye Faithful arranged by Peter A. Eklund, director of choral activities.

The Varsity Men's Chorus, directed by Eklund, will present works by American composer Randall Thompson and well-known British choral composer/conductor John Rutter. Keith Curington, associate director of choral activities, will conduct the Collegiate Chorus in works by Victoria, Johann Sebastian Bach and a new arrangement of Joshua Fit the Battle of Jericho by Moses Hogan. The Concert Choir, also conducted by Curington, will sing portions of Gaudete. Rhonda Fuelberth will lead the University Women's Chorale in works by John Rutter and Benjamin Britten. University Singers will sing Anton Bruckner's setting of Ave Maria and a gospel piece, Praise His Holy Name, by Keith Hampton.

Audience members are encouraged to arrive early. Tickets are $5 for adults, $3 for students, and are available at the door an hour before the concert.

Auditions for Theatre, Nebraska Rep are Dec. 8

The Department of Theatre Arts will hold auditions for its second semester University Theatre productions and summer 2002 Nebraska Repertory Theatre season on Dec. 8.

University Theatre will present Shakespeare's Measure for Measure Feb. 14-23; an original family musical play, The Little Humpback Horse, March 13-17 and 19-22; and the classic Russian story Anna Karenina April 18-27.

Nebraska Repertory Theatre, the professional wing of the training program, will present The Value of Names from July 10-13, 19-29; Wit on July 17-18, 26-27, 31, Aug. 2, 4, 8 and 10; and Dinner with Friends on July 24, 25, 28 and Aug. 1, 3, 7, 9, 11.

Auditions are for Equity and non-Equity actors. To secure an audition time, contact the Administrative Office at 472-2072 between 2-5 p.m. Monday through Friday. Actors are asked to prepare two monologues, not to exceed four minutes combined. One monologue should be contemporary, the other should be Shakespearean. Please note that Measure for Measure begins rehearsal on Jan. 11 before the first day of classes; The Little Humpback Horse performs on tour during UNL's spring break, and Nebraska Repertory Theatre rehearsals are during the days.

All roles are available for the three University Theatre productions, Wit and Dinner with Friends. Only the role of Norma, Benny Silverman's actress daughter, is available for The Value of Names.

For more information, call the Administrative Office at 472-2072.