February 7, 1997



Not Your Typical Money Laundering Scheme

Violet (Jennifer Tilly) ponders the art of laundering money in the thriller Bound, now playing at the Mary Riepma Ross Film Theater. Bound is a Reservoir Dogs with sex appeal, sly humor, arty photography and a finger-chopping scene to show how tough it really is. The film weaves a lesbian love story into a labyrinth of intrigue, offering a number of suprising twists and turns and just enough tension to keep you on the edge of your seat.

Bound is showing on Feb. 7 and 8 and Feb. 13 through Feb. 16. Screenings are at 7 and 9 p.m. on Thursdays and Fridays; at 1, 3, 7, and 9 p.m. on Saturdays; and at 3, 5, 7, and 9 p.m. on Sunday. Admission is $6; $5 for students; and $4 for senior citizens and members of the Friends of the Mary Riepma Ross Film Theater. The film is rated R.

Kodo's Big Beat Back at Lied Center Stage

Kodo, the electrifying percussion ensemble that brought a sold-out crowd to its feet during the Lied Center's 1990 premiere season, returns to the stage at 8 p.m. Feb. 11.

Clad in classic headbands, robes and wrestling loincloths, the endlessly energetic 15-member group of Japanese drummers purvey pure primal power in performances using a giant drum made of a 900-pound slice of a tree trunk pounded with sticks the size of human arms.

Kodo has had widespread appeal since the group began touring in 1981 and appeared at the Berlin Festival where the audience called for encores for one hour - the longest ever at the Berlin Symphony Hall. The group has performed to critical acclaim throughout Asia, Europe, North and South America and Australia.

"They are very exciting, have a ton of energy and are incredibly meticulous, aerobic and acrobatic," said John DeStefano, UNL percussion instructor and assistant band director. "Fifty percent of the show is visual. It's very fun to watch. Anyone interested in any form of music would enjoy watching these guys. They run five to eight miles a day to keep in shape. They're unbelievable."

The group uses mesmerizing wooden drums of all sizes, flutes, lutes and cymbals. But the great music majesty is centered on the "taiko" or traditional Japanese drum. It is said to resemble a mother's heartbeat as heard and felt from within the womb. In ancient Japan, the farthest limit to which the taiko sound could be heard was said to be the village limit.

Kit Voorhees will be the featured speaker at a free 15-minute pre-performance educational talk at 7:05 p.m. and 7:30 p.m. in the Lied Center Steinhart Room before the performance. Voorhees is coordinator of education and outreach for UNL's College of Fine and Performing Arts.

Tickets are $30, $26 and $22, with half price tickets for youth 18 and under and students with valid identification from UNL, Nebraska Wesleyan University and Doane College. The Lied Center box office is open for walk-in sales weekdays from 11 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. and 90 minutes before the performance. Phone orders may be placed by calling 472-4747 or 1-800-432-3231.

Mummenschanz Brings Visual Magic to Lied

Mummenschanz, the celebrated theater trio "for children who think they are adults and for adults who still believe they are children at heart," will perform mime, dance, puppetry and magic trickery at the Lied Center for Performing Arts at 8 p.m. Feb. 15.

The Mummenschanz magic of giant faceless forms has packed a visual wallop with audiences for 25 years and the trio of acrobatic performers will present a retrospective of the work that has intrigued audiences around the world.

The show is a visual delight from three innovative mime performers - including a Holt County native - in black body suits aided by black backdrop and spotlights. They might be hidden away inside a 10-foot white hand, a giant tube-like slinky or other oversized soft sculptures.

They don't speak but deftly tell stories of wit and whimsy that touch emotions and create surprise as their wondrous creatures walk, drift, climb or crawl on stage or simply appear out of nowhere.

"It's so fantastic. It's like nothing you've ever seen before," said Holly McDonald, director of development at the Lied Center, who describes the show as gentle, delightful family fare that will appeal to both adults and children.

The Swiss mime-and-mask troupe is composed of Bernie Schurch, a founder of the group, and Floriana Frassetto, a founder and director, and John Charles Murphy, who was reared in the ranching community of Stuart.

The three highly imaginative members offer an energizing program of acrobatics, contortionism, dance, mimicry, balancing and other hijinx in vignettes that hit unexpected emotions at every turn. Their signature technique uses fluid body movements right side up or head over heels. They are master manipulators who effect exaggerated comic anthropomorphic movements that are sight gags.

Kit Voorhees will be the featured speaker at a free 15-minute pre-performance educational talk at 7:05 p.m. and 7:30 p.m. in the Lied Center Steinhart Room before the performance. She is coordinator of education and outreach for UNL's College of Fine and Performing Arts.

Tickets for Mummenschanz are $26, $22 and $18, with half price tickets for youth 18 and under and students with valid identification from UNL, Nebraska Wesleyan University and Doane College. The Lied Center box office is open for walk-in sales weekdays from 11 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. and 90 minutes before the performance. Phone orders may be placed by calling 472-4747 or 1-800-432-3231.

Lied Enters World of the Web

Wondering what's up at the Lied Center for Performing Arts this weekend? The information is but a few clicks and keystrokes away on the new Internet homepage at http://www.unl.edu/lied.

The homepage details the next 14 coming events at the Lied Center at 12th and Q streets. The 1996-97 season concludes April 26 with flutist James Galway.

"The website was established so anyone who was interested in the Lied Center could get easy access without having to wait to get something in the mail," said Norah Goebel-George, director of marketing and media relations at the center.

The computer page also details box office information and facts about Friends of Lied, the state-wide volunteer support group and contains links to homepages of other regional performing arts centers.

The Lied Center homepage contains background information about the Lied Center, which had its premiere season in 1990 and has enabled Midwestern audiences to enjoy world-class performances such as the Broadway hit Les Miserables and cellist Yo-Yo Ma or Kodo, the Japanese percussion ensemble that will perform Feb. 11.

And what's up this weekend? Bassist Christian McBride and saxophonist Joe Lovano bring their quartets and some hot jazz to a double billing at 8 p.m. Feb. 8.

Richard Trickey, Untitled, 1991 (shown at left).

Sheldon Gallery to Host Faculty Biennial

The Sheldon Memorial Art Gallery and Sculpture Garden will present UNL Faculty Biennial: Past and Present, the UNL Department of Art and Art History Studio Faculty Biennial Exhibition from Feb. 11 to March 23.

This biennial exhibition showcases the recent work of 13 studio faculty using a variety of media, including painting, sculpture, ceramics, photography and prints. Included in the exhibition will be Ron Bartels, Shelley Fuller, Martha Horvay, Keith Jacobshagen, Gail Kendall, Karen Kunc, Mo Neal, Pete Pinnell, Dave Read, Doug Ross, David Routon, Pat Rowan and Joe Ruffo.

An added dimension to this biennial is a smaller exhibition of the work of former UNL faculty curated from the Sheldon's permanent collection presented in an adjacent gallery, which will include the work of James Eisentrager, Dan Howard, Dwight Kirsch, Sara Hayden and others.

Past and Present offers a unique opportunity to view the work of current faculty within the broader historical context of more than a century of NU faculty work in the permanent collection of the Sheldon Gallery. A public reception for the artists included in this year's faculty exhibition will be held from 5 to 7 p.m. Feb. 21.

Patrick Harris, Shingebiss, 1992, oil on panel.

Contemporary New Mexico Artists to Be Featured at Sheldon

The Sheldon Memorial Art Gallery will present Contemporary New Mexico Artists: Sketches & Schemas, a presentation of an eclectic group of artists that represents the cross-fertilization of three cultures in the Southwestern United States.

The exhibition, which opens Feb. 14 and runs through April 13, features the work of 48 artists, focusing on artistic developments in the New Mexico area since 1975. The exhibition features a wide variety of media, from video to photography to old Hispanic craft traditions such as carving, and emphasizes the tri-cultural nature of art-making in New Mexico.

"The artists in the show use traditional craft media and imagery with a contemporary twist," said curator Jan Adlmann of the College of Santa Fe.

An illustrated book, Contemporary Art in New Mexico, authored by Jan Adlmann and Barbara McIntyre, functions as a catalogue for the exhibition and provides an overview of the New Mexico region and its unique cultural influences. The book will be available for sale in the Sheldon Gift Shop.

Funding for Sketches & Schemas was provided in part by the Nebraska Art Association, a nonprofit membership organization dedicated to the advancement of the visual arts in Nebraska through educational and enrichment opportunities. Additional funding has been provided by the Nebraska Arts Council, a state agency, through a Basic Support Grant, which has supported all the year's programs of the Nebraska Art Association.


'New Mexico' Curator to Speak Feb. 14


In conjunction with the Sheldon exhibition, "Contemporary New Mexico Artists: Sketches & Schemas," the exhibition's curator, Jan Ernst Adlmann, (shown at left), will attend an opening reception and give a gallery talk at the Sheldon on Feb. 14.


The public reception will be from 5 to 7 p.m. Adlmann's talk will be at 5:30 p.m. He will also sign copies of a book he co-authored, Contemporary Art in New Mexico.

Wind Ensemble Performs For Regional Educators

The University of Nebraska-Lincoln's wind ensemble performed in Peoria, Ill., Jan. 31 for the Music Educators National Conference North-Central Division Convention.

The premier wind band of the UNL School of Music, the ensemble is one of the most active performance ensembles in the university's band program and performs music of the highest level, according to Jay Kloecker, director of bands. Its repertoire includes traditional as well as contemporary works.

Diane Cawein, an assistant professor of clarinet at UNL, also performed a solo during the Jan. 31 performance.

Previously the ensemble has performed on National Public Radio's "Performance Today" and Nebraska Public Radio listeners have heard the group twice. The group is conducted by Kloecker and Rod Chesnutt and tours and performs nationally and internationally including an appearance in 1996 in Dublin, Ireland, as part of that city's St. Patrick's Day celebration.

Duggin to Present Reading Feb. 20

The Creative Writing Program and Prairie Schooner will present Richard Duggin, reading from his fiction at 7 p.m. Feb. 20 in the English Department Lounge, 228 Andrews Hall.
Duggin, a graduate of the famed Iowa Writers' Workshop, founded the Writers Workshop at the University of Nebraska-Omaha in 1972, and has taught fiction writing there ever since.

He is the author of The Music Box Treaty, a novel, and his stories have appeared in Beloit Fiction Journal, Crosscurrents, Kansas Quarterly, The Sun, Playboy and others. He received an NEA Fellowship, a Nebraska Arts Council Individual Artists Merit Award and several fellowships to Yaddo and Ragdale. His work has been cited by Best American Short Stories, Pushcart Prize Anthology and Playboy. Most recently, he finished a novel and a two-act stage play.

The event is free and open to the public. For more information, call the Creative Writing Program at 472-1871.

Students, Faculty in National Acting Competition

Robert Hurst, a University of Nebraska-Lincoln graduate student in theatre arts from Columbia, La., won the regional prize in the Irene Ryan Acting Award Competition, qualifying him for the national competition in April in Washington, D.C.

Seven students from the university were among 196 students from eight states who competed at the regional festival in Cedar Falls, Iowa, last week. Four UNL students were among 36 who competed in the regional semifinals.

The Ryan Competition is sponsored by the Kennedy Center and the American College Theatre Festival. Students compete regionally for scholarships and other prizes.

Faculty award winners at the competition were Janice Stauffer, associate professor, theatre arts and dance, who received a meritorious achievement award in costume design for the UNL production of A Comedy of Errors; and Paul Steger, assistant professor, theatre arts and dance, who received a meritorious achievement award in directing for A Comedy of Errors.

Flo Oy Wong is Diversity Program's Visiting Artist

Artist Flo Oy Wong will be in residence at UNL as part of the College of Fine & Performing Arts' Artist Diversity Residency Program Feb. 17-21.

In conjunction with her residency, the Department of Textiles, Clothing & Design is hosting an exhibition of her work Baby Jack Rice Story at its gallery on East campus. Wong will have a limited number of pieces from this grouping hung on city campus to serve as a point of departure and discussion.

Wong, who lives in Sunnyvale, Calif., explores rice as a vehicle to express her spiritual and creative essence, as well as the meanings and metaphors inherent in this primary staple of her life as an American woman and artist of Chinese descent.

Wong's ongoing body of handsewn work uses rice and rice sacks as fundamental media with which to discover and express her personal, collective and cultural narratives and concerns. Like the African griot, or storyteller, Wong serves in a significant role as keeper of family and group history, tradition, and ceremonial activities. While her work also includes analogous bodies of painting and installation work, she has perpetually returned to rice as her fundamental emblematic and narrative medium.

A public reception for the artist at the TCD Gallery will be from 2 to 4 p.m. Feb. 16, with artist remarks at 2:30 p.m.

The TCD Gallery is on the second floor of the Home Economics Building, near 35th and Holdrege streets. It is open to the public from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m., Monday through Thursday.

The Artists Diversity Residency Program promotes a greater appreciation for diversity on the campus and in the community. The program brings to the campus and community different artists from diverse cultural backgrounds for residency periods of one to three weeks in duration, totaling 12 to 15 weeks per academic year.

Driskell to Discuss Work of Aaron Douglas Feb. 21

Plains Experience of African Americans Focus of Symposium
The African American and African Studies Program at UNL will present a three-day interdisciplinary symposium "African Americans and Their Great Plains Experience" Feb. 20-23, featuring art historian and commentator David Driskell, professor of art at the University of Maryland in College Park.

Driskell will present a lecture on artist Aaron Douglas at 4 p.m. Feb. 21 in the Sheldon Memorial Art Gallery auditorium. Driskell's lecture is free and open to the public.

Driskell is a recognized expert on the life and work of the artist Aaron Douglas, who is acclaimed by many as the foremost artist in the Harlem Renaissance Movement in the 1920s. An NU graduate, Douglas was the first African-American artist to explore modernism and to reflect African art in his paintings, murals and illustration. Douglas is regarded as one of this century's most influential African-American talents.

Driskell knew Aaron Douglas personally and lectures on him throughout the United States. Driskell will speak not only about the art of Douglas, but also about the man, his life on the plains and the significance of his work. This symposium aims to give greater recognition to Douglas and his work in the state of Nebraska that he enjoys throughout the art community.

For more information on the symposium, which will be at the Ramada Plaza Hotel in Lincoln, contact the Department of African American and African Studies at 472-7973. Registration is $50. Student registration is free (with student I.D.). Registration is not required to attend Driskell's Feb. 21 lecture.

Driskell's lecture and visit is sponsored by the College of Fine and Performing Arts, the UNL Research Council and Sheldon Memorial Art Gallery and Sculpture Garden.

Student Art League Offers Workshops

UNL Department of Art and Art History undergraduate students will conduct the following art workshops for the general public: Two sessions are held on each day. The first session, for ages 6-12, will run from 10 a.m. to noon; the second session, for ages 13 and up, will run from 1 to 3 p.m. The fee is $12 for the first session and $10 for each additional session. Supplies are provided.

To sign up, call the UNL Student Art League at 472-0664.

The UNL Student Art League is open to any student in the university who is interested in art and increasing awareness and understanding of art on campus and in the community. The group meets monthly.

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