You know those days when it's really hot, and there's lightning, but no rain? The pent-up energy that creates heat lightning is the same electricity that fuels Cirque Éloize.
This French-Canadian circus troupe brings its high-energy yet intimate style to the Lied Center for Performing Arts for an 8 p.m. performance April 17 and performances at 2 and 8 p.m. April 18. Presented as part of the Lied's Family Series, tickets for Cirque Eloize are an affordable $9 for adults and $4 for children under 12.
Cirque Eloize (pronounced sirk el-wahs) was founded in 1993. Most of its performers come from the Magdalen Islands off the coast of Quebec and most have studied at the Ecole Nationale de Cirque (National Circus School) in Canada. Eloize is a French-Canadian saying for "heat lightning," and the energetic show reflects that title.
This is circus in the Canadian tradition: there are no animals, no tents, no aerial acts or high wires, no sawdust on the floor. Instead, artful, take-your-breath-away acrobatics are choreographed into an almost dance-like artform. A spectacular one-man ladder act, juggling, bicycle stunts - all performed to original music, build to a grand finale acrobatic blowout of pyramids and propulsive jumps. As one critic said: the performers ARE the special effects.
Most Cirque Éloize members have performed with the larger 70-member troupe, Cirque du Soleil. With just a dozen members, Cirque Éloize gives an intimate performance geared for theater stages.
Tickets for the performance are $9 for adults and $4 for children. Call the Lied Box Office at (402) 472-4747 or toll free, 1 (800) 432-3231 for ticket availability. Box Office hours are 11 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. weekdays.
The second educational Wednesday Walk at the Sheldon Memorial Art
Gallery
and Sculpture Garden will be from 12:15 to 1 p.m. April 8. The walk is an
informal tour of a special feature exhibition with either the director or
curator, followed by a brief discussion session. The Wednesday Walks
series
is free and open to the public.
On April 8, Gallery Director George Neubert, will highlight the newly opened exhibition Story: Language as Image. This special exhibition presents the work of artists who use language and text in conjunction with or instead of visual images. Whether the words underline and reinforce the image, essentially become the image, or contradict the image to achieve an ambiguity, the combination of the visual image with the visual sign system we know as language creates an idea that must be viewed with not only the aesthetic/visual eye but with the intellect/mind. Underlying all of the various uses of text is the dichotomy of the reality of words versus that of image.
Show above right is Edward Ruscha's Question?
The University Singers and Concert Choir, under the direction of James Hejduk and Rebekah Rogge, student conductor, will present their spring concert at 8 p.m. April 19 in Kimball Recital Hall. Admission is free and everyone is welcome.
The Concert Choir, consisting mainly of first-year students, will open with two rarely performed pieces by George Gershwin written for the movie "Damsels in Distress." As the movie was set in England, Gershwin combined features of the madrigal and Gilbert and Sulivan choruses in "Sing to Spring" and "The Jolly Tar and the Milkmaid."
The Concert Choir will also perform Ben Allaway's "Wake Up, Ollie Brown!" which is derived from a praise song of African-Americans living on the Gulla Islands off the coast of the southeast United States. This selection tells the of the temptations visited upon Ollie Brown by the devil but his salvation is secured by various saints and angels.
The University Singers will perform the posthumously published version of Benjamin Britten's "Choral Dances from 'Gloriana'" using tenor solos and harp accompaniment interpolated between its five movements. Percy Grainger's haunting setting of the folk-song "Brigg Fair" will be paired with Edvard Grieg's "How Fair is Thy Face." Also scheduled is Lennox Berkeley's evocative setting of Psalm 23.
The program will close with the "Suite de Lorca" by Finnish composer Rautauvaara, "Komm, heil'ger Geist" by Georg Schumann, and George Mabry's amusing "A Chorister's Covert Concert" in which the choir members voice aloud their various feelings and opinions while the conductor is oblviously flailing away at an altogether different piece. Paul Barnes will be the assisting artist in this work, functioning as both pianist and conductor.
RAAG, a student organization promoting music and culture of India at UNL, will present an evening of Indian Classical Music at 7 p.m. April 18 in Westbrook Music Building. Performing will be Pandit Shivkumar Sharma (santoor/hammered dulcimer), Rahul Sharma (santoor) and Shaafat Ahmed Khan (tabla/Indian drums). Tickets are $5 (students with valid ID), $10 (non students) and will be available at the gate or TicketMaster, Nebraska Union. For more information, call Bidisha at 420-6360 or send email to raag@unlinfo.unl.edu. Tickets are selling very fast.To avoid disappointment, reserve your seats early.
"Frankie and Johnny in the Claire de Lune," a student thesis project by Terence McNally, will be presented at 2 p.m. April 25 and 26 and at 7:30 p.m. on April 26 and 27 in the Studio Theatre, Temple Building. The play stars Heather Currie, performing the role of Frankie in partial fulfillment of her MFA degree in acting and Eric Moyer. Call 472-2072 for more information.
There will be a temporary change in hours for the Lentz Center for Asian Culture.
The Paul A. Olson Seminars in Great Plains Studies presents a panel discussion on the "Dance and the Work of Charles Weidman," from 3:30 to 5 p.m. April 22 in the Center for Great Plains Art Collection, 215 Love Library. An introduction will be given by Ron Bowlin, director of Kimball Hall and special assistant to the dean of the College of Fine and Performing Arts. Panelists are Lisa Fusillo, director and professor of Dance, UNL; Charlotte Adams, assistant professor Theatre Arts and Dance, UNL; and Josie Metal-Corbin, professor School of Health, Physical Education and Dance, UNO. A reception will begin at 3 p.m.
Weidman, born in 1901 in Lincoln, was one of the founders of modern dance. He studied with Eleanor Frampton in Lincoln, and after seeing a local performance by Ruth St. Denis in 1916 saved his money to join Denishawn in California, the company he danced with from 1920 to 1928. With Doris Humphrey he started the Humphrey-Weidman school and company in 1928, danced on Broadway, and choreographed for the New York City Opera. A consummate dancer and choreographer, his students included José Limon and Bob Fosse. A House Divided, Fables for Our Time, Lynchtown, Daddy Was a Fireman and Flickers are among his classic works. Weidman conducted master classes at UNL in 1970. He died in 1975.
For more information contact 472-3082.
Musica Antiqua presents "Strike It Up Tabor." This concert of English, Italian and Spanish music, drawn mainly from the 16th and 17th centuries, will be presented at 7:30 p.m. April 20 at St. Mark's on-the-Campus. Admission is free.
The program takes is name from the opening song, which invites the people from the countryside to a Morris Dance in the month of May. This vigorous, leaping dance is led by the drummer. As the singers explain, the dance will continue until "I wear out my shoes dancing."
Musica Antiqua is composed of singers and instrumentalists who will be playing replicas of Renaissance strings, winds and percussion. The program will include sacred vocal music and secular songs, and dances for viol, recorder and krummhorn consorts.
The group will be assisted by guest organist Mary Murrell Faulkner, who will perform a solo by Pablo Bruna, as well as joining members of Musica Antiqua in other works. Before coming to Lincoln, Faulkner was music assistant at the Cathedral Church of St. John the Divine in New York City. In addition to holding the position of organist at the Cathedral of the Risen Christ from 1974 to 1990, she has taught organ at Union College and has been a visiting assistant professor of organ at the university.
The program will close with vocalists, viol players, and organist joining forces to perform Orlando Gibbons' stirring verse anthem, "Glorious and Powerful God."
The University of Nebraska's Scarlet and Cream Singers will present their annual Omaha concert at 7:30 p.m. April 17 at Millard North High School.
The show features song and dance routines ranging from Broadway tunes to patriotic, gospel and school spirit medleys.
The group, directed by Julie Enersen of Lincoln and sponsored by the Nebraska Alumni Association and the School of Music, includes 22 University of Nebraska students - 16 singers, four band members and two technicians. For 25 years, the singers have entertained audiences across the state and nation and military audiences abroad.
Tickets may be purchased in advance by calling (402) 472-2841, or at the door. Tickets are $8 for the general public, $6 for Alumni Association members and their guests and $3 for students and seniors.
Did you know that a Chinese dragon once "roamed" Morrill Hall? Have you heard about the NU graduate students who help Lincoln youngsters break the language barrier? Do you know what kind of fungus leaves a trail of slime where-ever it goes? If you'd seen a recent episode of "Life Nebraska Style" you could say "yes" to all these questions.
"Life Nebraska Style" is a weekly, half-hour television magazine that spotlights interesting people and activities at the University of Nebraska. It's jointly produced by UNL Public Relations and IANR's Communications and Information Technology's Electronic Media unit.
This week on "Life Nebraska Style":
"Life Nebraska Style" airs at various times throughout the state. Here's where you can find it in your area:
Alliance, Ch. 8, Mon. & Tues. 1 p.m.; Beatrice, Ch. 9, Tues. 5:30 p.m.; Broken Bow, Ch. 38, Tues. 2 p.m. and Friday 11 p.m.; Columbus, Ch. 8, Mon. through Fri. 10 a.m. & 7:30 p.m.; Crete, Ch. 10, Wed. 7 p.m.; Fremont, Ch. 19, Mon. 7 p.m. and Fri. 6:30 p.m.; Grand Island, Ch. 6, Mon. 2 p.m., Tues. 12:30 p.m., Wed. 10:30 a.m., Thurs. 5 p.m., Fri. 5:30 p.m., Sat. and Sun. 12:30 p.m.; Hastings, Ch. 3, Mon. 10 a.m. and Tues. 8 p.m.; Hebron, Ch. 20, Mon. through Fri. 6:30 p.m.; Ithaca, Ch. 13, Mon. noon, Thurs. 4 p.m. and Sat. 8 a.m.; Lincoln, Ch. 21, Mon. 11 a.m., Wed. 8 p.m., Fri. 4 p.m. and Sun. 6 p.m.; McCook, Ch. 17, Tues. 7 p.m.; Norfolk, Ch. 2, Tues. 1:30 p.m. and Wed. 10:30 a.m.; North Platte, Ch. 18, Tues. 6:30 and Thurs. 10 a.m.; Omaha, Ch. 23, Mon. 9:30 p.m.; West Point, Ch. 17, Wed. 11:30 a.m. and Fri. 3:30 p.m.
Winner of the Grand Prize, the International Critics Prize and the Ecumenical Prize at the 1997 Cannes Film Festival, Atom Egoyan's The Sweet Hereafter is about the human journey towards acceptance and grace, and the interwoven paths of innocence and evil, light and dark, that lead us there. A timely film that explores the nature of loss and healing, opening at the Mary Riepma Ross Film Theater on April 16, The Sweet Hereafter marks a watershed point in Egoyan's career and confirms him as a world-class filmmaker.
Adapted from the acclaimed novel by Russell Banks, nominated for two Academy Awards (Best Adapted Screenplay and Best Director), The Sweet Hereafter fuses a literary sense of detail and scope with richly cinematic storytelling. Ultimately, in confronting some of life's most difficult questions - what do you do, and how do you cope in the face of cataclysm that defies explanation or blame?
The Sweet Hereafter is showing on April 16 through 18 and on April 23 through 26. 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.
University Theatre will present Arcadia by Tom Stoppard at 8 p.m. on April 17, 18, 21-25 in the Howell Theatre.
Put your thinking cap on. University Theatre's next production is Tom Stoppard's Arcadia. Stoppard presents audiences with an impressive reworking of literary history including such varied subjects as mathematics scholarship, poetry, chaos theory and landscape design. First produced in London in 1993, Arcadia travels back and forth between the lives of the Coverly family in 1809 and a contemporary academic debate about their Derbyshire estate and Sidley Park and the clues it contains in the mystery of Lord Byron's alleged murder there of the crazy poet Chater.
In 1809, 13-year-old Thomasina Coverly, her tutor, Septimus Hodge, the poet Ezra Chater, Thomasina mother, Lady Croom and an offstage Lord Byron, interact on various intellectual end physical lovers. Thomasina is a mathematical prodigy who discovers both the Second Law of Thermodynamics - which decrees the eventual death of the universe through loss of heat - and the roots of chaos theory - which suggests there may be an alternative to the doomed-to-freeze script of the scientific determinists.
In the present, the Coverly descendant Valentine, struggles to work out a formula to account for changes in the grouse populations while his ancestral home is poked into by a couple of scholars; Hannah Jarvis, who is researching the mysterious hermit who once lived on the Coverly estate, and Bernard Nightingale, who is intent on proving Byron's connection with the Coverly family and the apparent dueling death of Chater.
Winner of the 1995 New York Drama Critics' Circle Award for Best Play and 1994 Olivier Award, the play is directed by Shirley Carr Mason.
For tickets, call the box office at 472-2073 from noon to 5 p.m. Monday through Friday or three hours prior to performance. Tickets are $6 students, $9 UNL faculty/staff/senior citizens, $10 others.
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For questions regarding the Scarlet's Web pages, contact:
dtaurins@unlinfo.unl.edu
(402) 472-8518, Fax: (402) 472-7825