Hal Holbrook brings his acclaimed one-man show "Mark Twain Tonight" to the Lied Center on April 21 and 22. Both shows begin at 8 p.m., and tickets remain available at the Lied Center box office. (Photo: Richard Wright)
Author Mark Twain died on April 21, 1910. Eighty-eight years later, he comes alive in Lincoln as actor Hal Holbrook performs his acclaimed one-man show "Mark Twain Tonight!"
Holbrook presents two performances, both beginning at 8 p.m. on April 21 and April 22, at the Lied Center for Performing Arts.
Mark Twain, the pen name of Samuel Langhorne Clemens, is undeniably America's "most American" author. His novels and essays are the stuff of high school and college literature courses, as well as popular culture. His satire and commentary on American life ring as true today as they did a century ago.
Holbrook has played a part in keeping Twain's name and fame alive. A distinguished actor whose stage, film and television performances have been praised by critics and beloved by audiences, Holbrook developed his Twain characterization in 1948. He and his first wife created a two-person show playing characters from Shakespeare to Twain; following their graduation from Denison University, the pair toured the show for six months. His first solo appearance as Twain occurred in 1954, when, as an out-of-work actor in New York, he returned to the Twain performances to scrape out a living.
Soon, Holbrook had a promising acting career in TV soap operas, but he continued to develop the Twain character, creating two hours of material based on Twain's writings. In 1959, he debuted a Twain performance in an off-Broadway theater. Critics raved. But after six months, he longed to move on.
He worked on television and in other theatrical shows, but the Twain character had enduring appeal. A 1966 Broadway revival won Tony and Drama Critic's Circle awards; a TV special earned an Emmy nomination.
Holbrook distinguished himself in other acting productions and venues, particularly television and films. He earned Emmy awards for his portrayal of Cmdr. Lloyd Bucher in "Pueblo" in 1974; appeared in the series "The Senator" and "Sandburg's Lincoln" and had continuing roles in "Designing Women" and "Evening Shade."
But he has never been able to completely quit Mark Twain, and probably never will. The popular attraction is one of the longest-running and most-beloved shows in theater history.
Holbrook adds to his Twain material annually, editing and changing it to fit the times. After more than 1,800 shows, mostly one-righters, he has committed more than 12 hours of Twain material to memory. He has no set show - he makes up the program as he goes along.
He embodies what Americans now believe is the "real" Mark Twain; the performance is so natural, so easy, so accurate, that one is left believing that "rumors of Mr. Twain's death are greatly exaggerated."
Pre-performance talks, part of the Lied Center's ongoing education programming, begin in the Lied's Steinhart Room 55 minutes and 30 minutes prior to curtain. Stephen Behrendt, George Holmes Professor of English at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, will deliver the talks.
Tickets for the performance are $30, $26 and $22. University of Nebraska-Lincoln, Nebraska Wesleyan University and Doane College students and youth 18 and younger with proper identification can purchase tickets for half-price.
Call the Lied Box Office at 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. For more information about this performance or other Lied Center programs, see the Lied Center's web page at <http://www.unl.edu/lied>.
Lied Center programming is supported by the Friends of Lied and grants from the National Endowment for the Arts, a federal agency; the Mid-America Arts Alliance; and the Nebraska Arts Council. All events in the Lied Center are made possible entirely or in part by the Lied Performance Fund, which has been established in memory of Ernst F. Lied and his parents, Ernst M. and Ida K. Lied.
Contemporary Quilts from the International Quilt Study Center's collection will be displayed April 3 to Sept. 27 at the Textile Museum, 2320 S St. NW, Washington, D.C.
The collection, housed at the University of Nebraska, is composed of more than 950 antique and contemporary quilts. The Textile Museum show features 27 contemporary art quilts from the collection.
Art quilts are built upon past quilt traditions but represent a new direction in quiltmaking. More than simple bedcovers, quilts have become an artform in which needle, thread and fabric expresses the artists' ideas. Traditional quilt blocks have been expanded or diminished in size or reinterpreted, or even abandoned in art quilts. Found objects, machine stitching, paint and other media have been embraced by artists who incorporated new techniques into their works.
Ardis and Robert James began collecting quilts in 1979 and began adding contemporary art quilts to their collection of antique quilts in 1983. This collection, donated to NU in 1997, forms the core of the International Quilt Study Collection. Their goal is to create a broadly based quilt collection encompassing museum quality quilts from all time periods.
They donated their collection to the University of Nebraska in 1997.
To view the collection, check the web site at http://www.ianr.un l.edu/tcd/quilts/homepage.htm.
Karen Janovy, curator of education at the Sheldon Memorial Art Gallery and Sculpture Garden, was the only professional art museum educator participating in the recent National Arts Education Consortium at the Getty Education Institute for the Arts in Los Angeles. The four-day invitational meeting for leaders in the "Transforming Education Through the Arts Challenge" project, was attended by school principals, art teacher mentors from each of the only36 public schools, nationwide, and the regional institute directors from each of the six states involved in the national educational reform effort.
The NAEC, primarily through funding from The Walter H. Annenberg Foundation and the J. Paul Getty Trust, has embarked on a project designed to assist schools committed to using comprehensive approaches to arts education and whole-school reform to improve student achievement. The main goal of this national initiative is to demonstrate the ways in which the power of the arts can transform the learning environment in our nation's schools and the lives of our students and teachers.
Witness the "King of Latin Music" in action on this week's Nebraska Showcase when "Lied Presents Tito Puente" airs at 9 p.m. April 24 on the statewide Nebraska ETV network.
As the most noted and cherished American celebrity of Latin descent alive today, master percussionist Tito Puente and his 13-member band perform noted hits from his 50-year career - including "Oye Como Va," the hit made famous by Carlos Santana which stimulated renewed worldwide interest in Latin jazz music - in this program taped last Jan. 31 at the Lied Center for Performing Arts.
Four-time Grammy Award winner Puente, previously honored with a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame and featured in the film The Mambo Kings, performs hits from the motion picture.
Joey Gulizia, a Nebraska jazz percussionist, interviews Puente during the intermission.
"Lied Presents Tito Puente" is a production of the University of Nebraska-Lincoln Television Cultural Affairs Unit for broadcast on Nebraska ETV. Joel Geyer is producer/director of the program.
This week marks the final episode of the season for Outdoor Nebraska . The outdoor news magazine series airs on the statewide Nebraska ETV Network at 7:30 p.m. April 23 and repeats at 8 a.m. April 25.
The first feature is a special video presentation about the ethical issues surrounding hunting. The video, titled Fair Chase, explores the reasons people hunt. The second feature is on Fort Kearny State Historical Park, which celebrates its 150-year anniversary this summer.
In the "Wilderness Workshop" segment, outdoor expert Dick Turpin shows viewers how to find fishing bait at the local grocery store. In the "Nature Walk" segment, viewers will learn about the sly red fox. And this week's "Nebraskaland Moment" will feature a day at a kid's fishing derby in North Platte.
Nebraska-born author and professor Susanne George is this week's guest on Roger Welsch &, when the interview series airs at 8:30 p.m. April 24 on the statewide Nebraska ETV Network.
Welsch notes, "Every so often you come across a person from history who is so interesting you're surprised that you've never heard about them before. That's the case with Kate Cleary, a very talented and compelling Nebraska writer from the 19th century. We can thank another talented Nebraska writer, Susanne George, for bringing her to our attention. Susanne is a professor of English at the University of Nebraska at Kearney, originally from Minden, and sheíll tell us more about Kate Cleary, this week."
George's current work, Kate M. Cleary, A Gallant Lady: A Literary Biography with Selected Works, was published in 1997 by the University of Nebraska Press. Among her other published books and poems are The Adventures of the Woman Homesteader: The Life and Letters of Elinore Pruitt Stewart. She is a Fellow of the Center for Great Plains Studies, is on the Board of Directors for the Willa Cather Pioneer Memorial and Education Foundation and is a past president of the Western Literature Association. As a scholar for the Nebraska Humanities Speaker's Bureau, she has given numerous presentations in Nebraska, Kansas and Wyoming.
Nebraska's beef industry, still recoiling from consumer concerns about meat safety, is examining sanitation at ranches where cattle are raised and feedlots where they are fattened for slaughter, according to a "Perspectives" segment airing at 8 p.m. April 24 on Statewide, the Nebraska ETV Network's weekly magazine series.
The series, which repeats Saturday at 7 p.m. and Sunday at 1:30 p.m., also provides up-to-the-minute news reports from across the state and other features of interest.
Recent discoveries of bacteria-contaminated beef have triggered U.S. Department of Agriculture investigations of plants where cattle are killed, butchered and packaged. But the beef industry, which is anxious to reassure consumers of beef safety, is taking the investigation further, reports Statewide correspondent Brad Penner. His report includes an interview with cattleman Alan Janzen of Henderson, a member of a new beef industry safety group that is conducting research to identify possible health and sanitation problems. Penner also speaks with researchers at the UNL who are anxious to expand their work to track and control E-coli bacteria on ranches and at feedlots.
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