Cashore Marionettes Are More Than Magical Puppets

The Cashore Marionettes are more than puppets. These engineering marvels are so amazingly lifelike that even adults are captivated by the charming vignettes the marionettes portray.

Founder Joseph Cashore's astonishing talents will mesmerize audiences at four performances, each beginning at 7 p.m., on Nov. 10, 11, 12 and 13 in the Johnny Carson Theater as part of the Lied Center for Performing Arts' season.

This event is part of the Lied Center's Family Series, which was created with the generous support of the Lied Foundation Trust for events which can be enjoyed by all at more affordable prices.

Each marionette contains as many as 36 strings, which puppeteers use to manipulate the figures with movements as subtle and precise as a curling toe or blinking eyelid. The quality of the movements and the content of the pieces create a powerful effect. Each vignette, set to well-chosen music, is exquisitely delicate. In one, a mother cradles her baby. In another, a dispirited old man rummages through trash bags and rags. A youngster conquers the trapeze and a lad flies a brand-new kite. The maestro coaxes sound from his violin. Each seemingly simple act becomes a virtuoso performance in the hands of the Cashore masters.

Joseph Cashore has won numerous awards for his artistry, including a 1996 Pew Fellowship for Performance Art and a grant from the Henson Foundation to promote the art form to adult audiences. Cashore builds his own marionettes by hand, developing a new control mechanism that allows him to move the puppet and endow each with a greater depth of expression than traditional marionettes.

Because of the nature of each performance, parents are urged to talk to their children about the importance of audience etiquette and mature comportment during each concert.

Tickets for the performance are $9. University of Nebraska-Lincoln, Nebraska Wesleyan University and Doane College students and youth 18 and younger with proper identification can purchase tickets for $4.

Call the Lied Box Office at 472-4747 or toll free, (800) 432-3231 for ticket availability. Box Office hours are 11 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. weekdays. The box office in the Johnny Carson Theater opens one hour prior to the performance.

Out of the Mouths of Babes: A Musical Journey for the 1990s

Documenting life in the '90s - bad hair days, minivan nightmares and biting social commentary - The Babes are four '90s women who write and sing about the joys and dilemmas of everyday life as encountered by Generation W (the one who birthed Generation X!).

The Babes bring their whimsical musical views of the world to the Kimball Hall for an 8 p.m. concert on Nov. 11, as part of the Lied Center for Performing Arts' season.

"Out of the Mouths of Babes . . . More Life According to the Babes" delivers a view of American culture squarely in the company of Molly Ivins and Anna Quindlan. It's contemporary women's humor without the edge ("You go, Girl!")

The Boston Globe called The Babes "The Traveling Oprah Winfreys." They will touch your heart with their humor. What other group could memorialize a vacation disaster with a tune titled "The Wreck of the Edna Fitzgerald"?

Sally Fingerett, Megon McDonough, Debi Smith and Camille West compose their own music, write their own lines, play their own instruments - and do their own hair and makeup. Together, these four take their audiences through a journey of the joys and dilemmas of love and everyday life: from motherhood to fashion faux pas, contemporary social issues, wacky TV talk shows and dinnertime telemarketing phone calls.

While their message is one of humor and fun, their medium is musical excellence.

All four are strong vocal talents whose roots lie in classical, country, folk, jazz and blue idioms. Their individual strengths meld into a charming evening of great music and rich drama steeped in humor and pathos. Clearly, these are four women, four friends, who have come together to include you in their own pajama party.

The public is invited to remain in the theater for a brief discussion and question and answer session with the artists.

Tickets for the performance are $24 and $20. 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, (800) 432-3231 for ticket availability. Box office hours are 11 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. weekdays. The box office in Kimball Hall opens one hour prior to the performance. For more information about this performance or other Lied Center programs, see the Lied Center's web page at http://www.unl.edu/lied.

American String Quartet Concert Nov. 7

The American String Quartet of New York City is featured on the second concert of the Lincoln Friends of Chamber Music season at 8 p.m. Nov. 7 at Sheldon Art Gallery. The ensemble comes to Lincoln as part of a demanding tour designed to celebrate its 25th anniversary year with concerts in all 50 U.S. states.

The Quartet, formed in 1974 by graduates of the Juilliard School, is Quartet in Residence at the Manhatten School of Music, the Taos School of Music, and the Aspen Music Festival. During its existence it has received first prize in the Coleman Competition and a Naumberg Award, as well as three Kennedy Center Friedheim Awards. As faculty ensemble of the Peabody Conservatory, the Quartet initiated the program of quartet studies there. In 1992 it was resident ensemble for the Van Cliburn Inter-national Piano Competition.

The Lincoln concert includes two classical works and one composition written this year: Mozart, Quartet in C Major, K.465 ("Dissonance"), Danielpour, Quartet No. 2, "Shadow Dances" (1998), and Beethoven, Quartet in F Major, Opus 59, Number 1.

Members of the American String Quartet are: Peter Winograd, violin, a solo violin Naumberg winner and international soloist; Laurie Carney, violin, the youngest student ever to be admitted into the Preparatory Division and the college level of the Juilliard School, who has taught at Mannes College, Peabody Conservatory, University of Nebraska, and Rice University; Daniel Avshalomov, viola, principal violist of the Juilliard School for an unprecedented five years, who served later in that capacity at the Spoleto, Tanglewood, and Aspen Festivals; and David Gerber, cello, chair of the string department at the Manhatten School of Music and faculty member at the Taos and Aspen Music Festivals. All of the musicians play historic instruments that date from the 16th, 17th and 18th centuries.

The concert will be preceded at 7:30 by a lecture by University of Nebraska-Lincoln faculty member David Neely, who will give special attention to the new Danielpour Quartet. Following the performance, a reception for audience and artists will be held in the Great Hall of Sheldon Gallery. Parking for persons with special needs is available in the lot north of the Gallery.

Tickets for the three remaining series concerts may be purchased at the door at a discounted price. Individual admission for each concert is $25 for adults and $5 for students For ticket information, call 435-5454.

Composer Libby Larsen to Guest Host On Nebraska Public Radio

One of America's most prolific and most performed living composers, Libby Larsen, will be a special guest Nov. 2 on the Nebraska Public Radio Network. Larsen's music has been commissioned and premiered internationally by major artists and orchestras. Her music is prized for its contemporary American, energetic, at times humorous and also deeply moving spirit. Larsen won a Grammy Award in 1994 for the CD, The Art of Arlene Auger.

Larsen will co-produce the entire day of programming on Nebraska Public Radio, from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. She has selected a wide range of music for the day. To illustrate the influence of American music on her own work, she has selected compositions by Bernstein, Copland and Barber, as well as music by stride pianists Meade Lux Lewis and Willie "The Lion" Smith To show how other composers have influenced her use of color she has selected music by Ravel, Rimsky-Korsakov and others. Each hour of the broadcast will also contain Larsen's own music.

Larsen is the composer for the upcoming world premiere of Eric Hermannson's Soul, an Opera Omaha production scheduled later in November at the Rose Theatre in Omaha. The opera is based on a Willa Cather's short story of the same name. Nebraska ETV will be taping Eric Hermannson's Soul for broadcast on the statewide television network early in 1999.

One of the highlights of the broadcast will be a live performance of her five-part song cycle "Songs from Letters" by Nebraska Wesleyan soprano and faculty member, Helen Pridmore. Larsen and Pridmore will discuss the piece and the interpretation before, during and after the performance.

According to Larsen, one of her goals for the broadcast will be to take listeners on her continuing journey to find "the American voice" in music. The first female composer to serve as resident composer with a major orchestra, Larsen has held residencies with the Minnesota Orchestra, the Charlotte Symphony and the Colorado Symphony.

Larsen is the latest in a series of "all-day" broadcasts by noted musicians and composers who have been invited to appear on NPRN. Past guests have included Pinchas Zuckerman, Gunther Schuller, Vladimir Feltsman, Miles Hoffman, Itzhak Perlman and UNL director of choral music, James Hejduk.

NPRN network manager Steve Robinson said, "Not only is Larsen's opera being premiered in Nebraska in November, not only is she one of the most brilliant, thoughtful and energetic composers at work in America today but she also happens to be intensely interested in the medium of radio and it's importance in the world of music. Taken together, I'm confident this all-day program is going to be one of the Network's greatest broadcasts of the year."

The Nebraska Public Radio Network broadcasts on the following frequencies: Alliance/91.1 FM; Bassett/90.3 FM; Chadron/91.9 FM; Columbus/90.3 FM; Falls City/91.7 FM; Harrison/89.5 FM; Hastings/Grand Island/89.1 FM; Lexington/88.7 FM; Lincoln/90.9 FM; Max/93.3 FM; McCook/92.7 FM; Merriman/91.5 FM; Norfolk/89.3 FM and North Platte/91.7 FM.

Curtis Photos at Great Plains Collection Through Dec. 12

An exhibition of 45 photographs, Edward S. Curtis's Photographs of Plains Indians, will be on view at the Great Plains Art Collection Nov. 3 through Dec. 12.

The images were selected from a complete set of Curtis' monumental work held by the university's libraries titled The North American Indian: A Series of Volumes Picturing and Describing the Indians of the United States and Alaska, 1907-1930. The collection is at 215 Love Library, 13th and R streets and is open 9:30 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday through Friday, 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Saturdays and 1:30 to 5 p.m. Sundays. There is no admission charge.

A symposium, "Edward Sheriff Curtis: Photographs of the Plains Indian Peoples," will be from 9 a.m. to noon Nov. 14. Professor Martha Sandweiss of Amherst College will speak on Curtis's achievement in the context of the history of the plains American Indians. Duane Niatum, a published poet and art historian, will look at the photographs as aesthetic creations rather than as anthropological texts. Professor Mick Gidley of the University of Leeds will discuss the changing perspectives on American Indians which Curtis held over the many years of the project.

The symposium is free and open to public, but reservations are recommended. Registration forms are available on the World Wide Web at http://www.unl.edu/plains/cu rtis.html, by e-mail at cgps@unlinfo.unl.edu or by telephone at (402) 472-3082.

The exhibition is sponsored by the Friends of the UNL Libraries, the Center for Great Plains Studies and the Nebraska State Historical Society. Additional support comes from James Stuart Jr. of Lincoln, the UNL Research Council, the Abel , Kimmel, Cooper, and University of Nebraska foundations, the Nebraska Humanities Council and the Institute of Ethnic Studies.

One-Hour Smile at Sheldon Great Hall

The Sheldon Memorial Art Gallery and Sculpture Garden will present One-Hour Smile, a video performance by Charley Friedman in the Great Hall through January 1999.

Sitting straight-faced in front of a video camera, Friedman breaks into a full smile, which he holds for more than 60 minutes. Throughout the one-hour, uncut and unedited "performance" Friedman's face reveals the full gamut of emotions, from pleasure to intense pain, all the while holding his "smile."

Friedman's performance, which he described as the "most painful ordeal of my life," offers an ironic perspective not only on human emotions as expressed through facial features but also on the nature of "art" itself in which the artist's medium is his own face, which he "molds" and "forms" into an expression of sheer will and intention, an activity that betrays the ease and spontaneity of the smile.

A native of Lincoln, who resides in Brooklyn, N.Y., Friedman received a BFA from Macalester College in St. Paul, Minn., and an MFA from the School of the Museum of Fine Arts/Tufts University, Boston, in 1996. Friedman recently completed a residency at the Bemis Center for Contemporary Art in Omaha, where he continued his exploration of installations and performances.

The Sheldon Gallery is committed to the acquisition, exhibition, and interpretation of American art in all media, including video art, which is often shown on a regular basis in the Great Hall.

ETV Premieres Documentary on Gambling Addicts

Learn how gambling can become a compulsive lifestyle for a growing number of Americans when "Can't Stop Gambling" premieres at 8 p.m. Nov. 11 on the statewide Nebraska ETV Network. This compelling documentary - filmed on location in Council Bluffs, Las Vegas, Atlantic City, New Orleans, New York City and Albuquerque - also airs on EduCable, the cable television service of the Nebraska ETV Network, at 6 p.m. Nov. 21, and at 9 p.m. Nov. 22.

As the number and location of casinos increase throughout the country - in the Great Plains, on riverboats and on Native American reservations - addiction specialists are seeing an explosion in the number of people who "Can't Stop Gambling." According to Eric Hollander of New York City's Mount Sinai School of Medicine, "We're seeing a change in the demographics We're seeing more women and younger individuals as well."

"For too long, we have treated this as sort of the addiction of greed," says Carol O'Hare, executive director of the Nevada Council on Problem Gambling and a recovering compulsive gambler. "We've tried to turn this into an argument about politics or religion, and in reality we're just talking about addiction. What these people are suffering from is not a lack of morals. They're suffering from a mental illness."

"Can't Stop Gambling" features men and women caught in gambling's grip and gives viewers an inside look at how casinos can affect gambling fever. Recovering compulsive gamblers, addiction specialists, psychologists, brain researchers and casino industry executives examine the problem, providing viewers with a look at the latest research and treatment available for compulsive gamblers. It also takes a look at gambling options readily available on the Internet.

Featured in this program is Matt Pelzer, former director of the Nebraska Compulsive Gambling Association, whose contributions to tackling compulsive gambling were extensive nationwide. Pelzer, who was from Bellevue, died before the completion of this documentary.

Statewide to Interview Governor-Elect on Nov. 6

The governor-elect of Nebraska - either Democrat Bill Hoppner or Republican Mike Johanns - will discuss the election and plans for his administration in an interview airing at 8 p.m. Nov. 6, on Statewide, the Nebraska ETV Network's weekly magazine series.

The series, which repeats at 7 p.m. Saturdays and at 1:30 p.m. Sundays, includes up-to-the-minute news reports from across the state and other features of interest.

Both Hoppner and Johanns have agreed to speak with Statewide and the Nebraska Public Radio Network's Nebraska Nightly series the day after the Nov. 3 election if they win. Viewers can expect to learn the winner's view of the race, including turning points, as well as the winner's top priorities.

Statewide will also recap other election results, including the controversial ballot initiatives that would limit tax increases and limit fees that local phone companies charge long-distance phone companies.

Capital Humane Society Director Visits Roger Welsch

Hear about efforts that animal lovers appreciate as Bob Downey, director of Lincoln's Capital Humane Society, appears on Roger Welsch & at 8:30 p.m. Nov. 6 on the statewide Nebraska ETV Network.

Welsch comments, "Someone once said, the only thing sadder than a boy without a dog, is a dog without a boy. Of course the same applies for girls. When it comes to unconditional love and friendship, you can't do better than a dog. This week I'll be talking to a man who sees more than his share of dogs, cats and other homeless animals. He's Bob Downey, director of the Capital Humane Society in Lincoln. Find out what makes his job so frustrating yet satisfying at the same time."

The weekly television series features humorist and author Welsch in discussion with a variety of Nebraskans - from authors and educators to historians and prominent citizens - whose contributions to the good life in Nebraska make for interesting conversation.

Outdoor Nebraska Airs Nov. 5 on NETV

A sandhills grouse trek, a target archer and a 17-year cicada are featured this week on Outdoor Nebraska. The outdoor news magazine series airs at 7:30 p.m. Nov. 5 on the statewide Nebraska ETV Network. The show repeats at 8 a.m. Nov. 7.

In the first feature, Outdoor Nebraska captures an exhausting trek over the dunes of Nebraska's sandhill country where three hunters and their dogs bag prairie chickens near Bartlett. The highlight of the hunt is captured when the birds are fried in the field with potatoes, peppers and other fixings for a mid-afternoon dinner.

The second feature displays the target archery talent of nine-year-old Erika Anshutz of Grand Island. This young multiple state and national age-group champion frequently outscores archers of any age.

In the "Wilderness Workshop" segment, viewers can expect to learn some wonderful new tips from outdoor expert Dick Turpin. The "Nature Walk" segment features University of Nebraska-Lincoln entomologist Acklund Jones introducing viewers to a 17-year cicada. The noisy insect species made its appearance this past spring and summer in southeast Nebraska. And this week's "Nebraskaland Moment" will feature a photo essay from Fort Kearny's 150th anniversary activities this past summer.