PAT HAZELL (right) reclines among loaves of puff bread. He likes it that way.

Pat Hazell Revisits Childhood in The Wonder Bread Years

Comedian Pat Hazell remembers a simpler time. A time when green army men ruled, Etch-A-Sketch was king and Kool-Aid stands were big business.

Take a nostalgic field trip with Hazell's one-man show (and tell), The Wonder Bread Years, coming Sept. 8, 9, 10 and 12 to the Johnny Carson Theater for six performances as part of the Lied Center for Performing Arts' season. Performance times are 8 p.m. on Sept. 8 and 9, 7 and 9 p.m. on Sept. 10, and 2 and 6 p.m. on Sept. 12.

A native of Omaha, Pat Hazell caught the attention of Jerry Seinfeld when they were both performing at the Comedy & Magic Club in Los Angeles in 1986. Hazell then toured as Seinfeld's opening act. Hazell was a writer on Seinfeld's Emmy award-winning television show and has also written for "Lois and Clark: The New Adventures of Superman," "Love and War" and Showtime's "Aspen Comedy Special." Hazell's comedy play Bunk Bed Brothers was developed into the television show, "American Pie," which was a mid-season replacement series. Hazell has also made seven appearances on "The Tonight Show." He can currently be seen in advertising for Baker's Supermarkets.

Tickets for the performance are $22. UNL, Nebraska Wesleyan University and Doane College students as well as youth 18 and younger, with proper identification, can purchase tickets for half-price. Out of consideration for the artist and patrons, no late seating will be allowed.

Call the Lied box office at 472-4747 or toll free, (800) 432-3231 for ticket availability. The box office in Johnny Carson Theater opens one hour prior to the performance.

WHAT BEGINS as a leisurely boat ride for Donna De Angelo (Mary Elizabeth Mastrantonio), Joe Gastineau (David Straithairn) and Noelle De Angelo (Vanessa Martinez) turns into a dangerous fight for survival in Limbo, now playing at the Mary Ripma Ross Film Theater.

Ross Fall Film Schedule Starts Off With Limbo

Writer-director John Sayles' Return of the Secaucus Seven helped launch the current American independent film movement in the early 1980s, and now his latest film, Limbo, opening at the Mary Riepma Ross Film Theater on Sept. 2, reminds us what true independence means.

Moving and compassionate but also unsettling and curiously structured, Limbo, like many of Sayles' films, insists on satisfactions that branch out beyond the conventional. If many recent independent films have seemed wearily formulaic, Limbo takes another path altogether, ebbing and flowing in eccentric and unexpected ways.

Alaska is a land rich with possibilities and second chances. Against the backdrop of this vast, challenging wilderness, Limbo tells the story of people trying to reinvent themselves in America's last frontier. Set in the rugged islands of Southeastern Alaska, Limbo is the story of Joe Gastineau (David Strathairn), a fisherman traumatized by an accident at sea years before. Into Joe's land-locked life comes singer Donna de Angelo (Mary Elizabeth Mastrantonio) and her disaffected daughter Noelle (Vanessa Martinez). When Joe's fast-talking half-brother Bobby (Casey Siemaszko) returns to town and asks Joe for a favor, the lives of the three characters are forever altered.

"I often come up with stories that are in search of places," says Sayles. "In the case of Passion Fish, I had the idea of the two women for years and years. But until I went to Southwest Louisiana, Cajun country, it didn't connect.

"With , I'd been thinking for a long time about people who, as they get old and are not hooked up in a long-term relationship, have more and more baggage to bring with them. It may be children. It may be standards that they have now that they didn't have in their 20s. I wonder about how a person starts from scratch when he or she is over 30."

The remoteness and isolation were part of what attracted Sayles to the region.

"I think this is a place that draws things out of you that other places don't," relates Sayles. "Twenty minutes from the state capitol building you're in wilderness. You have to worry about bears. You have to worry about drowning. You have to worry about weather conditions that can kill you. There are many people here who make their living facing these elements."

Limbo is showing on Sept. 2 through 5 and on Sept. 9 through 12. Screenings are at 7 and 9:15 p.m. on Thursdays and Fridays; at 1, 3:15, 7 and 9:15 on Saturdays; and at 2:30, 4:45, 7 and 9:15 p.m. on Sundays. Admission is $6.50 for adults and $4.50 for students (with I.D.), senior citizens, children and members of the Friends of the Mary Riepma Ross Film Theater.

Sept. 12 Piano Gala Dedicates New Steinway Instrument

The School of Music presents a Piano Gala at 8 p.m. Sept. 12 in Kimball Recital Hall. Admission is free.

The Piano Gala will recognize current and former piano faculty members at the School of Music and dedicate the new Steinway piano in Kimball Recital Hall. The program will feature works by Beethoven, Rachmaninoff, Brahms, Bach, Liszt, Chopin, Schumann, and the world premiere of "Tentacles" a piece for piano 8 hands by NU's Composer-in-Residence, Randall Snyder.

The Piano Gala will include performances by Paul Barnes, Ann Chang-Barnes, Mark Clinton, Harvey Hinshaw, Larry Lusk and Nicole Narboni.

Barnes is assistant professor of piano and co-chair of the piano area at the School of Music. A passionate champion of American music, Barnes recently performed throughout Russia in a program featuring contemporary American composers. He will perform the piano works of Joan Tower and other American composers in Minneapolis at the 2000 Music Teachers National Association Convention. Inspired by the aesthetic challenge of minimalism, Barnes has given several world premier performances of works by Philip Glass. Barnes will perform the three-piano version of Glass's opera Les Enfants Terribles with Glass and Barnes' wife Ann Chang-Barnes in the fall of 2000. Paul Barnes is a Boesendorfer Artist.

Chang-Barnes is a lecturer at the NU School of Music. Chang-Barnes has performed numerous times with the Lima Symphony Orchestra, as well as the Indiana University Orchestra and the Chicago Civic Orchestra. As a solo pianist, Chang-Barnes was the winner of a national audition in 1983, and was subsequently invited to perform at the Ravinia Music Festival where she received coachings by world renowned pianists Paul Badura-Skoda, Misha Dichter and Menahem Pressler.

Clinton is assistant professor of piano and co-chair of the piano area at the School of Music. This critically acclaimed pianist has garnered numerous prizes at such prestigious international competitions as the 1987 William Kapell International Piano Competition and the 1991 Joanna Hodges Piano Competition. He has been featured on numerous radio and television broadcasts, including National Public Radio's Performance Today and Monitor Radio. Clinton is a Steinway artist.

Hinshaw, professor emeritus of piano, served more than 30 years on the piano faculty and instituted the harpsichord program at the School of Music. Having won recognition in piano and harpsichord competitions and having gained critical acclaim throughout the United States and Canada, his foremost distinction has been as an interpreter of the music of Charles Ives. Remarking on Hinshaw's Ives-centennial performance of the two immensely difficult piano sonatas in 1974, Donal Henahan wrote in the New York Times, "(Hinshaw is). . . a pianist of unchallengeable credentials and an artist of considerable imagination.."

Lusk is professor emeritus of piano and former dean of the College of Fine and Performing Arts. He received his bachelor of music degree with honors from Dennison University (Ohio) and his master of music degree from the University of Wisconsin. He served on the board of directors of the Lincoln Symphony Orchestra, Lincoln Arts Council, Nebraska Arts Council and is former president of both the Lincoln Symphony Orchestra Association and the Lincoln Arts Council. Lusk has performed numerous recitals across the United States including several appearances on television and in the Lincoln Center in New York City.

Narboni is senior lecturer in piano at the NU School of Music. She is frequently heard in recital and as guest soloist with orchestras throughout the US. Her performances have been broadcast on WQXR (New York), WGMS (Washington), and National Public Radio's Performance Today. Narboni is a Steinway artist.

Moeser 1st Guest on New ETV Series TONIGHT

Q+A, a new interview series on the statewide Nebraska ETV Network, will feature a conversation with University of Nebraska-Lincoln Chancellor James Moeser when it premieres at 7 p.m. Sept. 2.

Ward Jacobson, well-known talk-show host on Lincoln's KFOR-AM commercial radio station, will host the weekly series.

Q+A is also seen at 3:30 p.m. Sept. 5 and at 8 a.m. Sept. 7 on EduCable.

"Moeser is an excellent example of the type of guests who will appear on Q+A," said Jacobson. "He's articulate, interesting and very newsworthy." Topics that Moeser may address include the effort to keep Nebraska students from leaving the state, his campaign against drinking on campus and the recent decision to help finance a new baseball stadium next to the UNL campus.

Q+A will feature newsmakers of state, regional, national and international interest, said Bill Kelly, senior producer for Public Affairs at UNL Television.

Some editions of Q+A will feature interviews with speakers appearing as part of the Thompson Lecture Series at UNL and the ABC Breakfast Lecture Series at the University of Nebraska at Omaha.

Some episodes of the series will be taped and some will be broadcast live, Kelly said. In some cases, viewers will be able to phone into live shows and ask questions of the guest.

Hagel's Return to Vietnam Featured on Statewide

Tune in at 8 p.m. Sept. 10 when Statewide, the Nebraska ETV Network's weekly magazine series, reports on U.S. Sen. Chuck Hagel's recent trip to Vietnam.

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. Statewide is also seen at 3 p.m. Sept. 12 on EduCable.

Statewide correspondent Brad Penner, videographer Ralph Hammack and sound engineer Jim Lenertz recently accompanied Hagel and his brother, Tom, to Vietnam where the two brothers served side by side. The Hagels' recent visit included trips to several of the battlefields where they fought, including the site of a battle where they were both wounded. "Their recollections provide a stunning picture of what it was like to fight in Vietnam," Penner says.

Sen. Hagel also spoke at the opening of the new U.S. consulate in Ho Chi Minh City, formerly Saigon. He speaks with Penner about focusing on the future relationship between the United States and Vietnam.

Nebraska ETV will also produce a half-hour documentary about the trip. It is tentatively scheduled for broadcast on Veteran's Day, at 7 p.m., Nov. 11.

Dragon Tales Premieres For Pre-School Audience

Dragon Tales, a new animated adventure series for pre-school children, premieres at noon Sept. 6 on the statewide Nebraska ETV Network. The weekday series features six-year-old Emmy and her four-year-old brother Max and the dragons they meet in Dragon Land. Hand-painted backgrounds and original music combine to create a colorful and magical place with Stickleback Mountains, Singing Springs and Whispering Woods.

In the course of their adventures the children and their dragon friends help each other face fears and learn new ways to deal with problems. Although the setting is the stuff of fantasies, the challenges they face- making friends, coping with the fear of the dark, learning new skills- will certainly be familiar to young children. The series is aimed at three- to six-year-olds who will easily identify with Emmy, Max and the other characters including Ord, Cassie, Quetzal and a two-headed brother and sister dragon named Zak and Wheezie.

Each half-hour of Dragon Tales is divided into two captivating 12-minute adventures linked by Dragon Tunes, a music video segment led by the dragons and designed to encourage audience participation. The rousing beat and catchy lyrics are sure to have every child dancing, clapping and singing along.

Dragon Tales is a co-production of Children's Television Workshop, the creators of Sesame Street, and television studio Columbia TriStar Television Group.

Q+A Interview Series Features Hispanic Publisher

Learn more about Nebraska's Hispanic community - the state's fastest growing ethnic group - when Manny Calderon, publisher of Prensa Latina, appears at 7 p.m. Sept. 9 on Q+A on the statewide Nebraska ETV Network.

Q+A is also seen at 3:30 p.m. Sept. 12 and at 8 a.m. Sept. 14 on EduCable.

Calderon's Spanish-language weekly newspaper provides a valuable service to the growing number of Hispanics living and working in central and western Nebraska. The Grand Island paper provides information about the region's Hispanic communities that is often unavailable in English-language news media. Prensa Latina also helps the newcomers (including immigrants from Mexico and Latin America) to acclimate to their new home towns.