"Man of Many Masks" Michael Cooper To Present Enchanting Family Show at Lied Center

A gigantic nose, a six-foot fish, a clumsy giant - these are just a few of the incredible characters created by Michael Cooper in his one-man extravaganza coming to the Johnny Carson Theater at 7 p.m. Nov. 1-4. This performance is part of the Family series of the Lied Center for Performing Arts' 10th anniversary season.

Cooper, aided by exquisite masks that he crafts himself, has created a magnificent series of skits filled with wonder, courage and lots of humor. Some of the stories Cooper shares are taken from classics such as Aesop's Fables, but most are taken from his own unique experiences and creative imagination. These tales are intended for all ages, from children to adults who wish to recapture a little piece of their youth.

Combined with physical movements that range from subtle gestures and zany stilt-dancing, Cooper's handcrafted masks are essential to creating his fanciful characters and telling their stories - the result is a sort of "moving sculpture." These masks, which can take up to 300 hours to create, are made of clay and hardened cloth. Next to entertaining his audience, Cooper's goal is to demystify the arts for young and old alike and to prove that anyone is capable of developing artistic skill. Audience participation is a large part of every Michael Cooper performance.

Tickets for this performance are $10. University of Nebraska-Lincoln, Nebraska Wesleyan University and Doane College students, and youths 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. The box office in the Johnny Carson Theater opens one hour prior to the performance. Out of consideration for the artists and patrons, no late seating will be allowed.

An Evening at Club 47 Brings Folk to Lied

Folk music legends and rising young stars will appear together at 8 p.m. Nov. 5 at the Lied Center for Performing Arts for An Evening at Club 47.

The evening features Tom Rush and his guests Janis Ian, Livingston Taylor and Vance Gilbert.

Once a coffee house in Cambridge, Mass., Club 47 was a showcase for legendary artists and the place where '60s folk stars such as Joan Baez and Bob Dylan got their start. Today, Club 47 is a concert series organized by Rush to keep alive the folk music tradition.

Club 47 concerts have been held in venues all over the United States, including the Kennedy Center and Carnegie Hall. Musicians who have toured as a part of Club 47 include Bonnie Raitt, Emmylou Harris, Alison Krauss and Shawn Colvin.

Rush and his Club 47 concerts try to bring alive the rich history of this music as well as its bright future.

Rush began his musical career in the early '60s while a student at Harvard. Playing the coffee house circuit in the Boston area, Rush made a name for himself along with other aspiring musicians such as Joni Mitchell and Judy Collins. Signed by a record label in 1965, Rush began to receive national recognition, most noticeably for his album, The Circle Game.

After taking time away from the music business in the '70s, Rush returned in 1981 not only to reestablish his own career, but to create a concert series, Club 47.

Rush is recognized and admired for his ability to interpret wonderful songs by other artists as well as writing his own expressive lyrics. His sound is punctuated by a distinctive guitar style, friendly voice and comfortable humor. His talent has not only won him legions of fans throughout the world, but among those who credit Rush as a musical influence are James Taylor and Garth Brooks.

Thirty years after she emerged as a child prodigy with the controversial song, "Society's Child," Janis Ian keeps writing and performing her songs with as much passion and insight as ever. Her gifts have led to the unique distinction of being nominated for a Grammy Award in each of the last four decades.

Besides writing songs for other artists including Roberta Flack's "Jesse" and Amy Grant's "What About the Love," Ian recently released an album of new material titled Hunger. This new album includes several social commentary songs, an Ian trademark. Those familiar with Ian's talents as a composer and singer may be surprised to learn that she is also an accomplished instrumentalist on the guitar and piano.

Throughout his 28-year recording career that also began in the coffee houses of Boston, Livingston Taylor has made a name for himself with his sweet voice, wry humor, positive lyrics and memorable songs. While the comparisons to brother James Taylor have been repeated often, Taylor doesn't seem to mind and keeps writing and performing the style of music that makes him happy. Among Taylor's most recognizable songs are "I Will Be in Love with You," "I'll Come Running" and "First Time Love." In addition to touring with Club 47 and working on his own music, Taylor is a professor at the Berklee College of Music in Boston.

Among the other artists in the Club 47 lineup, Vance Gilbert may be the most contemporary in sound. Noted as a powerful songwriter, Gilbert also lets his passion spill over into his singing and guitar-playing. His lyrics are intelligent and edgy, and Gilbert translates these songs into spellbinding live shows. As Gilbert states, "Unbridled, go-for-broke performances. This is what I've always wanted."

Gilbert exploded on the Boston music scene in the early '90s. His breathtaking live shows not only earned him recognition in Boston, but in New York and other cities, which led to a spot as opening act on a Shawn Colvin tour. Gilbert has only moved forward since and his third album, 1998's Shaking Off Gravity, has won him critical acclaim and many new fans.

Tickets for this performance are $27, $23 and $19. University of Nebraska-Lincoln, Nebraska Wesleyan University and Doane College students as well as youths 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.

Operatic O Pioneers! to Premiere at UNL Nov. 12

O Pioneers!, Willa Cather's epic novel of life on the Nebraska prairie 100 years ago, will come to life on the Kimball Hall stage at 8 p.m. Nov. 12 and 3 p.m. Nov. 14.

The world premiere opera is by Tyler White, UNL's director of Orchestral Activities. Commissioned by the University of Nebraska School of Music, the production represents the first operatic treatment of a full-length Cather novel.

O Pioneers! is uniquely suited among Cather's works for this distinction since it is not only one of Cather's best-loved works but also her first novel set in Nebraska and the first of her works to gain lasting fame.

O Pioneers! centers on the story of Alexandra Bergson, the daughter of Swedish immigrants struggling to farm the then-barren plains of southern Nebraska. Her belief in the power and beauty of her new country enables her to awaken the land's fruitfulness, but her success with the land may come at the cost of love and family. Crossing Alexandra's story is that of her younger brother, Emil, and his hopeless illicit love for the wife of a neighboring farmer. Overarching both stories is the brooding presence of the land itself and its wind-swept spaces.

White's musical treatment of the story stresses its lyricism and drama. Working in an expansive neo-Romantic style, the composer freely intersperses passages of spoken dialogue and symphonic interludes with the familiar operatic forms of aria, ensemble and recitative.

The cast for the production is drawn from graduate and undergraduate music students at UNL; stage direction is by William Shomos, director of Opera at UNL, and set design is by Richard Durst, dean of the UNL College of Fine and Performing Arts. The composer will conduct the all-student University Opera Orchestra.

White has been interested in Cather's works since he, like Cather herself, moved to the Great Plains as a child. A native of Atlanta, Ga., raised in Manhattan, Kan., White was educated at the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill and Cornell University. He has received commissions for the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra, Cleveland Chamber Symphony, the St. Luke's Trio, and other ensembles, as well as numerous prizes and other awards. In 1997, his cello concerto Threnos (William Schuman in memoriam) became the first work by a Nebraskan to win the Omaha Symphony Guild International New Music Competition.

Tickets are $14 for adults and $7 for students and children. For more information, contact the Lied Center Box Office, 472-4747.

Webber Musical Cats on Prowl at Lied Center

The record-breaking musical, Cats, will bring its magical special effects, innovative costumes, spectacular scenery, energetic dancing and amazing music back to Lincoln as part of the Lied Center for Performing Arts' 10th anniversary season. Cats is scheduled for two remaining performances at 8 p.m. Oct. 28 and 29.

Since Cats opened in London in May 1981, audiences around the world have fallen in love with the story of these two-legged felines with such names as Rum Tum Tugger, Grizabella and Old Deuteronomy. In addition to the choreography and performances, composer Andrew Lloyd Webber's musical score is spellbinding, in particular the show-stopping "Memory."

Cats is based on a book of children's poems by famed author T.S. Eliot. His book, "Old Possum's Book of Practical Cats," was considered one of his lesser works by his peers, but was cherished by children around the world for its whimsical verse. Among those touched by these "practical cats" was Andrew Lloyd Webber, who would later turn Eliot's verse into one of the best-loved musicals in history.

In June 1997 Cats become the longest-running musical in Broadway history and has set records in many other categories as well. In November 1997, the Fourth National Touring Company of Cats set a record for longest-running individual touring company at 10 years, six months and two weeks - and they're still going strong. The combined touring companies of Cats broke the record for longest continuously touring show several years before.

Cats may be Andrew Lloyd Webber's best-known musical, but it is certainly not his only successful production. Considered one of the greatest theatrical composers of our time, Lloyd Webber has also brought to the stage such favorites as Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat, Jesus Christ Superstar and The Phantom of the Opera. Lloyd Webber has been the recipient of four Tony Awards, four Drama Desk Awards and three Grammys.

Thomas Sterns Eliot, although considered an English poet, was born in St. Louis, Mo., in 1888. He often wrote serious poetry or social criticisms and was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1948. But that doesn't mean Eliot was always serious, as Old Possum's Book of Practical Cats proves.

Eliot began writing the poems collected in Practical Cats for birthdays and special occasions to entertain his friends and godchildren. Each poem is a definition of a particular kind of cat and their unique personalities, but Eliot also appears to poke fun at the cats' owners and English society. Even in writing children's verse, Eliot couldn't resist a little social commentary. In 1983 Eliot was recognized with a posthumous Tony Award for the book of the musical Cats.

As part of the Lied Center's ongoing education programming, pre-performance talks will be held in the Lied's Steinhart Room 55 minutes and 30 minutes prior to curtain.

Tickets for this performance are $45, $41 and $37. University of Nebraska-Lincoln, Nebraska Wesleyan University and Doane College students as well as youth 18 and younger, with proper identification, can purchase tickets for $40, $36 and $32.

Call the Lied box office at 472-4747 or toll free, (800) 432-3231 for ticket availability.

Friends Of Hillestad Gallery Plan Open House Oct. 31

The Friends of the Robert Hillestad Textile Gallery will hold an open house from 2-5 p.m. Oct. 31 at the Leung residence, 1953 B St.

The open house will feature David Baird of Ethnofacts, Lawrence, Kan. North African artifacts, including textiles, masks, jewelry, boxes, rugs and pillows, will be available for purchase. A percentage of the day's proceeds will go to support the Friends.

"Material Explorations: Visual Literacy Faculty Exhibition," is on display at the Robert Hillestad Textile Gallery Oct. 27 to Nov. 17.

The exhibit by UNL faculty in Architecture, Art and Art History and Textiles, Clothing and Design, will feature work by Dana Fritz, Martha Horvay, Elizabeth Ingraham, Vince Quevedo, Brian Rex and Sandra Williams.

Theatrix Stages Death and The Maiden

Death and the Maiden, a play by Ariel Dorfman, will open the Fall Semester 1999 season of UNL Theatre's Theatrix program. Directed by undergraduate student Gregory Peters, performances are at 7:30 p.m. Nov. 4, 5 and 6 in the Studio Theatre, third floor Temple Building.

Admission is $4 at the door. Information may be obtained by calling the UNL Theatre Box Office at 472-2073.

Action in the play centers on an unarmed country, like the author's native Chile, emerging from a totalitarian dictatorship, exploring the after-effects of repression on the hearts and souls.

The production features Sandy Lemen, Michael Dragen and Jay Ryan The ensemble is directed by senior theatre performance major Gregory Peters.

Theatrix is a student-producing organization of the Department of Theatre Arts at UNL.

Harry Belafonte Reschedules For March 25

Harry Belafonte has rescheduled his performance for 8 p.m. March 25, 2000, at the Lied Center for Performing Arts. The program was originally planned for Sept. 22.

Tickets for the original Belafonte performance will he honored for the rescheduled date. Tickets may also be returned to the Lied Center box office by Dec. 1, for a refund or an exchange for another Lied Center event. The refund process takes four to six weeks.

For more information, call the Lied Center box office at 1-800-432-3231 or 472-4747.