UNL Theatre Performing at Regional Festival

For the second consecutive year, the theatre department has been invited to perform at the regional finals of the Kennedy Center/American College Theatre Festival.

UNL actors will perform Three Sisters at the Region Five festival Jan. 21 in Sioux Falls, S.D.,

The performance in an 1,800-seat space, Washington Pavilion Great Hall, begins at 7:30 p.m.

The play includes a cast of 14 actors, four designers, a technical crew of 11 and is directed by Virginia Ness Ray, visiting professor.

About 900 productions are entered into the national competition and about 50 are selected to be performed at the eight regional festivals. Of 63 shows entered in Region Five, seven were selected for performance. Five or six shows are invited to the national festival, which occurs in April at the Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C.

Colorado, Iowa, Kansas, Minnesota, Missouri, Nebraska, North Dakota, and South Dakota comprise Region Five. The other participants in this year's festival are University of Missouri, University of Kansas, Wichita State University, University of North Dakota, Colorado College, Simpson College and UNL.

The play, a classic by Anton Chekov, was performed in November at Howell Theatre. It was the thesis project for five of the actors in the UNL Professional Actor Training program leading to a master's of fine arts in acting.

Eleven UNL students will participate in Irene Ryan Scholarship competition for regional and national scholarships funded by the late actor who won fame on the Beverly Hillbillies TV show.

UNL students also will participate in a showcase of student writing, featuring new plays from the Nebraska Masquers' New Play Festival.

Match Play Selected as 'Nebraska Premieres' Production

A play by UNL alumnus William McCleery will be produced as the 2000 Nebraska Premieres production.

The announcement was made by the Nebraska Repertory Theatre and UNL University Theatre in collaboration with the Nebraska Arts Council.

Match Play, set in a contemporary newspaper publisher's office, "somewhere west of Chicago," will be directed by visiting professor Ken McCulough. Performances will be March 10 and 11 and will continue March 21-25 in the Studio Theatre. A student preview will be March 9. All performances will be at 7:30 p.m.

The three-character play centering around the newspaper business, but intertwined with a love story, stars Sasha Dobson and Kristopher Gordon Kling, both members of UNL's Professional Actor Training Program, and Joel Story, local Equity actor.

"The Journal," a family newspaper, is floundering and needs financial backing for new equipment before the competition from the local corporate-owned paper puts it out of business. Although "The Journal" is of superior quality and serves the community well, it cannot compete with the financial power of the conglomerate. Lucia Dutton, the daughter of the recently deceased publisher, has returned to get the paper off its feet after spending years in New York City as editor of a women's fashion magazine. Her fiancé, Adam Townley, could be the financial hope of the paper, but managing editor Neil Ross is the heart and soul. What ensues affects both the future of the newspaper and Lucia's life.

Born in Hastings, Neb., in 1911, playwright McCleery entered the University of Nebraska when he was just 15-years-old. His mother, a musician, put him through college by playing the piano and the organ for a movie house in Hastings. McCleery, a journalist all his life with excursions into teaching, playwriting, and authoring books, was editor of The Daily Nebraskan. At 19, he was working as a reporter for the Omaha World-Herald. After graduation in 1931, McCleery traveled to New York City to work for Hearst Publishing and by the age of 25 was named executive features editor of The Associated Press in Washington, D.C. For AP, McCleery covered the Oval Office press conferences of President Franklin Delano Roosevelt. It was McCleery who came up with the idea of interviewing Roosevelt's mother, Sarah Delano Roosevelt, for a Mother's Day article. While at The Associated Press, he built a widely recognized service and invented what he called "The Picture Story," a full seven or eight columns of photographs with cut lines telling an interesting story. Still in his 20s, he was made picture editor of Life Magazine.

McCleery left journalism for a time, devoted to pursuing a career as a playwright, but returned as associate editor of Ladies Home Journal in the late 1950s.

As a playwright, McCleery wrote 10 plays that were professionally produced including two on Broadway. Hope for the Best was produced in 1945, and Parlor Story was produced in 1947. Good Housekeeping, starring Helen Hayes, was about to open in New York in 1949 when the death of the star's 18-year-old daughter, who would have made her Broadway debut in the play, caused the cancellation. McCleery went on to work with Hayes on two stage plays and one television play including 1964's Good Morning Miss Dove . McCleery credits his love of writing plays to the University of Nebraska where he was a part of an organization that put on all-male musicals and toured the state.

McCleery plans to attend the opening night of Match Play in March.

Ft. Robinson, Bighorn Hunt on Outdoor Nebraska

Big horn sheep and a historic holiday celebration at Fort Robinson are featured on this week's edition of Outdoor Nebraska. This episode of the outdoor news magazine series airs at 7:30 p.m. Dec. 23 on the statewide Nebraska ETV Network and repeats at 4:30 p.m. Dec. 26 on EduCable.

Join the lucky holders of the two available bighorn sheep permits in the state as they hunt the butte country of Fort Robinson State Park. Steve Beyer, of Elkhorn, Neb., bid $85,000 for his permit at the Foundation for North American Wild Sheep Convention in Reno, Nev. The other Nebraskan, 12-year-old Tyler Vettel, of Phillips, Neb., won his permit in a drawing from the applications of nearly 2,000 hunters who paid fees of $20 each. Outdoor Nebraska follows both hunters and explores the future management plans for bighorns in the state.

Other stories feature a Game and Parks habitat restoration project, a University of Nebraska-Lincoln professor's research on the endangered pallid sturgeon and some explosive action at the Cedar Valley Wildlife Management Area near Wellfleet.

A festive "Nebraskaland Moment" features a holiday event at Fort Robinson State Park in northwest Nebraska, which served as a military post from 1874 through the mid 1940s. In celebration of this rich history, Fort Robinson holds an annual Christmas party that replicates a chosen year. Park staff recreate the menus, decorations and programs. With only limited seating available, Outdoor Nebraska may be the best way for most Nebraskans to participate in this special event, which includes good food, carolers and a memorable evening with a touch of history.

Hilda Raz Guests on Q+A

Writer and editor Hilda Raz gathered the thoughts of writers facing breast cancer and compiled those fears and triumphs into a collection of essays. Raz, herself a survivor of breast cancer, shares her insights about both the disease and the creative process on the next edition of Q+A at 7 p.m. Dec. 23 on the statewide Nebraska ETV Network. Series host Ward Jacobson will interview Raz. This episode of Q+A will also air at 10:30 p.m. Dec. 24; 3:30 p.m. Dec. 26 and 8 a.m. Dec. 28 on EduCable.

Raz is the editor of the Prairie Schooner literary journal and teaches English at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. Her new book, Living in the Margins: Women Writers on Breast Cancer, has just been published.