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Entertainment
University Daily Kansan, April 1, 1983
George Lawner, KU professor of orchestra, will conduct the University Orchestra in its performance of the opera, "The Magic Flute," opening tonight at 8 p.m. in the University Theatre. Lawner, who has taught here 16 years, formerly conducted the San Francisco Opera Co., including its performance of "The Magic Flute."
Kansas and conducting good match for Lawner
By LAUREN PETERSON
A conversation with George Lawner, KU professor of orchestra, is like attending one of the performances he conducts.
Staff Reporter
His expressive hands flow with each word, stiffening — forcing his thick veins to protrude — his mouth, whose teeth are shuffled.
Lawner will conduct the University Orchestra in its performance of "The Magic Flute," opening last, and has been teaching at KU for the last 16 years.
He was born 60 miles from Vienna, Austria, in a town called Znaim, which is now a part of Czechoslovakia, and said his interest in music was enhanced by his early exposure to the Vienna Opera house and other concert halls in the city. He attended of many celebrated companies and conductors.
and conductors.
"The first opera that my father took me to was 'Fidelio,' one of the great works by Beethoven," he said. "I was eight.
He came to the United States in 1940 when he was 20 years old.
"I remember thinking that the overture seemed awfully long, and I still feel that way."
"I fled from Hitler," he said with a slight Austrian accent.
His father had been an Austrian army doctor in World War I and died in 1933. He said his mother fled to Czechoslovakia during World War II, so he must stay with him in Chicago after the war.
"When I first came to KU from San Francisco, I had no intention of staying so long," he said with a smile, while folding his hands behind his head wreathed with wispy gray hair.
Before he went to Chicagó in 1940, he had been studying law at the University of Vienna and was a member of the faculty.
Lawmer came to KU after spending the early 1960s in San Francisco as the assistant conductor of the San Francisco Opera Co., one of best-known opera companies in the world.
"I wanted to do symphonic music," he said. "I also thought it would be a good idea to associate myself with a university."
odd jobs during the day to make money and study conducting and managing at the Chicago
When he settled in Chicago, he began doing
"I saw action in Belgium, Luxembourg and Germany. I have a battle scar from the Battle of the Bulge. I had very strong feelings that fascism should be destroyed," he said.
Lawner joined the U.S. Army in 1943, which out his musical career on hold until 1945.
He went back to Chicago and took over the Chicago Park District Opera Guild, conducting operas such as "Marriage of Figaro," and "The Nutcracker," in which he accompanied opera singers in the Midwest.
After the war, Lawner's career took off like a rocket.
"It was with a singer that I came to Kansas for the first time," he said. "I was accompanying Douglas Beattie, who had a concert in Pittsburgh."
In the early 1950s, after having received his master's in music at the University of Chicago, he joined the New York Opera as a coach and assistant conductor for two years.
In 1959, before he went to San Francisco, he received a doctorate in music from the University of California.
Lawner said that he has gone back to San Francisco almost every summer since he came to KU to work with the opera company. He conducted Mozart's "Magic Flute" there last summer.
Although his job as a conductor is primarily a serious career, there are a few stories that still make him laugh.
One of these occurred in the early 1970s at KU, when Lawner was conducting the opera, "Das
"In the last scene, which lasted 35 minutes," he said, "I noticed that the orchestra pit had begun to sink below the auditorium level and the singers were really high above us.
The pit, which was on a hydraulic lift, had sunk two feet below its normal level. Lawner said that he had to conduct the opera with his hands above his head the entire scene.
Lawner said that he strove to be expressive, vet relaxed in his conducting.
"I strive to have the utmost control with the least physical effort," he said. "The effort must be balanced."
Spare Time
Fridav
Master classes with Menaben Pressler, piano, will be at 9:30 a.m. and 1:30 p.m. in Swarthout Recital Hall in Murphy Hall.
The opera, "The Magic Flute," by Wolf gang Amadeus Mozart, will be at 8 p.m. in the theater on Thursday, December 16.
44 for public; special discounts for senior citizens and students.
Saturday
Marilyn Stokstad, distinguished professor of art history, and Jerry Stannard, professor of science and medicine history, spent several years researching the exhibits.
Ornamental plants such as honey suckle, the lily and the rose also are displayed.
Master classes
with Menahem
Pressler, piano will
be at 9:30 a.m. and
1:30 p.m. in Swar-
town.
The opera. "The
Magic, Flute," will be at 8 p.m. in the University, Theatre.
Tuesday
Spring Concert by the University Band, with James Barnes as conductor, will be at 8 p.m. in the University Theatre.
A senior recital by Catherine Conn, soprano, will be at p.m. in Swarthout.
Wednesday
A faculty recital by the
Coca-Cola String Trio will be
held at 8 p.m. in Saworth
A theatre benefit,
"The Sage of Emporia," will be at a p.m. in the University
Wednesday
Theatre. All seats reserved; tickets are $1, $4 and $3 for the public; special discounts for senior citizens and students. Proceeds will be used to defray expenses to Washington, D.C., for performance at the National Portrait Gallery.
Three exhibits focus on gardens of Middle Ages
A master's recital by Ricardo Noriega
piano, will be at 8 p.m. in Swarthowntown.
Thursdav
The exhibit shows the plant horehouse, which until modern cough drops was the basis of cough syrup, and dill, from which oil was extracted for colicky infants.
By JENNIFER FINE Staff Reporter
Three exhibits at the University of Kansas offer an opportunity to step back to 15th-century medieval gardens through the work of artists and horticulturists of the Middle Ages.
THE MUSEUM OF Natural History in Dyche Hall has pressed and mounted plants and pots of dried flowers and herbs showing the medicinal, food, dye and ornamental purposes of plants from medieval gardens in an exhibit titled "Using Medieval Plants Today."
Medieval gardens were divided into five types: kitchen, where plants such as apples and dill were grown; medicinal, for herbs for drug therapy; patrician, which was a private garden for the owner; cloister, a garden where the religious could contemplate; and gardens for pleasure, with settings that were supposed to appeal to all the senses.
Exhibits at the Helen Foresman Spencer Museum of Art, the Kenneth A. Spencer Research Library and the Museum of Natural History, with practice and social purposes of medieval gardens.
The people of the period wanted to bring the forces of nature under control for sustenance and pleasure through their enclosed gardens.
Illustrated books describing the medicinal uses, and histories of plants, along with children's books showing the gardens represent 600 years of the gardens in print.
THE CENTRAL COURT of Spencer Art Museum is a model of a medieval garden, with live plants and a wicker archway.
Faintings, books with colored woodcuts, ivory carvings and other objects kept in special light and temperature-controlled cases show the types of gardens and people in garden settings.
More than 75 tapestries, paintings, ceramics and illustrated manuscripts in the art museum show scenes and tell stories of the various types of gardens.
THE WORKS IN the exhibit are from various museums, libraries and private collections from around the country, including the Library of Congress and the Metropolitan Museum of Art in
Earthenware used during the period to prepare and store herbs for medicants also is displayed.
Tapestries made of wool and velvet, which sometimes served as decoration in medieval churches.
Garden manuals dating back to the 1600s are displayed at Spencer Research Library in an exhibit titled "All that in this Delightful Gardin Growes."
After the exhibit is shown here, it will be displayed at Dumbarton Oaks at the Harvard Square Museum.
Students, teachers agree acting takes hard work, discipline
By LADONNA LONGSTREET Staff Reporter
The curtains roll back, actors glide to their places and a plot springs to life before the audience. The process appears simple and some dramatic details seemingly glimmerous, easy life of the plenius.
Yet, acting students and instructors at the University of Kannas agreed that being an actor would be beneficial.
James Larson, teaching assistant of speech and drama, agreed that talent was not the only ingredient students needed to become competent actors.
"Some people think acting is like magic. It's all fate. I told my kids that acting is not magic, anybody can do it if they're willing to work." Harry Parker, KU teaching assistant in theatre.
I believe that there are two elements in anybody who wants to act. One is talent and the other is ability.
"I PERSONALLY / believe anyone could become a competent actor," he said. "I have friend's who through hard work, and not necessarily talent, have been able to find work with some of the best acting companies in the country."
This is the goal of many of his students, Larson said. In order to achieve it, though, they must learn how to control and use their voices and bodies to express themselves. The department's art teacher, Sara Stansilsku, a 19th-century Russian constantinus Stansilsku, a 19th-century Russian theatre expert, is very disciplined, he said.
The foremost principle of Stanislasvki is learning how to tap the unconscious and how to develop a technique or method to make what you adding on the stage as real as possible. Larson said,
"One of things that an actor has to be able to do is to concentrate and relax," he said. "Acting is consciously tapping the unconscious."
A PERFORMER MUST be disciplined in order to be spontaneous on the stage, he said. He needs to analyze the character he is suppose to portray and wed his own experiences to that entity.
Parker said that when his students are approaching a new script, he tells them to ask the question: "What would I do if I was this character in this situation?"
William Green, Glenniew, Ill., junior, said to appear spontaneous, an actor must do his homework and study what a character would do in a given situation.
Preparing for a role involves scoring the script, he said, which is breaking it into units and finding the character's objectives.
"Nobody majors in theatre unless they really want to," he said. "Actors are always out of
Parker said that an artist could paint on a canvas and a pianist had his piano, but the actor only had himself. His body, voice, spirit and mind are his canvas: Acting is an exciting form of artistic self-expression, he said.
Costumes are a big part of the act, theatre professor says
GREEN SAID that some ideals beginning students had about acting were that it was always fun, it was not hard work and that they would get a job.
tracy Iwersen, Kansas City, Mo., freshman,
said acting was a lot of work, but it was a
never-ending challenge. The reward is feeling
good about having accomplished something, she
By JOHNNIE BETH FISCUS
"You get satisfaction from it but it is not always fun," he said. He said he rehearsed about three hours a night, six times a week for about a month and a half for most productions.
Staff Reporter
Drama students at the University of Kansas learn more than how to walk on stage and portray a character. They also learn behind-the-scene skills such as making their costumes fit their bodies.
It is just as important for students to know what their characters wore as it is for them to know how the characters acted, said Chez Haehl, associate professor of theatre.
Costumes can make or break the caricature. Students in Chez Haelt's costume construction class are learning how to adapt basic costume patterns to their body measurements.
Costumes can make or break the character.
Eventually, both male and female students have custom-made patterns for a bodice, a one-piece sleeve, a two-piece sleeve, a skirt and a pair of pants. Haeli said.
"It's strange, sometimes you cut a pattern out and you say, 'This will never fit anyone,' and then a body walks right into it," he said.
EACH BASIC pattern is different, he said, because some people are short-waisted and others are long-waisted and some are muscular while others are thin.
These basic pattern pieces can be adapted to make a costume for any time period, he said.
For example, to make a Roman gown,
students would tape the bodice and the skirt
patterns together and then cut a pattern from
that.
FOR CLOTHING from eras during which clothes were fitted by using seams instead of darts, Haeli said, students could make authentic garments and seams into pieces and measuring for seam allowance.
"Some costumes I have have 18 seams and some just have darts and side seams, but they all have the same pattern."
Students also learn trade secrets to making the various costumes.
"Any time you have a flowing costume you always have a fitted garment underneath."
The eight students in Haebi's class also learn about dyeing fabric and which materials were used in the different eras, as well as the general responsibilities of a costumer.
The class meets two hours each week. In addition, students work in the costume ship at Murphy Hall about five hours each week, Haehl said.
MEMBERS OF the class also form a costume crew for each play. Once the play opens, the crew is responsible for doing laundry, repairing costumes, and helping the actors dress.
This practical experience helps the students understand the theories they learn in class.
Hazel also teaches a class about the history of costuming, in which students study fashions from the Egyptian era to the 1800s. They learn how dresses, shoes, hats and hair styles of those eras
World-famous string quartet to close out KU music series
The Guarnett String Quartet, considered by some to be the preeminent string quartet in the world, will close out the 1982-83 Chamber Music Series at the University of Kansas with a concert at 3:30 p.m. Sunday, April 10, in the Crain-Frewer Theatre in Murray Hall.
"The Guarnieri is one of the most popular ensembles in chamber music today," she said, "and our patrons look forward to hearing them nearly every season."
Performances by the Guarneri have become almost an annual event at KU, said Jacqueline Davis, director of the Concert and Chamber Music Series.
Featured in the concert will be Lydia Artymtwy, a young American pianist who is also a drummer.
At their KU performance, the group will play Franz Joseph Haydn's "Quartet in G Minor, Op. 74, No. 3: 'The Rider'"; Samuel Barber's "Quartet Opr. 11"; and Robert Schumann's "Quintet in E-flat Major for Piano and Strings. Op. 44."
Members of the quartet, who perform as
soloists and in the ensemble, are Arnold Steinhardt and John Dalley, violinists; Michael Tree, violist; and David Soyer cellist.
In addition to the concert performance, the Guareri members will conduct master classes for KU and high school strings students from 2 p.m. to 4 p.m. Saturday, April 9, in Swarthout Recital Hall. High school students have been invited to submit audition tapes for an opportunity to perform for the quartet members. Outstanding KU students have been selected by the string faculty for the same opportunity.
Three of the four members are on the music faculty at the Curtis Institute of Music in Philadelphia, and all four are serving as music this year at the University of Maryland.
Tickets for the Guarney String Quartet are available at the Murphy Hall box office. All seats are reserved: public tickets are $8 and discounted cars for students and senior citizens.
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