2F AUGUST 1996
ARTS & ENTERTAINMENT
LAWRENCE JOURNAL-WORLD
STOMP, an eight-piece percussion group, will perform at 8 p.m. Feb.21 and 22 and 7 p.m. Feb.23 at the Lied Center. The troupe appeared on last spring's Academy Awards broadcast.
Lied creates family series
- The Lied Center has created a new performance series — one geared toward families.
BY JAN BILES
JOURNAL-WORLD ARTS EDITOR
Ticket sales mean just about everything to a performance venue like the Lied Center.
Small audiences will not generate the revenue needed to pay the fees of touring acts and eventually will hurt the chances of getting major acts in following seasons.
Those are considerations the Lied Center staff must keep in mind when determining the dance, music and theater programs of each season's lineup.
"Ticket sales are really door-die to maintaining this type of programming, especially in the areas where we're taking risks," said Jackie Davis, director of the Lied Center. "Without knowing what the revenue will be at the end of the year, we are committing money for the fees a year in advance."
This year, the Lied Center hopes to attract more ticket buyers with its new Family Series, which will offer ice skating, mime and puppet performances.
"We're fulfilling the mission of (Lied Trustee) Christina Hixon, that programming should be diversified and for everyone," she said.
Davis said she and Hixon had talked about ways to reach those who weren't
THAT'S THE TICKET
Tickets to all performances are on sale at the Lied Center Box Office, 864-ARTS; Student Union Activities Box Office in the Kansas Union, 864-3477; and any TicketMaster outlet. (913)234-4545 or (816) 931-3330.
attending Lied events and realized the center had not tapped into the family market.
Last year, the chamber music concerts each drew from 800 to 1,000 people. The New Directions performances were either sold out or drew at least 700 people. The Broadway and Concert series were sold out.
"It's a good indication that people will take advantage of it." Davis said.
Davis said tickets for the family series are selling well.
Here's the schedule for the 1996-'97 season.
Lied Family Series
- 8 p.m. Sept. 19, Seattle Mime Theatre, a physical theater troupe. Besides giving the nighttime performance, the troupe of three actors will be in residence with Lawrence public schools and will offer a children's performance at 2 p.m. Sept. 22 in the Lied Center.
- 2 p.m. and 7 p.m. Dec. 14 and 15, "The Sleeping on Ice," featuring the St. Petersburg State Ice
Ballet from Russia. The company of 25 skaters will perform on an ice rink placed on the Lied Center's stage.
- 2 p.m. April 13, "The Crown of Destiny," performed by the Theatre Sans Fil. Twelve black-clothed puppeteers and five offstage technicians handle 6-foot, stringless puppets in this production, which also features a medieval castle courtyard, black-light, lasers, fireworks and original music.
Concert Series
- 7 p.m. Oct. 6, Pittsburgh Symphony with Andre Previn conducting.
- 8 p.m. Oct. 25, Queensland Ballet with the Kansas City Symphony in "Pirates!," based on Gilbert and Sullivan's "Pirates of Penzance." The show mixes classical dance style with jazz and tap steps.
- 8 p.m. Feb. 25, Dawn Upshaw,
soorano, and Richard Good, piano
- 8 p.m. March 7 and 8, New York City Opera National Company's "La Boheme," featuring English supertitles of the original Italian opera projected above the stage.
8 p.m. April 9, Russia Village Festival, comprised of five Russian folk groups. The performance includes a Yarmorka, or traditional Russian fair in the Lied Center's lobby, where Russian national costumes and crafts will be displayed.
Swarthout Chamber Music Series
8 *p. 10*. Oct. 1, Beaux Arts Trio,
with pianist Menahem Pressler, violinist Ida Kavafian and cellist Peter Wiley.
- 3:30 p.m. Nov. 10, Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center.
- 3:10 p.m. Feb. 16, New European Strings Chamber Orchestra, with its first North American tour.
Gwendolyn Brooks to head Hall events
3 p. 1m. April 6, Ying Quartet, in a return engagement.
- 3:30 p.m. April 20, Blair String
There's a small, classically designed building nestled behind Watson Library on the Kansas University campus. Despite its size, the Hall Center for the Humanities houses some of the most productive academic work, programs and seminars at KU.
See Lied, page 3F
The Center was founded in 1976 by the Kansas Board of Regents as the Center for Humanistic Studies, and became the Hall Center for Humanities in 1983 after a major endowment gift from the Hall Family Foundation of Kansas City, Mo.
Working to foster interdisciplinary study in the humanities, the Hall Center sponsors wide-ranging lecture series, seminars, forums and research discussion groups for both faculty and graduate students.
A schedule of the center's events for the 1996-'97 academic year follows.
- Sept. 4: Lecture and panel discussion, "Technology, Public Debate, and the Electoral Process." Paul Kirk, co-chair of the Commission on Presidential Debates, will speak, followed by a panel discussion at 7 p.m.
- Location to be announced. Free.
- Sept. 10: Humanities lecture series, "John Steuart Curry, Prairie Prodigal."
Charles Eldredge, Hall Distinguished Professor of art history at the KU, 7:30 p.m. Helen Foresman Spencer Museum of Art Auditorium. Free.
- Sept. 16: Public lecture, "Ethics of Life Narrative Writing." John Eakin.
- Time and location to be announced. Free.
- Oct. 23: Public lecture,
"Poetry Reading with Commentary." Gwendolyn Brooks, author, 8 p.m., Lied Center. Free.
- Feb. 20: Humanities lecture series, "Working in Nature." Richard White, McClelland professor of history at the University of Washington in Seattle, 7:30 p.m.
- Location to be announced. Free.
- March 11: Humanities lecture series, "The Spanish New World in the Narrative Imagination, Past and Present." Rolena Adorno, professor of Spanish and Portuguese at Yale University, 7:30 p.m. Location to be announced. Free.
- Nov. 12: Humanities lecture series,"Rembrandt's Originality." Simon Schama, Old Dominion professor of humanities at Columbia University, 7:30 p.m., Spencer Museum of Art Auditorium. Free.
Sterling Silver / Moonstone Fibula by Jim Connelly
SILVER WORKS and more
a gallery of fine gold & silver jewelry/contemporary crafts
715 Massachusetts • Lawrence, Kansas • 913/842-1460