The Lied Center OPENING NIGHT
Paul Knotz / KANSAN
Bob Wolf, Olfer resident, left, and Greg Ogan, Lawrence resident, raise the lights at the Lied Center.
Ernst Lied gave much to causes
Kansanstaffreport
Ernst Lied entered the University of Kansas in 1924 and played on the golf team, but his legacy has little to do with sport. It has more to do with a donation by The Ernest F. Lied Foundation Trust.
The Lied Center, on West Campus, opens tonight with an invitation-only reception and performance followed by a student-night tomorrow. Half-price student night tickets are still available and can be purchased at the Lied Center Box Office.
Susan McSpadden/ KANSAN
Lied was the secretary for The Sphinx Society, an honorary freshman class organization for men. In 1987
for the sophomore class. Two years into his studies, Lied and his family
moved to Omaha, Neb. He graduated from the University of Nebraska and later moved to Las Vegas.
Lied's father owned a car dealership in Kansas City, and Lied made his fortune as a car dealer and land developer.
During the 1940s, Lied hired Christina Hixson. When Lied died in July 1982, Hixson was named as the trustee for the Lied Foundation Trust. Hixson has given generous donations in his name to causes that were important to Lied. A Lied Center stands at the University of Nebraska, and the Omaha Zoo received a substantial donation.
Hixson gave $15 million to KU to complete the Lied Center.
Student night
Susan McSpadden/KANSAN
Student tickets are $17.50 and $15.
All other nights are $35 and $30.
Rates for seniors are $34 and $29.
Season subscribers receive a 25 percent discount.
Tomorrow and Sept. 30's shows will be at 8 p.m.
Shows 0ct. 2 will be at 2 and 8 p.m.
Shows 0ct. 3 will be at 2 and 7 p.m.
The Lied Center, a $14.6 million performing arts complex, has a seating capacity of 2,030.
Source: The Lied Center
KANSAN
Award-winning 'Secret Garden' opens theater
By Sara Bennett Kansan staff writer
"Come to my garden. Come, sweet child," the ghost of the beautiful Lily beckons, inviting those she left behind to discover the beauty locked within her secret garden.
Tomorrow, children and adults alike also will be invited to come into the garden when the Lied Center presents the Tony Award-winning Broadway musical "The Secret Garden."
"The Secret Garden" is an adaptation of Frances Hodgson Burnett's classic story about Mary Lennox, a love-starved young girl orphaned during a cholera epidemic in India. Transplanted to her uncle Archibald's lonely man on the moors of Yorkshire, England, Mary discovers an abandoned garden that belonged to her deceased aunt Lily. Mary restores the garden, despite the wishes of her grieving uncle, and, in doing so, restores the bloom of hope to her grieving family.
"The Secret Garden" debuted April 25, 1991, at the St. James Theater in New York City, where it continues to play to sell-out crowds. During its opening season, the musical won Tony Awards for set design, best book and best supporting actress. Daisy Eagan, the first girl to play the part of Mary, is the youngest actress ever to win a Tony Award.
"The Secret Garden" also marked the first time in Broadway history that all key creative positions in a major production were held by women. Pulitzer Prize-winner Marsha Norman wrote the script and lyrics, Grammy Award-winning Lucy Simon composed the music, and Susan Schulman directed the production. Heidi Landesman produced and designed the sets, which are based on Edwardian and Victorian collages.
Paul Kotz/KAH$
Burnett's novel "The Secret Garden" was published in 1911. Simon said in a telephone interview from her New York City apartment that her affection for the book inspired her to adapt it to a musical.
"I read it when I was a kid and had a really strong attachment to the idea of that secret place you could go to that was all yours," she said. "It's the transformation of the garden that's the healing device that brings Mary back to life."
To remain true to the story, Simon researched the folk music of Scotland and Northern England to recreate the feel of Yorkshire, England, where the story is set.
"It deals with everything from loss and sorrow, to excitement and healing, to the fulfillment of getting what you want,# she said. "It also encompasses jealousy, anger and hope."
Workers at the Lied Center unload scenery that will be used in "The Secret Garden."
Jacqueline Davis, executive director for the Lied Center, said such emotions make "The Secret Garden" an ideal show to celebrate the opening of the center.
Although "The Secret Garden" is known as a young girl's story, Simon said the show's message appeals to men and adults as well.
"It is one of the most uplifting, charming and beautiful pieces of musical theater I have ever seen," she said.
"It just tugs at everybody," she said. "One of our male producers said a fun thing to do is to go into the men's room after the show and watch them dry their eyes."
Simon said receiving letters from people for whom "The Secret Garden" has struck a personal note is one of the greatest rewards for her involvement with the show.
"It was a gift to me to get to write it," she said. "I feel like I am returning the gift, and I think people receive it as a gift."
Lied Center offers space, new features
By JL Watson Kansan staff writer
Tonight marks the debut of "The Secret Garden" at the center. Long after the performers from the theatrical production have traveled on, the center will be the home for KU's Concert, Chamber and New Direction Series.
The paint has dried, the lights are on, the actors are ready to take the stage, and there's not a bad seat in the house. The Lied Center is about to open to thunderous applause.
"We had a need for this building because we didn't have a facility that had technical capabilities to do events like 'The Secret Garden,'" said Nancy Kaiser-Caplan, public relations director for the center. "It's state-of-the-art."
It will also be the site for Vespers, Rock Chalk Revue, lectures, films, conferences, convocations and performances by the department of music and dance.
"It's the largest seating capacity of any building on campus except for the field house." she said.
The center offers a variety of amenities for performers and audience members. Performers will have the use of three group dressing rooms and four "star" dressing rooms, all equipped with bathroom facilities, makeup lights and mirrors. A sound-proof warm-up room just off-stage will allow performers to perfect their vocal and musical sounds in close proximity to the action on stage. Dancers will warm up in a specially designed dance studio that has a residential floor similar to the stage floor so that dancers do not have to make a transition in footing.
"The Secret Garden" was chosen as the premiere production because it had a wide range of appeal and offered multiple performances, Kaiser-Caplan said. "We didn't want a symphony for just one night," she said.
Audience members can meet performers backstage in the greenroom, which doubles as a waiting room for actors before they go on stage.
"This is the most elegant greenroom I've ever seen," said Jacqueline Davis, director for the center. "I look forward to having artists here. I had to apologize at Hoch for no showers, no dressing rooms and the horrible spaces."
The greenroom at the new Lied Center has a kitchen, oversuffited chairs and a view of the Wakarusa Valley.
The center was constructed after the Ernst F. Lied Foundation donated $15 million for the project.
Audience members will be seated on the main level or one of three balconies. Sound consoles throughout the hall will engulf the audience with "surround sound." The theatrical riggings 69 feet above the floor hold curtains, lighting instruments, scenery and a screen for movies.
"We received confirmation of the gift in 1888," Kaiser-Caplan said. "Construction began in early 1990, and we've been working on it ever since."
For opening night everything is in place. Everything, that is, but the landscape.
"If you had asked me earlier, I would've said it would have been done today," Davis said. "But now we're still working on it."
The fresh piles of dirt symbolize the potential the building holds; and an air of expectation wafts through the halls and onto the stage.
Students are encouraged to be part of the experience. They will be able to buy tickets at reduced rates for all of the center's productions, including "The Secret Garden."
"It took a lot to talk the show's producers into having a student night," Davis said. "I want that student night to be full. I'm even providing free beverages and cookies."
Student tickets for "The Secret Garden" are still available.
SEPTEMBER 28.1993 PAGE 7
KULife
People and places at the University of Kansas.
Bandit nabs baited bag of money, gets paint in his pants
A suspect, said to be in his 20s, escaped after robbing a First American Bank branch in Nashville, Tenn., in August, but not before leaving some of the money behind during the getaway. The teller had managed to give the man a bag of "bait" money containing an explodable device that would coat the money with a dye soon after he left the bank. Apparently the man wanted to free his hands during the getaway and stuffed the bag into his sweatpants. Said a Nashville detective, "We believe he may have (dropped the money when he) suffered severe burns to his groin area."
Flunkee gets an A
Good to be big
In April, police in Chandler, Ariz., arrested Arturo Ortiz, 33 and 135 pounds, after he had allegedly broken into a home and had begun fondling a woman as she slept. The woman weighs 260 pounds and easily subdued Ortiz by twisting his wrist behind his back and holding him until police arrived. Said the woman, "I'm large, and he happens to be small."
Kansas lawyers
In January near Alvin, Texas, Andrea Guerero, 18, and her brother came across a man who was slumped over the wheel of his truck and not breathing. Andrea administered CPR until an ambulance arrived to take the victim to a hospital where he recovered. Guerero was on her way home from a CPR certification exam, which she had flunked.
The New York Times reported in April that Kansas lawyers Michael Harris and Fletcher Bell were successful in filing worker compensation claims for back injuries suffered at work: Harris got almost $35,000 for the strain of reaching into the backseat of his car for his briefcase, and Bell got $95,000 for his injury lifting his briefcase from the trunk of his car.
The Weirdo-American community
During a nationally televised August preseason game, Denver Bronco defensive tackle Darren Drozdov, who was in his stance opposite the offensive center awaiting the snap, vomited on the ball. Afterward, he told reporters, "I get sick a lot. I was a quarterback in high school, and I'd start throwing up on my center's back. I don't have a lot of control out there."
Copyright 1993 Universal Press Syndicate