September 7, 2004

The School of Theatre is back for another  season of laughs and drama, opening with  “Marvin’s Room” on Oct. 1.  Photo by Tom Shea

As a new semester at the University of Houston begins, so does another season of music, theatre, opera, art exhibits and other entertainment. From “Marvin’s Room” to “Jessica Stockholder: Kissing the Wall,” the fall arts season promises laughs, drama, musical pleasure and artistic interpretation.

MOORES SCHOOL OF MUSIC

As in past seasons, this year promises exciting events presented by faculty, students and guest performers featuring works by Chopin, Stravinsky, Beethoven, Elgar, Britten and others. More than 30 performances are scheduled this fall.

“Our fall 2004 concert calendar will provide concerts, recitals and opera performances that will appeal to the tastes of many music fans,” said David Ashley White, director of the Moores School of Music.

The 2004-05 season kicks off with Collage 2004, a preview of faculty, students and performing ensembles. Beginning at 7:30 p.m. Sept. 9, the concert will include the Symphony Orchestra performing excerpts from Igor Stravinsky’s “Petrouchka,” a ballet masterpiece that earned the composer praise during his time. The finale of the evening — and a highlight of this concert — will feature “The Spirit of Houston” Cougar Marching Band.

During the semester, guest musicians will perform in Moores Opera House, lending their expertise and experience to campus. Malcolm Bilson, who has performed all around the globe, will play the dedicatory recital Sept. 12 on MSM’s new fortepiano, “an instrument commissioned from a builder in Belgium and a copy of the kind of piano Mozart and Haydn would have played,” according to White.

On Sept. 17, Stephen Beus, the 2004 winner of the Kosciuszko Foundation National Chopin Competition, will present a piano recital.

The school will also host the Marching Band Benefit Concert featuring the “Spirit of Houston” Cougar Marching Band, Drum Line and Cougar Dolls. A wide-ranging selection of music — from Orff’s “Carmina Burana” to Earth, Wind & Fire’s “In the Stone” — offers something for every music aficionado.

Benjamin Britten’s “A Midsummer Night’s Dream,” based on the play by William Shakespeare, should delight opera lovers, offering them a night of great music and hilarious comedy. Performances run Oct. 22 – Oct. 25. The opera will open the season for the Moores Opera Center.

“We’re looking forward to a great semester,” White said.

All performances are held in the Moores Opera House and have open seating. For cost and other ticket information, call (713) 743-3201 or visit www.uh.edu/music.

SCHOOL OF THEATRE

The School of Theatre boasts yet another impressive line-up this fall, starting with Scott McPherson’s “Marvin’s Room,” which deals with the strength of one woman’s commitment to loving others first.

Performances will be held at the Lyndall Finley Wortham Theatre Oct. 1 and 2 and Oct. 8 - 10. Friday and Saturday evening performances begin at 8 p.m.; Sunday matinees are at 2 p.m.

Other plays include Noel Coward’s “Blithe Spirit,” about a lovely ghost who wreaks havoc in the lives of her former husband and his new wife. This classic comedy is expected to have its audiences roaring with laughter. The play runs Nov. 12 and 13 and 19 – 21.

Plays directed and designed by students will take center stage in September and October. Among them are “Raisin in the Sun,” “The Kingdom of Earth,” “YermaYerma” and “The Complete Works of Shakespeare Abridged.”

The school’s Division of Dance Ensemble will perform in Marc-Antoine Charpentier’s opera-pastorale “Acteon” Nov. 19. Directed by Karen Stokes, the performance will be held at the Moores School Collegium Musicum concert, which is presented in connection with Ars Lyrica Houston.

The annual Student Dance Concert is slated for Dec. 5.

For more information on dance performances, call (713) 743-2929 or visit www.class.uh.edu/theatre/Dance/danceperf.htm.

The Stuart Ostrow Musical Theatre Lab also will return this fall, introducing music lovers to new works.

“This is Broadway’s next generation at work,” School of Theatre Director Sidney Berger said. “It’s wonderful to hear pieces that have never before been heard.”

BLAFFER GALLERY, THE ART MUSEUM OF THE UNIVERSITY OF HOUSTON

This is a year of collaborations for Blaffer Gallery.

“Jessica Stockholder: Kissing the Wall,” which will be accompanied by a project from the Rice University Art Gallery, will take some visitors for a stroll down memory lane. With reminders of experiences as varied as shopping at K-Mart to playing in a child’s room to walking down Broadway after the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade, the exhibit is visually stimulating, optimistic and energetic.

Stockholder’s pieces fuse objects together and create unique shapes in space. Her work takes form and meaning, according to Terrie Sultan, the gallery’s director, compelling viewers to make sense of the space around them.

“She structures fusions of found objects — commercially produced textiles, construction materials, household items and bits of everyday stuff — as shapes and lines in space,” Sultan said. “Not only does her work connect the dots, it also links colors, forms and spaces into relationships we couldn’t have imagined.”

On Sept. 29, Sultan will host a Brown Bag Lunch Tour of the exhibit. The exhibit will be displayed Sept. 18—Nov. 29; an opening reception will be held from 7 to 9 p.m. Sept. 17.

“This is not a season to be missed,” Sultan said. “This season is going to be one of Blaffer’s most exciting, stimulating and compelling in the 30-year history of the museum.”

For more information, please visit http://www.hfac.uh.edu/blaffer.

INPRINT’S MARGARETT ROOT BROWN READING SERIES

Not too far from campus, the literary works of celebrated authors Edward P. Jones, Harryette Mullen, C.D. Wright, Richard Rodriguez and Abraham Verghese will be heard.

Inprint’s Margarett Root Brown Reading Series, presented in association with the UH Creative Writing Program and the Alley Theatre, will offer various readings beginning Sept. 13, when Jones’ national tour brings him to Houston to celebrate the paperback release of his first novel, “The Known World.”

Jones’ story about blacks owning slaves in the antebellum South garnered him the 2004 Pulitzer Prize for fiction and the National Book Critics Circle Award for fiction.

On Oct. 11, Harryette Mullen and C.D. Wright will read excerpts from their poetry books, “Sleeping with the Dictionary” and “Steal Away,” respectively.

Readings begin at 7:30 p.m. at the Alley Theatre, 615 Texas Ave. Admission is $5 and free for students/seniors. For more information, call (713) 521-2026 or visit www.inprint-inc.org.

By Leticia Vasquez
Lvasque5@central.uh.edu