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(07/14/14 11:05pm)
The Indiana Memorial Union is more than just a hotel. It’s the go-to spot on campus for food, movies, ATMs, books, entertainment events and even a haircut. When completed in 1932, it was the world’s largest student union. We’ve broken down several bustling floors to keep you from getting lost.
(05/30/14 5:21pm)
The Indiana Memorial Union is more than just a hotel. It’s the go-to spot on campus for almost everything.
(07/14/13 10:41pm)
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>For good reason, most people claim corn as Indiana’s agricultural namesake. But people might think twice about Hoosier soil after attending the upcoming third annual Uncork the Uplands, a one-day event that is part of the Indiana Uplands Wine Trail. Uncork the Uplands will offer an optional vineyard tour July 27 at Oliver Winery’s Creekbend Vineyard in Ellettsville, Ind., followed by an evening reception at the Bloomington Monroe County Convention Center.Participants will be able to taste wine samples from 10 Indiana wineries, in addition to food samples from Indiana artisans. “Uncork the Uplands is a rare opportunity to sample interesting wines from across south-central Indiana, all in one place,” Kim Doty, president of the Indiana Uplands Wine Trail, said in a press release. “Our wineries produce excellent varietals that are elegant, complex, and, best of all, diverse.” This is the 10th year of the Indiana Uplands Wine Trail and the first year Indiana Uplands is a federally recognized grape-growing region, otherwise known as an American Viticultural Area, or AVA. Distinguished by geographic features, the AVA is a designated wine-grape-growing region in the United States. The geographic boundaries of an AVA are also defined by the Alcohol and Tobacco Tax and Trade Bureau of the U.S. Department of the Treasury. Jim Butler, co-owner of Butler Winery in Bloomington, helped spearhead Indiana’s designation on the AVA. He said petitioning on the state’s behalf took several years, involving research that proves Indiana contains the right conditions for wine production. The Indiana Upland Wine Trail was established to promote the wineries and vineyards in south-central Indiana, and is Indiana’s first wine trail, a 4,800-square-mile swath containing 17 Indiana wineries, including the 10 wineries on the Indiana Uplands Trail. The wine samples on the tours, which are largely self-guided, are offered for free for or for a small price at every Indiana winery on the trail.Butler’s book, “Indiana Wine: A History” published in 2011 by IU Press, describes the little-known history of how the industry was started in Indiana. In the late 1800s and early 1900s, wineries dotted the Indiana countryside, making the Hoosier state the 10th largest grape-producing state in the country until Prohibition in the 1920s, according to Indianawine.org. The wine industry thereafter disappeared until the 1970s, when it was revitalized with the Small Winery Act of 1971.The Act allowed wineries to sell directly to the public rather than through wholesalers. Butler will be one of three food-and-drink experts at the Upcork the Uplands Evening Reception available to talk to participants about wine and food culture. “(The event) is really focused on the local,” he said. “We’ll have a lot of local foods, and people will have the opportunity to meet winemakers and talk about wine. I think it’ll beinteresting.”
(06/30/13 10:23pm)
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>At the end of summer 2012, IU graduate Samantha Harrell discovered the summer emergency shelter Genesis House would not reopen in Bloomington next year. Time passed, and it was rumored the shelter wouldn’t really close. By February 2013, about two months before Genesis would begin taking in patrons, no one had done anything. That’s when Harrell, who graduated from the IU School of Social Work in May, and seven other social workers decided to open Ubuntu Shelter, a temporary Bloomington emergency shelter that would run through this year only until Nov. 1. The Ubuntu Working Group organized a public meeting June 26 at the Monroe County Public Library Auditorium where Ubuntu members described their proposal for a new shelter. “We were kind of seeking out new faces because we really wanted to reach out to the community and we really wanted new connections,” Hailey Butchart said. “Because we have contacted so many people at this point, we’re looking for new connections and new leads.” Despite tornado warnings, about 20 people attended the meeting, Butchart said. So far, the Ubuntu group has consulted about 20 individuals and groups to prepare its proposal, including city council members and the Board of Directors at the Interfaith Winter Shelter, the only other emergency shelter in Bloomington. It runs from mid-October to mid-April. “Ubuntu” represents a humanistic philosophy concerning people’s relations with each other. The Ubuntu Shelter would have the same low-barrier model as Genesis House and Interfaith. According to the group’s proposal, as long as guests exhibit respectful behavior — regardless of whether they’re under the influence of drugs or alcohol — guests are permitted to stay from as early as 9 p.m. to 7 a.m. of the next morning.Both guests and volunteers would have to agree to follow a set of guidelines requiring guests to check in any bags, drugs, alcohol, medications or weapons upon entry. “It’s all about human safety,” Butchart said. “So we’re trying to get people off the streets, regardless of their current state and the set of challenges they’re facing.” Butchart, who also graduated from the IU School of Social Work in May, said the two main reasons Genesis House closed were volunteer burnout and lack of funding. Genesis House, a program ran by Genesis Church in Bloomington, began three years ago. For two of those years, the shelter was funded in part by the Jack Hopkins Social Services Funding Committee.Harrell, who’s been volunteering with Interfaith Winter Shelter for the past four years, said Genesis Church volunteers largely ran the shelter seven days a week, and had a considerably large budget that went toward overnight staff pay, gas money and other amenities. “It was inherently challenging just like our (Ubuntu Shelter) proposal will be,” she said. “Volunteer burnout is huge for them. They relied heavily on their congregation and little on outside help.” Harrell said their current challenge is finding a location for the shelter. The ideal location would be close to a bus route or somewhere downtown, but Butchart said at this point they would take anything within city limits. Other than working with people from Genesis House, Ubuntu also has more than 200 volunteers working to educate the community about the need for an emergency shelter. Thomas Pearson, a recent IU graduate and an Ubuntu volunteer, said seeing the group’s dedication has been motivating for him. “They’re passionate about what they do,” he said. “It’s easy to kind of want to give up because there are so many other things you can be doing, but it’s important to think about the needs of others and not give up.”
(12/06/12 1:11am)
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>From Saturday to Wednesday, actor, director and writer Robby Benson visited the IU campus for the initial phase of a job interview as a professor of practice in the Department of Telecommunications. Benson, who is best known for voicing the character of the Beast in the 1991 Walt Disney film “Beauty and the Beast,” also spoke Tuesday morning at the IU Cinema. “I really, deeply believe that the University community would benefit enormously if we can find a way to get him here,” said Susan Kelly, a senior lecturer in the department. “His passion for teaching is commendable and he’s an amazingly decent human being.”Earlier in the year, the department posted two job openings, one for a lecturer in production and another for a tenure-track for a scholar either in the area of telecommunications law and policy or management. After the jobs were posted, Benson expressed interest in teaching at the University. Kelly, who is on the department’s search committee, contacted Benson after he expressed interest and asked him to teach two of her classes, one of the several stops Benson made during his time in Bloomington. Previously, Benson taught at the University of South Carolina; the University of California, Los Angeles; University of Utah; Appalachian State University and California Institute of the Arts. He was nominated for New York University’s “Distinguished Teaching Award.”Benson is also well-known for starring in “Ice Castles,” “Ode to Billy Joe,” “The Chosen” and “Harry and Son.” He also directed episodes of the popular sitcoms “Friends” and “Sabrina, the Teenage Witch.” He wrote the libretto and score of the musical “Open Heart,” which showed at the Cherry Lane Theatre in New York City. His memoir “I’m Not Dead...Yet!” chronicles his ability to lead a creative career while having survived four open-heart surgeries for a congenital valve defect. His talk at the IU Cinema, “Life of a Story,” covered writing a film script from start to finish, his 40 years in show business and the script he sold at age 18 as well as his successes and failures in movie making. During his time on the IU campus for the initial stages of his job interview, he attended meetings with faculty from the Jacobs School of Music and the Department of Theatre and Drama and a meeting with the dean of the College of Arts and Sciences. Additionally, Benson met with all faculty in the telecommunications department for two days. There are 24 faculty members in the department, according to the department’s website.The process is typical for prospective faculty members, Kelly said. “You basically get run completely through the gamut of meeting everyone, so everyone can get a sense of who you are so that we know if we want him and so he knows if he wants to be here,” she said. At the end of this week, faculty members will meet and discuss hiring Benson. Walter Gantz, chair of the department, said the professor of practice position is an “opportunity-based position.” A position for a professor of practice typically does not require a doctoral degree, but professors with the position usually have significant experience in their industry and an expressed interest in teaching.“I like to think of this as a courtship, because as a department and as a University, we have a lot to offer,” he said. “And as an individual with all his years of experience, he has a lot to offer.”
(11/30/12 2:48am)
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>No matter how often storylines follow the life of an artist struggling to make ends meet, such themes still carry the potential to resonate with a wide audience. In the Bloomington Playwrights Project upcoming comedy-drama “Lemonade,” stand-up comedian Gus and his family paint a bleak yet funny picture of artists balancing what they love and what they need to do to survive. The 75-minute play is scheduled to premiere 7:30 p.m. Friday on the BPP stage.Additional performances will be Dec. 1, 6-8 and 13-15. Tickets, which can be purchased at the Buskirk-Chumley Theater box office or online, cost $19 for the general public and $16 for students and senior citizens. Written by cartoonist and screenwriter Mark Krause, “Lemonade” was chosen out of 450 submissions for the Woodward/Newman Drama award. The award is sponsored by Newman’s Own Foundation and named after famous actors Joanne Woodward and Paul Newman. In addition to winning a $3,000 cash prize, the award also includes a full production on the BPP stage and an all-expense paid trip to Bloomington on Dec. 6 for Krause to see his show in action. “His was the best of the best,” said play director Chad Rabinovitz.Rehearsals for the show began the first week of November. Though Rabinovitz has the final say in all shows produced at the BPP, this is his seventh play he’s directed at the venue.“I was actually saying to people earlier that this for me, during my years here, is the most pertinent play I’ve produced because it’s about people struggling in this economy,” Rabinovitz said. “It’s about your average person.” Gus, played by Daniel J. Petrie, and Elyse are parents to a son and daughter who face overdue bills and the prospect of eviction. Elyse, performed by Catharine Du Bois, is a sculpture artist who cuts hair at a salon on the side, an occupation that makes up the bulk of the family’s income. Krause, who splits his time between Toronto and New York City, said he began working on “Lemonade” before the housing market started to decline in 2007 and finished it sometime in 2011. While the themes of the play don’t necessarily stem from his life, Krause said if people who knew him read his play, they would be able to tell detects parts of him in it, “almost like a smell.” “It’s sort of like a soup,” he said. “You see a carrot, or a whole carrot or it might have a bit of a carrot flavor in it. It’s in there and it’s helping to make the whole soup.” “Lemonade,” the second of the BPP’s 2012-13 season, might even resonate with the acting staff portraying the downtrodden yet optimistic characters in the play. Du Bois, who teaches at the Maurer School of Law and calls herself a “recovering lawyer,” is able to follow her passion by acting in the play.“My life touches up against people who are living very close to the edge,” she said. “But, fortunately, I’m not.” This is Du Bois’ fourth play at the BPP and her first time working with Rabinovitz as director. Rabinovitz said the play is ultimately about a family who appreciates the comedy in life and does everything they can to try to find the humor and optimism. “My favorite line in the play is when (one of the kids) tells the dad, ‘Someone said in school today that we’re poor. Dad, are we?’ And his response is, ‘It doesn’t matter if you’re poor, honey. It matters if you’re funny,’” he said. “That’s sort of what the play is about.”
(11/13/12 3:51am)
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>The Beatles changed his life. Anthony DeCurtis, longtime contributing editor at Rolling Stone and IU alumnus, will give a public lecture titled “50 Years On: Meeting The Beatles, What They Mean and Why They Matter” 7 p.m. today in Ballantine Hall 013. A lecturer at the University of Pennsylvania in the English department, DeCurtis’ lecture celebrates the popular Beatles course taught by Glenn Gass at the Jacobs School of Music. IDS: Looking through your Rolling Stone archives, you’ve written a lot about big names such as Whitney Houston, Prince and, of course, The Beatles. When and with whom was the first interview that you were extremely excited for? DeCurtis: Probably when I interviewed George Harrison for the first time in 1987. You know, you have a different response to people who had an impact on you when you were a kid. It was one thing to write about bands like U2 or R.E.M., bands I really like a lot. But on the other hand, I was a grown-up by the time they were working, and so while I really like them and think they’re great, bands like The Beatles and The Rolling Stones made me who I am, really. They’re the reason I do the work I do and kind of became the person I became, and so it was very ... it was kind of stunning. There’s a level of excitement to it, certainly. I interviewed Paul McCartney the day before, so it was kind of a double whammy. This was all happening in England. But, you know, McCartney was very organized, and we met in his office. Whereas with Harrison, I was talking to his wife for a week, and I went to England not really knowing he would even talk to me. When we did do the interview, it was in Friar Park where he was living. It was staggering. Harrison was a much more reclusive figure.IDS: Recently you’ve collaborated with Clive Davis for his upcoming autobiography. What was the process of working with him like? DeCurtis: In a lot of ways he was a dream subject. Clive has a long career, but also he went to Harvard Law (School). He’s an organized guy. So a lot of people who do these kind of collaborations, particularly ones that they’re doing with artists, just getting the artist to show up for the interview is part of the trick, whereas that was not the problem with Clive. We have a very regular schedule of interviews. We talked for more than 100 hours, and he was very focused. So all of that made the process run very smoothly. Also Clive is a very good writer, so his input was invaluable, and when we did edit, we really had something to contribute. It wasn’t a question of somebody writing a book for someone who can’t write. He read everything very carefully, we went over it together, he made plenty of additions and suggestions. It’s very much in his voice. So from those standpoints, it was kind of practical. It worked very well. And then there of course were all the stories about signing Bruce Springsteen and signing Janice Joplin, signing Whitney Houston and signing Alicia Keys. There’s Carlos Santana. There was a tremendous amount to talk about. I sort of feel like I haven’t run out of things I want to know from Clive. Naturally, we want to get the book done, and there’s plenty in it. It’s a big book. But I sort of feel like I miss talking to him all the time.IDS: You lecture at the University of Pennsylvania in the English department. What are some of the skills you wish you would have had or some of the things you wish you would’ve known early on as a music journalist? DeCurtis: Like a lot of journalism, you learn it through experience. My own class is very experiential. I make them go out and do stuff. I know a lot more about doing interviews than I did when I first started out. And I don’t know any other way I could have learned it without making all the mistakes I made. You gain confidence just because you’re used to being in these situations, and I don’t know that anybody can really teach you that. You can learn how to prepare, and you can learn how to put a story together, you know all of that stuff, and I learned how to do that. I guess the one thing I probably came to understand, and it certainly would be the one tip I would give to anybody to do an interview, is ... to just listen. I think it’s really to just pay attention to the person. You have your list of questions and can sort of use them as a crutch and just kind of miss whatever is going on with that individual. So that’s the main thing, I guess, but it’s an ongoing process. I still feel like I’m learning how to do it. IDS: What are three of your favorite albums that are not by The Beatles? DeCurtis: “Exile on Main Street” by The Rolling Stones, “Blonde on Blonde” by Bob Dylan. There are so many others, and any number of Beatles albums, as well. There is a live album by Townes Van Zandt called “Live at the Old Quarter” that I listen to a great deal and always with a tremendous amount of pleasure. So why don’t we say that one.IDS: Last question. What is it about the about the songs The Beatles – or whether it’s their image or them as a band – that has sustained their longevity? DeCurtis: Well, I think the one thing that is often overlooked about them is just how good they are. You know, I think that the songs sound so simple in a lot of ways, certainly the early stuff. But if you ever talk to musicians who try to play them or sing them, they’re not. But all that complexity is in the service of a kind of simplicity, a directness. They’re also, their career kind of had a perfect arc, as painful as the ending was. There was a very clear development, and a beginning, a middle and an end that I think is compressible to most people. So then if you get into The Beatles, it’s not a huge body of work. I mean, there are a million of their solo records that they made and all this other stuff subsequent to The Beatles breaking up. But for The Beatles as The Beatles, it’s a good story, and people can engage it pretty easily. My daughter is 6 years old. She likes The Beatles, and I like The Beatles. It runs a big gamut, and I wasn’t somebody who sat her down and gave her lectures on what The Beatles are about. I just put them on, and as I was listening to them, she responded. I personally find myself really fascinated by the early stuff. Lately, I think it’s easy to get caught up what “Sgt. Pepper” was and even “Revolver” and then later “Abbey Road,” of course, but the early stuff I just find so interesting now for some reason. When they really were a band and they also were just trying to write so many different kind of songs ... The idea we would be talking about them for 50 years later, I think, it just would have been unthinkable to them at that point. They were just working as musicians and songwriters, and they were working pretty hard. Again, you can hear what would develop and just hear it for what it is. It’s a very kind of distinct aspect.
(11/06/12 3:00am)
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>The films of Paris-based filmmaker Claire Denis will play this week at IU Cinema followed by “An Evening with Claire Denis” at 7 p.m. Nov. 10. Denis is the sixth filmmaker to speak for the Jorgensen Guest Filmmaker Lecture Series at the IU Cinema. This will be Denis’ first visit on a four-stop tour that also includes the University of Notre Dame, Walker Arts Center in Minneapolis and Emory University in Atlanta. Unifrance, an organization that promotes French cinema, is paying for Denis’ international and domestic travel. Director of 20 films and a professor of film at the European Graduate School in Switzerland, Denis spent her childhood and formative years traveling across Africa, a maturing experience that she said is the basis of the themes in her films. On Sunday, IU Cinema screened her 1988 film debut “Chocolat” and her 1994 film “I Can’t Sleep,” which explores the themes of cultural displacement and racial conflict among immigrants. “Nenette and Boni” (1996) When: 7 p.m. today Receiving international reception and one of her most successful works, the coming-of-age drama finds siblings Nenette and Boni grappling with life after their parents’ divorce and mother’s suicide. “The Intruder” (2004) When: 6:30 p.m. ThursdaySet in a forest near the French-Swiss border, 68-year-old Louis Trebor lives alone with dogs and seeks a heart transplant before searching for his son, who lived for years in Tahiti. Denis took inspiration from a memoir by French philosopher Jean-Luc Nancy and paintings by Paul Gauguin. “Beau Travail/Good Work” (1998) When: 3 p.m. Saturday “Beau Travail” focuses on an ex-Foreign Legion officer stationed in the African country of Djibouti and is based loosely on Herman Melville’s novella “Billy Budd, Salior.” Eroticism and antagonism are seen between a sergeant and a new legionnaire recruit. Denis is scheduled to be present during the screening of this film.“Trouble Every Day” (2001)When: 9:30 p.m. Saturday Leaving audiences stunned at the 2001 Cannes Film Festival, actors Vincent Gallo and Tricia Vessey play a young American couple spending their honeymoon in Paris. The film features shocking scenes of sexual cannibalism and blurs the lines between low and high genres. Denis is scheduled to be present during the screening of this film.“Matériel Blanc/White Material” (2009) When: 3 p.m. Sunday Denis’ latest film, scripted by novelist Marie NDiaye, is set in the west-central African country Cameroon and depicts a white French family surrounded by unrest and rebellion. Denis is scheduled to be present during the screening of this film.
(11/02/12 2:37am)
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>For two years, IU alumnus Arec Simeri saw a need for a family Italian restaurant in the Geist neighborhoods of Indianapolis. While Arec managed Scotty’s Brewhouse in downtown Indianapolis, customers often told him that what the Geist community needed was a homemade pizzeria. Now, the Geist community will get a taste of Simeri’s signature cracker-crust pizza at the new Simeri’s Italian restaurant, which opens Nov. 12.“They had chain pizza here, but they didn’t have any homemade, good family-recipe pizzas,” Simeri said. The menu features traditional Italian appetizers, main courses and desserts, along with 12-inch and 16-inch cracker-crust pizzas. Generations of Simeri’s family have used the same pizza sauce recipe.Simeri, who studied at the Kinsey Institute and the Department of Telecommunications at IU, grew up working in the family business operated in Northern Indiana since the 1950s. While finishing the coursework for his master’s degree in telecommunications, Simeri said the first time he got paid to work at a restaurant was when he began working for Four Winds Resort & Marina and Scotty’s Brewhouse in Bloomington. Later — before he was able to finish his thesis — he worked as the assistant general manager at Scotty’s Lakehouse in Geist. “This was kind of always my dream since my family had done it forever,” he said.When looking for the right location for the restaurant, which seats 90 people, Simeri said he didn’t look anywhere but in the Geist neighborhood. Four months ago, Simeri found the building that is still being renovated and was previously a pub.Simeri said he wanted a small location that caters to Geist community members.The restaurant is operated primarily by family and a few friends. Matt Kwiatkowski, a manager at Scotty’s Brewhouse with Simeri for four years before becoming manager of Detour American Grille Express in Castleton in Indianapolis, assisted Simeri in determining menu prices.The two also worked together at Scotty’s Lakehouse for less than a year. Kwiatkowski said Simeri talked a lot about opening a restaurant of his own. “That was always something that kind of interested him,” he said. “He applied the knowledge that he gained from working at Scotty’s, and we both saw enough of what did work and what didn’t work for restaurants.” Simeri said his favorite part about working in the restaurant industry, despite the state of the economy, is being able to manage crises. “I kind of thrive on that chaos, if that makes sense,” he said. “I love when it all kind of starts to go to hell, and you can kind of steer it in the right direction. I love that.”
(10/26/12 3:46am)
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>Drama and electronica music will become one on Friday night. Jacobs School of Music alumnus Dennis James and freelance percussionist Mark Goldstein will match electronic instruments to the 1926 silent film “Faust” 7:30 p.m. Friday at the IU Auditorium.Representing the “light and goodness” of the angel, James will play the organ and the theremin, an eerie-sounding instrument popular in soundtracks for 1950s and 1960s sci-fi movies. Goldstein will play the Bulcha Lightning Wands, an electronic musical device. “I’m the nasty-down-and-dirty devil who is trying to steal souls,” Goldstein said. As in previous years, Bloomington station 96.7 FM will partner with the auditorium for a Halloween costume contest live on stage before the performance. Known as the Filmharmonia duo, James and Goldstein have performed together for about 20 years. They met through mutual friend Karen Bentley, a professional violinist. In 1998, the two first performed to “Faust,” which was directed by F.W. Murnau, at the Castro Theatre in San Francisco. James, who was one of the first students at the Jacobs School of Music to experiment with electronic music, said he became more intrigued when he heard Goldstein played the moog synthesizer, an electronic music device. “I immediately went to his home for a demo, and then I immediately conceived of how I could integrate electronic music with my film music that I had been doing with the organ, and we’ve been touring ever since,” James said. The organization Filmharmonia, a twist on the concept for a philharmonic orchestra, allows James to work with freelance musicians to silent films. Bloomington is one of four cities the duo will tour to perform to the movie “Faust.” James has been performing for Halloween at the auditorium nearly every year since 1969, just three years before he graduated with his bachelor’s degree from the music school. He said the auditorium, particularly director Doug Booher, had been “pestering” him to play the electronic music to “Faust” rather than just playing the organ. “We’ve had such a tradition of doing organ solo and presenting this sort of IU personality for all these years that this departure, I think, was a little bit much for him to consider,” James said. Booher said in an email that he hasn’t had the chance to see James and Goldstein play together. “Enhancing this great IU Halloween tradition by showing a new title and including additional instruments will definitely make it a night to remember,” he said.
(10/22/12 3:25am)
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>Jeff Torbenson, coach for the Bloomington Playwrights Project’s little league team, threw a ball with this year’s themes written on it to the stage. BPP Producing Artistic Director Chad Rabinovitz caught the ball with a baseball mitt and read what the nine different teams had to work with during the weekend. A bike horn. Underdogs. “I’m not who you think I am.” These were all themes of the 2012 Ike and Julie Arnove Playoffs fundraising event Saturday and Sunday at the playwrights project.The playwrights, who met with the actors and a director they chose, had until 6 a.m. the following morning to submit their drafts. Performers including “managers” (playwrights), “coaches” (directors) and “players” (actors) had 24 hours to prepare 10-minute plays integrating this year’s themes. After Sunday night’s performances, audience members voted for their favorite play and actor to decide who was the most valuable player.Some participants of the playoffs began raising money at the end of September. This year’s proceeds amounted to more than $20,000, the largest fundraised amount in the theater’s 32-year history. All proceeds went to the BPP. “This is our largest fundraiser, our most successful fundraiser,” BPP Managing Director Jessica Reed said. The fundraiser is named in memory of current BPP board of directors member Robert Arnove’s parents, Isadore and Julie Arnove.Following his father’s death in 2007, Robert inherited a World War II painting by French orientalist painter G. Washington. The painting was thought to be worth about $200, but world-renowned art auction house Sotheby’s discovered the painting was worth thousands of dollars. Robert donated the money to the child advocacy program at Middle Way House and the playoffs. A founder of pharmaceutical business Parkway Drugs in Chicago, Isadore was a pragmatist while his mother was a romantic, Robert said.“She liked ... to dance to music barefoot around the house, and she was a poetic soul,” he said. “So I think it’s a very fitting way of remembering them.” Reed said participants of the playoffs are involved with the BPP in some capacity. “There really isn’t a method,” she said. “We just put out a callout to find people who want to participate and, if they’re willing, to do a little bit of the fundraising. We have a lot of the same people year after year do it.” Team names included Mötley Crüe, the Far-off Broadway Bombers and Ball Girls. Former ballet dancer Jack Johnson was the chosen director of the team, $9 Martinis. Their play “Honk Me,” performed Saturday and Sunday evenings, was written by Atlas Bar owner Jennifer Hileman. Hileman, who did not have prior theater experience, said the play was about a son, a father and a grandfather. It involved a magical bike horn that made the characters change body shapes. The body changes represented interpersonal conflicts. “When I got her script, I howled, I loved it,” Johnson said. “For it being under such time constraints, she made it easy.” WinnersAudience Choice Award: "Voting Rites" by Greg EllisWorld Series Trophy: "The Games" by C. Niel ParsonsMost Valuable Player" David Sheehan, actor
(10/18/12 2:24am)
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>The Roaring Twenties were a time of jazz, art deco and women cutting off their hair.Musical comedy operetta “The Merry Widow,” set in this wild period, begins at 7 p.m. today in the Musical Arts Center.Additional performances are scheduled for 8 p.m. Friday and Saturday and 2 p.m. Sunday. The operetta’s 1920s setting breaks from the original production that premiered at the Theater an der Wien in Vienna in 1905, a time when operettas were both sentimental and comedic. Librettists Viktor Léon and Leo Stein based the story on an 1861 comedy play called “The Embassy Attache,” with score by Austro-Hungarian composer Franz Lehár.The musical comedy follows Baron Zeta, ambassador of the fictional Eastern European country Pontevedro, trying to get Hanna Glawari, widow of the wealthiest man in the fictional country Pontevedro, to marry Count Danilo Danilovich. If Glawari marries a man who isn’t a native of Pontevedro, the country loses all of its money. Stage Director Vincent Liotta, professor of music in opera studies at the Jacobs School, said he tends to look at the text of the play and see what it’s trying to tell him. This is his fifth time stage directing “The Merry Widow.” “It kind of started to jump out at me that what this needs is some place where it can have a lot more energy and be a lot less sedate,” he said. “And that is kind of what has driven the idea of the production.” A little more than a year ago, Liotta began working on the operetta’s concept and also began retranslating the original German text into English. Liotta said no one thinks of the early 20th century as racy but that the creators intended for “The Merry Widow” to be a modern piece.After researching 1920s Paris, Liotta said he wanted to suggest that same racy feeling to audiences. “The whole style is to make the most of the words, and in this case, it’s supposed to be a fairly fast-paced comedy,” he said. “So, we’re going to direct it like a fairly fast-paced comedy and not try to make it something that it isn’t just because it was written in 1905.” For this production, the opera singers did more than just sing in German. “The Merry Widow” also combines dancing and English dialogue. Elizabeth Toy, who plays lead Hanna Glawari, said the opera includes more dancing than any other she’s done. “With the dialogue, you have to compose it yourself, as it were, so you have to think of how you want it to sound,” she said. “You can’t rely on what somebody else has already written.”Toy, a first-year doctoral student at the Jacobs School, will perform Friday and Sunday. Having worked with Liotta in “Vincent” and “A View from the Bridge” in 2011, Toy said she thinks she understands his style of directing. “I enjoy the fact that he allows his actors and his singers to make decisions,” she said. “He’s very in tune to the text and to the intention of the composer and the story, which I always appreciate.” Baritone Christopher Grundy portrays Count Danilovich during productions with Toy. While preparing for shows such as the “The Merry Widow,” Grundy said, the work is 90 percent studying the score and the libretto and 10 percent rehearsal.“When you play a character like Danilo, you do have to spend most of your time figuring out what his relationships are with all the other people and how, in a very short amount of time on stage, you can convey all of these different relationships so that people immediately ... know how you relate,” he said. Toy said “The Merry Widow” is a good opera due to the elements of dialogue and dancing.“It’s really lighthearted and fun,” she said.
(10/11/12 1:51am)
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>Jazz legend David Baker uses a rarely heard word to describe longtime friend and associate Harvey Phillips: magnanimous. Then again, Phillips, distinguished professor emeritus and famous tuba player, was a rare breed of musician. That spirit is captured in his recently published book, “Mr. Tuba,” which he wrote during the last 10 years of his life. The book was published by IU Press. Phillips died in October 2010 at the age of 80 in his Bloomington home. He suffered from Parkinson’s Disease.Before Phillips joined the faculty at the Jacobs School of Music — five years after Baker became chair of the jazz studies program — the two recorded “The Golden Striker.” Baker played jazz trombone and Phillips played tuba. Later, Phillips commissioned a tuba piece for Baker as he did for more than 100 people throughout his life.Phillips’ family asked Baker to write the foreword for “Mr. Tuba.”“Despite the fact that we were closer in age, Harvey was like a mentor to me,” Baker said. “I don’t think there’s a day that goes by that I don’t quote him in some circumstance or another.” After graduating high school in Marionville, Mo., Phillips took a summer job playing tuba with the King Bros. Circus and eventually played for the Ringling Brothers and Barnum & Bailey Circus. Phillips then trained with William Bell, his predecessor at IU, at the Julliard School. He later joined the U.S. Army Field Band and helping form the New York Brass Quintet.Soley credited with establishing the tuba as a respected instrument, Phillips started the annual concert series TubaChristmas and Octubafest in 1974 in honor of Bell. Daniel Perantoni, Jacobs School tuba professor said to be Phillips’ protégé, said his students helped Phillips put the book together because he was ill. Perantoni met Phillips in New York, and they became good friends. Phillips ultimately led Perantoni to become a college instructor . He knew Phillips for 45 years. “We have a lot of good, funny things going back and forth, but he was an absolute giant of a man in all aspects,” Perantoni said. “A wonderful player, a wonderful teacher and a wonderful friend. He’s just one of the greatest people I’ve ever known.” Peranotoni said “Mr. Tuba” is about Phillips’ life, what it meant to him and how he documented everything he did. Mary Campbell, a retired music writer for the Associated Press, began transcribing the stories Phillips wanted to include in the book in 2001. The two met when she interviewed him for an AP article. Before the book became a memoir, Phillips asked Campbell if she would interview people who knew him. She spent 2001 and 2002 interviewing people who “praised his tuba playing.” Much of that content was thrown away, Campbell said. IU Press denied the version of the book, which largely consisted of what other people said about Phillips. “His telling of his story was more interesting than anybody commenting on his story,” Campbell said. In 2010, the book was submitted again, and IU Press decided to publish it. Phillips’ wife Carol helped edit “Mr. Tuba,” but she said there are some omissions in the book she thinks should have been included.“He told wonderful stories, but in editing sometimes things get lost, personalities get lost,” she said. Baker said he hasn’t had the chance to “really do the loving of the book,” only in portions when he has time. “It does capture you that way,if you have another life like I do as a teacher and a performer,” he said. “So, I read it in chunks when the day doesn’t feel good. I read it, and then my day jumps up, and it feels great because of Harvey.”
(10/04/12 4:17am)
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>Some communities struggle with change. This is one of the issues the 2011 film “Gun Hill Road” addresses. As part of National Hispanic American Heritage Month, IU Cinema screened the film Wednesday evening. In addition, the cinema featured a before-and-after talk by actor and activist Esai Morales. In the film, Morales plays Enrique, a father who returns home to his emotionally estranged family after three years in prison. His wife attempts to hide an affair while his son, played by Harmony Santana, starts to explore his sexual identity and dresses like a woman. Morales, who cofounded the National Hispanic Foundation for the Arts, a non-profit that advances Latinos in media, starred in “Bad Boys” in 1983 and played one of the lead roles in “La Bamba” in 1987.Lillian Casillas, director of La Casa Culture Center, said Morales was asked to discuss his experiences as a Latino actor in television and movies, as well as the impact of the film. “I think even though (the movie) is within a Latino context, you can pretty much place those characters, those behaviors in any community that you would go into,” Casillas said. Morales also spoke with about 40 students at the Neal-Marshall Black Culture Center at IU on Wednesday. Rashaad Ernesto Green, writer and director of “Gun Hill Road,” visited IU in April 2012 for the Latino Film Festival and Conference. It was then that John Nieto-Phillips, director of the Latino Studies Program at IU, first saw the film. Nieto-Phillips, whose academic research focuses on 20th-century immigration and education from Latin America, said the film shows a universal topic of families going through change. “But more specifically I think it really touches on clash between sort of outmoded, outdated ideas about what it means to be a male or to be a man,” he said. After introducing the film at IU Cinema, Morales said he thinks audiences root for the central character in the film without anticipating it. “I think this film humanizes a segment of our society that is more often better left untalked about because it’s so uncomfortable,” he said. “This movie at times is uncomfortable.”Other events featured at IU as part of Hispanic Heritage Month will address topics similar to the theme in “Gun Hill Road.” IU Cinema will screen “Maestra” at 7 p.m. Monday. Director Catherine Murphy will be present.“¿Queer y que? Questions for Queer Latinidad” will start at 7 p.m. Oct. 18 at La Casa.
(09/28/12 2:23am)
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>Susan Seizer knows good comedy.This could be due to the four years she spent filming and producing “Road Comics: Big Work on Small Stages,” a documentary about working-class, stand-up comedians who perform on the road.Seizer, an associate professor in the Department of Communication and Culture, interviewed road comics Stewart Huff, Kristin Key and Tim Northern for her first film. She studied their days living on the road and performing at comedy clubs in middle America.As of early September, the film was chosen for the 2012 Cincinnati Film Festival and will play at 6:30 p.m. Sunday at IU Cinema, where Seizer will be present for a question and answer session. “Road Comics” will also show at other national festivals later this year, including the Landlocked Film Festival in Iowa and the second annual Chicago Comedy Film Festival. “I think the film is a really intelligent tribute to a kind of art form that is very much present but also under challenge,” said Brenda Weber, a friend and colleague of Seizer.Weber and other colleagues watched “Road Comics” during rough cut about three years ago. At an initial screening, IU Cinema Director Jon Vickers watched the film and later told Weber he’d like to screen it at the IU Cinema. Before embarking on the ambitious project, Seizer wrote a book that raises the same questions about how certain performance artists fit into society. “Stigmas of the Tamil Stage,” published in 2005, is an ethnographic study of special drama, a popular form of comedy performance art in southern India. “In both cases the artists are very much responsible for their own repertory roles, for writing their own material, for providing their own costumes and makeup and for traveling to and from gigs,” Seizer said in an email. Seizer received ample funding for her film from New Frontiers in the Arts and Humanities, an IU research funding program. She also received supplementary travel funds from the College Arts and Humanities Institute at IU as well as a grant-in-aid for faculty research for finishing funds from the Office of the Vice President for Research. Seizer is currently working on a book of essays to supplement the film. While following the three comics during her research, Seizer said she found herself taking on the role of promoter and appreciator of an art form that many people consider too vulgar for serious study.“Humor in general suffers from such a bias against being taken seriously,” Seizer said. “But I find that some of the wisest and most creative responses to our common social condition often come wrapped in the cloak of comedy.” One of the venues in which the comedians in the film perform is Bear’s Place in Bloomington. The venue features mostly live musical performances and no longer hires stand-up comics. The Comedy Attic on South Walnut Street draws well known comedians whose resumes tend to include TV shows, comedy writing and online video series. Weber, who is also an associate professor in gender studies, said the film might make viewers aware of a previously unknown category of performance artists. “I think they’re going to get a deeper appreciation of the labor that’s involved and the talent that’s involved and having a job that requires that you basically cover the country in your car telling jokes,” she said. “It’s not something to think about as a job very often.”
(09/28/12 2:15am)
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>More than 60 years ago, dance legend Martha Graham created the perfect role for herself. Now, sophomore Carly Hammond in the Jacobs School of Music ballet department will dance that role, the bride in “Appalachian Spring.” The iconic piece is one of three American ballets that will be part of the fall ballet program “Light and Shade.” The department’s 2012-13 ballet theater season will open at 8 p.m. Friday at the Musical Arts Center after a 7 p.m. pre-concert talk. The second performance will be 8 p.m. Saturday. “Sweet Fields,” created by American choreographer and dancer Twyla Tharp, will open the show with a live choral performance of hymns by William Billings. Second in the lineup is Peter Martin’s “Eight Easy Pieces” and “Eight More,” danced playfully to piano and orchestra score of Igor Stravinsky.Zippora Karz, a former New York City Ballet soloist ballerina, stage directed the piece. Closing the night is “Appalachian Spring,” the oldest yet most stylistically modern ballet of the program. American composer Aaron Copeland wrote the score for Graham. At age 54, Graham — who died at age 96 in 1991 — played the role of the bride.The eight-dancer piece is set in 19th century Pennsylvania, where a newlywed couple, a neighbor, a revivalist preacher and his followers celebrate spring after the building of a new farmhouse. After receiving the role for one of the preacher’s followers, Hammond was asked to play the bride by stage director Denise Vale. Vale once performed as a pioneer in the ballet and is senior artistic associate at the Martha Graham Dance Company in New York. “I was really happy,” Hammond said. “I was really shocked. I didn’t expect to be getting such a big role in fall ballet because it can be really competitive because there are so many girls, and so many talented girls, I’d say.” Vale came to Bloomington four weeks ago. Since then, rehearsal has been non-stop for Hammond, who practiced a full dress rehearsal Wednesday evening. Hammond said the dance techniques for “Appalachian Spring,” which are named for Graham, proved particularly challenging. Graham, considered the mother of modern dance, deviated from classical ballet with specific body movements such as the contraction, release and spiral.The moves continue to have a profound influence on modern dance today. “It’s more earthy and more internal,” Hammond said. “We have more contact with the floor. We’re actually rolling on the ground. That doesn’t really happen in ballet. It uses a lot of different muscles.” Alexander Brady, stage director for “Sweet Fields,” attended the School of American Ballet and has worked closely with Tharp. He staged “Sweet Fields” at the American Dance Festival in 2011. Michael Vernon, chair of the ballet department, continues to teach classes at New York-based Steps. He worked with dancers from the New York City Ballet and the American Ballet Theatre. Vernon emphasized the importance of the dancers being able to work with choreographers who worked with the original creators and who know “the true intent of the choreography.” “We’re having a woman who danced the role when Martha Graham was still alive, one of the principle roles, so she gives them what Martha Graham wanted her to say,” Vernon said. “And the same with Twyla Tharp. We have someone who worked with Twyla Tharp very closely. Someone who knows exactly Twyla style and what she wants.” Although “Sweet Fields” showed at IU in 2008, the combination of the three all-American pieces makes this fall program particularly special, said Vernon, and no ballet program will ever be repeated. “It’s like a journey from one dance to another,” he said. Hammond said she and the dancers were at first intimidated by Graham’s presence. However, the role has enabled Hammond to work closely with Graham, who she now considers a coach and a role model. Vale said Copeland intended for “Appalachian Spring” to inspire the “pioneering spirit” for people during the dark days of World War II.“But I don’t want it to be a museum piece,” Vale said. “If I’ve done my job and the dancers are with me... they should be able to give back the feeling of a very fresh and honest and youthful performance no matter what date it was made and what the thematic story of it is.”
(09/18/12 3:16am)
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>When it comes to jazz, audience is important. That’s the advice Brent Wallarab, associate professor of music at the Jacobs School of Music’s Jazz Studies Department, said he gives his students. On Monday evening at the Musical Arts Center, the Brent Wallarab Jazz Ensemble kicked off the fall jazz season with big band music by Thad Jones, Jim McNeely and Clare Fischer, including the original piece “Durkees Ferry Road” composed by graduate student Michael Nearpass. “(Jazz) tells more about the people than anything else,” Wallarab said. “The people who are performing, the people who composed it and arranged it. Jazz at it’s best tells a pretty amazing story — about creativity, about the history of the United States of America.”Nearpass is doing an independent study for jazz composition with Wallarab.“The original assignment was to take a melodic cell or fragment ... a melodic statement, and then base the entire piece of music around one statement, but have it be new and different at each of the different sections of the piece,” Nearpass said.The goal of the study is for Nearpass to draft an original composition or arrangement at each concert performed by the Wallarab Jazz Ensemble. The ensemble’s next performance is Oct. 22 at the MAC and will feature famous jazz trombonist Curtis Fuller. Nearpass, a Terre Haute native, said “Durkees Ferry Road” refers to one of the first roads outside of his hometown. The road leads toward the School of Music at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, where he received his undergraduate degree. “So just whenever I was going up that road toward Chicago, it was sort of the first road where I knew that I was on my way sort of thing,” he said. “And then coming back, it’s the last road before you get into town. So it’s just a benchmark of either trips.” After auditioning during the first week of fall semester classes, junior Amanda Garnier scored a spot on the Wallarab Jazz Ensemble. Garnier plays the lead soprano, alto saxophoneand the clarinet with the ensemble. Garnier, who is one of 18 members in the ensemble, said she likes playing original compositions that are written by younger composers. “There’s something about the textures in the music,” she said. “I don’t want to say I connect to it more, but it’s a very different experience for me than playing traditional swing tunes.” Other than the Wallarab Jazz Ensemble performances scheduled for this jazz season, assistant professor Jeremy Allen will lead a big band jazz ensemble on Monday. The Latin Jazz Ensemble, directed by Jacobs associate professor Michael Spiro, has also been added to this year’s lineup at the MAC. Jazz guitarist Mike Stern will visit for clinics at 2:30 p.m. on Oct. 4 inside Ford Hall. New Singing Hoosier director Steve Zegree will also direct the IU Jazz Ensemble with vocal jazz coach Ly Wilder from 8 to 10:30 p.m. Oct. 26 at Cafe Django. “Things are going to look a little different this season,” Wallarab said. “But all of it nevertheless is representative of the best that our students have to offer, representative of the great tradition that David Baker himself has established here.”
(09/17/12 2:34am)
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>Bass-baritone Jason Eck sat in his dressing room Friday night, preparing to perform one of the most coveted roles in opera. Only 30 minutes remained before the opening night of “Don Giovanni” at the Musical Arts Center.Eck, a graduate student in the Jacobs School of Music, appeared calm and relaxed before playing the role of Giovanni’s fumbling servant, Leporello.Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart’s “Don Giovanni” opened Friday to a sold-out house and is the first production of the IU Opera and Ballet Theater’s 2012-13 season. “Don Giovanni” will show 8 p.m. Friday and Saturday at the MAC. The opera, which premiered at the Prague Italian opera at the Teatro di Praga in 1787, showed again in Bloomington on Saturday with a different cast. More than 1,000 tickets were sold for seats in the hall, which can contain at most 1,420 people.“It was quite different, more vocally expressive and a little less action-oriented, and powerful in its own way,” Alain Barker, director of marketing and publicity at the Jacobs School of Music, said in an email. “It’s quite striking how the personality of the performers shapes the outcome of the opera. The Jacobs School has ‘Living Music’ as its tagline, and I thought of it at times through both performances.”The Friday and Saturday performances were streamed live on the IU Music Live! website, kicking off the 2012-13 streaming season for the Jacobs School. About 1,200 viewers from 19 countries viewed the live stream this week, said Konrad Strauss, director of the recording arts at the Jacobs School.“Don Giovanni,” written by Italian librettist Lorenzo Da Ponte, is a tragic comedy about womanizer Don Giovanni, who tricks, seduces and abandons women. At the beginning of the first of two acts in the opera, Leporello keeps watch as Giovanni seduces Donna Anna before killing her father, the Commendatore. “I tend to play a lot of comedic characters,” Eck said. “The comedy sort of comes a little more naturally to me, but it is difficult because you have to get the timing down, and there are certain bits or moments you have to do with your other colleagues.” The more comedic moments were during scenes when Leporello pretends to be Giovanni. In a similar scene, Donna Elvira, played by music student Kelly Glyptis during the Friday performance, grabs onto Leporello, thinking he is Giovanni. “You sort of have to find what’s funny and then figure out why it was funny and then try to recreate it as much as you can,” Eck said. Eck had to grow a beard for his role to complement the intentionally scraggly wig pinned on his head. There was no shortage of sensual scenes. At the beginning of Act One, Giovanni and Donna Anna are seen in bed together. Krista Wilhelmsen, who played Donna Anna during Friday’s performance, said one of her favorite moments on stage is with Don Ottavio, Anna’s betrothed. After Giovanni slays the Commendatore, Ottavio and Anna place their hands in the blood of Anna’s father and hold up their bloody hands. Anna makes Ottavio swear vengeance against Giovanni. “It’s just an amazing theatrical moment on stage,” Wilhelmsen said. “It’s really intense, and the music lends itself to that intensity as well.”Wilhelmsen said audience enjoyment helps the performers keep up their energy and continue becoming their characters. “It really evolves on stage,” she said. “You really become that performer. You are Donna Anna when you’re on stage.”
(09/14/12 4:06am)
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>He tricks. He seduces. He kills. He’s Don Giovanni. One of opera’s most famous productions will be brought to life at 8 p.m. Friday and Saturday in the Musical Arts Center, kicking off the 2012-13 IU Opera and Ballet Theater season. “Don Giovanni” will also show 8 p.m. Sept. 21 and 22. The double-cast opera is similar to the original production that premiered at the Prague Italian opera at the Teatro di Praga in 1787. With music by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart and story by Italian librettist Lorenzo Da Ponte, stage director James Marvel said Friday’s and Saturday’s performances will be different for audiences. “That plays into the idea of having the two different casts and allowing them to pursue their own kind of interpretation,” said Marvel, who previously stage directed “Albert Herring,” “Suor Angelica,” “Gianni Schicchi” and “Lucia di Lammermoor” at IU.“Don Giovanni” is a two-act opera in which Giovanni seduces and abandons women. Some of the central characters include Leporello, Giovanni’s servant; Donna Anna, whom Giovanni attempts to seduce in the first act; Don Ottavio, Anna’s fiancé; and Commendatore, Anna’s father. In the end, Giovanni receives his comeuppance in the form of a statue which comes to life.A different version of “Don Giovanni” at London’s Coliseum in 2010 depicted Giovanni, according to critics, as a “seedy rapist,” complete with an urban setting. Opera Las Vegas’ version of “Giovanni,” which was performed last summer, featured the actors in modern clothes in a minimalist set.In the last few months, Marvel said he has watched about eight productions of “Giovanni.” “When I see what one director does, I may disagree with every single idea I see,” he said. “There might be some small element that they put in their production that I love and I decide to put that one small element in a much grander kind of setting.” C. David Higgins, who has worked as scenic artist at the MAC since it opened in 1971, created the set and costume design. The physical production of the set was mounted several years ago, Marvel said. Zachary Coates, who plays Giovanni opening night and Sept. 22, calls Marvel’s direction style “fearless.” Most directors have an idea of what their show is going to look like, which determines the outcome of the final product. But not with Marvel, said Coates, a vocal performance major at the Jacobs School of Music. “It can be a little scary for some directors just because you never know what’s going to come up, but I think it’s an amazing way to put a show together,” he said. Fulfilling “one of the big characters of literature and art” was scary for Coates, he said. Coates played romantic leads before and worked with Marvel for “Albert Herring” during the 2011-12 opera season. He said playing Don Giovanni has been a surreal experience. He saw the opera for the first time when he was 15 at the Santa Fe Opera House. Marvel said he and Coates discussed how Coates could portray Giovanni as a sex addict who involves himself in dangerous situations. “Zachary is a very visceral Don Giovanni,” he said. “He says hello by sucking on your neck. He doesn’t even say hello. He just goes right for it.” Conductor Arthur Fagen, professor of music in orchestral conducting at Jacobs, said he has worked with Marvel three times. Fagen, who has conducted several of Mozart’s most famous works including “Così fan tutte” during the last opera season said every audience member will relate to the show in a different way. “Other people are going to be upset by somebody who is basically a murderer and a rapist, too,” he said. “Some people are just going to enjoy the beautiful music and just be entertained by this opera. People come away feeling different things from ‘Don Giovanni.’”
(09/13/12 2:03am)
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>The Indiana Memorial Union’s Whittenberger Auditorium can seat about 400 people. But Tuesday evening, about 200 people were turned away to hear German filmmaker Werner Herzog deliver his first Patten lecture of the week. Herzog, one of a few German directors who emerged during the New German Cinema movement from the 1960s to the 1980s, is one of three Patten lecturers conducted by the William T. Patten Foundation for 2012-13. The second lecture, “The Transformative Role of Music in Film,” was originally scheduled for 7:30 p.m. today at the Whittenberger Auditorium but was moved to the IU Auditorium to accommodate a potentially larger audience.During his lecture Tuesday evening, “The Search for Ecstatic Truth,” Herzog explored the topic of how truth is represented in cinema. He incorporated humor, literature, film clips and anecdotal information from his filmmaking experiences. “His whole career he’s been crossing back and forth between documentary and fiction film,” said Gregory Waller, who has taught courses in American and Japanese cinema at the Department of Communication and Culture. “And most directors don’t do that. They do it pretty rarely. ... He’s very much present in most of them as a kind of subject or a presence.” In addition to giving the two Patten lectures, attending classes and meeting faculty, Herzog will participate in a public interview with Waller at 3 p.m. Friday at the IU Cinema.Waller, editor of the academic journal Film History, will transcribe the interview and ask Herzog his own questions. The transcription will be used for an article in the journal’s next issue. Herzog’s appearance at the cinema is endowed in part by the Ove W Jorgensen Foundation. Some of Herzog’s most popular films, including “Fitzcarraldo,” have been added to IU Cinema’s film schedule. Indermohan Virk, executive director of the Patten Foundation, said an emeritus faculty member told her the lecture attendance Tuesday was the largest he’s seen in 50 years. “This opportunity is exactly what the foundation was established for,” Virk said. “To bring folks who have made some achievements and left a mark in their field.” Herzog is the second filmmaker chosen for a Patten lecture. In 1977-78, documentary filmmaker Marcel Ophuls was a Patten lecturer. After a few years of correspondence with Herzog, IU Cinema Director Jon Vickers nominated the director for a lectureship. Before the Tuesday night lecture, Vickers called Herzog a poet, craftsman, tamer of wild actors, surveyor of landscapes and seeker of truth.“I just returned from the Toronto Film Festival and spoke with many colleagues that are programmers, and everyone is jealous of Indiana University for having Werner Herzog for five days,” Vickers said. “I mean, truly, so many people have tried to get him to come to their cinetech, and to have him for five days is pretty unprecedented.” Faculty members from communications and culture, the Germanic studies department and the film and media studies department wrote letters of recommendation to the Patten Foundation. “We feel that we put together a really fantastic nomination, which I think was enthusiastically and unanimously approved,” Vickers said.