Lentz Center exhibits
to show Samurai art
By Micki Haller
Staff Reporter
Even though the Lent/ Center for
Asian Culture opens Changing Ex
hibit Number Five on Sunday, parts of
the display were in place Tuesday.
“Steel Art: The Fabulous Swords
of Japan” arc from a private collec
tion . The exhibit features graceful
Japanese blades, sword mounts and
scabbards, as well as examples of
peace-time artwork, such as a life
sized lobster made of iron.
The lobster, crafted by Samurai
smiths, provides contrast to the
swords.
A special public opening will be
held in the Lentz Center for Asian
Culture at 3 p.m. on Sunday.
A presentation, titled “Japanese
Swords as an ArtForm,” will be given
by Dr. Peter Bleed, associate profes
sor of anthropology at the University
of Nebraska-Lincoln.
The Lent/Center is at Morrill Hall
304, the University of Nebraska State
Museum.
Hours for the Lent/ Center arc 10
a.m. to 4 p.m. Tuesday through
Thursday and 1:30 p.m. to 4:30 p.m.
on Sundays. The Center is closed
Mondays and some holidays.
Special holiday hours arc 1:30
p.m. to 4 p.m. on Dec. 22, 23, 27,29
and 30. On Dec. 26, the museum will
beopenfrom 10a.m. to4 p.m. Normal
hours will resume on Jan. 2, 1988.
Shorts
“Little Murders,” written by Pulit
zer Prize-winning cartoonist Jules
Feiffer, will be performed at the Uni
versity of Nebraska at Omaha tonight,
Saturday, Sunday and Monday in
UNO’s Studio Theatre located in the
Arts and Sciences Hall, room 214.
According to Kevin Barratt, a
UNO graduate student in dramatic
arts and director of “Little Murders,”
the play is a “satirical comedy about
an ideal middle-class family pitted
against a society filled with random
violence.”
The madcap comedy was written in
1967 and opened in New York. Drama
critics lauded the play and named
Feiffer “Most Promising Playwright”
of the 1966-1967 season. The play is
set in the post-assassination period of
the 1960s.
The play enjoyed a successful run
in London, and then reopened in 1969
for a long off-Broadway run. The play
won an Obie Award in 1969, and was
voted the best play of the year by
London critics. Twentieth Century
Fox decided to film the play with a
script by Jules Feiffer and direction by
Alan Arkin, who directed the off
Broadway production.
“The challenge of the play is to
show how things around us, violence
in this case, are represented as we
move from the early 60s into the pres
ent,” said Robyn Munger, costume
designer. “1 have chosen some of
society’s perceptions of violence and
included them in both periods to help
show that through time, the violence
docs not change ... only our percep
tions change.
“Little Murders”deals with several
of the themes found in Feiffer’s other
work: people seeing only what they
wish to sec, gratuitous violence, self
ishness and lack of communication.
Feiffer, who spoke last January at
UNO’s Academy, Business and
Community breakfast scries, has writ
ten 14 plays and 25 books, including
the screenplays for smash Hollywood
hits like “Carnal Knowledge” and
“Popeye.” He began a comic strip
called “Feiffer” in the Village Voice
in 1956. It continues to appear weekly
and locally in the Omaha Metropoli
tan.
The cast includes Brent Noel,
Kristy Babcock,; Stephanie Ander
son, Garie Lewis, Shawn Prousc, Ken
Gray, Ryle Smith, Christa Miller,
Jerry Onik, Mike Etzrodl, Susan Phil
lips and Robert Donlan.
General admission tickets are $5.
Student and senior citizen tickets are
$4 and are available at the University
Theatre ticket Box Office in Arts and
Sciences Hall, 554-2335. Limited
seating and parking arc available.
Photo courtesy of Concerted Efforts
Matt “Guitar” Murphy will perform all next week starting Monday at the Zoo Bar.
Matt 'Guitar Murphy at the Zoo Bar
By Geoff McMurtry
Staff Reporter
Matt “Guitar” Murphy, long a
staple fullhouse at Lincoln’s Zoo
Bar, will perform there all next
week starting Monday.
Concert Preview
Murphy, who blends blues and
jazz into a smooth and funky fu
sion, gained popularity in 1980
after he appeared in the film “The
Blues Brothers,” as the guitarist for
Dan Ackroyd and John Belushi’s
blues band.
But Murphy has been around
much longer than that. He has
played guitar on numerous blues
albums since the early 1970s and
has been a popular Ch icago session
musician. His own material which
diverges strikingly from standard
blues has gained him a venerable
reputation in the jazz community.
Murphy’s shows at the Zoo Bar
are legendary and he has also per
formed at Lincoln’s summer Flat
water Festival to a large evening
crowd.
The cover charge for Matt
Murphy is S3 Monday through
Thursday and S4 Friday and Satur
day.
Other acts appearing at the Zoo
Bar during UNL’s holiday break
arc The Swaydos, who will appear
on Dec. 21 and 28; Amethyst, who
will appear Dec. 22; Bobby Lowell
and the Time Bandits will play
Dec. 23; A.C. Reed and the
Sparkplugs will play Dec. 25-26;
Cocktail Shorty and the Tablerock
ers, Dec. 29-30; and Charlie
Burton will play Jan. 1-2.
The Swaydos, Amethyst,
Bobby Lowell and Charlie Burton
are local bands who perform at
various local venues often.
Cocktail Shorty and the Table
rockers is the Zoo Bar house band,
featuring owner Larry Boehmer on
bass. A.C. Reed and the sparkplugs
are a blues and R & B group from
Chicago. Cover for A.C. Reed is
$4.
The Zoo Bar will be closed
Christmas Eve and New Year’s
Eve.
Upcoming acts following the
holiday break are Bugs Henderson
and the Shuffle Kings Jan. 15 and
16; Lonnie Brooks, Jan. 21; The
Paul Metsa Group, Jan. 22 and 23;
The Blue Band, Jan. 28-30; the
Bel-Airs on Feb. 4-6 and the Tail
gators Feb. 12-13.
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UNL’s ‘Christmas Carol’
no ‘bah humbug’ show
By Micki Haller
Suff Reporter
Anyone who hates Dickens’ “The
Christmas Carol” has to be a real
Scrooge and deserves a miserable
holiday season.
In Howell Theater’s production of
the Christmas classic, Dickens’ story
is spiced with sight gags and easy
laughs, but .sometimes director Lind
say Reading Korth evokes the pure
magic of the plot.
Theater Review
The fable is well-known: A de
spised miser supcmaturally views his
past, present and future on one Christ
mas Eve and is transformed into a
generous, kindly man beloved by all.
Because the plot has been exposed
on stage, screen and TV specials
countless times, the actors ham un
- mercifully in the first act to carry the
play to the meat of the matter.
Particularly delightful were the
antics of Kyle Clark, who played a
deaf old man, and Jeffrey Adams,
who played his younger caretaker, as
they solicited funds for charily from
the stingy Scrooge, played by Devon
Schumacher.
• Also noteworthy was Jon Meyer,
as Bob Cratch it, whose role was a
partial fulfilimeniof the requirements
of his master of fine arts degree.
Cratchit nervously kowtowed and
froze in Scrooge’s energy-efficient
offices in a hilarious manner.
After Scrooge’s return home, the
play gels progressively more serious.
Scrooge confronts the ghosl of his
business partner, Jacob Marley,
played by Joe Sampson. Marley was
a ghastly (in the good sense) green,
mummy-wrapped figure, adorned
with chains and things that looked
like ledgers. I had always imagined
Marley as a bigger man with more
chains and some safes dripping, but I
suppose that’s not enurely practical
for a stage production.
The laughs are still there. For in
stance, Scrooge mentions the busi
ness, and Marley moans in agony for
a good 15 seconds, like one of those
protracted death scenes in a corny
movie. After this piteous and pro
tracted cry, Scrooge responds, ‘‘I
see.”
The most moving and chilling of
all the spirits was the Ghost of Christ
mas Yet-to-be, played by Rodney
Life. Shrouded in black, speechless
and faceless, he showed Scrooge a
miserable and lonely death.
Of course, the story has a happy
ending. Scrooge changes his ways,
and Schumacher portrayed it without
resorting to a sickeningly sappy re
versal. Scrooge is a changed man, but
the audience isn’t left with a sense of
“bah humbug.”
The Christmas carols incorporated
into the play arc the only disappoint
ing parts. For the most part, the carol
ers simply stand and kxik joyous or
miserable, depending on the scene.
The songs weren’t that bad, but nei
ther are high school Christmas con
certs.
Maybe the songs could have been
shortened, or more action added to
them.