Nikki Fox/DN
BECKY KEY (from left), Eric Harrell, Jeremy Stanbary and John Snell perform a scene from “Misalliance,” a George Bernard Shaw play that begins
its run at 8 tonight in the Howell Theatre.
By Liza Holtmeier
Senior Reporter
A Polish acrobat and a self-made mil
lionaire underwear salesman will open
the University of Nebraska-Lincoln
Theater Mainstage season tonight.
“Misalliance,” by George Bernard
Shaw, premieres at 8 p.m. with a special
performance for UNL students. The
show continues through Saturday and
Oct. 14-18 in the Howell Theatre at the
Temple Building.
The play revolves around John
Tarleton, a millionaire who made his
money selling underwear - and his fami
ly. Tarleton’s son, Johnny, helps run the
underwear business while his daughter,
Hypatia, busies herself by running after
Tarleton’s aristocratic associate, Bentley
Summerhays.
The play takes place one weekend
when Johnny and Bentley visit the
Tarleton home in Hindhead, Surrey,
England. Lord Summerhays, Bentley’s
aristocratic, well-respected father and a
dirty old man, accompanies them.
Amid the weekend’s clamor, a sput
tering airplane makes an emergency
landing on Tarleton’s property. The pilot
turns out to be Bentley’s dashing school
chum, Joey Percival, with whom Hypatia
instantly falls in love. The plane’s pas
senger is Lina Szczepanowska, a Polish
acrobat who spends each day risking her
life.
Please see PLAY on 13
Aristocratic
acrobatics
Actors relate
Shaw comedy
to modern life
Author performs
own short stories
■ Sharon Solwitz of
Loyola University writes
of disillusionment.
By Sean McCarthy
Assignment Reporter
“Blood and Milk” will flow in
abundance tonight at Andrews Hall,
but no liquid will be spilled and the
audience won’t be crying.
Sharon Solwitz, author of
“Blood and Milk,” a short story col
lection, will read to students at 7:30
p.m. in the English department
lounge, Andrews Hall 228.
Solwitz’s collection of stories
revolves around disillusioned lives
and cultural upheaval. The book, the
first of Solwitz’s to be published, was
released this spring.
“I feel like I finally arrived,”
Solwitz said of the accomplishment.
Before having the book pub
lished by Sarabande Books, Solwitz
won such literary prizes as the
Pushcart Prize and the Dan Curley
Award. She is an editor for the liter
ary publication “ACM: Another
«1
Chicago Magazine,” and teaches
creative writing at Loyola University
in Chicago.
Sohvitz said her readings didn’t
require much preparation because
she adjusted them to audience reac
tion. Besides, her personality fits in
well when it comes to translating her
written works into the spoken word,
she said.
“I’m a natural ham,” Sohvitz said.
Coffee shops were initially the
best places for Solwitz to write, she
said. Raising 10-year-old twins and
performing her duties as a professor
and editor have eliminated that luxu
ry, she said.
“Any more, I write any free
moment I can,” she said.
Local knowledge*ef £olwitz’s
fresh and contemporary stories was
the reason the University of
Nebraska-Lincoln English depart
ment invited her to Lincoln, said
Judith Slater, a UNL associate pro
fessor of English.
“She has a wonderful sense of
humor and her stories are emotional
ly powerful,” she said.
The reading is free and open to
the public.
Women share life tales
Storytellers emotionally connect with audience
By Bret Schulte
Senior Reporter
Being away at college has sever
al disadvantages: a life of relative
poverty, intense bodily abuse and
the sudden absence of grandma’s
eerily germane stories.
Students no longer have to go
without, though.
Although the poverty is almost
proverbial, and physical abuse is
generally self-inflicted, the
University Program Council is
doing what it can to supplant the
family folklore.
Tonight UPC plays host to The
Five Bright Chicks, a group of
Omaha female storytellers with
pasts as varied and rich as the tradi
tion of storytelling itself.
Taking place in the Nebraska
Union Crib, the 9 p.m. performance
will focus on moments and memo
ries from the lives of Ozzie Nogg,
Lucy Duncan, Vicki Baines, Rita
Paskowitz and Peggy Reinecke It
also explores other areas of story
telling, such as a five-person
comedic interpretation of “Little
Red Riding Hood.”
Although the women are profes
«
We don’t tell fairy tales or fables, but
from our own experiences, which are a little
weird and wacky”
Ozzie Nogg
storyteller
sional storytellers, they each lead vast
ly different personal lives and come
from a kaleidoscope of backgrounds -
ones that Nogg says enhance the rich
ness of the group’s performance.
“We’re just five women from
varying backgrounds: Things like
dance, graphic arts, theater and one
of us owns a children’s bookstore,”
Nogg said. “We tell our own stories.
We don’t tell fairy tales or fables,
but from our own experiences,
which are a little weird and wacky.”
The relay ofpersonal experi
ence has a therapeutic effect on the
storyteller and the audience alike,
Nogg said. While the narrator
relives a story on stage, audience
members frequently hearken back
to their own pasts. This creates a
unique bond between the performer
and listeners, Nogg said.
“It takes a lot of trust between
the five of us and members of the
audience,” Nogg said. “You feel
like you are taking a risk, but invari
ably it works.”
The power of the spoken word
has moved people to tears, she said.
One time a.young man approached
her after a performance. Holding
back tears, he embraced Nogg and
thanked her for allowing him to
reflect on a portion of his own life.
“It happens all the time,” she
said. “People will say, ‘That really
helped me.’ They are moved by
what they have heard.”
A first-generation American,
Nogg grew up in an extremely
strong Russian Jewish household,
she said. The stories of her father, a
Please see STORIES on 13 •
i