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About The daily Nebraskan. ([Lincoln, Neb.) 1901-current | View Entire Issue (Oct. 19, 2000)
I Local writer crafts her stories from dreams and friends'experiences . BY VERONICA DAEHN Outside, on a summer's day in Oregon, Judith Slater opens a pretty, handmade notebook, and she.begins to write. There is the story of Amy, who hires an ex-boyfriend to take pictures of her wedding - this is Slater’s favorite. And there is the story of the baby with rhythm - this one came from a dream she had. Toward the middle of the book Slater had published last year, there is the story of Elizabeth, the “fat dancer.” In this story, Elizabeth realizes what kind of man her clarinet-playing boyfriend had been before he was run over by a car. Stories like these were created on mornings in Oregon at the summer home Slater shares with her husband. Since she was recently given a lap-, top computer, Slater has abandoned the pretty notebooks, but she still sits out side. She sips coffee as she goes. This is her favorite way to write, she says. Since she was a little girl who devoured Nancy Drew novels, Slater knew she wanted to be a writer, though she wasn’t encouraged to do so at home. Her parents were business people and, to them, writing was frivolous, Slater says. So she tried doing other things. She majored in English and after graduation worked at a library and a private detec tive agency. During that time, she wrote her first novel, “The Ouija Board Murder,” an out-of-print work Slater says she would n't want anyone to find. Ten years later, Slater went to gradu ate school to more seriously pursue a writing career. Now, she teaches fiction writing classes at the University of Nebraska Lincoln and continues writing her own stories as she has time. "I write slowly,” Slater says. “Some stories come out really easily. Some take months to get right. And some stories are better than others." Slater spent about 10 years compil ing the stories that make up her book, “The Baby Can Sing.” And she is pleased with the way it turned out. “There aren’t any stories in there I’m not proud of,” she says. Slater will read from her book tonight at 7:30 on the third floor of Bennett Martin Public Library, 14th and N streets. It is part of the John H. Ames Reading Series: Readings by Nebraska Authors. Slater says she usually starts her sto ries with a real event or a real person and then lets the story twist and grow from there. One of the characters in Slater’s favorite story, “The Bride’s Lover,” is based off of a friend she has in the San Francisco Bay area. Other stories have grown out of dreams, Slater says. The title story of her book and another called “Sandra Dee Ate Here” started as strong images Slater created in her mind as she slept. There is a certain surrealism to those stories, and it is something she has tried to play with more lately, she says. She is a meticulous writer, one who places extreme importance on the beginning of a story. “If I can get a good opening scene or paragraph, I know the story’s going to be OK,” Slater says. “Getting the opening the way I want it is sort of half the bat de.” After the opening is secure, Slater says the story unfolds as it should. But the ending is always difficult. "I don't know when I start how a story’s going to end,” she says. Slater has favorite fiction writers of her own. She admires John Cheever, Anneiyier and Tobias Wolff. Fiction that draws readers into the world of the story is good writing, she says. Stuart Dybek, who wrote the intro duction to Slater’s book and was the judge who awarded "The Baby Can Sing” the 1998 Mary McCarthy prize in short fiction, says Slater’s writing is styl ish and has an added sense of humor. “When I read Judy’s manuscript, I thought, ‘My God, this is really good,' ” Dybek says. "She has perfectly on-pitch diction for stories that are almost off key in a way. That was really attractive to me. Dybek, who is a writer himself and teaches fiction at Western Michigan University in Kalamazoo, says Slater has beautiful turns of phrase and a comic view that doesn’t sacrifice sentiment. “Comedy is hard to do,” Dybek says. “To do comedy and retain sentiment in a piece is even harder.” But Slater does it, he says. Dybek teaches Slater’s story “The Bride’s Lover” in his classes. “It is absolutely brilliantly conceived and executed,” he says. Interestingly enough, Slater teaches Dybek's story “Pet Milk” in one of her classes at UNL. Dybek is not the only writer impressed with Slater’s work. Gerald Shapiro, Slater’s husband of 15 years and also a writer, says he likes his wife’s work a lot. Her stories are funny and sort of heartbreaking at the same time, Shapiro says. The two spend each summer morn ing writing. But Shapiro prefers to be inside star ing at a wall, while Slater sits outside with a cat on her lap, he says. Though they don’t write together, they do share their work with each other at the end of each day. Sharon Kolbet/DN Judith Slater, a UNL English professor, holds her book of short fiction,"The Baby Gin Sing.” Slater will be reading from her work tonight at Bennett Martin Public Library at 14th and N streets. Shapiro says Slater’s the best kind of editor. “She’s always the first person to read my work,” he says. “We’ve learned to trust each other. That's important for both of us.” Shakespeare play a comedy with a moral ■The theatre department's production ofAII's WellThat Ends Well"will appeal to a young audience. BY BILLY SMUCK Here’s a story of a lovely lady who is the embodiment of the expression “love is blind.” Helena’s pursuit of the undeserving Bertram will be evidence of that in tonight’s production of the Shakesperean comedy "All’s Well That Ends Well,” which will be performed by’a group of UNL students. The University of Nebraska-Lincoln Depart ment of Theatre Arts is pre senting its first mainstage production of its lOO™ anniversary season. “All's Well That Ends Well” will open tonight at 7:30 p.m. in Howell Theatre on the first floor of the Temple building, 12th and R streets. bhiriey Mason, associate professor of theatre arts and director of the show, said the cast is entirely undergradu ate and all are from Nebraska. The comedy they will be performing is about the efforts of the beautiful and intelligent Helena who lacks the correct social pedigree to entice the man she loves, Bertram, a count's son. Bertram is naive and stubborn in a youthful way but undergoes a gradual maturation throughout the play and overcomes his orig inal misperceptions. After attempted seduc wshsBBEBL Vf VU 1W1 lliv IliiOIUU ll/UVU lovers. Mason described the play as “a comedy with an upbeat plot and a happy ending," but it won’t leave the audience in stitches. it s not one ot Shakespeare’s rollicking comedies, and the audience shouldn’t expect to be rolling in the aisles laughing,” Mason said. Mason encouraged stu dent attendance not because of the comedy aspect, but because they could relate to the characters who she referred to as “young with a lot to learn from and who go through a lot.” She said Bertram, Helena and conspirator Parolles all hold qualities that can be seen in today’s society. “Bertram and Helena are very young, and I hope they Steven Bender/DN Bertram, Count of Rossillion (John Wachter), hears words from the King of France (Eric Lauritzen) in Shakespeare's comedy "All's Well That Ends Well "The play opens tonight at the Howell Theatre. appeal to a young audience,” Mason said. “They should find that they have a lot in common with them and Parolles, too.” Mason said the audience plays an integral part in the performance. “The audience is really important, although it seems as though the actors are doing their thing without paying attention to the audi ence," she said. "In this pro duction, the actors occa sionally speak directly to the audience during a solilo quy.” Kyle Johnston, a senior theatre performance major, said the characters in the play are stubborn. “They’re not apologetic, and they don’t compromise what they feel or who they are,” Johnston said. “These people recognize that they’re of a certain temper, and that’s how they explain themselves and that’s how they live.” Johnston said the play is important because it emphasizes the importance of staying true to the accom plishment of certain goals. He also said the play teaches morals about hon esty, which Mason often reit erated while directing the play. “There’s a theme in the play that says when you tell the truth you get what you deserve,” Johnston said. JohnWachter, a junior theatre performance major who plays Bertram, said he wanted to make it clear that people should not stay away from the production just because they’re afraid they won’t understand Shakespeare’s Elizabethan language. “The people who choose not to attend a theater pro duction may think that they’re not going to under stand or that it's not going to be pertinent to them are misguided,” he said. “When a production is done well, there's a lot of interesting things that you will get out of it. “If you listen, the lan guage thing won’t be a prob lem.” Arts college's enrollment quickly rising FROM STAFF REPORTS A record number of UNL students are pursuing a creative outlet in the Hixson-lied College of Fine and Performing Arts. The college, which was founded in 1993, has become the University of Nebraska-Lincoln’s fastest growing college, increasing by 7.9 percent in the past year. The college’s enrollment of 671 students, 49 more than in 1999, is the largest in the college’s history and the nearly 8 percent gain in students is the second most ever for the college, said Lawrence Mallett, interim dean of the college. The college has witnessed a 25.2 percent increase in enrollment over its five-year existence. That increase is the largest of all UNL colleges. Mallett said the rapid increase in the college’s enrollment is a result of focusing the arts. One reason the College ol Fine and Performing Arts was formed was to provide a focus for the arts, and it has done that,” Mallett said in a press release. "That focus has certainly helped our enrollment” But Mallett said the effort of the college's faculty and staff can’t be overlooked. “We also must give credit to the faculty and staff of the college who have made recruiting more and better students a top priority,” Mallett said. “We have been successful at that.” The growth in enrollment at fine and performing arts colleges is a national trend, Mallett said. “More students across the country are enrolling in the arts," Mallett said. “An arts degree is not just a professional degree that you obtain to become a pro fessional artist; it is a solid education that prepares you for many different career opportunities.” Peggy Holloway, assistant dean for student affairs, said she has noticed the strong growth of the arts. “I think the arts are seeing a resurgence,” Holloway said in a press release. “There are many ■ j new career opportunities. I think our initiatives are all j steps in the right direction.” The College of Engineering and Technology, with a 4.79 percent increase, was the only other college with a percentage increase over 4 percent.