Arts
The fallowing is a brief list of
events this weekend. For more
information, call die venue.
CONCERTS:
Duffy’s Tavern, 1412 OSL
474- 3543
Sunday: Teriykis, Sound of
Rails and The Lepers
Dugganls Pub, 440S.11th Sl
477-3513
Friday: Lil’ Slim Back Alley
Blues Band
Saturday: Boss Philly
Knickerbocker's, 901 OSL
476- 6865
Friday: The Davenports and
Cool Riddum
Saturday: The Mediums, The
WT and Project Wet
Pla-Mor Ballroom, 6600 W. O
St
475- 4030
Sunday: Blackwater and
Sandy Creek
Royal Grove, 340 W.
ComhuskerHwy.
474-2332
Friday: Jessie James Dupree
Saturday: The Darlings
WCs Downtown,1228PSL
477- 4006
Friday: Citrus
The Zoo Bar, 136 N. 14th Sl
(402)435-8754
Friday and Saturday: Lil’ Ed
and die Hues Imperials
THEATER:
Studio Theatre, Temple
Building, 12th and R streets
472-2073
All weekend: “Bad Giris”
Mary Riepma Ross Film
Theater, 12™ and R streets
472-5353
All weekend: Chuck and Buck
The Star City Dinner Theatre
and Comedy Cabaret, 803QSL
477-8277
Friday and Saturday: “ Kevin
Cutaoka”
GALLERIES:
DodsPlace, 140 N. Eigjith SL
476-3232
All weekend: Kameron
Becwar
Haydon Gallery, 335 N. 8th
SL475-5421
All weekend: Dave Stewart
Noyes Gallery, 119 S Ninth Sl
475-1061
All weekend: Gretchen
Meyers, Kaori Schimzu, Tom
Bold, Chris and Pat Donlan
The Sheldon Memorial Art
Gallery 12th and R streets
472-2461
All weekend: Prints of Robert
Mangold, “The Jam Portfolio”
by S.C. Wilson and Jon
Gierlich; Conrad Bakker
IB^oIkrnu)
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Recorded
Including its rare singles from
the past two years
The poems to
come ere for
you and for me
and are not for
mostpeopte - it's no
use trying to
pretend that
mostpeopte and
ourselves are
sMce. Mostpeopte
have test in
common with
oureeiwastftantfte
■quern
rootofminusone.
You and i are
human bainga;
mostpeopte are
snobs.
Take the matter of
being bom. What
does being born
mean to mostpeopte?
Catastrophe
unmitigated.
Soctakevototion. The
cultured aristocrat
yanked out of his
hyperexclusively
ultravoluptuous
superalazzo. and
dumped in to an
incredibly vulgar
dstonfloncamp swarming
with every conceivable
species of undesirable
organism. Mostpeopte
fancy a guaranteed
birthproof safetysuit of
nondeatructible
selflessness, tf mosfoeopto
were to be bom twice they’d
improbably call it dying -
you and I are not snobs. We
can newer be bom enough.
We ate human beings; for
whom birth is a supremely
welcome mystery the mystery
of growing: the mystwy which
happens only and whenever
we are faithful to ourselves.
Ybu and I wear the dangerous
looseness of doom and find it
becoming, life, for stomal us,
is now; and now is much too
busy being a SOte more than
everything to seem anything,
catastrophic inciuded
Life, for mosfoeopto. simply isn't
lakstoesocaAedstandardottring.
What do mosfoeopto mean by
'firing'? They don't mean firing.
They maan tha latest and closest
pfurai approximation to angular
prenaiai passivity wntcn science,
in is finite but unbounded wisdom,
has succeeded in aeAng tieir wives,
if science could fafi, a mountain’s
a mammal. klosfipeople's wives can spot
a genuine delusion of embryonic omnipotence
immediately and wfil accept no substitutes.
- Lucfcfly tor us. a mountain is a mammal. The
ptusorndnus movie to end moving, the strictly
scientific pariourgame of real unreality, the
tyranny conceived in misconception and
decficated to the proposition
•tat every man is a woman and
any woman a king, hasn’t a
wheel to stand on. What their
most synthetic not to mention
transparent majesty,
mrsandmr collective
foetus, would improbably cal
a ghost is walking. H
isn’t an undream
anaesthetized impetsone, c
actor interprets cummings' poems
In the 1940s, 50s and
60s, the poetry of-e.e.
cummings broke the
shell of conventional
poetry and gave young
writers something to
aspire for and inspiration
for poetic rebellion.That
independent, refreshing
view of poetry has led
Emmy Award-winning
stage and screen actor
Anthony Zerbe to create
a dramatic presentation
of cummings’ poems.
The presentation,
“It’s All Done With
Mirrors... an avalanche
of e.e. cummings,” will
be performed at 2 and 7
p.m., Sunday, at the
Johnny Carson Theater,
11th and Q streets.
After the first per
formance, UNL stu
dents are encouraged
to share their poetry at
the “Student Poets’
Cafe,” which will be
held in the Lied Center
for Performing Arts’
Steinhart Room.
It's been two years
since Zerbe last per
formed in Lincoln with
Roscoe Lee Browne, as
the two-man cast per
formed “Behind
Broken Words” at
Kimball Recital Hall.
This time, he’s
doing a solo, national
ly acclaimed perform
ance that molds dif
ferent types of acting,
said Ann Patrice
Carrigan, Zerbe's
agent
“The perform
ance is an uncom
mon mix of theater
and salon,” Carrigan
said. “The heart of
the show is this
1 charismatic
actor
performing poetry and
prose on stage."
UNL English
Professor Greg Kuzma
said cummings’ writing
provides special inspira
tion. While studying at
Syracuse University in the
1960s, Kuzma came to
love cummings’ daring
and bold poems. He said
he was curious just how
the poems would be
interpreted on stage.
“(cummings) used a
lot of speaking and dia
logue in his poems, which
could be captured or cho
reographed on stage,”
Kuzma said. “His poems
are so exciting and ener
getic that you can’t make
them worse no matter
how you interpret them.”
Zerbe’s “inex
haustible energy” should
fit the poems well,
Carrigan said. The pro
duction, which features
cummings’ poems about
Paris, New York, the
moon, spring and first
loves, was Zerbe's cre
ation. He breaks tradition
because he doesn’t play a
particular role.
The audience should
be able to get into the per
formance because Zerbe
has requested being as
close to the crowd as pos
sible, said Charles
Bethea, executive direc
tor for the lied.
“Zerbe will be speak
ing directly to the audi
ence and wants to be as
close as he can to them,”
Bethea said.
Zerbe will remain
in Lincoln for a
week after his
perform
ance
for a residency called “Off
The Page,” in which he’ll
work with 12 selected
UNL students on an indi
vidual basis. Each will
select a written piece, and
Zerbe, who has appeared
in movies, TV shows and
on-stage theater, will help
them interpret it
"He really wants to
engage with students and
work with them in inter
preting the written word,”
Bethea said.
The fact Zerbe is plac
ing such an emphasis on
the students is an hom
age of sorts to cummings,
Kuzma said.
“He was a freak in a
way,” Kuzma said. “He
was very open about sex
ual things and presented
his work in a very stylized
way that made young
people gravitate to his
work, while teachers
were turned off
by it”
In an ‘
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where poetry was
deemed scholarly and
academic, cummings
broke the rules by making
it enjoyable and free,
Kuzma said.
His poems were writ
ten predominantly with
lower case letters with the
usually short words
arranged haphazardly on
the page.
“A lot of professors
thought that poetry
shouldn't be that enjoy
able, but it should be crit
ical and studied,” Kuzma
said. “It was too playful,
too easy to like.
Academics thought cum
mings was too much like
TWinkies or bubble gum,
sweet but not nourish
• _ w
mg.
Nonetheless, cum
mings’ impact can’t be
ignored.
“I read him so early
that it might have had a
big influence on me,”
Kuzma said. “His work
was like twisted nursery
rhymes, and I think I
absorbed it like Mother
Goose stuff.”
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51ny fry Dane Stickney and Silly Smuck Ait fry Melanie Falk
8fM TfWtrmvf* fry e.e. cummings
Troupe brings humor to tense political times
BY DANE STICKNEY
While many politicians are
electioneering across the country,
a group of former congressional
staff members are coming to
Lincoln for a different reason.
Capitol Steps, a troupe of 22
cast members, will provide a break
from the election madness with its
political satire. The show will be
tonight at 7:30 at the lied Center
for Performing Arts.
Using one-liners, skits and
songs, the former Congressional
staff members poke fun at their
former employers. Capitol Steps
members put their partisanship
aside, parodying Democrats such
as President Clinton in “Livin’
Libido Loca” and Republicans
such as George W. Bush in “Son of
a Bush.”
In an interview with the Los
Angeles Times, Capitol Steps pro
ducer and co-founder Elaina
Newport said the goal of the
troupe is to fairly parody an issue.
“We try to present both sides
of every issue, sometimes within
one song. Mostly, we want to get
everyone together and have a
good time.”
The troupe began in 1981
when three employees for Sen.
Charles Percy were planning
entertainment for a Christmas
party. It created song parodies and
skits based on political headlines
of the day, won over its audience
and launched a nationwide pro
duction.
Charles Bethea, executive
director for the Lied, said theater
fans are lucky to see the “hilarious”
group so close to election time.
But he said that timeliness is no
coincidence. Tonight's show has
been planned for more than two
years.
“It will be fun because this is
the best time to see them,” he said.
"Their act is very timely and
updated frequently. I really can’t
imagine what they’re going to par
ody."
Bethea has seen Capitol Steps
perform and said he was amused
and impressed.
“They're really talented and
extremely funny," he said.
Capitol Steps is surprisingly
intellectual for a comedy troupe,
Bethea said.
“They’re there to entertain
people first, but they are also edu
cational,” he said. “They have a
different way of viewing and
reviewing the political j
process, and they bring up ,,\ M
interesting ques
tions.”
With this
year’s presi
dential elec
tion taking on
such a serious /
tone, Capitol
Steps’ refresh
ing view on '
politics is wel
comed, Bethea
said.
“We all think that
politicians take
themselves too seri
ously,” he said. “This
performance is a good
way to show it’s not the end of the
world if a certain candidate wins
or loses. It can be laughed at"
Because of the show’s timeli
ness, close to Ttiesday’s election
and on Homecoming weekend
the night before a
Husker football game,
Bethea
said
the
show is dose to sold out
But those who do get in the
theater are in for a treat, Bethea
said
“This is one of the funniest
shows on the road right
now,” Bethea said. “It
should be a great time.”
(t
Scott Eastman/DN