'Dancer In
the Dark'
vivid, real
BY SARAH SUMNER
Protected in a world full of day
dreams and an obsession of musi
cals, Selma intimately divulges her
hopes and secrets in the 1960s
based melodra
matic musical
“Dancer in the
Dark,” the winner
of the Cannes
Film Festival's
Palme D’Or, or best film for2000.
Bjork, Iceland’s popular
industrial/pop rock musician and
the winner of Cannes’ best actress
for 2000, leads the cast with little
acting experience as Czech immi
grant Selma, a single mother with
a 12-year-old son. She is slowly
going blind from a hereditary dis
ease from which she is desperate
ly trying to save her son.
Selma works tirelessly at a fac
tory as a punch-press operator
with her best friend and confidant
Kathy, played by Catherine
Deneuve. She also enjoins
straight pins to cardboard pack
aging for minuscule change to
save money for an operation to
correct her sight.
Dancer in
the Dark
★★★1/2
10 get nerseu tnrougn tne long,
tedious hours of hard labor, she
falls into her imagination and her
passion for musical theater that
she familiarized herself with as a
child. Sounds become music, steps
become beats, workers become
dancers, and toil becomes rhythm
to the feature playing in her head.
She can escape from her poverty
and disease with the hope of a new
life for her son and embrace her
love Of music
Through her trials of hard
labor, dealing with a troubled
young son and going secretly
blind, she is charged with murder
and her life is turned to not only
fighting for her son's life, but also
for her own.
Director Lars vonltter takes a
slight step into Greek tragedy with
the fall of the great hero, while
intermixing the sounds of normal
life into a playful representation
of love overcoming adversity.
Along with factory and train
sounds, footsteps and noises, actual
instruments are incorporated into
die song. Backup singers support
Bjod&vocal Mend of plea and joy In
Please see DANCER on 6
Plate full
for area art
BY CRYSTAL K.W1EBE
Lincoln’s art community is
once again offering a full schedule
of visual art, music and drama
this spring.
Current exhibits at the Noyes
Art Gallery, 119 S. 9th, include a
variety of area artists whose work
includes beaded jewelry and
stained glass, along with paint
ings and photographs.
Colorful seed murals by artist
Julia Noyes are now on display.
Madonna Rehabilitation
Hospital patients worked with
Noyes on one mural depicting
several doors.
The gallery is hosting a free
artists forum on Jan. 19 where
"artists can come and share
expertise about using archival
Please see ART on 6
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Contemporary adaptations await inllNL spring theater schedule
PT oAnAn oUMricn
Spring fever will soon be in the air, and the UNL
Theater Department is way ahead of the crowd with
its selection of plays for this semester.
Julie Hagemeier, Theater Manager of UNL’s
Theatre Arts and Dance Department, said the spring
schedule will offer a “cross-section” of the theater
world - something for every student
The main stage’s modem shows will be a change
from last semester, when students performed “All's
Well that Ends Well” the bi-annual “A Christmas
Carol” The second semester, Hagemeier said, will be
more contemporary.
The lineup begins in February with “The
Philadelphia Story”, by Philip Barry. It shows from 15
17,20-24, all at 7:30p.m. at the HowelLTheajer. Based
in the 1930s, this classic comedy originally starring
Katherine Hepburn, Cary Grant and James Stewart,
follows the happenings of a high-class young divorced
woman who’s engaged to be married again.
"The Last Train to Nibroc”, by Arlene Hutton, runs
from March 8-10 and 20-24 UNL is partnering with
the Nebraska Repertory Theater for the story of a
young soldier who has the dream of becoming a big
city writer gets on a train ana sits next to a young gm
named May.
His desire to become a writer is enhanced when
he discovers that F. Scott Fitzgerald and Nathaniel
West are on the same train he is.
The forever young “Peanuts” gang is conjured up
again in “You’re A Good Man, Charlie Brown.” This is
based on the Charles M. Schulz comic strip, with the
book, music and lyrics by Clark Gesner. The show runs
from April 19-21 25-28 at the Howell Theater. UNL is
again working with the Rep. The play first ran in the
1960s, but was updated for Broadway in 1998.
For now, the old version of the play is being used,
but that may change in the next few weeks concerning
rights information, Hagemeier said. The updated
script would include the character of Sally.
For the main stage, consideration for the plays
goes through a series of levels before the play is cho
sen.
“We look for the need of the students, what the
director wants, and the needs of the audience,”
Hagemeier said.
Hagemeier said that there is a great variety for the
students to enjoy with the main stage theater and also
the student-directed Theatrix productions.
“Theatrix is having a great season and the selec
non is very interesting, nagemeier saia.
The first Theatrix performance is an adaptation of
“Scenes From A Marriage,” written by Swedish film
director Ingmar Bergman. This serious play takes a
look into the lives of one married couple and starts its
run from Feb. 1-3 at the Temple Building.
The director, senior theater major John Elsener, is
directing for the first time for Theatrix, though he has
acted in many productions. Elsener said the play is a
translation of a translation and it is crucial to keep the
content.
“I think that it is real important in translations to
try and find the original rhythm because so much can
get lost,” Elsener said.
“The Club”, a musical by Eve Merriam, begins
March 1 -3 at the Temple Building. “The Club” displays
gender-bending issues in a caberet style, kit-kat club
with lots of singing and dancing for musical lovers.
An opportunity for student playwrights to show
their star potential is the Nebraska Masquers’ One Act
Play Festival, April 5-7.
ThqTheatrix program is an opportunity for stu
dents to make an experience happen that is not nor
mally going to be done on first stage,” Hagemeier
said.
“Theatrix is more experimental," she said. “The
f
“Theatrix is more experimental.
The one acts take chances. Some
are more polished and ready than
others."
Julie Hagemeier
UNL theater manager
one acts take chances. Some are more polished and
ready than others.
The conception ofTheatrix began in the 1980s by
the Nebraska Director’s Theater for students wanting
to learn more about directing. Those who have a
Theatrix concept, must submit a proposal with the
idea, the number of people needed, and technical
information to the Theatrix council by the end of the
prior semester to which they want the production of
the play to begin.
The council then ranks the ideas and includes
runners-up. The plays are given around $100 to pro
duced, not including publicity, though they may bor
row props and costumes.
