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Mon, Jan 24, 2005

JANUARY 24, 2005

KIMBALL HALL, JAN. 27, 3:30PM
Installation Program to Conclude With Panel Discussion at UNL

As part of a number of events spanning two days, four cities, and 956 miles, James B. Milliken will conclude his installation program by moderating a panel discussion on the future of public higher education on January 27 at 3:30 pm in Kimball Hall.

Other participants will include: Molly Corbett Broad, president of The University of North Carolina; Peter Magrath, president of the National Association of State Universities and Land Grant Colleges; Linda Pratt, professor and chair of English at UNL, and Graham Spanier, president of The Pennsylvania State University and former UNL chancellor. The panel will be followed by a public reception at the Van Brunt Visitors Center at 5 pm. Members of the public who wish to attend this or any other installation event are asked to RSVP.

RSVP | INSTALLATION SCHEDULE

MARY RIEPMA ROSS MEDIA ARTS CENTER
Opening this week at the Ross: The House Of Flying Daggers, Tarnation

UNL's Mary Riepma Ross Media Arts Center presents the newest film from acclaimed Chinese director Zhang Yimou, The House Of Flying Daggers and Tarnation, a re-imagining of the documentary from young director Jonathan Caouette.

The House Of Flying Daggers takes place in 859 A.D., when the Tang Dynasty, one of the most enlightened empires in Chinese history at its height, is in decline. Unrest is spreading throughout the land, and many rebel armies are forming in protest. The largest, and most prestigious, is an underground alliance called the "House of Flying Daggers" and the movie follows their clashes with local deputies as the gap between rich and poor grows. Combining breathtaking cinematography, amazingly choreographed fight sequences, and a romantic plot that ties the whole piece together, The House Of Flying Daggers is a visual feast for fans of films like Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon and Yimou's earlier film Hero.

Tarnation begins in 2003 as Caouette learns of his mother's lithium overdose in his native Texas. Faced with the haunting remnants of his past, including a family legacy of mental illness, abuse, and neglect, Caouette returns home to aid in his mother's recovery. Slipping back into the archives of his youth, we watch Caouette grow up on camera, seeking escape from family trauma through musical theater, grade-B horror flicks and the forging of his identity through popular culture. Having documented his life since he was 8 years old, Caouette weaves together a psychedelic whirlwind of snapshots, Super-8 home movies, answering machine messages, video diaries, early short films, snippets of 80s pop culture and dramatic reenactments to create an epic portrait of an American family torn apart by dysfunction and reunited through the power of love.

More information is available at the Ross website.

MRRMAC | THE HOUSE OF FLYING DAGGERS | TARNATION

1925-2005
Entertainment Icon and UNL Alumnus Johnny Carson Dies at Age 79

Johnny Carson

University of Nebraska alumnus Johnny Carson, who became an American icon as host of NBC's "The Tonight Show" from 1962 until his retirement in 1992, died Sunday in Los Angeles of emphysema. He was 79.

In its Monday edition, the New York Times said, "During those three decades, he became the biggest, most popular star American television has known. Virtually every American with a television set saw and heard a Carson monologue at some point in those years. At his height, between 10 million and 15 million Americans slept better weeknights because of him."

Carson was born in Corning, Iowa, on Oct. 23, 1925, and grew up in Norfolk, Neb. He served in World War II in the Navy as an ensign, before enrolling at the University of Nebraska in 1947. Carson received his bachelor of arts degree in radio and speech (with a minor in physics) in 1949.

His 1949 senior thesis was titled "How to Write Comedy for Radio," which he recorded on a reel-to-reel tape. The 50-minute recording was a scholarly examination of the techniques and devices that radio comedy writers used to construct the jokes and gags in comedy radio shows. Using bits from several well-known comedians, such as Jack Benny and Bob Hope, Carson illustrated the various techniques used to write comedy, which he later effectively used in television through his "Tonight Show" monologues.

Carson also served as master of ceremonies for the male dramatic society Kosmet Klub shows on campus from 1947-1949, and he once dressed in drag to become the first man to ever emcee the female Co-Ed Follies Show in 1948.

Both Carson and his brother, Dick ('51), were members of Phi Gamma Delta fraternity. John Carson starred in the Fiji's Kosmet Klub skits. The fraternity won first place in the 1947 Kosmet Klub fall revue for their skit, "She Was Only a Pharaoh's Daughter, But She Never Became a Mummy," which featured Carson as Cleopatra. His sister, Catherine ('45), was a member of Kappa Alpha Theta sorority.

While at the University of Nebraska, Carson performed locally at the American Legion, VFW and local clubs in Lincoln at night, practicing the skills he learned during the day in the Temple Building. Carson also wrote and did shows for KFAB radio, then broadcasting from Lincoln. Following his graduation from the university, he worked at WOW Television in Omaha. After leaving Nebraska, he worked for a Hollywood television station, where he hosted his own program, "Carson's Cellar."

He hosted the television shows "Earn Your Vacation" and "Who Do You Trust?" before filling in for Jack Paar on "The Tonight Show" in 1958. On Oct. 1, 1962, Carson became the Tonight Show's new host. When he retired on May 22, 1992, after more than 4,000 shows and more than a half century of comedy performance, Carson's final show was a national event.

Throughout his successful career, Carson maintained a strong relationship with the university, and last November announced a gift of $5.3 million to the NU Foundation to support the Hixson-Lied College of Fine and Performing Arts' Department of Theatre Arts. The gift will support the renovation and expansion of the Temple Building, located at 12th and R streets on City Campus, and will create an endowment to keep performance spaces equipped with the latest advances in lighting and sound technologies and assist students and programs in the department.

In the 1970s, he established an endowed scholarship at the NU Foundation to assist outstanding Nebraska high school graduates. To date, these scholarships have helped 24 students with their education at the university. In 1988, Carson gave a gift to support the construction of the Lied Center for Performing Arts. The black box theatre adjoining the main stage was renamed the Johnny Carson Theater in his honor.

"Johnny Carson never forgot where he came from, or that the university played an important role in the development of his many talents in those early years," said Jack Oliva, dean of the Hixson-Lied College of Fine and Performing Arts. "His generosity to the state of Nebraska and to the University of Nebraska was tremendous, and while we in the college will certainly remember him for his most generous gift to support the Temple Building renovation and our programs in the Department of Theatre Arts, we will be even more mindful and appreciative of his artistic contributions to the world of entertainment and television. His enduring legacy at the university will be the students who we hope will follow in his footsteps as creative artists for generations to come."

In December 1993, Carson received the Kennedy Center Lifetime Achievement Award. The University of Nebraska publicly said thanks to Carson through the Cornhusker Marching Band's performance of "There is No Place Like Nebraska" and "The Tonight Show Theme" with Doc Severinsen during Carson's nationally televised tribute.

CARSON THEATRE ARTS GIFT PRESS RELEASE

GREAT PLAINS ROOM, EAST UNION, 7:30PM
The Cashore Marionettes to Appear at East Campus Series

Joseph Cashore made his first puppet out of clothespins, wood, and a tin can when he was 11 years old. Several decades later, he has made marionettes that give him extraordinarily subtle control of their movements and even earned a prestigious Pew Fellowship for Performance Art. The Cashore Marionettes will be appearing in the Great Plains Room of the East Union on East Campus tonight at 7:30pm. In 1998, the troupe performed five sold-out performances at the Lied Center and this will be their first appearence in Lincoln since then.

Cashore has been designing and performing with his marionettes for over 30 years now, and despite their wooden flesh, these lifelike creatures transport us to a magical world of human foibles and joys. A young girl is distracted from her homework. A young boy flies his kite. And somehow, their emotional experiences seem as real as our own.

LIED CENTER | CASHORE MARIONETTES