Arts News & Notes

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Film Streams seeks local filmmakers’ work

Film Streams, Omaha’s nonprofit art-house movie theater, is accepting submissions for its second annual Local Filmmaker Showcase, which will feature the work of Nebraska, Iowa and South Dakota artists.

The deadline is May 20. Submissions will be reviewed by a jury, and the final program will be announced in June. The films will screen for a week in August at Film Streams’ Ruth Sokolof Theater, 14th and Mike Fahey Streets.

Films of all types and running times will be considered. The selected program will run two to three hours in length. For more information, go online to filmstreams.org or call 402-933-0259.

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U.S. poet laureate to hold free reading

@Body Copy RAGGED RIGHT:U.S. Poet Laureate W.S. Merwin will appear at Joslyn Art Museum’s Witherspoon Concert Hall at 5:30 p.m. Friday.

During the free hourlong event, Merwin will read from his works and take questions from the audience.

He has won two Pulitzer Prizes, the National Book Award and many other prizes for poetry. He lives in Hawaii.

UNO dance troupe to offer spring showcase

@Body Copy RAGGED RIGHT:The Moving Company, the University of Nebraska at Omaha’s dance troupe, will present its “Spring Showcase: New Works and Works in Progress” at 2:30 p.m. and 4:30 p.m. May 1.

The showcase is in the School of Health, Physical Education and Recreation’s dance lab. Admission is $5, and children 12 and younger get in free. Reservations and information: 402-554-2670.

Nebraskan to graduate from N.Y. Actors Studio

@Body Copy RAGGED RIGHT:Lincoln native Melissa Rosenberger will graduate this month from the Actors Studio Drama School in New York City.

The actress, 35, won a coveted place at the Actors Studio in 2008. Founded in 1947, the studio has had many illustrious graduates, including fellow Nebraskan Marlon Brando. Ellen Burstyn, Harvey Keitel and Al Pacino are its co-presidents.

Rosenberger’s family will travel to New York to see her repertory season performances in “Gypsy,” “Fool for Love” and “Dutchman” for her thesis.

Film of Tony winner to play in Omaha, Lincoln

@Body Copy RAGGED RIGHT:“Memphis,” the best-musical Tony winner of 2010, was filmed live on Broadway and will be shown three times at Omaha’s Village Pointe movie theater, at SouthPointe in Lincoln and at the Sycamore in Iowa City.

The screenings are Thursday at 7:30 p.m., May 1 at 12:30 p.m. and May 3 at 7:30 p.m. Tickets are $20 and can be bought online at www.marcustheatres.com.

This is the first time a current Tony-winning musical has been presented in movie theaters while also running on Broadway.

“Memphis” is about cultural revolution in the segregated 1950s. The show won four Tonys.

Perlman, Cosby top Lied’s 2011-12 season

@Body Copy RAGGED RIGHT:The Broadway musical “In the Heights,” violinist Itzhak Perlman, the Munich Symphony, comedian Bill Cosby, singer Idina Menzel and the South African music group Ladysmith Black Mambazo will headline the 2011-12 season at the Lied Center for the Performing Arts in Lincoln.

The Broadway season at the Lied includes “Beauty and the Beast” Oct. 26-28; “Young Frankenstein” Jan. 21; “Mamma Mia!” Feb. 2-4; and “In the Heights” March 2 and 3.

Perlman will play March 31, the Munich Symphony Nov. 7. Cosby appears Oct. 7, and Idina Menzel will sing Nov. 11. Ladysmith Black Mambazo arrives Jan. 31.

Season brochures and order forms are available online at www.liedcenter.org or at the Lied Center ticket office. Purchasing four or more events is considered a season subscription. The more events ordered, the larger the discount.

Seating assignments go to Friends of the Lied first, then season subscribers. Single tickets go on sale Aug. 16.

Bemis event marks opening of 3 exhibits

The Bemis Center for Contemporary Arts, 724 S. 12th St., will host a free opening reception for three new exhibitions at 6 p.m. Friday.

Landscape painter Keith Jacobshagen will present “A Golden Year,” 365 oil paintings of dusk produced on 3½-by-5-inch copper sheets. He will give a free gallery talk at noon Saturday. The exhibition runs through July 30.

In the Bemis Underground, painter Nicholas Bohac and sculptor Mike Roche present “Nothing and Everything at Once.” They will give a free gallery talk at noon May 7.

Bohac builds sprawling two-dimensional vistas. He’ll present 160 new works. Roche creates structures that hint at classical architecture. The exhibition run through May 28.

Also opening Friday: “Bemis Gardens,” an exhibition and a design laboratory meant to transform the Bemis Center’s exterior into a public art site and urban garden. Lectures will be presented at 6 p.m. May 19 and 6 p.m. July 28. The exhibition runs through July 30. Information: 402-341-7130 or online at bemiscenter.org

Opera Omaha chorus helps victims in Japan

@Body Copy RAGGED RIGHT:An article in The World-Herald about two cast members of Opera Omaha’s “Madama Butterfly” was the catalyst for donations being sent to help victims of Japan’s March 11 earthquake and tsunami.

D. Laureen Pickle, a member of the Opera Omaha chorus, collected $246.20 from fellow chorus members in about two hours April 17, the closing day of “Madama Butterfly” at the Orpheum theater.

Cast members Mihoko Kinoshita and Mika Shigematsu, natives of Japan, sang the leading female roles in the production. In the article they talked of concerns for their native country and a desire to help those left in need by the disaster.

Tribeca film features Scout ranch in Iowa

The Little Sioux Boy Scout Ranch in Iowa is featured in “New York Says Thank You,” a documentary film premiering at the Tribeca Film Festival this week.

The documentary is one of six movies presented for free online at 8:30 p.m. CST Thursday and 5 a.m. CST Friday and Saturday. Make reservations, which are required for the online screenings, at tribecafilm.com/tribecaonline/streaming-room/

@Body Copy RAGGED RIGHT:“New York Says Thank You” follows four New Yorkers whose lives were touched by 9/11 and who traveled the country helping others rebuild after disasters. The scout ranch was hit by a tornado June 11, 2008, and four boys died.

Booma paintings to be on display

@Body Copy RAGGED RIGHT:“The Writing’s on the Wall,” an exhibition of paintings by Sharon Booma, will open at Anderson O’Brien Fine Art, 1108 Jackson St., with a free reception at 6 p.m. Friday.

Booma’s abstract paintings are described as a vigorous pursuit of balance between alternating and overlapping states of chaos and order. She lived in Omaha from 1995-2000. The exhibition runs through May 22.

Bellevue native will shoot movie in area

@Body Copy RAGGED RIGHT:Bellevue native Susan Engel will shoot “Haunted Maze,” a horror movie she wrote and will direct, in the Omaha area in June.

Cast members include Nick Arrington, Alicia Miranda and Blase Petak of Omaha, Ceci Arriola and Emily Dornbusch of Papillion and Danielle Leuschen of Millard.

The movie is set amid annual Halloween festivals. Filming locations will include Mystery Manor, Fun Plex and Heron Bay.

Ex-Sun publisher to exhibit photos

A free exhibition titled “Affinity of Form: Photographs by Stanford Lipsey” will open Friday and run through May 26 at the Kaneko, 1111 Jones St.

Lipsey, former publisher of the Omaha Sun and current publisher of the Buffalo News, printed 61 images for the exhibition, many of them large-scale photos printed on canvas.

Roger Fransecky, a psychologist and CEO of the Apogee Group, will lead a discussion titled “Undivided Lives: A Conversation About Career and Creativity,” about the relationship of personal talent and professional choices, at 6 p.m. Friday. Participants will include Lipsey, Molly Jarboe, James Salhany and Tom Kaminski.

Tickets for the panel discussion are $10 online at thekaneko.org or $15 at the door, $5 for students.

The exhibition will run through May 26.

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Movie talk to follow screening of ‘Super’

@Body Copy RAGGED RIGHT:“Super,” a giddily over-the-top goof on the Everyman crime-fighter movie, will be the topic of a movie talk May 1 at the Mary Riepma Ross Media Arts Center in Lincoln.

The 2:40 p.m. panel discussion will follow a 1 p.m. screening of the movie, which will play at the Ross through May 5. Titled “What’s So Super About Superhero Movies Anyway?,” the talk will be hosted by the Graphic Novel Book Club.

Information: 402-472-9100 or online at theross.org

Auditions

“The King and I,” Ralston Community Theatre, 7 p.m. May 1 and 2 at Ralston Performing Arts Centre, 8969 Park Drive. Show runs July 8-24. Information: 402-898-3545.

“Annie,” Lofte Community Theatre in Manley, Neb., 2 p.m. (children) and 7 p.m. May 8, and 7 p.m. May 9, at the theater just east of town. Show runs July 22-Aug. 7. Information: e-mail director Kevin Colbert at loftedirector@lofte.com or call 402-234-2553. — Compiled by Bob Fischbach

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