First annual Summer Arts
Fest begins July 18

On Tuesday, July 18 the University will kick off its first annual Summer Arts Festival. Running for five consecutive days, the festival will offer more than 10 events daily, not to mention continuing exhibits that you can drop in on anytime.

“With everything from concerts to plays to films and modern dance, we really think there is something to appeal to everyone,” said festival director Hannah Wiley.

Students from the School of Drama and the Dance Program rehearse one of the Shakespeare scenes they will be performing in the School of Art courtyard at various times during the festival.

“Quartets” is the festival theme, which has been carried out in a variety of ways. Actual quartets of musicians will be playing, the work of four artists forms one exhibition and dancers are performing the work of four choreographers, to cite several examples. Wiley says more than 100 artists are involved in the festival, which features the work of faculty and students as well as guest artists. Here are some highlights of what’s on tap:

Lectures
Philosophy Professor Ron Moore will offer a lecture series, Aesthetic Experience and Social Experience, which uses the T.S. Eliot poem cycle Four Quartets as its jumping off point. The lectures will be at 9:30 a.m. each day in Brechemin Auditorium and require registration. Cost of the series is $50; the price will be pro-rated for those not attending every lecture.

Perry Lorenzo, education director of the Seattle Opera, will be giving free lectures at 6 p.m. each evening in 210 Kane. With the overall theme of exploring hot issues of art, the lectures will be on Doug Varone’s dance Possession Quartet, Beethoven’s Eroica, Virgil’s Georgics, Wagner’s Ring Cycle and Joyce’s Finnegan’s Wake.

There are also free lunch-time lectures: Four Artists in Chaos: Cunningham, Johns, Warhol and Tudor, by dance program Professor Kara O’Toole; Aeschylus’ Oresteia Tetralogy, by Divisional Dean of Arts and Humanities Michael Halleran; The Fourth Art in China: Garden Building and Unity of the Fine Arts, by Art History Professor Jerome Silbergeld; Four Ways of Making Love: A Quartet of Shakespearean Sonnets, by English Professor John Webster; and Four Musical Evocations: The Sea, Landscape, Romantic Love and Childhood, by School of Music Director Robin McCabe. These will be at 12:30 p.m. at the Parrington Forum with the exception of McCabe’s, which will be at Brechemin Auditorium.

John Zorn and Masada will perform Friday night

Drama
A production of Hamlet featuring UW drama professors Steven Pearson, Robyn Hunt, Shanga Parker and D.J. Holland and four alums of the Professional Actor Training Program will be performed at the Playhouse Theatre at 8 p.m. each evening except Friday. There are also a number of matinee performances, and the show will play an additional week after the festival ends. Tickets are $12, $8 for students and seniors.

A group of about 15 drama and dance students are performing scenes from Shakespeare in the School of Art Courtyard at various times daily. The students have been enrolled in a special class co-taught by Dance Professor Rob Kitsos and Drama Professor Shanga Parker since winter quarter, and have been collaborating to create scenes from As You Like It, Romeo and Juliet, Othello and A Midsummer Night’s Dream.

Dance
The Chamber Dance Company will perform the work of four choreographers: José Limon, Mark Dendy, Moses Pendleton and Doug Varone. Performances will be in the Meany Studio Theatre at various times throughout the week. The dancers will provide introductory information about the dances and take questions from the audience. Tickets are $12, $8 for students and seniors.

Dancers from the Dance Program will also perform a piece called “Quad Show on the Quad” daily at various times.

Music
Musical groups made up of faculty from the School of Music and the Dance Program will perform at various times through the week in Brechemin Auditorium. They include the Open Way Quartet, Soni Ventorum, Marc Seales and Friends, and Double Duo: Ronald and Roxanna Patterson, Carmen Pelton and Craig Sheppard. Tickets are required. Student groups, including the Soul Silence Combo and the 5Dawgz Combo, will give free shows on the quad at 5:30 and 7 p.m. Friday and Saturday nights.

Guest artists include Masada, featuring John Zorn at 8 p.m. Friday and the Kronos Quartet at 8 p.m. Saturday in the Meany Hall lower lobby. Tickets are $28, $20 for students and seniors.

Art
Several exhibits will run for the duration of the festival. 4 x 4: Four Artists, Four Decades will be in the Jacob Lawrence Gallery, School of Art. The show features four alumni of the school from each of the last four decades and includes such artists as Dale Chihuly and Chuck Close. Andy Warhol Drawings, 1942-1987 will be on view at the Henry Gallery, with a lecture on it slated for 7 p.m. Thursday at the Henry. Tickets are required. Mirabilia Artis (Miracles of Art) features four faculty of the School of Art - Paul Berger, Norman Lundin, Helen O’Toole and Ellen Garvens - and will be in the lobbies of the Ethnic Cultural Center Theatre, Meany Theatre and Meany Studio Theatre.

There will also be the chance to view art-in-the-making as Visiting Lecturer of Art Linda Thomas creates a charcoal-on-paper work in the lobby of the Playhouse Theatre. Thomas works by creating individual drawings on 8-1/2” x 11” paper, then puts the individual units together to form one work of art. She will interact with onlookers as she works, and a reception to view the finished piece is planned for 4 to 6 p.m. on Saturday.

Film
There will be a Native American film series at 8 p.m. Wednesday through Saturday at the Ethnic Cultural Center Theatre. Films include Pepper’s Pow Wow, a documentary about Native American jazz musician John Pepper, with special guest saxophonist Bert Wilson; Ernie Pepion: The Art of Healing and Okan: Art of Blackfeet Sundance; On and Off the Res, a film about comedian Charlie Hill, who will be present; and White Shamans and Plastic Medicine Men and Transitions. Tickets are required.

Literary Arts
There will be a free poetry slam at 8 p.m. Saturday in Meany Studio Theatre. A Poetry Slam is a light-hearted performance competition in which the audience takes on a role during the show almost as important as the work of the poets on stage. Cheering, applauding and “Olympic-style” scoring by audience members create an atmosphere where (almost) anything goes. Poets have a few rules such as a time limit, no props or costumes and no musical accompaniment.

Multi-Media
Music Professor Richard Karpen will present a performance of 4-D Computerized Music and Digital Video at 8 p.m. Tuesday in Meany Hall. Tickets are required, but there is also an open rehearsal for the performance at 3:30 that day that is free.

Events requiring tickets are $5 except when otherwise noted. For a full schedule, including times of all performances, contact the Summer Arts Festival at 685-6696 or consult the Web site, http://www.summerartsfest.org. ¶