Campus cultural organizations add color to season

As classes get under way, so do the seasons of the University's cultural organizations. This autumn they offer a wide range of exhibitions, from German prints and on-site portraiture to South Indian dance and cross-dressing romance. Below is a roundup of the gallery and theater openings and other special events at Chicago. For gallery hours, ticket prices and other specific information, consult the Calendar in each issue of the Chronicle.

EXHIBITIONS

Smart Museum of Art

The Smart Museum of Art reopens after extensive renovations this summer with "The German Print Portfolio 1890-1930: Serials for a Private Sphere." Running Tuesday, Oct. 5, through Sunday, Dec. 12, the exhibition examines the central role of the print portfolio in German and Austrian graphics from 1890 through 1930 and the development of this genre in relation to the aesthetic, social and political events of the period.

Several long-running programs will be offered in conjunction with the exhibition, including a 10-week film series, "New Public Spheres: Aesthetics and Activism in Early German Cinema" and an eight-week lecture series, "Kultur/Kommerz/Kommunikation: Interdisciplinary Perspectives on Austria and Germany, 1890-1950." The Smart Museum's annual collaboration with Court Theatre, "Platform Presentations," will also focus on the "German Print Portfolio" theme.

A second exhibition, "The Tradition and Influence of the German Woodcut," will also open at the Smart Museum on Oct. 5. Centered around a 1991 gift, "W.L. Schreiber Woodcuts From the Books of the Fifteenth Century," this exhibition will examine the history of the woodcut and its development in early and modern German art and history. The exhibition will run through Sunday, Dec. 5.

Renaissance Society

The Renaissance Society will open its 1993-94 season with a site-specific, three-part project by New York-based artist Robin Winters. The first two parts of Winters' project will consist of a survey of his portrait work from the past 10 years and a new series of blown-glass portrait heads created for the site. For the third part, Winters will be in residence in the gallery during the first three weeks of his exhibition, creating portraits and collaborative works with gallery visitors and conducting interviews and discussions. The exhibition opens Sunday, Oct. 3, and will run through Sunday, Nov. 7.

Oriental Institute Museum

A new permanent exhibition in the museum's Egyptian gallery, "Ancient Egyptian Art and Artisans," focuses on artisans and their tools and artistic techniques through a wide selection of objects, many of which have never before been on display. Highlights include brushes and palettes of ancient artists, the tools of ancient stone carvers and the molds that produced the brightly glazed tiles used as architectural ornamentation for Egyptian temples and tombs. A rich array of sculptures and carved and painted reliefs are also on display.

Complementing the opening of "Ancient Egyptian Art and Artisans" will be a one-day workshop, "Paint Like an Egyptian," on Saturday, Oct. 16.

Department of Special Collections

"William Butler Yeats and Chicago," will open on Monday, Nov. 8. The exhibition traces Yeats' visits to this city and the University and his connection with Poetry, a magazine founded by Harriet Monroe. A second exhibition, "Will Cuppy: The Natural History of a Modern Humorist," will open Wednesday, Nov. 17.

THEATER

Court Theatre

Pierre Marivaux's "The Triumph of Love" is the first and current offering of Court Theatre's 1993-94 season. The play combines a fantastic figure from "commedia dell'arte" with characters who explore real emotions in a search for love. In the show, a cunning princess masquerades as a young man to capture the heart of her family's enemy.

"Triumph" will be presented in rotating repertory with Caryl Churchill's "Cloud Nine," which mixes ages, genders and strikingly funny double entendres to make a poignant statement about sexual politics and love. Performances of "Cloud Nine" begin Friday, Oct. 15.

"Triumph" will run through Sunday, Nov. 21; "Cloud Nine" will run through Sunday, Dec. 5.

University Theater

University Theater will offer a packed schedule of performances this quarter, including Shakespeare's "As You Like It," which will be presented from Wednesday, Nov. 10, through Saturday, Nov. 13, and Lorraine Hansberry's "To Be Young, Gifted and Black," which will run from Wednesday, Nov. 17, through Saturday, Nov. 20. Off-Off-Campus, just back from the Edinburgh Festival Fringe, will present its autumn-quarter revue on Fridays beginning Oct. 29. Coming up in December, UT Blackfriars will present the musical "Once Upon a Mattress."

CONCERTS

The Music Department sponsors a wide range of musical performances throughout the school year. Below is a sample of these events. Call 702-8484 for more information.

Chamber Music Series: "A Season of Chicago Firsts"

Each of the six concerts in the Chamber Music Series' 51st season features either the Chicago debut of world-class artists or the Chicago premiere of a new work by an internationally renowned composer. The season will open with the Emerson String Quartet in its first Chicago collaboration with Canada's St. Lawrence String Quartet on Friday, Oct. 29, and will continue with the Chicago debuts of Russian violinist Ilya Kaler and pianist Boris Slutsky on Friday, Dec. 3.

All concerts take place in Mandel Hall. Subscriptions to the six-concert series are $89; $45 for full-time students. For tickets, call 702-8068.

Howard Mayer Brown International Early Music Series

This three-concert series will open with Canada's Tafelmusik, directed by Jeanne Lamon, on Friday, Nov. 12. The series will continue in 1994 with the first Chicago collaboration of soprano Julianne Baird and lutenist Ronn McFarlane on Jan. 28, and a concert by the Tallis Scholars, directed by Peter Phillips, on Feb. 13. The International Early Music Series was renamed this year in honor of Howard Mayer Brown, Professor in Music, who died in February. Subscriptions to the series are $45; $21 for full-time students.

Contemporary Chamber Players

The 30th season of the Contemporary Chamber Players will open its five-concert series with the new University of Chicago Pocket Opera Company, featuring the New York New Music Ensemble, on Friday, Dec. 10, at Court Theatre. The Eaton/Moog synthesizer will be featured. For more information, call 702-8068.

South Indian Classical Dance: The Ancient Art of Bharata Natyam

Bharata natyam dancer Madhursi Raj Sethuraman will be joined by a "nattuvanar" (director and singer), a "mrdangam" (percussion) player, a flutist and a vocalist for an evening featuring this 2,000-year-old art form. The performance will begin at 7 p.m. Saturday, Oct. 16, in Goodspeed Recital Hall. Tickets are $5; $3 for students. For tickets, call 702-8068.

Tribute to Art Hodes: Jim Dapogny's Chicago Jazz Band

Jim Dapogny's Chicago Jazz Band will perform a tribute to jazz legend Art Hodes at 8 p.m. Saturday, Oct. 2, in Mandel Hall. The band will feature special guests Kenny Davern and Butch Thompson, with jazz artists Franz Jackson, Bobby Lewis, Truck Parham, John Watson and Jerry Coleman. Tickets for the concert, which is sponsored by the Jazz Institute of Chicago, are $15; $12 for members of the Jazz Institute of Chicago and for students and seniors. Tickets at the door are $18; $15 for JIC members, students and seniors. For tickets call Ticketmaster at 559-1212. For more information, call the Jazz Institute of Chicago at 427-1676.

"Fantastic Animals": Annual Halloween Concert

"Fantastic Animals" is the theme of this year's University Symphony Orchestra Halloween concert conducted by Barbara Schubert. The concert, to be held Saturday, Oct. 30, in Mandel Hall, will feature Tchaikovsky's "Suite from Swan Lake," Op. 20; Griffes' "White Peacock"; Elliott Carter's "The Minotaur Suite"; Rimsky-Korsakov's "Flight of the Bumblebee"; and John Williams' "Jurassic Park Selections." Orchestra members will be in costume, and the concert will feature special effects.

"Weill Women": Cabaret in the 1920s

A group called TBA will perform songs from 1920s Berlin, including selections from Kurt Weill's "Mahoganny," "Threepenny Opera" and "Happy End," on Sunday, Oct. 31. In addition, songs by Weill's contemporaries will be performed by Susan Hohl. The performance will be held in Goodspeed Recital Hall. Admission is free.

ROCKEFELLER MEMORIAL CHAPEL

Rockefeller Memorial Chapel presents cultural events ranging from organ recitals and other concerts to silent film classics. Call 702-2100 for more information.

Organ Recitals

Janette Fishell and Colin Andrews will open Rockefeller Memorial Chapel's 1993-94 series of organ recitals at 8 p.m. Friday, Oct. 15. The acclaimed duo will perform music from Eastern Europe and the British School. Tickets are $10; $5 for students.

"The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari"

The 1919 silent film classic "The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari," directed by Robert Wiene, will be screened in a hand-tinted original print and accompanied by organist Wolfgang Ruebsam at 7 and 9:30 p.m. Saturday, Oct. 23. This Rockefeller Memorial Chapel event, organized in collaboration with Doc Films and the Smart Museum of Art, will benefit the restoration of the chapel's organ. Tickets are $7; $5 for students.

FILM

Doc Films, International House Films and Law School Films screen a wide variety films--from new releases to foreign films to black-and-white classics--throughout the year. For general information as well as individual listings, consult the Calendar in each issue of the Chronicle.

Chicago Latino Film Festival

The Film Studies Center and Doc Films will present four films on Saturday, Oct. 2, and Sunday, Oct. 3, as part of the 9th annual Chicago Latino Film Festival. Films will be shown at two sites on campus: Max Palevsky Cinema in Ida Noyes Hall and the Film Studies Center in Cobb Hall. All films will be screened in the original language with English subtitles. Tickets for each show are $6; $4 for students, seniors and the disabled; $3 for Chicago Latino Cinema members. Festival passes will be honored. For a film schedule and more information, call 431-1330.