UW's "A... My Name is Alice" is "a boodle of laughs"

The University of Wyoming's 2011 Snowy Range Summer Theatre season closes with "A ... My Name Is Alice," a bright and lively musical revue that presents a funny, bawdy and insightful kaleidoscope of contemporary women.

Directed by Leigh Selting, "A ... My Name Is Alice" runs at 7:30 nightly July 12-16 inside the Fine Arts Center studio theatre. Tickets cost $10 for adults, $8 for senior citizens (60 and older) and $5 for students. For tickets, call (307) 766-6666 or go online at www.uwyo.edu/finearts .

Called "a boodle of laughs" (The New York Post) and "delightful" and "so sophisticated" (The New York Times), "A ... My Name Is Alice" is filled with life's ups, downs and in-betweens from a modern woman's perspective.

The five-woman cast takes on multiple roles to explore the many facets of contemporary women's lives through scenes, monologues and songs. They explore the horrors of parent/teacher conferences, the delights of a male strip club and the tragedy of losing a parent. The music ranges from 1960s doo-wop and wistful pop ballads to soul-filled rhythm and blues.

Originally produced by the Women's Project at the American Place Theatre in New York, "A...My Name Is Alice" played a long duration at the Village Gate Off Broadway and won the Outer Critics Circle Award for Best Musical Revue.

The revue was created by veteran directors Joan Micklin Silver and Julianne Boyd and involved a variety of comedy writers, lyricists and composers who contributed to the songs and sketches.

Photo: Amber McNew, Rebecca Diamond, Caryn Flanagan, Francesca Mintowt-Czyz and Jackie Darnell rehearse a scene from the University of Wyoming Department of Theatre and Dance production  "A ... My Name Is Alice," showing nightly at 7:30 July 12-16 inside the Fine Arts Center studio theatre. (UW Photo)   

Rob Drabkin performs free concert at UW July 13

Denver musician Rob Drabkin will perform a free concert from 11:45 a.m.-1 p.m. Wednesday, July 13, at the University of Wyoming Simpson Plaza.

Drabkin was voted Colorado's Best Singer/Songwriter by Westword Magazine for 2008-2010. He gathered enough votes to earn his turn on stage at the Mile High Music Festival with artists like The Fray, Widespread Panic, Tool and Ben Harper.

"On These Heavy Feet," Drabkin's first full-length release, hit No. 10 on the CMJ chart on KOTO radio in Telluride, CO.

"I'm having a great time making music and I just want to inspire others to go after what will truly make them happy. That's why I grew my hair a bit crazy. I just wanted to let loose, get expressive, create some nice grooves and get people to move," says Drabkin.

For more information and music, go to www.robdrabkin.com on the Internet.

The concert series is sponsored by the Campus Activities Center Summer Programs. Individuals needing assistance to attend this event can contact the CAC at 766-6340.

Photo: Denver musician Rob Drabkin will perform a free concert from 11:45 a.m.-1 p.m. Wednesday, July 13, at the University of Wyoming Simpson Plaza.

Two new innovative sculptural works coming to UW campus

Chris Drury, Carbon Sink: What Goes Around, Comes Around, 2011

Courtesy of the artist

A year ago, the Wyoming Cultural Trust Fund awarded a second grant of $25,000 to the University of Wyoming Art Museum, in support of the ongoing exhibition “Sculpture: A Wyoming Invitational”. Art has been on display throughout the U.W. Campus and City of Laramie, and this grant supports the expansion and reinvigoration with new works.

In July, land artist Cris Drury will create a new work near Old Main called “Carbon Sink: What Goes Around, Comes Around” (artist's rendering shown above, courtesy UW Art Museum blog). Made from Wyoming coal and beetle kill pine, the 36 foot diameter work appears as a vortex, rotating inward. Drury, a British artist who has been at the forefront of the land art movement since the 1970s, will be on location for three weeks to start the work.

In August, Idaho artist Gerri Sayler will install a site specific work in the new computer lab at Coe Library. Created from hot glue, the suspended work will fill the two-story space with a cloud like form that will change with the light. The work is titled “Nebulous”, and furthers Sayler’s work inspired by water in its various forms. It also introduces the idea of art for interior public spaces on campus.

"Figurative Art as Story, Metaphor, Presence" at UW

The University of Wyoming Art Museum's 2011 Summer Teaching Institute, "Figurative Art as Story, Metaphor, Presence," will be offered July 25-29 at the museum. All K-12 teachers and community educators are welcome.

Participants will use museum exhibitions, the Ann Simpson Artmobile exhibit, "Go Figure!" and resources from the American Heritage Centerand Coe Library to explore how figurative art can inspire educational lessons by communicating ideas and stories.

Visiting artists Ricki Klages (painting), Susan Moldenhauer (photography), Chris Amend (painting, drawing) and Matt Daly (cartooning and writing) will be available to inspire new thinking and introduce techniques.

Studio time is included every afternoon to explore new materials. This five-day workshop demonstrates how educators at all artistic levels can incorporate original art into lessons and build school and community partnerships for art education. Three credits of Professional Teaching Standards Board (PTSB) certification or UW Continuing Education credit are available to participants.

The cost is $150 for individuals, $125 for a first partner and $100 for any additional partners who register together. Daily lunch and snacks are included. For more information or to obtain a registration form, contact Wendy Bredehoft at (307) 766-3496 or wbredeho@uwyo.edu .

For additional information about the UW Art Museum call (307) 766-6622 or visit the museum's webpage atwww.uwyo.edu/artmuseum or blog at www.uwartmuseum.blogspot.com .

Located in the Centennial Complex at 2111 Willett Drive in Laramie, the museum is open Mondays through Saturdays from 10 a.m.-5 p.m.

Photo: Jennie Tamao's etching, "Party Hat" is among works in the Ann Simpson Artmobile exhibit, "Go Figure!" that will be featured in the 2011 Summer Teaching Institute. (Jennie Tamao)

Bredehoft, Moldenhauer, Wilson: "Sequencing through Time and Place"

Wendy Lemen Bredehoft, Landscape 10, 2010, Strappo on Rives BFK, 6 x 8 inches

After the Wyoming Arts Council met in Laramie with the Wyoming Humanities Council, we all walked over to Gallery 211 to view an exhibition in progress.

The “Sequencing through Time and Place” exhibits feature artwork by Wendy Bredehoft and Susan Moldenhauer and dance video by Margaret Wilson.

Can dance movement, still photography and studio art come together in a seamless consideration of place and creative process in a public forum?

Part 1: Ucross presents the work created in 2009 during a six-day residency at the Ucross Foundation in northeastern Wyoming. It will be on view Wednesday, June 22.

Part 2: London is work made in the urban landscape of London where the vast space of the glazed-in British Museum became the work space for Bredehoft, Moldenhauer and Wilson to pursue their work together. It will be on view Saturday, June 25. 

Part 3: Fort Laramie presents work created by the artists at the Fort Laramie Historic Site in eastern Wyoming where the concept of framing became a dominant focus of their work. It will be on view on Wednesday, June 29.

Gallery 211 is open from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. each day of the exhibition. Free and open to the public. A full-color exhibition catalog which includes a DVD of Wilson's dance variations will be on sale for $30.

Experimental exhibition explores concept of place and creative process

Sequencing through Time and Place, an experimental three-part exhibition by artist Wendy Bredehoft, photographer Susan Moldenhauer and dancer Margaret Wilson examines three locations through their respective mediums of mixed media, photography and movement. Each part will be on view for one day at Gallery 211, 211 1st St., Laramie.


                           Susan Moldenhauer, The London Project: The British Museum 2010, archival pigment ink on Inkpress WT Photo Rag, 12 x 18 inches



Wendy Lemen Bredehoft, Landscape 10, 2010,

Strappo on Rives BFK, 6 x 8 inches

For more than three years, Bredehoft, Moldenhauer and Wilson have investigated landscape and place through their respective mediums while considering the intersections between intent, meaning and creative process. How does a dancer interpret or respond to the same landscape as a painter or photographer? How do artists transcend medium to respond simultaneously to each other's work? Can dance movement, still photography and studio art come together in a seamless consideration of place and creative process in a public forum?
Part 1: Ucross presents the work created in 2009 during a six-day residency at the Ucross Foundation in northeastern Wyoming. The formative stages of the artists’ work together was established during this residency. Themes such as shadow, line, space and scale were integral to the exploration of the creative process expressed in the divergent media of dance, photography and the graphic arts. It will be on view Wednesday, June 22.

Part 2: London is work made in the urban landscape of London where the vast space of the glazed-in British Museum became the work space for Bredehoft, Moldenhauer and Wilson to pursue their work together. It will be on view Saturday, June 25.

Margaret Wilson, dancer

Part 3: Fort Laramie presents work created by the artists at the Fort Laramie Historic Site in eastern Wyoming where the concept of framing became a dominant focus of their work. It will be on view on Wednesday, June 29.

Gallery 211 is open from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. each day of the exhibition.

Moldenhauer (photographer) is the director and chief curator of the University of Wyoming Art Museum. Bredehoft (mixed media, pencil, charcoal, pastel, watercolor and Strappo) is the curator of eduation at the University of Wyoming Art Museum. Wilson (choreography and dance) is an associate professor of dance at the University of Wyoming and initiated the vertical dance program.

Sequencing Through Time and Place is sponsored by the UW Office of Academic Affairs and made possible by the support of many.

"Sequencing through Time & Place" at Gallery 211 in June

From Susan Moldenhauer:

An experimental exhibition in three parts by artist Wendy Bredehoft, dancer Margaret Wilson, and photographer Susan Moldenhauer will take place at Gallery 211 in Laramie later this month. Each exhibition is open to the public for one day as we explore how to present our work that explores three places: Ucross, London, and Fort Laramie. If you are in Laramie on Wednesday, June 22; Saturday, June 25 and/or Wednesday, June 29; stop by and let us know what you think!

Deborah Brevoort wins University of Wyoming's 2011 "Essays on Theatre" competition

From a UW press release:

New York playwright and librettist Deborah Brevoort is the winner of the University of Wyoming's national 2011 Amy and Eric Burger Essays on Theatre competition.

The winning essay, "On Literary Activism," has been selected for the $2,500 annual prize. The head of the national adjudicating team, Jim Volz, president of Consultants for the Arts, says, "This engaging essay discusses the complicated relationship between political activism and playwriting and the persuasive power of the pen."

"This nationally-advertised competition sparked entries from throughout America and it's great that Ms. Brevoort continues to impact the American theatre with her plays and writings about the theatre," says Gracie Lawson-Borders, UW College of Arts and Sciences associate dean.

Brevoort is an alumna of New Dramatists and is best known for "The Women of Lockerbie," which won the Kennedy Center's Fund for New American Plays Award and the silver medal in the Onassis International Playwriting Competition. Her other plays include "The Poetry of Pizza, The Blue-Sky Boys" and "The Velvet Weapon."  Her new play "The Comfort Team" will premiere at the Virginia Stage Company in 2012.

Brevoort has an MFA in playwriting from Brown University and an MFA in musical theatre writing from New York University's Tisch School of the Arts, where she currently teaches. Brevoort also teaches in the MFA creative writing program at Goddard College in Vermont and in the graduate playwriting program at Columbia University in New York.

"The high profile University of Wyoming arts competition is intended to inspire students, faculty and theatre and drama professionals to pursue their literary talents and reward talented authors who write on any aspect of drama or theatre," says Lawson-Borders.

Unpublished essays may range from 1,800-7,500 words.

The program is offered through a special endowment to UW's College of Arts and Sciences to honor Amy and Eric Burger. For more information, email Lawson-Borders at glawsonb@uwyo.edu .

Jessica Sonner performs June 1 at UW Simpson Plaza

Denver-based musician Jessica Sonner will perform a free concert from 11:45 a.m.-1 p.m. Wednesday, June 1, at the University of Wyoming Simpson Plaza.

Sonner's performance is the first of a summer series though July that will feature live music every Wednesday in Simpson Plaza.

Sonner has been involved in music since a young age and took part in the soprano section in choir. She pursued a degree in music business at Anderson University in Indiana where she began to write and sing her own songs.

"The range of Sonner's voice is quite impressive as she flawlessly dives into differing styles of music," says Scene Magazine's Joshua Espinosa.

Sonner's music has been featured on the HBO television show "Big Love." She has shared the stage with Colbie Caillat, Sara Bareilles and Third Eye Blind since beginning her career almost six years ago.

"Jessica Sonner is captivating live. Sweet, friendly and bright, she will steal your heart and leave you wondering where she has been all of your life," says Tiffiny Kallina from americanindie.net.

For more information and music samples visit www.jessicasonner.com .

This concert series is sponsored by the Campus Activities Center Summer Programs. Individuals needing assistance to attend this event can contact the CAC at 766-6340.

Photo: Denver-based singer/songwriter Jessica Sonner will perform a free concert in Simpson Plaza Wednesday, June 1, from 11:45 a.m.-1 p.m.

UW Happy Jacks on concert tour through 5/21/11

UW Happy Jacks, a cappella group

5.16.11, 7:00 p.m., Newcastle HS Auditorium, free

5.17.11, 7:00 p.m., Rapid City Central HS Theatre, Rapid City, S.D., free

5.18.11, 6:30 p.m., Tongue River HS Auditorium, free

5.19.11, 3:00 p.m., Campbell Co. Senior Ctr., Gillette, free
5.20.11, 7:00 p.m., Big Horn HS Auditorium, free

5.21.11, 7:30 p.m., Kelly Walsh HS Auditorium, Casper, ticked by ArtCore

UW Fine Arts Building enters next phase of renovation

From a UW press release:


Additions to and renovations of the University of Wyoming Fine Arts Building will move forward following Friday's selection of an architect/engineering firm for the project, the second phase of improvements to UW fine arts facilities. UW's Board of Trustees on Friday selected Tobin Associates P.C./Hammel, Green & Abrahamson of Cheyenne and Minneapolis, Minn., as the project's architect and engineer. A silver equivalent LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) rating, with alternative energy and systems approaches to sustainability, will be a requirement of the facility design and construction. Portions of the Fine Arts Building will be vacated by the Department of Art upon completion of the first phase, the Visual Arts Building expected to be completed late this fall. The Performing Arts project may include approximately 50,000 gross square feet of new construction and renovation of portions of the existing building of approximately 120,000 gross square feet. The improvements to the building will include: Personnel and faculty offices; office support such as work rooms, reception, conference/seminar rooms, lounges and storage rooms; teaching laboratory/studios such as music, music rehearsal, acting and dance; and performance spaces such as concert halls and theatres. The funding is available through a 2011 appropriation to complete the design and construction documents to obtain a guaranteed-maximum price to present to the 2012 Wyoming State Legislature to construct and equip the Performing Arts addition and renovate the Fine Arts Building, says Douglas H. Vinzant, the university's vice president for administration.

Call for entries: Gallery 234 at UW

To apply for Gallery 234 exhibits at UW, go to http://www.uwyo.edu/union/cac/gallery234/exhibit-application.html

"Laramie: A Gem City Atlas" at UW Art Museum sees the city from other points-of-view

LuLing Osofsky, Paulius Staniunas, and Shizue Seigel, Wild Wild East, 2011, ink on paper, 22 x 34 inches, courtesy of the MFA in Creative Writing Program.

From the UW Art Museum blog:

Opening this Saturday is the exhibition, Laramie: A Gem City Atlas, which features 16 maps and associated artwork that offer new insights into how we view and could map Laramie. The project originated with the UW MFA in Creative Writing Program who hosted Eminent Writer in Residence Rebecca Solnit earlier this semester. Solnit, who did a similar project of re-mapping San Francisco, worked with students to generate ideas of how the many factors and facets of Laramie could be translated onto a map. The project was then opened up to members of the community, who also provided maps that were a testament to the varied ways in which Laramie could be viewed.

Many students partnered with local and student artists who provided an  artistic interpretation of the data on the maps. The result is 16 very different maps and accompanying art, which outline things from the locations of stray animals or doctors, the influence of Asian culture on Laramie, or the ratio of salons to saloons.

The Art Museum is open on Saturday, 10 am - 5 pm, and admission is free. For more information on this or any other exhibition, please call 307.766.6622.

Stanislas Sextet in concert at UW April 28

The Stanislas Sextet, chamber musicians from France, will perform at 7:30 p.m. Thursday, April 28, in the University of Wyoming Fine Arts concert hall.

Tickets, $7.50 for general admission and $5.50 for students and senior citizens, are available at the Fine Arts Box Office.

The program will include two blockbuster chamber music masterpieces: Mendelssohn's "String Octet," in collaboration with the UW String Faculty's Summit Chamber Players, and Tchaikovsky's sweeping "Souvenir de Florence."

The Stanislas Sextet brings together members of the French-based string quartet, the Quatuor Stanislas and two American musicians, violinist John Fadial and cellist Beth Vanderborgh, both UW faculty members. Since first performing in 1996, the sextet has enjoyed many fruitful collaborations and has performed regularly on both sides of the Atlantic.

The sextet's other members are: Laurent Causse, violin and viola; Bertrand Menut, violin; Marie Triplet, viola; and Jean de Spengler, cello.

The sextet will be in residence with the UW Department of Music for five days of rehearsals, master classes and discussions.

Photo: The Stanislas Sextet performs April 28 at the University of Wyoming (Stanislas Sextet)

Reception tonight at UW's Gallery 234 for "Installation Experimentation"

UW Art Professor Ashley Hope Carlisle and her ART 3320 Mixed Media: Installation class will host an exhibition titled "Installation Experimentation" Monday through Friday, April 25-29, in Gallery 234, Room 004 of the University of Wyoming Union in Laramie.

A public reception for the artists is scheduled for Monday, April 25, from 6-8 p.m.

Throughout the semester, 13 students within this installation course have created three works each, exploring the many facets of working with installation as an art form. The exhibition includes documentation and aspects of each installation created during the semester.

Photo: Green Belt Connection is among the site specific installations in "Installation Experimentation" on display from Monday, April 25 through Friday, April 29, in Gallery 234 of the University of Wyoming Union. (Dakotah Konicek Photo)

UW Mulloy Lecture: "Late Capitalism, Gen X & Global Impact of the End of the American Dream"

From a UW press release:

Sherry B. Ortner, distinguished professor of anthropology at UCLA, will present the University of Wyoming's 15th annual Mulloy Lecture at 3 p.m. Thursday, April 28, in Room 306 of the Classroom Building.

Ortner's presentation, "Late Capitalism, ‘Generation X,' and the Global Impact of the End of the American Dream," will focus on how the American independent film scene emerged as a recognizable cultural movement in the late 1980s. Ortner argues that "the end of the American Dream," an idea associated with so-called Generation X also had a global impact, which she explores through the lens of recent independent films made by and/or about immigrants to the United States. A reception in the Anthropology Building follows Ortner's presentation.

Ortner received her A.B. from Bryn Mawr College and her M.A. and Ph.D. from the University of Chicago.  Before going to UCLA in 2004, Ortner taught at Sarah Lawrence College, the University of Michigan, the University of California at Berkeley and Columbia University.

The annual Mulloy Lecture is sponsored by the UW Department of Anthropology in memory of the university's first professional anthropologist, William Mulloy. Starting in 1948 he fostered at UW what is usually called the "four field approach," integrating archaeology, biological anthropology, cultural anthropology and linguistic anthropology into a unified program.

For more information call Keith Kanbe at (307) 766-5136.

UW alum Sarah Garlick presents multimedia "Climbing the Unclimbed" April 27

"Wild Stone: Climbing the Unclimbed, from the Arctic to Arabia," a multimedia presentation by renowned climber and University of Wyoming alumna Sarah Garlick, will be presented Wednesday, April 27, at 7 p.m. in Room 222 of the Classroom Building.

With professional photography, audio clips and short videos, Garlick tells stories from her latest two expeditions: A journey to the granite big walls of south Greenland and an exploration of the Wadi Rum desert in Jordan.

Garlick's presentation focuses on the common core of both expeditions: A quest to find -- and climb -- untouched cliffs in some of the world's wildest locations.

"Wild Stone" shares stories and images of Garlick's 2010 expedition to Greenland, where she and her three teammates established a new, 2,000-foot free route up a remote granite wall. This expedition was supported by the prestigious Copp-Dash Inspire Award. 

The presentation also premieres new photography and video footage from an expedition to the Wadi Rum desert in Jordan this winter, where Garlick and fellow climber Caroline George established a new sandstone adventure route called Uprising.

An avid rock, ice, and alpine climber from the White Mountains of New Hampshire, Garlick received an M.S. degree in geology from UW in 2007 and is now a science writer and educator. She is the author of an award-winning book, "Flakes, Jugs and Splitters: A Rock Climber's Guide to Geology," and her climbing adventures are supported by Outdoor Research and La Sportiva.

Photo: Sarah Garlick

When fiction reflects real life

Richard Mansfield as Dr. Jekyll and
Mr. Hyde, ca. between 1885-
1900 (Library of Congress)

New insights into the story behind Robert Louis Stevenson's classic novel "The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde" will be the focus of the University of Wyoming's President's Speakers lecture, Thursday, April 14, at 4:10 p.m. in Room 129 of the UW Classroom Building.


Caroline McCracken-Flesher, a professor in the UW Department of English and a widely-published specialist in 19th century British literature, will explain how Stevenson's universally-popular work reflects his own sickly childhood and contemporary societal beliefs about medicine and drugs.

"The tale of the doctor and doubleness could well be titled ‘Mr. Jekyll and Dr. Hyde,' for Hyde reveals the dark side of 19th century doctors, linking medicine and murder, drugs and dreadful deeds," she says.

McCracken-Flesher researched the 19th century scandals in which scientists paid for corpses to use as research subjects, which often led to documented incidents of murder for profit and grave-robbing.

Stevenson, argues McCracken-Flesher, retells the stories of some of the era's infamous scandalous figures, including a murderous dentist, Horace Wells, and a notorious dissectionist, Scotland's Dr. Robert Knox. Their stories shaped how the public viewed medicine and science, and influenced popular perceptions about accomplished scientists who followed, such as Louis Pasteur and Joseph Lister.

Since its publication in 1886, Stevenson's novel has been made into dozens of movies, and McCracken-Flesher has published work showing how each generation changed Stevenson's text to reflect its own fears and desires. She contributed a chapter, "Cultural Projections: The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll, Mr. Hyde, and Cinematic Response," in "Narrative and Culture," (University of Georgia Press).

The President's Speaker Series encourages and honors individual faculty members who have been especially successful in balancing the research, educational, and service goals of the university. The series calls attention to some of the individuals who have made important, well-rounded contributions to the university's standing.

A committee comprising the speaker series' previous honorees nominates candidates for the series. Selection criteria include a long-term national recognition for research and/or creative activity and the ability to communicate with all members of the university community.

McCracken-Flesher has an M.A. degree from Edinburgh University, Scotland, and M.A. and Ph.D. degrees from Brown University. She also spent two years at Oxford University as a graduate student.

She has received numerous awards for teaching and research, including two Extraordinary Merit in Research awards, two Mortar Board Top Prof awards, recognition for excellence in both advising and teaching, and UW's highest teaching honor, the John P. Ellbogen Meritorious Classroom Teaching Award.

UW American Studies Program explores Laramie's Historic Westside Neighborhood April 20

The Albany County Historic Preservation Board will hold a public meeting at the historic westside of Laramie on Wednesday, April 20, at 7 p.m. in the Civic Center Auditorium. Research, historic photos and architectural survey of the area conducted by UW's American Studies Program will be presented. 

FMI: Alliance for Historic Wyoming 

Take Back the Night at UW features entertainment by Patti Fiasco and The Bettys

Patti Fiasco and The Bettys will provide the entertainment for the Take Back the Night rally on Tuesday, April 12, 4-7 p.m., at the University of Wyoming Union in Laramie. All ages free. More info here

Take Back the Night is the annual community march and rally that encourages community members to come together and take a stand against sexual violence. We march through the streets as a way of reclaiming that territory as a safe space for both women and men.

Sponsors of the event include: Women’s Action Network, SAFE Project, STOP Violence, ASUW, Soroptimist, Queer Advocacy Network, Interfraternity & Panhellenic Councils, Rainbow Resource Center, Women's Center, & the Gender & Women’s Studies Department.