FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
May 2, 2011
FOR MORE INFORMATION
Mary Jo Ryan
402-471-3434
800-742-7691
Nebraska Book Festival to Feature Kooser and Nebraska Repertory Theatre Production
The 2011
Nebraska Book Festival in
downtown Lincoln will feature a conversation between former U.S. Poet
Laureate Ted Kooser, Nebraska Repertory Theatre's Virginia Smith, and Paul
Amandes of the Theater Department of Columbia College Chicago. The
conversation, free and open to the public, will be held at 4:30 p.m. on May
21 at the Nebraska State Historical Society's Nebraska History Museum in
Lincoln. A panel discussion titled "Local Wonders: From Book to Musical Theatre Production" will
focus on how Kooser's book describing the place Kooser calls home in the
rolling hills of southeastern Nebraska has evolved into musical theatre.
Kooser will share his reaction to seeing his work,
Local Wonders: Seasons in the Bohemian
Alps (this year's One Book One Nebraska statewide read) being turned
into a stage production. Smith and Amandes will talk about their experience
working with Ted's material for the play,
Local Wonders: A Play with Music.
"I'm always delighted when somebody finds a use for my
writing, setting my poems to music, painting a picture based on something I
described, and of course making a theatrical performance based upon
Local Wonders or
The Blizzard Voices," said
Kooser. "William Butler Yeats said that the aim of a poet ought to be to be
of service, and perhaps to write something that someone else finds a use for
is the kind of service we writers can provide." Ted Kooser, U.S. poet
laureate from 2004 to 2006, has authored twelve collections of poetry and
essays, including Delights & Shadows,
which won the 2005 Pulitzer Prize for poetry;
Lights on a Ground of Darkness,
collected stories of his mother's Iowa family; and
Bag in the Wind, his first
children's book. He teaches as presidential professor of English at the
University of Nebraska-Lincoln.
"I wanted to share Ted's insights and observations in
the way I share stories-on the stage. I first asked Paul to only write the
music, but it was clear, early on, that his responses as a man and a father
deepened our approach to the material," said Virginia Smith, Associate
Professor of acting and directing at the Johnny Carson School of Theatre and
Film at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln and Artistic Director of Nebraska
Repertory Theatre.
"I was the 5th child of 11 growing up in rural northern
Illinois. Personal space was achieved only by getting outdoors. And it was
there that I developed my love for weather and stillness, the seasons, and
the fickleness of daylight. After reading
Local Wonders, I was re-awakened
into that sense of discovery and delight. I headed off to the rural shores
of Lake Michigan (my Bohemian Alps) and let Ted's writing splash idea after
idea against my ear and out of my fingers. I couldn't stop writing," said
Paul Amandes, Associate Professor of acting in the Theater Department of
Columbia College Chicago and free-lance writer-director-performer in theater
and music.
In Local Wonders:
Seasons in the Bohemian Alps Ted Kooser describes his home with
exquisite detail and humor. Local
Wonders (the musical) takes us to this same home ground where, in a
circle of light, the journeys of the poet and his wife are shared with the
audience. This play with songs by Virginia Smith and Paul Amandes and
original music and lyrics by Paul Amandes will be presented at Lied Center
for Performing Arts on October 19-23 at the Lied Center's Johnny Carson
Theater. The Lied Center is working in collaboration with the Nebraska
Center for the Book's Fall Celebration of Nebraska Books, held the same
weekend.
The Nebraska Book Festival will also include free
writers' workshops (facilitated by Timothy Schaffert, Jim Reese, Matt Mason,
Dwaine Spieker and Jeff Lacey) and readings from Nebraska writers, whose
books were published in 2010 including Matt Mason, James Solheim, Sue
Baumann, Jim Reese, Marjorie Saiser, Mary Helen Stefaniak, Wendy Townley,
Desmond LaVelle, Barbara Schmitz, Sarah McKinstry-Brown, Roy Scheele,
Christopher Cartmill, Marilyn June Coffey, and Lynette Krieger of the Willa
Cather Foundation
The festival is presented by the Nebraska Center for
the Book, Nebraska Humanities Council, Nebraska Library Commission and the
Nebraska State Historical Society, with support from Nebraska
Arts Council and Nebraska Cultural Endowment, Nebraska Repertory Theatre,
Nebraska Writers Collective, A Novel Idea Bookstore, nuVibe Juice and Java,
and University of Nebraska Press. For more information, including a complete
schedule of free readings and writers' workshops, see
http://bookfestival.nebraska.gov and
www.facebook.com/NebraskaBookFestival.
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The Nebraska Center for the Book is housed at the Nebraska Library
Commission and brings together the state's readers, writers, booksellers,
librarians, publishers, printers, educators, and scholars to build the
community of the book, supporting programs to celebrate and stimulate public
interest in books, reading, and the written word. The Nebraska Center for
the Book is supported by the Nebraska Library Commission.
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As the state library agency, the Nebraska Library Commission is an advocate
for the library and information needs of all Nebraskans. The mission of the
Library Commission is statewide promotion, development, and coordination of
library and information services, bringing together people and information.
The most up-to-date news releases from the Nebraska Library Commission are
always available on the Library Commission website,
nlc.nebraska.gov, search on News
Releases.