Arts and Humanities Reports; Arts Reports Archive

The following is a K-G-O-U-K-R-O-U Metro Arch report. The Kirkpatrick Gallery of the Omniplex presents the works of painter Mitsuno Ishi Ridi, now through August 29th in a beautiful and moving collection of portraits entitled Retrospect. The gallery is located in the Omniplex at 2100 Northeast 52nd in Oklahoma City. In this report, Mitsuno tells us how, as an adult, she rediscovered her love for art, for portraits, and for pastels. How did you get started in how you wound up in this particular area? In 1970, I moved, I got remarried and moved to Lubbock, Texas. And I was very, very lonely over there, no friends. And I had been going to the university here before that. And to make a long story short, I got depressed and went to the doctor. And he talked to me for about two hours, which was very, very nice.

A country doctor. And he said, Mitsuno, you're an intelligent person. You know, what you need is something that you can do for yourself. Do you have anything that you have always wanted to do, but haven't done? So immediately I said, art. Because I had always loved art. I had been able to draw very easily. But then I have been standing a little bit away from it. Because I always put my family ahead of myself. But he said, this is a prescription. Dr. Zorders. So I started to take night classes at the Lubbock Arts Garden and Arts Center. And Glenna Goodaker was teaching there.

She is a famous sculptor now. But I had a very good start. When I went into a portrait class, I knew immediately that's what I wanted to do. It was almost like, I didn't want to do anything else now. I wanted to do portraits. And looking back when I was in junior high school, I used to just draw lots of my favorite American movie stars. And so it was something that I had the yarning for. I guess I didn't know it. That was a child out of curiosity. He was one of those stars he liked to draw, do you remember? Audrey Hepburn. Alan Ladd. Gregory Pack. So it was always there, but it took a doctor saying, go take the class. I was doing pastels at that time when he was going out.

And then about two years later, I was introduced to pastel. And that is when I knew also, when I picked it up, that's what I wanted to do. What I wanted to use pastel, because I suppose mixing colors was a little bit difficult for me at that time. And pastel, if you know what I mean, those sticks are all already mixed. It's there. In front of your eyes, and all you have to do is identify the colors and pick it up instead of having to create the colors by mixing. And that step was so attractive to me, and then the feel with my finger, direct feel, you don't have to use a brush, a long brush. And those two.

Then later on, I realized that that was what I used to use all the time when I was a child. Pastels. Pastels. And so it felt familiar. It felt comfortable. So really, that wasn't so much a discovery. It was a rediscovery. Rediscovery, yeah, I think so. That was artist Mitsuno Ishii Reading, whose life-like portraits are on display now through August 29th at the Kirkpatrick Gallery of the Amnaplex, 2100 Northeast 52nd in Oklahoma City. For more information, call 602-3717 or visit the Amnaplex website at www.amnaplex.org. This report is made possible by a grant from Target of Quail Springs Mall. For the Metro Arts Report, I'm Chuck Diven. The following is a key G-O-U-K-R-O-U Metro Arts Report.

The first Christian church in Oklahoma City presents the third annual Oklahoma Musicians Festival, Sunday September 13th from 6 p.m. to 10 p.m. The first Christian church, 3700 North Walker in Oklahoma City. Nettie Williams, whose director of music for first Christian church, joins us to tell us more about this, and a music and fun for the whole family. Nettie, this is a third annual Oklahoma Musicians Festival, and there's a lot to talk about. So let's start by going over some of the bands. We'll be there for this festival to the first Christian church. The musicians are made up of professional musicians from Oklahoma City. And many of them people will recognize because they have spent many years in Oklahoma City playing for parties and concerts and things. And some of them are members of the Oklahoma City Philharmonic. The first group that is going to perform at 6 o'clock is called Joe Settle Myer and Mixed Company.

And I understand from talking to Dan Waters that this is going to be kind of a mixture of jazz styles. Then at 7 o'clock there's a group that's going to perform called the Moonlight Serenade. And this is just one of the most fabulous big bands, and everybody just really loves it. And the wonderful thing about this band is that many of the musicians in it are retired. And so they don't get an opportunity to perform very much. And so this is a big event for them because they get a chance to play. And at 8 o'clock we have a very unique band which is John Williams Southwest Historical Jazz Band. And John Williams many years ago began to do a tremendous amount of research of the jazz musicians of the 20s and 30s. And apparently there was from Kansas City to Dallas. There was a strip that ran through Oklahoma City.

And it was the music of the Blue Devils. And so this music was not written down. And so John spent many evenings listening to 78 records and writing this music down. And so this is the music that you will hear. He has performed this many times for the State Arts Council and Arts Humanities Council. But this is a very unique opportunity to hear music that was played in Oklahoma City in the 20s and 30s. And then the concert would end at 9 o'clock with the group of Brian Garels. And this is contemporary jazz. You told me earlier also that this isn't just music. There's going to be food and enough to make it a very full evening. So tell us about some of the extra goodies that go along with the third annual Oklahoma Musicians Festival. One of the things that we've learned at First Christian is that music and food go together.

And so we always accompany all of our activities with lots of good food. And where our last concert was accompanied by a chocolate festival, this time we're going to have hot dogs and all of the condiments with it. And lots of candy bars and drinks. And one of our members is going to be roasting corn on the cob inside the shucks. And so this food will be available for everyone and their children throughout the evening. You mentioned everyone in their children because this is going to be a wonderful family event. And it does benefit musicians in the area. The money goes to benefit musicians who are participating in music all throughout the Oklahoma City area. And First Christian has a tremendous heritage of sponsoring the arts through jewel box, through music, through many, many opportunities over the years. And this makes a wonderful, not quite end of summer. Maybe the first to fall might even cool off by then, event to bring out the whole family. We would like to invite all of you to come and enjoy this wonderful evening.

That was Nettie Williams, director of music for the First Christian Church, telling us about the third annual Oklahoma Musicians Festival. Sunday, September 13th, from 6 p.m. to 10 p.m., First Christian Church 3700 Northwater and Oklahoma City. The number for more information is 5256551. This program is made possible through a grant from Target of Midwest City. For the Arts Report, I'm Chuck Diven. The following is a key G-O-U-K-R-O-U Metro Arts Report. Borders Books Music and Cafe of Oklahoma City presents a lecture in book signing by Mr. Norman Hammond, author of the book, Fund Raising for the Rest of Us. This book focuses on low cost, high return techniques for raising funds for nonprofit organizations. The event takes place on Monday, October 26th at 7 p.m., at Borders at 3209 Northwest Expressway in Oklahoma City. In this report, Norman and I continue a conversation about his book and about the great contribution that nonprofit organizations make to our communities.

What I wanted in this book was for people to not have to go through the learning curve that I went through. When I started raising money, the vast majority of money that's raised in this country comes from folks like you and me. The individuals who sit down at their kitchen table and write out a check for $25 or $50 or $100 for whatever to something they believe in. And more than likely, they're going to sit down and write that check because someone they know asked them to do it. And I was under that same illusion. A lot of people are, well, the first thing we need to do is write a grant. No, the first thing we need to do is raise money. And perhaps if I had to do over again, I would have my career and things like this would have taken direction of putting on more special events and putting on things that were doable and achievable. And when it was all said and done, we had a good sized money. And that in turn would have positioned us better to get grants. Because success leads to success. As I tell people in my workshops, they don't have to give you the money.

I don't care who you think you're applying to and what mandate they're under. They don't have to give you specifically. They have to give the money somebody. They don't have to give it to you. And this is sort of that bootcamp stuff I was talking about. I said, you know, lose the illusion that your cause is their cause. You have to convince them to give it to you. You have to ask them to give it to you. And one of the ways you do that is by developing your own resources and showing that you're a good investment. And what do you think from your experience to an eye that feelings on the subject, but what do you feel like are the great values of nonprofit organizations that makes it worthwhile to raise funds? Shakespeare said that we are such things as dreams are made on. That's what our nonprofit organizations are. They started off as someone's dreams. They started off as and and maintained to a certain point. They are some of the highest and noteless things that we try to do in our culture.

And we who are board members, staff members and consultants and even volunteers and others. We're the guardians of those dreams and how we guard them is by is by providing them with the resources that they need to conduct their missions. Because people are there from a motive other than profit. Yeah, they're there to serve. They're there to provide service and to and to serve the public and social service or some creative service or artistic. Yeah, one of the myths I exploded this is the myth of this nonprofit needs to be run more like a business. Because if it were a business, well, first off in over a business, we wouldn't we wouldn't be having that discussion. Okay, because we would just cut what is unprofitable. But in the nonprofit sector, we evaluate, is it doing any good? Is it serving the public good? Is it is it addressing what what we feel needs to be addressed? Making a contribution adding to the quality of life. Any of those things, you know, and those are those are factors you can't quantify on spreadsheet and believe me, I spend a great deal of my time crunching numbers and quantifying things.

But you cannot do that. Those are those are those are things that we believe in. And that's what makes the nonprofit sector strong. You know, it's a reflection of our beliefs. I went to borders first and the reason I went to borders is part of my philosophy that you should reward those who have supported the third or nonprofit sector. Unless faces borders is one of the bookstores, in fact, the bookstore that goes out of its way to support nonprofits with its benefit days and things like this. I mean, it literally shares its profits. And as far as I'm concerned, that puts them in the same league as like Dayton Hudson Target stores, who I think a great deal of. And the other few who really put their money where their mouth is. That was Norman Hammond, author of the new book, Fundraising for the Rest of Us. Mr. Hammond will be doing a lecture in book signing at Borders Books, Music and Cafe in Oklahoma City on Monday night, October 26th at 7 p.m.

Borders is at 3209 Northwest Expressway and the number for more information is 848-2667. This report is made possible by a grant from Target of Midwest City. For the Metro Arts Report, I'm Chuck Diven. The following is a KGOUKRU Metro Arts Report. Rostate College presents Global Oklahoma. Saturday, October 10th, from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. at the Rostate College campus, I-40 in Guterburg Drive in Midwest City. Here to tell us more about this annual event this year highlighting the music, culture and food of Germany is Lisa Price, Director of Community Relations and Special Events for Rostate College. Lisa, this is an annual event at Global Oklahoma and you mentioned earlier that you feature one particular country every year. So tell us what the 1998 Global Oklahoma will feature and what folks can find when they come on the 10th of October.

Well, there are lots of activities for all ages. We will be hosting our 10th annual Global Oklahoma Festival of Cultures this year. We started in 1989 and we have quite a wide variety of activities that are all free except for the food court. And you can purchase some multicultural items that will be for sale. But as a general rule, the festival has no admission charge, no parking fee, and it's offered as an educational cultural festival for the community. What kind of activities and events and things you anticipate there being there for this year's festival? This year we will have some of our popular things. We start off the morning at 10 a.m. actually about 9.50. We have a walking parade of nations where we gather everyone from our center mall and walk toward the opening ceremony stage where we have an opening ceremony followed by a symbolic dev release. There are actually homing pitches but the dev piece is incorporated into our festival logo.

And so we have a symbolic dev release. Once the festival is open, we will have nearly 70 or 80 cultural and educational exhibits. We will have a school display area where we will have schools with their multinational projects that are done in school. We will have probably 25 when it's all said and done. We will probably have probably 30 schools involved with their professional, I mean with their school class projects there for display. We also have four stages of live entertainment that is multinational or educational and theme. And we have a delicious food court which is located in our gymnasium. We will have 20 food vendors there with foods that are of an ethnic flavor from all around the world. We have a large children's tent which will have nearly probably usually between 1500 and 2000 children will go through the activities in the children's tent.

This year, a couple of new feature items. Since we are featuring Germany for our featured culture this year, we are going to have in conjunction with Cable VW. We are going to be having a VW classic old VW show and rally where we will have Volkswagen's here from 1954 to the 1998 Beetle. They are on display that day. And another new feature this year will be the multicultural art contest, youth art contest. You mentioned earlier expecting over 10,000 people and something that folks want more information, they can find it on the webpage and you can tell us how to find that information. Yes, I sure could. That is www.rose.cc.ok.us forward slash GLOBOK forward slash. And if they can't find that or have any questions with that, they can look at Rose State College to our college homepage.

That was Lisa Price, director of community relations and special events for Rose State College talking about GLOBOK LAHOMA. Scheduled for Saturday, October 10th from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. at the Rose State College, I-40 in Heuterburg Drive in Midwest City. The number for more information is 736-0313. GLOBOK LAHOMA is made possible in part by grant from the State Arts Council. This report is made possible by grant from Target of Midwest City. For the Metro Arts Report, I'm Chuck Diven. The following is a K-G-O-U-K-R-O-U Metro Arts Report. By guest today is Brian Pitts, who is both artistic director and articulate spokesman for Ballet Oklahoma. We talk about the 1998-1999 Ballet season and the move to Kirkpatrick Auditorium on the Oklahoma City University campus.

We're going to be performing at Kirkpatrick the Fine Arts Auditorium on the campus of OCU. You know, it's only 10 blocks from the Civic Center. We've added a lot of new things this year, like Ballet Ballet. You can pull up to this theater and they'll take your car away. You go right into the theater and they'll bring it back for you at the end of the evening. It doesn't cost you anything. But we will have the shuttle service that will go through the parking lots. It'll pick you up at your car and then it'll return you back there after the show that evening. We've also stepped up a security around the university, so I think that's another plus, too. And we primarily pick productions that have been very successful in the past. We haven't performed them for several years. Dracula this year is right on Halloween weekend. Of course, it's a wonderful life in Christmas. And then in February, we have Swan Lake Act 2, Valentine's Suites, which is a big band ballet and Peter in the Wolf. And then finally, in April, the 1st of May, we're doing a mid-seller night stream.

And because of the size of the venue, it has 1,100 seats per performance, and the stage is smaller, say about half the size of the Civic Center musical. We're going to actually bring the dancers out into the audience and the productions, too. Let's say, for instance, in Dracula before we had blood that dripped on to stage, and now it comes out into the audience. And we'll be using every aspect of the theater that we can to make these productions a success. And a different kind of look at the ballet from an audience standpoint. There's not a bad seat in the house. And we're going to make our audience participate in some of the productions throughout the year. Who would you like to see come out this year as the ballet has never been before? Who would you like to see come across the door for that first time at Ballet Oklahoma? I just want people to come and give it a try, because once you try it, we were all novices at one time.

I wasn't born dancing, you know, as a matter of fact, I fought it desperately in the beginning. I was a little boy in the South, in the 50s, and in 1965 a governor had this vision to create an art school in North Carolina. And the only thing I have seen about ballet was Benny Hill making fun of it, or something on the Ed Sullivan show or something like that. You know, it was ridiculous, and I wasn't going to wear tights. But all of the musicians and actors, because they didn't have a physical education, of course, at that time were forced to dance. And I fought it. Three months later, I fell in love with it. And then, you know, the past 31, 32 years of my life have been dancing. And I think that that's the way, you know, we're all afraid about things that we don't understand.

Well, then go out there, have a look at it, you know, and see if it's really as bad as you thought it was, because probably not. Most of the people that, I would say all of the people that come to the ballet all decide that they love it. I mean, here in Oklahoma City, 60,000 people can or saw a ballet of a ballet Oklahoma last year. That's a fair percentage, isn't it? They can't all be wrong, you know. So I would just encourage anyone to try it once. You know, it's very inexpensive to come to a performance. And especially at the Kirkpatrick Auditorium now, I think you'll be able to view the ballet in a completely different way. That was Brian Pitts, artistic director of ballet, Oklahoma, talking about the 1998-1999 ballet season. Productions include Dracula, October 29th through November 1st. It's a wonderful life, December 11th through the 20th.

Swan Lake, Act 2, Valentine's Suites, and Peter in the Wolf, February 25th through the 28th. And amid Summer Night's Dream, April 29th through May 2nd. The number for reservations or information is 848 Toes or 848 TOES. All productions take place at the Kirkpatrick Auditorium on the Oklahoma City University campus. This report is made possible by a grant from Target of Midwest City. For the Metro Arts Report, I'm Chuck Diven. The following is a KGOUKRU Metro Arts Report. Celebrity attractions presents Rodgers and Hammerstein's lavish musical, The King and I. November 3rd through the 8th at the Rose State Performing Arts Theatre in Midwest City.

I spoke by foamless Susanna Kenton who plays Anna, a role made famous by such actresses as Gertrude Lawrence and Debra Carr. People think of The King and I, of course, your writer owns the role of The King. But no one really owns the role of Anna. Debra Carr is very famous, of course. But no one really owns that role. And what have you learned about Anna from the inside? Yeah, it's strange, that Chuck, because in fact the person who was responsible for the book, Anna and The King and I, and being made into a musical by Rodgers and Hammerstein, was called Gertrude Lawrence. And she was the first Anna, and it was written with her in mind. And in the beginning, it really was her story. It was about her. And, you know, your Brenner came along and was completely unknown and just became so amazing in the role that everybody, you know, he became known for the part. And it became his story.

But originally, even the book from which has taken is, you know, Anna and The King of Siam. It's not, it's definitely his first story. It's very exciting to incarnate a role of someone that's been played by a number of wonderful actresses, Debra Carr included, and to try to bring to it your own interpretation. It's one of the better roles for women, I think, in musical theatre, because it's just such a meaty part. There's so many different sides to Anna, you know. She has tremendous strength, and at the same time, a real warmth and tenderness for the children that she teaches, and great compassion for The King, even though he riles her and they get into arguments. So it really has a wonderful range for an actress to play, as does the role of The King, actually. But also, she has to confront some very, very difficult issues, and I think in terms of Rogers and Hammerstein, this is probably one of the more serious theme musicals, don't you think? What kind of issues does Anna have to wrestle with in the course of The King and I?

Yeah, well, she has to wrestle with them, and she arrives in this place that's so totally foreign to her, and so totally different from her upbringing, where the King lives with this polygamous, you know, court, where he has this harem of women, and he chooses, you know, who he wants, and there are everybody at his slave, and she's been brought up, of course, in, you know, a democratic Western society, where there is respect for each individual, and so it's a tremendous shock to her to arrive in this place where things are done so differently. And she has great strength as a character, because, in fact, the real Anna, Leon Owens, changed the course of Siamese history through her teachings, and through bringing some of the Western ideals to that culture. But, you know, it is a big adjustment for her. The King and I really is a tremendous story, which also happens to have beautiful songs, and for folks maybe don't realize what's out there.

Just give her an idea of some of the beautiful songs which are in The King and I. A lot of the songs are very well known, for instance, there's a shall we dance, there's getting to know you, I whistle a happy tune, something wonderful, all of which, you know, we've kind of heard over the decades. I'm very fortunate in that I get to sing five songs, four of which are really some of the best-known songs. So, yeah, from that point of view, it's a wonderful show, because I think a lot of modern musicals, you don't really leave the theatre humming or tapping your foot or singing anything. And I think you come out of King and I, you know, wanting to polka around all night, and the shall we dance number, or, you know, there are a lot of very catchy tunes that stay with you. Do you, in fact, have to polka, and that's been a big dress like their record? I do, I polka in a very big and very heavy dress. The hoops skirt itself is probably, I would say, eight feet in diameter.

And the costumes weigh some of them between 30 and 40 pounds. So, it's, yes, it's quite a, quite an athletic feat. We're very fortunate, because our production is very beautiful. It has the Tony Award-winning costumes that were used on Broadway. That was Susanna Kenton, who plays Anna in the Celebrity Attractions production of The King and I, presented November 3rd through the 8th, the Rose State Performing Arts Theatre in Midwest City. Tickets may be purchased at Metro Area CD Warehouse locations, or by calling ticket source, at 4052973000. This program is made possible by Grant from Target of Midwest City. For the Metro Arts Report, I'm Chuck Diven. The following is a K-G-O-U-K-R-O-U Metro Arts Report. My guest today is artist and illustrator Mike Wimmer, whose paintings are on display now through December 7th from the East Gallery of the State Capitol,

as part of a series of exhibitions sponsored by the Oklahoma Arts Council. Mike is nationally known for his illustrations, including his most recent book, Home Run, which tells about the most famous afternoon in the life of Babe Ruth. Mike, what will people see when they go to the Capitol and see your paintings, what will they see of Mike Wimmer's art? Probably with anything you'll see just a nice journal overview of what I do for a living. Some of the commercial aspects of the work, I think, is a portrait of Arnold Schwarzenegger there, which is also some of the paintings I've done for books, for book covers. What kind of books will people recognize when they think of your art they may not know you're name, but they'll recognize the pictures. Flight, one, the Orvis Pictures Award, is the first children's picture book ever chosen as the best nonfiction book of the year for children. Then, of course, the one that sells the most, which most people will recognize

just because it's sheer numbers of what it's sold, is all places to love, a story about a little family growing up, when it's kind of a farm set wherever, I put it in wherever USA, so it looks like it could be the farm that they knew, and their grandparents fed them. And the newest book, which completes the prize for me, has been extremely well. I guess you could say I am responsible for the Home Run race this year. I am personally responsible for the Yankees winning the tenant in the world champion because I knew a long, that's why we did the Home Run book. For folks who don't know, the Home Run is really about Babe Ruth. At its, like all of your books, if you don't read the text, the picture is drawing you along, and they invite you into something that's realistic, but it's almost more than realistic. There's a dreamy, super-reality, I would say, to like the places we love, the train saw, all those things. If people recognize one of your books, I recognize all of it.

One of the things I wanted to ask you was, when and how did you make the connection between the picture in your mind and the picture on the paper, that you could have that power to create something that would be not just close to what you thought, but actually pleasing, wouldn't happen to make that process work for you. Well, I traveled to schools all over the United States and talked to different elementary school kids, and this is kind of one of the questions they ask, too. Where do you get the ideas where the pictures come from? And I tell them, facetiously, that I was born with a camera stick in my head. You can hear it rattling around every now and then. But when the idea comes, I just take a little quick snap shot. And the problem is, I'm the only one who can see it. But really, for me, I was an avid reader. I love to read, of course, the books that I read growing up during the 60s and 70s. I would go back to the old classics, the ones illustrated beautifully, illustrated with paintings, with buoyancy, wide powered piles,

scoone over, Arthur Rackman, mostly because during the 60s and 70s, they were using very simple art forms, block prints, one color, that sort of thing. And it's not at all, to me, it didn't help tell the story. My way of painting is very narrative, I like telling stories. It's just something that helps get the idea across. You may become it while I go about the train song, or some of the other paintings having a dreamlike quality. And I think most of that is because I paint my impressions in my memories of places that I've been to as opposed to what I know about them, because I never met Babe Ruth or I never met Charles Limbert. But doing all the research I do, I try to get in as much as possible to who that person was, for instance, Charles Limbert, being a 27-year-old man when he did it. I understand what it was like to have full of energy and that can do attitude.

The 27-year-old said, you can't be defeated. I remember what that's like. And so I tried to paint that, kind of, and I can with the world as me. If I don't make it so wide, I'm just 27. No one's going to care if I'm gone anyway. But it takes that kind of spirit in for me as an illustrator, as an artist, really trying to concentrate as much on the attitude of the story, the impression of the place, as the reality of what I'm painting at the same time. Met was artist and illustrator Mike Wimmer, whose paintings are on display now through December 7th in the East Gallery of the State Capitol, as part of a series of exhibitions sponsored by the Oklahoma Arts Council. For information, you may call 521-2931. This report is made possible by a grant from Target of Midwest City. For the Metro Arts Report, I'm Chuck Diven. The following is a K-G-O-U-K-R-U Metro Arts Report.

Valley Oklahoma presents a world premiere production of It's a Wonderful Life. December 11th through the 20th at the Cropatric Auditorium at Oklahoma City University. And I guess today is Brian Pitts, who's not only artistic director of Valley Oklahoma, but the man who adapted this wonderful screen classic for the ballet. And how did you settle it's a wonderful life and then go about adapting it as a... Well, we looked at different ideas, you know, like Christmas Carol was a suggestion. Well, everybody does a Christmas... There's a prairie Christmas Carol. This Christmas Carol, up at Christmas Carol. And that... That is a very depressing story. It's really only adults except for, you know, maybe some scenes on the street and everything.

And that's real depressing. So we looked at maybe, you know, Cinderella. I mean, that's kind of a fairy tale type thing. But, you know, I think when it came down to it, it's a wonderful life as an American story about a person or everybody's worth in the world. And the other day I said to my technical director and my wife, I was like, this is gonna cry. This is gonna kill people. You know, she always cry to see some wonderful life. I always do. Everybody does. And so I guess that's what, you know, it's difficult for me because my whole life has been the Nutcracker. Ever since I got into dance, like for 31 years now, it's been the Nutcracker. And it would be a mistake for me to make... It's a wonderful life, a Nutcracker. But I've been pulled toward that because I don't want people to be upset.

But yet again, that's the story. That's the deal. And there's quite a bit of humor in the film. But you know what? And this is not like the film, but it... But you have to, you know, kind of pull them up a little bit and then let the bottom drop out of it. And then you bring them back at the end. And I know at the end of first act, people are going to be... They're not going to be able to handle it, probably. But that's good. If I accomplish that, then I've done it, because I will pull them back. I'll make them feel great by the time they leave. You know. What are you doing musically for, though? I'm trying koski. I wanted to kind of keep it even though koski wrote nothing similar to the Nutcracker or a Swan Lake. But his music is very passionate. And oddly enough,

a lot of it's very melodramatic. And I could see, you know, it could have been, even though I think it was suggested at one point that Beethoven was probably better for its wonderful life. I'm not quite sure why. Is that brotherly thing, or something? I think that for the film, they could have used koski. Or koski certainly got some heart rigging stuff. Exactly. And I'm using number six, quite a bit of number six. Number one, number six, number four, and several movements from a couple of the sleeves. And the instrumentation is not that different so the way that I've put it together, you never know the difference. And I'm pretty good at putting stuff together like that so that it makes it look like it was made for it. Just kind of what I do. And I've adapted the story

and changed it so that I can use children. Because I mean, that's one of the aspects of the Nutcracker that brings people in. Children like to see children on stage. And so people go, all of my little dancers who auditioned like, I've been watching it. They're like, what are we going to do? There's no kids in this. I mean, they do that. And so they all came to audition on Saturday, not knowing what was going to happen. And of course, when I saw them, I had worked it out so that I had about 40 children in it. And with two castes, it's about 80 children over two weekends. And then when I saw them and had them here in person, I was like, well, I kind of changed, I have to regroup now. I kind of changed the way, you know, I'm going to incorporate children into the production now. And I'm going to use them even more than I anticipated. That was Brian Pitts talking about ballet, Oklahoma's world premiere production of It's a Wonderful Life. December 11th through the 20th at the Carpathric Auditorium

at Oklahoma City University. The number for tickets and reservations is 848-8637. That's 848-toes. This Metro Arts Report is made possible by a grant from Target of Midwest City. For the Arts Report, I'm Chuck Dillan. The following is the KGOUKRU Metro Arts Report. Celebrity Tractions presents a hilarious Broadway hit, Tuna Christmas for eight performances, January 12th through the 17th, at the Performing Arts Center at Rose State College in Midwest City. My guest today is Tony nominated actor Joe Sears, who along with co-creator Jason Williams portray the entire population of Tuna, Texas. You play how many different characters in this show? I think it's 10 or 11. I don't know. It's two different Christmas. I think it's 11 and 10 in the original. Greater 10.

Well, this gives us a rundown of the kinds of characters you play in inter-partner plays, and a little bit about what the story is for folks who have never seen it. Well, it's about a small town in Texas, and we call it where the Lions Club is too liberal and Patrick Lyne never dies. That's the slogan. It's a real right-wing community, and it's full of big hits. At the same time, we like our big hits. Jason and I like to say that we very aren't we're very familiar in the fond of our characters being both of us are from small rural areas. We don't make fun in the show, but we do portray the characters, and everyone says we have a piercing pin to our satire. There's lots of eccentric people, and there's a lot of social issues explored in the sequel here. You don't have to see one to see the other. Tuna Christmas has a phantom destroying yard display, and Vera Carp, the rich lady in the town, is just, you know, livid.

She has the Christmas Hall of Fame, she has the Grinch and Santa Claus and Bing Crosby and Natalie Wood in it, and her son's tearing it up, she has live sheep in it, she's really out to win, and then the other contenders, Dee Dee Snavily, and she runs the used weapon store in it. She's got a piece on her special going on, you know. A P-O-E-E-O-R. And she has a yard display going on, and Pearl had one last year, and hers was Christmas occernal saners. She put all her chickens in elk costume. She's not going to do that anymore. It's a mad Christmas-y. We call it Blood and Holley, and it's been a huge hit all over the United States. And with the President Bush, saw it at the White House, invited us to perform it at the White House. In fact, we've got two command performances out of that, and it's fans from all over the world enjoy the show, and it's never been to Oklahoma. And once again, you know, it's not our fault.

I would have loved to have come, but you know, you have to get on a Broadway series, and our show travels on a national tour separate from that. So I think it's come a long way, after 16 years, that we finally hit a Broadway series in Oklahoma. We're in the world, the Tune of Texas come from, and what was the role of the crease of that. Yeah. Well, it actually started back in 1981 in Austin, Texas. They have an entertainment strip here called Sixth Street. And back in the early 80s, there were lots of theater work going on. There still is in this town, but in particular, there was a late night cabaret, the midnight shows. And Justin and I were members of a theater company, and we had to do skits for late at night. And we had been to a party over on the South side of Austin and improv the scene that went over really well about this radio station in the small Hicktown. And we performed it at the party. It went over well, so we took it back and started trying in our cabaret late at night down on Sixth Street. And went over well,

so we decided to turn it into a play, and that's how it got started. And it immediately was a hit, went to New York, off Broadway, ran a year. And we became, you know, celebrities, you know, right away, I was meeting Robin Williams and Steve Martin and people like that backstage every night, Maggie Smith came to our show. It was just the thrill and experience. And we thought, well, you know, that would be the end of that. And, you know, and rode that out for many years, and then we decided to ride a sequel to it, called Tuna Christmas. And it's been an even bigger hit. That wouldn't went to Broadway. And I received a Tony nomination for Best Actor in a Play. And the show is still running, doing very well. And now we've written a third one, called Red White and Tuna. It's a sequel to the sequel. Our fans and there's millions of them said that this is our funniest one yet. So we have a national tour going to that. So I would love to get that going in Oklahoma, maybe in the native of the Osage country up in Bartlesville. That was Joe Sears,

talking about the hilarious Broadway hit, Tuna Christmas, presented by a celebrity attractions, January 12 through the 17th, at the Performing Arts Center at Rose State College in Midwest City. Tickets are available by calling 297 3000 at any local CD warehouse or ticket source box office. This program is made possible by a grant from Target of Midwest City. For the Metro Arts Report, I'm Chuck Diven. The following is a KGOUKROU Metro Arts Report. The Oklahoma Arts Institute announces open statewide auditions

for the Oklahoma Summer Arts Institute, scheduled June 12 through the 27th at the University of Oklahoma. The auditions are scheduled statewide from January 13 through February 27, and are open to any one ages 14 to 18, interested in the Oklahoma Summer Arts Institute. Here to tell us more is Mary Gordon Task Director of Programs for the Oklahoma Arts Institute. Let's talk about who participates in these programs and what kind of programs are offered for the Summer Arts Institute. Well, we have two educational programs that the Arts Institute administers. One is the Oklahoma Summer Arts Institute, which is for young people ages 14 to 18, and that's a two-week residential school that they must audition in order to attend. Then we offer in the fall every fall five weekend workshops for adults who do not have to audition in order to attend. I've seen that brochure.

I keep saying, next fall is my turn, maybe next fall I'll make it. Well, maybe next fall we will catch you and make you come down. They are very exciting. What kind of programs are there? There's music and art, but tell me more about the kinds of programs. Well, in both programs, we offer theater, writing, visual arts, and music programs for the Summer students. We also offer dance. In each of those fields, we will offer one to two different types of courses, and in the fall each weekend, we offer five different classes, five different writing classes, five different visual arts classes. It's a remarkable opportunity, but also the quality of work now we're talking beforehand about how people may think to themselves, but if you've never seen it,

it's startling, it's stunning, the quality of work. It's amazing. Children can do it. It's absolutely amazing. First, they have to audition in order to attend. So you're going to get highly qualified young people to come in the first place. Then they have two weeks of very intense study with some of the finest professionals from across the country. And they are so eager to learn, they just wear the faculty out. They're just worn down to a nub by the end of the two weeks because these young people absolutely are like sponges and they'll take everything the faculty have to offer. They learn very, very quickly in addition to their own talent, they have, they learn quickly the discipline to study six hours a day, to pay attention,

to learn new avenues, new ways of doing things. And the orchestra, for instance, performs four times in the four weeks for absolutely different concerts, material that are among the repertoire of major symphonies across the country. Speaking of which, there are opportunities for people to enjoy these performances and talk a little bit about some of the free opportunities to hear concerts. Oh, absolutely. As I say, there are four orchestra concerts. There are two concerts for the choral students. There is a visual arts opening at the end of the institute and the dance and theatre and writing students all have an opportunity to perform. All of these events are open to the public, free of charge, and in addition, we will have a faculty performance evening also.

So, there are many opportunities for the people in the area to come and see how much talent there is in Oklahoma. That was Mary Gordon Taft, director of programs for the Oklahoma Arts Institute. She talked about the summer arts institute and about the auditions, which will be taking place from January 12th through February 27th statewide. For more information about the auditions or the schedule appointment, the number is 842-0890. Applications and information are also available on the web at www.OKART-INST. .ORG. This report is made possible through a grant from Target of Midwest City. For the Metro Arts Report, I'm Chuck Diven.