Theater | Music | Dance | Exhibits | Lectures

August - November 1997

Killing Game by Eugene Ionesco
The Rumanian-born French playwright was a major figure in the development of the theater of the absurd. He disdained
social realism, claiming his role to be the objective witness of his own subjectivity. Go figure! (213-740-7111)
Oct. 23 - 27, Bing Theater, $5.

The Bacchae by Euripides
According to tradition, the Greek tragic playwright, now admired for his modern attitudes and psychological insights, was bookish, withdrawn and twice married, both times unhappily! Viciously lampooned by Aristophanes, who taunted that his mother had sold vegetables, Euripides nevertheless wrote between 80 and 90 plays. The Bacchae is the tragedy of Pentheus, King of Thebes. When he imprisons Dionysus, Pentheus is torn to pieces by his own mother, Agave, during a Bacchanalian orgy. (213-740-7111)
Nov. 6 - 10, Scene Dock Theatre, $5.

The Birds by Aristophanes, performed by the Aquila Theatre Company
Based in London, the Aquila Theatre Company has earned a reputation as one of the world’s foremost touring classical theaters. Audience participation is encouraged in this production of Aristo-phanes’ comic masterpiece Ornithes, written around 414 BC. Large-scale masks and costumes are used to tell the story of two tax exiles who persuade the birds to create a city in the clouds – Cloud-Cuckooland. Unless the gods comply with their demands, the birds will stop the fragrant smoke from the sacrifices of mortals from reaching them. (213-740-7111)
Nov. 11, 7 p.m., Bovard Auditorium, $10.

First “World Beat” Festival:
• Luis Villegas and the U.N. presents a high-energy combination of rock, traditional Mexican folk song and Brazilian jazz. (213-740-2167)
Sept. 2, noon, Alumni Park, free.

• The Pandemonium Steel Drum Band comprises six musicians performing the music of the Caribbean – traditional music of the islands with some Brazilian and U.S. influences. (213-740-2167)
Sept. 3, noon, Alumni Park, free.

• The Adaawe African Percussion Ensemble, an international ensemble of women percussionists and vocalists, brings together diverse styles of singing and drumming from Ghana, Senegal and Nigeria – music, poetry and dance. (213-740-2167)
Sept. 4, noon, Alumni Park, free.

USC Faculty Recitals
• Richard Todd, French horn. (213-740-7111)
Sept. 4, 8 p.m., Hancock Auditorium, $5.

• Alan L. Smith and Kevin Fitz Gerald, pianists. Koldofsky Benefit Recital. (213-740-7111)
Sept. 30, 8 p.m., Hancock Auditorium.

• Thomas J. Lymenstull, pianist. Works by Liszt, Schubert, Chen Yi, and others. (213-740-7111)
Nov. 10, 8 p.m., Hancock Auditorium, $5.

• Studio Guitar Faculty Recital. Richard Smith, Joe Diorio, Frank Potenza, Pat Kelley, Steve Trovato, David Oakes and Tom Osuna. (213-740-7111)
Nov. 16, 4 p.m., Hancock Auditorium, $5.

USC Symphony
• Polish composer Henryk Górecki conducts his own Third Symphony.
Oct. 3, 8 p.m., Bovard Auditorium, $5.

• Jung-ho Pak, musical director, conducts.
Oct. 17, 8 p.m., Bovard Auditorium, $5.

• Carl St.Clair, visiting artist, conducts.
Nov. 14, 8 p.m., Bovard Auditorium, $5.

Blind Boys of Alabama
Since 1937, when an informal group of friends who shared a love of gospel music got together, The Blind Boys of Alabama, featuring Clarence Fountain, have taken their gospel music on the road, appearing at venues from the Alabama Institute for the Deaf and Blind to Hollywood’s House of Blues. (213-740-7111)
Sept. 16, 7 p.m., Bovard Auditorium, $10.

Bennett Brandeis Quartet
Guitarist Brandeis, who took part in last year’s USC Jazz Festival, returns to USC with his own compositions. (213-740-7111)
Sept. 24, noon, Alumni Park, free.
Oct. 3, noon, Health Sciences Campus, free.

USC Symphonic Winds
Douglas Lowry, conductor. (213-740-7111)
Sept 24, 8 p.m., Bovard Auditorium, free.

USC Contemporary Music Ensemble
Donald Crockett, conductor. Roberto Sierra: Tríptico; Judith Weir: “Musicians Wrestle Everywhere”; Jeffrey Brooks: Planting Tears; Evan Chambers: “Come Down Heavy!” (213-740-7111)
Oct. 7, 8 p.m., Hancock Auditorium, $5.

Munich Chamber Orchestra
Music director Christoph Poppen leads one of Munich’s most beloved ensembles. Webern: String Quartet (1905); Tchai-kovsky: Serenade in C Major for String Orchestra; Schoenberg: Transfigured Night. (213-740-7111)
Oct. 14, 7 p.m., Bovard Auditorium, $10.

USC Early Music Ensemble
Lutanist James Tyler directs a program of songs, dances, vocal and instrumental chamber music from the German Renais-sance and Baroque era by Hofhaimer, Senfl, Isaac, Biber, Bach and Telemann, performed on period instruments. (213-740-7111)
Oct. 15, 8 p.m., Hancock Auditorium, $5.

USC Percussion Ensemble
Erik Forrester, director. World premiere of Ritual by Howard Yermish, for bowed piano and percussion ensemble. Also works by Frank Zappa and Lou Harrison. (213-740-7111)
Nov. 3, 8 p.m., Bovard Auditorium, free.

USC Chamber Choir and USC Concert Choir
William Dehning and David Wilson, conductors. “Romanticism Redux: A Com-memorative Concert of Songs, Psalms and Motets by Brahms, Mendelssohn and Schubert.” (310-375-4617; or 213-740-7111)
Nov. 9, 4 p.m., St. Francis Episcopal Church, 2200 Via Rosa, Palos Verdes Estates, CA 90274.

Carlota Santana Spanish Dance Company Presents Flamenco Vivo.
The Carlota Santana Spanish Dance Com-pany, founded in 1983, one of the liveliest dance companies in the U.S., continues a new USC tradition of presenting this fiery and passionate art form. (213-740-7111)
Oct. 28, 7 p.m., Bovard Auditorium, $10.

USC Hillel Gallery
• Forty large and vividly colored paintings of Israel by Austrian-born Cincinnati artist Wolfgang A. Ritschel comprise the exhibit “JuChriLam” at the USC Hillel Gallery. Inspired by his travels in Israel and the presence in Jerusalem of the three religions – Judaism, Christianity and Islam – which provide the acronym for the exhibition’s title, Ritschel’s work reflects his eclectic background as a philosopher,
scientist and artist. (213-747-9135)
August 21 through Oct. 19, Hillel Jewish Center, 3300 S. Hoover Blvd.

• “Jewish Women Artists” features paintings and mixed media work by Marta Feinstein and Frances Masi as well as nature-inspired tapestries by Polish-American artist Margaret Handwerker. “Perhaps because of the demands of the medium, tapestry is under-represented in modern art,” says Handwerker, who uses natural dyes to hand color the English wool that is the fabric of her large, richly colored and textured pieces. (213-747-9135)
Oct. 25 through Dec. 25, Hillel Jewish Center, 3300 S. Hoover Blvd.

Hours are Monday through Thursday, 9 a.m. to 6 p.m., and Friday, 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. Admission is free.

Fisher Gallery
“Miguel Navarro and Carmen Calvo” is an exhibition of the work of two sculptors from Valencia, Spain. Ceramicist Miguel Navarro is renowned for his “little cities.” Carmen Calvo constructs her work using shards of glass, ceramics and pottery. The exhibition opens with a curator’s tour led by Spain’s Manuel Blanco, the first of a series of weekly Tuesdays at Fisher noontime programs in conjunction with the exhibition. (213-740-4561)
Sept. 9 through Nov. 15.

Hours are Tuesday through Friday, noon to
5 p.m., and Saturday, 11 a.m. to 3 p.m.,
during the academic year. Admission is free.

Tony Kushner
Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright Tony Kushner, author of Angels in America, participates in an evening of scenes and commentary, featuring stagings of his work performed by USC School of Theatre students and a discussion moderated by Dean Robert Scales, with questions from the audience. (213-740-7111)
Sept. 9, 7 p.m., Bing Theater, $10.

Harlan Ellison
Host of the Sci-Fi Channel’s weekly “Sci-Fi Buzz,” Harlan Ellison has won more awards – for his 45 books, over 1,300 stories, essays, articles and newspaper columns, two dozen teleplays and a dozen motion pictures – than any other living fantasist. A creative consultant on the revival of the “The Twilight Zone” and for the current “Babylon 5” series, Ellison received the World Fantasy Award for Life Achievement in 1993. (213-740-7111)
Oct. 7, 7 p.m., Annenberg Auditorium, $10.

Henry Kissinger
USC President Steven B. Sample welcomes Henry Kissinger in the first of the year’s President’s Distinguished Lecture Series. (213-740-7111)
Oct. 22, 7 p.m., Bovard Auditorium, $10.

Adrienne Rich
Since receiving the Yale Younger Poets Award in 1951 at age 21, poet, essayist and activist Adrienne Rich has written 14 books of poetry and won the National Book Award as well as a MacArthur Fellowship. She presents a program of readings and commentary. (213-740-7111)
Nov. 18, 7 p.m., Annenberg Auditorium, $10.