It’s the darnedest thing: Landscape painter Marina Mangubi paints on two-by-four boards. That’s right, lumber. Her curious miniature panoramic scenes of rural Ohio and Oregon, as well as the French Riviera are on view in the Visual Arts Gallery at the University of Illinois at Springfield — and they are certainly worth a look. Mangubi, […]
Arts Features
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backstage pass 2-3-05
Many area theaters take the opportunity to present new and innovative works during the winter months, something I noted in my last column. The latest example of this trend is Born with a Veil, a work by local playwright Kari Catton Anderson that is being given a workshop production in the third-floor Club Room of […]
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Feats of clay
Call it destiny: Small-town girl or boy seeks fame and fortune in the big city and falls for an uptown opposite number, and the couple lives happily ever after. Lady Luck dealt a different hand to Gloria and Jerry Josserand, and they’ve parlayed that hand into considerable success as one of the most prolific partnerships […]
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Milo learns a lesson
The theater department at Parkland College in Champaign invites community members to participate in campus productions. By combining the talents of student and community actors, Parkland has been able to give us such outstanding recent productions as Assassins and The Laramie Project. This week, the college stages a play for young people, The Phantom Tollbooth, […]
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A glimpse back, a look ahead
Let me mention some of the many good things that happened on area stages in 2004 before taking a look at what’s planned for the Springfield-area theater scene this year. The Hoogland Center for the Arts is undoubtedly the main story of the arts community this past year. Not a week goes by in which […]
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Second coming
At first glance, the 80-plus paintings on display at Prairie Art Alliance are a circus of styles, techniques, and colors, ranging from black-and-white to psychedelic. What’s striking is the diversity of abstracts, dancers, wildlife, portraits, and skyscapes. More remarkable is the fact that all of these works were produced by one man: John E. Erickson. […]
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Painting for the rest of us
Many people interested in learning how to paint on canvas turn to academe and enroll in semester-long classes. Others seek guidance from Springfield Art Association or the Prairie Art Alliance. Many would therefore be surprised to learn there exists a teacher whose approach to placing colors on cloth produces take-home results not at the end […]
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backstage pass 12-9-04
If you’re looking for an alternative to Christmas-show overload, check out the Portuguese Rodeo Clown Company, which features three actors performing improvisations and other comic antics onstage for one night at the Hoogland Center for the Arts. The “clown company” includes Andy Lee and Johnny Molson, co-hosts of a show on WMAY (970 AM), and […]
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art seen 12-9-04
In 1966, Bob Waldmire and I were enrolled at Springfield Junior College, and already he was known as an artist whose star was on the rise. And though many artists are destined to follow their stars into the sky, Bob was to follow his onto Route 66 and beyond. During a recent visit to Springfield, […]
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backstage pass 11-25-04
It’s Thanksgiving, and that means the start of the Christmas season. The holiday theater season kicks off next week with A Yuletide Festival of Song and Dance, a show by the Mature Mob that’s being presented Thursday-Sunday, Dec. 2-5, at the Hoogland Center for the Arts. This year’s production, in which Mrs. Santa Claus and […]
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Alliance hosts unique exhibit of area faculty art
For the first time in the history of the Prairie Art Alliance, organizers have assembled an exhibit of works by faculty at Springfield’s different institutions of higher education, including Robert Morris College, Springfield College in Illinois, Lincoln Land Community College, and the University of Illinois at Springfield. The exhibit represents a break from tradition: Usually […]
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backstage pass 11-11-04
Springfield Theatre Centre opens its production of Arthur Miller’s Death of a Salesman this week on the main stage of the Hoogland Center for the Arts. Don Russell, Loretta Hess, Mac Warren, and Rob Decroix, respectively, star in the roles of beleaguered Brooklyn salesman Willy Loman, his wife, and his two sons. The casting of […]
