Coulter/Phillips Ensemble to play in Mitchell Hall

The Coulter/Philips Ensemble will appear at Mitchell Hall at 8 p.m. on Friday, March 12.

The international sounds of the Coulter/Phillips Ensemble will fill the auditorium of Mitchell Hall at 8 p.m., Friday, March 12. The group, composed of five classically trained musicians, will perform instrumental folk music from many countries including America, Ireland, Scotland, Sweden and Bulgaria.

An Irish duo of two stepdancers and a singer also will perform at the concert as part of the group's St. Patrick's Day Celebration tour. Muireann Nic Amhlaoibh, the featured singer, has performed in many of the productions of the National Folk Theatre of Ireland (Siamsa Tire) and has appeared on national television and performed on radio as a solo artist and with others.

The two stepdancers, Sheila Shovlin and Kerry Ann Kimbrell, will accompany Amhlaoibh's performance at the concert. Shovlin is a former open-championship Irish step dancer from the Theresa Burke School of Traditional Irish Dance in Pittsburgh. She has won several awards in competitions throughout the United States and Canada. Kimbrell is one of the finest step dancers in the United States. She has competed and taken first place in the Midwest Championships numerous times and was ranked eighth in the world after her performances at the World Championships of Irish Dancing.

Guitarist William Coulter, cellist and percussionist Barry Phillips, Celtic harp and woodwind multi-instrumentalist Shelley Phillips, fiddler Deby Benton Grosjean and flutist Lars Johannesson formed the Coulter/Phillips Ensemble in 1996 after years of playing together. The ensemble's arrangements reveal the players' classical backgrounds through complex harmonies, rhythmic nuance and dynamic contrasts, yet the group never loses the excitement.

The Coulter/Phillips Ensemble has played in venues ranging from the intimate Holy Cross Chapel in Santa Cruz to the prestigious Sebastopol Celtic Festival in Northern California. The group also has recorded music for film, including the soundtrack for the docudrama, A Midwife's Tale, based on the remarkable, colonial life of Martha Ballard and her diary. Barry Phillips' colonial recording, The World Turned Upside Down, was used by Ken Burns for his PBS film on the life of Thomas Jefferson.

The performance is part of the Performing Arts Series sponsored by the Office of Alumni and University Relations. Tickets are $15 for the general public, $10 for UD faculty, staff, alumni and senior citizens and $6 for students and children. For information, call 831-2204.

-- Laura Overturf

Alum juggles jokes, more March 16 in the Scrounge

UD alumnus Michael Rosman, who graduated in 1988, will bring his "Amazing Feats of Comedy" to the Scrounge in Perkins Student Center on Tuesday, March 16. The free, public event will begin at 8 p.m.

In his act, Rosman tells jokes while he balances on a board, on a bowling ball and on a table, at the same time juggling torches. Sometimes his life-size dummy and audience members help him with his zany antics when he asks them to catch everything from bowling balls to Michael himself as he falls off his six-foot unicycle.

Rosman shifts from expert to complete klutz during his physically comedic performance. In one skit, he catapults bananas into a blender hat, concocting drinks for the audience. His act has entertained colleges and universities, corporations and families across the United States and around the world.

After graduating from UD with a bachelor's degree in finance, Rosman traveled and performed in the streets of Europe. When he returned to the United States, he attended Ringling Brothers and Barnum & Bailey Clown College. Rosman then toured with the Clyde Beatty Cole Brothers Circus, a traveling three-ring tent show, during the 1989 season. He is married to Hedy Berkson Rosman, who graduated from UD with a degree in physical therapy in 1989.

For more information, call 831-2428. 

Exhibit, talks explore wreck of slave ship

Posters and replicated artifacts from the only identified and excavated merchant slave ship to have sunk in the course of trade with the New World will be on display at the University of Delaware's Center for Black Culture through Thursday, April 8.

Lectures and discussion sessions, free and open to the public, are planned in conjunction with the exhibition entitled "The Wreck of the Henrietta Marie: A Slave Ship Remembered." All lectures will begin at 4 p.m. in the Center for Black Culture.

On Tuesday, March 16, James Newton, Black American Studies Program, will speak on "Africanisms and Cultural Carriers to America: Visual and Performance Art Traditions." Howard Johnson, Black American Studies Program, will conclude the series with the lecture "Caribbean Slave Society and Economy" on Thursday, April 8.

The corresponding exhibition is made possible by the Mel Fisher Maritime Heritage Society, whose large conservation laboratories provide a resource for shipwreck projects throughout Florida and the Caribbean. In 1699, the Henrietta Marie sailed from London with a cargo of pewter, beads and other goods. She went first to New Calabar in West Africa where English goods were exchanged for ivory and enslaved Africans. She then sailed to Jamaica where her captain sold her cargo of Africans to plantation owners. The ship started its return journey, but sank in a storm in the Straits of Florida in July 1700. Artifacts raised from the ocean floor show that the ship carried pewter ware, ivory, slave shackles, trade beads and many other artifacts, which document every aspect of the slave trade.

"The exhibition can help us examine the slave trade and the conditions and effects it has had on our past and present society," Vernese Edghill, Center for Black Culture, said. "The Henrietta Marie's artifacts are considered one of the world's most important resources for helping us understand the seriousness of the trans-Atlantic slave trade. Our speakers, all experts in the field of African and Black American studies, will elaborate on the slave trade from an African, West Indian and American perspective."

Those interested in viewing the free, public exhibition may stop by the Center for Black Culture from 8:30 a.m.-8:30 p.m., Mondays through Fridays. For more information, call the center, at 831-2991. 

International Film Series begins this weekend

Award-winning films from around the globe are featured in UD's spring 1999 International Film Series, which begins Sunday, March 7. All films will be shown at 7:30 p.m., Sundays, in the Trabant University Center Theatre and are free and open to the public.

The Mirror, produced in Iran in 1997, will open the series on March 7. Directed by Jafar Panahi, the film questions illusion, reality and filmmaking with its tale of a small girl's mishaps and the actress' sudden refusal to continue playing her role midway through the film.

Banned by the Chinese government, director He Jianjun's 1995 film, Postman [Youchai], was smuggled out of China and edited in Europe. The film, which will be shown on March 14, tells the story of a mailman in Beijing who uncovers the quiet desperation of his neighbors when he begins reading the letters in his bag. Before too long, he begins to meddle in the lives of an adulterous couple, a prostitute and a drug addict.

Fast, Cheap & Out of Control, the third film in the series, will be shown on March 21. Made in the United States in 1997, Errol Morris's latest documentary features four men and their obsessions with control: a topiary sculptor, a robot designer, a lion tamer and a mole-rat specialist. Richard Corliss from Time called the film "a funny, thrilling tribute to people's urge to find play and profundity in the work they do."

Destiny, from Egypt and France and made in 1997, will be shown on April 11. This film, by Egyptian filmmaker Youssef Chahine, was a hit at the 1996 New York Film Festival. Set in 12th-century Spain, Destiny is a rousing tale about religious intolerance and book burning that also incorporates musical numbers.

Orson Welles's classic film noir, Touch of Evil, was restored in 1998 with the aid of the director's detailed notes on the film. Set in a border town, a Mexican policeman (Charleton Heston) battles with a corrupt American cop (Welles). Touch of Evil, originally made in 1958, will be shown on April 18.

The Eel, winner of Palme d'Or at the Cannes Film Festival, is a story of a quiet man (Koji Yakusho) with a strange pet and a dark past. One day in a small seaside town, he comes across a young woman who looks exactly like the wife that he killed years before. Directed by Imamura, The Eel was made in 1998. It will be shown on April 25.

Life Is Beautiful, made in Italy in 1997, is an intensely moving, and at times hilarious, film set in a Nazi death camp. An Italian Jew shields his young son from the horrors of the Holocaust by pretending that the camp is a resort, and the "vacationers" are competing to see who can earn the most points. The screening of Life Is Beautiful will be May 2.

The series is sponsored by UD's Faculty Senate Committee on Cultural Activities and Public Events, the University Honors Program and the Department of English film program. For more information, call 831-4066.

'Three Penny Opera'

Graduate students in the UD's Professional Theatre Training Program who star in Three Penny Opera are (from left) Gerson Dacanay of Highlands, N.C., who portrays the street singer; Hayden Adams of Newark as Macheath; and Elizabeth Maher of Salt Lake City as Polly Peachum. Performances are scheduled at 7:30 p.m., Thursday, March 11; Friday, March 12; Saturday, March 20; and Sunday, March 21. Matinees are scheduled at 12:30 p.m., Saturday, March 13; and Sunday, March 21. Tickets for all PTTP productions range from $5-$8 for students, $10 to $13 for UD faculty, staff and senior citizens and $12 to $15 for the general public. To order tickets or for more information, call 831-2204.

Film/discussions highlight Women's History Month

The University's 13th annual Women's History Month film series, "Women's History/Women's Lives," is being held on Tuesdays through March 23. All free, public films begin at 7 p.m. in Room 204 of Kirkbride Hall. A special guest speaker, with expertise in the film's subject area, leads a discussion after each documentary film.

50 Years of Silence is the title of the film scheduled for March 9. It tells the story of Jan Ruff-O'Herne, now an Australian grandmother, who broke her silence to reveal the terrible secret of her World War II experience. Taken prisoner in Java and reduced to sexual slavery by the Japanese army, she began to speak out publicly 50 years later, only after seeing television reports of Korean women demanding justice. By recounting the harrowing story of one woman's life, the film calls attention to the fate of over 200,000 other women and girls, and the systematic use of rape as a weapon of war. Gerald Figal, history, will speak after the film.

Ringl and Pit is the name of the film to be shown on March 16. It tells the story of Grete Stern ("Ringl") and Ellen Auerbach ("Pit") who met during the heady days when the Bauhaus was a center of artistic experimentation in Germany.

Forming their own advertising partnership in Berlin, the "ringl + pit" studio, they challenged their culture's expectations and sought satisfying lives as independent women and as creative artists. This elegiac film chronicles their short-lived artistic triumph, their flight from Germany as the Nazis came to power, and the lifelong friendship that spanned both years and miles. Martha Carothers, art, will lead discussion after the film.

The series concludes on March 23 with a showing of Mitsuye & Nellie: Asian-American Poets. This absorbing film documents the lives of Asian-American women through the poetry of Mitsuye Yamada and Nellie Wong. In interviews, film clips, intimate family conversations and lively dialog between the two women, viewers encounter the different histories of Japanese- and Chinese-Americans as well as their shared experiences of biculturalism and generational conflict in 20th-century America.

Peter Feng, English, will lead discussion after the film.

For more information, call 831-8474 or 831-8063. Kirkbride Hall is wheelchair accessible.

The series is sponsored by the Black American Studies and Women's Studies Interdisciplinary programs, the Faculty Senate Committee on Cultural Activities and Public Events, the departments of History and Sociology and Office of Women's Affairs. 

'The Law and You' lecture to spotlight high-profile case

The Law and You," a new lecture series being offered this spring by UD's Legal Studies Program, includes talks on prosecuting and defending high profile cases by the legal teams used in the Thomas J. Capano trial. The free, public lectures are offered from 12:20-1:10 p.m. on Fridays through May 7, in Room 104 of Gore Hall.

March lectures include a talk on Friday, March 5, by Ferris Wharton, from the state of Delaware's Department of Justice, and Colm Connolly, of the U.S. Attorney's Office, on "Prosecuting High-Profile Cases."

On Friday, March 12, Claire DeMatteis, legal counsel for U.S. Sen. Joseph Biden; and Richard Mroz, legal counsel for New Jersey Gov. Christine Todd Whitman; will discuss "Law and Politics: Views from a U.S. Senator's Office and a Governor's Office."

Penny Marshall, assistant in charge, Federal Defender's Office, will discuss "Defending Criminal Cases" on Friday, March 19.

On Friday, March 26, Justice Maurice A. Hartnett III of the Delaware Supreme Court will discuss "Judicial Independence."

There is no lecture on Friday, April 2.

On Friday, April 9, Sheldon Pollack, business and economics and a practicing tax attorney, will speak on "You and Your Taxes."

Delaware's Attorney Gen. Jane Brady will speak on "Victims of Crime" on Friday, April 16.

On Friday, April 23, Diana Cebrick of MBNA America Bank; Susan J. Highfield of the Delaware Bankers Association; and Matthew Lynch of Wilmington Trust Co.; will present "Money! Money! Money! Banking and the Law."

Suzanne Hood of Suzanne Hood Mediation Services will talk on "Alternative Dispute Resolution: The Wave of the Future" on Friday, April 30.

The series concludes on Friday, May 7, with a talk on "Defending High Profile Cases" presented by Wilmington attorneys Charles Oberly and Eugene Maurer.

For more information on
the lectures in the series, call 831-1236.

Beethoven evening on March 9

An All-Beethoven recital will be presented by the Department of Music at 8 p.m., Tuesday, March 9, in the Loudis Recital Hall of the Amy E. du Pont Music Building.

The free recital will feature David Myford, violin; Charles Forbes, cello; and Michael Steinberg, piano. The program will include Sonata for Piano and Cello No. 3 in A, Op. 69; Sonata for Piano and Violin No. 5 in F (Spring), Op. 24; and the Trio for Piano, Violin and Cello No. 7 in B flat (Archduke), Op. 97.

Students will perform

The 16th annual University of Delaware Student Concerto Winners Concert will be held at 2 p.m., Saturday, March 6, in the Loudis Recital Hall of the Amy E. du Pont Music Building. Admission is free.

Robert J. Streckfuss, music, will conduct a symphony orchestra composed of players from major regional orchestras and featuring four UD students as soloists for the performance. They are Cheri Astolfi, Tomoko Azuma, Catherine Garrett and Rebecca Siler, all from New Castle County. 

Black Maria films and videos to be screened at 18th annual festival

A selection of short films chosen to be part of the 18th annual Black Maria Film and Video Festival will be shown at the University of Delaware on Tuesday, March 9. Films will be shown at 4:30 and 7:30 p.m. in Room 100 Wolf Hall. A different selection of films will be shown each time. Both screenings are free and open to the public.

Founded in recognition of Thomas Edison's development of the motion picture, the mission of the Black Maria festival is to present work, which is creative, diverse, explores the human spirit and expands the artistic boundaries
of film and video. 

Fraternity fundraiser on March 13

The 17th annual Phi Kappa Tau 5K for Bruce will be held at 10:30 a.m., Saturday, March 13, starting at the Phi Kappa Tau fraternity house at 720 Academy St., Newark.

This year's proceeds will benefit the University of Delaware's Coaches vs. Cancer Program and the Chemo-Care Package, a program to brighten the days of children receiving chemotherapy. The race honors Helmut G. Hoeschel, a longtime Delaware runner, who died of cancer
last year.

The 5K race was founded by alumnus Andre Hoeschel, when he was a UD sophomore, to benefit Bruce Peisino, a Christiana High School student who was paralyzed playing football. Since 1983, the 5K has raised more than $100,000 for other young people paralyzed in accidents, and in recent years, it has funded the wishes of terminally ill children through the Make a Wish Foundation.

Entry forms are available at Poland & Sullivan Insurance Inc., 106 Haines St., Newark, or by calling 738-3535. Sponsorship packages also are available. 

Black politics in Delaware focus of talk

Black Politics in Delaware: At the Crossroads to the 21st Century" is the topic of a program to be held at 7 p.m., Monday, March 8, at the Trabant University Center Theatre. Speaking at the free public forum will be Mayor James Sills of Wilmington; President James Baker and Stephanie Boulden and Norman Oliver of the Wilmington City Council; Delaware Rep. Dennis Williams; and Penrose Hollins of the New Castle County Council.

Ted Davis, political science and international relations, coordinated the program, which is sponsored by the Black American Studies Program, and the offices of the Dean of Arts and Science and Affirmative Action and Multicultural Programming. For more information, visit the web site at <http://www.udel.edu/Blacks in Delaware>.

'Juno and the Paycock' in Hartshorn Hall

University of Delaware graduate students David Daniel of Lynchburg, Va., and Michele Tauber of Long Branch, N.J., star as the Paycock and Juno in the tragi-comedy Juno and the Paycock being presented beginning tonight by the Professional Theatre Training Program. One of the richest plays of modern Irish theatre, its humor and pathos take place in a working-class tenement in post-World War I Dublin. Jack Boyle swaggers about from pub to pub like a "peacock" as his long-suffering wife, Juno, struggles to make ends meet. The bitter, sanguine and drunken silhouettes drawn of this ragtag family and their friends offer a poignant portrait of hope touched with a shadow of doom. Performances are scheduled at 7:30 p.m., March 4; Saturday, March 13; Thursday, March 18; and Friday, March 19. A 12:30 p.m. matinee is scheduled on Sunday, March 7. Tickets range from $5 to $15. For more information, call 831-2204. 

Leveraged buyout topic of first Chaplin Tyler Lecture

Carol A. Ammon, president and CEO of ENDO Pharmaceuticals Inc., will deliver the first talk in the University of Delaware's new Chaplin Tyler Executive Leadership Lecture Series. Ammon will speak on "Challenges and Opportunities
in a Leveraged Buyout" at
1:30 p.m., Friday, March 19,
in the Chaplin Tyler Atrium of MBNA America Hall.

ENDO is a new, fully integrated, independent pharmaceutical company based in Chadds Ford, Pa. Prior to acquiring ownership of ENDO, Ammon was employed by DuPont Merck for 24 years. She joined that company in 1973 as an associate scientist in the research and development division and subsequently held positions ranging from manufacturing supervisor to district sales manager to senior director of manufacturing planning.

In 1993, she was appointed president of ENDO Laboratories, the generic business unit of DuPont Merck at that time. In 1996, she was named president of the U.S. pharmaceuticals division of DuPont Merck, the company's largest business division. As president, she was responsible for a significant share of the corporate revenue of the company. Further responsibilities included strategic direction, successful implementation of all plans and leading a base of employees that included nine vice presidents and more than 700 people.

Ammon currently serves as director of the Delaware Public Policy Committee, and is on the boards of Christiana Care Health Initiatives and Arnold & Marie Schwartz School of Pharmacy, located in Brooklyn.

She earned her bachelor's degree in biology from Central Connecticut State University, her master of business administration degree from Adelphi University and completed the Advanced Management Program at Harvard University in 1995.

Her UD appearance is sponsored by the College of Business and Economics, with support from the Chaplin Tyler Endowment fund. Those attending are asked to call in advance at 831-2221. 

Scrounge becomes coffeehouse for spring series

It'll be coffee, comedy, music and magic Tuesday nights at 8 p.m. throughout the spring semester in the Scrounge of the Perkins Student Center.

The Scrounge, redecorated to look like Central Perk, the coffeehouse gathering place in the situation comedy Friends, will be the setting for music, comedy/novelty acts and even open microphone night, all free throughout the spring semester. Coffee and other refreshments will be available for purchase.

Jim Norton presents his New York style stand-up comedy on March 9.

On March 16, Michael Rosman conjures comedy magic for the audience.

Take a Study Break Before Spring Break Night on March 23 offers give-a-ways, fun?-all kinds of R&R?-during midterms.

On April 6, an Open Mike Night?-a free-for-all where potential Madonnas, Chris Rocks and Bob Dylans can sing, tell jokes and recite poetry at their own risk--will be held.

On April 13, comedians Mitch Fatel and Tom Papa entertain.

April 20 is local band night with Skatman Meredith and Steve Black singing and playing acoustic guitars.

Tim Young brings his outrageous comedy to The Scrounge on April 27.

On May 4, Kate & CJ, sponsored by the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual Student Union, perform acoustic duets.

Coffeehouse programs are sponsored by the Student Center Programs Advisory Board. For information, call 831-2428. 

Tech teaching set tomorrow

The Center for Teaching Effectiveness will present a session from noon-1:30 p.m., Friday, March 5, in Room 102 Gore Hall, on "Why Use the Web for Teaching?" Malcolm Campbell, biology, Davidson College, will discuss the web as more than just as a way to present text that previously was reproduced on paper. His topics will include: visualization (e.g., animations, QT movies, Java, testing, color figures), rapid update of materials, and distribution of information quickly with minimal costs.

This visit was incorrectly printed as occurring on April 23 in last week's UpDate. Campbell's visit to UD is jointly sponsored by the HHMI Grant, the biology department, and the Center For Teaching Effectiveness. For information, call 831-2027. 

'Fresh Air' broadcaster

Historian to lecture on rock music

Ed Ward, the rock historian for National Public Radio's Fresh Air program, will speak at 7:30 p.m., on Friday, March 12, at the University of Delaware. His free, public talk, "Rock Music History," will be held in the Rodney Room of the Perkins Student Center.

In describing his talk, Ward said, "People say Elvis Presley caused a revolution when he married country music and rhythm and blues and came up with rock 'n' roll. But this process has been going on, back and forth, since the 19th century, and there are countless examples of the trade-off between what's considered 'black' music and 'white' music, many of them surprising. This lecture will show how a west African instrument, the banjo, wound up a symbol of country music, what Texas fiddlers
were doing playing jazz, and why black country singers
aren't really a novelty, as
we explore some of the odd corners of American popular music history."

Ward has been writing about popular music for nearly 35 years. He was an editor at Crawdaddy! Magazine in 1967, at Rolling Stone in 1970, and West Coast editor of Creem Magazine from 1971-77.

In 1985, he joined Fresh Air and continues in that capacity to this day. He moved to Berlin in 1993, and contributes his commentaries from there. He also continues to write on a wide variety of topics for Mojo, The Wall Street Journal Europe, The New York Times and many other publications.