Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: FRIDAY, January 24, 1992 TAG: 9201230132
SECTION: CURRENT PAGE: NRV-4 EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY
SOURCE: Donna Alvis-Banks
DATELINE: LENGTH: Long
DON'T BE CHICKEN TO TRY RU COMEDY
Why did the pig cross the road?It was the chicken's day off.
Why did the lady hold her ears when she passed the chickens?
Because she couldn't stand the fowl language.
Why are chickens brown and elephants gray?
So you can tell them from bluebirds.
OK, OK - enough of the chicken jokes!
If you want some real laughs, make tracks for the Norwood Room in Radford tonight. Three Radford University alumni will be performing there in a special comedy club sponsored by the New River Valley chapter of the alumni association.
Pat Miller, a 1983 Radford University graduate, is the headliner. A regular at the Improv in Los Angeles, Miller also has appeared on TV comedy shows and in such films as "Maximum Overdrive" and "Raw Deal."
Mike Ashley, also from the class of 1983, is the feature act. Now assistant director of sports information at RU, Ashley frequently draws a crowd at local comedy clubs and nightspots.
Beth Moody, a 1979 graduate who received her master's degree in 1986, is hosting the show. When she isn't teaching math at Christiansburg High School, Moody is a steady performer at the Roanoke Comedy Club.
Admission to tonight's comedy club is $3. There's a social hour at 8 and the show goes on at 9. For reservations, call 831-5248.
\ TEAM WORK: And what a team it is!
Hungarian cellist Csaba Onscay will join the Audubon Quartet for two concerts presented by Virginia Tech's music department this weekend. The musicians will perform Saturday at 8 p.m. and Sunday at 3 p.m. in Squires Recital Salon at Squires Student Center.
Onscay is considered one of the world's best cellists. His repertoire includes 40 cello concertos and virtually all the solo literature for cello written in the past 300 years.
His appearance with the Audubon Quartet marks another in a series of international guest artist performances at Virginia Tech.
The program includes Franz Schubert's splendid Quintet in C Major, as well as works by Maurice Ravel and Antonin Dvorak.
Tickets are $5 for adults or $3 for students and senior citizens. Seating in the recital salon is limited. To reserve seats, call the Arts at Virginia Tech box office, 231-5615.
\ TRICKY TRIANGLE: This is the story of a beautiful singer, her lover and a perverse official who yearns for her.
Giacomo Puccini's "Tosca" has everything an opera is supposed to have - brilliant music, intense drama and romantic tragedy. Considered Puccini's masterpiece, "Tosca" is set in Rome in the year 1800 as Napoleon Bonaparte strikes against the Italian forces.
The New York City Opera will bring "Tosca" to Radford University Saturday for one performance. It will begin at 8 p.m. in Preston Auditorium.
Geraldine McMillian, a graduate of the Julliard School of Music who frequently tours with the opera company, will play the title role of Floria Tosca. Tenor Robert Brubaker, a 13-year veteran of the New York City Opera, is Floria's lover Mario Cavaradossi, and baritone Peter Lightfoot is Scarpia, the churlish chief of police.
This is the third consecutive year the renowned opera company has performed at Radford University. The opera will be sung in Italian with English translations.
Public admission is $12 for adults and $6 for children. For ticket information, call the information desk in Heth Hall at 831-5420.
\ WRITE ON! Scott Turow, author of the book that inspired the popular movie "Presumed Innocent," will speak in Virginia Tech's Squires Student Center Tuesday. The lecture, part of Tech's Distinguished Speaker Series, will begin at 7:30 p.m. in Colonial Hall.
A Chicago lawyer, Turow's writing is well-crafted and believable. His second novel, "The Burden of Proof," was another courtroom drama that, like "Presumed Innocent," quickly became a bestseller.
A graduate in English from Amherst College, Turow got his law degree from Harvard. While at the law school, he wrote a non-fiction criticism of Harvard's "Socratic teaching methods" in a highly acclaimed book, "One L."
Tuesday's lecture is free and open to the public. For more information, call Shauna Bishop at Virginia Tech, 231-4853.
\ FOLK TRADITIONS: A concert to benefit the Community Shelter of Montgomery County is happening tonight at Gabriel's Psaltery, the coffee house in Blacksburg's Christ Episcopal Church. Three local groups will perform from 7:30 to 10 p.m.
No Strings Attached, Idlewilde and Hot Sodas will play a program of music celebrating folk traditions. The musicians in the three bands play a variety of instruments - from bass to bouzouki (a Greek stringed instrument similar to a mandolin).
Tonight's cover charge is $3.50 with all proceeds going to the community shelter. Coffee, tea and pastries will be sold at the coffee house.
The church is at Church and Jackson streets in downtown Blacksburg.
\ CURTAIN GOING UP: The American Collegiate Theatre Festival begins Thursday at Radford University. The three-day event features six productions entered from an 11-state region. One of the plays will be selected to advance to national competition at the Kennedy Center in Washington.
Two original plays kick off the festival Thursday. At 1 p.m., George Mason University will present "New Moon in Golgotha," a new play by Craig Alexander Lyon. A satire that examines the struggle and abuses of patients in nursing homes, the play is full of dark humor.
At 8 p.m., the University of Alabama will stage an original play by Sheri Bailey and Dura Temple. "Southern Girls" revolves around six women growing up in a small town outside Birmingham.
Both plays will be presented in Radford University's Preston Auditorium. Admission is $8 for adults, $4 for students, $4 for Radford University faculty and staff and free for Radford students.
For more information about the festival, call professor Carl Lefko at 831-5012.
Donna Alvis-Banks is an editorial assistant in the Roanoke Times & World-News' New River Valley bureau.