‘Cats and Bats III’ play continues at arts center

Performances of the Seem-To-Be Players’ “Cats and Bats III: A Ferret in the Family” will continue this week at the Lawrence Arts Center, 940 N.H.

The play, written by artistic director Ric Averill, tells the story of Dr. Williams, played by Kansas University professor emeritus Ron Willis, whose back yard is filled with animals: Lucy the Cat (Jennifer Glenn), Belfry the Bat (Preston Girard), Ranger the Dog (Ric Averill) and Fang the Ferret (Susanna Pitzer).

The play opened Saturday. Performances will continue at 1:30 p.m. today, 9:30 a.m. and 1:30 p.m. Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday at the arts center. The weekday performances will include school groups, so reservations will fill up fast.

Tickets are $8 for adults, $6 for students and seniors. School group discounts are available by calling Laura Rose at 843-2787.

Creative writing deadline set for Nov. 15

The application deadline for the 2003 Langston Hughes Creative Writing Awards is Nov. 15.

The Lawrence Arts Center and The Raven Bookstore sponsor the two creative writing awards, each of which carries a $500 stipend.

A committee of regional writers will select the winners, one in poetry and one in fiction.

The awards recognize excellence and encourage achievement of emerging writers living in Lawrence and Douglas County. The awards also strive to raise public awareness of the life and work of Langston Hughes, who spent part of his childhood in Lawrence.

The winners will be announced on Hughes’ birthday, Feb. 1, when a celebration and reading will be held to honor award recipients.

Applications are available at the arts center, 940 N.H., and The Raven, 8 E. Seventh St. For more information, call 843-2787.

Poet, translator to speak at KU English classes

Elaine Terranova, a poet and translator of Euripides’ “Iphigenia at Aulis,” being staged through Saturday at Kansas University, will speak this week to KU English classes and read her latest work.

Terranova will visit campus Friday and then read her poetry at 2 p.m. Saturday at Border’s Books and Music, 700 N.H. The reading is free and open to the public.

Terranova wrote “The Cult of the Right Hand,” published by Doubleday in 1991, which won the 1990 Walt Whitman Award of the Academy of American Poets. She also wrote “Damages,” published by Copper Canyon in 1996. Her latest book of poems is “The Dog’s Heart,” published by Orchises in 2002.

Her translation of “Iphigenia at Aulis” is included in the Euripides III volume of the Penn Greek Drama Series. The play opened last week and is being performed at 7:30 p.m. Tuesday through Saturday at the Inge Theatre in Murphy Hall.

Terranova’s visit is sponsored by KU’s Department of Theatre and Film and University Theatre.

Program to show growth of Lawrence

An interactive program at Watkins Community Museum of History will show children and their families how Lawrence has grown the past 150 years.

“Changing Landscapes” will take a hands-on look at specific events and people in Lawrence history from 1:30 p.m. to 4 p.m. Nov. 3 at the museum, 1047 Mass.

Students in Kansas University’s museum studies program designed and will put on the program.

Among the activities and exhibits:

Digging for fossils.

Soap-making.

Games and hobbies from turn-of-the-century Lawrence.

Demonstrations of grass-roots activism at work.