Final Fridays photos sought for competition

Downtown Lawrence Inc. has reached an agreement with AT&T to feature an image of downtown on the 2011 AT&T Lawrence directory. The organization has issued a challenge to area photographers to capture the perfect image of downtown Lawrence during a Final Fridays gallery walk.

Photographers are invited to capture the image between 5 p.m. and 9 p.m. Oct. 29. Images should have a horizontal orientation, and any person appearing in the photo whose face is recognizable must sign a release. Images can be submitted in either jpeg or PDF format and must be a minimum of 300 dpi. Images should be submitted by Nov. 1 to director@downtownlawrence.com along with a signed release from the photographer and releases from all persons featured in the photo. The release form is available for download at www.downtownlawrence.com.

The winning image will appear on nearly 65,000 directories that will be distributed in January 2011. The photographer will be credited inside the directory and will receive a Downtown Lawrence gift certificate.

Wonder Fair announces new exhibit

Kansas City artist Briana Lauterbach will display new works at an exhibit opening Oct. 29 at Wonder Fair Gallery, 803 1/2 Mass.

Lauterbach, a graduate of the Kansas City Art Institute, pursues a handmade existence, growing her own vegetables, heading a bicycle collective and reclaiming a condemned house in North Kansas City. Lauterbach translates her daily activities into precise, organized, highly detailed works on paper in pen and pencil featuring theoretical gardens, half-built structures and evocative word play. Additionally, Lauterbach makes use of the directness of drawing in order to create series upon series of drawings whose linear growth and retreat mimic the cycling of the seasons.

An opening reception for “Properties of a Guild” is planned from 5 p.m. to 10 p.m. as part of the city’s Final Friday event.

KU Theatre to stage ‘Lobby Hero’

“Lobby Hero,” Kenneth Lonergan’s contemporary comedy, opens this month at Kansas University.

“Lobby Hero,” first performed Off-Broadway at Playwrights Horizons in March 2000, shows a vivid slice of contemporary life following four ordinary people caught up in extraordinary circumstances.

Jeff, a night security guard in an apartment building in New York City, is as clumsy in life and as he is in his affections for a rookie cop. Although nobody thinks what he does in the lobby is the most important job in the world, he opens and locks the lobby door for the tenants and visitors, greets them with a smile, receives their mail and packages, and does whatever other trifling services he can offer for their benefit. Jeff also knows all about the private business of the people in and around the building. When Jeff’s supervisor and mentor comes to him with a moral dilemma, Jeff’s loyalty is put to the test.

The cast includes Matthew Windheuser, a Lawrence High School graduate.

Showtimes are 7:30 p.m. Oct. 28, Oct. 30 and Nov. 2-3; 9 p.m. Oct. 29 and 2:30 p.m. Oct. 31 in the William Inge Theatre in Murphy Hall.

Tickets are $15 for the public and $14 for seniors and KU faculty and staff, and $10 for students. Call 864-3982 for tickets.

‘Right Between the Ears’ scares up Halloween show

Zombies invade the bucolic setting of Mayberry U.S.A. for the next live performance of “Right Between the Ears.” The nationally broadcast comedy show will present its first-ever Halloween show at 8 p.m. Oct. 30 at Liberty Hall, 644 Mass.

Besides Andy and Barney battling an army of the undead, the Halloween show also includes killer alien blobs attacking the part-time security cops of Neighborhood Watch and vampire slayers who struggle to balance a career with the need to occasionally “stake out” the occasional bloodsucker.

Tickets range from $15.50 to $19.50 and are on sale now at the Liberty Hall box office and at the show’s website, www.RightBetweentheEars.com.

Lawrence donors give $50,000 to IIYM

The International Institute for Young Musicians, hosted each year by Kansas University’s School of Music, is pleased to announce a $50,000 donation from Jack and Jan Gaumnitz, of Lawrence, to the IIYM Foundation. This donation will go to augment the money available to prize winners in the IIYM International Piano Competition. The size of the prizes will increase by $10,000 each year compared to 2010 prize amounts, over a five-year period.

“Jan and I are delighted to honor these marvelous young artists,” Jack Gaumnitz says. “Their excellence is a shining example of what young people can accomplish with hard work and dedication. We’re proud to partner with IIYM.”

“This donation is really a tribute to IIYM students,” says Scott McBride Smith, IIYM president and CEO. “The fact that this award recognizes their achievement means a lot to our program.”

Jack Gaumnitz is professor emeritus of finance at KU. Jan Gaumnitz is an internationally recognized visual artist.

For more information, visit www.iiym.com.

Spencer Consort plans fall concert

The Spencer Consort will present its fall concert at 2:30 p.m. Oct. 31 in the Spencer Museum of Art Central Court. The concert is titled “Apothéose de Lully: Music from Mount Parnassus,” a reference to a fanciful collection of music by the French Baroque composer François Couperin (1668-1733) where he proposes that French composer Jean-Baptiste Lully and Italian composer Arcangelo Corelli are brought together on Mt. Parnassus by its resident Apollo, the Greek god of music. Apollo wishes to arrange a meeting of the French and Italian musical styles in order to bring about perfection in music.

The Spencer Consort will perform the second half of Couperin’s suite, which includes descriptive titles for each piece to help tell the story. The concert will also include works by Joseph Bodin de Boismortier, Franz Joseph Haydn and Georg Philipp Telemann.

The Spencer Consort plays on instruments that are reproductions of those in use during the 17th and 18th centuries, including Baroque flutes, alto recorders, Baroque cello and harpsichord.

The concert is free, and the public is invited.

Raven Book Store announces upcoming events

Katherine Leiner, author of “Growing Roots,” will make an appearance at 7 p.m. Tuesday at Local Burger, 714 Vt.

“Growing Roots” is made up of 58 young folks who are involved in sustainability that revolves around food. They are not just farmers, but cooks, filmmakers, artists, beekeepers, mushroomers and food activists –to name only a few. Lawrence’s Hillary Brown from Local Burger is featured in the book.

• “Big Tent: Stories and Poems in Three Acts” returns to the Raven at 7 p.m. Thursday, featuring Aliki Barnstone, poetry; Angela Glover, prose and poetry, and Jeff Koterba, memoir.

Barnstone most recently published “Dear God, Dear Dr. Heartbreak” and has a new collection, “Bright Body,” coming out in 2011. She has twice been nominated for a Pulitzer Prize. Glover, a KU doctoral graduate in 2008, teaches at Simpson College, and her work has appeared in The Mochilla Review and The Sequel. She recently performed in “The Vagina Monologues.”

• A launch party for the Coal City Review’s latest issue will be 7 p.m. Oct. 30 at the Raven. Since 1990, Coal City has published 20 annual reviews and seven collections of poetry. They review and publish both new and experienced poets and writers.