CONTACT: WINSTON BARCLAY
100 Old Public Library
Iowa City IA 52242
(319) 384-0073; fax (319) 384-0024
e-mail: winston-barclay@uiowa.edu

Release: Oct. 13, 2000 -- Friday the 13th

Hancher shows 'Dracula' on Halloween with music by Kronos, Glass

IOWA CITY, Iowa -- The University of Iowa Hancher Auditorium will become a Halloween haunt, with a screening of the Bela Lugosi horror classic, "Dracula," with live music performed by the Kronos Quartet and composer/keyboardist Philip Glass. "Dracula: The Music and the Film" will begin at 8 p.m. Tuesday, Oct. 31, and the Hancher lobby will be the scene of a Halloween party before and after the performance, featuring fortune tellers, jugglers, fencers and strolling fiddlers.

"De De de Paris" will emcee an exquisitely costumed drag show in the Hancher lobby as part of the post-performance party.

The audience -- who are also invited to come in costume -- will be greeted by entries in Hancher’s pumpkin-carving contest, "Funny Faces, Horrifying Monsters, Friendly Ghosts." The best pumpkin will be announced after the performance, with the winning carver receiving two free tickets to the March performances of the musical "Chicago."

The public is invited to enter, and all entrants will receive a coupon for a $5 discount on each of two tickets to "Dracula" or any remaining 2000-2001 Hancher event with the exception of "Ragtime," "Chicago" and "Riverdance." Attendance at "Dracula" is not required to enter the contest. To enter, simply bring your pumpkin to Hancher between 10 a.m. and 6 p.m. on Oct. 31. (Do not insert a candle in your pumpkin: Hancher will provide an internal light source.) For additional information about the pumpkin-carving contest, contact Hancher’s Tim Meier at 319-335-1130.

Universal Pictures commissioned Glass, whom the Village Voice dubbed "the man who changed modern music," to compose music for the restored, digital re-release of its 1931 Tod Browning film of "Dracula."

While it was not the first vampire movie, "Dracula" set the standard for cinematic spookiness, inspiring a whole durable genre of filmmaking. The 1931 New York Daily News greeted it with this warning, "It’ll chill you and fill you with fears." But as one of the earliest "talkies," the film did not have a musical soundtrack, and almost no sound effects.

The movie is 75 minutes long, and the new Glass score envelops the images for 65 of those minutes. Kronos/Nonesuch Records producer Judy Sherman commented, "The Glass score makes the film come alive, as though Bela Lugosi is unfolding like a huge bat in an amazing way you hadn’t ever seen before." The new soundtrack was recorded in 1998 at George Lucas’ Skywalker Ranch in Marin County, north of San Franscisco.

In the Halloween event, Kronos and Glass will be visible behind the screen on which the film will be projected.

Of Glass, Michael McDonagh wrote in High Performance, "No musician since Stravinsky has had so great an impact on the sound of music of his own time." Glass emerged in the early 1970s as a leader of the movement that came to be labeled "minimalism." Combining eastern concepts with the amplification of rock, he produced a powerful, hypnotic music based on transparent harmonies, repetition and huge volumes of sound.

Over three decades of diversification, he has written music for his own Philip Glass Ensemble, massive operas in collaboration with director Robert Wilson, concert music ranging from string quartets to symphonies, music for dance productions, and film scores including the Oscar-nominated "Kundun" and the Golden Globe-winning music for "The Truman Show."

The Kronos Quartet was founded in the same period that Glass emerged into prominence, and the group’s impact has been no less pronounced. Billboard magazine asserted, "No one has done more for either the cause of new music or the revitalization of the chamber format than Kronos. In fact, no one has done more to transform the idea of what any ‘classical’ ensemble can be than Kronos."

Kronos -- violinists David Harrington and John Sherba, violist Hank Dutt and cellist Jennifer Culp -- has become a regular part of the performance schedule at Hancher Auditorium, including numerous commissions, world premieres and American premieres. Last season Kronos presented two concerts on Hancher’s Millennium Festival -- "Traveling Music," which led to the chart-topping "Caravan" CD featuring three Hancher commissions, and the world premiere of "Tonight is the Night" with soprano Dawn Upshaw.

Everybodys Whole Foods is the corporate sponsor of the "Dracula" screening/performance, through the University of Iowa Foundation.

Tickets are $35, $32 and $30. UI students and senior citizens qualify for a 20-percent discount, with Zone 2 and 3 tickets available to UI students for the special price of $10. Tickets for audience members 17 and younger are half price. Ticket-buyers may take advantage of volume discounts on most events in the season.

Hancher box office hours are 10 a.m.-5:30 p.m. weekdays and 11 a.m.-3 p.m. Saturdays. From the local calling area, dial (319) 335-1160. Long distance is toll-free, 1-800-HANCHER. Fax to (319) 353-2284. Orders may be charged to VISA, MasterCard or American Express. UI students may charge their purchases to their university bills, and UI faculty and staff may select the option of payroll deduction. Information and brochures may be requested by e-mail at <hancher-box-office@uiowa.edu>.

People with special needs for access, seating and auxiliary services should dial (319) 335-1158. This number will be answered by box office personnel prepared to offer assistance with handicapped parking, wheelchair access and seating, hearing augmentation and other services. The line is equipped with TDD for people with hearing impairment who use that technology.

For UI arts information, visit this new address -- www.uiowa.edu/artsiowa -- on the World Wide Web. The Kronos Quartet web site is <http://www.kronosquartet.org>. Learn more about Philip Glass at <http://www.philipglass.com>.To receive UI arts news by e-mail, contact <deborah-thumma@uiowa.edu>.