UO Dance Department to focus on Africa.

Byline: The Register-Guard

The University of Oregon Department of Dance and Dance Africa will present an `Africa Night' program at 8 p.m. Monday in Dougherty Dance Theatre, a wheelchair-accessible venue on the third floor of Gerlinger Annex, 1484 University St.

Tickets, available at the door 30 minutes prior to the event, will be $10 for general admission and $5 for students and senior citizens.

Dance Africa, a 16-member touring company, consists of dancers and musicians from the University of Oregon and the Eugene community. They will present numbers from their current touring repertoire, including new additions brought to the company last fall by Zimbabwean guest artist Julia Tsitsi Chigamba and drummer Duncan Allard.

The group was established in 1993 by Rita Honka, a UO adjunct instructor. Its 2002 lecture- demonstration program has been booked by six schools and the Hult Center.

For more information, call the dance department at 346-3386.

CHURCHILL HIGH SCHOOL drama students will present scenes from their upcoming production of "The Musical" in a free SHOcase concert at 12:15 p.m. Thursday in the lobby of the Hult Center, Seventh and Willamette streets. Written and directed by Jami Teran, "The Musical" is a satirical look at high school musical productions. Full performances are scheduled for 7:30 p.m. Friday and Saturday at Churchill High School, 1850 Bailey Hill Road. Information: 682-5733.

ORGANIST KIMBERLY MARSHALL will perform at 4 p.m. April 14 at Central Lutheran Church, 1857 Potter St. Admission is free. Winner of the St. Albans Competition in 1985, Marshall has performed around the world and recorded CDs of music from the Italian and Spanish Renaissance, from the French Classical and Romantic periods and by J.S. Bach. An associate professor of music at Arizona State University, Marshall has taught at the Royal Academy of Music in London and at Stanford University. Information: 345-0395.

A UNIVERSITY of Oregon theater arts professor and a UO theater student have won awards. At the New Orleans convention of the United States Institute for Theatre Technology, professor Alexandra Bonds won a Herbert Greggs Merit Award for an article published in Theatre Design and Technology on "Surface Design in Jing-Ju Costumes: The Aesthetics and Meanings of Embroidered Imagery in the Beijing Opera." It was the second Greggs award for Bonds stemming from her research on the costumes of the Beijing Opera. Kenneth Brady's play "Birdsong" was runner-up in the Ten-Minute Play category at the regional Kennedy Center American College Theatre Festival and Northwest Drama Conference at Western Washington University in Bellingham. Ten UO students and their partners participated in the Irene Ryan acting competition. Kim Bates (`Angels in America'), Jocelyn Fultz (`Electra'), Ian Hanley (`Leaving Shallott') and Katie Plein (`Dancing at Lughnasa') made it to the semifinal round, and Fultz and her partner, Curtis Williams, represented the university in the finals.

ANNE DHU McLUCAS, dean of the University of Oregon School of Music, has been awarded a Fulbright Distinguished Scholar Award for a four-month research and teaching stint in Scotland during her sabbatical next academic year. McLucas has been invited by the School of Scottish Studies to explore the viability of teaching traditional musical arts within academic institutions. In addition, she will offer courses and/or seminars at the Royal Scottish Academy of Music and Drama in Glasgow.

THE EROICA TRIO will perform at 8 p.m. April 15 and 16 in Portland State University's Lincoln Performance Hall, 1620 S.W. Park Ave. The trio consists of pianist Erika Nickrenz, violinist Adela Pena and cellist Sara Sant'Ambrogio. Their April 15 program will be Sergey Rachmaninoff's "Elegiac" Trio No. 2 in D minor (Op. 9); Astor Piazzolla's "Otono," "Oblivion" and "Primavera"; and three George Gershwin preludes. On April 16, the ensemble will play Edouard Lalo's Piano Trio in C Minor (Op. 7), Johannes Brahms' Piano Trio in C Minor (Op. 101) and the same Piazzolla pieces. Tickets are $27 for the general public, $13.50 for students. For tickets, call [phone] or any Ticketmaster outlet. Free parking will be available in PSU parking structures.