Fourth "Seven Days" Takes a Bow

For the fourth year in a row, Florida State was host to a week-long celebration of the arts in February.

Launched in 1998, the series-"Tallahassee: Seven Days of Opening Nights"-signals a professional procession of visual and performing arts through town-and-gown settings designed to tempt every cultural palate.

This year's line-up of stars included the nationally celebrated trio "Three Mo' Tenors;" pianist Garrick Ohlsson; Grammy Award-winning violinist Joshua Bell; and a New York dance troupe led by Ronald K. Brown. Aside from their sold-out performances, some of the visiting artists took advantage of their time in Tallahassee to hold master classes for FSU students and the community at large.

Stay tuned to "Seven Days" at www.sevendaysfestival.org/pages/Welcome.htm.

Cŕ d'Zan: Again a Showcase
Cŕ d'Zan, the Gothic mansion John and Mable Ringling built as a winter home on Sarasota Bay in 1926, is newly restored to its past glory. The 31-room, 200-foot-long villa reopened to the public in April following a $15 million restoration project that began in 1996.

When he died in 1936, John Ringling left Cŕ d'Zan (“house of John” in Venetian dialect) to the state of Florida but transfer of the property was held up for nearly a decade by legal challenges. The state made repairs to the property and the mansion was opened to the public for the first time in 1946. People reportedly waited in lines eight abreast to view the decorative terra cotta, brightly colored tiles, ornamental ironwork and stained glass. But the mansion eventually fell into disrepair.

Ringling's theatrical talents are evident in the furnishing and design of the estate. Visitors enter the mansion through 12-foot carved walnut doors, to be greeted by a black-and-white marble floor, an Aeolian organ and a crystal chandelier from the original Waldorf-Astoria. The combination of architecture and art create an ambience of such grandeur that one early visitor commented that the grounds resembled “ . . . a Hollywood set constructed by Cecile B. DeMille.”

Legislation passed by Florida lawmakers in 2000 transferred to FSU authority of the house and associated property-which includes the Ringling Museum of Art, the Asolo Theatre and the Circus Museum-creating the largest museum/university complex in the nation.

A Dean Debut

Steve Wallace moved into his office as dean of the university' theater department July 1 and embraced the challenge of leading one of the more respected programs in the country.

“The opportunity to become ranked first among the top tier of theater programs is part of the excitement of this job,” said Wallace.

Wallace served eight years as the director of the University of Oklahoma School of Drama. His credits include artistic director of the OU University Theater and staging the world premieres of Gunfighter: A Gulf War Chronicle, The Great Unknown and Christmas Carousel.

A priority for him at FSU is to create a more active relationship between the main campus, the Asolo Conservatory program and the London program. He said he wants to expand the curriculum to include a playwriting program. The theater school has more than 300 students seeking a BA degree and 70 students working towards a BFA.

Wallace succeeds Nancy Smith-Fichter, professor emerita, who served as interim dean when Bruce Halverson left the university in August of 2000.

Steve Wallace, from the University of Oklahoma's School of Drama, became FSU's new dean of theater in July.

Remus Repository

A collection of rare books by Joel Chandler Harris, famed author of the Uncle Remus stories known around the world, has been donated to the Florida State University Libraries' Special Collections.

“They have immeasurable historical value,” said Lucia Patrick, head of Special Collections. In April, the 52 books and seven magazines were donated by the family of the late Paxton Briley, a Tallahassean and avid book collector. Included are 31 first editions, among them Uncle Remus: His Songs and His Sayings, (1880), Nights with Uncle Remus (1883), Free Joe and Other Georgian Sketches (1887). and seven issues of Uncle Remus: The Home Magazine, which Harris edited shortly before his death in 1908.

Briley, who attended FSU from 1957 to 1961, was a former Navy pilot and retired airline pilot who insisted that FSU receive his Harris collection. The bequest was welcomed by Bruce Bickley, professor of English and a renowned Harris scholar.

“Harris' work is a masterpiece of black folklore collecting and oral performance reconstruction,” said Bickley, who has six Harris books to his credit and is working on two more. The bequest is one of the largest private Harris collections in the nation, Bickley said. The main archive of Harris's papers and memorabilia resides at Emory University's Woodruff Library in Atlanta.

RARE REMUS among the most valuable books found in the Briley collection is the first edition Uncle Remus: His songs and His Sayings, published in 1880.