Fine Arts and February are almost synonymous in Tallahassee. Jazz singer Bobby McFerrin wrapped up a sixth annual "Seven Days" festival that included colorful performances by regional arts groups in the community-oriented "Saturday Matinee of the Arts" downtown.

Pop, Jazz, Satire Flavor Sixth “Seven Days”

Florida State's annual tribute to the arts, Seven Days of Opening Nights, wrapped up on a rousing note Feb. 28 with a sold-out performance by hyperkinetic jazz vocalist Bobby McFerrin, accompanied by the University Symphony Orchestra.

Premiering in 1998, the festival is the Tallahassee area's weeklong immersion into culture and the arts. A series of spectacular performances by world-renowned artists—including more of the “pop” variety—defined a sixth sea-son of this festival offered by Florida State University and community partners.

Other musical treats for festival-goers this year included an evening of Irish music from the traveling troupe Barcó, plus a concert by pop singer Michael McDonald who performed hits from his latest Grammy-nominated CD.

Art exhibits Of Hands and Fire at the FSU Museum of Fine Arts featured ancient Chinese ceramics and Pop Art and the Space Age at Tallahassee's downtown Mary Brogan Museum showcased the works of Andy Warhol and others.

Other festival highlights included a riveting performance by Hubbard Street Dance Chicago; novelist Richard Ford sharing from his latest work-in-progress; a film, 11:14, written and directed by FSU alumnus Greg Marcks and featuring Academy Award-winner Hilary Swank; an evening of political satire by The Capitol Steps from Washington, D.C.

“Great Minds” Lecture Series Launched

Louis Menand, professor of English and American literature and language at Harvard and a staff writer for the New Yorker, was the featured speaker at FSU's inaugural lecture series, “Great Minds: President's Scholar-to-Scholar Lecture,” April 1. The widely recognized author spoke on the history and future of a liberal arts education.

Menand won a Pulitzer in 2002 for The Metaphysical Club (Farrar Straus & Giroux, 2001), about the rise of pragmatism in 19th century America, a phenomenon that accompanied a marked decline in liberal arts education. Menand thinks the golden age of liberal arts in the U.S. ended about 1975. He noted that today less than a third of all bachelor degrees awarded are in the liberal arts.

Menand's visit launched a biannual series of guest lectures by world-class scholars, an idea implemented by President T.K. Wetherell last year.

“We want to bring in some interesting personalities who are thought-provoking,” said Wetherell. “The seminars are an opportunity for faculty and students to meet and share ideas with influential peers from other institutions.”

The twice-yearly seminars will be held each fall and spring semester. At press time, a fall speaker had not yet been scheduled.

Prime Time for Prymate

It's not supposed to happen-ever. But to the astonishment of the theater world, this spring it did-a play bounced directly from a debut on a campus stage to the big time.

Only two months after its February 20-29 run at the Richard G. Fallon Mainstage Theater, Prymate-a play written and produced by FSU playwright Mark Medoff-opened on Broadway. The unprecedented leap prompted write-ups in Variety and the New York Times and an electric buzz throughout the theater industry.

The play's spotlight on Broadway, although short-lived (it closed May 5 after a five-performance run in Manhattan's Longacre Theatre), was nonetheless a powerful statement about Mainstage talent.

“It's a tribute to FSU that we were able to develop and produce a play that went directly to Broadway,” said theater dean Steve Wallace. “To the best of our knowledge, this is the first time a production moved directly from an academic setting to Broadway.”

Medoff, theater's playwright-in-residence and Reynolds scholar, compared the attention the production received to a “mid-life dessert.” Medoff won a Tony in 1980 for Children of a Lesser God, which also was performed at the Longacre.

In its Tallahassee debut in February, Prymate gave faculty and students a Broadway experience right off the bat. Visiting professor Ed Sherin, former executive producer and director of the TV hit series “Law and Order,” directed the play. Wallace was an associated producer and faculty member Colleen Muscha designed the costumes. Students served as staff and stage managers.

Medoff, who frequently tackles controversial subjects, used Prymate to examine the dividing line between humans and apes. It tells the story of an aging gorilla that knows sign language and can “talk” to his scientist handlers. The play created a stir among reviewers by casting Andre De Shields, a black man, as the gorilla.

Wallace defended the themes raised by Medoff's script.

“We're part of a major research university and this is how research and experimentation is done in the arts,” said Wallace. “Nobody's going to tell a chemist, 'don't mix those two chemicals together.'”

Its brief life on Broadway didn't win the play any nominations for the 2004 Tony Awards, but De Shields was nominated for a Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Play.