TOP OF THE NEWS Events
Events
‘Proposals’ on stage at Country Playhouse
1 Making jam from wild
fruits: Learn how to can jams and jellies from native wild fruit in a two-hour class on Feb. 25 at the Houston Arboretum and Nature Center. Read about this and other local happenings on the Events page. 3
Schools
1 Memorial High artist aims to be fashion designer: Memorial High School junior Juliana Baik aspires to be a clothing designer and illustrator. 5
Lee Ray photo
The Country Playhouse, 12802 Queensbury in Town & Country Village, is presenting Neil Simon’s Proposals on weekends through March 10. Narrated by a ghost, the play represents a departure from Simon’s trademark quick-witted style, mixing comedy with a melancholy sense of mortality. For information, call 713-467-4497 or visit www.countryplayhouse.org.
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Serving communities in the Memorial Drive corridor, Spring Branch, West Houston, Westchase and Memoral Villages Z12
| Sunday, February 26, 2012 |
LANd ORdiNANcE
Proposed Chapter 42 changes raise local concerns By Annette Baird
Cast for Houston Christian High School’s production of Joseph and the Technicolor Dreamcoat.
Houston Christian High School
THEATER
2 musicals vie for Tune awards
By Don Maines Musicals being staged this month by two local private high schools are competing in the 10th annual competition for Tommy Tune Awards. For students performing The Sound of Music at Second Baptist School, this marks the first time the school has entered the citywide contest that honors excellence in musical theater. Meanwhile, Houston Christian High School hopes to return to the winner’s circle, having tasted victory last year,
scoring best choreography among the 45 entries. This year’s production of Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat boasts 44 students, a sparkly coat of many colors that weighs more than 20 pounds and an imaginative setting. “Competition is a very big motivator,” Houston Christian drama director Matthew Logan said. “The benefits of the awards are numerous, especially in Texas, where athletes are celebrated in schools. The Tommy Tune Awards celebrate the artist and make our stu-
dents feel very appreciated.” “Competitions are a necessary part of life — a way to recognize our students, their efforts, time, talents and training,” said Cindy Blades, who has been directing musicals at Second Baptist for almost 30 years. “Not that this award is our focus, but our students would be thrilled to receive accolades from the Tommy Tune judges. “Working with students with resumes as stellar as these makes it hard to pull the individual out of the process,” she
ART
Woman’s brush captures color, mystery of ocean life By Tom Behrens Growing up in the Netherlands, Spring Branch artist Liduine Bekman lived within walking distance of the ocean, which made a profound impression on her. “The ocean was very much part of my childhood,” she said. “Over the years, the North Sea showed me its beauty, its fury and its bounty.” That love of the sea is reflected in her watercolors of marine life, some of which will be on display at the Spring Bayou City Art Festival on March 23-25 at Memorial Park in the picnic loop area. The show will include works from 300 artists from throughout the state, nation and from Europe. Bekman, 68, comes from a family that was immersed in the arts. Her father, Bernard Bekman, was a writer, and his brother was a painter. Liduine Bekman grew up painting, but said she didn’t get serious about it after she graduated from the Glassell School of Art in Houston. She moved to Houston in the early ‘70s. Her watercolors are displayed in the Netherlands and the Bahamas and hang
said. “It is no longer about his or her personal achievement on the stage. Is about the collective performance and requires the artistic undertaking of the actor to be one of discipline, integrity and selflessness.” Claire Westmoreland is the show’s musical director. In The Sound of Music, a family harmonizes at a singing competition that is key to their flight from the Nazis. Adam Hammer, a senior who is captain of the Second Baptist football and soccer teams, leads
Musicals continues on 10
Spring Branch community leaders have expressed concern about proposed changes to a Houston land ordinance that would pave the way for denser development in the area between Loop 610 and Beltway 8, which they fear would lead to more traffic and crime. Catherine Barchfeld-Alexander, president of Spring Branch Central Super Neighborhood, and Ed Browne, president of Spring Branch West Super Neighborhood, said the proposal to place an urban designation on the area would strain the infrastructure. The Houston Planning Commission will host a public meeting, the fourth of four, to discuss the proposed changes from 6:30-8 p.m. March 8 at Trini Mendenhall Sosa Community Center, 1414 Wirt Road. The issue is expected to come before council for a vote in the coming months. Barchfeld-Alexander said that not enough thought has gone into the proposal, and that Houston residents should have the opportunity to vote on such an important issue. The change would allow a maximum of 27 housing units per acre in the area between the loop to the beltway. Neighborhoods with deed restrictions that establish a minimum lot size, prevent subdividing lots and limit the area to singlefamily residences would not be affected by the provision in Chapter 42. Communities without deed restrictions could apply to establish a minimum lot size and special building line.
Urban continues on 10
GATED COMMUNITY LOCATED IN ENERGY CORRIDOR
“Painting is my soul, what I do, who I am,” said Liduine Bekman, whose watercolors will be shown at the Spring Bayou City Art Festival.
in galleries in Rockport and Ft. Lauderdale, Fla. In 1990, her paintings were featured a part of an exhibit sponsored by the Netherlands government in New Orleans to mark the 175th anniversary of relations between that city and the Netherlands. A member of the National Watercolor Society in the United States and Pulcri Studio Artist Guild of the Netherlands, Bekman has won more than 30 major awards since 1977 and her paintings have been featured in more than 70 group exhibitions and 10 solo exhibitions. Bekman, who is married and has two adult sons, is a diver, but didn’t dive when she was growing up in the cold waters off the Netherlands. Living in the Caribbean and along the Texas Gulf coast has given her a chance to continue Artist continues on 9
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