O Extravaganza! The Great Extrav Reunion Weekend & Capping Revue Revival [1993]
[VUWPoint Newsletter]
page breakUniversity Fun on Open Day
Dinosaurs and superconductors, art, poetry and music, the trial of Oscar Wilde and a vote on New Zealand's most unpopular politician — all will be part of Victoria University's Open Day on Saturday September 25. Organiser Dr David Burton emphasises that the Open Day is fun for the whole family. "Come early and stay the whole day," he said. "There will be a great variety of activities, displays, and entertainment."
Some highlights:
Hunter Building: The restoration project is not completely finished but much of Hunter is open for public inspection after being closed for about 15 years. The Alumni Association is hosting an Open Day café, on level two of the Hunter building.
Ostracism: In ancient Greece any ostracised politician had to leave the country for 10 years. With a general election due, there may be special interest in ostracising a politician.
Dinosaurs: The DNA display will give some idea of how plausible the plot of Jurassic Park really is; fossils of New Zealand's own dinosaurs will be on display along with a life-size replica of a flying pterosaurus with a four-metre wingspan; and live tuatara will make a rare public appearance.
Other science: Superconductors and laser beams, weather and earthquakes, giant wetas and tiny animals from the garden will all be part of the science displays. The scanning electron microscope will magnify a honeybee up to 100,000 times, and gardeners can bring in soil for analysis.
Live performances: Oscar Wilde was at the height of a glittering literary career when he was accused of homosexuality, then a crime under English law. He was convicted, imprisoned and disgraced. On Open Day the Law Faculty and the Drama Club are staging a re-enactment of Wilde's trial. Other live entertainment includes Chaucer's bawdy medieval classic "The Miller's Tale", one-act plays, readings by children's writer and Writer's Fellow Jack Lazenby, and by poets Bill Manhire, Jenny Bornholdt, Diana Hawken, Fiona Kidman, Harry Ricketts and Vincent O'Sullivan.
Art: Victoria University has a significant collection of New Zealand art, dominated by Colin McCahon's Gate III. Other artists represented include Milan Mrkusich, Gretchen Albrecht, Brent Wong, Heather Busch, Toss Woollaston, Frances Hodgkins, Evelyn Page and Ralph Hotere.
Music: Sample Professor David Farquhar's new Serenade for Strings, commissioned by Denis Adam for the New Zealand Chamber Orchestra, a rehearsal of the 18th-century Les Fêtes Vénitiennes, works by women composers, period instruments and the Gamelan Orchestra.
Other attractions will include architecture in action, human chess, a computer model of the economy, the generation of new plant varieties, a film on German reunification, women's studies focusing on the suffrage centennial, the chemistry magic show and a literary quiz.
Diary
All events are free of charge unless indicated
Graduate School of Business and Government
Management Alumni Chapter Lunch
Monday 27 September 1993, 12.00 noon
Graeme Nahkies: CEO, Hutt Valley Health
Corporation Ltd: "Say CHEs!" $25 for members; $30 for non-member guests. Enquiries to: Crysa Damianou, GSBGM, Tel: 471 5367
Plunket Medal Oratory Competition: The 87th Annual Contest
Thursday 30 September, 7.30pm
Adam Concert Room, School of Music
Admission: $5.00 and $3.00
VUW Debating Society with the English Speaking Union and Alumni Association. Oratory should convince the reason, stir the emotion, and compel constructive action. Come and be inspired!
By Degrees Roger Hall
Monday 18 October, Downstage Theatre Alumni Block booking - see enclosed slip
Seminars, Lectures, Concerts
Lecture Series: "Women and the Election in Suffrage Year"
Wednesdays 12.00-1.00pm, Murphy 101
22 September: Anne Pomeroy Women in agriculture
29 September: Judith Davey Women, health and home ownership
6 October: Alison Laurie Women and human rights
Stout Research Centre
Wednesday Seminars 4.10pm Stout Research Centre 12 Wai-te-ata Road
22 September: Dorita Hannah Performance, space, architecture
29 September: Sarah Shieff Cultural magpies: musical reworkings of Denis Glover's poetry
6 October: Jennie Gallagher Mountaineering women
13 October: Jessie Munro Mother Aubert's collecting tour
School of Music
All in the Adam Concert Room, VUW Organ Recital
Tuesday 21 September, 5.30pm.
Janet Gibbs: Bruhns, Buxtehude, Homilus, Walond, Zwart, Bach. $10.
Thursday lunchtime concerts (1.00pm)
23 September
Schwanengesang (1828), Franz Schubert. Peter Russell bass baritone, Margaret Nielsen piano
30 September
Australian piano duo Diane Selmon and Charles Glenn. Music by Hummel, Gerard Brophy, Rachmaninov and Infante
7 October
Rossini, Burch, von Weber. VUW Orchestra with student soloists
14 October, 12.00 noon
Grand Finale: Serious and not-so serious End-of-Year Celebration
Studio performance
Les Fêtes Vénitiennes
7.30 pm Friday 8 October
4.00 pm Sunday 10 October
Admission $15 and $5
Scenes from the opera-ballet by André Campra (1660-1744). Vocal soloists, members of the Baroque Workshop, VUW Chamber Orchestra and students from the New Zealand School of Dance. Directed by Peter Walls, with Emily Mair and Greer Garden. Choreography: Jennifer Shennan
Public Lecture
"Mahler's biography as a key to his works"
8pm Wednesday 13 October
Prof Henry-Louis de La Grange (Paris)
Professor de La Grange will also give a lecture to students in the course "Music in the Romantic Era" entitled "Music about music in Mahler: Reminiscences, allusions or quotations?" Wednesday 13 October, 11.00am Alumni welcome.
Faculty of Commerce and Administration
Economics Group Seminar Programme Wednesdays 12.00 noon, Murphy 506
29 September
Prof Douglas Pearce (North Carolina) Discount Window Borrowing and Federal Reserve Operation Regimes
20th October
Professor Mike Veall (McMaster) A Bootstrap method for Testing Non-Linear Restrictions
27 October
Dr Dimitri Margaritis (Waikato) Productivity Changes in the New Zealand Manufacturing Sector: 1979-1991
3 November
Prof Martin J Osborne (McMaster) A Model of Political Competition with Citizen-Candidates
10 November
John W Wood (Lincoln) Spatial variations in Uncertainty
VUW Point is published by the Alumni Relations Centre of Victoria University of Wellington
Open Day – 25 September
Alumni Relations Centre,
Level 3, Hunter Building
To increase your chances of meeting someone who was at University at the same time as you, we suggest you try to visit at the following times: if you were a student before 1940, between 10am and 11am; 1940-1949, 11am-12noon; 1950-1959, 12noon-1pm; 1960-1969, 1pm-2pm; 1970-1979, 2pm-3pm; 1980 and after, 3pm-4pm.
Alumni Café,
Level 2, Hunter Building
Come to the one-day-only, special Alumni café - right next to the University Council rooms.
NB: Until Hunter is completed, including the courtyard, there is no wheelchair access into the building. There are lifts, but first the front steps must be negotiated.
Weir House
60th Anniversary Reunion
Are you a former resident of Weir House? Join them in celebrating their 60th anniversary, on Saturday evening, 25 September. Catch up with old friends at the early evening Cocktail Party in Weir, and at the Reunion Dinner following it in the Student Union Building.
Contact Tricia Walbridge for tickets, Victoria University Foundation - tel: (04) 495 5109; fax: (04) 495 5244; or PO Box 600 Wellington. It will be a great occasion and we look forward to seeing you there!