Masks

The last time Eric Anthony Bates stood on the stage of the Lyric Opera House, he was graduating from the Carver Center for Arts and Technology. When he steps on that stage again Wednesday, it will be as a cast member of "Rugrats: A Live Adventure," the new stage version of the popular Nickelodeon TV series about the adventures of a group of diaper-clad toddlers.Speaking from "Rugrats' " stop in St. Louis, the 20-year-old Baltimore native marveled at this fortuitous turn of events. "Rugrats" is not only his first national tour, it's his professional debut -- the result of his first professional audition.

GOOD TEACHERS are always on the lookout for ideas that will excite their students. Excellent teachers look for new, exciting ideas that motivate students to build on skills they already have.Margie Eisenstein, art teacher at Bollman Bridge Elementary School, is such a teacher.Last summer, she happened upon a community festival and art event, "The Great Doings Day," put on by Open Space Arts, a professional theater troupe in Reisterstown.The group presents a dozen or so family-oriented performances a year in the Reisterstown area and its members serve as resident artists at educational institutions.

They tell their own stories. Sometimes haltingly. Sometimes asking for understanding. Often with a tinge of sadness. Occasionally with the joy and wonder only the very young can convey.The stories are from people who have one thing in common. They are living with AIDS.Jason Dilley is the artist who brings their stories to the public and puts a face and voice behind each one.His "Project Face to Face" is a traveling, interactive multimedia exhibit that tells the stories of people living with HIV, the virus that causes AIDS.

MICHELLE GLEDHILL of Hammond Middle School called to report on the achievements of eighth-graders this spring.The eighth-graders decided to make a difference in the community.They've been involved in activities such as food drives. But the students wanted to try something different.They decided to pay for a bassinet for Howard County General Hospital's neonatal unit -- by bowling.Two bowling alleys donated time, footgear and expertise.The 208 members of the eighth grade collected pledges for pins knocked down.

He is a young man, only 25, although there's no way of knowing this from his appearance. Fire has excavated almost to the bone both his face and body. Still, even in his blunted features, agony has found a way to express itself. The young man's suffering is captured in the flickering black-and-white images of a grainy tape filmed in a Texas hospital 25 years ago.Once, Donald Cowart was an Air Force pilot who flew jets in and out of Vietnam; a handsome, strong-willed man with a passion for driving fast in his Alfa Romeo.

Two men wearing ski masks and brandishing sawed-off shotguns robbed a Roy Rogers restaurant in Savage last week, Howard County police said.Police reported that the men walked into the restaurant in the 8700 block of U.S. 1 about 9: 36 p.m. Thursday and herded a manager, two employees and a customer into an office area.The robbers stole an undetermined amount of money from the cash registers and fled, police said.No one was hurt. Police are investigating.Pub Date: 3/17/97

All dressed up with places to go; Costumer: If Anita 0) Rutledge doesn't have the outfit you need in her store, she'll design and make it for you.Let's say you need a costume -- a good one. Forget the generic, one-size-fits-all, premade Elvis suit someone else is bound to have. Most costume shops carry similar items, but that doesn't mean having to give up on being unique.If you have neither the skill nor the creativity to fashion a spacesuit out of milk cartons, try visiting the Rutledge Costume Co. on Park Avenue in Baltimore.

I have an old flag that measures 16 1/2 inches by 20 1/2 inches. It has red and white stripes and a blue square with stars. The stars circle one big star and go around the edge of the square. The names Hayes and Wheeler are embroidered on one of the stripes. Do you know about this?You own a rare political campaign flag for presidential candidate Rutherford B. Hayes and his running mate, William Wheeler. The pair ran successfully in 1876.My uncle has a bentwood-style chair made of branches and twigs.

A Glen Burnie man was robbed at gunpoint Wednesday as he was withdrawing money from an automated teller machine, county police said.Lawrence Snyder, 34, told police that he was using the ATM outside the Motor Vehicle Administration building shortly before 9 p.m. when a man with a semiautomatic handgun approached and demanded cash.Mr. Snyder gave him an undisclosed amount of money, police said, and the bandit ran north on Ritchie Highway.4 men in white ski masks assault man outside mallA man was beaten and kicked by a group of men wearing white ski masks in an unprovoked attack outside the Glen Burnie Mall Tuesday, county police said.

Lawyers for two Baltimore brothers on trial in U.S. District Court on bank robbery charges told a jury yesterday that their clients are innocent and that no witnesses can identify them as masked gunmen."

A 21-year-old Northeast Baltimore man recently cleared on murder charges was sentenced yesterday to 30 years in prison for an armed carjacking in 2006. Prosecutors said that Dean Carter and a female companion requested a ride from the victim Nov. 2, 2006, and then produced a sawed-off .22-caliber rifle, demanding that the victim get out of the car. Carter was arrested the next day after being seen driving the stolen vehicle. The rifle was still on the floor. Prosecutor Kevin Wiggins told Baltimore Circuit Judge W. Michel Pierson that police were able to make an arrest after the victim identified his attacker.

Rest assured, Anne Arundel County pet owners: A dog, cat, bird or even a reptile needing oxygen after being rescued from a burning building can be treated with the latest in life-saving equipment. Oxygen masks are now available for pets at 16 of the county's 30 fire stations, a move that fire officials and animal lovers hope will reduce the number of animals killed by smoke inhalation. Anne Arundel County fire officials respond to about two dozen to three dozen fires a year that require pet resuscitations, Battalion Chief Matthew Tobia, a department spokesman, said yesterday during a demonstration of the masks.

A series of wooden African masks hangs on the walls of a handsome colonial home in an unnamed country in Western Africa. The mouths and eyes are carved in formal expressions of horror and surprise. How fitting. If you go The Unmentionables runs at Woolly Mammoth Theatre, 641 D St. N.W. through Sept. 30. Show times: 8 p.m. Wednesdays-Saturdays; 2 p.m., 7 p.m. Sundays. Tickets cost $32-$52. Call 202-393-3939 or go to woollymammoth.net.

In the art of Africa, the mask is a versatile, multipurpose facade. It may signify identity and the ancestors, politics and medicine or the invisible world of the spirits. And in whatever form a mask appears, color is integral to its meaning. Now color is the subject of the second installment of Meditations on African Art, a three-part series at the Baltimore Museum of Art that explores African art from the point of view of the people who created it. The modestly scaled show presents about 30 traditional African masks from the museum's collection arranged in four groups: red, white, black and the tricolor that incorporates all three hues.

ANN ARBOR, Mich. -- In her dorm at the University of Michigan, Denise Rowe looks as much like a sick patient as a student. Before she eats a meal, goes to sleep at night, or even kisses her boyfriend, she first has to slip off the blue surgical mask that covers her nose and mouth and hooks around her ears. Didn't freshmen already have enough pressure to fit in? "People do kind of look at you weird," said Rowe, 18, the outline of her mouth moving behind the cotton mask. Around the Ann Arbor campus this winter, 1,400 students have been participating in a study to learn whether wearing masks makes a difference in who gets the flu. About 830 of them are assigned to wear the devices for six weeks, while the rest take no precautions.

If you don't remember what SARS is - the four letters stand for severe acute respiratory syndrome - and you're not worried, keep reading. The newly released SARS Commission report, published by the government of Ontario, is a sobering list of what hospitals in Baltimore and other cities need to do to protect all of us. On March 7, 2003, two men with undiagnosed SARS went to the hospital in two Canadian cities. In Toronto, this event caused an outbreak of disease that killed 44 people, infected another 330, and forced hospitals to close.

Masks were the center of attention at the annual fundraiser for the National Alliance on Mental Illness. Sure, there were some great ones on the faces of several guests at the party at the American Visionary Art Museum, but the masks that had everyone talking were those on display, as part of NAMI's "Many Faces of Mental Illness Mask Project." These masks were created by artists, business people, health providers and other members of the community to show their thoughts about mental illness.

RICHMOND, Vt. -- Huntington River Gorge may be one of the most beautiful spots in Vermont. It is also one of the deadliest. At least 20 people, most in their 20s or 30s, have died, and hundreds have been injured while swimming in the gorge over the past four decades. Seemingly placid waters mask strong currents that quickly sweep over waterfalls and into whirlpools. Last year, the chief of the state's public safety commission called the gorge the "single most deadly place in the state."

Does confronting one's 40th birthday mean it's time to face the music? For the Shriver Hall Concert Series, that certainly was the case. And board chair Jephta Drachman decided to take the phrase literally. She called the organization's anniversary gala "Face the Music," and asked artists and VIPs to decorate masks to be auctioned off at the party. "Two years ago, when we started, we didn't think we'd get 50 masks," Drachman explained. "Then, it started to snowball, and we ended up with more than 150."

Robot Festival Clanking, crawling and rolling about, robotic creatures made by area students, hobbyists and engineers will be on display at the Historical Electronics Museum in Linthicum on Saturday. The fifth annual Robot Festival gives visitors an up-close look at robots created by top-ranked BattleBot teams and elementary and high school students. Visitors will see Pwnage, the winner of the Trinity International Robotic Fire Fighting Contest, as well as CosmoBOT, a human-interactive robot.