Performing Arts Center

Ten performers somersaulted across the stage at this year's Academy Awards and somehow transformed themselves into a Volkswagen bus with three passengers inside - and a man running behind, trying to catch up. It was the iconic image from Little Miss Sunshine, one of the films under consideration for best picture. Later, the group formed into a gun in homage to The Departed. Not so exciting, perhaps - until the "gun," amazingly, fired a "bullet" that flew through the air and into the wings.

The Maryland General Assembly yesterday approved $606,000 to preserve the Ellicott City Colored School and to build a performing arts center at Wilde Lake High School.But a request for $1 million to design, plan and build a Howard County agricultural center was rejected for the second time in a row. The center would have combined county, state and federal agricultural agencies in West Friendship."They only had so many dollars to go around," said County Executive Charles I. Ecker, speculating on why the request failed.

World-renowned architects are among the four teams selected to compete for the commission to design a $60 million performing arts center in Baltimore's Mount Royal cultural district.Gov. William Donald Schaefer and Mayor Kurt L. Schmoke announced Thursday the names of four finalists who will take part in a five-week competition. They were selected from 29 groups vying to design the theater complex for a state-owned tract next to the Meyerhoff Symphony Hall.The winner will get a chance to negotiate a contract to design a two-theater complex for the former Baltimore Life Insurance Co. site at 901 N. Howard St.Each finalist will be paid $10,000 for taking part.

Chinese performing artsSit back and watch the Hua Sha Chinese Dance Group at Montgomery College's Performing Arts Center tomorrow. The group performs dances of "In the Land of Hope," "Music on the Prairie" (Mongolian), "Dream of Deng Huang" (Tang Dynasty), "Zhu Ma" (Tibetan), "The Ribbon Dance" and "The Bow Dance," all choreographed by Xu Xiao Fang of Shanghai and Jing Yu of the Hua Sha Group.This cultural event includes children of the Hope Chinese School performing "Bai Nian" (Wishing a Happy New Year)

After selecting the Mount Royal cultural district over the Inner Harbor as the preferred site for a $60 million performing arts center for Baltimore, city and state officials are now seeking architects to design the project.The Baltimore Development Corp., a quasi-public agency that has been leading the charge to turn the Howard Street corridor into an "avenue of the arts," announced this week that it will hold a limited design competition to identify architects for the 2,700-seat facility, planned for the former Baltimore Life Insurance Co. property at 901 N. Howard St.The development agency has set Dec. 13 as the deadline for bids from architects and urban designers.

Ten years ago, members of the Howard County Arts Council could only dream of a new countywide performing arts center that would provide a high-profile venue for plays, concerts and other events.On Wednesday, they and other supporters of the arts toured the nearly completed Jim Rouse Theatre for the Performing Arts, named after Columbia's late founder and due to open in February in a wing of the new Wilde Lake High School in Columbia.The $1.6 million, 750-seat performance center, built with public and private contributions, boasts a high-tech stage and lighting system, three dressing rooms, a makeup room and a theater office, among other features.

Another article in yesterday's editions about a proposal t build a 2,700-seat theater in the Mount Royal cultural district stated incorrectly that the project is being planned by the Baltimore Center for the Performing Arts.The planning is being done by an independent group headed by Hope Quackenbush, former managing director of the Baltimore Center for the Performing Arts.The Sun regrets the errors.A 2,700-seat performing arts center would be built in Baltimore's Mount Royal cultural district under a plan city and state officials are considering to attract Broadway-style touring productions that might otherwise bypass the area.

Baltimore's Lyric Opera House, a 2,500-seat music hall that will mark its 100th anniversary Oct. 30, may lose one of its key tenants within the next several years, even though its owners intend to spend $2.4 million to upgrade the theater.The Baltimore Opera Company, which has been based at the Lyric since its founding 43 years ago, is a potential occupant of the $70 million performing arts center being planned for the Mount Royal Cultural District, according to a "building program" drafted to guide architects designing the proposed facility.

Four months after launching a national design competition to choose an architect for a $60 million performing arts center in midtown Baltimore, a local group known as the Friends of the Performing Arts says it is unable to select a winner without more information from the finalists.Representatives for the non-profit arts group notified the four contestants last week that it was unable to rank them based on the design concepts presented Feb. 22.The notification means none of the four teams will immediately get to negotiate a contract to design the two-theater complex planned for the former Baltimore Life Insurance Co. property at 901 N. Howard St.It also means none have been eliminated.

All summer long, crowds of people gather every Thursday night in Glen Burnie to dance to folk music or listen to the blues.Even on the hottest, stickiest evenings, hundreds of area residents show up to hear concerts in front of the Arundel Center North. Some come with babies in their arms, others carry canes. Young and old, they rock to the beat of popular Maryland bands.The success of the summer concerts has encouraged Councilman Edward C. Middlebrooks, who wants to build a performing arts center behind the government offices in downtown Glen Burnie.