DANCERS, SHAKESPEREAN ACTORS IN RESIDENCE AT SEMO IN FEBURARY

Members of ACTER who will perform at Southeast during February are, left to right, Biddy Wells, Peter Forbes, David Acton, Henrietta Bess and Peter Lindford.

Residencies by a black dance company from St. Louis and a Shakespearean acting troupe that Patrick Stewart helped found will make February a lively month for the arts at Southeast Missouri State University.

The Katherine Dunham Dance Company, which is based in St. Louis, will begin a two-week residency Feb. 2. While here, the dancers will conduct master classes and give lectures and demonstrations, and will perform for the university and community Feb. 12 at Academic Auditorium.

Other appearances are scheduled at the Civic Center and at locations in the Bootheel.

Katherine Dunham, who is now 89 and lives in East St. Louis, is best-known for choreographing the 1943 movie "Stormy Weather," which will be shown at Dempster Hall the company's first night on campus.

Dunham has been in ill health but will give the keynote speech of the residency Feb. 8 if she is well enough. If not, the speaker will be Ruby Streate, a second-generation Dunham dancer.

Dunham studied the indigenous dance styles of the Caribbean and still maintains a home in Haiti. Her style incorporates African-American, Haitian and Caribbean influences, according to Dr. Marc Strauss, director of the dance program at Southeast.

The Dunham company has struggled to survive over the last 15 or 20 years, Strauss said, but performed in France last summer and is known for its Katherine Dunham Museum Children's Workshop, which performed her last year. The workshop is a group of 15 teen-agers who are studying Dunham's legacy.

"This is a living legacy we're getting," Strauss said.

On Feb. 12, the Katherine Dunham Museum Children's Workshop Dancers will perform at Academic Auditorium along with Southeast's DanceXpressions and Ahrai, an African-American dance club at the university.

The Dunham residency is the biggest project Southeast's fledgling dance program has undertaken so far, Strauss said. "It's very exciting."

The residency will target university students, elementary schools and the community at large. Lectures will focus on Dunham's dance legacy and on the preservation of African-American dance.

Performance/demonstrations are scheduled for students at May Greene, Franklin and Washington schools, along with Head Start students, teens, adults and senior citizens at the Civic Center.

The residency is sponsored by the Southeast programs in dance, the National Endowment fort the arts, the Missouri Arts Council the Cape Girardeau Branch of the NAACP and the Missouri Alliance for Arts Education.

ACTER is the name of the London-based Shakespearean troupe that will be in residence at Southeast Feb. 24-28. The company draws from the Royal Shakespeare Company, the Royal National Theatre of Great Britain, the BBC Shakespeare Series and other major English theaters.

The three actors and two actresses will teach classes and conduct free workshops. One of the workshops is titled "Trippingly on the Tongue" and is designed for actors, singers, executives, sales reps, politicians and anyone who wants to speak better.

Another workshop, "Speaking with the Body," is for anyone interested in non-verbal communication, including teachers, preachers, TV anchors and lawyers.

Other workshops are designed specifically for teachers and students, from middle school through college.

ACTER also will present two "one-handers," one-actor performances of "The Poetry of Philip Larkin: the Poems of a Very Private Man," and " Beyond the Grave: A Selection of Ghosts in Stories, Poems and Epitaphs."

The five actors will join to give three performances of "A Midsummer Night's Dream," playing all 23 roles and employing the minimum of a set.

Stewart, best known to U.S. audiences for his portrayal of Capt. Jean-Luc Picard in the "Next Generation" Star Trek TV series, was a member of one of the original touring groups that transformed into ACTER more than 20 years ago. Their goal was and is to change the way Shakespeare is taught in America by emphasizing the work's origins as a working script.

ACTER stands for A Center for Theatre, Education and Research and is now based at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Its associate faculty members include more than 100 actors from the major British companies.

The visit by ACTER is being sponsored by the English and theater departments at Southeast.

Dr. Roy Dawson, who in 1996 brought the Shenandoah Shakespeare Express to the campus, said ACTER is similar. "But these are highly professional actors from the British stage.

He has seen four ACTER performances, including its "Macbeth" last year in Los Angeles.

"They are always so remarkable in their ability to create stage illusion with no props to speak of, bare space and three, four or five roles apiece," he said.

For information about participating in the ACTER residency, phone Dawson at 651-2620.