The Mondavi Center for the Performing Arts has been home to many dramatic and cultural performances throughout the years. The upcoming performance Spirit of Uganda is no less pertinent.

Touring every two years, Spirit of Uganda will begin its tour in the Mondavi Center on Jan. 24, with the performance at 3 p.m. Activities include students’ shows, classes as well as a kid-to-kid lunch and play. Regular tickets range from $25 to $45, while student tickets range from $12.50 to $22.50.

“The 22 young people in our company have lost one or both parents to AIDS or to the rebels,” said Alexis Hefley, founder and executive officer of the program. “Education for these kids was impossible.”

These children are the Ambassadors for Uganda’s representing millions of orphaned and underprivileged children. The program showcases a wide array of authentic performances from the East African region. The young people who range from ages of nine to 20 will be the performers and will all work together as a team to provide cultural awareness of dual causes of AIDS and the tragedy of civil war. Their activities also raise funds that support children, sponsored by Empower African Children, a non-profit organization.

Choreographed by artistic director Peter Kasule, an alumnus of the program, the show will run throughout North America. It will culminate with a performance as part of the Cultural Olympiad in Vancouver, an arts festival that coincides with the Olympics each time they are held. The vivid program of music and dancing provides an all-ages show that is sure to please.

“Music and dance in Uganda are fluid and dynamic,” Kasule said in a press release, “a shifting mix of traditional and new forms that celebrates the country’s rich and multiple heritages and embody the connections among people across borders.”

Spirit of Uganda started over a decade ago from Hefley’s visit to an orphanage in Uganda, where a nun was training a small dance company of children.

“I remember thinking to myself, what if my friends could see this,” she said.

From there, Hefley launched Empowering African Children and initiated and produced award-winning and critically acclaimed Children of Uganda. She said the transforming power of the arts exemplifies what is possible if you give children the resources to express themselves.

Their 2008 tour, sponsored by Macy’s, brought in rave reviews and achieved awareness of Empowering African Children’s causes.

“The group of children is a mixture of people who have previously toured and about 11 children who have never been to the U.S. before.” said Pat Kirby, company director. “Several of the dances are different and there are some traditional dances where the music is a bit different this time.” For more information on Spirit of Uganda and Empower Africa’s Children go to empowerafricanchildren.org

ANASTASIA ZHURAVLEVA can be reached at arts@theaggie.org.

The annual THIRDeYE Theatre Festival, presented by the Department of Theatre and Dance, features works that are written, directed and staged by mostly UC Davis undergraduate students. This year’s line-up includes “Empty All the Boxes,” “Fools Afloat” and “The Blue Jay’s Song” and will be performed on Jan. 27 through Jan. 31 at 8 p.m. on Wednesday and 2 p.m. on Sunday.

Each back-to-back play will draw from similar themes of life and death and the search for meaning.

“Empty All the Boxes,” written by senior Jazz Trice and directed by senior Tasha Cooke, follows a young deviant who begins to have visions of his deceased grandfather. Emotions of regret, brokenness and appreciation of life centralize Trice’s play.

“It’s very deep and goes places some of us might not want to go when dealing with death, our family and deceased relatives – but it’s also really funny, contemporary and has a lot of nods to pop culture and mainstream ways of speaking and communication,” Trice said.

Themes of life and death, love, family and redemption surface throughout the play and are reflective of Trice’s own personal life and recent death of his grandfather.

“It was written as an outlet for my frustration with things going on in my life years ago that no longer exist,” Trice said. “It’s difficult acting in this play as well because it’s very personal and puts me in certain scenarios that almost mirror things that have happened to me.”

“Some lines are taken word for word from my life and there’s an immediate fear with something like this being put out in the open for everyone to see. But I think it’s necessary that these things be said for myself and others.”

The second act, “Fools Afloat,” is written by Kristopher Ide and directed by Olufunmilayo Alabi. Paul, a young man discovers what it takes to have a quality relationship with his girlfriend Francesca. While dealing with the death of his father, he is also coping with distance and lack of presence in his relationship. These trials take him to another world where he finds himself on a boat with Ernest Hemingway, Adolf Hitler and his father.

“I would hope that my little play would be kind of a parable, an object lesson about the folly of despair in the face of death,” Ide said.

“Fools Afloat” draws from Ide’s personal experience of losing his father a couple years ago.

“I don’t believe that death is an end to be feared but simply a transition to something else, some other form of existence,” Ide said. “But for the living left behind, it’s still necessary to come to a place of acceptance and understanding.”

In the play, Paul confronts the spirit of his father as an act of redemption.

“Some of the people in the audience will have probably lost someone very close to them,” Ide said. “If I can show them a character that is going through what they felt [who] is able to transcend those feelings and find joy and an appreciation for the friends and family still around, then maybe they’ll be able to do the same in their lives.”

In “The Blue Jay’s Song,” written by Daniel Jordan and directed by Bill Macinnis, Isaac, a man who is portrayed by three actors on stage, searches for meaning in his life by trying to find his mother.

The entire play stems from different life lessons that extend from Jordan’s life as a transfer student.

“In my first quarter here at Davis, I was feeling like three different people doing three different things – what I wanted, what I needed and who was I,” Jordan said. “I didn’t know what I was doing, what journey to take and I didn’t know what my end goal was. I derived the play from the fact that I didn’t feel like a single person.”

The THIRDeYE Theatre Festival has allowed students like Jordan to put their plays into production while in their undergraduate studies.

“As a writer, I don’t think there’s any better way to learn what does and doesn’t work on stage than by participating in this festival,” Ide said.

The festival will continue from Jan. 27-31. Tickets will be $10 for students and $14 for general admission. For more information about THIRDeYE or to purchase tickets, visit theatredance.ucdavis.edu.

KAREN SONG can be reached at arts@theaggie.org.

Philanthropist and UC Davis donor Margrit Mondavi has pledged $2 million for the proposed UC Davis Museum of Art, a project that has been in the works since 2006. The museum would house the university’s collection of 4,700 artworks currently in the Nelson Gallery, as well as new collections and multidisciplinary collaborations.

Mondavi’s donation kicks off the museum’s initial fundraising effort of $30 million to complete the design phase of the project. Dean of the division of humanities, arts and cultural studies Jessie Ann Owens met with over 100 participants to discuss the vision and focus of the UC Davis Art Museum. A business plan and strategy were then developed, but the design phase required more funding to proceed.

Mondavi’s contribution provides a basis for the fundraising goal, and planners hope Mondavi’s donation will inspire others to contribute, including a multi-million dollar donor to name the museum.

The proposed location for the completed museum is the undeveloped land nearby Vanderhoef Quad, currently home of the Mondavi Center for the Performing Arts, Alumni and Visitors’ Center and the Graduate School of Management Conference Center. It would be visible and accessible from Highway 80, allowing it to be a resource for both UC Davis and the community.

Renny Pritikin, director of the Richard L. Nelson Gallery and Fine Art Collection, said that the museum would feature works from the Nelson Gallery as well as outside contributions.

“[The museum] would be an interdisciplinary, cross-departmental institution that pulls on the expertise of science, social science, English and art, so that the programs appeal to all the different departments and are inclusive of a lot of different interests and points of view,” Pritikin said.

“The idea would be, if I invited an astronomer to come in and collaborate with an artist to figure out an exhibition to pool their talents, or an artist who works with digital and the Internet or an artist working with someone from the computer science department,” Pritikin said.

The Nelson Gallery is UC Davis’ main art repository. It features works of nearly every medium from antiquity to the modern day, with an overall concentration on Northern California artists after World War II. In particular, there is a special emphasis on contemporary and “funk” movement pieces created by UC Davis faculty in the 1960s.

Gina Werfel, a UC Davis art professor and featured Nelson Gallery artist, said the museum will have a large enough space to display the permanent collection as well as temporary shows.

“The Nelson has been a well-kept secret with an interesting teaching collection of art supplemented by excellent shows,” Werfel said.

The Nelson Gallery serves the university’s art department and campus community as well as Northern California and the Central Valley as an influential yet little-known center for art education, exhibition and public events. Many hope that a museum would increase awareness of UC Davis’ significant involvement and long history in the arts.

“The Nelson Gallery collection is one of the finest on the west coast,” said Julia Couzens, who received her Master of Fine Arts from UC Davis in 1990 and has three paintings in the gallery, in an e-mail interview.

“But other than curators and art historians, who knows that?” she said.

Sculptor Dave Lane, whose work is featured in the Nelson Gallery, praised the proposed museum’s opportunity to showcase UC Davis’ important contributions to modern art.

“It’s always seemed ironic to me how much influence the UCD art program has had in the world, yet how very few local folks are aware of this,” Lane said. “Because the funk art movement and west-coast conceptualism can trace their origin to UCD, it’s all the more important to provide visibility to work in the collection, if only for academic availability.”

Pritikin said that more definite plans for the contents of the museum are still years away, as the design of the building is highly important for artists and collectors deciding whether to contribute their work.

“Since the purpose of a museum collection is to preserve objects for future generations to enjoy and study, having a secure and safe building is a priority,” he said. “Collectors have assured us that when we have such a building, they will consider major gifts to us.”

ROBIN MIGDOL can be reached at arts@theaggie.org.

Let’s face it: Supernatural fantasy is here to stay-and we’re not talking about vampires and werewolves anymore. Welcome to 2010.

Lauren Kate, who recently completed her Master of Arts in creative writing at UC Davis, is taking young adult fiction trends to the next level with her latest novel, Fallen. And in attempt to get your dark-fiction bloods brewing, Disney has purchased movie rights for all four books in the series.

The novel grabbles into the life of an estranged girl’s journey through a tragically dark romance between two fallen angels. The name and description alone should give you a sense of the imagination at work in Kate’s four-book series.

“Fallen definitely camps out more officially in the young adult paranormal genre than the other things I write,” Kate said. “But it was a refreshing experience.”

While sitting in on a comparative literature class that centers on reading the Bible as literature, Kate came across a reference to a group of angels who fell in love with mortal women. As a consequence, they were kicked out of heaven.

“I started thinking about what it would be like to be one of these women who was suddenly the object of an angel’s affection,” Kate said. “What would be the biggest thrill – or the most unsexy thing about it? What kind of baggage does an angel have?”

Having written love stories for most of her life, Kate grabbed her ideas and ran with them. In Fallen, she draws in questions about trust and betrayal, religion and mythology – as well as preconceived notions about the realms of “good” and “evil.”

Associate professor of English and fiction writer Lucy Corin worked with Kate to workshop an entire draft of the novel.

“Lauren really knows how to take the information she gathers from critiques and apply her new understanding of her work to the revision process,” Corin said. “I can’t overstate how difficult this is to learn to do. She’s an incredibly hard worker.”

There is also an extreme sense of passion in Kate’s tone as she speaks about her experiences in fiction. Recounting on her journey through creative writing and publishing, Kate always knew that she wanted to be in this field.

“I marvel at people who were biochemists until they woke up one morning and poured out a novel. I guess I’ve always been a bit more single-minded,” she said.

Her background in writing also helped foster a love of fiction. Having spent five years as an editor at a major publishing house after completing her undergraduate studies in creative writing, Kate decided to quit her job and move to California. There, she enrolled in the UC Davis’ master’s program, where she taught introductory creative writing courses, formed lifelong friendships, met her husband and worked on novels.

Christopher Bone, a senior English literature major at the University of Edinburgh in Scotland, UK, enrolled in Kate’s writing class while he was an exchange student at UC Davis.

“My main motivation for reading Fallen was because Lauren had written it, but I ultimately enjoyed it and can see the success of it snowballing into franchise status,” Bone said. “And it’s no exaggeration to say that her class really changed the direction of my studies.”

This goes to show that Kate isn’t just passionate about writing; she also wants to pass on her accumulated literary wisdom. Her advice to young writers: “Every story has already been told, all we can do is make our own versions as fresh and compelling as possible.”

As for the writing process, Kate said the best method is to just write through them. “Write four pages of crap and hope the fifth is better. Chuck the first four,” said Kate. “I also just moved to Los Angeles and I have a really lovely canyon view from my office. That helps.”

These days, Kate is working on the revision of her second book in the series, Torment, which will be out this September. She is also doing a blog tour, as well as a few book readings and signings around LA – not to mention working on Fallen’s movie deal.

“I’ve spoken to the people at Disney and everyone seems very excited so far,” Kate said. “They’re starting to look for screenwriters this week – though I got laughed at when I asked for a shot at writing it myself. Maybe someday…”

In the meantime, Kate said she wants to take things easy for 2010. “All I’ve got on the docket is to get a dog, a part-time job in a restaurant kitchen and maybe learn how to surf.”

Now there’s some food for thought on life changing simplicities. For more information on Kate’s scheduled events and published works, go to laurenkatebooks.net.

VANNA LE can be reached at arts@theaggie.org.

I’m sure it was someone’s new year’s resolution to eat healthier this year. It certainly wasn’t mine.

Eating healthy, in my opinion, requires an exorbitant amount of grocery shopping. You can’t eat healthy if you’re going out to eat every night. My old roommate did that, and he’s fat.

When it comes to shopping, oil is still one of my most favorite items. My favorite dish to cook at home is a pasta, sausage, sundried tomato and feta cheese mixture, which leaves solid chunks of olive oil at the bottom of the bowl when I refrigerate it. There’s nothing healthy about it.

But I don’t really know anything about food, or general health for that matter. I took Nutrition 10 once, but everything I still remember from the class I knew already. Nutrition 10 also taught me certain items from Taco Bell are healthy, and I choose not to believe it out of principle.

Like most other restaurants and food in Davis, I’m pretty volatile when it comes to liking or disliking their food. For me, Taqueria Guadalajara will go from absolute anticipation to complete disgust in a matter of 20 minutes. Same with anything from Old Teahouse or Ohana’s.

Really though – I went to the North Davis Guadalajara two nights ago, and like usual, I’m having second thoughts about ever eating there again. This is what I always think when I finish my super burrito with black beans and pastor, after staring at my plate and shuddering at the chips that seemed so appealing 20 minutes earlier. I’ll die at 60 if I keep this up, I tell myself. I really will.

The one thing I don’t end up regretting about Guadalajara, however, is the water they serve. They supply clear plastic water cups that are shinier and more translucent than any glass cup could ever be. They fog up the moment you pour ice and water in them, which would never happen with a paper or styrofoam cup. Something about the clear, fogged cup makes the water cold and crisp, forcing the drinker to pause after gulping to continue the conversation.

Guadalajara probably supplies the clear cups to make sure you aren’t filling your water cup with Coke, which you really can’t blame them for in a college town that cried murder when Chipotle stopped serving free drinks to students.

In reality, Guadalajara isn’t that great – the chips are oily, the food is oily. But it’s delicious, and I’ll probably go back next week.

Guadalajara is only a case in point – I’ll spend money on food any day, no matter how unhealthy it is. Spending money on food shouldn’t be an obstacle, either – I won’t save my wallet by living off of the Wendy’s Dollar Menu, because the Wendy’s Dollar Menu tastes like an AM/PM sandwich pickled in urine. Thankfully I don’t live in South Davis.

Spending money on food is my only real regret about anything, anyway. Take Coachella, for instance – like any other music festival, Coachella seems like a big, bittersweet shotgun blast to the stomach, and a $300 dollar 3-day pass would surely end in regret. Tuesday’s announcement of this year’s lineup was probably only exciting for fans of John Mayer’s shirtless Depp-ish shots on the cover of this month’s Rolling Stone. And Muse – really? These classically trained, British versions of the Jonas Brothers couldn’t be more mediocre.

Festivals in general are wishy-washy. Watchable bands are usually black dots in a crowd of sunglasses and cigarettes. I sat, stood and slept on the damp grass for hours to see Radiohead at Outside Lands a couple years back, missing every other stage that day and bearing the torment of Manu Chao and Steel Pulse.

The food there probably won’t be that great, either.

JUSTIN T. HO can’t stand Yelp, but sure loves Fever Ray. Even if his friend Kyle thinks Karin Andersson has a horrendous face. Send a 3-day Coachella pass to arts@theaggie.org.