Gallery director retiring to Santa Fe

JOYCE RUDOLPH

Jill Conner is retiring as gallery director at Brand Library Art

Galleries, a post she has had since August 1996. She has been

managing both the gallery and library for the past two years. Her

last day is Saturday.

The Alhambra resident is moving to Santa Fe, N.M., and plans to

explore opportunities in the art field there, she said.

“I have friends there and have been visiting for three years,” she

said. “It’s an art colony and I feel very much at home there.”

At Brand, Conner began an “artists talk” program so the public

could meet and talk to the artists about their creative processes.

Conner is one of the most creative and imaginative gallery

directors Brand Galleries have had, said her supervisor Carolyn

Flemming, one of the library administrators.

“She has been responsible for bringing children into the gallery

for the first time ever and for making the exhibits more exciting,

different and thought provoking,” she said.

A goodbye party for Conner is planned from 3 to 4 p.m. Saturday at

Brand Art Galleries, before the 4 p.m. artist talk and 5 to 7 p.m.

reception heralding the new exhibits by Carolyn Applegate and J.J.

L’Heureaux. Brand Library is at 1601 W. Mountain St., Glendale.

Conner’s replacement has not been hired, Flemming said. The senior

library supervisor for Brand Library will be hired first, and that

person should be in place hopefully by the end of March, she said.

*

Rick Besoyan’s “Little Mary Sunshine” is the next concert staged

reading that will be performed by the Musical Theatre Guild at 7:30

p.m. Monday at the Alex Theatre.

Billed as an operetta spoof, the play is set at a Colorado Inn,

and follows the romance of Capt. Big Jim of the forest rangers and

the title character, Mary Potts, who owns the inn. The original 1959

off-Broadway production played at the Orpheum Theatre in New York for

1,143 performances over a three-year period.

Starring in the title role in the Glendale production is Broadway

veteran Teri Bibb, who performed in “Phantom of the Opera” and “She

Loves Me.”

What makes this event special is that Elmarie Wendel, who played

Nancy Twinkle in the original off-Broadway production, will attend

the show, we learned from Kevin McMahon, an executive committee

member. Wendel’s most recent credit is playing the neighbor in the TV

show “3rd Rock from the Sun.”

Instead of a live orchestra, the musical accompaniment will be two

grand pianos set on the stage and played by the show’s musical

director Tom Griep and guest musician Dean Mora. Five Star Music in

Glendale is providing the pianos.

Tickets are $35 and can be reserved by calling 243-2539. The Alex

is at 216 N. Brand Blvd., Glendale.

*

Applications are being accepted for two music scholarships that

will be awarded by the Women’s Committee of the Glendale Symphony

Orchestra in the spring.

The first is the Women’s Committee Encouragement Award of $400 for

a musician 17 and younger who is a Glendale resident and plays one of

the standard orchestral instruments (strings, brass, winds).

Applications must be received by March 5. For more information,

call 662-0294.

The other award is the Nellie Morris Terry and Francis Paul Morris

Vocal Scholarship, which will be $1,550 this year, for a singer

between the ages of 18 and 30, and not limited to students living in

Glendale.

Applications must be received by March 12. For more information,

call 248-0874.

Both winners will be presented in recital at the Brand Library the

evening of May 14.

* JOYCE RUDOLPH’s column appears Wednesdays. For events happening

this weekend, read her 48 Hours column Saturdays. Reach her at

637-3241.