MERMAID THEATRE OF NOVA SCOTIA'S THE VERY HUNGRY CATERPILLAR AND OTHER ERIC CARLE FAVOURITES IN CORALVILLE FEBRUARY 20 & 21

Public Performance at 6:30pm on Thursday, February 20

Mermaid Theatre of Nova Scotia will visit the Coralville Center for the Performing Arts on Thursday, February 20 and Friday, February 21 with three performances of their signature production, The Very Hungry Caterpillar and Other Eric Carle Favourites. The engagement includes two sold-out school performances at 10:30am on February 20 and 21, and a public performance at 6:30pm on Thursday, February 20.  This one-hour production is recommended for ages three through second grade, and anyone who loves Eric Carle stories.  The performance brings three of Carle's beloved stories to life through the magic of black light and fanciful puppets.  The production was adapted, designed, and directed by Jim Morrow, with music by Steven Naylor and narration by Gordon Pinsent.

Tickets for the public performance are $14 for adults and $10 for children and are available online at coralvillearts.org, by phone at 319.248.9370, and in person at the CCPA box office and Coralville Recreation Center.

About The Very Hungry Caterpillar & Other Eric Carle Favourites:
On tour continuously since 1999, Mermaid's compilations of five Eric Carle stories have generated remarkable statistics and earned considerable praise from audiences on several continents. Featuring innovative black-light puppetry and evocative original music, the fifty-minute production includes three beloved stories: The Very Hungry Caterpillar, Little Cloud and The Mixed-Up Chameleon.

The Very Hungry Caterpillar follows the wonderful adventures of a very tiny and very hungry caterpillar as he eats his way through an amazing variety of foods on his path to becoming a beautiful butterfly.

High up in the sky, Little Cloud playfully transforms himself into various creatures, including a sheep, and an airplane, a shark and more.

The Mixed-Up Chameleon is bored with his life, sitting about predictably changing color all day. Following an adventurous trip to the zoo, he attempts to emulate the beautiful animals he sees before coming to the conclusion that there is value in his own unique self.

To date over 3000 performances have been presented to nearly 2 million spectators throughout the United States, Canada, Mexico, Singapore, Japan, Holland, Vietnam, Ireland, Macau, Taiwan, South Korea, Hong Kong and the United Kingdom. To date, presentations have been offered in Dutch, English, Spanish, Japanese, Korean and French.

About Mermaid Theatre of Nova Scotia
Mermaid Theatre of Nova Scotia ranks among North America's most respected theatres for the young, and plays an important ambassadorial role for Nova Scotia and for Canada. The company regularly crosses the continent, and has represented Canada in the United States, Japan, Mexico, Australia, England, Northern Ireland, Ireland, Scotland, Wales, Holland, Hong Kong, Macau, Singapore, Vietnam, South Korea and Taiwan. Mermaid Theatre has earned Export Excellence awards from both the Governments of Canada and of Nova Scotia. Based in the town of Windsor, Nova Scotia, Mermaid has performed for more than five million spectators on four continents. The company was founded in 1972.

Eric Carle, Author
Eric Carle, internationally acclaimed author and designer, has written and illustrated more than seventy books for young children. Born in Syracuse, NY, he spent his youth in Germany where he studied fine art in Stuttgart prior to returning to the US in 1952 to work as a graphic designer for The New York Times and later as art director of an international advertising agency. His delightful books, which combine stunning collage artwork with an imaginative approach to learning, have sold more than 110 million copies worldwide.  Eric and his wife Barbara divide their time between the Florida Keys and the hills of North Carolina.  In 2002, The Eric Carle Museum of Picture Book Art opened to the public in Amherst, MA.  For more information, visit eric-carle.com and carlemuseum.org.

Jim Morrow, Director/Production Designer
Jim creates puppets for stage, television and film. He's directed numerous shows for the Theatre, including Very Eric Carle, The Very Hungry Caterpillar & Other Eric Carle Favorites, Guess How Much I Love You, I Love My Little Storybook, Swimmy, Frederick, Inch by Inch, Goodnight Moon & The Runaway Bunny as well as designed many others. A gifted performer, Jim has toured extensively in Canada, the United States, the United Kingdom and Japan. He serves as director of puppetry for Symphony Nova Scotia's production of The Nutcracker, and frequently conducts master classes in puppetry in North America and abroad. Jim is Mermaid Theatre's Artistic Director.

Steven Naylor, Composer
Steven has created the music for more than a dozen Mermaid shows, including Very Eric Carle, The Very Hungry Caterpillar & Other Eric Carle Favorites, Guess How Much I Love You , I Love My Little Storybook, Swimmy, Frederick, Inch by Inch, Goodnight Moon and The Runaway Bunny. His many other professional activities include original film and television scores; contemporary music and 'musique actuelle' performance; university teaching and curriculum development; and a long-term international involvement with electroacoustic concert music. Steven is Mermaid Theatre's Artistic Consultant for Music and Sound Design.

Gordon Pinsent, Narrator
Born in Grand Falls, Newfoundland, Gordon is an actor, director, writer and singer of great versatility, and one of Canada's most beloved artists. His work for more than three decades in theatre, film, radio and television has earned him international recognition, as well as honorary doctorates from three universities. In 1999 he was named a Companion of the Order of Canada, the country's highest award of merit.

Owned and operated by the City of Coralville, the Coralville Center for the Performing Arts is dedicated to enriching the community and contributing to the vitality of Coralville by offering an accessible, affordable venue for a variety of performances, presentations, and public and private events.  The 472 seat theater opened August 26, 2011 and has hosted performances from City Circle Acting Company, Orchestra Iowa, Cedar Rapids Opera Theatre, Dan Knight, Lola Astanova, Lorie Line, Judy Carmichael, Jim McDonough, Nolte Academy of Dance, and many others.  Coralville schools are also able to use the Center free of charge up to three times per year; 16 school events took place at the Center in the 2012-2013 school year. The Center was named 2012 Member of the Year by the Iowa City/Coralville Area Convention and Visitors Bureau.

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This Saturday hundreds of musicians of all ages will fill the Adler Theatre as the professional musicians of the Quad City Symphony Orchestra perform side-by-side with the Quad City Symphony Youth Ensembles for the first time ever. All four youth orchestras will have their moment to shine as they perform music by Dvorák, Strauss, Schubert, Saint-Saëns, and Shostakovich.

 

CLICK HERE TO PURCHASE YOUR TICKETS TODAY

 

 The concert also features a performance by Robert Spurgeon, the 2014 Quad City Symphony Youth Ensembles Concerto Competition winner. While the Concerto Competition is over 50 years old, this is the first time that the winner has the honor of performing with the Quad City Symphony Orchestra. Spurgeon is performing Saint-Saëns' Concerto No. 1 for Cello.

 

Tickets for this concert start at $10, with 50% off for student tickets.

 

The concert is at the Adler Theatre on February 1 at 4:00 p.m. This concert is sponsored by UnityPoint-Trinity, with additional funding from The Hubbell-Waterman Foundation.

Entrepreneur Offers Tips on Finding Internships that Pave
the Way for Employment

With higher rates of un- or underemployment among college graduates in recent years, a national debate about the value of a college degree has gotten louder, especially as tuition continues to rise.

The slow economic recovery has hit young adults hard; in 2012, 44 percent of recent college graduates with a bachelor's degree were underemployed or working jobs that do not require an advanced degree, according to a report from the Federal Reserve Bank of New York. Other studies, including a recent one from the Center for College Affordability and Productivity, have had similar findings.

"There's no question that an advanced degree gives college graduates a tremendous leg up compared to those without one; those recent grads are working jobs non-college grads want - and graduates typically find good work soon enough. It's just a matter of how much of an advantage students demand right out of college," says Matt Stewart, an entrepreneur and spokesperson for College Works Painting, (www.collegeworks.com).

College Works Painting provides practical and life-changing business experience for college students who have shown potential for success. Interns operate their own house-painting business with hands-on guidance from mentors.

"Unemployment for our alumni is less than 4 percent; this kind of challenging yet fun student experience helps ensure a good career for college graduates right out of the gate," says Stewart, who offers tips for what students should look for in earning professional experience while still in school.

• Know what you will actually be doing. Interns tend to be eager to learn, wide-eyed and optimistic about gaining an internship somewhere. While simply being in a company's culture has some value, many businesses simply want students to do their lowest-level work. Grunt work, to some extent, is a fact of life in most professions, however, students probably aren't looking to gain experience in coffee-making or cleaning. Consider an internship that gives you real responsibility and provides experiences that will definitely come in handy in your future career.

• Consider the industry recognition of a company. While college is certainly worth the investment, it is costly and you want to get all you can out of the experience. Don't accept working for free with just any organization; think about how the name will resonate on a resume. If you can, get information on how other former interns fared at a company who would have you.

• For entrepreneurial students, real experience is crucial. If you're an artist, athlete, musician, theater major, English student or a STEM fields student, it's much easier to get real experience by simply doing what one loves. But for business majors and future entrepreneurs, getting experience often comes with a heavy price, including the loss of personal or family finances. Look for opportunities that provide guidance while allowing you to apply skills to real-life challenges such as budgeting, marketing, and managing employees.

About Matt Stewart

Matt Stewart co-founded National Services Group, which operates College Works Painting, SMJJ Investments and Empire Community Construction. Under the executive team's leadership, NSG has grown from a small Southern California business into a national leader in two industries and has been recognized as an entrepreneurial leader by Ernst & Young, the Orange County Business Journal, Inc., Entrepreneur and hundreds of other periodicals. Stewart has received a several awards, including the Excellence in Entrepreneurship Award from the Orange County Business Journal; was named "40 under 40;" and he has twice been a finalist for the Ernst & Young Entrepreneur of The Year Award.

Washington DC -- Americans United For Change President Brad Woodhouse made the following statement today regarding Exxon Mobil's $30+ billion haul in 2013:

"It's obscene that $30+ billion in profits counts as a bad year for Exxon, where the CEO gets paid twice as much in a single day as an average American family of four earns all year.  They have tripled their profits since 2002 while tripling what they charge us at the filling station.  Talk about income inequality - Big Oil companies are gorging on tax breaks, gouging us at the pump, and lobbying to kill the only competition in the marketplace: clean, American made ethanol.

"Instead of gutting the renewable fuel standard, the White House and Congress should protect and strengthen it so that we can depend more on homegrown, American energy and less on foreign oil."

 

Americans United for Change has been on the air with TV ads in Iowa and Washington DC underscoring the huge economic success story of the Renewable Fuel Standard and asking the EPA why it would fix what isn't broken.

 

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