On Friday, March 22, 2002, the Equity Playhouse celebrates its 40th anniversary with the production of Back Then When, an off-th- wall look at the life of a typical law student. If you are curious as to what it must be like to attend law school, or have ever wanted to switch places with a professor after an embarrassing moment, then this show is for you.

It focuses on a group of law professors who are sent back to the days when they were young law students, and are subjected to the same horrors that they inflict on their own students. It is truly a student’s dreams come true. This is a great opportunity to support fellow University of Miami students who have been hard at work for months preparing for this show.

This year’s show takes on special meaning as Jeffrey Norkin, a UM and Equity Playhouse alumnus, comes back to take on the role of Professor Richard Hausler, one of the Law School’s most beloved professors, who after teaching at the law school for 52 years, passed away in March of 2000. Professor Hausler loved attending the Equity Playhouse shows year after year.

The Equity Playhouse has been putting odd twists on things since 1962. Back then, a young law student named Ted Klein was singing songs in the Law Review Office and a gorgeous young student named Taylor Mattis looked up at him and said, “Let’s put on a show!” They did, and Equity Playhouse was born.

In 1992, Equity Playhouse became an official organization, making it the only school-sponsored group whose stated purpose is to make levity of this supposedly austere institution. Equity Playhouse is a student run organization with no interference from administration other than making sure that the show is tasteful. The shows generally last about two hours, with a fifteen-minute intermission, wrapped up with a cast party.

Back Then When was written by Linda Calambas and Valerie Maurer, and is directed by Calambas. Other than the special appearance by Norkin, the cast is made up entirely of law school students.

The show will be held on Friday March 22 in the Auditorium at Ponce De Leon Middle School, 5801 Augusta Street, right across from Burger King and Book Horizons. Doors open at 6:00 p.m. and the show starting at 7:00 p.m.

Tickets are only $5.00 for students and $10.00 for faculty and alumni, and can be purchased between March 4-7 and March 18-21 between 12-6 p.m. on the bricks (the patio right in front of Subway). Tickets are also available at the door. All tickets include an entry to Sandbar in Coconut Grove, a $1 discount on a drink, and cake, compliments of Equity Playhouse.

Tonight

Lynyrd Skynyrd will perform at Sunrise Musical Theatre. Show starts at 8 p.m. Tickets cost $27.75-35.75. For info, call 954-523-3309.

March 9

The Estate will perform and a listening party for the new EELS CD at Piccadilly Garden, 35 N.E. 40th St. For info, call 305-242-3120.

March 11

Natalie Merchant will perform at the Beach’s Jackie Gleason Theater,1700 Washington Ave., at 7:30 p.m. For info, call 305-673-7300.

March 13

311 and Hoobastank will perform at Sunrise Musical Theatre. Show starts at 8 p.m. and tickets are $25-27.50. For info call 954-523-3309.

March 14-17

The Italian Renaissance Festival at Vizcaya, featuring five stages of entertainment, a daily character parade, and the Living ChessGame. Entrance pass is $15. The festival runs from 9:30 a.m. to 5: 30 p.m.

March 16

Deep Banana Blackout will perform with Bum-Ruckus at the Culture Room in Fort Lauderdale. Show starts at 8 p.m. and tickets are $12. For info call 954-523-3309.

March 17

Nelly Furtado will perform at Level, 1235 Washington Ave.. Show starts at 8 p.m. and you must be 21+ to enter. Tickets are $30. For info call 305-358-5885.

An institution that has progressively cultivated an emergent art scene associating art students, campus faculty and the South Florida community, the Lowe Art Museum is an underpinning establishment at University of Miami with a rich history and a promising future.

“We have an ideology of serving town and gown, as we like to say,” said Denise M. Gerson, Associate Director for Curatorial Affairs. “And what I mean is that we are an important museum in this area that is here to educate both the campus community and the greater Miami-Dade population.”

The Lowe has just closed an exhibition of famed American sculptor Louise Nevelson and has also exposed recent works by Milton Avery. As noted by Gerson, the museum chooses pertinent exhibitions that attempt to complement their own collections.

“We have a philosophy that directs us to offer changing exhibitions in all media and genres and that relates in some way to our permanent collection,” she said.

In her 12 years at the Lowe, Gerson has ascended from her start as a curator assistant to her current position as the curator of exhibitions. This title holds her responsible for the organization of all exhibitions and for matters concerning research in the museum’s collection, which totals at around 12,000 pieces and was seen by over 135,000 people during the last fiscal year.

“This is the only museum around here that has the breadth of collections that we have,” she said. “We display almost 5,000 years of art.”

The holdings are divided into Western and non-Western art, with works displayed in discrete areas such as Asian, African, Native American, Renaissance and Greco-Roman art. Sections for American Contemporary art showcase acclaimed artists like Roy Litchenstein, Frank Stella and John Sloan. In the early 1980s, the Lowe garnered credibility as the first museum in South Florida to exhibit works of Andy Warhol.

The on-campus collaboration between the Lowe, the art department and the New Gallery is key in the nurturing of the university’s art scene. Many faculty members are professionally and voluntarily involved in its functioning. For instance, Marceline Wiltmer and Perry Lee Roberts of the art department are both adjunct curators of African and Renaissance art, respectively.

Faculty members provide invaluable assistance to the museum as art historians and contributors as well. The museum holds an annual individual or collective exhibition of faculty artwork in April or May. Students are also able to have their own exhibitions.

“We try to stay in touch with the art department,” Gerson said.

The New Gallery has its own direction and runs on a different schedule than that of the Lowe. Gerson is convinced, however, that this independence will promote the growth of an art scene on campus, despite a general lack of awareness among the majority of students. The number of students set to graduate from the masters program of film arts has increased to a dozen, with many art students utilizing digital technology to experiment with innovative techniques in computer-generated art and photography. Gerson is hopeful for a new art building and sees the art scene on campus getting “bigger and better for sure.”

Linking this scene to the greater panorama of artistic creation around Miami, Gerson, who has been a resident of South Beach in the past, gives credit to SoBe for generating a bohemian, independent outlook on the expansion of art in the region. Recently though, the scene has witnessed a gradual migration downtown, as many galleries open around the Design District and the Biscayne area.

“I don’t see any meaningful crossover between these galleries and South Beach, which has been the core for artists around here,” she said. “But we still regularly go to the new galleries to familiarize ourselves with the art, sometimes inviting some artists to show their work here, such as Carlos Alves.” Alves is a local artist who did the the rosaries on the fountains on Lincoln Road.

As an institution located on a diverse campus, the Lowe is dedicated to outreach underserved groups with a multifaceted agenda.

“We try to attract minority students by showing works by ethnically diverse artists and then hope these students will come back for more,” she said.

The schedule at the Lowe has an edge of variety and doesn’t strictly adhere to the visual arts. Arranged by the curator of education, events such as poetry slams, yoga classes and musical performances take place monthly and are open to off-campus activities and people not affiliated with UM.

For now, there are no scheduled renovations, but the museum has arranged for a number of future exhibitions, including an exposition of works by Andrew Morgan, a former chairman of the Art Department, and a summer exhibition on contemporary Jamaican art. A booklet celebrating its 50th Anniversary will be distributed on March 7th.

Every summer, local artists are invited to present their pieces in the museum. Gerson personally believes that it is important to expose a lot of Florida artists, so as to show support for the state and private grants they receive.

When asked about the future of the museum, Gerson, sitting in her office, said she envisioned what she called a “unique resource” to be “continuously growing and becoming more and more significant” to the university. Gerson said she also plans to increase faculty and student participation, and that of members of the greater South Florida community.

“We have collections here that can’t be found anywhere in the region,” she said. “We’re a jewel in the UM crown.”

Scrap Cancun, forget Acapulco and get rid of the Caribbean cruise. This spring break, pack up some camping gear and head south to one of the state’s most beautiful natural destinations: Dry Tortugas National Park.

Long before it attracted the average

Joe and the rich and famous, the Dry Tortugas were a dumping ground for murderers, rapists, confederate soldiers, and other criminals.

The Tortugas’ most famous prisoner was Samuel Mudd, a Maryland doctor charged with treason for conspiring to kill President Abraham Lincoln. According to historical records, Mudd treated John Wilkes Booth shortly after the assassination.

But since one of its islands became a national monument in the 1930s, the Caribbean island cluster has been a tourist hot spot, attracting the likes of Ernest Hemingway, President Harry Truman, Queen Elizabeth II, Renee Russo and National Geographic researchers.

The remote seven-island chain lies about 70 miles west of Key West. The islands’ aquamarine waters, marine diversity, unique wildlife and solace lure snorkelers, divers, birdwatchers and other nature-lovers from all over the world. About 94,000 people visit the Tortugas each year.

Gulls, sooty terns, brown pelicans, and the blackpoll warbler are some of the native and migratory birds that spend their winters on the Tortugas. Bush Key, which lies east of Garden Key, is the world’s nesting center for the sooty tern, a black-and white bird native to the Caribbean Sea and the west and central regions of the Atlantic Ocean. About 100,000 flock to the key between March and September to lay their eggs.

The Tortugas are also the nesting grounds for several endangered sea turtles, including the loggerhead and green species.

The Caribbean-blue waters surrounding the Tortugas are home to a rich underwater ecosystem that includes sharks, sea anemones, tarpons, coral reefs, and some dolphins. Two shipwrecks lie off the coasts of the keys.

The Tortugas, the most inaccessible national park in the United States, is about 100 square miles in size. The tiny landmasses of coral and sand are Garden Key, Bush Key, Middle Key, Loggerhead Key, East Key, Long Key and Hospital Key.

Garden Key, the largest, is home to Fort Jefferson, the largest 19th century citadel in the coastal United States. The 16-million brick fortress has a lighthouse, a moat, about a half-dozen iron cannons, and iron and wooden carts.

The park is not accessible by land. You’ll need to take a ferry or a seaplane. The ferry ticket for overnight stay is $130. It’s much cheaper than the $329 plane ride, but if you can afford the airfare, take it. As the low-flying Cessnas skim the Marquesas Islands on the way to the fort, one can spot shipwrecks, nurse sharks, dolphins, stingrays and loggerhead turtles. The sunken Spanish galleons, the Atocha and the Margarita, are also visible from the seaplanes.

Occasionally, pilots have spotted marijuana bails and Cuban refugees. Migrant smugglers will sometimes drop them off at the Marquesa Keys.

The only camping grounds are on Garden Key. Conditions are rudimentary: toilets, no showers. The park offers about ten camping spots at $3 a night per person. Food is not sold on the island so you need to bring your own. The picnic area has several barbecue grills, and all trash must be carried off the island.

Spanish explorer Juan Ponce de Leon discovered the keys in 1513 and named them Las Tortugas (the turtles) because of the sea turtle population living on them. The islands, dry, barren and devoid of water, were part of the Spanish crown until the Spaniards sold the territory to the United States in 1819.

The first structure built on the islands was the lighthouse on Garden Key, which dates back to 1826. The U.S. government began the construction of Fort Jefferson on Garden Key in 1846 to protect the commercial ships traveling through the Florida Straits from the Mississippi River to the eastern coast of the United States. Lack of funds and an outbreak of yellow fever halted construction for a few years in the mid-1800s.

The first garrison of soldiers arrived in 1861. During the Civil War, Fort Jefferson became the only Union fort in the southern United States. Between 600 and 1,200 soldiers lived at the fort during the war. After weathering several yellow fever epidemics, the army abandoned the citadel in 1873. In 1935, President Franklin D. Roosevelt decreed Fort Jefferson a national monument. Since 1960, when the government formally drew the park limits, the boundaries have changed to protect marine life. The area was elevated to National Park status in 1992.

What’s the first thing that comes to mind when you hear “spring break?” You guessed it. MTV’s sea of beautiful bodies grinding up against each other in a tropical paradise for the fun-loving and rich college student.

But what happens to the rest of us starving college students who eat $3-grilled cheese sandwiches for lunch every single day just because it’s the cheapest thing at the Rat? Lucky for us, we live in the sun and fun capital of the world, where it’s spring break every day. Besides the beach, there are a lot of fun, inexpensive things to do in Miami. Here are a few ideas:

Bicycling

Remember back in the day before your friends got cars and your bike became a garage ornament? Bike riding can be an adventure and a great way to relieve stress in the week off from school.

There are a bunch of places to go bike riding in Miami. One of the best is Everglades National Park’s Shark Valley, on Tamiami Trail about 35 miles into the Glades. What makes this park special are the looping bike trails that are shared by dozens of alligators, which are known to spread themselves out on the asphalt trails and pretend they are speed bumps.

Not to worry, the gators are not interested in bikers, though park visitors are warned to stay about 15 feet away. It takes about two hours to complete this bike path, and a day’s admission costs $8. Bike rentals are available. For more information, call (305) 221-8455.

Kayaking

If you’re in the mood for exercise and need to cool off, kayaking would definitely be the way to go. One of the best places to go kayaking would probably be in Oleta River State Recreational Area in North Miami. There, you can rent a kayak for $8 an hour and paddle through mangrove creeks to surrounding uninhabited islands for bird watching, picnics or…you know…

It costs $4 per vehicle to get into the park, which is located at 3400 N.E. 163rd St. For more information call (305) 934-7516.

Venetian Pool

If it gets really hot this spring break, Venetian Pool would be the first place to go to cool down. Formed from a coral rock quarry in 1923, this 820,000-gallon pool is filled daily with cool spring water, which cascades in its two waterfalls. Characteristic of the pool is also its underwater coral caves and beautiful Venetian-style architecture.

Also very characteristic of the pool is its freezing cold water. But if you get too cold, you can always warm up on the poolside sandy beach area, perfect for tanning. Admission into the park costs $5.50, and it is located on 2701 DeSoto Blvd., near the Biltmore Hotel.

The Youth Fair

It’s that special time of the year again, when you find yourself singing along to that corny commercial jingle “The fair…be there.” Complete with a flea market, expo area, and petting zoos you can smell from a mile away, the Miami-Dade County Fair will be in town from March 14 through the 31st.

Trademark to the fair are its rides, namely the Double Looper, which you can’t leave without riding. Gates are open weekdays from 3 p.m. until 11 p.m., weekends from 10 a.m. to 11 p.m., and on Friday, March 28 from noon to 11 p.m. General admission is $7, and the best bet if you want to ride as many rides as possible would be to buy the P*O*P (pay one price) ticket for $15 to ride all day. The P*O*P tickets are only good for Monday through Friday. The fair will set up at Coral Way and Southwest 107 Avenue.