Speaker: Scott Givot, Author

Topic: Mr. Givot will tell us about his experience living and working in Norway and America highlighting his new career as an author of cookbooks and working with Ingrid Espelid Hovig, Norway's answer to Julia Child.

Scott Givot was born in Chicago in the US and has lived in Oslo, Norway for the past five years. He is the author of two books for Weber Barbecue, the first being Sizzle & Swizzle released in 2005 and Barbecue a Go Go to be released in the spring of 2006. The launch of Kjøkkentips, co-authored with Ingrid Espelid Hovig and the Norwegian translation of Sizzle & Swizzle are also expected for the spring of 2006. Prior work includes Kitchen Genius: 500 Tips To Cook Like A Proand Grilling Genius: Smokin’ Hot Tips For Every Day Of The Year for which he has received the honour of “Best Barbecue Book in the World” at the 2005 Gourmand World Cook Book Awards. He has also collaborated on the Dutch barbecue book, Het Barbequeboek (Vooral Voor Mannen), published in 2004 and currently in its second printing. 

Givot has been a member of IACP (The International Association of Culinary Professionals) since 1989 and currently serves as a Director to the Board. He has 25 years experience in the food and hospitality industry in the US, managing private clubs and restaurants.  Givot’s freelance writing includes articles in Italy’s premiere wine magazine, Gambero Rosso and Norways’s lifestyle magazine, Maison. He also participates in culinary related travel programs in Scandinavia. 

Scott will be presenting at Norsk Hostfest in Minot, North Dakota this October.

Caroline Cooney and Jennifer Craigg playing Hedda Gabler from Hedda Gabler and Nora from A Doll's House.

Photos by Justin Christy

Speakers: Actresses and dramaturg from the University of Minnesota BFA Actor Training Program, Caroline Cooney, Amaya Alonso Hallifax and Stephanie Lein Walseth.

Topic: The year 2006 marks the one hundred year anniversary of the death of Henrik Ibsen, a world-renowned Norwegian playwright. In honor of Ibsen's work, hundreds of Ibsen plays and festivals have been taking place in Norway and all over the world. At our November 4th Lakselaget meeting, we will be hosting two student actors and a dramaturg (PhD student historian) from the University of Minnesota Bachelor of Fine Arts (BFA) Actor Training Program to educate us about the life of Henrik Ibsen and to perform scenes from Hedda Gabler, one of Ibsen's most famous plays. The BFA Actor Training Program will be performing Hedda Gabler and A Doll's House in rotation from Oct. 26th through Nov. 11th. You can find more information about the performances at: www.theatre.umn.edu. To find out about other Ibsen events in the midwest go to www.ibsenmidwest.org. Check out our Message Board for the Augsburg Ibsen Festival schedule.

Hedda Gabler follows the tale of a woman who finds herself stranded in a seemingly ordinary but dangerously imbalanced domestic system. Employing methods that virtually defined the modern psychological drama, Ibsen stealthily reveals the bitter conflicts and thwarted longings that lie just below the "civilized" transactions of daily life. It is our hope that many of you will also attend a performance of Hedda Gabler with other Lakselaget members on Friday, November 3rd at 8:00pm at the Rarig Center on the Minneapolis Campus. Tickets cost $12.00 in advance and $14.00 at the door, but if we can get a group of 15 or more to attend, we can get a group discount of $7.00 a person. Please contact Karin O. Holt at karinoholt@hotmail.com by Monday, Oct. 30th to reserve tickets for you or any of your friends or family members who would like to attend. By seeing the performance in advance, we hope that our November 4th meeting can be a "round table" discussion where we compare our impressions of Ibsen's work.

Introduced seven years ago, the BFA Actor Training Program has attracted students from across the nation. Designed to give students a conservatory-type education, the BFA program gives students a comprehensive training process as well as a liberal arts background. During their four years working with the program, students are given the opportunity to work with a variety of well-known artists and educators, including Steve Cardamone, director of A Doll's House, and Daisy Walker, director of Hedda Gabler. Culminating with the opportunity to audition for roles in the Gutherie Theater's Mainstage Season, the program not only provides students with a well-rounded education, but also practical real life experience.

Actress Caroline Cooney ("Hedda Gabler"): Caroline is from Golden Valley, MN. She is a Senior in the University of Minnesota/Guthrie Theater BFA Actor Training Program. Upon graduation she hopes to pursue a career in stage and film.

Actress Amaya Alonso Hallifax ("Mrs. Elvsted"): Amaya is in her fourth year in the University of Minnesota/Guthrie Theater BFA Actor Training Program. Originally from California, Amaya has learned to appreciate Minnesota’s winters. However, after her graduation in May she intends to head back west and continue pursuing a career in regional theatre.

Dramaturg Stephanie Lein Walseth is a first year MA/PhD student in Theatre
Historiography at the University. She received her undergraduate degree in Theatre from Augsburg College, and in the past six years she has worked in both the production and administrative aspects of professional theater, including acting, directing, dramaturging, stage managing, grantwriting, and as the Managing Director for Mu Performing Arts, the Twin Cities pan-Asian theater and taiko drumming company.

Speaker: Kathleen Stokker

Topic: Keeping Christmas - Professor Stokker will educate us about Christmas traditions in Norway and will present a slide show presentation.

Kathleen Stokker (Professor of Norwegian at Luther College where she has taught since 1978) received her PhD in Scandinavian Studies from the University of Wisconsin.  The co-author (with Odd Haddal) of a language textbook, she is primarily a scholar of folklore.  Her book Folklore Fights the Nazis  (UWiscPress, 1996) discusses the Norwegians' use of humor during their World War II occupation by Hitler's forces, and Keeping Christmas (MinnHistSoc, 2000) traces the origin, meaning, and transformation of Norwegian and Norwegian American yuletide customs. Most recently she has written the Norway chapter of the four volume Greenwood Encyclopedia of World Folklore and Folklife (2005), and has just completed a book on Norwegian and Norwegian-American folk medicine (Remedies and Rituals, forthcoming in spring 2007 from Minnesota Historical Society Press).  Her articles have appeared in The Journal of American Folklore; Humor, the International Journal of Humor Research; The Journal of Popular Culture; Arv, the Scandinavian Yearbook of Folklore; and Scandinavian Studies.  In February 2005 the Norwegian government presented Stokker with the St. Olav Medal for "service and achievements in strengthening the bonds between Norway and Norwegian-Americans."  This past summer she had the private audience with the king that accompanies that honor.

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June 2, 2007