Robin Hood is focus of world conference

The conference, titled Playing with Transgression: Cultural Transformations of Robin Hood, will feature panels of speakers hand-picked for their expertise on various aspects of the story, including contemporary angles. Stephen Knight, a British expert featured on A&E's "Biography," will talk about the future of Robin Hood studies. R.B. Dobson, from Cambridge, England, will talk about the genesis of a popular hero. Movies, an exhibit of Robin Hood collectibles, and music also will be featured.

Whether they feature an arrow-slinging outlaw, an incompetent, seasick sailor, or a waitress on a hair-raising, cross-country trip behind the wheel of a convertible, all Robin Hood stories claim a common hero: "the outlaw who subverts an ignorant and corrupt officialdom," says Alan Lupack, curator of the University's Robbins Library and a coordinator of the conference.

This theme is featured in hundreds of versions of the story in plays, books, and movies, right up to modern-day, Hollywood adaptations as diverse as Thelma & Louise and Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid. Indeed, one of the enduring traits of the Robin Hood tale is the character's ability to morph from story to story, taking on disguises or changing sex, says Thomas Hahn, a conference organizer and professor of English at Rochester.

Sponsors include the College Dean's Office, the English department, Medieval House, Rush Rhees Library, Robbins Library, the history department, the University Committee on Interdisciplinary Study, and the Protocluster for Premodern Studies.

Conference events include:

• Fellow Traveller: 1:30 p.m., Thursday, October 16, Gowen Room, Wilson Commons. This award-winning BBC film tells the story of American Jewish actors and writers who were blacklisted in the McCarthy era. One flees to England and creates the popular Robin Hood television series. Michael Eaton, who wrote the screenplay, will attend the conference.

• Robin Hood in Music: 8 p.m., Thursday, October 16, Interfaith Chapel. Eastman School of Music students will perform works with Robin Hood and other outlaw themes, including the medieval pastourelle Robin et Marion; Robin Hood madrigals, ayres, and rounds; excerpts from operas and operettas; broadside ballads; and excerpts from Castil-Blaze's Robin des bois, a work of the 1820s that set the music of Weber's Der Freischutz to an entirely new text.

• Robin Hood: An International Exhibition: Opening 8 p.m., Friday, October 17 (runs until January 15), in main foyer and Robbins Library of Rush Rhees Library. Curator Kevin Carpenter will be on hand at the opening. This is the exhibition's only North American installation of art, books, and collectibles (including movie posters, shakers, games, toys, and thimbles) that take Robin Hood as their theme.

• Performance of Robin Hood ballads in America: 9 p.m., Friday, October 17, Welles-Brown Room of Rush Rhees Library. James Kimball, from the School of Performing Arts at SUNY College at Geneseo, will perform and discuss American ballads with a Robin Hood theme.

• Showing of Robin Hood Jr.: 4:30 p.m., Saturday, October 18, Hoyt Hall. This rarely seen 1923 juvenile film was a tribute to the classic 1922 Douglas Fairbanks version.

Admission: Robin Hood International Exhibition is free. Single event: $3; full day: $10. For more information, call x5-0110