6.
University Daily Kansan
Friday, April 21, 1978
'Roots' role starts actor toward quality projects
By JERRY JONES
Staff Writer
Is it possible to parlay two nights on television into an entire career? It is if your name is LeVar Burton, and you spent those two nights portraying the young Kunta Kinte in the television mini-series "Roots."
Burton was in Kansas City earlier this week to discuss the educational application of "Foots" with delegates at the annual conference of the Association of Educational Communications and Technology.
The articulate young actor also spent some time discussing the importance of "Roots" to blacks and the current state of television.
Although exhibiting the positive and idealistic attitude any 21 year-old would have when suddenly thrust into a success of the magnitude of "Roots" neither Burton nor his manager, Dellemore Robinson, much less discussions about the good fortune which Mr. Burton's career
When "Roots" was being cast, Burton was one of many undergraduates studying drama at the University of Southern California. The part of Kunta Kinte was a tantalizing plum being dangled before everyone.
"Every kid in America, every black actor in America wanted that role," Burton said. "I was studying drama at UC and I was in the right place at the right time. They came to UC and then I went to Kunta Kinte. Then I went to UC and there." They were looking for Kunta Kinte. Kunta Kinte was there.
Burton, of course, because Kunta Kuna to millions of television viewers, and as a direct result, has lined up nearly a dozen different
project. A week he will begin work in "Battered," a made-for-
television film in which he portrays a husband who beats his wife,
seeks counseling and is rehabilitated. In May he will portray the title role in another television movie, "One In A Million: The Life Story of Lon Fleore," about the Detroit Tiger's outfitier and his struggle to overcome personal adversity.
Burton plans to establish himself in television then move on to feature films. He does not like to use the term "getting out of television," because he does not express the disdain for the medium that many other actors do.
Both Barton and his manager have very strong ideas about television. They concede that there is a negative stigma about the medium, but they do not believe that the medium as a whole should be criticised because of several faulty parts.
"You don't negate television," Robinson cautioned. "There are a lot of quality projects on television."
Sina said she doesn't chase Charlie's anger or shoot it out with Kojak, she said. "so he doesn't get a chance to wear him on out" and "it doesn't do that," she said.
"And that start and end."
His one project far was endowed with enormous quality. His milestone in American television that educated millions of people—black and white—the problems of heritage confronting a vast segment of the population.
"Meatgrinder," Burton added. "They crank out those shows so fast there's very little room for quality."
last there a very little touch to quality.
"And that's all I intend to do, is quality projects."
Burton, in fact, had begun to puzzle about his own background when he was in the sixth grade, long before "Roots" had appeared.
we were studying world history and family trees and family crests," he recalled. "That was what really set me off, the fact that it was a real thing."
"If your name is Burton," his manager added, "or Robinson, like mine is, you know that family crest is not yours. You go to check it back, and you can find a family crest that has Robinson under it, but you know you are not one of them."
Burtton and Robinson praised author Alex Haley because when he traced his own background it went beyond the scope of his personal
Also, the black power movement in the 60s was important. Burton said.
"One half of society kept telling us, 'No, you don't belong here,' " he said.
"And then there was this thing going on inside of us, saying,
Where the hell do I belong?" And then there was one part saying,
"What are you saying?"
We don't go back to where we've never been." Robinson interjected.
UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
Arts & Leisure
"Go back to where you've never been," Roddison jetted. "Yeah," Burton continued, "'Go back to Africa.' And this part, this belligerent past saying, 'Who the hell brought me here in the first place?'
"During the 60's," Robinson said, "I was the roughest, toughest militant going. Up until that point, when I was in college, girls in the dermatology—which was predominantly white. I sort of integrated myself into the team, and I used to say to them, 'Is it strange?' Three hundred years ago my ancestors were running through the jungle saying 'Uga bunga boo,' and look at me now. The 60's gave me a sense of being as a person when I was in college, and I was running through the because it just doesn't work that fast."
'time of the most important points that 'Roots' drove home was that African society was a highly sophisticated culture,' Burton
Although Burton said that he felt like an honorary member of the Kinte family, he remains his own person. He characterizes himself as a non-conformist and says he would like to go to school for the next 20 years studying in all of the world's major universities.
"Ultimately," he declared, "I will write, produce, direct and star in my own films. That's pretty far off right now, but that will be
Feminist collective to present two plays
At the Foot of the Mountain, a unique collective of experimental theatre and ferminist thought, will present two of its early plays on camp's Monday and Tuesday.
The collective, based in Minneapolis, Minn., will present "RAPED, A Woman's Look at Breech's The Exception and the Rule" at 8 p.m. on Hastinger Hall. Tuesday at 8 p.m. at Hastinger, it will perform "The Story of a Mother."
Ritual" in the Big Eight Room of the Kansas Union.
Following, Monday night's performance, the group plans to lead a discussion on rape. And Tuesday at 11 a.m. the group will conduct a workshop on "Theater and
The seven-women collective began performing "RAPED" in July 1976. The play revolves on the notion that clear parallels exist between the slave-master relationship in Bertolt Brecht's one act, "The Exception and the Rule," and the powerful position women in American society, a position carried to its end in the act of rage.
Contrasted with "RAPED," the group's latest work "The Story of a Mother," speaks to issues of vital personal interest to the audience and invites its participation. Drawing from their own relationships with their mothers and daughters, it uses
images, songs and dialogue to create a traitional exploration of the mother-daughter relationship.
At the Foot of the Mountain was founded in the spring of 1974. In that first year the company produced two original scripts by Martin Boesing, "Pimp" and "The Man," with David Trotter's another play by Boesing, "River Journal," a story of a woman's fight against madness.
Other members in the collective are Aurora Bingham, Anne Clark, Cecilia Lee, Jan Magrane, Robyn Samuels and Phyllis Wagner.
Admission is $2.50 at the door. Residence hall students are admitted free.
Portraitist recalls early days
By KATHLEEN CONKEY
Staff Writer
Ovial Hixon still does portrait photography in his basement studio in Lawrence, but the sittings are not what they used to be. Hixon, 93, is nationally known for his celebrity portraits, taken between 1918 and 1930 in his Kansas City, M., studio.
Scattered throughout are photographs of Baby Rose Marie, Jean Harlow, Buddy Rogers, Marie Dressler, Wallace Ried, A1 Jolson and many more dancers, musicians, comics and actors who visited Kansas City in those 12 years.
Those were the years of vaudeville, of the orchestra and Shubert circuits and the Ziegfeld Ballets.
HIXON LEARNED how to take pictures while he worked as a printer's devil on the Richmond Missouriian. He opened his own studio in 1914 in the Baltimore Hotel in Kansas staved, where many touring celebrities staged.
Hixon's home, 2613 Harvard Road, is filled with memorabilia from those times.
He started advertising as a portrait
photographer in the theatre programs. By 1918, he had a steady supply of celebrity clients.
touring shows died out, Hixon sold his studies in Kansas City, Manhattan and Liberty and settled in Lawrence.
He doesn't seem to miss his glamorous customers.
"I enjoy making portraits of ordinary citizens as well as I like theatrical work," he added. "I am a lifelong learner and I go to see the act to get poses and lighting. I was offered a job in Hollywood, but I'd heard enough about people had to work there. I thought I'd rather have my own career."
Staff Photos by ELI REICHMAN
He said the performers were easy to work with. He particularly liked photography of children.
"SHE WAS highly imaginative. Every movement she made was nice," she said.
The cameras Hixon uses now are over 90 years old. He said he did not like the newer camera. "It's hard to tell," he said.
"Those Polaroids are so mechanical. I don't like color photography. It makes
he has built much of the equipment he uses in his darkroom.
The G. Ray Hawkins Gallery in Los Angeles is producing a limited number of portfolios, each with 13 photographs signed and mounted by Hisson. The editions will sell for $1,500 each.
Hinsk's work has been exhibited in Paris. And in 1976, 17 of his celebrity photographs were part of an exhibit in the John F. Kensner and The Performing Arts in Washington, D.C.
Director humble in approach to Verdi's 'Falstaff'
By PAM EKEY
Entertainment editor
Madame Ruth Michaels is taking a humble approach to "Falsafat."
"Falstaff," a comic opera by Giuseppe Verdi, will be presented at 8 tonight and tomorrow night and April 28 and 29 in the University Theatre. Michaelus, a former
opera star with the Bavarian State Opera in Munich, Germany, is the director.
"There are those ambitious directors who think they have to help the great composers such as Mozart and Verdi," she said Wednesday. But the works are already great, there is no need to change them, she said.
"It is tremendous work to fulfill the work as it is done. There is neither the space nor a wall that can be used."
"I THINK I should take a humble answer to the opera." Michaela said.
She said she was making a few changes in the opera, but it would not affect the overall success.
Stell Photo by TIM ASHNER
"Falstaff," an opera by Giuseppe Verdi, will be performed at 8 p.m. tonight and tomorrow and April 28 and 29 in the University theatre. Sarah Johannsen, Austin, Minn., senior (Meg Paige),
Jerlyn Climbs, Deerfield graduate student (Nanetta), Frances Ginsberg, St. Louis senior (Alice Ford) and Kathryn Ganz, Gibbon, nbh., graduate student go over their lines during dress rehearsal Tuesday night.
Merry wives
"There is enough space for a little innovation that Verdi would tolerate—like adding the two little pages—but there is no alienation of the true meaning," she said.
And bring life to an opera is part of Michaelis' role as a director. She said the opera had already been cast and cast members were familiar with the music when she arrived in Lawrence. She has written several months translating the performance into life.
The pages, she said, do not sing or have an important role in the theme of the opera, but as children they add a touch of life to the performance.
THE ACTORS on stage are not puppets, not clowns are said. They are true people whose lives are made up.
"In this nutshell of an opera, every human emotion is there." she said.
The libretto for "Falstaff" is based on Shakespeare's 'The Merry Wives of Wind.'
The performance will be entirely in Italian, but Michaelis said a person didn't have to understand the language to understand the plot of "Falstaff." She said the opera was being performed in Italian because she wanted to keep the production as close as possible to Verdi's original performance.
sor" and passages from "Henry IV." The protagonist, Falstaff, is an obese coward who is known in Shakespeare's plays for such lines as "discretion is the better part of life."
"an *Falstaff*, the protagonist, played by Antonio Perez, professor of voice, attempts to court two women at once. A series of platters, counterplates and disguised encounters keeps the action moving through a series of burglarious events.
ALTHOUGH THIS IS the first time she has directed "Falstaff," Michaelis said she had
"This is not an opera in the usual form or vein with long arias and librettos," she said. "It's more like a quick conversation piece; it's naturalistic."
SHE SAID that "Palestina" was one of
the greatest operas present. "It is a gourmet
movie."
"This is a peak of what could be done in opera."
Tickets for "Falattaf" are on sale in the Murphy Hall box office. All seats are reserved and sell for $3.25, $3.50 or $1.75. Tickets for "Muratti" are on sale or a discount on the other seats.
Michelas said she has directed other Valeen, including "Otello," which was written in Italian.
a special feeling for the opera. During the 20年 she was with the Bavarian State Opera, she sang the dame Quickly in "Falstaff" many times.
UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
Highlights
This Week's
Films
"HARLAN COUNTY U.S.A." an Academy Award-
winning director. "FACE TO FACE," by Ingram Bergman will be
released in the spring of 2015.
"OUTSIDE THE LAW" and "WEST OF ZANZI"
both starring Lon Chaney will be featured
THE LIFE AND DEATH OF FRIDA KAHLO’
and women on women's political art will be shown Tues.
Saturday, 9:30am.
"THE LADY FROM SHANGHAI" with Orson Wattell will be shown Wednesday.
Exhibits
**A** **REINISCENCE OF A JOURNEY TO LITHUMA**
**A** **autobiographical story by Jonas Kane
THE VISUAL ARTS BUILDING will open a new faculty exhibit in the gallery on April 24.
THE 7E7 GALLERY is exhibiting the works of
Marie Renée Robert Brennan from Melbourne Maca.
THE GALLEYBER, 454 New Hampton, in featuring the legendary musician Alan Glenn Leesden and written by eleven Murphy Murguys. (Jim Murphy)
THE KANSAS UNION GALLERY will close the Juvenile Exhibition of Photography on Sunday.
THE LAWRENCE PUBLIC LIBRARY is exhibition art from the Lawrence public schools throughout
THE KENNETH SPENCER RESEARCH LIBRARY is displaying "Linneman, Prince of Naturals," in a new series exploring the lives and Fall of Hitler's Germany" in the Kansas Collection and "Auto-Walks and New Aspects of Scottish History."
THE LAWRENCE ARTS CENTER gallery is show photography by Ruth Branham, jewelry and metals by Grace Carnyom and textiles by Karen Gould through Thursday.
WATSON LIBRARY is exhibiting "Swims in America Life" on the first floor through the beginning of a month.
THE HELEN FORSEMAN SPENCER MUSEUM OF ART is naming paints by Hung Han, "Obaku Zen Painting and Colourography - Photographs from the Ravenado Museum" on Sunday in the Raymond White Graphics Gallery.
Theatre
"*FAILSTAFF*" an open by Guisee Verdi, will be presented at a tonight and tomorrow night and will be accompanied by two guests.
Concerts
MARGIE ADAM will appear at 8 p.m. tomorrow at the Linwood Center, Linwood and Floral streets
THE AMADEA STRING QUARTET will perform
at 3:30 p.m. on Sunday in the University Theatre.
THE KU CONCERT BAND and the KU VARIBYA
day in the University Theatre. Concert will be
held at 7:30 p.m. on Sunday, April 16.