6
Fridav. October 28,1977
University Daily Kansan
Paperbacks thrill, amuse
By the Kansan entertainment staff
Here are brief glimpses of some of the recent novels available in paperback:
Leen Liedon's CATCH A FALLING SPY (Pocket, $1.95) Deignis is back, and that will be good news for some readers, even though it is sometimes a bit hard to figure what is going on in cooperation with the CIA in work out an international mess.
Paul E. Erdman'S THE SILVER BEARS (Pocket, $2.25). All about a currency swindle, set off when a Mafia chief buys a Swiss bank. Involved in this one are the Mafia, a Middle Eastern big shot, an Italian ranger, a French bounty hunter's wife and a very rich man. Movie-bound.
Clive Cusker's RAISE THE TITANIC! (Bantam, $2.25). Set in 1897, 75 years after the great ship went down, this is a story of scientists involved in the Sicilian Project, a defense network, who need an element called byanium, which unfortunately exists only in the hold of the Titanic. So naturally a ship to be commissioned to raise the Titanic.
Frances Adrian's DOUBLE SHADOW
Frances Adrian is the name of a girl left perillessly by her father, who asks in
KANSAN Off the Shelf
his legacy that she go to Spain to become a governess at the home of a wealthy stranger. She is robbed and actually kissed by a bandit chieftain — and thus love is born
Francine du Plessis Gray's LOVERS AND TYRANTS (Pocket, $1.95). Billed as erotic, philosophical and religious, about a heroine, Stephanie, who travels from Paris to New York to the American West to find life. A Book-of-the-Month Club selection.
Judith Rossner's **LOOKING FOR MGR,GOOBJOAR** (Pocket, $2.50). Reprint of a volume designed to cash in on the new movie, and there's Diane Keaton right on the cover. The movie climaxes in boxing, cutting bark, looking for thiefs. And she gets them. Grimmy and powerful.
New nonfiction paperback titles:
Sylie Lehk 'ASTROLOGY AND LOVE'
Bachlein lehk 'a better loy by following your horoscope
Mel Cebulah'S THE GROSSSEST BOOK OF WORLD RECORDS Pocket, $1.50). All about collections of body hair, dead animals and living with pigs.
George Leonard's *SOMEBODY ELSE IS THE MOON* (Pocket, $1.90). Proof of the cover illustration by J.K. Rowling.
John Gibbin's FORECASTS FAMINES AND FREEZES (Pocket, $1.75). About weather forecasting, its limitations, its capabilities and what the future portends.
Del Martin's BATTERED WIVES
who are beaten up by their natives.
Edmund Van Deusen's ASTROGENETICS (Pocket, $1.75). About how both genes and your season of birth can influence your life.
Edward Butscher'S SLYIVA PLATH:
METHOD AND MADNESS (Pocket, $2.50).
huge biography of the author of "The Bell
Songs" and "Love Letters," which relied on
letters, books and interviews.
UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
Arts & Leisure
'Foreign Land' has no answers
By JERRY SASS
Staff Writer
Not every playwright can watch his play so all the way from the mind to the stave.
Stan Haehl, Lawrence senior, has been involved in every step of the production of his book, *A Celebration of Life*.
Haehl, 27, a theatre major, started to write the play a year and a half ago.
"The cast helped with some of the in-
terpretations, he said. "Essentially, it a
play that I did."
The play is currently in production at the William Ige Theatre in Murphy Hall. It is the University of Kansas entry in the 1978 original adaptation of the American play *The Theatre For Beauty*.
"It's scary, but exciting," Haeli said recently. "It has all happened so quickly. We started auditions before I had even completed the second draft of the script."
"TTS A STORY of intimacy and the failure of a people to achieve it. The audience will be surprised."
Haehl said there had been no problems of interpretation between the director and
"If I have to explain every facet of the production, then I have failed," he said. "Luckily, the director's interpretations been distinct, but about the same as mine."
"He refers all script changes to me for final approval."
Robert Finday, professor of speech and drama, is the play director. He is entitled "A Story About Happiness."
"Where 'Fencers' was a light comedy,
"In This Foreign Land is sadder and more
mournful."
Findlay said the play was not designed to be social commentary.
"where, we are now," he said. "We have to ask why the principal characters don't get together. Their relationships matter." In a marriage of
"WE ARE LEFT to think that it just comes down to a simple failure of nerve."
The play is set in a Midwestern university drama group and Findlay said Haebh had drawn on his experience for some of the drama.
"But the play is not autobiographical."
Pindlay说， "We may be able to recognize
Haeli said, "People may think they recognize the characters, but ultimately, the play comes only from my mind, though I know why. And who has gone through a similar experience."
"In This Foreign Land" will be presented at 8 a.m. nightly through Nov. 2 and on Nov. 4. 5. Tickets, available at the box office in Murphy Hall, are free to KU students.
Symphony opens Sunday
A sordid atmosphere of crime mixed with erotism and barbarism is the theme of the "Miraculous Mandarin" suite, which will open the RU Symphony Orchestra concert at 3:10 Sunday afternoon in the University Theatre.
The ballet-pantomime, on base by Melchior Longel, was written by Hungarian composer Bela Barna in 1919. The suite is violent and extroverted. It falls under the broad definition of expressionism — illness inner conflicts that are represented ex-
EUROPEAN ART was preoccupied with inhuman horrors and apocalyptic monsters. No method was too garrish to draw attention to imminent catastrophe. The new values in art stressed the surprising, the colorful and the grotesque. Swift transitions, opulent forms, harsh contrasts and disarray lights reflected the emotional tension of the period.
In the musical words in 1918 there were purges, uneasiness and new plans. The Hamburg Empire had collapsed. Europe was shattered, embittered and desperate after World War I. Hungary was proclaimed a republic, but the internal situation there grew worse because of devaluation of the currency, revolutionary outbreaks and pressure by foreign armies.
The action in Bartok's work takes place in a flophouse. Three
tramps persuade a prostitute to lure passars-by inlude. Her dances in front of elk heads and a shy young woman falls into a trampoline thrown back onto the street.
The third dance attracts an exotic character — the mandarin. It is entranced by the girl's seductive gestures and soon chases after the terrified girl. The tramps smother, stab and hang the mandarin, but he will not die. The prostitute, now unfaired, orders that the mandarin be cut down. They embrace. The mandarin starts bleeding and dies.
THE DEMONIC theme of love and death is reflected in Bartok's dramatic, rhythmic gymnastism. Stacked and grating harmonies mingle with syncopephed, repetitive rhythms to create a tension that balances on the barbary end.
the symphony orchestra, under the direction of Geoge Lawner, also will feature Jey Meyerperk, a professional guitarist in what is perhaps the most famous of classical guitar concertos — Joaquin Rodriguez's "Concierto de Aranuz."
Conterating roar in a Spanish style characterization that work. An especially beautiful second movement contains a haunting English song with the same lyrical structure.
Béthevon a Symphony No. 3 in F-E flat Major ('Protea') closes
concert and Proea' is a landmark work in the history of
symphony, as well as one of the earliest works by Béthevon.
n=2
The phosphorous dot
by Dale Gadd.
Since the Federal Communications Commission gave the go-ahead to commercial television in 1982, TV has had 25 years to mature. It seems strange then that today's critics, both professional and armchair varieties, have attached the label, "The Golden Age of Television," to the period when the medium was in diapers.
"The Golden Age" — it seems everything has a golden age. TV's Golden Age refers to the early and mid-fifties when the mainstay of prime time programming was live drama. Live drama meant that the viewer saw the drama on the television screen simultaneously with the production of the drama in the network studio.
THE WORKSKED did not air dramas live because it was the best way to produce dramatic programs — they did it because it was the only way to produce dramatic programs. Day-to-day use of 35mm film was considered too costly and too complex. The "home movie" image of 16mm film had to be overcome and the use of 18mm in the early 96s was used more widely. As with most practical use until the end of the decade. Consequently, the industry produced all of the early television programs live.
The limitations of a live production put certain restrictions upon the production of a drama. All of the cameras had to be connected to the control room an umbilical cord, and all areas of the production set had to be reached by the cameras. The cameras had to be to shot all in one place, usually with the sound stage used as a studio in the network headquarters in New York City.
WHEN THE entire production had to be done from one stage, it was impossible to have the action sequences that we are accustomed to today. The heroes of the early Fifties could not stroll along the beach, chase the bad guys through the city streets or hold interesting conversations in innerspaces like hotels, theaters, bars, restaurants, parks or zoos.
It was only natural, then, that the conflicts in the dramas were psychological rather than physical. Because the writer
could not use any action that would require the actor to leave the stage, the conflict had to be revealed through dialogue.
Consequently, the early television dramas took on the look of a traditional play produced in the legitimate theater. In fact, television drama dealt with many of the same topics as theatre, but its primary relationship is human existence and the human condition.
In terms of audience size, a few of the outstanding efforts were able to draw sizeable numbers. But the week-to-week products of the dramatic series such as "Studio One" or "Playhouse 90" did not consistently draw ratings that would allow one to call those series any more successful than many of the offerings on today's television schedules.
THE TERM "Golden Age" suggests that television consistently earned high marks for the quality of the dramas offered by network executives. The network was producing over 20 hours of original programming and there were relatively few dramas that equated the stature of Chayefaly's "Marry" or Rod Sterling's "Requiem for a Heavenly Mother" was much mediocre drama with profound importance of brilliant characters.
AND WHEN shows like "Dragnet," which used film to take the action outside the studio into the "real" world, came along, the audience began turning away from the heady tonics of live drama.
None of this is meant to detract from the success of some of the early dramas. However, the term "Golden Age" suggests that the period delivered more high quality entertainment than today's television — and that is not true.
TRIVIA CORNER. Last week's question was easy. The charter boat on "Gilligan's Island" was the S.S. Minnow. Speaking of boats, what was the name of the riverboat on the western series of the same name — "Riverboat?"
Dale Gadd is an associate professor of radio, television and film.
Next week I will present a case for calling today's shows the "Golden Age of Television."
UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
Highlights
This Week's
"IN THIS FOREIGN LAND" a new play by Stan Haileh, will be presented on August 2, Nov. 4 and Nov. 5 at S the William Inghe Theatre in Murphy Hall. KU students are admitted
THEATER
The SEEM-TO-BE PLAYERS will present "The Masks" and "The Adventures of Nymf the Spirte, Part 41" at 1:30 p.m. Saturday at the Lawrence Arts Center, Mindtown and Vernort
The Lawrence Community Theatre presents "THE BAT" by Mary Roberts Rinehart and Avery Hopwood at 8 p.m. tomorrow and Sunday at the Laurence Arts
Hashinger Theatre presents "ONCE UPON A MATTRESS" at 8 p.m. Nov. 3, 4 and 5 at 2 p.m. Nov. 6. A 50 cent donation is requested.
CONCERTS
GEORGE CARLIN will appear at 8 p.m. today in Doohock Auditorium.
The CONCERT CHORALE will perform at Bocok clock tonight in Swarthout Hall Riall in Manchester.
ine UNIVERSITY SYMPHONY OR CHESTRA will present a concert at 3:30 p.m. Sunday in the University Theatre in Murphy Hall.
MARGARET LING will present a harp
recalcit at 8 p.m. Monday in Baworth Inclure
LING
The UNIVERSITY SINGERS are to perform at 8 p.m. Wednesday in Swarthout Recital
I
MACH ONE, the U.S. Air Force rock music group, will perform at 7.30 tomorrow evening in the Bathroom of the Kansas Union. Free admission is available at Kie's, the SUA or the Air Force ROTC Office.
NIGHTCLUBS
At PAUL GRAY'S JAZZ PLACE, 926
Massachusetts St.; Paul Gray and the Gasite
Gang, with Claude "Fiddier" Williams, will
play tonight or tomorrow night.
At the LAWRENCE OPERA House, 644 Massachusetts St. Built, a rock group from Boulder, Colt., will perform on the main stage at 8 tonight. Tree Frog's last appearance in Lawrence this year will begin on the main stage at 8 tomorrow night. The Nairobi Trio, with Johnny Moore on drums, will perform tonight and tomorrow night in the 17th Spirit balcony of the Eldorado Theater Tuesday and Wednesday nights. J. T. Cooke, a rock group, will be on the main stage Wednesday and Thursday nights. Performances begin around 9 o'clock each night.
At the OFF-PTHE-WALL HALL, 737 New
Hampshire St. The Kansas Panther Gen-
icent Gail will be in attendance.
AT J. WATSON'S, ninth and Iowa streets:
Saturday ninth to play tonight
and to boream on Sunday
drums allowed—will be held from 7:30 to midnight Wednesday.
LECTURES
FILMS
ED SANDERS, author of "The Family," will read from his works in progress at 8 p.m. Monday in the Jayhawk Room of the Kansas Union.
lilia Warner et al. *S EVEN BATTERY* {wildlife
lia illumination} **S EVEN BATTERY** {wildlife
lia illumination}
"THE BLOB," with Steve McQueen and "BETTY BOO'S HALLOWEEN PARTY" are scheduled for 2:30 p.m. Sunday, (SUA, 75 cents).
"BRIDE OF FRANKENSTEIN," with Boris Karloff, and "THE INVISIBLE MAN," with Claude Rains, will be shown at 7.30 p.m. Monday, (SUA,$1)
"AIDIE PHILLIPINE" and "BLUE JEANS," both directed by Jacques Rozier, will be shown at 7:30 p.m. Wednesday (SUA,
$1)
Two 1950s films, "THE GIRL CAN'T HELP IT," with Jane Manfield, Eddie Cochran and Fate Domo, and "THE COOL AND THE HOT," for the 7:30 p.m. Thursday. (SUA.$1)
Unless otherwise noted, all SUA films are in Woodford Auditorium of the Kansas