Mondav. February 26, 1973
University Daily Kansan
5
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odselman
osner
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dreth
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Johnny, Ivan Thomas, Chooses Values of a Modern Black Society
"Ensemble in Black," "A Black Clown," and "We Own the Night," Black Theatre productions
Black Is Bitter and Sweet
By ZAHID IQBAL Kansan Reviewer
"Ensemble in Black," a University of Kansas Experimental Theatre production leaves one with a deep sense of disappointment that it couldn't have lasted longer.
The "evening of plays and entertainment" is meant for strong stomachs, and could leave the spectator somewhat disturbed afterwards. That the blacks have suffered in this "land of the free" is something everybody knows, but being reminded about that is another thing altogether.
The playwright's message in each of the three pieces presented may, therefore, be a bit disturbing to those non-black spectators who were not aware of last generations with regard to the Negro.
Stoe's "Uncle Tom's Cabin" would be so much more acceptable to many (it was never supposed to change) Until the 1920s Blacks could not stage plays that contradicted the white viewpoint. It was in the 1930s that black plays came out openly with complaint for
A play that moves its audience is a play well done. The American Negro is, after all searching for an identity. Black theatre is part of his seeking.
Langston Hughes was one of the playwrights who broke away from the concept of the shuffling, chicken-stealing Negro. His "Don't You Want To Be Free," produced by the Harlem Suitcase Theatre may have been prompted by his impatience with his own people, and their acceptance of a second-class status in a "free" country.
One of the plays now being presented is a Hughes play, and is followed by a "poem" by that playwright, "A Black Clown." The New York Night," called is "We Own The Night."
"A Soul Gone Home" is frank and brutal under each laugh line. A woman is lamenting the loss of her son, who lies still and lifeless, until to be taken away.
"Come back from the dead and speak to your poor Mama," she walls. To her consternation, her son does return from the death to blame her for all the things she has done for her husband for "coming into the world hungry and going out the same way," he says.
He should have remained dead. His mother is quite content to labor under the white man, figuratively and in bed. Before they have gone very deep into their respective philosophies, the ambulance arrives, and he is carried away.
Cheryl Beauty, Kansas City M., senior, plays the mother well, despite distractions from the audience. Mitchell Hollis, Kansas City, Kan, sophomore, succeeds in being slightly more detached from the audience, slightly because he thinks he's really dead.
"A Black Clown" is Hughes' protest against the Negro-minstrel-clown image of white entertainers through the 19th century. One can understand his bitterness. Not only were whites exploiting this image in the Negro entertainers' mold, but they were invading themselves and being invaded themselves.
It was not till the 1890s that plays were written which did not portray the Negro this way. The African people of South America
AURH Intervention
In his hands is the instrument of the Revolution, a gun. His emancipation is not far off. all he has to do is destroy the weak links in the chain, the cringing "nigger" of
(Continued from page 1)
The servile Negro is gone. In his search
found a new parish. He is black, and proud.
He is the servile Negro.
Trip To Coontown) but the image had been so firmly implanted over a hundred years that Hughes found fit to protest even in the 1930s.
In the case of Johnny, in "We Own The Night," this happens to be his mother. Johnny is dying but the Revolution must go forward because there's a weakness weak link in the chain.
Mitchell Hollis is excellent in his delivery of the monologue in which he complains that "from Africa to Georgia it only a clown." He also implies that he's walking away, not a black clown but "a man."
The Alpha Phi sorority and the Sigma Phi Epsilon fraternity covered about 50 of the 80 blocks where no block worker had been assigned.
Marcum said blockworkers covered all but about 30 blocks in Lawrence Sunday. The rest would be covered today and Tuesday, he said.
including the Source Book Library on Women, a 50-volume history of the women's suffrage movement. Other materials in the Source Book Library include pamphlets and government documents.
The number of promotional packets returned accounted for about one-sixth of all the sales in collecting money. The remaining packets will probably be turned in by the end of the week. Marcum said Sunday. He added that the packets should be sent to businesses in about two weeks.
Taylor explained Friday about some of the vouchers the AURH has called
The mood changes with Garret's "We
are in a town that is as new a people, a new
setting that we see."
Sunday's total will be turned into the state headquarters for the Heart Association today and will be updated as more money is collected, he said.
About $2,100 was collected by Sunday 650 Douglas County volunteers for the Heart Association's fund drive, according to Larry Marcum, chairman of the drive. Sunday was proclaimed National Heart Sunday by the association.
$2,100 Collected For Heart Fund By Volunteers
The goal for Douglas County is $12,000.
Marcum said that Sandusky collections
include more than 8,000 fish.
Heart Fund contributions will come in all year round, Marcum said.
questionable. The vouchers are paid from the woman's residence in the library accts and sent to her office.
AURH ALLEGED that about 60 voucherers from the women's residence hall account were questionable because the expenditures didn't seem to be in the spirit of the library fund and weren't appropriate for residence halls.
The excellence of the direction, the lighting and the actors is really brought home in this piece. The use of piston is a bit questionable, but the general effect is so overpowering that this can be easily overlooked.
One of the questioned expenditures concerned a $33.99 bill to Hixon Studio and Camera Shop in September 1791 for photography work done for a resident assistant at GSP. The bill was paid from the women's residence hall account.
The cash balance of the account as of
June 30, 1972, was $9,834.67, $12,120.30 was added to the account in fiscal 1972, and then it was transferred from the account, according to Beiser.
Sources of funds in fiscal 1972 were:
Oliver, *$38*, Lewis, *$25*, Corbin, *$169*;
GSP, *Hushing*, Husinger, *scholarship*
, *$12*, and unknown sources, *$11*.
Beisner said
A total of $768.21 was spent on books for the career library, making a total of $1,098.85 from the residence hall account spent on books and magazines.
The excitement and tension of an attack by the "pigs" is amply conveyed, and the piece receives really admirable support from Johnny, Lait JR., and Billy Joe, played by Nathaniel Foster. The warm-troffal Almed KK, Kansas City, Mo., junior and Dwight Thomas, Lawrence sophomore.
The guns and the Revolution are symbolic. Of course.
From Sept. 3, 1971, to Nov. 25, 1972 $332.64 was spent on magazines for the Women's Resource Library from the hall library account.
Taylor said the expenditure was legitimate because the resident assistant must have had the photograph put up in the residence hall.
She has never turned down a request for
from the women's residence hall library.
"In fact, I have simply paid any invoice with, or without a request," Taylor says.
Taylor said she believed all of the expenditures were legitimate and she had complaints on her administration of records until the recent allegations by AURH.
Cheryl Beatty plays a very realistic mother, Costumes and makeup help the overall impression of reality, and set alterations are smoothly effected between pieces. The background scenery is authentic, though an aerosol spray prop in the first piece is not, at least for something written a quarter-century ago.
People who are familiar with the nature—and limitations-of small experimental theatre productions will find "Black Encounters an immensely rewarding experience.
Although Oklahoma City is not one of the major centers of music in the United States, the residents of that city are fortunate enough to have a professional orchestra of some note in their vicinity. However, it seems that the Oklahoma City Symphony Orchestra is not unlike other orchestras in smaller metropolitan areas.
The University of Kansas Iranian Student Association is working with a group of KU professors to protest conditions in Iran, including the Mohammad Teheran junior, said recently.
Profs Protest Iranian Politics
Donald Brownstein, assistant professor of philosophy, said that he had not received any replies to his letters, but that he had been writing at the beginning of this semester.
To begin with, the orchestra itself is rather small by comparison to those in major cities. This could be either from a lack of competent musicians in the area, or because of the limited program the orchestra played is any indication, the managers of the organization must feel compelled to stick to the performance of "war-horses" (pieces which have been quite popular over the years) in order to keep the seat at their concerts filled.
"These professors are sensitive to the problem of pressure in our classrooms," Saribahalamil
He said the professors had written letters that informed him of the treatment of political prisoners.
Potential High, Performance Staid In Oklahoma City Symphony Concert
Sarajeghian said that Iranian students returning to their country who were known to be members of the Iranian Student Organization might be taken as political prisoners.
"We want to support these students even though they aren't 'citizens of this country'. Brownstein said. "It's really怕 conditions little is known about the conditions in Iran."
By ROGER OELSCHLAGER Kansan Reviewer
Whether or not these factors were of great influence, this reviewer went away from the concert feeling that something very good had been missed. The show now has stopped just short of excellence.
"The pressure of the government goes so far as to declare the International Iranian Student Association illegal and to affix a flag in front of their members who return to Iran," he said.
With two exceptions (an encore of "The Star Spangled Banner" and another encore), the program for this KU Concert Course attraction featured compositions of a romantic nature. The first, Brahms' *Symphony No. 2* was slightly lacking in warmth of tone color (possibly attributable to the small size of the orchestra) although it was otherwise well done. Symphony No. 2 by John Pozdo (presently chairman of the Department of Music Theory and Composition here at KU) was next on the press list. The movement work was skillfully played, with the wind and brass instruments showing particular prowess.
After intermission, the tuneful Taskalchikov Symphony No. 4 floated out into the auditorium. Here, as in the Podzio piece, it was the wind and brass players who performed it, although in places they highlighted too much and masked the sound of the strings.
After a finale whose tempo toward the end somewhat weakened the clarity of Tschaikovsky's orchestra, the band moved to the music Guy Fraser Harrison announced that as an encore the Air for the G String by J.B.Sach would be played. The strings did an excellent rendition of this piece, which was unusual contrast from the rest of the program.
Once again the audience applauded warmly, but now 'new several degrees cooler than before. Unexpectedly, the orchestra roared off into a second encore, Wagner's Prelude to Act III from the opera Lehongrin. Besides ruining the tranquil mood which the Bach piece created, this excerpt was too similar in effect to the
finale movement of the Tschakovsky symphony, and thus came as little more than a showy piece which did not add any depth to the concert.
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Perhaps this reviewer expected too much, but there is still the feeling that the orchestra could have presented more than a collection of nice sounds.
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