Friday, March 29, 1974
University Daily Kansan
7
Chekhov Play a Thoughtful Montage
By DON CREACH
Kansan Reviewer
Forgive me if I sound like an English major. It is not often that a play gives me the impression of a production of *Sisters*, which will be presented at 8 p.m. today through April 1 in the Experimental Theatre, is so full of ideas and characters that my imagination seems to about them about the production.
But the fact that I was able to concentrate so much on the text means that any faults in it cannot be ignored.
"THREE SISTERS" is a long, hard play. There no way around it. There are no special characters to represent the character is important and multidimensional. Nearly every one has a complex story which comes out gradually. Sometimes they interact and sometimes they're separate.
If these attempts at relief, comic and otherwise, are enough to prolong your attention span, you will be treated to some bizarre sounds of some very interesting characters.
There are almost always at least two or three different stories going on at once on
the stage. Director Spencer Golub has seen to it that the focus is clear as it shifts from one story to another. The stage picture that the actors make shows nearly constant activity on different parts of the stage, but the actors make one situation predominate.
As the focus jumps from situation to situation, it becomes obvious that this is a hard play, not only for the cast and crew, but for the audience. They have several stories and characters to keep straight in mind. The characters' names are hard for me to keep straight, even after taking 17 hours of Russian.
Mike Wise, graduate student, uses in-flection, pace and gesture effectively and professionally. Steve Gilham, Pratt graduate student, portrays an ennoble, charming, charismatic character. M.Rapport, Lawrence graduate student, elicits understanding and appreciation for the character he portrays. Nancy L. Schneider, Travis, Calif., senior, convincingly depicts her character's unpredictability and handling of complexities of the situation.
THEERE ARE SOME breaks in the straight drama that give the audience a chance for less strenuous concentration. There are some tight little comic bits, some nice instrumental music and some very fine choreography by Richard Moses. There are
There are several other noteworthy performances and no spectacularly weak ones. Although some weren't as consistent as others, it's unfair to concern them on the
also some breaks from realism that sometimes seemed a bit contrived.
basis of a final dress rehearsal performance.
MOST OF THESE characters express the plight of the Russian aristocracy at the turn of the century. During this time of abrupt change, their despair changes from "we know a lot that isn't any use" to "nobody knows anything."
Surprisingly, with all their different stories, the characters don't take part in a story. But there is a lot of interrelation between their actions and interrelations are often expressed indirectly by having several characters use the same phrase, such as "it makes no difference."
But I'm sounding like an English major. You don't have to approach the play from that standpoint to get a lot of ideas and enjoyment from it. But if you want to, you can do much of it. You can forgive it if it sounds like you could read for an English class.
KU Crowd Hoots to Mountain Music
By JAY GLICK
Kannan Reviewer
University of Kansas students responded with whoops and hollers to the pickin' and strummin' as Hoch Auditorium took on an mountain Medicine Show Wednesday night.
The Medicine Show was part of the Festival of the Arts. Three facets of country music—the brand of music currently fascinating college students—were explored excellently by three of the four groups of musicians in the show.
Festival of Arts Goes Country Style
THE MODERATOR, who tried to fill the time between bands with cheap humor, ended up exchanging insults with a very hostile audience. The moderator lost badly.
Sam 'Catfish' Routh, the only performer actually from the Ozarks, provided good vocal and guitar work but was most impressive in the tune in which he used the mountain dulcimer. However, he was the weakest act in the line-up.
Routh, who opened the concert, performed several songs immediately before Michael Murphy set. Routh's preceding performance was in the audience the audience back down after Country
Gazette so Murphey could again build them up for the finale.
THE PROBLEM WITH using Routh as the crash before the comeback was a lot of people had already crashed — it was nearly midnight—and didn't 'stay for Murphy's'
Then there was the New Grass Revival. They were four long-handed musicians who played on instruments not known to us.
Sam Bush's string-breaking mandolin riffs, teamed with Courtesy Johnson's fivestring banjo picking, brought screams and anlaise from the audience.
THE NEW GRASS REVIVAL steamed through their last number, a tune they called "Orange Blossom Booge Woooge" - a progressive adaptation of "Orange Blossom Special" with Sam Hahk making the fiddle响ly, the rest of the boys picked alloy.
former boundaries of bluegrass music and emerges with an innovative, progressive
showed the audience what the dobro could sound like.
EVERY MEMBER OF the Gazette was accomplished on his instrument. At one point, Barber was going to trade in his bass guitar and started way it started out. Since Barber didn't know the chords on the guitar, White had to chord on the guitar with his left hand and bow the fiddle with his right, while Berlin did the fiddle on the fiddle and picked the guitar.
After the New Grass Revival's encore, the curtain opened on four musicians who were unmistakably farmbirds. Their music was what people used to call hillbilly music—down-home, traditional blackgrass by any other name. They were Country Gazette bandleader Fiddie, Roger Bush on string bass, Roland Hilleman on guitar and Alan Munde on banjo.
Curtis Burch, the band's guitarist, also fine flat-pick work with the guitar and
were strangely titled tunes: "No Matter How Fast a Fish Swims, He Never Sweats," "Silly Goodin is a Goodin" and "Don't Let Your Deal Go Down."
Michael Murphy, one of the purveyors of "Texas Music"—sometimes called the Austin Sound—played to a small audience those who stayed, it was worth the wait.
Country Gazette did such standard bluegrass songs as Earl Scruggs' "Down the River" and "Strawberry Blossom."
Book Has More Than A Pinch of Psychedelic
Murphys' music is heavy electric; it was more country-rock than rock 'n' roll.
By R. A. ALTMAN
Kansan Reviewer
Why read yet another book about drugs? My first reaction was to ignore "Psychedelic Drugs," but the author of the forward, Humphrey Osmond, caught my eye. Osmond, director of the Bureau of Research in Neurology and Psychiatry at Princeton, N.J., had been a close friend of Dr. Singer, who described his experiences with mescaline called "The Doors of Perception."
"PSYCHEDELIC DRUGS" by Brian
(222 pages; Penguin Books; 1974;
81.95)
Osmond's fame lies in cining the term "psychediche" as related in the forward, Osmond and Huxley were trying to find a name for these potent substances which do strange things to the mind. Huxley liked the term "phanerothyme" and wrote a couplet to it: "To make this trivial world sublime Take half a gramure of phanerothyme."
Osmond liked the term "pyschechelle," meaning man-mind manifesting, and wrote his own couplet: "To fathom H尔 or sour angelie Just take a pinch of pyschechelle." Osmond said that he had been given birth to a woman who would become a part of everyday speech.
The body of Brian Weels "Psychische Drugs" maintains the high level of interest developed in the forward. The book lucidly analyzes psycheled drugs from many perspectives—psychological, sociological, anthropological, religious, legal, chemical, chemical and even sexual. Yet the book is easy to read and written with warmth.
Wells provokes thought. His avoidance of didacticism is manifested by the presentation of several points of view on many subjects. The body of the book is about 200 pages long. This is an indication of Wells' concise style, for he doesn't oversimplify the complex phenomena of psychelic drugs.
Operas Shine Through Poor RCA Recordings
By KENN LOUDEN
This is a r-release of a 1966 recording, and there is some surface noise. RCA usually does a poor job of recording and this is no exception. The libretro is enclosed
BY RENN LOUDES
Kansan Reylewer
Puccini; Madame Butterfly, Anna Moffo (soprano), Butterfly; Rosiland Elias (mezzo-soprano), Suzuki; Cesare Valletti (tenor), Pinkerton; and others.
Rome Opera House Orchestra and Opera House Orchestra at Victoria Virola. DVD-316 costs $8.94
Gluck; Orfee ed Euridice; Shirley Verrett (mezzo-soprano), Oerole; Anna Moffo (soprano), Euridice; Judith Raskin (soprano), Amore. The Virtuosi di Roma and instrumental ensemble of the Collégium Musicum Italicum, Tenato Fasano, cond. RCA Red Seal LSC-6169 three discs $71.94.
Verrett's performance as Orfeo is beautiful, as is Mofos's as Euridice. The opera itself is more classical than romantic, and at times the ensemble conducted by Fasano sounds more like a mass than an opera.
Leinordt sensitively conducts the orchestra in this condition of Poccia's music.
of control and magnify the abilities of the vocal performers. Tucker is very good as Rodolfo and Anna Moffo does an excellent job as Mimi.
The real surprise is Mary Costa's portrayal of Musetta, which upshags that of Moffo. At times it is difficult to decide who has the man role. Costa's and Merril's renditions of "Musetta's Walker" are worth enough to justify buying the whole set.
Bergonzai is excellent and does a beautiful job on the famous sextet "Chi mi frema!" his majestic voice and the good harmonies of the ensemble conflicting annotations of this scene.
Dionettiz; Lucia di Lammermoor; Anna Moto (soffrano); Luciana; Carlo Bergoni (tenor), Edgardo; Mario Sereni (baritone), Erucio; Erico Flailago (bass), Raimondo; and others. RCA Red Seal LSC-6170 three digits $17.94.
Moffo as Lacia is tremendous. Her soprano voice is pure and does not waver through the opera even though she must portray a girl who goes mad. The entire cast is full of enthusiasm and makes the opera enjoyable. The libretto is enclosed.
ATTENTION: Chairman Positions Available for School Year 1974-75
PUBLICITY
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SUMMER SERIES 1974
Applications & Information at SUA Office Deadline: 12 Noon Monday, April 1, 1974
Place a Kansan want ad. Call 864-4358
Hang in there he's coming
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