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THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
NEWS
FRIDAY, JANUARY 21, 2005
Student playwrights showcase works at competition
By NEIL MULKA
nmuluka@kansan.com
KANSAN STAR WRITER
Members of the Two Crow family come to terms with their past, and each other, in an Indian Health Service hospital waiting room. Their arguments, confessions and reconciliations echo off the pea soup-colored walls and the cracked linoleum floor as a family member dies.
These families and their struggles are the focus of two plays, Weaving the Rain and The Option, written by KU students Dianne Yeaquho Reyner, Meers, Okla., graduate student, and Libby Dean, Bucyrus senior.
Another family, a mother and her teenage son, have "the talk" over dinner. It's their first conversation since the son's father died four months ago.
separate divisions at the Kennedy Center American College Theatre Festival in St. Louis this week.
Both plays are competing in
Yeaquho Reyner, member of the Kiowa Nations, said Weaving the Rain was a full-length play that examined how the family's personal choices, history and U.S. policies contributed to its dysfunction.
"I didn't try to make it about 'look at all the bad things the white people have done to us,'" Yeahquo Reyner said. "I wanted to tell a story that Native and non-Native audiences can understand: that there's still hope for families."
Dean, Bucyrus senior, said her play got a staged reading, a performance where actors perform with a copy of the script in hand.
Weaving the Rain performed yesterday at the St. Louis competition. It competed against five full-length plays at the national level.
She said it was the first time her play had been performed.
If Yeahquo Reyner's play wins the national competition, her script will be published, and she will receive a paid workshop at the Sundance Institute, a foundation dedicated to artistic development.
Dean's play, The Option, is a one-act, 10-minute play that shows a mother and son rekindling their relationship.
In this comedy the mother tries to relate to her football-playing son by explaining sex to him using football metaphors.
“In the beginning they answer each other with one-word answers,” Dean said. “It's the first time they try to reach out to each other.”
Contributed photo
situation."
"The mother says, 'Sometimes you get into the red zone and you want to go for the score.'" Dean said. "But you should call a time-out and re-evaluate your
Dean's play is in the Region V 10-Minute Play division with five other plays in the competition. Region V includes Iowa, Kansas, Minnesota, Missouri, Nebraska, North Dakota and South Dakota.
If Dean's play wins the regional competition, it will be invited to compete nationally in Washington D.C. in April.
Both plays were written in Paul Lim's playwriting classes. Lim, a KU English professor and a judge for last year's contest, entered the scripts into the competition.
"If you have class of 15 you know what ones are worth nurturing," Lim said, "I am very proud of both of the playwrights."
Margie Two Crow, played by Lori Tapahonso, consoles Eve Two Crow, played by Carly Jo Biemmel, in a scene from Dianne Yequaho Reyner's Weaving the Rain during a November 2004 performance. The play competed in the regional Kennedy Center American College Theatre Festival in St. Louis.
In the past 10 years, 15 KU students have been in the KCACTF playwriting competition.
Both of the playwrights were stunned that they were nominated.
one likes your work," Dean said.
— Edited by Laura Francoviglia
EMPLOYEE: University will try to find work for those laid off
CONTINUED FROM PAGE 1A
some because printing jobs are skill-oriented. The employees would have to be re-trained for any new position at the University, especially for those who have been employed for more than 30 years.
be difficult to learn a new skill.
He said some employees were so skilled in their specific positions after 30 years that it would
Human resources has worked one-on-one with employees to help them find another job, Goodyear said. Based on their skill level, human resources could place the employees in another University job or help them find another job outside the Lawrence area.
Goodyear said investing in
new technology would not be beneficial long-term. The more beneficial motive would be to use commercial printers.
The University would electronically send its forms and documents to the commercial printer, which would then transport the impressions back to the University. Goodyear said.
most efficient method.
Smith said outsourcing the printing jobs would not be the
"I don't know what their logic is behind it, I don't see it," he said. "I think over the next few years, they're going to see a substantial increase in what they already pay."
to run efficiently isn't going to work and we're at a point where we would need to use new technology," she said.
Goodyear said the decision to close the printing services, which began in 1902, was stricly an economic-based decision. "Now that we're so small, trying
The printing services will remain active until human resources can re-locate as many employees as possible, Goodyear said.
It will also take a while to develop a relationship with the new commercial printing service, she said. That relationship could develop anytime between March and June 30.
Until then, Smith and his two co-workers, which dwindled from nine, will have plenty of work to print for the University, Smith said.
"The small press is busy as it ever was for all I can tell," he said.
The employees don't know when they will lose their jobs. But now that school is back in session, he said, the workload has picked up.
- Edited by Austin Caster
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