University Daily Kansan, March 28, 1985
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Opera singer takes troubled teen role in 'Susannah'
By RICK ZAPOROWSKI Staff Reporter
Stafanie May Hurmes has brought her singing talents closer to home during the past several weeks. She has moved from singing in foreign languages in Europe to singing in English in Kansas.
Humes, a Remington, Ind., doctoral student in voice, performed and studied voice in Europe last summer. After a performing tour of Japan, she returned to Lawrence, where she'll play the title role in the KU production of "Susannah."
TICKETS FOR THE three-act opera written by Carlie Floy, may be purchased in the Murphy Hall box office. Tickets cost $8 $6 and $4 for the public and are half price for students. All seats are reserved.
Humes left Lawrence in June and enrolled at the Summer Academy at the Mozartum in Salzburg, Austria. Austrian universities were also encouraged to return for the 1966 season.
She returned to Lawrence until January, when she left for performances in Tokyo, Taiwan and Hawaii with the Baker University band and chorus. When that tour end, she immediately began rehearsals for "Susanah."
Humes, 30, said portraying the 19-year-old Susannah was "cute" and "wonderful" though she did not like her older brother. But the older brother
The University of Kansas Theatre and the department of music will stage the American opera at 8 p.m. tomorrow, Saturday and Sunday at the Crafton-Freyre Theatre in Murphy Hall.
"I REALLY DON'T think there's a 19-year-old in the country who could sing that part," she said. "Their voices aren't mature enough."
Jack B. Wright, professor of theatre and stage director for "Susannah," said Humes projected the spirit of a 19-year-old and her pole carried the show musically.
"Susannah" is about a young woman living in a rural Tennessee town in the mid-1950s. Local church elders see Susannah bathing in a creek and make her an outcast from the townpeople. The elders report that Susannah had been displaying herself in public.
When a visiting preacher comes to town to hold the annual reavival meetings, in which
the people are encouraged to save their spiritual lives, the community pressures them and restricts their freedom.
HUMES SAID, "IT'S very, very dramatic. The revival scene is very moving. You really feel the mesmerism that a revivalist can stir in."
Susannah can't figure out why she is being ostracized because she doesn't know the elder saw her in the creek. The opera follows Susannah's transformation from a naive girl to a mature, young woman fighting for her dignity and her identity in the community.
Wright said the opera differed from the traditional opera because it was written by an American, was set in America and was sung in English. He said that although American operas still hadn't attained the stature of European operas, "Susanmah" was one of the most-produced American operas and was performed in Europe.
The show should appeal to people not familiar with opera, Humes said, as well as people who often attend operas.
"I DO HOPE this will attract the non-traditional opera-goers because it's so close to home," she said. "Maybe the word 'opera' frightens Kansans especially. Maybe a better term would be 'musical drama.'"
Wright also said the production would appeal to newcomers to opera, because of its fast pace and recognizable situations.
"It's my gut feeling that if someone is coming to an opera for the first time, this would be the one to come to," he said. "It's an adventure to experience it. There's a lot happening, a lot of action and a lot of fascinating characters."
Wright said "Susannah" focused on character development and the people and situations in the show should be identifiable to the audience. The show's themes deal with problems commonly encountered in real life — problems that most people probably have had to face.
"It's really about gossip," he said. "It's about how people's lives may be destroyed by careless gossip and innuendoes."
The Rev. Blitch, left, portrayed by Wayne Kempelien, Minneota, Minn., graduate student, stresses a point to his parishioners during rehearsal for the opera "Susanann nah." Susannnah, above, played by Stefanie May Humes, Remington, Ind., graduate student, gives a hug to her brother, Sam, portrayed by Ron Davis, Lawrence graduate student, in a scene from the opera. "Susannah" will be performed tomorrow and Saturday and April 5 and 6 in the Crafton-Preyer Theater in Murphy Hall.
The Yanks
Band yanks college crowd with its California sound
Staff Reporter
By SHELLE LEWIS Staff Reporter
An up-and-coming band from California cruises into town topw
The Yanks, a pop band from San Francisco, will perform at 8:30 tonight at the Lawrence Opera House. 642 Massachusetts St. Admission is $4 at the door.
TV 30, a local UHF station, will videotape the concert, which also will feature two local bands, the Micronotz and And Or.
The Yanks' drummer, Paul Zahl, said in a telephone interview from Louisville, Ky., that persistence played a key role in the band's quest for the top.
"We didn't go away like they thought we would." Zahl said, speaking of record companies and radio stations. "Persist us, just insist that we are going to make it."
The Yanks, formed in 1982, have received air play on many college radio stations and on radio station WBCN in which is one of that city's top stations.
THAT STRATEGY ALREADY has paid some dividends for the band, which is composed of Zahl, Owen Masterson and Steve Aliment. The band sings guitar, drums and Steve Aliment, vocals and bass.
"We don't like days off," he said. "Days off are boring. We've been on the road for seven weeks and unusual experiences are happening to us every moment."
Zahl said the group didn't mind the tight schedule.
Masterson said the Yanks' two-month tour of the East and Midwest was going well. But the tour keeps them hopping. The band performs a concert nearly every night.
"We've had a couple of blowouts, but this band is in no danger of breaking up," he said. "We argue sometimes just to up it and monotony because we get along so well."
HAIL. SAID THAT despite the band's rigorous schedule, the group's members had become close friends.
The band often plays for college students, and Zahl said he enjoyed the
crowds when they were receptive to the band's music and even when they were
"Indifference just makes us play harder," he said. "Involvement makes us play even harder. The general attitude is to play to those fans that are there."
"Being independent, we can be wherever we want and do whatever we want," he said. "It gives us the freedom to be here, we are, gives us freedom of expression."
As an independent band on the DTI Records label, Zahl said, the group enjoys certain freedoms.
KJHK isn't playing the Yanks' album, but the station is promoting the show. Lizz Miller, Leaveworth senior, is in charge of the concert's promotion.
MILLER SAID SHE saw the Yankas on their concert in Manhattan in February. Unfortunately, the concert landed on the state basketball game in Lawrence.
Although the band's second album, "Made in the States," is making ground in hip-hop, its music director, said KU's radio station had added the album to its play list.
HE SAID, "WE want to make their hair stand up and give them goose bumps."
"It wasn't anything new," he said. "I'm not saying they are a bad band. They just like it."
"It was a really dead night at the Avalon (a club in Manhattan)." Miller said. "But they got us dancing. Their music is very good. They have their own group, Dead Kennedys or those types of groups."
"A group needs a very personal front person," Kobak said. "The Yankas' whole community communicated to the audience really well, and got into what the audience liked."
Jody Kobak, Franklin senior, who also
saw the Manhattan show, said the Yanks
were playing their best.
Kobak and Miller both said the Yank's second album didn't do the group justice.
SUA shows out-of-this-world movies
"Their album is not a good judge of how good they really are," Kobak said. "I think everyone who listen to KJJH would like them, even KJJH playning their album."
By KRISTY D. LANTZ Staff Reporter
A mute, black alien crash-lands his spaceship in New York, eluding his extra terrestrial bounty hunters in Harlem.
Then he befriends the regulars of a local bar after fixing their video game with the touch of his hand. And he discovers earthly love with a female jazz singer.
"The Brother from Another Planet" isn't the type of film most large Hollywood studios would risk millions of dollars producing. Yet much praise from film critics and audiences.
LOCAL MOVIE AUDIENCES can share in the alien's adventures when "The Brother from Another Planet" makes its Lawrence and David at Woolfraud Auditorium in the Kansas Union.
It's just one of many offbeat movies SUA films schedules each semester so KU students can watch foreign, fantasy and horror films and classics and comedies for $1.50 or $2. SUA Films, a division of Student Union Activities, has shown films at the University of Kansas since at least the late 1950s.
Julie Hillstrom, chairman of SUA Films, said she relied on recommendations from students, faculty and SUA Films committee members to determine the series' schedule. Film suggestions for next semester must be submitted by Monday to the SUA office in the Union.
STUDENTS WHO WANT to work on an SUA Films committee this summer, fall or next spring can pick up applications in the mail. Applications must be returned to the office by 5 p.m. Friday.
Darren Hoffman, Udall junior, said he attended films in the SUA series once or twice.
"I go up there to forget I have homework to do." Hoffman said. "I really enjoy it."
Australian, science fiction and Japanese films appeal to Nancy Wert, Eau Chaire, Wis. graduate student. She goes to the movies at least twice a week, she said.
"It's one of the few places you can see 'art'
films, versus the downtown theaters." Werts said.
"Certainly you are not going to see any Japanese films downtown."
HILLSTROM SAID THAT SUA Films often brought films to Lawrence that students couldn't see unless they drove to arts theaters in the Kansas City area. There, obscure films such as "The Brother from Another Planet" open without much fanfare, play for a week or two, then disappear.
Every semester, SUA Films revives classics such as "Nosteratu" and "Casablanca". Hillstrom said. Foreign films with English subtitles such as "Kagemusha" and "Man of Iron" also are SUA Films standards.
SUA Films also shows westerns, screwball comedies, mysteries and detective films, known collectively as "American genre." "Citizen Kane" is an American genre film scheduled for April.
"AClockwork Orange" and "Dr. Strange love," both films by Stanley Kubrick, and Monty Python comedies always draw large crowds, Hillstrom said, especially when shown at midnight.
"Friday night is our big midnight movie night," she said.
THE FIRST MIDNIGHT movies SUA Films showed were "The Trip," with Peter Fonda and Dennis Hopper, and "The Wild Angels" with Peter Fonda, Bruce Dern and
Nancy Sinatra. Both were shown in October. 1976.
SUA's film sometimes attract a self-loathing crowd. But some nights they don't.
"Our goal is to break even," Hilstrom said.
This year SUA Films was allotted $750,000 to cover film rentals, projectionis' salaries and administrative expenses. By the end of this semester, Hillstrom said, SUA Films should have spent — and paid back — the entire sum.
SUA provides the films as a service. Lawrence theaters show movies for different reason - profit.
RANCE BLANN, CITY manager for Commonwealth Theatres Inc., said the four Commonwealth theaters in Lawrence didn't play many foreign or independently produced films. These films don't appeal to a wide audience, so ticket sales are sluggish compared with the brisk business a big release does, he said.
"A 'M Dinner with Andre' won't come close to doing as well as a 'Splash' or a 'Friday the 13th.'" Blann said.
He occasionally books Academy Award-winning foreign films into one theater, usually the Varsity, 1015 Massachusetts St.
"Das Boot," a recent German import, was an excellent film that did very well in Lawrence, he said. "But a 'Das Boot' don't come along every year."
SUA Films, however, continues to show unconventional films. Hillstrom said people in the University community expected out-of-the-ordinary films from SUA
"SUA kind of provides culture," she said.
Museum to exhibit artwork of'60s,'70s
By JEANINE HOWE
Staff Reporter
The 1960s represented an era of diversity. And the art of the period reflects this mood. Illusions, geometric shapes, psychchedalic and surrealist styles were used. Fine strokes are used in art of the 60s.
A variety of artworks and styles from the 1960s and 1970s will be on exhibit beginning Sunday at the Spencer Museum of Art. The exhibit, "Pop, Op. Plus: American Paintings from the St. Louis Museum," will be displayed in the Kress Gallery Through May
The Spencer Museum of Art and St. Louis Art Museum worked together to bring the exhibit to Lawrence, said Jay Gates, director of the KU museum. Each museum filled a need by bringing the art to campus.
"THEY HAD A storage problem and we had an exhibition problem." he said.
The St. Louis Art Museum is doing some renovations, he said, and it needed somewhere to store the pieces of art.
Meanwhile, the KU museum had no exhibit scheduled for that period, so Gates was more than willing to meet the St. Louis museum's needs, he said.
Gates said most exhibits were booked from two to three years in advance. Yet Gates has been director for only 15 months. Prior to
gates, the museum was without a director for two years. It has been difficult for the museum to find exhibits. Gates said, so it was fortunate to get the St. Louis exhibit.
Some artwork in the exhibit allows viewers to interpret their own meaning from each piece, while other pieces display realistic images. Still others defy definition.
BETSY WRIGHT, TOPEKA graduate student and assistant curator for the show, said the art was classified as either Pop. Op or Plus. About 10 styles of art will be represented in the show.
Pop art, or popular art, creates an environment, Wright said. Jim Dine's on canvas titled "Flesh Bathroom With Yellow Light and Objects" depicts pop art. The oil painting creates the image of a bathroom with toothbrush, light, mirror and poler paper.
Sally Hoffman, coordinator of programs, said Andy Warhol's silkscreen and oil on canvas titled "Most Wanted Man No. 12, Frank B." appeared photographic. The Pop painting looks like an FBI wanted poster — the type that hangs on the walls of post offices all over the country.
"It creates a vibrant, psychedelic image," Wright said. "It is difficult to look at."
Hoffmann said a piece by William Bailey, a
WRIGHT SAID OP art, or optical art, had geometric shapes and bright colors.
Wright said. "It is difficult to look at."
former KU student, will be part of the Op section of the show. The oil painting on canvas "Large Umbrian Still Life" shows a row of bottles and jars on a lute in muck.
Plus is a category for artists who aren't Pop or Op artists. Hoffmann said in the Plus category, "photo is like photography; it is a photograph-like piece in brilliant colors, will be on display."
Hoffman said some artists didn't distinctively fit into these categories. Wayne Thiabaud's oil on canvas titled "Cafeteria Counter" features lavish pieces of cakes and pies.
WRIGHT SAID THE art museum would provide a supplement to the St. Louis exhibit, "Happenings Revisited," graphics of the 60s and 70s, will be shown in the South Ballet Gallery, the gallery adjoining the Kress Gallery About 20 prints, photographs and drawings will be on display.
Two presentations on art of the '60s and 70s will be in April.
Michael Fried, director of the Humanities Center at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, will speak on "American Abolition" since 1800 at 8 a.m. p. 14 at the museum.
Laura Giles, curator of paintings and drawings, will give a gallery tour of "Pop Op. Plus" at 2 p.m. April 21.