UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
Friday, January 28, 1994
5
Show will go on for KU alumnus
Play will continue despite accident
Martin Altstaedten / KANSAN
After being severely injured in a car accident last semester, Antonio Shepherd is ready again to direct his play. "Color Doesn't Matter." Shepherd spent most of Saturday rehearsing at his house in Kansas City, Kan., to prepare for a performance scheduled for 8:00 tonight at the Lied Center.
By Denise Nell Kansan staff writer
A play written, produced and directed by a former KU student will finally be performed in front of a KU audience tonight — three months after it was originally scheduled.
Antonio Shepherd's play, "Color Doesn't Matter," is about racial issues on a college campus. The play was supposed to have been performed at the Lied Center Oct. 22.
But a week before the production, Shepherd was involved in a serious car accident that left him hospitalized for a month and a half. The actors decided at the time to cancel the play, saying that they didn't feel confident they could perform it the way Shepherd would have wanted.
"At the time of the accident, didn't know if he was going to come through or not," said Rollyn Moore, Kansas City, Kan., resident and member of the cast. "We didn't feel quite together to put something on without Antonio. We tried our best, but it really wasn't clicking."
The cast had performed the play twice already before the accident — once in Topeka and once in Kansas City, Mo. The KU audience
would have been the largest and the most important to Shepherd.
"I really didn't think I'd be fortunate enough to get it back at KU," Shepherd said. "For me, it's a lifelong mission."
Shepherd said that the play, which will be performed at 8:00 tonight in the Lied Center, was set on a college campus. Two life-long friends are
exposed to opinions about their history that they had never imagined.
In one scene one of the characters, who is a history major, goes to the dean's office enraged that one of his professors is suggesting that Jesus was African American.
"These are the ideas I want to share," Shepherd said. "I want people in the audience to walk out with
something that's valuable."
Cast member Janice Moore, a Kansas City, Kan., resident who graduated from KU in December, said the play would send an important message.
"What 'Color Doesn't Matter' says is that a lot of racism exists today," she said. "Black people have not been taught their history."
The play also includes three songs. In one scene, Rollyn Moore will sing a rendition of the Boyz II Men hit "It's So Hard to Say Goodbye to Yesterday."
"Black people play a much larger part in history than they've been given credit for," he said.
KU graduate Lovie Dana Abner, a Kansas City, Kan, resident who will play the lead role in tonight's production, said she hoped the play would open the minds of those who saw it.
"I want them to take away from it the fact that there isn't just one way of interpreting things that have been given to you," she said.
Shepherd said that regardless of what people thought about the play, he hoped they were receptive to its message.
"As we begin to address ignorance with validated answers, then we begin to make changes that have longevity," he said.
Tickets to the play, which is sponsored by the Black Student Union and Student Senate, are $8 general admission and $5 for students.
Recovery inspires writer to spread message
By Denise Nell
Kansan staff writer
Antonio Shepherd considers his recovery from a car accident a sign.
when the accident occurred he said he did not remember anything from the time he left rehearsals.
"I was as close to death as a person gets," Shepherd said. "People tell me, 'It wasn't your time to go yet.' They say, 'You've got something you need to say.'"
Shepherd, who is the writer, director and producer of the play, "Color Doesn't Matter," which will be performed at the Lied Center tonight, was seriously injured in an Oct. 16 car accident. Shepherd was driving home to Lawrence from play rehearsals in Kansas City, Kan.,
"I called my wife at 11 and I'd be home in a little while," he said. "I came home about a month and a half later."
Shepherd lost sight in one of his eyes, suffered a punctured lung, a shattered right ankle and right knee, and still will
on his left knee. Although he does not remember anything about the accident, he said that the police
As
humanity, we can move forward. "
Antonio Shepherd Writer, director, producer of "Color Doesn't Matter"
later told him he must have fallen asleep at the wheel.
"The only thing I recall is being dead," he said. "People were working on me and I thought, These people are trying to save my life and I'm already dead."
Shepherd still
walks with a limp. He still has pieces of metal lodged lodged under his skin. But he said that when he regained consciousness, his main concern was to get on with his life.
"My mentality as soon as I woke up was that I felt recovered," he said. "There's really nothing you can do but move on."
Shepherd said now he will concentrate on recovering and continuing to deliver his message through his play.
"The bottom line is, as humanity, we can move forward," he said. "I guess I want to make sure people know that I have something to say."
Multicultural center plans for fall opening
Planners want center to reflect KU community
By Denise Nell
Kansan staff writer
The opening of KU's Multicultural Center now may be in sight, three years after its original proposal.
Sherwood Thompson, director of the office of minority affairs, said that if all went as planned, the center would open by Hawk Week this fall. The center was originally proposed by the Student Senate in the fall of 1991.
The center will be located in the present Supportive Educational Services building, south of the Military Science building on campus. The SES offices will move to the basement of Strong Hall.
In the meantime, the Multicultural Center Planning Committee is working on a proposal for what the center will include. Thompson said the group hoped to submit the proposal to David Ambler, vice chancellor for student affairs, in May.
"It's not going to be a clubhouse for student groups," Thompson said. "It's not going to be a cafeteria. We'd like the center to be a showcase of diversity on campus."
The approximately 32-member core planning committee decided in early December to divide into five subcommittees. The subcommittees will spend the next few months researching cultural centers on other campuses, deciding what types of activities will take place in the center and planning what renovations will be necessary in the building.
"The building is in fairly decent shape," Thompson said. "If nothing else, we'll give it a new face lift."
The subcommittees will also decide what role the center should play on campus.
Center's proposed site
"One of the first things we have to do is come up with a definition of what
Mican Laaker/ KANBAN
multiculturalism is," said Gregory Leon Frost, assistant to the associate vice chancellor and assistant to the dean of the graduate school. Frost heads two of the five subcommittees.
Thompson said the core group planned to conduct an informational meeting early in February where anyone interested in becoming involved with the planning of the center could volunteer to work on one of the subcommittees.
"We want to make this Multicultural Center a uniquely KU facility," Thompson said. "We want it to have the personality of the population here at KU."
Karen Seals, the director of SES,
said that her staff had received word from the Office of Student Affairs Wednesday that renovation of their new space in Strong Hall would begin in mid-March and be completed by this summer.
Seals said the move to Strong Hall would give SES more room and a better location. She said the University was doing everything it could to get the move completed as soon as possible.
"Facilities operations can only move as fast as human bodies can move," she said. "It's just a typical project that takes a while to happen at a busy institution doing a lot of other projects."
ADVERTISE IN THE DAILY KANSAN FOR ALL YOUR NEEDS
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TICKETS FOR BOTH SHOWS HALF PRICE
FOR KU AND HANDY KESTLLEN! STUDENTS!
Tickets on sale at the Lied Center Box Office
(864-ARTS): Murpry Hall Box Office (864-3982);
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reserved. KU student tickets available through the
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