ENTERTAINMENT
2
The University Daily KANSAN
December 5, 1983 Page 6
'Traying' fans await heavy snow
By GUELMA ANDERSON Staff Reporter
The snow that fell on Lawrence while blizzards blanketed western Kansas and Colorado last week came too soon and too little for some.
Aside from clutching to false hopes of canceled classes, students were disappointed because they could not participate in the traditional KU sport.
It seems that as long as there have been a University of Kansas, students and snow, there has been traying. And any seasoned trayer will tell you that the prime spots for the sport are the hills behind Ellisworth Hall, on 14th Street, and near the Campeanile.
"When the snow comes down, we go to the hill behind Ewells at about 11 and stay until 11," she said.
Jim Silke, director of Joseph R. Pearson Hall, said that traying was commonplace and that groups of five or six students sometimes held on to
BONNIE TREMBLAY, FORMOSO senior and resident of Lewis Hall, said she had missed the snow because traying was fun and relaxing after school.
The name of the paused sport is derived from the sole piece of equipment necessary to ride the hills of the campus - a tray that has held many meals.
"The food services are really good about giving the hall desk old trays to check out, but there still a problem with students taking trays from the kitchen."
"THERE WERE QUITE a few who did take me up on my offer, but not many changed from trarying because it’s more of a tradition and it takes
Gary Biller, director of Oliver Hall, said that old trays were also available at the desk.
But the residents of Olive have an alternative to traying, thanks to Biller. Last year Biller started teaching cross country skiing to any student in town.
For now, the cafeteria trays are safe and the hills are quiet as avid trayers await the first heavy snow in Lawrence. The officials at Watkins Memorial Hospital, however, are not looking forward to the seasonal tradition.
Renseleer McClure, Watkins physician, said that last year many students suffered head and leg injuries when they ran into trees on a hill
James E. Strobl, acting director of the hospital, said that traying was "a very dumb thing to do."
"There are fewer injuries now than there were 30 years ago because the winters have not been as harsh," he said.
Strobel said that about nine years ago a student suffered severe injury while traying, and that he had to be sent to the University of Chicago.
So when the first substantial snow falls in Lawrence, maybe the eager trayser should add two more pieces of equipment to their unofficial sport pack.
Stage 'Doonesbury' gets moderate rating
By United Press International
NEW YORK — OK, campers, here's a Dooneys cartoon that will not be appearing soon in your local newspaper:
The scene is the White House. We hear Interior Secretary William Clark talking to President Reagan about acid rain:
Clark: "We've been getting a lot of heat from Canada lately. In fact, the Canadians are beginning to threaten economic sanctions against us."
Clark. "I don't know why not. I'll check to see if there are any American lives that need protecting."
And as the critics accurately reported, the music is forgettable, the plot almost non-existent and the play of only moderate interest to anyone but you.
For those fans wondering what happened to the characters when they went to Broadway, the answer is that some are merely an extension of their comic-scipel selfs. But others have become less quirky as they graduate from the 1960s to the '80s and from college into careers.
It's Boopsie, who was only tolerated by other, more sophisticated characters in the strip. But she is the lead singer for a preppie satire billionaire Mick Foley (Michael Foley).
Her boyfriend, B.D., comes across as macho as ever, and dumber than he ever seemed in the stir.
THAT CARTOON IS playing on Broadway instead of in newspapers, because it's part of the "Doonesbury" musical that opened there Nov. 21. As many devoted Doomsday fans know, cartoonist Garry Trudie took a leave of absence from the strip to work on the play — which opened to
Mike Donebursy is one of few characters in the Broadway production that remains true to the strip.
BUT IN ONE OF many changes from the political satire and potlatch leaders of the 60s, the Doonesbury crowd seems to have found a home.
Zonker has, disappointingly, become a wimp, willing to sell out when he is offered a job by Duke as a bride. He is even trying for respectability. How should Zonker behave?
AND NOW ONE MORE Trudeau joke. The White House cartoon is lowered. President Reagan is at a news conference. We hear the following voices:
Mark has abandoned politics for his career, and is a protege of network television reporter Roland Hedley Burton.
Reagan: "Helen?"
Helen: "Sir, your tuition tax credit program means, in effect, that parents who don't use the public school system won't have to support it. By that logic, shouldn't taxpayers who choose not to be defended by MX missiles also get tax credits?"
Reagan — "Well, Helen, you've thrown me kind of a brain teaser there. When the real Helen — UPI White House correspondent Thomas Thomas"
MOVIE REVIEWS
Rating System
excellent
good
fair
bad
rutten
A Christmas Story
This isn't the best movie ever made, but neither is it the worst movie ever made. In fact, it's sort of entertaining and may have some meanings than the plot would seem to present.
"A Christmas Story" is about a young boy's efforts to convince his parents that he wants a special toy gun for Christmas. The story follows the daughter of a bully, who beheads him badly, and his parents as he matures.
Some of this is very good. Some is very sappy.
But for the most part this would be great for most children. The only regrettable inclusion in the story is the boy's daydream fantasies about heroism through acts of violence, but such is accented by our society.
Peter Billingsley plays the young boy. He is convincing and comic, and his appearance is well-suited for the role Melinda Dillon and Darren McGavin, as his parents, avoid over-
And for once a narration doesn't seem out of place. The story is told by the character of the boy, from the perspective of middle age. It is not about the visual action, and plays well against the visual action.
There are some strikingly emotional scenes in this film, which probably will surface from year to year in the theatres and on television. Paying to see it is not much of a gamble.
-Mike Cuenca
Ken Stewart, Kansas City, Mo., and Theresa Mertes, Prairie Village senior, rehearse the dance of the Sugar Plum Fairy and her cavalier.
HOLIDAY EVENTS
SPARE TIME
SEVERAL KU CHORAL groups will perform in the Strong Hall rotunda today. James Ralston will conduct the vocal ensembles, and punch and cookies will be served.
THE HILLEL OFFICE in the Union will feature daily services for Hanukkah. Menorah candles will be sold in the Union and at the Jewish Community Center.
THE LAWRENCE "SEEM to Be Players" will perform "An O. H. Holiday" on Friday, Saturday and Sunday at the Lawrence Arts Center, 9th and Vermont streets. The Friday show is at 7:30 p.m., the Saturday shows will be at 10:30 a.m. and 1:30 p.m., and the Sunday show will also be at 1:30 p.m. *Tickets for the performances will be $2.00.*
A HOLIDAY DANCE sponsored by Gay and Lesbian Services of Kansas will be at 8 in the night.
A HOLIDAY SQUARE Dance, sponsored by the Lawrence Barn Dance Association, will be held on Tuesday, October 20.
Christian Ministries Center, 1204 Oread Ave.
Admission is $2, but musicians get in free.
THE KAW VALLEY DANCERS, the Law
rence School of Ballet and the Lawrence
Symphony Orchestra will perform Teikovak-
sy's ballet suite "The Nutcracker" Dec. 16 and
17 at 8 p.m. in the Crafton-Preyer Theatre in
Murphy Hall. Tickets are $5.90 and $2.50 can be
purchased at the SUA office or in Murphy
Hall.
THE LAWRENCE Chamber Players and the Plymouth Chancel Chair, conducted by James Moeser, will perform an advent concert titled "Handel and Haydn" on December 11, at 13:30 p.m. in the Plymouth Congregational Church, 925 Vermont St. Admission is free.
ON CAMPUS
"NATURE IN CHINA," a lecture and slide show by Robert Hoffmann, curator of mammals at the Museum of Natural History and professor of systems and ecology, will be presented at 7:30 p.m. Wednesday at the museum. Admission for non-members is $5.
AUDITIONS FOR THE KU production of the opera "Die Fie ldermaus" will be conducted at 7 p.m. Wednesday in the Crafton-Preyer Theatre in Murphy Hall.
THE MOVIE "Eight Sierra" will be shown by SAFims at 7:30 p.m. Tuesday in Wooldruff Hall.
SUA FILMS WILL SHOW "The Road to Utopia"
at 7:30 Monday in Woodruff Auditorium in
Baltimore.
THE ARTIST'S View," a brown bag talk by Gary Nemchock, associate professor of design, will be given at 12:30 p.m. Thursday at the Spencer Museum of Art.
Spencer museum at Art.
THE MOVIE "KING of Hearts" will be shown at 7:30 p.m. Wednesday, and "Cabaret" will be shown at 7:30 p.m. Thursday, by both SUA Films. The movies will be shown in Woodruff Auditorium in the Union. Admission is $1.50.
SU FILMS WILL present "My Favorite Year" at 3:30 p.m. 7, p.m. and 9:30 p.m. Friday and Saturday. '1941' will be shown at midnight both in the Library and at Coffeeshack. Do Kraft Audition in the library, for $1.50 each.
Local revisions enliven 'Nutcracker'production
By PAMELA THOMPSON
The Kaw Valley Dance Theatre, under the direction of choreographers Kristen Benjamin and Laurie Vander Pol-Hoske, will perform the classical ballet by Russian composer Peter Tebakovsky at 8 p.m. Dec. 16 and 2:30 p.m. Dec. 17 in Crafton-Freyer Theatre in Murphy Hall.
Staff Reporter
Visions of sugar plum flairies will dance into the heads -of Lawrence audiences with the traditional holiday magic of the "Nutcrater Suite" ballet.
The Lawrence Symphony Orchestra, directed by Charles Hoag, will accompany the dancers in a program
Kristen Benjamin, director of the Kaw Valley Dance Theatre, the Lawrence School of Ballet and choreographer for the "Nutcracker" for the Carnegie Performing Arts production was different from the original.
TO MODERNIZE THE holiday ballet, three years ago Benjamin asked Lawrence director and playwright Rie Avellier to revise the first act of the ballet, which is usually performed in
Averill changed the first act into a play with speaking parts to make the opening party scene more engaging.
Tehakovsky based the "Nutcracker" fairy tale, which he wrote in the 1870s, on stories by French writer E. T. A. Hoffman. Averill said he loved Hoffman. Hoffman stories before he revisited the ballet.
Although he said he had rewritten a small portion of the play's script each year, his initial concern was to retain the enchantment of the fairy tales.
Averill, who is also the producer and artistic director of the "Seem-To-Be-Players" children's theatre group, said that the fairy tales were not authentic, yet somewhat grotesque French literature.
"I TRIED TO CAPTURE the magic of the transformation of Christmas," Averill said.
Other revisions were made by Benjamin, who
"I re-choreographed the dances in the show simply to keep it fresh," she said.
changed many of the traditional dances, so she dances in her role as the Saint Joseph.
Last year's cast had 80 members. This year, the cast '128 members range in age from 5 to 70 years old. About 50 of those performers are grade school and junior high students.
"The story is a melancholy and sentimental one," she said. "The tale is wonderfully rich in a simplestly way. When good triumphs over evil, the scene even, a three-year-old, can get that one."
BENJAMIN SAD THAT it was touching to see the cast members working together like a family during the rehearsals, which started at the end of October.
"It's so neat for the college kids because they're not usually around families," she said.
Theerese Mertes, Prairie Village junior and the Sugar Plum Fairy in the ballet, said that the Lawrence version of the holiday ballet was special "because it involves the whole commu-
"It's getting to be a big thing in Lawrence," she said. "The idea has blossomed and has been growing."
Mertes, who has been dancing for 11 years, said that about half of the performers had danced in the ballet before, but that she had learned the starring role of the Sugar Palm Fairy before.
"TIM REALLY EXCITED." she said. "I've been working on my soldar duties as well as on our other projects."
*
Mertes said that she had particularly been working on lifts with partner Ken Stewart, who dances the role of the Sugar Plum Fairy Cavalier.
The ballet has become so well known that芭蕾impaire both performances to be sell-out.
"The performances almost turn into parties because the audience wants to get into a holiday museum."
BY BERKE BREATHED
BLOOM COUNTY