ENTERTAINMENT
The University Daily KANSAN
November 14, 1983 Page 6
Performers depict struggles for love
By GINA K. THORNBURG Staff Reporter
Staff Reporter
Ambition, love and jealousy sometimes bash their way through one's mind, heart and stomach, leaving one lying awake at night or shivering in fear. The clamor of reckless emotions will pot come.
But the inner forces are inside people to stay. And this weekend, in the Inge Theater in Berlin, he will be on stage, as seven people portray them in Jorge N'eill's drama, "The Great God Brown."
"Everyone is affected by conflicting forces"
James Larson, a graduate teaching assistant
The ideas of Freudian psychology are prevalent in the works written in 1920 and 1930 by Auguste Campher, *agilitating intelligence*, LeRoy Bertrand.
"The Great God Brown" is experimental, but the story of the play is simple. Larson said. The play covers 30 years in the lives of two men who have fallen in love with the same woman. Both are actors in the schools, friends and society to become successful architects after they graduate from high school.
“It’s a simple theme of the struggles that anyone goes through trying to find love and happiness when you’re going against the rules that society puts on.” Larson said.
To depict those struggles, the actors and actresses are in constant motion on stage, touching and pulling at each other, sometimes becoming intertwined.
"It's a very physical show." he said.
One actress in the play, Deborah Shannon,
Dorie Village sophomore, said, "It's hard
work."
In a rehearsal last week, she broke her nose when she bumped into another actor.
hose when she bumped his knee.
She said that the constant motion on stage
The analogy to a football team goes a little further. Not only are the actors in constant motion, but they are parts of a unit that must think the same, he said.
Larson said, "It's almost like running the plays of a college football team."
In the program for the play, the actors and actresses are not listed in the individual roles.
"We list them all in the ensemble," Larson said. "We don't want to give the idea there's a reason for it."
People who are familiar with O'Neill's work, such as his "Long Day's Journey Into Night," might be unaware that the playwright wrote many experimental plays. Larson said.
"The Great God Brown" could not effectively be produced until the 1906s, when contemporary art was on the rise.
Larson uses neo-expressionistic techniques, which include having all seven actors on stage at the same time throughout the play. Another example is a facial expression off stage by an actress wearing a mask.
David Clark, Oakley graduate student, designed the stage setting, which includes a large swing suspended from the ceiling. The setting is designed to encourage interaction and representation of building styles, Larson said.
Roberta Wilhelm and Biorn Skaptason rehearse a scene from Eugene O'Neill's play 'The Great God Brown.
MOVIE REVIEWS
Rating System
Deal of the Century
bad ...
"Deal of the Century" is about a small-time arms dealer who happens to make millions by selling a pilotless aircraft to a Third-World government for an American arms manufacturer. At first, the film seems to be a lightly satirical and cynical look at the world of arm dealers, but it soon turns into the silly, slapstick schmaltz relied on in Chevy Chase movies.
The screenplay, written by Paul Brickman ("Risky Business"), seems to have been a half-hearted attempt to condemn the proliferation of weapons and weapon systems throughout the world. But the situation becomes incidental to the typical Chass schick and it could have been a story about some guy who gets dosed with nuclear waste, or who takes his family on a cross-country vacation. Who cares?
And the aspect of the script that seems most to have been intended to carry this message is disturbing, also. Chase's partner in the film, played by Gregory Hines, decides to make his stand against the arms race by stealing a new fighter and threatening to blow up an arms show.
His motivation is religious. The filmmakers depict his conversion to Christianity and then use this as ample justification to oppose violence and death. That's sad. You shouldn't have to be converted to a religion to oppose the killing of people.
Stay away from this film. In fact, stay as far away from it as possible.
Sooner or later, Cheyse Chash will play out the power of his name as a box office draw, and the public will wise up to how he and his producers have ripped them off.
"Modern Problems." "Vacation." and now
"Deal of the Century" are movies that receive poor reviews but make money at the box office. The strength of Chevy Chase's popularity almost guarantees some financial success.
But these movies stink "Deal of the Century" is just the latest Chase vehicle. Chase is not funny, and Brickman's screenplay is torn between drama and comedy. The movie has that overall lack of taste evident in "Vacation." released earlier this year.
"Deal of the Century" starts out with some potential. For perhaps the first 30 to 45 minutes, there seems to be a possibility that the film might go somewhere. But, alas, we have to sit there and watch Chevy fall down, make faces and pretend to be serious while wearing that stupid expression that prevents the viewer from ever taking him seriously.
Who is it that is so wrapped up in the man? He hasn't made a funny film in a long time. But no one seems to be paying any attention. Surely it will catch up with him soon. The public, gullible and hapless as it may be, must soon wise up and stop paying to sit through these stinkers.
Mike Cuenca
Fiber art by two KU students was selected to appear in a New exhibit. At left is Laura Brody's "Turbulence," made from
Gary Smith—KANSAN
sticks, plastic and paper on a steel frame. At right is Jane Reiter's 'Dark Movement.' Reiter dyes the wool she uses.
'Trashy' art gains appreciation
By PAMELA THOMPSON
Staff Reporter
Trash can even inspire artistic creation — given a little imagination and an eye to distinguish artistic garbage from ordinary garbage.
Jane Reiter, East Lansing, Mich., graduate student, said she often digs through her trash, looking for objects to work into her fiber art wallhangings and scultures.
If people told her that her artwork was trash, one KU fiber artist would not be personally offended.
Laura Brody, Lawrence graduate student, said that her piece titled "Turbulance" was also accepted in the national show, but that because she had not received the mailing cost of the piece was too expensive.
One of Reiter's untitled pieces is on display in a month-long national fiber art exhibition in Dunkirk, N.Y. which will run through November.
The Fiber National '83 exposition was open to fiber artists nationwide. Out of the $3,344 entries received, 160 were selected.
- go through the trash looking for things with greeting surfaces. “Referen” said, “I also use the trash to get to other places.”
"Turbulance," which was constructed with sticks, paper and plastic mounted on a steel
"Sometimes a show comes up and your piece of art just fits the description of the exhibition," he said.
frame, concerns the natural energy forces of the wind and water rushing through space, she said.
Eileen Murphy, associate professor of design, said that fiber art was a descendant of tapestry, but that in the last 15 to 20 years, the three-dimensional art pieces had come to resemble sculpture, more closely than they resembled traditional wall hangings.
She develops her ideas over a long period of time and her art usually "relates to a combination of the natural environment, philosophy and physics," Brody said.
"Nature is my favorite source for ideas."
Reiter said. "I use at least two different material combinations, usually wire and cloth or paint that you need to not have an academic approach to my art."
"In the craft area, fiber art has moved from the functional aspect to the fine arts," Murphy said. "The three-dimensional sculptural forms are comprised of individual fibers. Fiber art has become an international term which encompasses all aspects of the craft."
Reiter also combines materials from nature for her fiber pieces.
Murphy, Reiter and Susan Cannell, Berkeley, Calif., graduate student, all have a fiber art piece included in the Lawrence Craft 3 show at the Lawrence Arts Center.
The craft show, which opened Nov. 5 and will run until the end of the month, is sponsored jointly by the Lawrence Arts Center and the Lawrence Art Guild.
Ann Evans, Lawrence Arts Center director,
said entries in the original craft show must be
Reiter's piece titled "Gameboard," is a small wall hanging that she said was not "a literal interpretation of a gameboard," although its layout appears to a grid closely resemble a typical board game.
constructed from clay, fiber, glass, metal, wood paper or mixed media. The show was only open to those artists who are residents of Douglas County.
"Gameboard!" received an honorable mention award in the 48-piece Lawrence craft show, which was judged by metalsmith, Elliott Pujol, Evans said.
"Artists need to exhibit, and a show of this type is very helpful to them." Evans said.
Reiter said she first sketched out a simple design plan on paper before she would start working on the possible combinations between natural and unnatural materials. She uses cotton, silk and nylon most often for her wire sculptures.
"But I'm really a slow worker." she said.
"Usually it takes me three weeks to complete a project."
In the six years she has been experimenting with various fibers, textures, colors and shapes for her artistic projects, Reiter said that she has exhibited in about 12 different shows.
Although she has been sewing clothing and weaving on a loom for a number of years, Reiter said she was not really interested in the old-fashioned handicrafts.
"Sometimes I get teased about my art because a lot of people can't relate to it," she said. "They say that I don't like art."
Reputation as queen of blues is challenging to jazz singer
By PHIL ENGLISH Staff Reporter
Koko Taylor has a very soft, simple,
somewhat slurred voice with a strong
Chinese touch.
"I try to live up to the reputation of being called the Queen, by putting all that I have into the blues," Taylor said in a telephone interview from Chicago.
"I do it because it's what I love to do the most, and it makes people happy."
TAYLOR WILL SHOW Lawrence why she has such a good reputation when she and her band, The Blues Machine, perform Wednesday at the Jazhouses. 926½ *Massachusetts St.*
Taylor, a Grammy-nominated artist, said she first got her start singing in a church choir in Memphis, where she learned of the inspirational power of the blues.
"Some people think listening to the blues is sitting with your head down, and it sounds really sad and dragged out," Taylor said. "They're not my blues."
'It's not something that is going to make
your soul sit down, but uplift your spirit and give you something to look forward to."
One thing Taylor is looking forward to is her future.
"WITH ALL THE work I have come up, going new places, putting out records and creating new fans, especially young whites. I like the fact that I'm a popular all over the world," she said.
Taylor recently headlined the fourth annual Long Beach Blues Festival, which had a record attendance this year of more than 7,000.
Along with the Blues Machine, Taylor has performed at the Newport Jazz Festival, Carnegie Hall, SummerFest in Milwaukee, Chicagofest and the Winnipeg Folk Festival.
She recently completed a special for the Disney cable channel, and she and the band have been working on their next album.
Taylor thinks people should learn about the blues, and she wants to be the one to teach them.
"Not knowing what the blues is, is a terrible thing," she said. "A good experience would be to come hear Koko Taylor, and I will easily introduce to them what I have to offer."
SPARE TIME
ON CAMPUS
THE KU WIND Ensemble, conducted by Robert Foster and Frederick Fennell, will present a concert at 8 p.m. tomorrow in Swarthout Recital Hall.
**VISNON COLE, tennor, will give a master class**
**om 12:30 to 3:00 p.m. in Swartbork Recital**
**Bachlore, will give a master class**
KU TRUMBONHE OCH with Stephen Anderson and perform at 8 p.m. Thursday in Swarthout Resort.
"THE GREAT GOD Brown" by Eugene O'Nell will be performed at 8 p.m. Thursday in the William Inge Theatre in Murphy Hall. Tickets for students are $1.50.
PHOTOGRAPHS by Diane Covert and on display in the Art and Design Building gallery
from 1:43 p.m. today and from 8:30 a.m. to
4:30 p.m. tomorrow through Friday
POPULAR WORKSHOP ON PHILIPPE
"NUREMBERG: A Renaissance City.
1500-1618," will be exhibited through Dec. 31 at the Spencer Art Museum.
A POETRY READING. "Poetry of this Place." an evening of bioregal poetry and song, will be presented by members of the Kansas Area Watershed Council at 7:30 p.m. Wednesday at the Lawrence Zen Center, 1115 Ohio.
SPENCER MUSEUM of Art Curator Maria Prather will present a slide show and talk on French art and architecture at 7:30 tonight at Maupintour, 1515 St. Andrews Dr.
BLOOM COUNTY
BY BERKE BREATHED