ENTERTAINMENT
10
The University Daily KANSAN
October 17, 1983 Page 6
World-renowned glass artist Dale Chihuly, left, directs assistant Rich Royal in creating a 'Macchia' glass piece. Chihuly was demonstrating his art during a free workshop that took place yesterday in the Chamney Barn on 15th Street.
Artist demonstrates abilities Sea inspires glass artist
Standing in front of blazing ovens and shouting instructions over the roar of a Beatles tape and the Chammy Barr's cooling fans, world-renowned glass artist Dale Chihuly demonstrated the art of collaborated glass-blowing.
By PAMELA THOMPSON Staff Reporter
Staff Reporter
With his own two master assistants and a team of five advanced KU students, Chihuly conducted two six-hour workshops last weekend, sponsored by the KU department of design. He demonstrating how he created his artistic, non-functional glass pieces.
"I DESIGN THE SHAPES by drawing the design and make a working plan of the form." Chihuly said, "That way I can bring out the colors
Cinnamon sold in the sandy store corner with straws outside "Machiach," which means "spotted" in Italian. The glassware is sold in sets that contain two to 40 pieces and range from $2,000 to $5,000 in price. His preliminary designers of the "Machiach" series will be $1,400.
His preliminary drawings of the Macchia* series ran for $1,000. By designing knee-high optical molds which give the hot, molton glass the ribbed effect of the sea forms, Chihuly said he can give his forms the proper inner structure.
Robert Hodges, Lawrence graduate student, said that although Chihuly used assistants to help him create his glass pieces, "all the ideas are his own."
"There comes a point in nature when glass is like water," he said, "my series deal with sea forms that have an inner structure much like a glass."
Apart from supervising the actual glass-blowing process done by
assistant Rich Royal, colorist Lee Kabelski and the KU student assistants. Chihuly also demonstrated how he conceived designs for his glass creations.
HE SPRUNKLED shelled sunflower seeds, beans and rice on a table in the corner of the barn, which is on 15th Street, to create a pebbled texture. Then with a large sheet of white paper in front of him, he sketched his ideas, using a whole fistful of pencils at once.
"When you work thin, the more difficult shaping becomes," he said. Much of the dilemma comes from the proper working temperature of the material.
But most the artist's time was spent directing his assistants, rather than on his own finger-painted drawings.
With his hands in insulated mits, Chihliy-shaped the hot glass that Royal removed from the oven, according to his design.
After drawing and shading his sketched forms, he forcefully wiped the areas he wanted to emphasize with diluted paint from a coffee cup while painting them.
JOHN BURCHETTA, CARMEL, N.Y., junior and KU glass club president, said a glass lab coerces a rapport with his material in order to give the intended shape.
"You've got to put your self into it," Burchetta said. "I've been searching for my own form for two years."
In 1970, Chilby helped found the Pilchuck Glass Center in Starwood, Wash. Hodges said it was "the only school in the country devoted to
Hodges said he had worked with Chihuly as a teaching assistant at Pilehuck.
KU's 'Elephant Man' not like movie
William Rector, Lawrence senior, said he attended the Pilchuck school last summer and worked with Chihuahua there.
By DAN HOWELL
Staff Reporter
The University Theatre production of the award-winning play "The Elephant Man" differs a great deal from its film counterpart, the director of the play said last week.
Catherine Renfro, the director, said the play focused on the social conventions that defined people who were different as deformed or disfigured. They were concentrated on the struggle of one such person.
"His deformities are external and they stand for the deformities of us all," she said.
The biting social commentary of Bernard Pomerance's play will be the focus of the KU theater production that will begin at 8 p.m. in "Bring Me Home" in 26 in the William Ingle Theatre in Murphy Hall.
"THE ELEPHANT MAN," FIRST staged in
London in 1977, has won at least a dozen American theater awards including the 1979 Tony Award as best play of the Broadway season. It consists of 21 vignettes from the life of John Merrick, a horribly deformed man who was raised by a carnival trawl to a curiosity in polite society.
poke out. Renfro, Olathe graduate student, said the play, unlike the movie, called for Merrick to be played without makeup because Pomerance wanted to prevent the audience from being preoccupied with appearance.
"In some ways it is a psychological study of society, using John Merrick as a metaphor," she said.
The play explores human illusions through the characters of Mrs. Kendal, a professional actress, and Merrick. The two become friends as they learn that he assists as to discuss, the rules they assume in public.
will play Merrick, said the character "always tries to fit in but never does."
"One of the most important lines of the play is 'When the illusion ends he must kill himself,' " he said. The line, which is also the title of one of his plays, says: "With his illusion that he can lead a normal life.
TODD STITES, LAWRENCE SENIOR, who
Robert Taylor, Stoke-on-Trean, England; graduate student who plays Dr. Frederick Treves, Merrick the caretaker, once took dentistry courses at the London Hospital at Whitechapel, where Treves worked and Merrick lived in the 1880s.
Taylor said Treves had also worked on Sundays among London's poor, a habit that revealed his desire to help Merrick lead a more normal life.
"INSIDE, WHAT THE MAN deeply wants is to change society," Taylor said. "Ironically, to a large extent he failed with Merrick."
KU musicians to celebrate Octubafest
Bv GINA K. THORNBURG
The "oom-pah-pah-oom-pah-pah" sound of the tuba will be heard in full force in Lawrence during the two weeks as area musicians celebrate the KU Octubafest.
Scott Watson, instructor of tuba and euphonium, said he wanted to show people in the Lawrence area that the tuba was not just an instrument but might be bringing up the rear of a German band.
So, with the help of the KU department of music and the band department, Watson has organized the first KU Octubafest — two weeks of concerts and workshops for tuba enthusiasts
All performances during the Octubafest are free and open to the public, he said.
"THE WHOLE IDEA is to give the public a different idea of the instrument," he said. "Not to see it only as an 'com-pah' instrument but to see it as being taken seriously as a performing instrument."
Yet, the two weeks of tuba-playing should not be looked at completely in a serious light he said.
"Fest' means celebration," he said. "Part of
the idea of calling it Octubafest is that it will be something that's serious and something that's also fun."
Performers in the Octubafest will show off two kinds of tubas, he said, the bass tuba and the euphonium, is half the size of the bass tuba and plays on a higher octave.
Watson said he hoped that Octubafest would become a tradition at KU.
"WE'D LIKE TO KEEP it going every year so that people in Lawrence will look forward to it and expect it," he said.
David Brookshire, Lawrence sophomore, who plays the euphonium, said the Octubest was a good way to recruit high school students to the KU department of music.
"It's good to show the high school students what kind of players we have," he said, "and to show them how good a music program KU has."
Watson said KU had produced some good tuba players in the past. Some former KU tuba students are now performing in the United States Coast Guard Band, the San Francisco Symphony, and the Western Brass Quintet at Western Michigan.
THORNTOH HAS BEEN with the Cincinnati Symphony since 1976. He has also performed the U.S. Air Force Band, American Wind Symphony Orchestra, Cincinnati's Pro Musica Chamber Orchestra and the Queen City Brass Quintet.
The Octubafest will begin with a performance by guest artist Michael Thornton, principal tubist with the Cincinnati Symphony, he said.
“这 gives the students here a chance to hear someone of this caliber,” Watson said, “and hopefully will inspire them to work even harder.”
Thornton will perform a solo recital at 8 p.m. today in the West Junior High School Auditorium. He will conduct a tuba workshop in Murphy Hall at 3:30 p.m. tomorrow.
Watson said KU students in the Kansas Tuba Consort and top high school tuba players in the Midwestern All-Star Tuba Ensemble would workshops and perform in the closing concert.
Lawrence also has some good tuba players, he said.
A local professional group, the Coronach Tuba
Quarterly will perform at 8 p.m. Saturday, Oct. 29
at The Pioneer in New York City.
Watson will also perform a solo recital as part of the KU Faculty Recital Series at 8 p.m. Sunday, Oct. 23 in Swarthout.
KU folk dancers welcome everyone
By the Kansan Staff
the scene is the weekly meeting of the KU Folk Dance Club. The members dance each Friday from 7:30 to 10:30 p.m. People do not have to bring a partner to dance and admission is free.
The couples jump and spin to the merry strains of folk music. Israeli, Hungarian and Balkan dances follow each other until the second floor of the Military Science Building
"Folk dancing is social dancing from other countries. The club is here to give anyone who is interested a chance to get together with others and learn these dances," she said.
"This dancing is a lot more fun to do than to watch," said Theille Muller, Kansas City, Mo.
June Hewey, Norman, Okla., graduate student and member of the club, said, "People come to have a good time. It's a relaxing activity that's different from working all week. We have people come from all over Lawrence as well as other towns."
A performance group made up of a few of the club members dance at folk festivals and other similar events, she said.
THE CLUB CONSTISTS of 20 regular members from all over the area. It is open to people of all ages who are interested in folk dapping.
over Lawrence. Andy Schabel, Crookston, Minn., graduate student and president of the club, said he first got involved in folk dancing in high school.
"I went to some meetings in college and met a few people," he said. "You go a few times, make some friends and keep going."
A TYPICAL REHEARSAL is informal, he said. The first hour is spent teaching the
Members of the KU Folk Dance Club dance to folk music of many different countries at a Friday night meeting on the second-floor drill deck of the Military Science Building. The dancing is open to everyone regardless of age.
Three years ago, Ravi Bhaskar, India graduate student and vice president of the club, heard some "interesting sounding music" in front of Wescoce Hall. He stayed and
members and visitors new folk dances, and the rest of the time is spent practicing.
listened to the music and watched the Folk Dance Club perform.
"I really got into it," he said. "It had a very international flavor to it and for Kansas, that was what I wanted."
MOVIE REVIEWS
Rating System
excellent
good
good
fair ...
Merry Christmas, Mr. Lawrence
堂堂堂
...good
Although this film may be impossible to understand, several aspects of "Merry Christmas, Mr. Lawrence" make the movie easy to like.
The film stars Tom Conti as Lawrence, a British officer in a Japanese prison camp in Java during World War II. Lawrence serves as a go-between for the Japanese soldiers and their captors. Tom Conti is wonderful as the pacifist Lawrence, and his performance adds to the film's allure.
David Bowie receives top billing in this movie, but his role really is subordinate to Conti's Lawrence, and possibly to two of the Japanese soldiers. Ryuichi Sakamoto portrays the emotionally incomprehensible Japanese commander, and Takeshi gives a strong performance as a Japanese sergeant who befriends Lawrence.
This movie's mysticism makes it hard to understand. Bowie plays a British officer who
comes to the prison camp, and his more presence causes trouble. Flashbacks to his troubled past only confuse and astound the viewer as more startling facts are revealed.
Oshima makes the story human. The film is not a generic war film about Japanese prison camps; it gives both sides of the story and presents the Japanese captors not as cruel and brutal monsters, but as human beings who have emotions and problems.
Co-writer and director Nagisa Oshima tries to present a look at the more realistic side of the insanity of war and the confusing clash of cultures and ideals brought about by war. There is a strong human side to this story, and because of that, the characters' motivations, there are no real villains.
Not often does a leading actor in a film have the time and the talent to provide the musical score, but in "Merry Christmas, Mr. Lawrence," Sakamoto, who plays Captain Yoni, the Japanese commander, does just that. Sakamoto's music is stronger than his acting. He likes to put a lot, and his makeup overpowered his features.
This film is an adaptation of Sir Laurence Van Der Post's novel "The Seed and the Sower." Oshima and Paul Mayersberg collaborated on the screenplay.
Maybe part of the confusion created by this film stems from its intensely moving messages about human nature and the clash of cultures included in the story. Japanese and Britons might understand different aspects of the film because of their different cultural backgrounds.
But even with this problem, "Merry Christmas, Mr. Lawrence" is an enjoyable film.
SPARE TIME
Mike Cuenca
TODAY
ON CAMPUS
THE LIFE-ISSUE Seminar titled "The Committed Marriage: A Christian Perspective" will meet at 4:30 p.m. at the Ecumenical Christian Ministries Center.
KU MOUNTAINEERING will meet at 7 p.m. in the Oned Room of the Kansas Union.
THE STUDENT Creative Anachronists will meet at 8 a.m. in the Union.
KJHK'S TALK SHOW "Alternative Conversations" will be broadcast at 6 p.m. and will feature Jim Denney of the KU Police Department discussing safety on campus.
THE KU CONCERT Choir will perform under the direction of Rob Fisher, conductor, at 8 p.m. today in the Swarthout Recital Hall. Admission is free.
MICHAEL THORNTON will give an Octubest concert at 8 p.m. today in the West Junior High School Auditorium. Admission is free.
THE HELEN FOREMSMAN Spencer Museum of Art is now exhibiting "Early Modern Art from the Guggenheim Museum" and "Dutch Prints of Daily Life."
A COLLECTION OF artwork by members of the school of Design faculty is now on display in the Art Building.
THE ROYAL LICHTENSTEIN Circus will perform from noon to 1 p.m. today on the Watson Library lawn.
NOW ON DISPLAY at the Dynec Museum of Natural History is "The Great Horned Owl," "A New Duck Surfaces: The Steamer" and "Aston of Indian Leaders Who Fought at Little Bighorn."
TOMORROW
MICHAEL THORNTON will give an Oct
October thurs at 3:30pm tomorrow in
Room 1248 in Murphy.
THE TAU SIGMA DUNGE Club will meet at 7 p.m. in Dance Studio 242 in Robinson Center
THE AFRICAN Studies department will sponsor a fall colloquium titled "Everything You Always Wanted to Know about Voodoo but Were Not asked to Ask" at noon in Dovec O of the Union.
BLOOM COUNTY
BY BERKE BREATHED
9
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