ENTERTAINMENT
The University Daily KANSAN
September 23, 1983 Page 6
Stephen Philline/KANSAN
Beaulief Woods, who plays Jesus in the Lawrence Community Theatre's 'Godspell,' practices his dancing during rehearsal for the show.
'Godspell' updated to 1980s in Community Theatre show
By PAMELA THOMPSON Staff Reporter
Staff Reporter
Contemporary references to Valley Girls, "Saturday Night Live" characters and the national exercise crazie give the '60s musical "Godspell," a distinctive flavor of the '80s.
But despite these modern changes, the opening production of the Lawrence Community Theatre retains its underlying spiritual message.
"We want the audience to identify with the message and not with the era the play itself evolved from," said Eleanor Patton, stage manager of the modern idiom doesn't change the meaning."
To update the play, the directors modeled the stage after a health club gymnasium and costumed the 10 actors in colorful, but exaguered fashion, said Doug Wasson, production coordinator.
"THE PLAY IS NOT a revival or a historical piece from the '60s," he said. "The new wave sound and new design give it more meaning. There's even a certain punkiness."
He said that musical director Rob Fisher, Lawrence graduate student, experimented with the sounds of a synthesizer to create an album of rhythms for the show's in rock, 'n' roll songs.
The modernized version of the smash-hit musical, written by Stephen Schwartz and conceived by John-Michael Tebekal in 1967, is based on the Gospel according to St. Matthew. It will be performed Sep. 28. 2 at the Arts Center, Ninth and Vermont streets.
The play's director, David Murray, Palmer Lake, Colo., senior, said that he thought it was important to know about the traditional verbal art of the novel to do new things with such an open script.
"WITH A PLAY ALMOST as classic as 'hamlet' you have to see what works with different interpretations," he said, "while giving it as deep and powerful a meaning as
Murray said he wanted the Christian meaning of the play to confront the members of the audience so that they might analyze
themselves, instead of merely "feeling good" after the play.
"We want the audience to take part in the event and not just experience it as a scene."
For the song "Day By Day," the audience was even encouraged to join in the singing; MKM.
Wasson said that to inspire and "warm up the passive participation of the audience," the entire cast mingled with the audience offstage before the play started.
Wasson she used both soft shoe and country western dance steps in the show because the music was emphasized more than the dancing was.
Murray said that he "got into shape" for the direction of "Godspell", his first full-length production outside of the University of Kanada and his Sheepard play "True West" for KU last year.
Although many of the cast members are KU students, Murray said that he enjoyed working with people in the Lawrence community because "they all wanted to be there so much."
THE TWO LEAD ROLES of Jesus and John the Baptistus, are played by Bourdon Woodward.
Secard said that although she had performed in many recent KU productions such as "Reunion," "A Little Night Music" and "Evening Light," and had sung at local clubs and in the Concert for Young People series, she had performed for a Lawrence Community Theatre show.
"I probably was encouraged to try out at the community theatre because of the new credit hour rule at KU that required a student to register in order to form in a university production." Secor said.
Quartet to bring musical feast
All four evening performances begin at 8 p.m. at the Lawrence Community Theatre. A matinee performance will begin at 2 p.m. Sunday.
By PAUL SEVART Staff Reporter
The Guarneri String Quartet will bring to the University of Kansas this weekend a feast of chamber music to suit any concert goer's taste.
The internationally known quartet will perform works of two traditional favorites and a versatile but neglected contemporary composer at 3:30 p.m. Sunday in the Crafton-Preyer Theatre. The concert is part of the KU Chamber Music Series.
The quartet comprises Arnold Steinhardt, violin; John Dalley, violin; David Sewell, cello; and Michael Tree, viola. This is the Guarrier's team to include the University on its touring schedule.
The Guarneri will perform works by Franz Haydn and Frank Shubert, and Paul Hindemith's Quartet Op. 22, No. 3, which was published in 1921.
"THERE IS SOMETHING for everybody in this concert," said Michael Kimber, associate professor of viola. "There is a wonderful contrast in the styles."
Kimber is a member of the Atlanta Virtuosi, a
"It's wonderful that the Guarneri is performing this," he said. "The Hindemith quartets are being neglected, and unjustly, I think. The reason it is not played very often is that his chamber work is still not in the main body of chamber music literature."
chamber ensemble, and of the Oread String Trio in Lawrence. "He said that Hindemith's work was the best," he said.
Kimber said that he had performed Hindemith works for other instruments, and that the composer was known for his ability to write for and play almost all orchestral instruments.
"He was a wonderful craftsman, and in his best works a very inspired musician," he said. "This is certainly one of his best chamber pieces."
THE CONCERT WILL OPEN with Haydn's Quartet in C major, Op. 74, No. 1. This Austrian composer is called "the father of the string orchestra," and he was developed with developing the medium from its infancy.
Haydn's early quartets were essentially violin concertos, Kimber said, which emphasized the first violin and let the other instruments take a back seat. However, the later quartets, such as
the one the Guarneri will play Sunday, include prominent passages for each instrument.
The Shubert work, Quartet in D minor,"Death and the Maiden," is that composer's most famous quartet, Kimber said. The work was published in 1826.
"This work is much more passionate than the Haydn, which is basically elegant with oocasal elements."
The program notes, written by Jeremy Yudkin for the Guerrilla state, that the Shubert piece “is” a narrative about the hero.
World-class opera talent backs couple to be featured in recital at Swarthout
Three of the quartet members are faculty members of the Curtis Institute of Music in Philadelphia, and all of them are on the faculty at the University of Maryland.
point of the Guarnieri, which is in its 19th year of performing. It was a staple of the 1964 Marboreo Music Festival in Vermont, and will make its 18th tour of Europe this season.
Tickets for the Sunday performance are on sale in the Murphy Hall box office. All seats are reserved. Tickets for KU students with a student ID are $5 and $4; public tickets are $10 and $8. Discounts are available for senior citizens, other students and groups.
By GUELMA ANDERSON Staff Reporter
Norman and Inci Paige sit in their living room surrounded by large ferns, spider plants and rubber-tree plants. A yellow cockatiel named Tweeter flits nonchalantly from a lamp shade to the top of Inci's head. Mimi, a 12-year old mix of "normal" and "something else," patterns around the room.
The only indications of the influence of opera in the room are the issues of Opera News that sit there.
But Norman Paige, professor of voice music at the University of Kansas, and his wife, Ieni Bashar Paige, associate professor of voice music at the University of Missouri-Kansas City, are world-class singers.
At 8 p.m. tonight Norman, a tenor, and Inci, a mezzo-soprano, will perform in Swarthowat Rectal Hall. Indoor Angelaetti, professor of music at the University, will they begin and end the program with duets.
THEY SAID THAT performing in front of faculty and students in a university atmosphere
The couple has performed for many different audiences over the course of their careers.
"It is much more difficult because you have to
with these people but other audiences are
straight forward."
that sort of infects you with the virus of performing."
The two met in 1962 when Ici joined an opera company in Cologne, Germany, in which Norman had been a member for two years, but their backgrounds were extremely different.
Opera had taken them along an unusual, romantic path that led to the marriage of "a guy from Brooklyn, N.Y., and a girl from Istanbul, Turkey."
So he joined a Gilbert and Sullivan touring company and sang in German opera houses.
HE SAID HE HAD studied voice at New York University and the Juilliard School of Music but he later decided he would rather perform than go to school.
"I went to a high school where music was stressed," Norman said. "I was given lots of opportunities."
However, Inci's initiation into the world of opera was quite different.
"I come from a country where opera was emphasized in a small circle," she said. "There were many artists."
"My singing goes back to when I was three years old," she said. "I was always performing
'(We) will always work as a team. Not just in singing, but as a family.'
—Norman and Inci Paige opera singers
— if there was any kind of occasion that called for singing, I sang. It was so much a part of me that I didn't think it was anything special."
She continued singing as she went to school to earn her law degree. She joined the Istanbul University Law School.
TWO YEARS LATER, the German government gave her a scholarship to go to Cologne.
The two singers met and sang in four operas together and in 1964 they got married. Norman received an engagement with the national company of the Metropolitan Opera that same year. Inci occasionally sang in New York while Norman was away.
But she said she got tired of not having a full-time career of her own
"I just got a little bit impatient," she said.
"Norman was traveling a lot and I was just
sitting there. But he understood that I could not sing just once in a while. So I went to join the company in Dortmund, Germany."
ter career in Dortmund flourished. She performed in "Carmen" 33 times and took on other challenging roles. Still, the separationNorman, Norman and their daughter was not ideal.
"OF COURSE YOU YOU have a child and a family you have certain responsibilities," she said. "Then in December of 1968, Norman called me and said I have been offered this job as a teacher in Kansas. What do you think?" I said. 'Well, uh . . . Kansas?'
"We knew that most singers end up being teased but we were really too young to settle down."
Norman said, "But the University always encouraged faculty to go out and perform, so it would be better for them."
The couple has been able to continue to perform all over the United States.
Norman has performed with city companies in New York, Chicago, San Francisco, Dallas.
INCI HAS PERFORMED in New York and Milwaukee, but she has done most of her recent performing in Lawrence.
Lawrence may not have the lure and glamour of Carnegie Hall, but the couple agreed that they would not trade their present way of life for the bright lights.
"People always ask us, 'Oh, you came from such an exciting background. You must be terribly bored here.' Ici said. "And I say, 'Why am I so terrified of security and a calm out of life that is very valuable."
"We have very talented students," she said.
We love to work with them because they keep us on their feet.
"Norman and I will always work as a team," said Inci.
Norman interrupts, "Not just in singing, but as a family."
Writing conference offers exchanges with professionals
By the Kansan Staff
William Burroughs and magazine editor Jane Cigabattari will be featured speakers at the sixth annual Associated Kansas Writing Programs conference today and tomorrow at the Kansas Union.
The three-day writing conference for teachers, high school and college students and free-lance writers is sponsored by the Kansas
Arts Commission and will include readings, discussions workshops and exchange with artists.
The registration fee for students is $10, $15 for AKWP members and $20 for the public.
Burroughs, who is from Lawrence and will be a visiting professor at KU next spring, will conduct a reading at 4 p.m. today in the Jayhawk Room of the Kansas Union.
Lunch." "Nova Express" and "Cities of the Red Night.
He is best known for his Beat Movement works from the '50s and '60s which include "Naked
Cabbattari, a native of Emporia and Editor-in-Chief of Dial magazine, the Public Broadcasting Systems publication, will conduct a research study day's luncheon in the Kansas Room of the Union
Along with her duties as editor, Ciabattari serves on the Advisory Board of The Fiction Network. The network syndicates, supplements and distributes short stories to magazines.
SPARE TIME
The deadline for items for Friday's calendar is 4 p.m. Wednesday. The deadline for items for Monday's calendar is 4 p.m. Thursday. On Campus events must be free and open to the public. Lawrence and Region events must be open to the public.
ON CAMPUS
THANK GOD ITS Friday at the Saint Lawrence Cathedral will be 3-6 p.m. today (1631 Crescent)
THE MUSEUM of Natural History will sponsor a workshop titled "Caring for Pets" 9:30-11:30 a.m. and 1-3 p.m. tomorrow at Dyche Hall
THE BASEBALL Simulation Club will be forming a league at 7 p.m. today in the Regionalist Room of the Union and will draft players at noon tomorrow in the Council Room of
JOHN G. HEALEY, executive director of Annesty International USA, will speak at 8 p.m. today in Alderson Auditorium of the Kansas Union.
ROGER PRICE will give a doctoral piano recital at 8 p.m. tomorrow in Swarthout Recital Hall.
UNION
THE UNDERGRADUATE biology club will meet at 4 p.m. today in the Sunflower Room of the Union.
THE CAMERA
NORMAN PAIGE, tenor, and Inci Bashar Paige, mezzo-soprano, will perform at 8 p.m. today in Swarthout Recital Hall.
A WORKSHOP titled "Small Game Safari"
will take place from 9 a.m. to 12 noon tomorrow at the Natural History Museum at Dvce Hall
THE SUNDAY evening gathering, which will include supper and a presentation by Jay Fowler titled "Music and Christian Worship," will be at the, at ecmc the Christian Ministries Center.
ON DISPLAY AT the Museum of Natural History is "Using Medieval Plants Today." "The Great Horned Owl, newest addition to the Birds Museum, is one of the most famous of the Stearper" , and other displays at Dyce Hall.
STEPHEN PETERSON will speak about "Identifying Edible Wild Mushrooms" 1-4 p.m. Sunday at the Museum of Natural History at Dyche Hall.
THE HELEN FORESMAN Spencer Museum of Art is now showing "Eldred and Nevelson Sculpture: Another Dimension," "Influences: In the Art of Modern Masters" and "Modern Art from the Guggenheim."
A FREE FILM titled “Making Dances,” sponsored by the Tau Sigma dance club and the University of Kansas, will be at 9 a.m. and 2 p.m. on Tuesday and Wednesday and 7 p.m. Tuesday in 156 Robinson Center.
KJHK WILL broadcast its phone-in talk show 6: 30 p. m. Monday.
LARRY MAXEY and Linda Maxey will give a cabinet and marimba performance at 8 p.m. on Tuesday, April 26.
THE STUDENT Creative Anachronists will meet at 8 p.m. Monday in the Union.
LAWRENCE
THE BILL LYNCH Band will play tonight and
tomorrow and Caribe will play Sunday night at the Jazzhaus. 926 Massachusetts.
REGION
THE 7TH ANNUAL horse and wagon trail ride sponsored by the Kidney Foundation will be Saturday and Sunday at the Rockhaven area of Clinton Reservoir west of Lawrence.
WORLD'S OF FUN, Kansas City, Mo., will sponsor a country-Western Band concert Saturday and Sunday.
BY BERKE BREATHED
THE LYRIC OPERA will perform Frank Loeser's "Most Happy Fella" at 8 p.m. tomorrow at the Lyric Theatre, 11th and Central, Kansas City, Mo.
BOB JAMES WILL perform at 7:30 p.m. today at the Midland Center for the Performing Arts in
THE TOPEKA CHAMBER Music Series will present Mark Peskanov, violinist, at 8 p.m. Saturday at the White Concert Hall in Washburn University.
"IOLANTHIE" WILL be presented at 6:30 p.m. today and tomorrow, at the Bell Road Barn Park.
"LITTLE RED Riding Hood" will be presented at 10 a.m. and 1 p.m. at the Theatre for Kids.
BLOOM COUNTY
"GEMINI" WILL be presented at 8:30 p.m. today and tomorrow at the Unicorn Theatre in Kansas City, Mo.
THE "SPECKLED BAND" will be presented at 1 p.m. today at the Missouri Repertory Theater.