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University Daily Kansan, February 15 1983
Entertainment
Characters in the KU production of Shakespeare's comedy, "Much Ado About Nothing," practice a scene for their opening performance, which will be 8 p.m. Friday in Murphy Hall. The cast will dress in Elizabethan attire during the scene, but will break into the Charleston and tango as part of their post-World War I interpretation.
Students learn from recitals
Nervous, yet determined music students climb the stairs to the stage of Swarthout Recital Hall almost every day to perform vocal and instrumental renditions of famous compositions.
By LADONNA LONGSTREET
Staff Reporter
Stanley Shumway, chairman of the music department, said he expected the performances this week to be excellent. Students work with their teachers to build a repertoire, which must be approved at a preview a month before the actual performance.
"We try to have very high standards in our performances," he said.
During the year, students, faculty and visiting artists give about 400 recitals, which are usually free and open to the public. An hour-long solo presentation is a degree requirement for seniors majoring in performance, but other students also give recitals to gain experience in performing in front of audiences.
John Stephens, assistant professor of voice, said faculty members give recitals to keep in practice for performance and to let students observe a more polished presentation. "We have the best teachers," he said, the students feel and makes the teachers sharper, he said.
Susan Hash, Marshfield, Wis., junior, said that because she was preparing for her own recital, she liked to watch the faculty perform to see how they carried themselves and conveved the emotions of the song.
"I'm always excited to see others perform because there's such a high energy level," she said.
Hash, a soprano who will give an hour recital at 8 p.m.
Thursday in Swarthout, chose her program in late November
for a performance at the Metropolitan Opera.
Stephens said, "That's absolutely crucial. You need to know word for word what you're singing about."
Hash had the French, German and Italian songs translated into English so she could understand them.
Hash said, "If you don't know what you're singing, you can't convey the mood. You've got to convey the emotion"
Maintaining the reeling of the song gives the singer the vitality to continue throughout an entire presentation, Hash said. Even if the audience cannot understand the words, they may still feel as though all of the songs through the performer's emotions and gestures.
Paige Morgan, Raytown, Mo. junior, played the oboe Wednesday, during half of a recital she was sharing with
"I never really thought about the recital," she said. "But I'd get a little nervous knowing it was going to take place."
I just had it for the experience of performance," she said. Morgan, who started playing the oboe in the fifth grade, said she tried to practice three hours a week but hadn't managed to piece for three to four months, she said she felt pretty good about how it turned out.
When she did think about it, Morgan said she thought it was coming too soon, and she would not be ready.
coming too soon, and she would not be here.
"I want to do really well when I get out there," she said.
Post-W.W. I setting adds twist to KU's 'Much Ado'
Phyllis Brill, associate professor of voice, said nervousness was a part of performing.
Morgan said. "The most important thing for me is to play well musically. If you don't feel anything inside, it's boring. I feel a lot when I'm playing. My inside feelings come out through the obee."
"It's a very important part," she said. "A certain type of nervousness and excitement before performing adds to it. It's part of the desire to do well."
By LAUREN PETERSON
Staff Reporter
A post World War I setting should add an unusual twist to the KU Theatre production Friday night of Shakespeare's comedy, "Much Ado About Nothing."
The time switch includes a set with painted panels of Toulouse-Lautre prints, roller skating and a chorus dancing.
"The transition from old to modern Europe is analogous to the transition from medieval to Renaissance Europe," he
John Gronbeck Tedesco, associate professor of theatre and director of the play, said the change from the traditional 17th century Italian setting of the play to the modern European setting in the middle teens and early 1920s could be easily written.
He said that at the turn of the century, certain play directors
such as William Poet, a British director, started approaching Shakespearian plays with a different frame of mind, using eras besides the Elizabethan period for the setting.
"We took different elements from the teens and twenties and put them together to make a constructive style."
The pay begins with Leonato, Governor of Messina,
welcoming Don Pedro, Prince of Arragon, who is returning after a successful campaign against his bastard brother, Don John, whom he is now reconciled.
Gronback-Tedescho said that Leonato, played by William Kuhle, professor of theatre, tries to go back to the way things work.
"Shakespeare is saying that all those old laws don't work."
and it isn't love that organizes lives. You can't
harm anyone.
Gronbeck-Tedeschi said that the codes of honor and law fail throughout the play, but that the characters finally realize the truth.
He said the costumes and props displayed the flavir
influence of the ropeed with height values; nurseries and eats
Also, the melody from one of the songs in the play, he said, was taken from a Ziefeld Follis' number.
In the play, Leonate holds a party for Don Pedro, played by Mark Reuter, Lawrence junior, and encourages the marriage of his daughter Hero, played by Angela Wallace, Tonganoxie senior, to the eager Don Pedro.
"He is trying to inaugurate the old," he said, "but it doesn't work."
At Leonato's ball, his niece Beatrice, performed by Roberta Wilhelm, leaventhorow graduate student, informs her masked partner that Benedict, played by Lewan Alexander, Junction master, dull fool "whose only talent is 'devising impossible slanders'
The two carry on a love-hate relationship throughout the play, until the end, when they realize their devotion for one
At the ball, characters will wear Elizabethan costumes but
break out in the Charleston and tango.
The villain of the comedy, Don John, played by Mary Neufeld, Lawrence special student, schemes with his two sidekicks, Borachio and Conrad, the play to break up Florentine prince Dionisio. Florentine placed by Mark Torchia, Overland Park junior.
Gronbock-Tedescos said that he cast women in the parts of Don John and his two friends because the characters were "cunning."
Borachio explains to Don John that he is in the favor of Margaret, Hero's waiting-woman. He will ask her to appear at Hero's window in her mistress's clothes while Don Pedro and Claudio are nearby, undress speak in such a way as to
Don John agrees and the plot almost succeeds, but Boracho reveals Don John's scheme against Claudio, causing much
The production will continue Saturday night and also next Thursday, Friday and Saturday.
THE CASTLE
TEA ROOM
1307 Mass. plenum B43-1151
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843-3955
READING FOR COMPREHENSION AND SPEED
(Four hours of instruction.)
February 15 and 22 (Tuesday)
7:30 to 9:30 p.m.
Register and pay $13 materials fee at the Student Assistance Center, 121强 Hall.
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Nautilus FITNESS CENTERS Southern Hills Mall 1601 W.23rd 749-1501
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The Board of Class Officers Presents The All-Campus Musical/Variety Show
ENCORE! MOVIES: SPOOFS AND GOOFS
HOCH AUDITORIUM
Thursday, Feb. 17, 1983
Friday, Feb. 18, 1983
Saturday, Feb. 19, 1983
$3.00
$4.00
$5.00
7:30 p.m.
7:30 p.m.
7:30 p.m.
All seats $1.00 off with BOCO class card
Tickets available at SUA Box Office, C90 Record Rental, OMNI Electronics
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