Page 6
University Daily Kansan, February 4. 1983
Tragicomedy elicits variety of emotions
BY JOHNNIE FISCUS
Staff Reporter
Staff Reporter
A philosophical tragicomedy will set audiences' emotions on a gamut from pathos to mirth at the University of Kansas next week.
The play, "Philemon," takes its name from an early Christian leader who was secretly tortured to death by imperial Roman troops nearly 1,700 years ago. The play is scheduled for b.p.m. Feb. 8 to 13 in the William Inge Memorial Theatre in Murphy Hall.
“There’s the love theme, the Christian theme, the struggle for dignity and self respect and a power struggle between two differing philosophies.”
"It's a universal story," said director Robert Butcher, Coldwater graduate student. "People can see the show and respond to it in several different ways.
Marcus, the Roman commander responsible for the killing, makes a deal with a down-and-out street clown named Cockian. If Cockian will uncover the city's Christian underground by冲击 is the little-known Philenon, Marcus will assure him free and safe passage to his home.
Problems arise, however, when Cockian becomes involved with those he is supposed to betray. He eventually is consumed by his role as Philemon and dies a martyr.
Although "Philemon" uses some Biblical history in its background, the play itself is not a religious show. In fact, much of the humor is bawdy and earthy. Butcher said.
The audience will find the lewd antics in Cockian's street show amusing. The scene comparing the fall of Rome to a sausage is particularly funny.
The audience also is moved to tears when Cockian finally realizes that he actually has become Philemon. And through Philemon, he finds love.
"Philomenon" is played on a stark stage. The costumes of the characters emphasize man's vulnerability to the Roman dictatorship of the times. For example, in the prison scenes the actors use their robots not only for blankets, but also as a way to hide from the commander.
The only scenery in Philomene consists of wooden boxes and several layers of curtains. This sparse setting is common in shows written by Tom Jones and Harvey Schmidt, Butcher said. The two also wrote "I Do! I Do!" and "110 in the Shade."
Because of the stark setting, the show's first musical number is particularly effective.
"Within this empty space there is nothing we cannot do," the actors sing. "We can seek to create something great from the past or seek to create something new."
The actors in "Philmelon" do create something great from the past in the limited space of the Inge Theatre. The story of Cockian comes alive through the cast's dancing and singing.
Cockian, the fool turned prophet, is played by Todd Stites, Lawrence senior, Stephen Grimm, Overland Park senior, is Marcus, the commander of the city of Antioch.
Only Matey and Serville. his guard, played,
kissed Matey and Serville. Palm Lake, screen.
signed Kate Matey.
Other actors in the cast include Richie Roberts, Olathe freshman, who plays Andos, a prisoner who befriends Cockian and acts as his messenger.
Michelle Stetting, Topeka junior, plays Kiki,
Cockain's girlfriend. the wife of the Christian
underground leader is played by Elizabeth
Blanchard, Shawnee junior, Gretchen Kehde,
Lawrence junior, plays Marsysa, an inmate in
the prison where Cockain is being held.
Tickets for "Philemon" are on sale in the Murphy Hall box office. Because of the limited seating in the Inge Theatre, patrons are urged to make reservations early by calling 864-3882. Special discounts are available for KU students and senior citizens.
Commission plans series of surveys to help decide future of Kansas art
Kansas residents now have a say in the future of arts in their state.
More than 550 volunteers are helping the Kansas Arts Commission refine its long-range plans, said John Reed, executive director of the commission.
By filling out a series of surveys called the Delphi process, the participants will help adjust commission's long-range plans and also focus on immediate needs of Kansas residents, Reed said.
The surveys include questions about all art disciplines, he said.
The return from the first survey indicate that Kamas residents want increased state financing.
The responses also indicate that the commission should try to promote Kansas artists, as well as find new ways to market Kansas art, and that there are many of the arts and what is going on where, he said.
The answers from the first survey are being tallied and will be sent back to participants in early February so they can rank the answers from not important to very important. Reed said
The ranking from the second survey will be
included in the final survey to be sent out either in late February or early March.
The results of the study will be presented to the Kansas Arts Commission in April.
Using these findings, the commission will begin to incorporate the immediate art needs of the state into its short-range plan. The commission will revise its 1973 long-range plan, Reed said.
The consultant for the study, William Holloway, has used the Delphi process with several federal organizations. Holloway is chairman of the Department of educational policy and administration.
The Delphi process will allow the Kansas Arts Commission to get a variety of opinions as well as a general statewide consensus about the role arts should play in Kansas. Holloway said.
Reed said the Delhi process was used because it allowed large groups to generate objectives and then rank them. It works well in cities where people living in a large geographical area, be said.
The Delphi process will also allow the Kansas Arts Commission to identify the special needs of artists and art groups. A large number of the participants are artists or represent art groups and their responses will be closely reviewed, Reed said.
Ruth Lawner leads a busy life as a wife, mother, artist and wouldn't change any of it for the world,
editor and designer at Spencer Museum of Art, but she says she
Designer finds time for weekend art
By LAUREN PETERSON
Staff Reporter
The nude model reclined motionless, surrounded by an odd collection of dark-colored flowers.
The artist, Ruth Sokolovska Lawner, dressed in khaki pants and a peach blouse, stood back from her drawing board, glancing from her work to the model, and blotted the paper with an orange towl. She took a can of black metallic paint and sprayed it horizontally onto the drawing, the pungent odor filling the stuffy room.
She stepped back again to view the total effect. Finally, with & satisfied look on her slightly tanned face, she meticulously reconstructed the of the nude body with pastels and graphite.
"I like to use this technique," she said, because my subconscious can take over. It's hard for me to resist.
"We were all tired after a day's work, and no one was ready to produce a masterpiece." she squeezed her nose into her hair.
"To do anything well, you really can't be tired.
Lawner, an editor and designer at the Helen Foreman Spencer Museum of Art for the past 14 years, and five other KU faculty have been meeting every Saturday for these sessions ever since their life-drawing session at the Lawrence Arts Center ended three years ago.
The artists use a spacious room on the fourth floor of the Visual Art and Design building, where they sketch local models each weekend. She said they started with some quick sketches to warm up, then progressed to more detailed drawings.
"Don't forget, I have a family and I attend a lot of my husband's concerts."
Lawner and her husband, George, and two children moved to Lawrence 16 years ago when her husband became a professor of fine arts at KU.
She said she met her husband while he was conducting for the Chicago Lyric Opera and she was working for Paul Theobald and Co., a publishing company in Chicago.
From Chicago, the Lawyers moved to San Francisco and then to Lawrence in the fall of
Most of Lawner's tastes and art choices are European, she said, because she was raised in a German family. She said her family lost all that it had in the inflationary years before she moved to New York, where West Germany, to New York, where her father practiced radiology in Manhattan
"My mother was an artist," she said proudly, "but because of the era, she didn't really do anything with her career. She used to let me take her to art classes in girl, girl, so art was part of my natural upbringing."
Lawyer also looked back upon her high school years at a parochial girls school in Kenosha, Wis., where her family later moved, as an important force in her life.
"It was a wonderful old school with a medieval setting right on the lake," she said. "The sisters were a marvelous influence on my life. I learned things like manuscript writing and I learned the wonderful art teacher from New England who let me draw on Saturday. If she had a model."
Lawner attended the Chicago Art Institute after high school, but her education was interrupted by World War II. After the war, she studied at Harvard and painting at Northwestern University.
Although Lawner does not always have time to draw or paint on weekdays, she said that she did not think of herself as a weekend artist.
"It's not just a hobby," she said in a serious tone. "It's part of my everyday life. It's as normal as breathing."
At work, Lawner said she was finishing the production of the Pat Steir exhibit catalog, while preparing two catalogs for the spring museum exhibits and a yearly catalog distributed in the spring, called the Register.
She said between 1,000 and 2,000 copies of each catalog were printed.
"I look upon the dummy sheet as a blank canvas," she said. "You want to reflect the quality of the museum in your publications."
Many of Lawner's drawings and paintings, along with other local artists' works, were exhibited last August at the Lawrence Art Center in a show titled "Artists and Models."
She said that she hoped to exhibit more of her work, which she referred to as "abstract expressionism," in the near future.
"I'm painting under my maiden name.
Sokhwela. I think it is a more colorful name,
Sokhwela."
Lawner admitted it was not always easy being a wife, a mother, a career woman and an artist all in the same week, but she said she did not change anything in her life for the world.
Rating System
Weekend Review
"Tootse," with Dustin Hoffman, Jessica Lante and Bill Murray.
"Tootie" has every element of a good comedy except humor.
Jokes are telegraphed or are cliche, but when the jokes stop, the movie has something to say. Hoffman discovers sexual prejudice from a woman and decides and decides it is a better man as a woman.
Despite his gravely voice, Hoffman gets an acting job as a woman in a soap opera. He spends his time worrying about new clothes, and he doesn't wear them. He can sneak a peek at Lance in the dressing room.
The bright spot is Murray, who has a small role and every really funny line in the movie.
堂
"48 Hours," with Nick Nolte and Eddie Murphy.
Unfortunately, each person who enters the theater is expected to pay that sum. Murphy was funny, but he seemed like a clown at the Battle of Verdun.
Taking into account the 50 cents the script must have cost, the buck for Nole's acting lesson and the $2 spent on hamburgers, this movie is worth $3.50.
The idea of San Francisco as a good place for a car or bus chase is so overloaded it has become too complex.
because trite and dull are par for the course in '18 Hours.'
"Gandhi" has a message as important as those found in any movie of the last few years. It is the story of this century's greatest leader of the Indian movement, who beat the British Empire by refusing to go.
"Gandhi," with Ben Kingsley
Director Richard Attenborough sends intriguing characters flitting in and out of the movie, leaving the viewer wondering where they came from and why they left so soon. With the exception of Gandhi, his characters are left undeveloped.
"Gandhi," a three and one-half hour movie that doesn't drag, is the best picture that came out in 1983. Unfortunately, that's not saying much.
Though some legal points may be a bit shaky, the movie builds toward a gripping climax with the help of a strong supporting cast and twisting plot. James Mason, a high-priced lawyer who is the epitome of evil, and Jack Warden, who plays Galvin's friend, both turn in sterling performances. And Galvin's lover, Charlotte Ramping, indeed makes the most of a small role.
The verdict is in — Newman will finally win an Oscar for his portrayal of drunken shyster Frank Galvin who gets a shot at redemption.
The only weakness is Newman's inability to shed his likely image for that of a boozer loser.
星
"The Verdict," with Paul Newman
"Savannah Smiles," with Bridgette Anderson
"Savannah Smiles." is a once-in-a-grade-will
behave.
The first half hour you laugh. The next half hour you are charmed out of your pants. The final half hour you cry, sometimes out of joy, sometimes out of pain.
This movie will not get a lot of attention, but for the people who go it will be memorable.
A small, neglected and adorable rich girl runs away from home and is found by two convicts on the run. Taking a break from their skullugglery, the convicts find time to play, dance and picnic in Savannah. In the process the three of them love, and they take you right along with them.
"Savannah Smiles" was intended to be a movie for the whole family. Anyone who loves to watch it will be happier.
Sometimes, a film brings together a good cast and a good director and the result only makes you mad. You aren't emotionally upset by how the film was, but by how good it could have been.
.
Tony Bill, director of "My Bodyguard," Dudley Moore of "Arthur" and Mary Tyler Moore of "Ordinary People" combine to give us an emotionally exploitative collection of hackedy bravery in-the-face-of-death-at-ayoung-age cliches.
"Six Weeks," with Dudley Moore and Mary Tyler Moore.
Such is the case with "Six Weeks."
The best that can be said about Elizabeth Healy, the dying girl, is that she can dance, but she doesn't even do much of that. The sadstest thing she did was give a relief from the onslaught of tears-jercher clichers.
Six Weeks" has been done many times before, and done much better. It is eminently enjoyable.
C
"Honkytonk Man," with Clint and Kyle Eastwood.
Moviegoers may be tempted to go to this film just because it sounds so interesting.
Because it should not interfere.
One has visions of Clint Eastwood expanding
his horizons and everly doing some acting in his role as a Depression-era singer-songwriter. Add to that the novelty of his playing opposite his son, Kyle, and what sounds like an interesting plot idea, and Eastwood and non-Eastwood fans alike could be bured into the theater.
To lay to rest your hopes, the script is terrible,
the plot is jerky and wandering, and neither
is easy to understand.
Red turns out to be very talented — despite a terrible voice — and perfectly willing to exploit the boy and pull him into various kinds of none, none of which, of course, catches up with them.
Eastwood plays Red, a country-western singer who dreams of going to Nashville and singing for the Grand Ole Opry before tuberculosis catches up with him. Kyle is his nephew, Hoss, who idolizes him and travels with him on his jaunt.
The trip to Nashville includes predictable boy-turning-in-man adventures. Hoss is introduced to sex and liquor, finds out about the world of prostitution, finally gets to 'see the bright lights of the city.'
What does catch up with the pair is Red's TB, which prevents him from doing anything except a last hurrah of rushed recordings in the hopes that he will be immortalized.
Eastwood fails as director and actor, and his departure from the prototype of his more popular roles will probably turn off his regular
The problem's in this film are many, among them the disjointed plot and the lack of support that Eastwood receives from the other actors. The film is also very vague; they simply aren't good enough to carry the film.
This bird never hatches, much less gets off the around.
Movies coming to town this weekend:
"Without A Trace," with Judd Hirsch.
"The Entity."
"Homework," with Joan Collins.
Spare Time
FRIDAY
"paperworks," a display by Shellie Bender, "will be at the Lawrence Arts Center until Feb 23.
Edward Laut, professor of music,
will perform a faculty recital on cello at 8 p.m. in
the Music Building.
will be at the Lawrence Arts Center until Feb 23. A KU theatre production, "Buried Child" will be part of the American College Theatre Festival at the Folly Theater in Kansas City, Mo.
SUNDAY
The KU String Festival, the culminating event of the first annual five-state high school festival, will be at 4 p.m. in the Kansas Union Ballroom.
1
Cynthia Dary, Law
receptionist, senior, will
perform a senior recor-
dent for the Department.
Swarthout Rehearsal Hall
MONDAY
Phyllis Brill, soprano, and John Stephens, bass, will perform a faculty recital at 8 p.m. in Swarthout Recital Hall.
TUESDAY
"Phillemor," by Tom Jones and Harvey Schmidt, will be at 8 p.m. in the Inge Theatre, through Sunday.
A concert to benefit Hilltop Child Development Center inc. scholarship fund will be at 8 p.m. in the
WEDNESDAY
Paige Morgan,
Raytown senior, and
Anna May Novinger,
Lebanon, New Hampshire
scholar will perform
sorceral recital on
oboe and bass at 8 p.m.
in Swartwhack
KU JAZz Ensemble I will perform at 8 p.m. in Swarthout Reital Hall.