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UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN, LAWRENCE, KANSAS
TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 18, 1941
PAGE THREE
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Improvises Brilliantly On Piano
By JOY MILLER
Five thousand persons sat patiently through an hour and a half of classics in Hoch auditorium last night before they heard what they had come for —Alec Templeton going boogie-woogie.
"For those of us who don't take our music too seriously," as Templeton put it, the 32-year-old pianist-composer-mimic devoted the last part of his program to good-natured jibbing at the masters and to displaying his own improvisational skill. It was this 45 minutes that provoked some of the most enthusiastic applause ever recorded a University concert series artist.
Banner' Opens Program.
The stage was set with dramatic simplicity and striking color: black piano against white screens flooded with purple lighting.
A bombastic "Star Spangled Banner" preludin gthe program, Templeon started off with strictly classical compositions, but nevertheless, typical Templeton selections—light interesting, animated,
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Name Cast for 'Thunder Rock'
"Thunder Rock," second play of the year to be presented by the department of speech and drama, will be given Dec. 9, 10, and 11 in Fraser theater.
The cast has been chosen, Allen Crafton, professor of speech and drama, announced today. Bob Hutchinson will play Streeter, a professional aviator. Inspector Flanning of the Great Lakes Lighthouse Service will be played by William Kelly.
Others in the cast are: Nonny, a helper, Warren Blair; David Charleston, ex-war correspondent now light keeper, Harlan Cope; Riggs, an English immigrant, Ken Jackson; Miss Kirby, an English suffragist, Edith Ann Fleming; an Austrian immigrant, Betty Lou Perkins; and her daughter, Melanie, Mary Robelene Scott.
Two minor parts, those of Joshua Stuart, an old sea captain, and Stefan Kurtz, a Viennese doctor, will be played by Robert Calderwood, associate professor of speech, and Crafton.
The play, which has been a Broadway production and was only recently released for amateur production, will be directed by Crafton.
There are only nine student patients now in the Watkins Memorial hospital. This is an unusually small number for this time of year.
Watkins Has Only 9 Student Patients
Ray Evans, football player, is in the hospital with a bad cold.
Sam Tashima, sophomore medic from Hawaii, was released from the hospital yesterday following an appendectomy several days ago.
murisetaoishrdletao etaioshrdluinn Handel's Fantasy in C Major was played with characteristic lightness and dexterity of touch. The second composition, the Prelude and Fugue in C Sharp Minor of Bach, displayed meticulous fingering in the Prelude and resounding brilliancy in the Fugue.
The Impromptu in F Sharp Major was a characteristic Chopin selection with exquisite melody and rapid thrills and runs. The last number in the first group was the beautifully haunting Prelude Chorale and Fugue of Franck.
Plays His Favorite
After getting the classics out of the way, Templeton's second group was composed of selections from Claude Debussy, French impressionist and Templeton's favorite composer.
The numbers were Pagode, the fanciful Oriental, the dainty Heather, Little Shepherd and Serenade for a doll from the Children's Suite, an entrancing Sarabande, and a Toccato requiring intricate pedalling and fingering.
Templeton played Debussy with an affectionate understanding, and chose his familiar Claire de Lune as an encre to this group.
The third group presented Templeton as he is known to radio listeners—brilliant, witty, incredible. The audience which had been lulled into a comfortable semi-somnabulant state by the hypnotic waves of classic melody—sat up, listened and chuckled.
The first number was Mozart's Turkish March," but not quite the way Mozart wrote it, being just a little on the jazzy side." Next was a take-off on the last movement from Haydn's Tenth Symphony—"Haydn Takes To Ridin." This began in all seriousness, progressed to super-syncopation, and ended boogie-woogie.
Improvises Five Notes
An improvisation of five notes called out from the audience was a charming, compact composition. "Improvising is something I'm very fond
of doing." Templeton said from the stage. Then followed Gershwin's version of those five notes with typical Gershwin slurring and syncopation.
Low down rhythm or "Beethoven vs. boogie woogie" followed when Bethoven's Ruins of Athens developed into Doin's at the Runins. The last feature on the program was an improvisation on four melodies suggested by the audience: De Camptown Races, Blue Danube Waltz, Tschaikowsky's Piano Concerto, and William Tell Overture. The carefully interwoven composition was so skillfully amusing, the audience was one vast chuckle, a condition that continued for the rest of the concert.
Mary Melodies
More Melodies
Four more melodies suggested were In the Mood, St. Louis Blues, Ravel's Bolero, and Rachmaninoff's Prelude in C-Sharp Minor. Templeton's efforts at skidding gracefully from the massive Prelude into the lilting St. Louis Blues and then into the Bolero tempo, were met with yells and claps of appreciation.
That was the end of the scheduled program but not the end of Templeton. He was warmed up by the cheering crowd and his own love of mimicry—so went on to reproduce several impressions. The first was a beautifully horrible job of a broken battered player-piano grinding out Mendelssohn's Spring Son.
A sketch of the excitement on the K.U. campus followed fine arts students practising in Frank Strong, and mingled sounds of the parade, Billboard March, Alma Mater, "Where's old Malott?"
Next was an old-fashioned Italian opera with the tenor and soprano singing a fictitious but highly emotional aria. Templeton sang both roles with a maximum of verve, dash, and squeaking. But it was all so
good-natured even the most ardent music-lover couldn't take offense.
Even Mary's Lamb
Mary Had A Little Lamb in two different ways followed. First a hillbilly presentation with nasal twang and yodel, then as a Cuban rhumba with voluble Spanish patter and "Whooppee" interjections.
From the ribicuous to the sublime, Templeton's own portrait of "Redwoods at Bohemian Greves" was presented next, its solemly sebuchural tone rising to heights of emotional stress.
For a final thought, Templeton read "Love is just like music" with his own musical accompaniment.
FREE
Laurence OLIVIER
8—CHICKENS
2—DUCKS
1—GOOSE
1—TURKEY
Our Pre-Thanksgiving and Christmas Treat to You
From Our STAGE WEDNESDAY At 9 p.m.