8
Friday, September 30, 1977
University Dally Kansan
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Arts & Leisure
UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
Young People's Theatre instills affection for stage
By LYNN KIRKMAN Associate Entertainment
The actors checked their makeup and quieted the butterflies in their stomachs. The crew members took their places backstage. The lobby of the University Theatre was empty except for the ushers who waited quietly for the audience to arrive.
As the line of bright yellow school buses pulled up before the front doors of Murphy Hall, the atmosphere inside the building came to life. Students in second grade arrived children to their seats in the theatre.
Children poured from the buses and hurried into the theater, chattering in anticipation. Jack Wright, professor of theater, stopped to watch them. His excitement seemed to equal theirs.
"I love to see children come to the theater," he said.
THE CHILDREN were on campus to see a production of "Steal Away Home" presented by the University Theatre program. Fourth, fifth and sixth graders from elementary schools in Lawrence and the area have been attending the play, which is expected once the play is scheduled for 2 p.m. tomorrow.
"Steal Alway Home," by aurand Harris, tells the story of two young slave boys who escape from a South Carolina plantation and travel the Underground Railroad to join their faction. A performance by the production features a chorus who perform old songs and spirituals to accent the action of the play.
Lawrence children may have recognized the two young stars of the show — Charles Shepard and William Sanders. Shepard is a seventh grade student at South Junior High School and Sanders attends fourth grade at Broken Arrow Elementary School. Although both have had "Bad Hair Day," their "Stale Away Home" was their first experience in performing before such a large audience.
CHILDREN'S theater audiences are notoriously distracting — even for more experienced performers. Squeaking seats and a hum of chatter frequently punctuate a performance. The young theater-goers who attended "Steal Away Home" were noisy at times, whistling and cheering the curtain went up. They listened intently, as the two young actors spoke their lines.
After the performance ended, the children boarded the school buses for the trip home. They were excited and pleased with what they had seen during the one-hour performance.
K Jim Kafze, a sixth grader from Eudora, said,
"kids the music — but I especially liked the
kids."
Shepard and Sanders were equally pleased with their afternoon's effort. After they had removed their makeup, the two young actors said they had been nervous when the play began, but they had soon relaxed when they found acceptance by the audience.
Sanders grinned as he recalled the thrill of hearing people applaud for him.
"IT WAS NEAT," he said. "I won't be so nervous next time."
Shepard, too, seemed pleased with the show.
seamed, too, seemed pleased with the show. "It's all of fun to be out there," he said. "I'm all in for it."
Providing theatrical experience for young people has been a part of the KU theater program since 1983 when Sally Six Hirsch, then a theater teacher at the New York University, said: "The first productions were presented in old Fraser Hall.
Hirsch was succeeded by Bea Harvey, a professor who was also a playwright. Harvey wrote many of the children's productions that were staged while she was at KU. The shows were performed, by that time, in the experimental theater of the newly-opened Murphy Hall.
Jed Davis, professor of theater, has been director of TV from 1960. Under his charge, the productions were moved to the main stage of the school in 1972, and they have been presented for the past 17 seasons.
THE CHILDREN's theater program at KU produces two shows every year. One is geared to first, second and third graders; the other is designed for audiences of fourth, fifth and sixth.
In addition to the local performances, the productions also hit the road for presentation in the area. "Seal Away Home" will be presented in the Kansas City area at Wyndotte High School.
Lavis estimated that 4,000 children would see "Steal Away Home" during its Lawrence run and that another 6,000 to 8,000 would attend the performances at Wandotte.
A company of 10 students will produce Gobblebock production that will tour mills nearby negotiating
"Touring has been a part of our program since the beginning." Davis said. "We've had as many as 50,000 children see one of our productions on a tour."
DAVIS SAID that he tried to pick from a wide variety of subjects and treatments when making selections of shows for the children's theater schedule.
enough many children's productions a degree of audience participation, Davies said that THAILAND'S PRODUCTIONS is one.
"Audience participation doesn't work well in a procenium stage," he said, "and most of the theaters we play are proceniums. That leaves us with some other formers that doesn't allow for much participation."
TYP production are financed from the University Theatre's annual budget. Davis said that the spring touring company included some of the students and faculty partly from funds allocated by the Student Senate.
"We're not getting rich from children's
work," she said. "We usually manage to just
about bare lives."
The purpose of TYP is instilling a love of theater in the children who attend its productions, the production of "Seal Away Home" seemed to fill the purpose this week.
As he left the theater, David Adrich, Lecompan fifth grader, said, "I'd come back and see this."
Flaws plague'Aida'
By REBECCA YERADI
Reviewer
Those area residents who missed out on the midwestern Tulkhamken exhibition still have a chance to see a description of ancient Egypt at the Kansas City Lyric Theater.
Villain for the evening was the orchestra — evident within the first moments of the performance, soft and slow, the texture thin and dreadful exposing for the strings. The Lyric orchestra's
Unfortunately, the poor aspects of the production outnumbered the outstanding.
The Kansas City Lyric Opera presented "Aida" to a near-capacity audience Tuesday evening, in the third of five performances of In遗iciance dramatic opera. In遗icience the performance of the opera, which concerns the ill-fated love of the Ethiopian princess Aida for an Egyptian soldier. Radames.
Heroine of the evening, both in role and performance, was Wilhelmina Fernandez, who ministered in her in bed with the Lytic.
FERNANDEZ USED her lovely soprano voice admirably, sustaining quiet low notes and rising over the chorus effortlessly. Her easy stage presence and dramatic talents have made her a least one aspect of professionalism. She far outshone the other members of the cast, with the exception of Amonastero.
Thomas Palmer, as Amonora, possesses the same commanding presence and a fine bartone voice. He blended beautifully with Fernandez and their duet in the third act was dramatic and musical high point of the production.
Ammeris was adequately sung by mezzo-soprano Susan Schaffer, but she was unable to generate much excitement. Her top range is weak and she was lost in the ensembles.
KANSAN Performance
THE SET, (designed by University of Kansas graduate James Gohl) which was supposed to accommodate a large chorus on the relatively small Lyric stage, presented staging with an unusual spectacular triumphal scene was spectacularly awkward.
The trumpet section, not Aida and Radames, deserved to be buried alive at the end of the opera. The famous march was ruined by the unbelievably bad passages for unison trumpets.
string section was exposed indeed. Intonation was unforgivably unsure and the instrument was intact and sustain throughout the opera.
The famous triumphal march of the second act is usually the climax of the performance. Tuesday night it was a disaster, combining the shakiest moments onstage with the most moments for the orchestra.
Intonation rose again in the lower strings in Amnesia' fourth act recitative and subsequent chorus. The two patrons should expect much
Thomas Patterson, music director, had some troubles in the orchestra and chorus pulled at tempos.
"CELESTA AIDA," perhaps the most famous of the "Aida" arias, is sung by the tenor François Berthelot. This short amount of time was all that was required to ascertain that Erik Townsend's voice was not suited to the instrument. His lyric qualities were best presented when he was singing at full voice. Throughout most of the performance, the tone of his voice was often accentuated and his projection was strained.
The end of the scene brought a vehement "Boo!" from one patron and uncertain applause from the rest of the audience.
Staff Photo by PAUL ROST
Staging in the final scene was quite effective and brought the production to a satisfactory close.
Inconsistencies in the Lyric's production of "Aida" were mirrored by the audience's ovation. Patrons in the balcony stood to applaud, undoubtedly for Fernandez, but the main floor patrons stood and went home.
more of the Lyric orchestra, especially in light of the company's desire to establish a professional reputation.
The cast of "Steal Away Home," produced by the KU Theatre for Young People, celebrate the arrival of two young slave boys who made their way from South
Curtain call
Carolina to Philadelphia on the underground Railroad. The production is at 2 p.m.
tomorrow in the University Theatre.
Play avoids issue
Bv LYNN KIRKMAN
Staff Writer
Political rhetoric is not often the stuff of which good theater is made. Reformers tend to be too close to their causes to see the situation objectively. This is the case with "Sycklon Z," which opened last night in the William Inge Theatre.
"Syclon Z" takes itself far too seriously to deal effectively with the question of the women's movement today. The play, written by Myra Lamb in the late 1960s and early 1970s, is a collection of six short pieces that confront the problems of modernity,otyping and children as they adapt to both men and women.
Director Julianne Wolfarth obviously favors women's liberation. But "Sycklon Z" reflects only the strenuous arguments of the early days of the movement without reflecting the growth and the increase in male women during the past seven years. The women in the play tend to be victims; men and the institutions of society are the villains of the piece.
THESE ANSWERS are too easy. They are charges made without solutions. Attacking stereotyping through stereotypic characters does not meet the problem at all.
Some of the scenes in 'Sycklon Z' come off quite well, piece by piece, with 'nologolia' pieces the problem of the mother who must either leave her child to earn a living or go on welfare. The scene is a monologue, and flair by Sara Hendrick.
KANSAN Performance
Another scene, "In the Shadow of the Crematoria," is a love ballet of sorts, in which the universal male character seduces the universal female character with the universal promise of eternal devotion to which she ultimately succumbs.
Jeb Tammblin plays the man well, although he is probably a little too butch in delivering his advice to a woman, Lucinda Underwood is too tough and sneering to buy his obviously insincere sales pitch. There is humor in the story of how nothing new. It was all said before when comedienne Elaine May worried. "But you won't respect me," and a breathless and thrilling "I'll respect you like crazy."
IN A SCENE called "The Serving Girl and the Lady," Hendrick and Underwound attack marriage and "the myth of passion." Their performances are unpleasantly mechanical, a real feeling for the message they are trying to convey.
The action for "Sycklon Z" is performed in a diagonal play area designed by Sandra Appleton. As audience members sat on the floor for last night's performance, the chairs were lined against the wall. That, in itself, reflect the message of the play.
A short scene called "Pas de Deux" would probably not be missed if it were cut from the script.
The phosphorous dot by Dale Gadd
The new television season is now a little more than four weeks along, and the viewing scores are beginning to surface in the trade press. The latest ratings information is for the week of Thursday, Sept. 15 to Wednesday, Sept. 21. This is a good week to examine because these shows have patterns after being dominated in the first few weeks by extended premier episodes and special programs.
The ratings system furnishes two figures for each show: rating and share.
The rating of a show is a measure of the size of the audience in terms of television households. A rating is a percentage of households in the nation tuned to a particular program.
the share of a program is the percentage of
batchsets united by television with the set tuned to
the same channel.
"Laverne and Shriley" had a rating of 31.9 and a share of 51. This means that the program was being viewed by 31.9 per cent of the nation's television households, and all of the households viewing any program at that time, 51 per cent were tuned to "Laverne and Shriley."
Here is the ranking of the top 10 programs by rating with the share following the rating in
1. "Laverne and Shirley" (ABC) 31.9(51)
2. "Charlie's Angels" (ABC) 28.5(43)
3. "Happy Days" (ABC) 26.0(43)
4. "Mama Barker" (ABC) 24.9(37)
5. "M*A*S*H" (CBS) 24.9(37)
6. "Three's Company" (ABC) 24.2(37)
7. "Young Joe" (ABC movie) 23.7(39)
8. "The Incredible Hulk" (CBS) 23.7(39)
9. "Little House on the Prairie" (NBC) 23.0(37)
10. "Barney Miller" (ABC) 22.4(36)
Notice that not one new series made the top 10.
This is a bit unusual, because in previous seasons one or two new series usually make the top 10 by the third week.
One might conclude from that none of the new shows are going to be "blockbusters" this year. However, the three networks have done so much special programming and shifting of schedules at the start of the season that it is too early for the viewer patterns to stabilize.
The new series had better luck in the next 10 positions; four new shows made that list:
11. "Carter Country" (ABC) 22.0 (35)
12. "Soap" (ABC) 20.8 (32)
18. "Redd Foxx" (ABC) 20.0 (34)
19. "Lou Grant" (CBS) 19.9 (34)
ABC is running away with the ratings again this year, and CBS has hopes of picking up as the season continues. But, notice the absence of any NBC new series within the top 20. NBC's rated top new series is "Oregon Trail," with the dismal distinction of being forty-third of all shows.
In case you are wondering what the bombs are,
they are bottom 10 regular series
(movies, etc., exclude)
44 "Richard Pryor" (NBC)
45 "Fortis Armors" (NBC)
46 "Hardy Boys/Nancy Drew" (ABC)
47 "Wonder Woman" (CBS)
48 "Wonder Woman" (CBS)
51 "Dan'l Boone" (CBS)
52 "Operation Petitcoat" (ABC)
53 "Cable" (CBS)
54 "Big Hail" (ABC)
55 "Fitzpatrick" (CBS)
44.19 (4.24)
44.17 (4.28)
44.13 (4.24)
44.13 (4.25)
13.6 (1.22)
13.6 (1.22)
11.7 (1.24)
11.7 (1.24)
10.8 (1.18)
9.2 (1.15)
It is obvious from these statistics that the highly promoted new series are not catching much interest from viewers. Only a handful of the new series is likely to survive the season and fewer still remain.
The mini-series based on novels and other dramatic special programming probably will play an important part in the networks' schedules later in the season.
TRIVIA CORNER: Mrs Sterling was an audience member at every performance of the "Tonight Show" with Steve Allen, and Miss Miller was in the audience for every performance of the same show when Jack Pair was host. Most of us will remember her as one of the "Tonight Show," but on which early live primetime variety program was Ed McMahon a regular attraction?
Dale Gadd is an associate professor of radio, television and film.
UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
This Week's
RECITALS
Highlights
DAVID BUSHOUSE, associate professor of performance, will present a French hronic atruit b for p.m. Monday in Swashout Rectract Hall. Works by Telemann, are among those on the program.
THEATER
"SYCKLON Z," a play about the women's liberation movement, will be presented at 8 p.m. nightly through Oct. 8 at the Muphy Hall, Murphy Hall. KU students are admitted free to performances.
"STEAL AWAY HOME," produced by the KU Theatre for Young People, will be presented in University Theatre in Murray Hall.
At the Lawrence Arts Center,
the 'SEEEN' PLAYERS present
the 'Masks' and "The Adventures
of a Parting, Parting,
Part of a Party" at 3 p.m.
NIGHTCLUBS
At the LAWRENCE OPERA HOUSE, 644 Massachusetts St. The Son Seals Blues Band performs tonight and tomorrow
night. The Nairobi Trio perform
after midnight tonight in Seven
Spirit palace. Fox Trot is
stage Wednesday and Thursday.
A1. PAUL GRAY'S JAZZ
PLACE, 922, Massachusetts St.
Saint Charles's Al-Alawah
with Climbers William
Williams and Paul Gunther, will play from
9 p.m. to midnight today and
playing on Friday is held every
thursday night.
At J. WATSON'S, Ninth and Iowa streets; Natural Gas is scheduled to play tonight and tomorrow night.
AT THE OFF THE WALL HALL,
737 New Hampshire St. Street
Talk will perform tonight and
tomorrow night. The Kansas
Tribune sent "A Sampling of Easier
Kansas Forknote" at 2 p.m. Sunday.
The program will feature Steve and Harriet Linker, song-
writer, and composer Snyder, sculptor, blacksmith and storyteller; Melvin Litton, Baldwin folksinger; Culain, an Irish band; the International Poetry Pocket Pickers, a Povery Pocket Pickers, 罗伊斯 Bar and time string band; Roy's Bar and
FILMS
Grill, a women's band, and Bob and Ann Nunley playing Latin music. The acoustic jam session will be held Wednesday night—no electric guitar.
This weekend is the midwest premiere of JONAH WHO WILL BE 25 IN THE YEAR 2000, Alain Arthurot's debut in political science fiction. The movie tells the story of eight characters eight years after the futile French revolution of May 14, 1789 and tomorrow night at 7 and 9:30.
Joseph M. Newman's THIS ISLAND EARTH will be shown Monday night at 7:30. Outstanding NASA science data from a collection of aliens who kidnap Earth scientists to help their war-torn planet. The better sequences in the film were directed, uncredited and unreliable Shrinking Mag", Arnold.
As part of the Classical Film Series Jan卡勒 Kadar and Emel Kios's *STREET* will be shown at 7:30 Wednesday. in a small provincial
town in German-occupied Slovakia in 1942 Tono and his wife have difficulty making a living because he does not sympathize with the regime. His mother-in-law makes him Aryan controller of a butter shop owned by an old Jewish lady who is nearly dead. He has given up to the old lady and finally accepts her belief that he is her assistant. In return, the local Jews pay him a handsome salary. When the Jews are ordered deported, his name is mistakenly left off the list although Tono is afraid the will be released soon. His lady. He locks her in a cupboard until the deportation is over. His rough treatment kills her, however, and he hangs himself.
EXHIBITS
Luchino Visconi's THE DAMNED will be shown at 7:30 Thursday night. The 1970 film chronicles Germany immediately after the burning of the belfries, and its rise to power. Visconi shows an amoral German society through a fatalistic viewpoint.
At the KANSS UNION ART GALLERY: The 1977 Kansas Designer-Crafters Show, show feature all of a variety of art by Kansas artists and craftsmans.
A17F7 GALERY, 7.E sevenSt. William Nettleship sculpture, "Large Series #1," and Leonard Koenig painting, Series Series -- it will be shown on Wednesday.
At the VALLEY WEST GAL-
LERIES, 25th and 11th streets:
Western paintings by Gary
Brown; photographs by
September issue of "Kanaa"
magazine, and animal
laundry; not displayed
behind October.
At the ELIZABAT M. W. HATKINS COMMUNITY MUSEUM, 1047 Massachusetts St.: "Architecture of the Great American
At the GALLEY in the Marketplace, 745 New Hampshire St. "Fabric Constructions and Baltics" by Elizabeth Lady Sowerby after afternoon to 2 to 4. The show will remain to 2 to 4. Oct. 31.
Desert," an exhibit of vernacular architecture from the KU School of Architecture, will be featured through October.
At the SISTER KETTLE CAFE,
1347 Massachusetts St. Walt hangings by various local artists
displayed through October
At the LAWRENCE ARTS
CENTER, at Ninth and Vermont
streets: An open painting exhibit
will open Sunday with a reception from 2 to 4 p.m. On display on tableau through Oct. 27.
AT THE SPENCER RESEARCH LIBRARY: "KU Across the barn in the Mall Gallery; Alice Roege Jacker in the North Gallery; "Student Organizations and Activities" in the Archives Gallery, and "Fire! Fire! The Story of the Lawrence University 1976" in the Kansas Collection.
At the MUSEUM OF NATURAL HISTORY in Dyche Hall: "Ever-Changing Fashion," a display of native North American clothing; Baskery Techniques; "Basketmaking"; "Dont Treat on Me" and live Kansas snakes and fish continue to be featured.