University Daily Kansan / Friday, November 3, 1989
Arts/Entertainment
11
Show puts 'fun' in different light
By Jennifer Reynolds Kansan staff writer
For three weeks every summer, the Lincoln Center in New York City opens its doors to innovative artists in a contemporary performance festival.
Four of the brightest artists from "the Serious Fun!" festival will open the KU New Directions Series at 5 a.m. at Liberty Hall, 642 Massachusetts St.
"The performance will be fun and interesting because of the wiltty sense of humor," said Jacqueline Davis, director of the New Directions Series. "They will be curious and be serious as the performances will be of the highest caliber."
Davis said "Serious Funt' from Lincoln Center," would be a microcosm of the Lincoln Center festival, which began in 1987.
Performing tonight are tap dancer Charles Moulton, accordianist Guy Klucsevck, composer and guitarist Scott Johnson and actor/comedian Tom Cayler. The 18-city tour is the first national tour of "Serious Funi!"
"It is really unusual because there are four different performances with four different purposes," Davis said.
Moulton, a Guggenheim Award winner, will open the show with his "Tapology Solo." The dance is unique because Moulton attaches microphones to his tap shoes, and the amplified sounds are transmitted to a digital sampler triggering various stored sounds. The choice of sounds is controlled by a switch in Moulton's
hand, creating a new range of rhythmic possibilities.
Kluecesek, an important contemporary accordian artist and composer, will play "Road Runner" and selections from "Polka from the Fringe," a collection of 31 new-music polka.
Johnson and his ensemble of three will play excerpts from "John Somebody," a 1962 work for solo guitar. They will also perform a Johnson original, "Electric Quartet."
The last performer, Cayler, will close the show with an excerpt from his one-man production, "Men Die Sooner," recently shown on the PBS series "Alive From off-Center." In the piece, Cayler lectures on why women live longer than men. As the pace quickens, Cayler gets caught up in the stress and repressed emotions of his thesis using savage caricatures and inventive movements.
Davis said "Serious Fun!" would be at Liberty Hall instead of a University facility because of the performance's nature.
"This type of performance lends itself to a smaller, more intimate setting." she said.
The New Directions Series began at KU in 1987. The purpose of the series was to attract a younger audience, assuming that students would be more interested in newer work, Davis said.
Linda Hope, manager of the Murphy Hall Box Office, said tickets were still available for the show and were being sold at the box office,
International Production Associate
Tom Cayler practices a skit about why women live longer than men.
Liberty Hall and the Student Union Activities Office in the Kansas Union.
$12 for the public, $10 for KU and K-12 students and $11 for senior citizens and other students.
Tickets for the performance are
Community Theatre tunes in 'Talk Radio'
By Jennifer Reynolds Kennae staff writer
Kansan staff writer
Lawrence Community Theatre will provide the setting for the nation's newest radio talk show.
"Talk Radio," a play about how radio affects people's lives and how they react to it, opens at 8 tonight at the theater, 1501 New Hampshire St.
The setting is a radio studio the night before Barry Champlain, a radio talk show host who gets his laughs by abusing and taunting his callers, goes nationwide with his show "Night Talk."
"This is a darkly funny play," said Cathy Reinking, director of the play. "But, it is tragic at the same time. It speaks about the power of the media and the powerlessness of the individual."
Reinking, who is also a Lawrence graduate student, is making her directorial debut at the theater.
"This show is kind of a deviation from the normal LCT theater production," she said. "It's very contemporary and very different."
Paul Jackson of Lawrence, who plays the part of Barry Champlain, said his character was somewhat like Morton Downey Jr., who recently had a syndicated television talk show.
"Barry is a little more sincere, though," he said. "He is an energetic crusader who fights for what he believes in."
The play was written by Eric Bogosian and was made into a
motion picture by director Oliver Stone.
Reinking said she never saw the movie because she didn't want it to color her vision for the play.
"The movie is quite a bit different from the play," she said.
Jackson, a former KU student, said he was surprised when he got the lead.
"A lot of talent showed up at auditions, and I had to work really hard," he said. "The whole cast is equally talented and everyone has worked really hard."
The message the play holds for the public is important, Jackson said.
"It has some good things and some bad things to say but tells the audience to think for itself," he said.
Pearl Kemp, who plays the part of the associate producer of "Night Talk," said that if the audience would listen to talk shows in New York or Los Angeles, they would hear comparable topics and language.
"You see a tremendous intimacy the listeners have with calling in to the show," said Kemp, Lawrence graduate student.
"They're talking about what matters most to them in the world, no matter how mundane it is. Here you see it from the receiving end."
The play will be at 8 p.m. Nov. 3, 4,
9, 10 and 11. Mattees will be at 2:30
p.m. Nov. 5 and 12. Audiences are
advised that the play contains some
adult material.
Reinking said the audience should expect to be entertained as well as provoked by the play.
'Immediate Family' guarantees tears and smiles for viewers
By Marc Parillo
Kansan movie reviewer
The Spectors have just about everything they need in life. They have plenty of friends. They enjoy a lasting, healthy marriage — and they even have a 1989 Saab convertible parked proudly in the front drive. So what else do they need? What more could these vupies want?
Basically, what they want is the one thing
they can't have; a baby
Spector with the incredible versatility of Glenn Close as his wife, Linda.
"Immediate Family" combines the wit and charm of James Woods as Michael
Linda is real estate salesman and homemaker in her mid-30s who desperately wants a child but is biologically incapable. The Spectors try every conceivable angle to alter the unfair circumstances, but their efforts leave them nothing but doctor bills and headaches. Adoption seems to be their only option. When Linda receives a call from Lucy Moore, an unwed and pregnant adolescent who is willing to give up her future offspring to the Spectors. Linda's despair turns into a promise for the future.
During the four weeks remaining in her pregnancy, Lucy, played by Mary Stuart Masterson, becomes part of the Spectors' family. A bittersweet friendship develops into a provocative and touching conclusion
Just as important, if not as equally enticing as Close and Woods' characters, is Kevin Dillon's and Masterson's portraits of Sam and Lucy. Those characters depict the most atypical adolescents seen in an uncomfortable long time. Instead of mummified stereotypes of "I can do anything I want" foolishness, they are intelligent and sensible.
The perfection in this story lies in the fact
that although Lucy and Sam appear to be unruly and eccentric, their loving relationship, as well as their ideology of a secure and healthy family, is actually not too different from that of Linda and Michael.
The film also speaks very highly of Jonathan Kaplan as a director. Kaplan has a perfect sense of timing and an altogether nonsense approach to filmmaking. After his other influential, socially conscious films such as "The Accused" and "Project X," "Immediate Family" is also conscious of current affairs.
The pro-choice/adoption issue is an impor-
tangle aspect in the film's plot, but doesn't unveil itself through a superficial debate. Barbara Benedek, screenwriter of "Immediate Family" and co-author of the 1983 blockbuster, "The Big Chill," can be credited with that move. Her original screenplay deserves recognition.
"Imediate Family" is altogether dramatic as well as exciting entertainment. This story of four separate lives accidentally creating one family is guaranteed to put a tear in your eye and a smile on your face. ▶ Maro Parillo is a Lenexa sophomore majoring in English and film studies.