Arts/Entertainment
University Daily Kansan / Friday, October 13, 1989
11
Getting a taste of theater life
By Jennifer Reynolds Kansan staff writer
Linda Mosher, Kansas City, Kan., senior, and Greg Cunneen, Leawood senior, will perform tonight in "Some Enchanted Evening."
They are the type of songs that keep you humming even after you leave the theater.
"It's infectious," said Jack Wright, director of the University Theatre. "They give a lot of positive views about the world, hope to go on in spite of obstacles. It's a good, healthy dose of positive thinking."
Wright was speaking about the music in the upcoming production of "Some Enchanted Evening," a release of Rodgers and Hammersstein's show tunes. The revue will be performed at 8 p.m., today and tomorrow at Crafton-Preyer Theatre in Murphy Hall. It also will be shown Oct. 19-21.
Karin Paludan, Lawrence junior and cast member, said Rodgers and Hammerstein's music was popular among college students.
"You just say their name and people go crazy," she said. "Everyone has been in two or three of their musicals in junior high."
Wright said the revue was simply a series of Rodgers and Hammerstein musicals.
"This show is more theatrical, though," he said. "It's storytelling. It's a celebration of the theater. The audience will actually see the behind-the-scene action of a theater production. They will see the actors and actresses arrive at the theater, get dressed, put on make-up and then
perform. They will see all the rituals of opening night, such as gift-giving and waiting in the green room."
also get a feel for what the cast and crew of a theater production go through.
Wright said the audience would
"There are always fights and love
affairs, and you'll see that happening," he said. "One of the first songs we sing is a love song, and it's sung out loud, but don't get along, and you see that."
The script was totally improvised by Wright and the eight-member cast.
Because the songs are being sung by actors, instead of characters in a musical, Wright said the presentation of the songs was different.
"It really opens the songs up for interpretation," he said. "You can see what from your own life applies to it."
"You have different goals and different ideas for what you want to accomplish with the song," she said. According to Wright, there is
Paluden said the songs took on a whole new meaning.
"This really shows the effervence of the theater," he said. "At the end of the show, it returns the audience back to where they were at when." We see how the tter is here one moment and gone the next."
Paluden said the set and costume design of the revue was different from recent University Theatre performances.
"In the past, KU has tried to do a lot of realism and even beyond realism," she said. "The costumes are really beautiful. I think the audience will be impressed with what they see before them."
Instruments link life, music and art
Kansan staff writer
African music is thought to be a living force.
By Jennifer Reynolds Kenseen staff writer
Binkley, curator for the show.
In the first exhibition of its kind, the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art in Kansas City. Mo., will present the sculpture that make up that force as sculpture.
The international collection of more than 150 African instruments will be on display through Nov. 26.
The exhibition was pieced together from various private and public collections in the United States, Africa, Australia and Europe, said David
"The idea for this exhibition was to select a group of objects that would fulfill both the role of an instrument and the role of a piece of art," Binkley said. "The latter role of these musical instruments as sculpture has really become popular lately even though there are a great many African musical instruments that are not so embellished."
The instruments, made from wood, ivory and metal, range from monumental drums to miniature whistles. The instruments incorporate human or animal forms.
"There is a strong relationship
between African music and human development," Binkley said. "It's a belief not emphasized in our Western music. Since the music is a living force, the actual instrument takes on a human form.
"The creator decides to make an instrument, and he must obey certain rules of nature so it will be musical. So, the long neck of the instrument becomes the neck, and the body of the instrument becomes the torso, and feet are added to the bottom. The result is an abstract form of a human being."
Marie-Theses Brincard, guest curator for the show, said that the
instruments, besides being musical, are seen as a spiritual link between the performer and his instrument.
"Some Africans view these objects as amplifications or extensions of the vibrations of the performer's soul," she said.
Some of the more outstanding pieces in the collection are the six 19th century Mangbetu harps from Zaire, which were owned by traveling and court musicians, and two carved 15th or 16th century horns created by the Bullom Temne peoples of Sierra Leone. The horns feature European coats of arms, Latin phrases and stag hunt scenes.
Film director's debut combines sex and lies for intriguing results
By Chris Cunningham Special to the Kansan
Andie MacDowell and Peter Galngher lead average suburban yuppie lifestyles.
MacDowell finds sex "overrated" while Gallagher slips off afternoons to bed MacDowell's wild harmal sister, Laura San Glacomo. Gallagher exploits the sisters' rivalry, showing off MacDowell as the perfectly stylish young wife, functional as a clock and as fashionable a cellular phone, while keeping her sister purring on a leash.
Enter James Spader. Gallagher's old college buddy. Spader's Graham is shy, diffident and deferent to MacDowell in contrast to Gallagher's man-of-the-90s bluster. MacDowell is intrigued and, sisters being sisters, so is San Glacio. And with the disclosure that Spader's only sexual activity is confined to videotaping women talking about their sex and telling a teaser cranked up in steady, even turns of the screw. It is this heady combination of character, fate and betrayal that makes up "sex, lies and videotape."
Steven Soderburgh's feature film director debut is an under-stated victory of economy and balance. Cheap by Hollywood standards ($1.2 million), the picture is proof that entertaining and lively films don't need pyrotechnics to protect them off the screen.
The young director's talent belies his lack of professional experience. The camera work is deft and the pacing is smooth with Soderburgh moving evenly and gracefully between the film's complex relationships. As every dramatic moment dawns, Soderburgh elipses it and moves on, never letting in tension break out. It handled its dramatic target. Economy is the watchword.
The film's core lies in split
images, different sides of similar coins. The sexually repressed MacDowell is juxtaposed against the volcanic San Giacomo. The successful urban junior partner is stuck against the social dropout Snuder.
The rivalry between the sisters is their Achilles' heel. Long after leaving home they still wage the petty wars of their childhood, but now they fight on the battlefield of their adult personal lives. The devastation is pathetic. As Spader points out, even though he is impatient and likes to videotape tapes from their own lives, not to this soap-operative family he feels "comparatively healthy". Their lack of sisterly love and support weakens them and leaves them open to various forms of exploitation by both Gallagher and Spader.
This is the type of movie that reviewers and buffs love. It is the type of film that plays in art houses and is universally lauded by the critics, but on inspection turns into a pedantic bore. This film does not suffer from that affliction. In addition to being one of the sexiest U.S. films in recent years, it is considered the most aesthetist, with odd rhythms of humor as defyly executed as any other element in the production.
The performances are uncommonly strong. In her portrayal of Ann, Andie MacDowell can act, a surprise to everyone who saw "Greystoke: The Legend of Tarzan." And James Spadner can act more than his previous one-note, sleazeball performances would indicate. Laura San Giacomo makes an impressive screen debut with her incarbonation of the moltenly sexual Cynthia. Gallagher is strong under the weight of John's ugly character.
> Chris Cunnyngham is a Leawood senior majoring In English.