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Summer Session Kansan
Friday, July 22, 1960
Halt Crashing of Chairs
As was suggested several weeks ago, the 23rd Annual Midwestern Music and Art Camp musical units — along with other camp organizations have developed admirably. Last Sunday the groups performed some difficult material in a range from capable to excellent.
Thus it is a shame that the atmosphere surrounding the evening band concerts in the outdoor theater area east of Hoch Auditorium has several unpleasant factors.
PERHAPS THE LISTENING public — which enjoys the programs to a great degree — needs to be reminded that the concerts begin at 8 p.m., not at 8:10 or 8:15.
The lack of courtesy shown the young musicians last Sunday bordered on the disgraceful. It is bad enough that there are latecomers to a musical production, although there probably will be latecomers as long as there are productions.
But the crime is compounded at KU by the fact that wooden folding chairs are provided for the latecomers and the chairs were being literally crashed open as late as midway through the third number last Sunday night. Furthermore, the
chairs were handed out even though the permanent seating was less than half full.
This, of course, brings up another problem — that of the permanent seating itself. In blunt terms, the seating is highly dangerous. And if the University escapes these last two weeks without a spectator suffering a severe accident, it can consider itself fortunate.
Footboards, particularly, have no support and the unsuspecting may suddenly find themselves plunging down between the rows of seats. Generally, the board springs back up (another disconcerning experience) but one of these times it is going to break instead.
THE MUSIC AND Art Camp directors hope for a permanent outdoor theater in a different location before too long, and such an addition would be a credit to the University.
But until that comes along sometime in the future, the Kansan respectfully suggests that immediate attention be given to the bleachers currently in place and that buildings and grounds department crew members be instructed not to hand out those wooden folding chairs after the start of the evening program.
Play Serves Purpose
Editor:
... Letters ...
I was disturbed by the way in which the review of the recent high school theatre production at the University was written. After reading the article carefully several times, I am still uncertain of just exactly what Mr. Knudson's main point is. I gather that his main criteria for the review of this show stems from whether he enjoyed the production and from
comments gleaned from members of the audience. If these two criteria were Mr. Knudson's standards, then I feel his review has been unfair to him and the participants of the high school production.
Of course, I understand fully that this review is Mr. Knudson's opinions, but I am not sure upon what bias he bases his opinions. I wish that he would have done some deeper research concerning some of the statements
Crossword Puzzle
that he made. In the first place, Mr. Knudson might have found that the director was in Europe when the selection of the high school show was made. The selection of the play was made by a committee of theatre faculty members, as all of the University Theatre's main-bill shows are.
ACROSS
1 Shrink.
7 Throw.
11 Angora.
14 Consonant such as "m."
15 "Rio..."
16 Spaniard's "bravo."
17 Tasso drama.
18 University: Abbr.
19 Connective word.
20 Go paddling
21 Naval units; 2 words.
24 Layers.
25 Strawberry: Fr.
27 Zane and Lady Jane.
30 Adjective for Aida.
32 Dutch measure.
33 Dull gray.
35 Orator's "there-fore."
38 Escape reality.
40 Lachrymatory stuff: 2 words.
42 Right-thinking.
43 Mock.
45 One of the Curies.
46 Put money in bank.
46 Picardy's crop.
50 Atmospheric disturbances.
52 Crocheter's stitch.
54 Tennyson's "Call me early, —" : 2 words.
56 Former U. S. President.
60 American bird.
61 Bearing.
62 Saudi —
64 Japanese money.
64 Queen D'Artaignan served.
63 Least.
67 Dress (with "out").
68 Lack.
69 Scorches.
DOWN
1 Forked end of a hammer.
2 Vishnu's incarnation.
3 Common word in "Bartlett's Quotations."
4 High mark on a test.
5 Gangster's weapon.
6 Inspirit.
7 Packed into a bundle (with "up").
8 Porter's sound.
9 Starched.
Mr. Knudson stated that "The World of Sholom Alechem" is a "mature" play and that the performance is judged by "mature standards." Certainly, I am glad of this. However, he seems to imply that he fully expected to see an immature play and judged it accordingly.
10 Relishes.
11 Gallic caretakers.
12 Medicinal plants.
13 Pithy.
12 Amusement park features.
13 Gauger.
13 Ely or Wight.
17 Spaces.
18 __ avis.
19 Working editor-wise.
31 Girl's name.
34 Thyroid or pituitary.
36 Handed over.
37 Suffixes in chemistry.
39 Incisors.
41 Of flying.
44 Matured.
47 Simple Simon's vis-vis.
49 Metropolis WSW of Montreal.
50 Sting.
51 Role in "Pagliacci."
53 A manual art.
53 sand tract, in Britain.
57 Lincoln and others.
58 Index mark, in printing.
59 Makes knotted lace.
63 Old-time car.
Without wanting to become too embroiled in the philosophy of educational theatre, I should like to point out that a mature play, one which presents challenges to the participants in the form of theatrical educational experiences, and which can be adequately met, is greatly desired in educational theatre no matter who is doing the show, high school students or university students. Therefore, I feel that a mature play which presents challenges and experiences should be expected to be the rule, rather than the exception. The high school theatre students are at the University of Kansas primarily to learn and to improve their theatrical proficiencies and not to merely please the personal whims of audience members. In my opinion, "The World of Sholom Aleichem" served its primary purpose well and the required Jewish accents added an additional healthy challenge to its participants. Whether these challenges were met satisfactorily, again, is the review's own opinion. I feel that they were.
I should not like this letter to be misconducted to mean that I feel reviews from theatre critics should mention only strengths of the productions. I do not. I do think, however, that any review of any play, mature or immature, while based upon personal opinion, should reflect thoughts also based upon accurate information deep thinking, supported statements, good taste, and good writing.
It is my hope that the high school students who participated in this production of "The World of Sholom Aleichem" feel that this learning experience was quite valuable to them as theatre students, and that Mr. Knudson will next time spend more time and thought in forming his opinions, as a reviewer.
D. Michael Blasingame Gardner Graduate Student
SUMMER SESSION KANSAN
(Published Tuesdays and Fridays)
NEWS DEPARTMENT
News Room Phone 711
Editors Dice Crocker
Clark Kess
the took world
BUSINESS DEPARTMENT
Business Office ... Phone 376
Business Manager ... Clyde Brown
By Calder M. Pickett
Associate Professor of Journalism
THE DON FLOWS HOME TO THE SEA, by Mikhail Sholokhov,
Signet, 75 cents.
Most Americans interested in literature became conscious of the late Boris Pasternak when "Doctor Zhivago" appeared in 1958. The book, as the statement of a man fighting for individual dignity in a collectivized society, naturally attracted readers because it was deemed anti-Communist.
But Pasternak has not been alone among Russian novelists of the 20th century. In the Khrushchev party that toured America in 1959 there came Mikhail Sholokhov. He is the author of two vast books about the Cossacks, "And Quiet Flows the Don" and "The Don Flows Home to the Sea." They have the sweep and excitement and historical feeling that mark "War and Peace."
ONE MUST READ both books, which Sholokhov envisions as one work, "The Silent Don." Characters, plot and setting move coherently and logically from the earlier work to the latter. Sholokhov tells in these books, which appeared in 1934 and 1940, respectively, the story of pre-war Russia, the days of World War I, the 1917 revolution, and the counter-revolution and war between Reds and Whites that followed.
The story is told chiefly through one Cossack family, the Meilekhovs. Gusty, vigorous, profane, superstitious, earthy, eating their cabbage soup, beating and loving their women, drinking their vodka, swinging their sabres, riding their horses, these born soldiers roar across the stepspe and through the Don country in epic fashion.
Sholokhov's central character is Gregor, a true son of his part-Turk father. Gregor is savage, fiery and brooding. Wedded to Natalia, who in the earlier book tries to commit suicide because her husband has deserted her, his passion is for Aksinia, wife of another Cossack. Like Pasternak's Zhivago, Gregor cherishes his identity, his freedom, and at the end of the novel he has left the White army and ostensibly awaits arrest and imprisonment or execution by the Reds.
SHOLOKHOV IS NO propagandist for communism. His Cossack heroes are true heroes. There are villains among them, but it is obvious that Sholokhov regards Mishka Koshevoi, a Cossack turned Red, as the No.1 villain. (This romantic reader, in fact, was most dissatisfied in the fact that Mishka did not meet his deserved fate at the hands of Gregor.)
Though not books of ideology, the Don novels do contain germs of philosophy that have meaning for us today. A Cossack warrior observes, in words that have frightening reality in this world of U-2 and Sputnik, "In this war the idea's the main thing. The one who wins is the one who knows what he's fighting for and believes in his cause. That's a truth as old as the world itself, and it's no use your trying to put it forward as a discovery of your own."
Sholokhov, like Pasternak, has a magnificent feeling for the earth, for nature. Passages illustrating this feeling can be selected almost at random. One of the better ones demonstrates the feeling of man in a lovely world being torn apart by war:
"ON THE STEPPE stealing in a flood of green to the very edge of the orchards, and in the tangle of wild flax around the borders of the ancient threshing-floor, he could hear the incessant quiet rattle of struggling quails; marmots were whistling, bumblebees were humming, the grass was rustling beneath the wind's caresses, the skylarks were singing in the spurting light of the sunset, and, to confirm the grandeur of man's place in nature, somewhere a long way off in the valley a machine-gun stuttered insistently, angrily, and hollowly."
CARNIVAL CROSSROADS, by W. G. Rogers and Mildred Weston.
Doubleday, $3.50.
"Carnival Crossroads"—and this is a prediction—will be on the left-over sale counters of many bookstores in a few months. We Americans are Americana-crazy, but we like a little more substance. The folks who put together this book are man and wife—man and wife infatuated with both the physical existence and the symbolism of Times Square, their "carnival crossroads."
AMAZING WHAT sells these days. One would guess that much good writing goes begging because agents can't be paid or publishers can't be interested. But name-dropping trivia like this gets on the Doubleday list and probably is due for a slight push this summer season.
TIMES SQUARE "is a hugely formless eruption, a growth, a kind of civic spasm, and how feverish, seething, and high strung! It is busy like an anthill, but busy aimlessly, madly, with a ceaseless scurrying for the sake of being on the go, for keeping company with others on the go, others never unwound, a perpetual-motion crowd."
The Roger's Times Square (the book is amusingly illustrated by Soglow) goes back to the explorer Verrazano. It takes in Peter Minuit and the purchase of Manhattan island for $24. It includes Admiral Howe and General Clinton, Washington Irving and Diedrich Knickerbocker, Walt Whitman, the Crystal Palace, Oscar Hammerstein I (who made the place, really, they say), Adolph Ochs and daughter Iphigene Bertha, who laid the cornerstone for the Times building, Kirk Douglas and Tony Curtis, Frank Sinatra and Alan Freed, George White, neon signs, ogling tourists, the fabulous Rector's, Gentleman Jim Corbett, George M. Cohan, Lillian Russell, Stanford White and Evelyn Nesbit Thaw, Arnold Rothstein the gambler, Father Duffy and the Fighting 69th, shoeshine boys and chestnut and ice cream vendors.
S
THE STORY IS put together in conglomerate manner, and in about the form suggested above. The story of Times Square still needs to be told.