theater
It was a tough row to hoe for the people involved in producing "The Ballad of Baby Doe" last week in the University Theatre. On the whole they did an admirable job.
By Stuart Levine Instructor of English
The settings were nothing short of opulent; costuming was thoroughly professional; Mr. Butler's direction was always impressive.
Several factors hurt the production. I saw Friday night's performance in which some sort of trouble with the amplification ruined Scene 1. Act One on the whole was less well sung than Act Two. No one seemed able to get his voice going, and even Sharon Tebbenkamp, whose Augusta was very fine in Act Two, did not sound especially good in the earlier scenes.
Another difficulty was a matter of talent. Apparently there just weren't enough big voices to go around. There was some perfectly good singing done by performers other than the leads, but one suspects that the producers ran out of really solid singers about two-thirds of the way through the casting.
Acting on the whole was splendid; this is saying a lot, because the opera has numerous dreadfully awkward or static spots.
Which brings us to the most basic trouble of all: no amount of good singing can make a major opera of this. For all its good story material, "The Ballad of Baby Doe" is not good opera. Douglas Moore's score has not a distinguished passage in it; it is anemic, trite and derivative throughout. If the orchestra's playing was a little on the limp side, it was clear enough that even an incisive performance would not have made this timid, warmed-over music interesting.
Our capacity audience had a good time after the first act, because of an extremely sympathetic production and performance. Marva Lou Powell had her moments as Baby Doe; the two quartets did very well, and Ronald Highly's Horace Tabor, which improved steadily as the night went on, was superb in the last scene. Even when a big voice was lacking—as in the William Jennings Bryan scene—gusto and good stage work carried us through. The cast fully deserved its brawl in the catacombs Saturday morning.
English Dept. Offers 2 Prizes For Student Creative Writing
Two prizes for creative writing will be given this spring by the Committee on Awards of the English Department.
The William Herbert Carruth Memorial poetry contest is open to all resident students of KU, undergraduate and graduate. Three prizes, of $100, $50 and $25 are offered. Details on the contest are posted on the campus and in the English Office, 203 Fraser. The deadline for entries is Monday, April 11.
The Edna Osborne Whitecomb Award is offered for the best example of creative writing submitted by a girl who is partially self-supported, and who is an English major or a student of language arts in the School of Education. The deadline for entries for the $60 award is Monday, May 9. Poems, stories, or other specimens of creative writing are invited. A student may submit any number of entries. They should be sent or taken to the Departmental Committee on Awards, 203 Fraser, in an envelope which identifies the contest and contestant.
Well, if I called the wrong number, why did you answer the 'phone?' — James Thurber.
You might as well fall flat on your face as lean over too far backward. — James Thurber.
West Coast Rock 'n Roll with the SAVATARS Wed., 8:00 p.m. — Fri., 9:00 p.m.
WHITE HOUSE
The Baptist Student Union will meet at 5:00 p.m.
TOMORROW
Mr. B. Johnson of Boeing Airplane Company will interview those interested in industrial and management accounting. Also opportunities in data processing, budget control, and factory accounting. 202 Summerfield.
Quill Club Meeting. 8:00 p.m. Parlor A, Union. Bring manuscripts to read and discuss. Refreshments. Everyone welcome.
Newman Club Daily Mass. 6:30 a.m.
St. John's Church.
Items for the Official Bulletin must be brought to the public relations office. 122 Strong, before 9:30 a.m. on the day of publication. Do not bring Bulletin materials. Do the Daily Kansas. Notices should include name, place, date, and time of function.
KU Dames Cancel Meeting
Have a WORLD of FUN!
Episclepac Morning Prayer, 8:45 a.m. breakfast fast following, Canterbury House.
The meeting of the KU Dames scheduled for this evening has been postponed until March 21 at 8 p.m. in Spooner-Thayer Museum.
Episcopal Evening Prayer. 9:30 p.m.
Danforth Chapel.
Luben Vichey summed up the adult Western as one in which the star is smarter than the horse. —Hy Gardner.
TODAY
Baptist Student Union's Meeting will be at 12:30 noon.
Mr. G. Harper of Bankers Life Comp
the insurance field in 202 Summerfield
Mr. H. Lee of Equitable Life Assurance Society will interview those interested in actuarial and administrative trainees in 202. Summerfield.
Mr. F. Browne of U.S. General Accounting Office will interview those interested in professional accounting in 202 Summerfield.
Phi Delta Kappa members: Please make
meetings with [Name] at the meeting
with [Name]. Middlette V. i: 57415
ASC and Class Office petitions due, 5.00 p.m. Dean of Student's Office. The blank forms may be picked up in the Dean of Student's Office. They may also be turned in before 12:00 p.m. on Tuesday to Lynn Anderson, 1541 Tennessee.
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Also low-cost trips to Mexico $169 up, South America $699 up,
Hawaii Study Tour $598 up and Around the World $189 up
27th Year Ask Your Travel Agent
SITA 332 So. Michigan Ave.
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WORLD TRAVEL
★ Jumbo Size Prints at no Extra Charge
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University Daily Kansan
Monday. March 14. 1960
Quack Club to Hold Tryouts
Tryouts for the Quack Club will be held at 6:30 p.m. in Robinson gymnasium. All women are welcome to try out and are asked to bring their own caps and suits. Towels will be furnished.
Try the Daily Kansan Want Ads
The Atomic Energy Commission will provide $54,154 toward the purchase of a pulse neutron source and a pile oseillator for use in the graduate engineering teaching program built around KU's ten kilowatt nuclear reactor now under construction.
AEC Gives KU $54,154 Grant
On Campus with Max Shulman
(Author of "I Was a Teen-age Dwarf," "The Many Loves of Dobie Gillis", etc.)
"AN EMBARRASSMENT OF RICHES"
So when, after years of patient research, Dr. Sigafoos discovered Reverso, a shaving cream which causes whiskers to grow inward instead of outward, thus enabling a man to bite off his beard instead of shaving it, it never even crossed his mind that he had come upon a key to fame and riches; he simply assigned all his royalties from Reverso to the college and went on with his quiet life of working in the laboratory, playing Mozart quartets, smoking good Marlboros and throwing sticks for his faithful dog Trey. (Trey, incidentally, had died some years earlier but habit is a strong thing and Dr. Sigafoos to this day continues to throw sticks.)
Twinkly, lovable old Dr. Wagstaff Sigafoos, head of chemistry at the Upper Rhode Island College of Science and Palmistry, cares naught for glory and wealth. All he cares about is to work in his laboratory, to play Mozart quartets with a few cronies, to smoke a good Mariboro, and to throw sticks for his faithful dog Trey to fetch.
As everyone knows, Reverso turned out to be a madly successful shaving cream. Royalties in the first month amounted to $290,000, which came in mighty handy, believe you me, because the college had long been postponing some urgently needed repairs—a lightning rod for the men's dormitory, new hoops for the basketball court, leather patches for the chess team's elbows and a peniwiper for the Director of Admissions.
In the second month royalties amounted to an even million dollars and the college bought Marlboro cigarettes for all students and faculty members. It is interesting that the college chose Marlboro cigarettes though they could well have afforded more expensive brands. The reason is simply this: you can pay more for a cigarette but you can't get a better flavor, a better smoke. If you think flavor went out when filters came in, try a Marlboro. The filter cigarette with the unfiltered taste. You, too, can smoke like a millionaire at a cost which does no violence to the slimnest of budgets. Marlboros come in soft pack or flip-top box and can be found at any tobacco counter. Millionaires can be found on yachts.
But I digress. We were speaking of the royalties from Reverso which continue to accrue at an astonishing rate—now in excess of one million dollars per week. The college is doing all it can to spend the money; the student-faculty ratio which used to be thirty students to one teacher is now thirty teachers to one student; the Gulf Stream has been purchased for the Department of Marine Biology; the Dean of Women has been gold-plated.
But money does not buy happiness, especially in the college world. Poverty and ivy—that is the academic life—not power and pelf. The Upper Rhode Island College of Science and Palmistry is frankly embarrassed by all this wealth, but I am pleased to report that the trustees are not taking their calamity lying down. Last week they earmarked all royalties for a crash research program headed by Dr. Wagstaff Sigafoos to develop a whisker which is resistant to Reverso. Let us all join in wishing the old gentleman success.
The sponsors of this column can't offer you money but they can offer you fine smoking flavor—with or without filter. If you favor filters try a Marlboro. If non-filters are your pleasure pick a Philip Morris.