Entertainment
Page 6 University Daily Kansan, September 12, 1980
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DREWTQRRES/Kansan sta
Pidekin (Laurie McLane Sanders) battles Pynty (Rence Franceschiello) for a sorceress' hat in "The Continuing Adventures of Nyfrm the Snirte."
Purple people-eaters populate theatre
By JANE NEUFELD Staff Reporter
There aren't many opportunities in Lawrence to see a one-eyed, one-horned flying purple people-eater or to play hassle-free hopscotch with an anti-bully assistant.
In fact, the one and only opportunity may be the September children's theatre performances by the Seem-To Be Players at the Lawrence Arts Center on the corner of Ninth and Vermont streets.
"One of our main goals is to explore the imagination," said Ric Averill, artistic director of the Seem-To Be Players. "We believe that kids play, they don't need a lot of sets and props."
"in a way, what we're saying is that you can be
warned," he said. "be if you use your
imagination." he said.
Every performance by the players has two
short plays, Averil said, separated by short acts which he called "vauduelle for children."
The purple people-eater and the haste-free
birds both fall into Averill's yodelery category.
The people-eater sings a song about wanting to be a rock star. The hosecastop game uses children from the audience, who are automatically guessing the players' names while a third player knocks away bullies.
Averil said he decided to form the players in
because he was dissatisfied with the current
thesis.
"In 1872, it was the time of alternatives," he said. "I wanted an alternative to the big, mostly concealing theater where every kid in the world sets bored but enjoys the costumes."
The Seem-To-Be Players were his solution. They have been performing in Lawrence for part of the year ever since they were formed seven years ago.
One of the plays they will perform this month is an episode of "The Continuing Adventures of Nyfrm the Sprite." The players have been presenting Nyfrm episodes since they first began.
I "wanted an artichoke in the back yard," he said, "when I saw this sort of vision of a sorceress coming down."
Averill said the episodes were not original.
He said the sorceress gave him scrolls containing the stories about Nyrfm, and he translates them year after year to find out how the story continues.
Children and adults both seemed to enjoy the Seem-ToBe Players. The adults joined in the sing-along musical numbers as enthusiastically as the children, and they were definitely louder.
"I know there's children's theatre and there's a
theatre, but essentially there's just
just theatre."
Benson's latest effort is less jazz, more soul
Bv DAN TORCHIA
Money and audiences are often scrutinized with a double standard in jazz. A little of both is fine for a jazz musician, but get too much and the purists yell "selout."
Staff writer
The purists forget that money and audiences are what a musician plays for. You have to eat. And if a musician snubs his audience he should play in a closet.
Musicians shouldn't pander their audiences, but their preferences should be kept in mind. The audience is the musician's constitency.
Review
This is important because George Benson's new album, "Give Me The Night," has been released, and the usual statements about his work have become more obvious commercialism, etc., will be reheated.
What almost always is overlooked is that what was expected of Benson five years ago is different from what is expected of him now. Ever since he was born," he has decided to pursue a big audience.
"rine. 'Give Me The Night' is the best thing he has done since "Breezin". To settle the jazz question, if you consider jazz to be based on fluid rhythms (usually swing), a lot of improvisation and an advanced harmonic sense, then "Give Me The Night" is not jazz.
But it still is good music. It is possible for a jazz musician to achieve a mass audience and reach a large number of people.
Whether he is playing jazz, as he used to, or soul-funk, as he is now, good George Benson is still good George Benson. Forget the nagging 'Give Me The Night' is an enjoyable album.
There are problems—the same ones that have plagued his last few albums. Benson's guitar is not as smooth as it used to be, and he
No matter how good his singing is, Benson is still primarily known as a guitarist. Now that he has found a wider audience, they should be given the chance to hear how well he can play. For melody and structured improitation, there are not many guitarists who can match him.
The album's strengths and weaknesses are apparent on the first side. The singing is very good. Benson sings with more conviction than he
has in a long time. The guitar work, when it is
tuned up, is melodic, and just right for the funk tempo.
The side's instrumental, "Off Broadway," is good, up tempo bpm, but Benson never takes off and soles until the end. Producer Quincy Jones has tampered electronically with the guitar, but the devices do not add anything. The guitar's sound feels like a piano, adding the identity that usually marks Benson's playing.
The best vocal performance is on "Moozy Mood." a mainstream jazz ballad written by saxophonist James Moody and vocalist Eddie Jefferson. Benson shows he hasn't lost his jazz ability. His vocal owes much to Jefferson, as he swings and sakes with ease.
The second side does not work as well as the first, because the person who acts in the instrument also acts when the people letehrg.
The guitar problems surface again in the instrument, "Dinorah, Dinorah." Again, it is melodic enough that Benson could easily solo and play this song. The best-tuned guitar is used iris and sounds out of place.
The last song on the album, "Turn Out The Lamplight," shows Benson as a crooner. The tempo is sensuous, and Benson does some good work. The melody is continuous, unstoppable scatting that is becoming his trademark.
Benson has found the right producer in Quincy Jones, another jazz expatriate. Jones, who produced Michael Jackson's "Off the Wall," has applied the same touches that made Jackson's album so good—tight arrangements, a rhythm section that sounds well rehearsed but spontaneous, and a lush sound that does not smother everything.
Benson finally sounds comfortable as a soul singer. His interpretation of the songs and vocal lines is flawless.
Rod Temperton, who wrote several of the songs on "Off The Wall," has written half the songs here. Catchy and sophisticated, the songs enable Benson to sing at his best.
But the problem with the guitar probably will plague Benson as long as he pursues his present direction. The guitar is missed and there should be some way for it to share equal time.
But that doesn't ruin the album. The singing more than makes up for the lack of guitar, "Give Me The Night" sounds fresher and has more depth. Robinson and Jones should continue their partnership.
If you are dissatisfied with Benson's playing in the past few years, you might pass this up. Benson has played some phenomenal guitar in the past. If that is what you want to hear, get "Concert-Carrighe Hail" or "Blue Benson," two albums that show his playing at his best.
Guarneri quartet back for encore KU session
The Gauneri String Quartet, a world-
renowned chamber music ensemble, will return
to KU Sunday, Sept. 14, to open the 1980-81
Chamber Music Series.
Jackie Davis, director of the KU Concert and Chamber Music Series, said the Guarneri Quartet has become a "regular" on the Chamber Music series. The most popular concerts on the yearly series.
"There is a real Guarrier cult in the Lawrence area, as well as the world," Davis said, "and we are fortunate the quartet is willing to return to Lawrence." The guarrier culture is always one of the highlights of the series.
Time magazine has hailed the quartet as "the world's master of chamber music."
Members of the quartet are Arnold Steinhardt
and David Soyer, cello; Michael Tree, viola;
and David Soyer, cello.
For its KU performance, the quartet will perform three major works, including Quartet in F Major, opus 15, no. 1, by Beethoven; Quartet in G Major, opus 16, no. 2, by Quartet no. 10, a A minor, opus 13, by Arsenyev;
Formed in 1665, the Guarneri quartet is now at
the pinnacle of chamber music ensemble. Each season the quartet performs more than 100 concerts, including 20 sell-out performances in New York City. Last season, the quartet was invited by President and Mrs. Carter to perform the Minister Begin of Israel at the White House.
While the quartet plays works of such 20th century composers as Berg, Webern, Sessions, Barkt and Hindemith, their repertory is not restricted to the modern. The quartet has an exclusive contract with RCA records and has more than 25 albums available.
In addition to playing as a quartet, the Guarmeri members are also members of the music faculty at the Curtis Institute of Music in Philadelphi, Pa.
Tickets for the 1980 concert are on sale in the Murphy Hall Box Office. All seats are general admission at $6 for the public, $3 for KU students with ID, and $4.50 for other students. Reservations for the concert may be made by calling 864-3982.
members of the group play 18th and 19th century instruments, including an original violin made by Joseph Guarnieri in 1728.
Spare Time
TODAY MUSIC: Opus presents Barry Bernstein, solo concert of involved music, 8 p.m. at the Lawrence Arts Center. US, 9 p.m. at G.P. Loyd's West The Debs, 9 p.m. at Off the Wall Hall Kelly Hunt and the Kinetics, 9 p.m. at the Lawrence Opera House ART: "Benton's Bentons," "Americana from the Collection," and "From Drawings to Sculpture: The Creative Process" at the Helen Foresman Spencer Museum of Art Colleate Bangert, painting, and Vernon Brejcha, sculpture, at the Kellas/7E7 gallery THEATRE: "Dark Solstice," by the Facets Performance Ensemble, 8 p.m. at Swarthout Recital Hall, Workshop at 12:30 p.m. in the Robinson Dance Studio MUSIC: Leon Fleisher, master piano classes at 9:30 a.m. and 1:30 p.m. In Swarthout Recital Hall US, 9 p.m. at G.P. Loyd's West Gaslit Gang, 9 p.m. at Paul Gray's Jazz Place The Debs, 9 p.m. at Off the Wall Hall The Clocks, and Fred's Wallet, 9 p.m. at the Lawrence Opera House THEATRE: "The Sword and the Stone," children's theatre by the Seem-To-Be-Players, 1:30 p.m. at the Lawrence Arts Center SUNDAY MUSIC: Leon Fleisher, master piano classes at 9:30 a.m. and 1:30 p.m. In Swarthout Recital Hall Guarneri String Quartet, 8 p.m. at the University Theatre Jam Session, 6 p.m. at Paul Gray's Jazz Place Jon Paul, 6 p.m. at the 7th Spirit Club
Celtic ritual is evoked in the Facet Performace Ensemble's offering of "Dark Solstice."
Celtic mythology brought to stage in 'Dark Solstice'
Celtic myth and ritual form the cornerstones of "Dark Solitude," a theatrical work created and performed by the Chicago-based Facets Performance Ensemble.
"Dark Solstice" will be presented at 8 a.m in Swarthout Recital Hall in Murphy Hall. The Faeces Ensemble's appearance is special and the International Theatre Studies Center at KU.
Before the performance, Facets members were from 12:30 to 3:30 p.m. in Robinson Dance Studio.
Celtic scholars collaborated with director Nicole Dreisek and the actors to form "Dark Solistice." Robert Graves' book on the Celtic goddess Odioddes, provided the basis for many rehearsals.
In the summer of 1979, Dreiske and the actors researched and rehearsed in Brittany, France, amidst 3.000-year-old Celtic ruins.
"To remain honest to the sources of the theatre piece we were developing," Dreisie explained, "the only way to deal with the mythical and supernatural world of the Celts was for us to work in the immediate place where the Celtic influence still remains strong."
Using a 16th century stone house as their base, the actors travelled through Brittany working on islands, peninsulas and in fields covered by monolithic stones thought to have been places of worship, sacrifice and astronomical observation.
"Sleeping and working inside Celtic tombs and burial places thousands of years old forced the actors toward new revelations and toward drastic changes in 'Dark Solstice,' Drielae
Much of the ensemble's time in Brittany was spent studying the goddess figure in Celtic religion, Dreske saith she "triple-godess," a woman of the Celtic archeology, is a central in "dark Solstice."
"In Brittany, the presence of the godess, in inscriptions on the tombs and in Breton mythology, is everywhere, he said. "The earth mother, as goddess of the dead," she added.
Celtic influence can be found in contemporary society, he said. Halloween, the Celtic new year's day, originally marked the day when spirits from one world were free to cross the other, and so the Celtic tradition of mistletoe dates back to its use during the Celtic celebration of the winter solstice.
"Dark Soliste" premiered in Brittany on a stone-covered field in Carmac, France.
Tickets to the KU performance of "Dark Solice" are on sale in the Murphy Hall box office and will be available at the door. Admission is $2.75.
Tickets for the workshop are $ 60 cents if purchased with a performance ticket or $ 25.00 purchase.