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Entertainment
University Daily Kansan, October 5, 1982
October show features tale of 'Two-Tailed Cat'
By SUSAN STANLEY Staff Reporter
Thirty children picked up carpet samples as they filed into the theatre of the Lawrence Arts Center Saturday.
They sat crowded around the edge of a stage defined by masking tape lines on the floor.
The Seem-To-Be Players, dressed in black leotards and brightly colored overalls, were
They also discussed that morning's episode of The Filthstones.
Together, they chatted to Halloween. All of the children wanted to be Pa-Man or E.T.
THIS IS 'The Seem-To-Be-Players' 10th season performing children's theatre, Ric Averill, director of the trous. said Saturday.
After they sang "Have You Seen the Ghost of John," and "Ten Little Witches," the Seem-To-Be-Players began their monthly children's theatre performance.
"The Tale of the Two-Tailed Cat" was presented for the first time Saturday and will be performed at 1:30 p.m. each Saturday in October at The Center, 9th and Vermont streets, said A威尔。
the word *play* comes from kids at play.
That's what acting at its finest is, he said.
"To Kids, a picnic table in the back yard can be a spaceship. That's what we try to capture."
"It is different ways of looking at things. Its purpose is to expand the imagination." Averill
Averill writes most of the Seen-To-Be Players' plays, said troupe director and actor Janie Averill, who is Ric's wife.
This month's story is a Halloween tale about a bv who learns the importance of honesty.
The story concerns Simon, a grade school boy played by Mark Robertson. Simon wants to win a
The content is sponsored by Dr. Inkwell, a famous scientist conducting a national search
SIMON THINKS that if he can make Dr. Ince believe that his cat, Yoda, has two tails, he will
After trying to attach a second tail to Yoda, Simon looks for help in the Yellow Pags, where he is taking them to the Temple.
Rod, played by Chris Johnson, gives Simon a magic whistle to blow that makes people believe anything Simon says.
The whistle works and Simon beats the competition — a trot with a flat leg and a dead black heel.
But Dr. Inkwell calls the next day to tell Simon's mother that he must take Yoda away. Simon realizes that Yoda means more to him than the narror and again calls on Rod for help.
The Seem-To-Be Players perform stories with lessons, Averill said, but preaching to children is not their forte.
"Our children's plays have two levels, but we dislike the condescending attitude of most
children's theatre. That stuff is garbage." Jeanne Averill said.
SUBTLE LESSONS included in "The Tale of the Two-Tailed Cat" were that honesty is important and that sex roles should not be barriers that keep people from doing what they want to do.
The format of the Seem-To-Be-Players has attracted a consistent audience, Ariver Raisill had.
"We have one family whose children have never missed a monthly visitation day the day they were born. We still will take
A Seem-To-Be-Players production consists of sing-alongs, skits and pantomime. Ravier Averill said. The parts of the show that he does not write are provided by other actors.
each troupe member brings in skit or song ideas from their childhoods, Jeannie Averill said.
sss
    one the thread that ties all performances together is the "Nvfm" series.
NYFRM 15 a tiny woman racer from the planet Svton.
The Seem-ToBe Players have been performing envisions of Nvfm for the past eight years.
"We wanted to start an alternative children's theatre with strong female characters," Ric Averill said. "Usually female characters in children's theatre are wimpish and sexist."
Averill said that putting on one show a month for 10 years was not a difficult thing to do.
"It isn't hard to come up with new material every month when you are working with a group of designers."
Observers find it hard to tell who is having more fun during a performance — the audience
Jennie Averill estimated that 40 hours of work go into each monthly children's theatre
"We really enjoy children." Ric Averill said. "The actors have to enjoy it. For all practical purposes, it is volunteer work. The pay is low."
No one will ever get rich being a Soon-To-Bear-
Excellent place for an artist to perfect his craft.
There are no formal auditions for actors who want to be members of the troupe, Rice Avettier
"We do a lot of scouting," he said.
*Qualifications for a prospective player would include a good imagination, positive attitude and experience.*
THE SEEM-TO-BE Players began as a way to make money, he said. The troupe began as the Meade Hall Players, putting on shows in what is now The Jazzhus.
The group left the old hall because of the expense and changed changed its name to the
"The Seem-ToBe Sisters were in one of the plays that we did. They could change into anything they wanted," Jeannie Averill said. "That really fit what we were doing."
At the end of each performance the group sing its motto — "We are just what we seem to be. Can't you see what we are is what we are to be?"
On campus
TODAY
THE PEACE CORPS Information Table will be from 8:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. outside the cafeteria on the third floor of the building.
GUBERNATORIAL CANDIDATE Sam Hardage will speak at the Classified Senate meeting on Tuesday.
TAU SIGMA DANCE CLUB will have a class at 7 p.m. in 247 Robinson.
A LECTURE, "The Religious Ethos of Present-day Japan," will be at 8 p.m. in Woodruff Auditorium.
A REPUBLICAN CANDIDATE Rally will be from 3 to 6 m, at potter's Lake Pavilion.
A MOVIE, "pquils in Women's Lives," will be at 7:30 p.m. in 300 Strong Hall.
PHYSICAL THERAPY CLUB will meet at 7 n p. in Watkins Hospital Cafeteria.
KU WEAR CLUB CLL will have an organizational meeting at 4:30 p.m. in 418 Lindley Court.
CAMPUS CRUSADE FOR CHRIST will meet at 7 p.m. in the Big Eight Room in the Kansas Union
CAMPUS CHRISTIAN FELLOWSH'S BIBLE
study and study will be at 7:30 p.m. in the
GREEK SING will be at 6:30 p.m. in Hoch
Auditorium.
A LECTURE, "Austria and the Superpowers"
will be at 8 p.m. in Woodruff Auditorium in the
FITTING AWARENESS Techniques Seminar on cycling will be at 12:10 p.m.
COLLEGE ASSEMBLY will be at 4 p.m. in the Forum Room of the Union.
CATCHING A BUS—Ric Averill, center, and the Seem-To-Re play "The Tale of the Two-Tailed Cat." The Players perform at 1:30 Players give their imitation of a monster catching a bus before the Saturday at the Lawrence Arts Center, 9th and Vermont streets.
LIFE IN CHRIST Series, "Repentance," will be 8 p.m. in the Regionalist Room in the building.
CATHOLIC CENTER WORSHIP will be at 12:30 p.m. in Danforth Chapel.
DUNGEONS AND DRAGONS CLUB will have a games meeting at 7 p.m. in the Trail Room of the Museum.
CONCERT, Gerry Grossman, will be from 11:30 a.m. to t. p. 12 in the Hawk's Nest in the
A MOVIE. "The Greatest Job You'll Ever
Have," from the Peace Corps, will be at
7 p.m., and World War II.
LATIN AMERICAN SOLIDARITY will have an informational and organizational meeting at the City Hall on Tuesday, April 16.
Wescoe lends space to study, relax
By VINCE HESS
Staff Reporter
An exchange student from Scotland, a group of jugglers, an English 101 class and the "Tan Man" had something in common Friday — they took advantage of the spacious lawn and patio areas surrounding Wescoe Hall for various activities.
And according to the planner who helped write instructions for the architects of Wescoe, the activities outside Wescoe are what he had in mind.
"We've been quite happy." R. Keith Lawton, former director of KU facilities planning, said Friday of the use of Wescue Hall "It adds to the quality of student life."
One student taking advantage of the "Beach," a seating area on the north side of Wescoe, said he liked the "nice, sunny day and the half-naked young ladies running around."
Barry Highfield, a junior and an exchange student from the University of Sterling in Scotland, said he had seen many new things this semester when he sat around Wescoe.
Highfield said he had found "walking-head" sterees interesting. While sitting at Wescoe, he said, he was surprised when a person gave him and others a religious pamphlet.
American students are more clean-cut and healthy-looking than their Scottish counterparts.
Wescow is formally dedicated April 22, 1974. The building has four floors, two of which are occupied by office space.
The beach, a patio area consisting of a sidewalk and several planters, lies on the north side of the building. Each planter is large enough for 15 or more students to sit on its edge.
The building's back or south side has a terrace area with seats. More sidewalk areas, planters, and windows.
**Pricing:** $180 per person per night.
On the west side of Wescoe is an open-air staircase that is covered by a roof and leads from the ground floor to the fourth floor. Another open-air staircase, also under a roof, runs through the middle of Wescoe and connects the beach with the terrace.
Nancy Jackson, Lawrence sophomore, said she and her friends practiced juggling on the
east lawn every Monday, Wednesday and Friday afternoon. She said she mastered juggling last summer and now practices with plastic clubs, bilt-shaped juggling sacks and wooden devil
said. A cascade is juggling three objects at once. Mike Wentworth, instructor of English, was teaching a 15-member class of English 101 students on the same lawn Friday afternoon.
"I tried for years before I got a cascade," she said. A cascade is juggling three objects at once.
"I find the outdoors distracting, but the students say they learn as much as inside." he
"It doesn't seem as much like English as inside."
evenworth that Friday was the second day this semester his class had gone outside. The class's assigned room in Wescoe is small and has a window, he said, and is hot on warm days.
Wentworth said he does not try to lecture outside. Instead, he plans group activities. Students during Friday's class were assigned to write a biography of a person. Basic patterns of essay writing. Wentworth said.
Wentworth said he regularly scheduled individual conferences with students for outside. Such conferences are not as threatening to a student as in an office, he said.
Wentworth said he liked outdoor classes as an undergraduate at KU.
"I enjoyed them because I was always a serious student," he said. "The instructors were very hard on me."
The campus layout and students' changing study habits were major factors in the planning of Wescoe, Lawton said. He retired Thursday as director of KU facilities planning after a 30-year career.
When Wescoe was being designed about 10 years ago, Lawton said, the facilities planning office considered the proposed building as the center of operations for the school and Fraser bells, of the liberal arts and sciences.
In addition, he said, the center of campus had no outdoor space for students to be among other students, sit with friends, wait for the bus or seek shelter from bad weather.
Lawton had also that the facilities planning office had noticed the evolution in students' experiences.
editions of many books became available. Older textbooks were large and heavy, be said, but the pocketbook editions, which were smaller, lighter and easier to carry, allowed students to study more efficiently.
However, students needed a place to sit and have refreshments, Lawton said. The Kansas Union was on the north end of campus, and the Satellite Union on the south was not yet built. They had refreshments in the middle of campus, the coffee bar at Strong Hall, was usually crowded.
Lawton told that he and others in the facilities planning office were also concerned that the new building not obstruct the view of campus or impede north-south campus movement.
Thus, Wesco is long and, as Lawton described it, "laid out." This design lets students see beyond the building, and the open-air staircase through the middle of Wesco's lets campus pedestrians avoid walking around the long building.
Mark Stock, Leawood senior, said he sat outside Wescoe once or twice a week and seen many different people and activities that occurred around the building.
"It's a strange phenomenon when you're a freeman up here to sit around and watch the world go by."
Stock said he remembered various folk singers and preachers who had been at Wescoe. Several years ago, he said, campus police forced the singers to leave because of the noise, but in recent years they have performed without being bothered.
Lawrence resident John Schneider said seeing the police stop musicians was his favorite memory of Wescole. Schneider, perhaps better known as the Tan Man, said he had sat outside on campus for eight to 10 years. Schneider wears only a pair of shorts while sitting outside Wescole, and he said he would continue to sit outside as long as he wanted to.
Two of the biggest changes at KU in recent years, he said, are the decrease in the number of hippies and an increase in the number of preachers who speak to students.
Valerie Farrar, Lenexa sophomore, said she had not sat outside Wescoe before Friday.
"It's different," she said of the Wescoe outdoor life.
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