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LAWRENCE JOURNAL-WORLD
237 240 241
ARTS & ENTERTAINMENT
AUGUST 1996 9F
RENEE KNOEEB/IOURNAL-WORLD PHOTO
Jan Chapman, left, and Cynthia Dahlberg, right, rehearse a scene from Jean-Paul Sartre's "No Exit." The play was staged by English Alternative Theatre last winter.
EAT takes on scripts written by students
- English Alternative Theatre focuses its attention on young playwrights.
BY MARK LUCE
JOURNAL-WORLD WRITER
Entering its sixth year, English Alternative Theatre continues to build on its reputation as the most innovative and envelope-pushing theater group in the area.
And for EAT artistic director Paul Lim, an English professor at Kansas University, the group is beginning to come into its own.
"We continue to move toward our initial impulse, which is to nurture KU playwrights," he said.
Lim, who directs KU's sixyear-old playwriting program, founded EAT to fill a gap in local theater. Too often, according to Lim, there were no production avenues for local scripts. EAT has staged more than 70 full productions and staged readings.
"While waiting for the playwriting program to catch stride, EAT did a lot of plays by marginal voices — gays and lesbians and people of color," Lim said. "This seemed to fulfill the needs of the community. Although we still do these types of plays occasionally, now we are focusing primarily on student scripts. Now that the KU playwriting program is six years old, we are getting quite a number of good scripts which can be made better by productions."
Those student scripts have met with success. In the past three years of entering scripts
EAT YOUR HEART OUT
Here is the English Alternative Theatre's fall schedule:
- "The Tragedy of Mariam," by Elizabeth Cary, adapted by Susan Dunn, 8 p.m. Sept. 14, 100 Smith Hall, Kansas University campus.
- "The Camp Follower," by W. Scott Pinkston, 8 p.m. Oct. 10-13 and 2:30 p.m. Oct. 14, Lawrence Arts Center, 200 W. Ninth.
- Three short plays:"The Sandbox," by Edward Albee; "The Chalky White Substance," by Tennessee Williams; and "Tidings," by Phoebe Zimmerman, 8 p.m. Nov.21-23 and 2:30 p.m. Nov.24.
in the American College Theatre Festival, EAT has landed a play in the regional festival. Although none of the plays has advanced to the national competition, it is only a matter of time before a play breaks through, according to Lim.
Play tells story of immigrant family
This year's entries will be "The Camp Follower," by KU graduate W. Scott Pinkston, and "Tidings," a one-act play by KU student Phoebe Zimmerman.
- A playwright finds inspiration in the tales told by family members.
See EAT, page 10F
BY JAN BILES
JOURNAL-WORLD ARTS EDITOR
John Gronbeck-Tedesco, Kansas University associate professor of theater and film, drew upon his heritage when he began writing "Coming Here: A Trilogy," a play about the experiences of an Italian immigrant family.
The three-act play is based in part on stories passed down to him by family members.
"I don't know if they are true or fanciful," he said. "I've changed the stories in some places, not at all in others."
Gronbeck-Tedesco said he began working on the play about six years ago. The first act is set in the 1940s, after World War II, in Cleveland, Ohio, and tells the story of Tonv.
"My uncle claims to have chopped down a telephone pole in Cincinnati, Ohio," he said. "He was angry at the telephone company and felt he had no way to redress his grievance. So he took things into his own hands."
RENEE KNOEBER/JOURNAL-WORLD PHOTO
John Gronbeck-Tedesco, chairman of Kansas University's theater and film department, will be seeing one of his own plays come to life this fall on the Crafton-Preyer stage.
"Tony is an amalgamation of a couple of people," he said. "He's not just my uncle."
His uncle immigrated to the United States as a child and became a U.S. citizen by serving in the military during World War II. However, he never quite assimilated into American culture.
During the second act, the audience is taken back to the 1920s to meet Sal,a metal smith from Sicily who recently immigrated to the United
States. In the old country, he had been regarded as an artist; in his new home, he is considered to be a tradesman.
"Sal is based on my grandfather," Gronbeck-Tedesco said.
The story goes like this: Sal supports his family by putting gutters on buildings in Cleveland, Ohio. One day, he must install inferior gutters, which he believes is an insult to the craft. He eventually rounds up some friends and they tear down the gutters one night and put up gutters he has designed.
"It's an announcement to his children about who he is," Gronbeck-Tedesco said. "It's the American typicality of taking charge by marginalized people to regain their dignity."
The final act is set in Sicily in the early 1920s.
"It depicts the reason for their coming to America," the playwright said, adding that it involved a murder of an overlord's son.
"Coming Here" grapples with the experiences of every American family that never get told.
See Play, page 10F
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