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Wednesday, July 10, 1996
KULIFE
UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
KU production satirizes Shakespeare
By Stephanie Fite
Kansan staff reporter
Shakespeare is coming to *town*.
The Compleat Works of William Shakespeare, directed by Ronald A. Willis, professor of theater and film, and Love's Labor Lost, directed by Paul Meier, associate professor of theater and film, are both part of KU theater's Summer of Shakespeare.
Willis will direct 37 Shakespeare plays and 154 sonnets in a collage-like satire poking fun at Shakespeare's works.
"Our goal is to stay loose, be immediate and with it," Willis said. "There are no barbs, no abuse. It's just clever theater."
Willis characterized the collage comedy as a stimulus to promote adventure, a genre with purity
that the audience must view with an attitude.
Although farce isn't for everyone, David Bergeron, professor of English and Shakespeare expert, said that he thought the humor must be shared by both the actors and by the audience.
Brenda Yugenburg, KU alumna,
and Jennifer Nichols, Topea
senior, will act the 75-character
act in less than two hours.
Willis said people who find Shakespeare sacrosanct will not like this play.
"If the people want to be irreverent of Shakespeare, people have to have a sense of humor about it to enjoy it," he said.
Meier's cast in Love's Labor Lost is larger, with a mix of KU alumni, students and members of the Lawrence community.
Laura Zabel, Manhattan senior,
will play two parts in Love's
Labor Lost: a country wench named Jaquette, and Mariah, one of the French princess' ladies-in-waiting. Like many in the cast who see the performance as an opportunity to expand their Shakespeare knowledge, Zabel also sees it as a good career move.
"It's good experience because working with Shakespeare helps all of your work," Zabel said. "It enables you to learn how to communicate effectively with your body and that is where a majority of the acting jobs are."
Although it was his first major work, Love's Labor Lost is not one of Shakespeare's well-known plays.
"This play has been difficult for me to climb into and to decode," Meier said.
Meier has directed many
shakespeare comedies in the
past few years at the University and chose the play for its difficulty. He recently returned from a sabbatical in England where he studied Shakespearean productions and saw an opportunity to satirize scholasticism.
"It's terrific we're doing it in an academic setting because it shows how the quest for knowledge without humanity is a doomed project," Meier said.
Love's Labor Lost is a romantic comedy that satiizes courtiers of Queen Elizabeth and their extravagant fashions, elaborate manners and highly adorned speech. Meier characterizes it as a critique of pure reason.
"It is an essay on language and the games we play with language," Meier said. "It shows how people hide behind words and an examination of language."
What:
KU Summer Theater
KU summer theater presents A Summer of Shakespeare with two comedies planned for mid-July. The line-up will include Love's Labor Lost and The Compleat Works of William Shakespeare, a satirical creation of the Reduced Shakespeare Company.
Love's Labor's Lost will be staged at 8 p.m. July 11, 13, 19, 21, 25 and 27
The Compleat Works of William Shakespeare will be staged at 8 p.m.
July 12, 14, 18, 20, 26 and 28
Where: Murphy Hall
■ Admission: $8 for the public, $4 for KU students and $7 for other students and senior citizens. A ticket package including both shows is available for $15 for the public, $7 for KU students and $13 for other students and senior citizens.
General admission tickets for the KU summer theater shows are on sale at Murphy Hall box office, 864-3982, Lied Center box office, 864 ARTS, and Student Union Activities office, 864-3477.
Trading card shops losing business
Photo illustration by Edmee Rodriguez / KANSAN
By Jeff Ruby
Kansan staff writer
Gone are the days when a boy could slap down a quarter and receive a pack of baseball cards, hoping to find his favorite player inside while smacking on a piece of chalky bubble gum.
Today, kids open the $5 packs simply hoping to find the most valuable card. Trading cards have become high-priced, non-nostalgic long-term business investments. Even the gum is gone. In Lawrence, sports card shops have been chewed up by the changes.
Brian Hoffman, a 25-year-old former KU student, is the owner of Sports Dome, a sports collectibles shop at 942 Massachusetts St. He has been in the sports card business for three years.
"A lot of kids aren't in it for the hobby," Hoffman said. "The minute they open their pack, they want to look at the Beckett price
guide to see what the card's worth.
It doesn't even matter who it is."
Two major local competitors recently called it quits. Two weeks ago, The Dugout, a sports collectibles store at the Riverfront Mall, went out of business. J.D.'s Baseball Card and Sports Nostalgia Shop, which once did business at 711 W.23rd St., closed as well.
Sports Dome is the only sports card shop in Lawrence. Although people are still buying baseball, basketball and football cards, Hoffman said, they're simply not buying from local card shops.
"They'll go to Wal-Mart to buy the trash can they need, then they'll buy their 10 packs of cards," Hoffman said. "You know, like, 'Why bother to come downtown?'
Major sports card makers, such as Topps, Upper Deck and Pinnacle aren't helping smaller businesses like his, Hoffman said.
"I can only buy one or two cases, while Wal-Mart can buy 1,000 or
2. 000." Hoffman said
Don Lee, owner of Sports Fan-Attic, the apparel store that shares the building with Sports Dome, said "They're pricing kids out of this business. Mom and Dad aren't going to spend $6 for a pack of cards, and kids don't want the cheaper stuff."
Kurt Iverson, public relations director for Pinnacle Brands Inc., said his company had raised prices because of an increase in demand.
"Customers vote with their dollars and have expressed interest in the best-looking cards, which cost more to print," Iverson said, adding that his company did all it could to help businesses like Hoffman's.
"We release our products three weeks earlier to the hobby shops than we do for the big retail businesses," he said.
Yet Hoffman had to take a job at K-Mart to support his family.
"When I got into this business three years ago, I didn't picture it
taking this kind of path. It only boomed for two years, ending in 1993." he said.
The Major League Baseball strike during the 1994 and 1995 seasons created the down slide of this business, damaged profits and killed the sports card industry, Hoffman said.
Greg Weyrauch, store manager of Ace Collectibles, a sports shop in Oak Park Mall in Overland Park, agreed that the strike hurt business.
"We're still down 75 percent due to the strike," Weyrauck said, "And we get no special treatment from companies like Pinnacle."
Despite the dismal climate in the local sports card trade, Hoffman is optimistic in trying new ways of drumming up business.
"We're putting fliers on car windshields at ballpark and little league games," said Hoffman. "We've got to get kids back into this business if we want to stay afloat."
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KANSAS ALUMNI ASSOCIATION Invites Parents of New Students to the Faculty Panel Friday, July 12th 6:30 at Adams Alumni Center
The University of Kansas Presents
Kansas Summer Theatre '96
A Summer of Shakespeare
All performances 8:00 p.m. Crafton-Preyer Theatre Stage
The Compleat Works of
Wilm Shkspr (abridged)
by The Reduced Shakespeare Company
July 12, 14, 18, 20, 26, 28, 1996
Love's Labor's Lost
July 11, 13, 19, 21, 25, 27, 1996
General admission tickets for each production are on sale in the KU hotel offices: Murphy Hall, 864-3982; Lied Center, 864-AARTS, SUA Office. 864-3477; both VISA and MasterCard are accepted for phone orders. Individual students pick $8, KU students $4, other students and senior citizens $7; Summer Repository Package (see both shows and save!): public $15, KU students $7, other students and senior citizens $13.