I'll eat my hat!
As the commercial goes, "I'll eat my hat!" If someone had told me Friday night that the AWS Rules Convention would vote for no closing for seniors, juniors and second-semester sophomores, I would never have believed it.
But my faith in KU women has been restored. The 140 convention delegates truly represented the feelings of their living groups, if records of the roll call votes are any indication. Most delegations split their votes on issues, thereby representing minority feelings in their houses. Voting and discussion also indicated that much individual thought and living group discussion preceded the convention.
MANY TECHNICALITIES remain to be worked out. The doors of all living groups will be locked at the hours of freshman and firstsemester sophomore closing, and each living group will determine a system of keys, cards or nightwatchmen to allow residents to enter and leave at personal discretion.
This action of the convention delegates was both rational and responsible because no practical, uniform system could have been instituted. Money currently used to finance the senior key system could be applied to nightwatchmen's salaries in large residence halls, while unrestricted key systems may be most feasible for sororities and scholarship halls.
THE PREVAILING AWARENESS of responsibility also was shown in the spirit of compromise concerning no hours for sophomore women. A motion calling for no hours for any sophomores was defeated by only nine votes. Chief argument against the motion was that many first-semester sophomores face adjustments to new living situations and require temporary regulation. Despite the bookkeeping problems which will confront large residence
halls when only first-semester sophomores have hours, these groups compromised so that other groups could avoid "adjustment" problems.
Clarity and simplicity seemed to be the bywords for convention regulations. Hours which were introduced were uniform for all affected groups. No intricate, complicated, unnecessary or inane system of limited privileges and late nights was enacted—avoiding bookkeeping expenses.
OTHER MOTIONS passed were similarly sensible and realistic. If any had doubts of the maturity and sense of responsibility of the majority of KU coeds, their fears should have been dispelled by Saturday's performance.
The only regrettable action of the convention was that unfinished business has been postponed until the evening of March 22. The intense interest, enthusiasm and participation evident Saturday may wane. Delegates may be unduly pressured. Obstructionists may block effective and responsible actions.
HOWEVER, the major portion of the blame for the delay must go to convention planners, who should have realized that such a complex area as women's regulations could not possibly be covered in one day. Plans should have included at least two days of convention sessions. Apart from this oversight, the convention committee deserves congratulations for the fine procedural handling of Saturday's meeting. Chairman Carolyn Hoke competently handled a difficult job.
Hopefully, convention officers and delegates will continue March 22 to lead KU women into a more responsible and realistic era of self-government.
-Jacke Thayer
a kansan review—
'Bedbug': circus, not a play
"The Bedbug" is more of a circus than it is a play. Comic, colorful, courageous, it rips into the communist way of life in the 1920's then jumps into 1989 in a sterile world of not just Russia but the face of the earth.
VLADIMIR Mayakovsky, the playwright, became disillusioned with Russian life after the Revolution and even more so after Stalin came to power. His play, light in presentation, heavy on what it has to say, first explores the post-revolution proletariat and its efforts to become capitalists on a small scale. The play then moves on 60 years later when the world is governed by electronics.
The play revolves around the experiences of Ivan Prisypkin, a veteran of the Bolshevik Revolution, who marries a huge bride, representing capital "dethroned but ever enchanting," only to be frozen in a cellar.
SIXTY YEARS later Prisypkin de-refrigerated into a completely different world.
Only human nature, deep down, remains untouched. Prisypkin beings to infect the population with the old diseases of love, drink, nicotine, etc. To put an end to the epidemic Ivan is placed in a cage in a zoo.
Jack Wright, as Prisypkin, is a baggy-pants burlesque comedian and plays his part well. He bounces about the stage, scratching his head, wondering what the hell is going on. Wright has talent but, oh, my! his voice! In fact, most all the voices in the University Theatre production need work, hard work.
Julia Callahan, as the bride (she's stacked like a cement mixer), is comically tremendous. Her movements are gracefully absurd; one fears that if she should fall the stage and auditorium would rock with quakes. Mrs. Callahan is a blessing to our theater. Her performances have oftentimes been the highlight of comedy and drama.
DENN1S DALEN scores
THE UNIVERSITY DAILY kansan
For 76 Years, KU's Official Student Newspaper
KANSAN TELEPHONE NUMBERS
Newsroom—UN 4-3646 — Business Office—UN 4-3198
The Daily Kansan, student newspaper at The University of Kansas, is representative of National Advertising Service, 18 East 50 St. New York, N.Y. 10022. Mall subscription for the third and second class postage paid at Lawrences, Kan., every afternoon during the week except Saturdays and Sundays. University holidays and examination periods, accommodations, goods, services and employment advertised in the University Daily. Are offered to all students without regard to color, creed or national origin.
The opinions expressed in the editorial column are those of the students whose names are signed to them. Guest editorial views are not necessarily the editor's. Any opinions expressed in the Daily Kansan are not necessarily those of The University of Kansas Administration or the State Board of Regents.
EXECUTIVE STAFF
Vincent Angotti, who plays Oleg Bard, an eccentric houseowner; and Mary Lou Groom and Brenda Currin, two little old ladies, are all fabulous in their ability to concentrate on their characterizations constantly and still be farcical.
again with his characterizations of the pseudo-suave Best Man and the hair-brained, juvenile, old Professor. Right along with Mrs. Callahan Dalen is a first-rate comic.
Managing Editor ... Fred Frailey
Business Manager ... Dale Reinecker
Editorial Editors ... Jacke Thayer, Justin Beck
NEWS AND BUSINESS STAFFS
Assistant Managing Editors ... E. C. Ballweg, Rosalie Jenkins
Karen Lambert, Nancy Scott and Robert Stevens
At long last we get to the guest artist, Catherine Ziablowa.
MADAME Ziablowa was a student of Stanislavsky ("The Method") before she left the Soviet Union in 1924. She has been director and teacher of acting with the Finnish National and Swedish National Theatres in Helsinki.
She plays a small part in the production, an "extra" you might say. She is easily noticeable on the stage, however, because she is the oldest actor in the cast. Her language, in most instances, is incomprehensible. The results of her studies with Stanislavsky do not show in her small part.
If a guest artist is to be brought to the University Theatre the guest should be given a larger part to play. In that way, the audience would be given a better opportunity to really see good professional actors and the students in the cast would be able to learn more about the art of the theatre.
2
Daily Kansan
editorial page
Monday, March 14, 1966
- Illustration by Richard Geary
"But if I break loose, I'll really get crushed."
books in review
Non-fiction rates
Flashy fiction titles come and go, and historical novels and Mickey Spillanes and James Bonds decorate the shelves, but probably the best bets in the long run are some of the solid nonfiction titles that are appearing in paperback. Take, for example, a sizable little item by W. H. McNeil called The Rise of the West (Mentor, $1.50).
"Little" is the wrong word. This one amounts to almost 900 pages. It has excellent illustrations, and already is has the reputation of being the 1964 winner of the National Book Award. It's a one-volume history of mankind in the Durant-Toynbee-Van Loon tradition. Highly readable, and controversial, too. For McNeil does not buy the Toynbee-Spengler theories, and he thinks that the cultures of the world have been interrelated at almost all times.
HE STARTS with the epoch of dominance by the Middle East, then treats the other civilizations of that area, India, Greece and China, and then the West—Europe and the Americas. He thinks that a synthesis of western and eastern cultures was created that "ripped the balance of culture from East to West."
On a more popular level, but not by any means in the mass class, is the already celebrated Life with Picasso, by Francoise Gilot and Carlton Lake (Signet, 95 cents). This one also has pictures, mainly photographs, though there are a few black-and-white reproductions of the painter's work.
The book is by Picasso's mistress of ten years, and mother of two children. It's a frank and forthright book, and one which makes the celebrated man understandable to almost any reader. He is one of the stormiest figures of world art, and this book, in inexpensive form, will introduce him to many new friends—and foes.
LIKELY TO have a much more esoteric reading audience is Barrows Dunham's Giant in Chains (Hill and Wang, $1.95). Dunham already is known to some readers for his delightful philosophical explosion called "Man Against Myth." He is a man bent on iconoclastic attacks, ready to go after the notions which he thinks have long, and undeservedly, dominated our thinking.
In this volume he takes off after matters that motivate us as human beings. He would free mankind from its folklore and myths—economic, religious, social, psychological. The book is excellent subsidiary reading for almost any of the social sciences.
John Russell Taylor's Cinema Eye, Cinema Ear (Hill and Wang, $1.95) is intended for that vastly growing group of readers who are fascinated by the "cine-mah." Not just the movies, of course; we must be concerned only with the serious people (only to find in a dozen years that the people we scorned have been taken up by the avant-garde and are being celebrated).
TAYLOR'S PEOPLE in this sturdy, illustrated volume are Antonioni, Fellini, Bunuel, Robert Bresson, Ingmar Bergman and Hitchcock. Not the Hitchcock of television trash, but the once-serious film-maker. The others are known to those who go to the Film Series and huddle about in the Hawk's Nest. Taylor also takes a look at the New Wave bunch—Trufflaut, Godard and Resnais. If you're "in" you know all about these gentlemen, and you even may have seen "L'Avventura" and "The Virgin Spring." And "Psycho," for sure. That's mass stuff as well as being for the people who have to be served cafe espresso between showings.