-Staff photo by Bill Stephens
George (James Hawes) and Martha (Nancy Yunovich) Rehearse Lead Roles in "Virginia Wolfe"
Drama Exposes Flaws, Failure
With the flashing of a neon sign proclaiming "fun and games," the KU cast of "Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?" launches a portrayal of a group of characters whose lives are anything but happy.
Directed by Jack Brookings, professor of speech and drama, this play by Edward Albee jabs at married life and the American matriarchal family by exposing character flaws which are universal. Self pity, a desire to hurt someone in revenge, and feelings of personal inadequacy float through the play as freely as the inebriated characters who live with these traits.
THE PLAY, which will be presented at 8:20 p.m. Wednesday through Saturday in Murphy Hall, is the third in this season's major productions.
The lead roles of George and Martha will be played by James Hawes, assistant professor of speech and drama, and Nancy Vunovich, Arkansas City graduate student.
Their college-town home is the setting for the drama, centered around the happenings of one night in the characters' lives.
Their young guests, Honey and Nick, are portrayed by Marcia Dalen of Alexandria, Minn., and Richard Kelton, Miami, Okla., senior. Prof. Hawes, Mrs. Vunovich, and Mrs. Dalen are all members of the KU Resident Acting Company.
LAST SPRING when the play was first considered, there was a question concerning the value of several lines termed by some as vulgar. Prof. Brooking has cut a few lines because of this criticism and also because of length, but has kept those lines essential in developing the full scope of the characters.
As Prof. Hawes explains, "the audience should see that there is something more to the characters than the fact that they call a spade a spade, they are miserable and comic at the same time through the universal human characteristics they show."
Albee has written dialogue that is spontaneous and more than just pat statements. Coupled with the lines are several violent displays of temper as George, the history professor working under the supervision of his father-in-law, tries to hurt his domineering wife Martha, by verbal and physical attacks.
Martha ignites George in arguments also in an effort, according to Mrs. Vunovich, to find her place in her husband's career while pushing him to do better.
$107 MILLION
KU Bill Clears House
The Kansas House of Representatives passed the $107.1 million higher education bill in its first night meeting of the current budget session on Monday, after overtime work for an early adjournment.
The efforts of Chancellor W. Clarke Wescoe and the state Board of Regents late last month failed to raise the appropriation back to the $108.8 million requested by the six state schools.
The appropriation for educational operating and capital improvements at KU as passed is a cut of $276,263.
THE BILL CONTAINING $31,234,297 for KU passed the Senate 10 days ago. There was one amendment added in the House but approval, again, in the Senate will only be a formality.
The primary result of the cut in the requested amounts will be a 1-20 faculty to student ratio at Kansas schools. Wescoe originally request a 1-17 ratio and a 10.6 percent faculty wage increase. Avery cut the wage increase to 6 per cent.
Wescoe said that the 1-20 faculty student ratio is not capable of producing quality education in a complex state institution. He felt that the 1-17 ratio was a minimum.
The education budget, which
is one-fourth of the total state budget for next year listed specific amounts for the University of Kansas Law School and the Medical Center.
LAW FACULTY SALARIES will be raised 16 per cent or $30,000 in addition to the overall increase. The raise will come from a $50 increase in law student fees each semester.
The bill also appropriated $150,000 for the Medical Center for the purchase of land to enlarge the campus. It listed $10,000 for preliminary planning for a health related science building at the Center. Remaining money for additions at the Medical Center will come from federal funds.
76th Year, No. 74
kansan
Serving KU for 76 of its 100 Years
Tuesday, February 8, 1966
Ho Asks End to War, Sources Say in India
By United Press International Informed sources said today Communist North Viet Nam President Ho Chi Minh has asked the Indian government in a letter to initiate peace moves in Viet Nam.
There was no official confirmation of the report.
THE SOURCES said Ho, in a letter to Indian President Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan, suggested that as neutral chairman of the International Control Commission, India should initiate the peace moves.
Ho said in his letter to Radhakrishnan it was India's "responsibility" to end U.S. "aggression" in Viet Nam.
Foreign office sources said Ho might have acted under advice from Moscow. India's reply is expected this weekend.
India is a member of the International Control Commission along with Canada and Communist Poland. The commission was
set up by the 1954 Geneva conference ending the Indochina war, its job was to enforce the peace.
The commission was active in North and South Viet Nam and in Laos but its work was often hamstrung by a Communist veto in the commission itself. However, in recent weeks, North Viet Nam has protested directly to the commission against American bombing attacks.
The latest development came today as President Johnson and Prime Minister Nguyen Cao Kytalked in Honolulu about creating a "new society" in war torn South Viet Nam.
WEATHER:
Considerable cloudiness with occasional showers or thunderstorms are forecasted by the U.S. Weather Bureau for today through Wednesday. Continued mild today, a little colder tonight and Wednesday, with southerly winds of 10 to 20 miles an hour.
IN SAIGON meanwhile, U.S. paratroopers under heavy small arms fire assaulted well-fortified Communist positions 230 miles to the northeast and killed an estimated 108 Viet Cong.
The South Vietnamese government no longer believes it must first win the war, then tackle its political, economic and social problems. It has come around to the idea that unless it starts on these non-military problems now it may never win the war.
THE PHRASE "new society" was used by South Viet Nam's minister of rural construction, Nguyen Duc Thang, a gruff-talking major general who speaks with the zeal of a reformer.
Thang has proposed extending land reform and setting up credit programs for farmers.
American officials were reported pleased with the progress of the meetings.
298 Pledge To Sororities In Hill Rush
The 13 KU sororities pledged 298 women at the close of formal spring rush Monday, Emily Taylor, Dean of Women, said.
A total of 351 women completed the formal sorority rush period by signing preference cards in the Dean of Women's office Saturday night. Twenty-two women said they did not wish to pledge at this time, Dean Taylor said.
Pledge List on Page 4
Only two Negro girls are known to have signed up to participate in formal spring rush. They were Gwen Revels, Salina freshman, and Beverly Ann Harper, Oklahoma City, Okla., freshman. Both girls were unable to complete the formal rush period because they did not make the needed grade average.
Krehbiel to Lead Cleveland Chorus
Clayton Krehbiel, professor of choral music at KU was named director of the Cleveland Orchestra Chorus. He will succeed Robert Shaw in that position.
Prof. Krehbiel will thus end a 15-year association with KU. Presently he directs the three choirs or choruses at the University. He will assume his duties in September.
"I regard it as a distinct honor and privilege to be able to work with one of the world's finest choruses and with Mr. George Szell, conductor of the Cleveland Symphony Orchestra," Prof. Krebiel said. "I also look nostalgically at my stay in Lawrence."
He earned his bachelor's degree in music education at KU in 1942 and his master's degree in 1949 at Columbia Teacher's College, a division of Columbia University in New York City.
Prof. Krehbiel will spend next summer in Detroit on the staff of the Meadowbrook Music Festival at Oakland University.
CLAYTON KREHBIEL To Leave KU