Tuesday, July 9, 1968
THE SUMMER SESSION KANSAN
5
Oread theatre troupers return from Iron Curtain
The iron curtain is a real physical barrier in Eastern Europe, reports Tom Rea, assistant director of the Theatre, but not to personal relationships.
He and six other Jayhawkers have just returned from a two-month theatrical tour of Zagreb, Ljubljana and Belgrade in Yugoslavia; Bucharest, Rumania; and Prague, Brno and Bratislava, Czechoslovakia.
Warsaw, Poland, was struck from the original itinerary because Polish officials refused to issue visas for entering the country.
A SURPRISE in Yugoslavia, a drama student's delight, offset this disappointment. The KU troupe was invited on set to visit with Burt Lancaster and other movie notables filming "Castle Keep" near Belgrade.
Peter Falk, Scott Wilson, Patrick O'Neal, and Michael Conrad had been filming the World War II story with Lancaster since December, Rea said. Most of them are living in Novi Sad, a town of about 75,000 and approximately 40 miles from Belgrade.
"All of them just showed up in the third row the night after we met them and then came back-stage," said Sheri Romeiser, Salina senior.
The KU company presented 12 public performances of "Theatre Today," a medley of Broadway hits compiled by Rea, which was presented here in mid-November and toured Kansas in February and March. Further adding to stage jitters when the cast spotted such well-knowns in the audience, the production included a scene from "The Rainmaker," in which Lancaster played the motion picture lead.
A few weeks later the movie's elaborate castle scenery was destroyed in an accidental explosion.
AS THOUGH that wasn't excitement enough, Miss Romeiser and Carol Wilcox, Kansas City senior, again ran into two of the movie cast on a weekend side trip to Dubrovnik, Yugoslavia, and promptly were invited to spend the weekend boating on the Adriatic Sea.
Not only fellow Americans extended hospitality and enlivened the tour. Everywhere, the seven Jayhawkers constantly were overwhelmed with the intense desire of East Europeans to make friends.
The natural Yugoslav intensity and emotionalism, they said, spills over onto the stage, making everything appear twice as strong as here.
SOON THEY FOUND it affected them, too, and that their acting became more vigorous and physically demonstrative.
"All three countries have large movie industries," Rea said. "They welcomed us with a kind of treatment one would not get in Hollywood.
"No matter what time of-day we arrived, we were given formal receptions, complete with their traditional plum brandy, slivo-vitz," he said.
The United States ambassador to Rumania and his wife received the entourage and about 60 others at their residence. They honored the Jayhawkers with engraved invitations and included many major figures in Rumanian theatre on their guest list, along with some Americans in foreign service.
THE ANNUAL East European tour—only one of its kind among American universities—serves a dual purpose, in addition to its obvious international relations value: it demonstrates American drama to East Europeans, while directly introducing Kansas students to that system.
East Europeans study drama in four-year, specialized academies. The state pays for everything and requires those it trains to perform within its borders forever after.
Would Miss Romeise prefer the academy system? "Perhaps," she said, "but ours is more well-rounded.
"THE TIME of reckoning comes at a different point there," she noted. If an academy student graduates, his career is set for life. The crucial period for Americans begins with graduation.
The troupe consistantly met royal treatment, but each member sensed an effort in Rumania to prevent student - to - student conversation and the comparison that would inevitably result.
tact was about to develop between students, we were quickly shoved on to the next event. If I hadn't begged them to slow down, they'd have given us another play for lunch."
"It just seemed," Rea explained, "that each time real con-
In addition to Miss Romeiser and Miss Wilcox, the troupe this year included:
Jeri Walker, Shawnee Mission senior; Earl Trussell, Kansas City senior; Holmes Osborne, Bates City, Mo., junior; Michael Fisher, Lawrence senior. Kay Bethea, Baton Rouge, La., graduate student, directed music for the show.
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