University Daily Kansan / Friday, March 31, 1989
Arts/Entertainment
11
Moses Gunn at KU to finish master's degree
by Christine Winner
Kansan staff writer
Veteran actor Moses Gunn has returned to Lawrence to complete his master's degree. The culmination of his project will be the performance of "I'm Not Rappaport," May 4 through May 7.
Moses Gunn came to KU in the summer of 1959 to study the theater.
After 30 years of professional acting on stage and several theater and silver screen awards, he returned to the stage in 2015.
Gunn will begin team-teaching a class for theater students Tuesday for part of his course work. During the next several weeks, he will lecture on topics such as blacks in the theater, film acting, Shakespeare and how
"He is such an eminent American actor, you might say he started exploring his presence." he said.
William Kuhlke, professor of theatre and film, said that it was important for students to be exposed to theatrical works.
say we have captured his prescript. Kuhike said that it seemed as if the department had planned 18-hour days for Cann, with all the different activities he was involved with.
"But he seems to be holding up pretty well," Kuhike said.
The culmination of Gunn's creative project will be the "I'm Not Rappaport" May 4 to 7. Gunn will be presented with the second KU 'Buddy' award, entitled The Theatre and the department film and film May 6.
Gunn originally came to KU for graduate studies after earning a theater degree at Tennessee State University in Nashville. With only his thesis left to write, he decided to go to New York to pursue a professional acting career. He detoured to Grambing college to teach and earn some money before leaving for New York.
"I headed to New York with $700 on my pocket. I talked to him, he wasn't a member of the club," he said. He arrived. He smiled.
He was hired as an understudy, then moved into a permanent role in the original production of "The Blacks" with Cicely Tyson and Lou Gossett Jr.
"I worked continuously for the next 10 years. I was lucky," he said.
hucky, he said.
In 1967, Gunn became one of the 13 founding
members of the Negro Ensemble Company, with which he still performs occasionally.
Gunn has been nominated for Tony and Emmy awards and has won several Image Awards from the NAACP for his work. He hedged on saying whether he had any award he was particularly proud of.
"Probably the impending 'Buddy' award, but it is a bit self serving of one to speak of his own awards."
But he has plenty to share on the subject of his
"That's where I come from, where my training is from," he said.
favorite medium, theater
He said that he doesn't necessarily have to live the life of the character he portrays in order to act.
"I never really research for a role," he said. "I've prepared, but I've always thought that acting was imagination. I take what the script tells me and I think about it. But I don't want to oversimplify."
"I've lived a certain amount of years and have had a
certain amount of experiences. You need the memory of those experiences to interpret a role.
"But to play a bum, I don't need to go sit in the bowery. I've seen enough burns to know what they're like."
He said that researching a role should provide a suggestion of the character but shouldn't be carried to an extreme.
Gunn has taken both comic and tragic roles.
"Too much detail can often call attention to itself. The audience is busy watching the mannersisms of the actor who gets carried away with ticks and twitches." he said.
His first role was that of Marce Antony, in a high school production of "Julius Caesar." He said one of his favorite roles was that of Aaron in Shakespeare's "Titus Andronicus."
He said that film acting differed from theater acting in several ways. Film acting is more intimate, he said, and the camera is your audience. One has to be conscious of staying true to his name and has to down his performance.
"I find it is a bit more anxious because you have so much going on around you," he said.
Recent projects include an episode of "Hawk," which is a spin-off of the ABC-TV series "Spencer for Hire," and a guest shot on a February episode of "The Cosby Show."
When not immersed in acting work, Gunn enjoys collecting books, fishing for 18-pound bluefish a his home state of Connecticut, going to art museums and, not surprisingly, going to the theater with his wife.
"I don't think plays are just to entertain," Gunn said. "There may be an element of entertainment, but I think they should have something to say, to reach people out to change their lives, then to readjust their lives."
Show traces cultural images of women
One woman's song and dance create fictional Miss America, her daughters
by Kris M. Bergquist Kansan staff writer
Playing the daughter of Miss America, Tanya Shaffer shows the emotional trauma her character endures during the one-woman show of music, theater and dance.
She wears a shiny blue leopard, a red T-shirt, Mickey Mouse shorts, tennis shoes — and a neon orange crown.
Walter Emanuel KANRAN
Tanya Shaffer's one-woman show of theater, dance, song and stand-up comedy, called "Miss America's Daughters," opened last night and continues at 8 p.m. today and Saturday at Ecumenical Christian Ministries, 1204 Oread Ave. Shaffer, who is originally from Lawrence but lives in San Francisco, plays nine characters in the show.
"Miss America's Daughters" is a satire about a fictional former Miss America and her attempts to coach her daughters to follow in her footsteps. Shaffer said that the number of daughters was left ambiguous to show that everyone could be a daughter.
"The daughters are all taking to the coaching in different ways." Shaffer said. "It's like a metaphor. Miss America is like the coaching that we're getting from the media on what we're supposed to be.
"The show deals with the image of women in popular culture," Shaffer said.
"No matter how you look,you need to change."
"But it's not just about women. It's about something broader. One of the main themes is the way society tries to put people in boxes. They have to be cool and it's not cool to be human, to be awkward. In a way, all of us could be daughters of Miss America."
Shaffer said some of her ideas for the show came from her experiences
Shaffer began to develop "Miss America's Daughters" in 1988, during her senior year at Oberlin College, in Oberlin, Ohio.
at Oberlin and from her work at KU
at Oberlin and from her work at KU. During her last two years of high school, 1983 and 1984, she took an acting class so she could audition for KU theater productions. When she was in a senior, she was in a university in Kansas called "The Oedipus Project." She said the improvisational work she did with the show helped her in "Miss America's Daughters."
"we did improvisations with sound and movement." Shaffer said. "It was really intense, not using words like singing all your senses be incredibly open."
"This taught me that theater can be more than just a straight play. I am not limited to a formula. I can combine a lot of elements."
When Shaffer was in college at Oberlin, she took a class about body images for women, which also gave her ideas for her show.
"Almost every type of woman was in that class, from athletes to the hippe types to the very fashionable." Shaffer said. "Almost all of us had some history of an eating disorder, and I suddenly realized almost every woman has had problems with weight.
"I thought, 'God, this is an overwhelming problem. This is something that drains people's power. If women are spending a lot of energy to do that they're not spending energy getting political power or getting good jobs."
"Women get a lot of ideas about themselves from the culture they're brought up in," Shaffer said. "This is very much middle America and that brings into it images of what men and women should be like."
giving her a special glad to be performing in Lawrence.
views. That's why I wanted to tour here, I think it would be great if people came to see it who didn't agree."
A lot of times, people go to see the show because they have the sam
Phyllis Brill, associate professor of music and voice, gave Shafer voice lessons when she was in high school.
"The one thing I've always felt is that Tanya was very intelligent and aware of the world around her." Brill said. "She's always had a very strong desire to perform. She wanted to take voice lessons when she was 12 or 13, but I made her until she was 16. She called me a month before
Shaffer's stop in Lawrence is part of an eight-city Midwest tour, mostly of colleges, which will last through April. In May, she will do a children's show and a Spanish-American music show in the San Francisco Bay area.
her 16th birthday, and she said, 'I'm turning 16 next month. Are you ready to teach me?' "
"It's exciting to be performing," Shaffer said. "My biggest dream is to tour internationally. I really love to travel and perform travel and perform would be great."
EVENTS
FRIDAY
C A L E N D A R
■ "The Island," a modern Japanese drama, directed by Andrew T. Tsubaki, chairman of the East Asian languages and cultures department, will begin at 8 p.m. in the Ingle Theatre at Murphy Hall. Tickets are $5 for the public, $25 for KU students and $4 for senior citizens and other students. The play runs nightly through Tuesday. Call Murphy Hall Box Office for more information.
■ The KU Concert Choir will give its spring concert at 8 p.m. in Swarthout Recital Hall. Free.
"Miss America's Daughters," a one-woman show featuring Tanya Shaffer, will begin at 8 p.m. in the upstairs auditorium at the Ecumenical Christian Ministries Building, 1204 Oread Ave. Tickets are $5 for the public and $2.50 for students Call 842-2353 for more information.
SATURDAY
- The KU Chamber Orchestra will give its spring concert at 8 p.m. in Swarthout Residual Hall Free.
"The island" begins at 8 p.m. in **The剧院** at Murphy Hall.
"Miss. America's Daughters," begins at 8 p.m. in the upstairs auditorium at the Ecumenical Christian Ministries Building.
■ The KU Concert and University bands will give their spring concerts at 3:30 p.m. in Crafton-Preyer Theatre. Free.
MONDAY
Trudy White, soprano and Overland Park parker, will give a student recital at 8 p.m. in Swarthout Recital Hall.
■ "The Island" begins at 8 p.m. in the Ingle Theatre at Murphy Hall.
■ The exhibit "H.C. Westermann: Graphics and Sculpture" will open at the Spencer Museum of Art. The exhibit, which runs through May 21, features the artist's prints, drawings, woodcuts and sculptures.
The Elmer isler Singers from Toronto, Canada, will perform at 7:30 p.m. at the Plymouth Congregational Church, 925 Vermont St. The concert is part of the KU Chamber Music Series. Tickets are $12 for the public, $6 for KU and K-12 students and $11 for senior citizens and other students. Call Murphy Hall Box Office for more information.
TUESDAY
■ Nicki Cohen, soprano and Lawrence graduate student, will give a doctoral recital at 8 p.m. in Swarthout Recital Hall.
- The Student Woodwind Quintet will perform at 8 p.m. in Swarthout Recital Hall.
THURSDAY
WEDNESDAY
Ming Fang, Woodside, N.Y. freshman, will give a student recital on the piano at 8 p.m. in Swarthout Recital Hall.
The Island" begins at 8 p.m. in the Inge Theatre at Murphy Hall.
SUA Special Events is looking for bands that want exposure. SUA, in conjunction with KJHJ and Student Senate, will present "Day On The Hill," a musical event at the University of Tennessee.
- Thirteen KU music students will perform during the Spring Honor Recital at 8 p.m. in Swarthout Recital Hall. The event is presented by the department of music and dance. Free. "The Island" begins at 8 p.m. in
Four or five local bands are needed. The deadline for tandem tapes with three original songs is 5 p.m. April 14 at the SUA office. Bands will be
Headlining the concert are Too Much Joy, a New York band, and Love Tractor, from Athens, Ga.
We'll have the time of your life.
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