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Thursday, February 26, 1987 / University Daily Kansan
Rock Chalk Revue revs up
Students are rompin'-n-ready for weekend show that will benefit charities
By JERRI NIEBAUM
Rock. . . Chalk. . . Revue. . . Rock Chalk Revue.
Lights on a sign at Hoch Auditorium have blinked the University of Kansas 37th Rock Chalk Reve announcement for about two weeks, but tonight the audience will cross under the glittering sign to see the opening show.
The warm-up pants and tennis shoes will be cleared from the aisles, and the ketchup-stained hamburger bags will be thrown away. The boom box will be replaced by the KU Jazz Band, and the technical crew will disappear behind the wings.
"Once the show runs, it's our baby," said John Allison, Prairie Village senior and the show's production manager.
Directors and production crews have worked long hours to prepare for this weekend's shows.
"You really have to have a sense of humor in here, especially after 12 hours," said technical director Pat Nobruele, Leawood senior.
The crew joked and worked as performers danced and sang their skits.
"It's Friday night, so let's get wild!" said Molly Babka, Omaha, Neb. senior and a skit director, at 10:30 p.m. Friday.
"Let's see some energy," she said. "Let's start at the beginning with the rich people on one side and the poor people over there."
Phi Kappa Psi fraternity and Gamma Phi Beta sorority performers moved into place at their director's request.
"The audience is going to learn
that it's not what you have, it's what you have inside that counts," said David Osborn, Kansas City, Kan., junior and another director of the group.
Both Osborn and Babka helped write "Richard Guy," a skit about a man who wins a sweepstakes and goes from rags to riches. Robert Warner wrote the skit's music which ranges from big band to rock.
"Looked very fine, and your lines were looking awesome." Babka told the performers after a dance routine.
Tonight, the performance will be one of five fifteen-minute shows performed by KU sorority and fraternity members.
Proceeds will go to the Lawrence United Fund, part of a national charity that donates n o n o n profit organizations.
Nobrega said organization tied the five acts, the singing groups Jaguar and Harmonic Function, to perform by singers and dancers on one show.
"To them, it's their show, but I've got five shows and the in-between acts," he said.
In another act, dancers fly on each other's shoulders, lay out and spin in a Broadway style routine. Flamingos and mirrors on a black and white backdrop will try to take the audience back to the 1920s and New York City.
An accordian player arrives in New York to make his fortune and is helped by Larkin the Leprechaun. Gov. Mike Hayden, Coach Larry Brown and other familiar names also have parts in the script.
"Places, smile, lots of energy!" Peggy Riley, Overland Park senior, directs performers from the Delta Gamma sorority and the Phi Delta Theta fraternity.
"We're trying to portray the joviality, spirit and fun of that time," said Donna Cox, Kansas City, Mo., junior, and director of the group.
This year's Rock Chalk Reve theme is "Out of the Kitchen and into the Frying Pan." Director David Claffin, a 1985 KU graduate, said he picked the menu because he wanted the groups to experiment with new ideas.
"It really frustrated a lot of people who had Rock Chalk down to a formula," Clatin said. "All of the ones I treated it very differently."
Claflin said he told groups to throw out their first ideas and "get crazier and better."
Roupefort and Velveeta, two mice from Ratchiffe College, take the stage in a skit performed by members of the Sigma Chi fraternity and the Alpha Omicron Pi sorority.
"Give Me Some Cheddar," a take-off on the Blues Brothers' "Give Me Some Loving" is a song and dance routine for mice who learn that new ideas help get the cheese.
"Tradition is great, but new ideas can't be shrugged off," said Ian Fitt. Overland Park Innomore, and director of the skit.
All of the actors wear small gray ears and a gray sweat suit for the mouse skit, but each person added clothes to the basic costume.
Conservative and liberal yuppies join forces on an advertising campaign in the Sigma Nu fraternity and the Alpha Delta Pi sorority skit.
"I'm gonna make it. . . I'll make it to the top before我 old." sing two college graduates preparing to climb the corporate ladder.
College is the metaphorical frying pan and the real world is the kitchen, said Carl Johnson. Leavenworth junior who helped write the skit and also is directing it.
"The two people coming from college are so sure they're going to conquer the real world just like they did college," he said. "Then they find out it's not like that at all."
"It sounds like they're in an advertising agency. It's really frantic at times," he said.
Johnson wrote music for the play, which he said was an extension of the script.
The Kappa Alpha Theta sorority and the Phi Gamma Delta fraternity will perform another skit incorporating Rock Chalk's theme. In "Cheet Tells," God plays in his "kitchen," a laundromat.
"Sally," an impressionable young woman, decides whether she wants an all good world, an all bad world or a combination
A cowboy, a punk rocker, a pregnant woman, a motorcystist and many sing and dance in a world that changes from good to bad.
"This is God's way of letting Sally choose which way is best," said Amy O'Farrell, Kansas City, Kan., junior and a director of the skit.
Georgia Hamil. Lenexa senior, dances during a Rock Chalk Revue rehearsal. Hamill will perform in the skit "Chef Tells," presented by the Kappa Alpha Theta sorority and Phi Gamma Delta fraternity.
Danny Ray/KANSAN
'Platoon' offers blood, guts and aore. not insight and genius
"Platoon" has been packing movie houses since it was released and has been nominated for five Academy Awards, including Best Picture. But contrary to what seems to be popular belief, it is undeserving of such honors.
It has none of the stuff of which Best Pictures are made. It has no real plot, unless you consider a soldier's trek through a series of battles, with little insight into his
Kris Kurtenbach
Columnist
actions or emotions, a good plot.
It does have some good acting, but only in supporting roles. Tom Berenger and William Dafoe are rational choices for Oscar nominations. But for the most part, the movie had neither direction nor reason.
"Platoon" is supposedly an honest depiction of the Vietnam experience. But just because a movie feeds like a scyphon on the feelings this country has for the Vietnam War and Vietnam veterans, it shouldn't be praised for things it doesn't have.
"Platoon" would have been a better movie if it showed insight into the depraved and violent actions of the soldiers. It would have been better if it had been made as a documentary,
rather than being sold as one.
emerge as heroes after doing these things. And unless one is a war movie addict, it is difficult to believe that anyone could like "Platton."
What was going on inside these people's heads? Surely the question comes to mind as one sees U.S. soldiers needlessly killing and raping the Vietnamese, as well as attacking and killing each other.
Oliver Stone, the director, created more chaos than anything else and shouldn't have been nominated for an Academy Award.
Certainly, these U.S. soldiers don't
Violence, especially when it be adequately portrayed, begs drama. But just because "Platoon" is drains and realistic doesn't mean it's good
One insightful line, which was saved for the end of the movie, is a sure sign of something that is too
little, too late.
Chris, played by Charlie Sheen,
said that by living through terrible
experiences, one may get a better
understanding of the world.
The point of making "Platton" was missed. The public is given little to remember but the blood and guts. The audience is left questioning why certain things happened and why U.S. soldiers acted the way they did.
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