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Arts / Entertainment Kids' play gives audience reason to be cheerful
Reasons To Be Cherful, will be performed at 2:30 p.m. Saturday at Crafton-Praire Theatre in Murphy Hall. Tickets are on sale at Murphy Hall Box Office
By JERRI NIEBAUM
Staff writer
Sunny sets, simple designs and slapstick comedy for kids set the tone for "Beaureset to be Cheerful," a play by Jonah Karp of Kansas Theatre for Young People.
Pizza pie and bubble gum are just two of many reasons to be cheerful in this play by New York's Judith Martin and the Paper Bag Players.
The play is designed for children ages 6 to 10, but older children and adults will also enjoy its G-rated humor.
"Good theater for young people is just plain good theater," said Toni Molloy, director of the play. "I
challenge any adults to come in here and not enjoy themselves."
Giant beans that "whoop" and piles of happy trash in a rainbow-striped garbage can capture the auctions eye in scenes from 11 vignettes.
The musical skits are performed by five actors who sing and dance and a piano player who sits on stage and makes songs from a musician to a character.
J. Kevin Reeves, the pianist, said he learned his piano bench to perform concert pieces.
"It's fun to get out there and be the bean man," said Reeves, Lawrence graduate student.
"He's magic." Molloy said of Reeves.
Reeves is not the only one who gets to participate in the action. Audience
members are given several chances to sing and holler with the characters.
"They make a pretty wild au-
dition and aid of the children
who came to watch.
Molloy chose the play at the suggestion of Jed Davis, director of KU Theater for Young People for 25 years. Molloy came to KU a year and a half ago to study with Davis, who retired in December.
"It's hard to fill Jed Davis' shoes," she said.
But Molloy slides easily into her
dance, and she sings and
laughs along with her.
"Lots of energy folks. Let's do it, Kev!" she said.
Four sunset-colored triangles, designed by David Neville, Wichita senior, become houses, shops and
Kristine Hipps, Shawnee graduate student, takes a bath in "Reasons to be Cheerful," a play written by Judith Martin and the Paper Bag Players. It was written for children ages 6 to 10.
Diego Taborda, Buenaventura, Columbia junior, Kristine Hipps, Shawnee graduate student, Jim Hoggatt, Lawrence senior, and Joe Anlock, Lawrence sophomore in a rehearsal of "Reasons To Be Cheerful."
contemporary designs for the actors to work with.
The six KU students play themselves as they change the sets and joke with each other within view of the audience.
The students don bold hats, caps and clothes, designed by Delores Ringer, assistant professor of theatre sick with chills and a fever.
"You are sick. You are ill. Take your medicine and take your pill," Reeves and the audience chant.
"Take your medicine and have a good time while you're doing it," Molloy said. "Some messages are more blatant than others."
Kate Godman, Kettering, England,
freshman, said she enjoyed playing
the "bean lady" most of all. Godman
said she liked the childlike quality of
the play.
"It's all like 'Let's pretend,' "' she said.
Joe Ashlock, Lawrence sophomore, performs a comical soft-shoe when he head and arms are trapped in a huge roll of orange crepe paper. He said he learned his technique by watching others.
"I learned everything from the movies," he said.
the performers radiate energy throughout the hour-long show
"We warm up together beforehand. It generates energy." Godman sat and admired arts, and become characters in the skirts.
"They are themselves, and yet they're in a theatrical situation." Molloy said. "They've brought so
much of themselves to it and filled it out.
The University's sets and costumes are more elaborate than those used by the Paper Bag Players, who performed the play for the first time two years ago. But Molloy said the play had retained a flavor of simplicity that helped it carry a theme.
The skits teach cooperation, and the perils of a lack of cooperation, and show the audience how to have a positive attitude.
Trash, dirty dishes and a leaky sink are suddenly funny.
Reeves plays a doctor when Jim Hoggatt, Lawrence senior, becomes
Ashlock said his training with the National Guard last year helped him generate energy for the show.
19th-century English artist brings darkness into light
By JENNIFER WYRICK
Staff writer
The eeriness of midnight black contrasted with images of stark white are played out in "Darkness Visible," an exhibition of prints by John Martin that is on display at the Spencer Museum of Art until March 8.
Martin, a 19th-century English artist, was known for his monumental paintings, which combined Biblical disaster scenes with dramatic architectural details, all scaled to perfection.
Courtesy of Spencer Museum of Art
The exhibition includes 55 mezzet
tint prints, made between 1816 and
Stephen Goddard, curator of prints at the museum, said the mezzotints effect involved the use of a tool called
The artist was able to achieve heightened intensity by crafting his art with mezzotins, a technique that produces rich blacks and strong contrast which are especially appropriate for his cataclysmic subject matter.
Other rare lithographs by Martin are on display also.
1842. Twelve of the prints are illustrations for "Paradise Lost," "The Deluge," "The Fall of Babylon" and "deepest Biblical and historical catastrophes."
a rocker that would lay scratches and grooves in a smooth plate. Then the artist would use scrapers and burnishers to polish out texture where light was desired.
Martin fashioned his skill on steel, which is especially hard to work with when trying to attain the imagery that involves dark with light in it, Goddard said.
Goddard estimated that it would have taken Martin four months to finish a large print with great detail.
The mezzotintts technique was extremely popular in 19th-century England because it achieved a great amount of tone and slight texture, he said.
Courtesy of Spencer Museum of Art
Goddard said that Martin was a good example of an artist of the Romance Era, because his prints, especially those of the Old Testament, had strong romantic possibilities.
“Yet, at the same time, he prided himself on being very scientific and tried to recreate such things as past archaeology until his perspective for scaling them was perfect,” Goddard said.
Martin, who was also a painter, eliminated the middle man by reproducing his own paintings instead of hiring someone to do it for him.
There's a doll for every guy in a Lawrence High musical
Staff writer
By JERRI NIEBAUM
There's a doll for every guy and a song for every occasion in "Guys and Dolls," "a musical being performed by the Lawrence High School fine arts department.
In the play, a Salvation Army mission tries to save the souls of some New York gangsters.
Sky Masterson, played by Eric Tilford. Lawrence High senior, comes to New York to gamble on dice but gambles on the leader of the mission instead.
"It's about dice games, but it's also about gambling on romance and gambling on commitment." Soan, theatrical director, said.
The leader of the mission,
Sergeant Sarah Brown, played by
Kari Paludan, Lawrence High
senior, fails for Masters and his
sky-high bets when he takes her to Havana, and she gets drunk.
"The guys are really macho. The girls have control of themselves though." Paludan said.
Jason Edmonds, Lawrence High senior, plays Nathan Detroit, the pin-striped gambler has a bet for every sucker.
"I'm a schemer. I'm a hustler," Edmonds said.
But Detroit's fiancee of 14 years, Miss Adelaide, played by Susie Rutledge, Lawrence High senior, assists him into getting married
In 1949, Frank Loesser wrote the music and lyrics for "Guys and Dolls," a story by Damon Runyon.
Runyon was a Midwesterner who wrote about New Yorkers as he imagined them.
Lewis Tillford, musical director,
chose "Guys and Dolls" because
he thought it was a classic play
that students would enjoy doing,
and one that an audience would enjoy
watching.
"The characters are real colorful and easy to identify." Tilford said.
He said that many of the students were surprised to hear familiar songs in the play.
"Bushel and a Peck," performed by the Hot Box girls, gives the dancers time to flirt with the audience as they sing the well-known songs of bushel and a peck, a bushel, a peck and a hug around the neck. "
Sloan said "Guys and Dolls" was a fairly difficult play for high school students to perform.