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Wednesday, June 15, 1988 / University Daily Kansan
'Nerd' turns out to be a winner
By Karen Boring
Kansan staff writer
Rim-shot timing and snide asides keep the audience laughing as the cast of "The Nerd" dances, screams and laughs its way through a hilarious plot.
The Lawrence Community Theatre chose a winner for its final show of the 1897-88 season. "The Nerd," by Larry Shue, is a fast-paced, modern-day comedy about an architect named Willum whose life is turned upside down when the man who saved his life in Vietnam comes to his birthday party.
Willum has never met the man to whom he owes his life, who turns out to be a nerd with nowhere to live. As the plot twists and frustrations rise, the characters are driven to desperate acts to rid themselves of their new-found social plague.
Willum, played by Paul Jackson,
was the very picture of a desperate man taking a social beating. Tansy, the architect's weathergirl girl friend, was played by Debi Shannon, who conveys strained polite
ness and social mortification through her ever-changing facial expressions. She never missed.
Axel, Willum's drama-critic tenant, served as narrator, straight man and general jerk. Actor Ken Stewart's stiffness and affected mannerisms leaned toward distracting, but the timing of his snide added a second level of humor to the play. His subtle remarks snuck in on the coat-tails of other jokes and kept the laughter coming.
The show started slowly, with some confusing exposition. A few things were never defined, including the relationship between Tansy and Axel, and what year it was supposed to be.
Jackson and Shannon were the obvious leaders on stage, despite the fact that their love interest in each other was the least believable element of the show. They set a frenzied pace with boisterous body language, which hit the brakes only when any of the actors was left alone on stage.
The nerd himself, Rick Stedman,
was played by Tom Graves. How can
one person completely embody all aspects of a total social clod? His costumes, posture and hopeful grin were funny even without his grating, nasal voice. Graves somehow remained absolutely sincere and serious when the other actors, not to mention the audience, were roaring with laughter.
The other winner for the straight face award goes to Lillian Mason, who played Frygga Waldgrave, the brownie scout gone wild. She was the one actress who could hold the stage all alone.
Her mother, Cleia Waldgrave, played by Charlotte Knoche, wobbled delightfully on the fence of sanity with soft-spoken dignity and neurotic frustration.
Her husband, Warnock Walgrave,
played by Charles Neuringer, joined
her on that fence. He was under-
standably baffled at the behavior of
Wilmund, his architect. Neuringer
maintained hilarious believability
even though his costumes work*
against the corporate image he was trying to build.
Shannon, as the career-minded weather girl, also suffered from poor costuming. She was never outfitted as the tailored professional she portrayed.
The set was liveable down to the last detail. Everything was in place, down to the Mel Torme and Carousel records by the stereo and the architecture supplies underneath the drafting table. The only time the set didn't work was when the action centered on the coffee table, which was hidden from most of the audience by a short dividing wall.
The theatre once again put on a good show. "The Nerd" is a delightful, hilarious production. The problems were few. The laughs — and the surprises — were many.
"The Nerd" will be playing 8 p.m. Friday and Saturday and 2:30 p.m. Sunday at the Lawrence Community Theatre, 1501 New Hampshire St. For ticket information, call 843-7469.
Several films slotted for Kansas locations
By Debbie Bengston
Kansan staff writer
The writers' strike has slowed production of feature films in California, but several films are tentatively planned for production this year in Kansas.
Jerry Jones, Kansas Film Commission coordinator, said that Kansas was a popular place to film in the film industry. It is the heartland of the United States.
CBS, the producers of "Why Me?", a story about a young man who overcomes an inoperable brain tumor through bleedback, picked Kamas for filming because she was one of the most of the heartland. Jones said.
"I don't know why," he said. "But Kansas strikes a chord as being true America."
Jones said that the writers' strike had slowed film production but that independent production
companies were picking up the slack.
Jones said Topeka would have a one-day shoot July 31 for the movie "No Holds Brars," a film about professional wrestling. He said that other than that project, no other movies had been scheduled to film in Kansas.
Jones said that the Kansas Film Commission was scouting two other films. Both tenative projects, "Waiting for Elvis" and "Another World," "take place in the 1950s. He said it had been a problem to find locations that met the specific requirements of certain movies.
That problem came up last summer while the movie "Kansas," starring Matt Dillon and Andrew McCarthy, was being filmed. Jones said that they almost lost the project to other states because a $150,000 farm house with a barn could not be found.
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