6
Fridav. February 18, 1977
University Daily Kansan
Sculpture and ceramics appealing; computer art cold
BY LEROY JOHNSTON
Two new art shows opened in Lawrence this week. The first features sculpture and ceramic works by Nick Vaccaro, professor of art, and his wife, Loula, at the 767 Fifth Avenue gallery. The second is a series of paintings by COLETte Union Gallery, 729 Illinois St. at the Kansas University Gallery.
The 757 show marks the first time the Vaccarios, who are listed in the 1976 Who's In American Art, have exhibited their works. The pieces have never been exhibited before.
Vaccaro, 46, builds shallow, glass-faced boxes and builds them with objects ranging
from the ordinary to the bizarre. The effect of these small environments is powerful and creates a strong emotional response in the viewer through the juxtaposition of nostalgic, personal or just plain weird items.
THE VAST ARRAY of objects Vaccaro
At the Gallery
uses leads one to wander where anyone could find 50 yellow light bulbs, a miniature cotton bale, 10 brass hat usbats, 35 tailor trousers, a pair of jeans and a Joules grip puzzle and a box full of
chrome model motorcycle parts. The answer, according to Vaccare, is found in 2008.
Toys are especially prevalent in his works, and anyone more than 15 years old will find a part of his life in one of Vaccaro's boxes. There lies one clue to the success of objects that will be created in the great range of objects there will be one that relate directly to the viewer's life.
VACCARO MANIPULATES objects the way a good painter handles paint, and the result is an effect greater than the sum of its parts. Each box creates a unique feeling, impossible to verbalize, in a single moment. It's a tribute to the skill of the artist that the
That Vaccaro loves small items is immediately apparent, and the assumption that he must be a sort of "pack rat," as his wife describes him, is not far off.
result is not a more assemblage of unique objects than interesting in itself, but rather in how they interact.
"I've been collecting about 20 years," she said in the second. "There are about 44,000 items here."
*Only one of my boxes is macabre in any way, however. I'm much more interested in the other ones.*
THE JOY OF life is also strong in Mrs. accaro's ceramics. Her tall pots, toils and bustles are always bright.
sensuous feeling. Feathers, beads, animal beads, bound clumps of material and strange offshoots expand unpredictably from the tops of the vase-like pots.
In contrast to the wealth of emotion and richness of personal commitment in the pots and boxes at 7E7, the paintings at the Union seem rather cold.
In her pseudo-landscapes, Bangert is trying to create paintings that celebrate the line as an art form in itself. That is not enough. The kind of mechanistic doodling that has been so widely alienated the viewer. In short, there's nothing human about these paintings.
AS A FURTHER affront, Bangert has introduced computer drafting into her work and makes the claim that artists using computers will produce a new of what computer drafting is, which in what computer drawing is essentially, isn't the answer to Bangert's problems.
Computer drawing means computer programming, which in turn means preconceiving the drawing in its totality. The result of such planning is to remove the spontaneity, humanity and especially the fine art of gambling, from the painting. In using a computer, Bangert has removed the final reason for the viewer to get involved.
Arts & Leisure
By GREGG HEJNA
Reviewer
"Dames at Sea" is a funny, enjoyable, campy musical providing a laugh-filled, excellent evening of theater.
This particular treatment of a
spoof on '30s musicals is well executed by almost everyone involved. Lamberty Hedge and Anne Ahram combine to do a number of music videos. They work within a setting small enough so that the participants don't get lost on stage,
but large enough that it doesn't
cramp the dance numbers.
Stall photo by MIKE CAMPBELL
Hands off
Ruby, played by Kachle Khan, Lawrence graduate student, expresses her discontent for Dlek, played by Kevin Kiendek, Mission junior in SUA's dessert theatre, "Dames to Sea." The show parted as part of SUA's cultural arts festival, Accent the Arts.
The two directors know their craft well and execute it to the best of their abilities. The team is more than satisfactory.
THE PLOT IS a tried and true relief from days gone by. A girl comes to Broadway to become a star and falls in love with Mr. Right along the way. It's been done countless times and one just knows that it's going to happen again.
Chris Kahler, Lawrence graduate student, plays Ruby, the starry-eyed dancer who has
On Stage
come to the Broadway jungle and meets her dream man Dick, a sailor who writes songs, plays guitar, Kirk Vinek, Mission junior.
The two work well together, their voices blending nicely as they tap dance their way into each other's hearts. All the while they are reciting dialogue with a wide-eyed naive and tongues planted firmly in their cheeks.
SEAN MURPHY, Topeka junior, is Kona Kent, the leading lady in the Broadway production. She is excellent as a singer and actress in Mona. His piano-top rendition of "That Mist Man of Mine" is the highlight of the first act. The duet with Bill Isham on "The Song" two Telegraphs. Two telegraphs the audience laughing long after the song was over.
Although Isham, a Winneka, Ill., junior, and Deal Waxman, Overland Park freshman, spend most of his time in the stage but that they are on is pure delight. Isham as the stuffy ship's captain and Waxman's portrait of the director almost steal the show.
RUBY'S NEW FOUND friend, JOAN, is played by Kate Rogers, Winfield freshman. She is a gun-chomping, hard-dedged veteran of the chorus line and her performance walks the tightrope between adequate and superior. Her dancing ability is
her best feature but she seems unsure of herself on stage.
Joan, Ruby's best friend, is in love with Lucky, who naturally happens to be Dick's best friend.
Kenny Herman, Coffeville freshman, is Lucky, and also the show's weak link. His singing ability is minimal, as is evident during his duet with Joan on "Choo Choo Honeymoon," and his acting isn't much better.
HE EMPLOYS a "now you hear it, now you don't!" Southern accent which is annoying and disruptive to the flow of the show. Fortunately, cannada can dance all so is not lost.
The feeling of intimacy provided by the Big Eight Room is conducive to the show. Tables scattered around the room, chairs stacked up, make their way getting on and off the stage, and to the feeling.
The dessert served during the intermission brought with it a short, but excellent program—"What a life!" superb version of "I'm Just Wild About Harry," by students who doubled as waiters and waitresses. The intermission joyous as the rest of the play.
McLeavy, with Fay the nurse and his son, Harold, gazes sadly into the coffin of his former wife in the University theatre presentation, 'Loot.'
Comedv 'Loot'a pleasant farce
Bv JULI E LENAHAN
Billed as "an irreverent fierce," the play leaps at every opportunity to attack or demean just about every social institution once held as sacred. It is this irreverence, however, which makes the play a thumbs-up success.
Joe Orton's "Loot," the first of the spring semester of offerings of the University Theatre Series, is hysterical.
"Loot," a contemporary black comedy, is unquestionably the farce it promises to be. It is an absurd religion, death, the importance of money, integrity, law and loyalty "Loot" undoubtedly views each viewer. It is also a hard-working traditional value that makes
attempt, a glass eye escape,
a Scotland Yard investigation,
a bribery, and the eventual arrest
of the innocent or sane-
character.
Roger Nolan, Lenexa senior, bears the brunt of the humor in his stories. He is an inspector. Nolan's illogical deductions and irrelevant clues add Sherlock Holmes 'brand of humor' to the detective work.
cynicism, denurness, innocence and cunning, the tall, thin Mounsey is largely responsible for the turn of events in May, laying multiple characterizations of these traits deserve recognition.
THE PLAY INVOLVE s a series of events, including the murder of Mrs. McLeay, a bank robbery, a smuggling
The character Harold is developed into a noncommital, basically rotten son who sells his father for immunity from the flu. A nurse named Dennis, Harold's accomplish, is presented as an over-sexed but nervous mortuary employee who tunnels through the walls of the mortuary with Harold to rob the bank next door. McLeavy is the assistant manager mourning the loss of his beloved wife. Meadows is a stereotype
of the obedient rookie policeman, receptive to all orders. This manage of a police work is the play work effect as a farce.
Weekend
Highlights
William Keeler, assistant professor of speech and drama and of theatre, has done a commendable job of directing his plays, which serve the viewer as a true force. Despite all the Laurel-and-Hardy-slapstick and Sherlock Holmes ingenuity, the play consistently maintains a smooth line of humor as he concludes necessary to the volleyes dialogue among characters.
SIX CARICATURED individuals are primarily responsible for the play's success. Orton exaggerates certain mannerisms in each to lend diversity to his satire.
Theater
the humor work so well through the dialogue.
"DAMES AT SEA"/d dessert theater, 8 tonight and Saturday, 2:30 p.m. and 7 p.m. Sunday, Union's Big Eight Room.
LAWRENCE CHAMBER
Bachelor's in Music
conducted by Daniel Pisatone,
associate professor of music
history, 3:00 p.m. Sunday.
Sunday at the MET.
"THE PIDED PIPER" and "THE ADVENTURES OF NINA ROSS' PRITE", 1:30 p.m. Saturday, Lawrence Arts Center.
"LOOT," 8 tonight and 2:30
p.m. Sunday, University
Theatre.
The cast includes McLeavy;
his son Harold; Harold's friend
and accomplice, Dennis; the
Scotland Yard inspector; and
policeman Meadows, Barbara
Mounsey, a Granville, Oha,
senior; gives the most notable
nursery nurse Fay. Changing hats of
Concerts
HERBIE HANCOCK, 8 tonlight, Uptown Theater, Kansas City, Mo.
THE JE OUITERBACK
TRIO, 9 to midnight tonight;
Paul Gray's Jazz Place.
Tomorrow night MIKE WHITE
Nightclubs
CHET NICHOLS, folksinger,
BOB BOBE, AND THE ORE
western band, 9 to midnight
tonight. Off the Wall Hall.
Tomorrow night Nichols and
a rock band, 9 to midnight.
INFORMAL RECITALS by students and faculty of the School of Fine Arts at noon Thursday, March 4. Strong Hall lobby.
THE LEE MCBEE BLUES
BAND, a local band, 9 to
midnight Saturday, the Opera
house of TOMMY JOHNSON
50 EXPERIENCE! 10 p.m. to
1 a.m. Saturday, the Seventh
Spirit.
CHAMBER MUSIC
Chamber Music
Angeletti, piano; Don Schalc,
clarinet; and Karel Blas,
clarinet
formance; KAREN KASISTY
MUSIC
plays with the Gaslight Gang, 9 to midnight.
1930S-40S DANCE, 9 tonight,
Union Ballroom.
Recitals
RECITAL SERIES; 8 tonight;
Battetlen Auditorium;
University of Kansas Medical
Center, Kansas City, Kan.
SATYRICON — Decadence depicted in a scant two hours by Federico Fellini.
Films
MIKE SMETZER, poet, SUA Contemporary Writers and Poets Series. 4 p.m. today, Union's Parlor A.
Lectures
ROCKY - Solid acting by cast of Sylvester Stallion, Talla Burry, Burt Young and Burgess Meredith plotted with a knockout punch (83).
BIRTH OF A NATION—Story of the Civil War, directed by D. W. Griffith. This is the original screenplay for a 1930s expensive film made by 1935.
THE SENTINEL—Lukewarm horror story that was given polished production, a star-studded cast. (R)
FREAKY FRIDAY—Based on a kid's book, this is the best Disney film in a long time.
A STAR IS BORN—
Thousands of narcissistic closeups weren't enough to win
the championship and an Oscar nomination. (R)
SPOONER - THAYER MUSEUM OF ART—The Saline Casey Thayer Collection, Main Gallery.
ELIZABETH M. WATKINS
Elizabeth Watkins, 80,
American Sampler; A Look at
Life in the 1800s', 80 prints
and photos from the Library of
Gertrude Kahn.
KANSAS UNION—Marson Galleries art sale, today, Union lobby.
NELSON GALLERY-
Painting, calligraphy and
decorated ceramics by Kwan
Shu Wong. Chicago graduate
student, through Sunday, Sales
of pottery products in the
Nelson, Kansas City, Mo.
Exhibits
LAWRENCE ARTS CENTER-Graduate displays, Richard Bird paintings and Anita Kaapun ceramics.
By CHUCK SACK
Reviewer
Reviewer
"Silver Streak" suffers from an image problem. Set aboard a ship in the 1980s, it is being advertised as an adventure comedy, which it definitely isn't. It isn't quite a comedy, but it's more fun. It's better on the right track.
Really, it should be a comic suspense movie, and had it been properly made, it would be, among other things, "the Rock" of The Lady Vanishes; then to the screwball classic "Twentieth Century." Part of the problem is due to a crucial miscasting, and the screenplay fails in the film. Yet, "Silver Streak" has a saving performance.
George Caldwell (Gene Wilder) is a publisher who boards the Silver Streak from Los Angeles to Boston for the express purpose of being bored for two and a half days. A romantic affair with Hilly Burns (Jill Clayburgh) greets her affection but then he witnesses a murdered man falling off the train, Caldwell's quiet journey is shattered.
WILDER IS A resourceful,
talented actor who under other
accurstance plays the straight romantic
lead. Here though, he must play
a normal man caught up in a fantastic series of events that often being thrown off the brain,reatfully and finally threatens his life.
In the first place, the conception of Caldwell as a sensitive, bewildered innocent is
The changes in Wilder's
The Cinema
ARTHUR HILLER'S direction is most responsible for failing to prepare us for the challenge, because our performance seem inconsistent. Normally, Hiller is at least a polished craftman who gets even performances from his peers. When Hiller gets a grip on the material.
Not surprisingly, it is when Caldwell gets frustrated that Wilder is at his best. When he finds himself without forgers or seizing a gun from a backwoods sherrif, Wilder maintains his manic comic energy. Yet as he resumes his more sophisticated attitude for "night" scenes, the shift underscores his characterization.
just too blond to support his later heroic life. Add to this the uneven comic bent of the actor, whose gift to experience difficulty.
R tl
character always occur in stress situations, usually with comic overtones, where Hiller's direction is weakest. Hiller is best with the ridiculous low-key sex repatriate that opens the film; the more intimate the character, the better. But he can no feel for larger locales, or for the heavy actions Wilder must accomplish.
TO mone weat corre Hall sche Boar toda'
By the time the engine heads into Chicago, we are dreading Hiller's depiction of the inevitable crash. The spectacular crash, featuring eight cars plowing through the railroad terminal, looks like a giant fireball. In fact, it was filmed full-scale in two airplane hangars, and cost $500,000.
LONG BEFORE the climax we wonder why the director of "Love Story," "Plaza Suite," and "Man of La Mancha" was trusted with an action film in the first place. Colleen Foote emphasizes suspense, which Hiller is incapable of creating.
So what could possibly be worth seeing in a suspense film that lacks suspense? Amazingly enough, the whole enterprise is joined to life when Richard Prevor comes onscreen.
The Frar
Garc
boar
Pryor plays a thief named Grover Muldoon, who gets involved with Caldwell's efforts
to rescue Hilly and avoid the police. Pryor is an absolute delight as he skepthically follows the path of the mystery unravel the mysteries onboard.
JUST WATCHING his facial expressions as he reacts to unforeseen complications is funny enough, but Pryor's mobile features are his greatest asset. Add to this his ability to make the most harebranded plot possible of his own imagination, as in the scene when he smears Wilder with shoe polish to sneak him past the FBI in blackface, and you have a fine comic actor.
But Richard Pryor's genius is in the way he transforms tasteless situations and the rapid cadence of foul language into caucus insights. In one scene he disguises himself as a porter to disarm the villain, and uses a wither to comment with a torrent of comments that are as outrageous and hilarious as they are revealing.
Undoubtedly, it is Richard Pryor who has given "Silver Streak" its identity crisis. The advertising executives probably decided that it was better to stress the comedy that takes place in a suspense that wasn't there. You go with the best you have to offer, and in "Silver Streak," the best means Richard Pryor.