University Daily Kansan / Friday, October 28, 1988
11
Arts & Entertainment
Octubafest Tubadours to play tomorrow as part of KU tuba festival
By M. Meredith Relph Kansan staff writer
Octubafest '88 is a celebration of some of music's often neglected instruments.
The tuba and the euphonium are not generally thought of as concert instruments, but Scott Watson, professor of tuba and euphonium, has helped to organize a program of concerts featuring the big brass.
Watson said he started the Octubafest celebration in 1983 to promote interest in playing the tuba.
"We're trying to make it popular as an instrument again," Watson said.
This year, Octubatest features the Tubadours, a quartet which makes the music of tubas and euphoniums sound like a whole band.
The Tubadours' concert is at 8 p.m.
Saturday in Swartwout, Renault Hall.
The Tubodancers were founded in 1975 for an Octabustal celebration at California State University at Fullerton. Watson said that the Tubodancers had not been to KU before, but that one of the founders of the group, Rodger Vaughan, was a 1953 KU Vaughan arranged much of the ceremony.
Loren Marsteller, Kyioshi Hayakawa, Norman Pearson and Albert Harclerode.
The Tubadours have performed at Disneyland and at the Los Angeles Tuba Christmas celebration. They have also appeared on television's "The Gong Show," where they once won first place.
The members of the Tubadours are
"The Tubadours incorporate a variety of musical styles." Watson said. "They play jazz, classical and whimsical songs. I think people will be surprised by the sounds of the music they make.
The final concert of the Octubafest weekend is a collaborative effort f the KU and the Midwestern High School All-Star Tuba Ensembles. Watson said high school students from Nebraska, Missouri and Kansas will attend the All-Star ensemble. The high school and KU groups will combine for the concert finale, an all-tuba arrangement of "I'm a Jayhawk."
The student concert will be at 3:30 p.m. Sunday at Swarthout Recital Hall, and admission is free.
A tuba clinic will be held from 10 a.m. to noon Sunday, in Swarthout Recital Hall.
Troy Hawk, Norton junior, left, Keith Bland, Prairie Village senior, and Scott Watson, assistant professor of tuba and euphonium, get ready for the annual KU Octubafest.
Play about South African political prisioners opens here this weekend
By Deb Gruver
Kansan staff writer
A little part of South Africa will be in Lawrence this weekend.
"The Island" is a play about two South African political prisoners jailed on South Africa's Robben Island because of their opposition to apartheid. The play opens with the kidnapping of the Ministries, and will benefit the Lawrence chapter, of Armosity International.
Penny Weiner, the play's director, said she was excited about the play and the cause.
"It's a chance to work with a good script that has a cause." Weiner said. "It is just a wonderful script."
Although Weiner was excited about working on "The Island," she had a hard time trying to find two black actors to fill the two roles. But she said she refused to give up.
"Apartheid is so horrendous that it's hard to believe that that is the system in South Africa." Weiner said, "If you want to stop me from doing this play."
Apartheid, a government-enforced system of racial segregation in South Africa, was officially established in 1940. Under apartheid, the black majority is severely restricted in occupation choice, and are paid far less for their work than are whites.
In the play, a sense of desperation is apparent, but the two char
acters always retain their sense of hope, Weiner said.
"Why do a play about two men opposing aparteid if there's no hope?" Ween asked.
The characters that she casted believe in the hope too.
Darrin Person, a Kansas City, Kan., junior who plays John, said that his character just wants to be free.
"We are political prisoners who are just trying to cope." Person said. "We've been charged with less than critical crimes and thrown in jail for practically nothing."
Both Person and Chester Goree,
an Oklahoma junior who plays
Winston, said that the play was
both emotional and educational.
Person said that it had made him much more aware of apartheid.
"I knew about it." Person said.
"But I didn't know enough about it in depth."
Goree said he had worked on plays concerning civil rights before, and found the experiences uplifting.
The play opens tonight in the auditorium of the ECM, 1204 Oreada Ave. Performance times tonight at 8 p.m. on Sunday at 2:30 p.m.
Tickets will be available at the door for $5 for the general public and $3 for students and seniors. All proceeds from the Friday and Saturday performances will go to the Amnesty International chapter.