Oregon daily emerald., July 12, 1973, Page 8 and 9, Image 8

a
‘Whodunit’
and
Who-will-it be? ’
Mystery and suspense will soon fill Carnival Theater’s outdoor
stage as Agatha Christie’s “The Mousetrap” springs to life — and
maybe death, depending on twists of plot.
Suzanne Stassevitch. a director with previous University Theater
experience, is directing the drama, which will be presented July 13, 14,
19. 20 and 21.
Stassevitch points out that the play’s characters are images of
real people that Agatha Christie has known. They all have their in
dividual guilts and compulsions. In a situation of high stress and
tension these “eccentricities” come to light.
‘‘But you can’t tell which eccentricities are the significant ones,”
savs Stassevitch. referring to the crucial issue of guilt over murder.
“It’s obvious now to the actors.” she said, remarking that as a
director she has had to make sure that the actors compensate for prior
knowledge, “as if they were reading the book for the first time.”
So as the play progresses, the audience will have the clues that
Christie provided’ but they will have the task of sorting those clues, as
well.
The show evidently has a fascinating complexity. Director
Stassevitch revealed that she will have a set with nine different en
trances and exits — all part of a complicated house in which the
mystery unfolds.
But Stassevitch was not so revealing about other things. “After
all, it is a mystery,” she said.
Prospective theater-goers may know, however, that both the
victim and the murderer are not known to the audience.
Evidently. “The Mousetrap” is not only a whodunit but a
whowillitbe too.
Portraying the assorted suspects will be Jacquie McClure, Linda
Bailey, Michele Theriot, Mel Buckner, Jack Wilson, Gary Pillette,
John Elliot and Paul Meier.
Tickets are priced at $2, $2.50 and S3. The Carnival Theater box
office is open from noon to 5 p.m. every day except Sunday, staying
open until 9 p.m. on performance nights.
David Novick
Photo by Phil Waldstein
John Elliott. Jack Wilson, and Linda Bailey perform in Agatha Christie’s whodunit. "The
Mousetrap.”
Inferno:
I
see
it
blowing
their
minds
in
a
quiet
way’
Ed Ragozzino: ‘The West Side Story east is jumping'
(Note: As he sits onstage, giving notes on one of the dance num
bers in his upcoming production of “West Side Story” to some of the
musical’s cast, Ed Ragozzino is the center of a lively interchange of
ideas, jokes and suggestions. “It’s nice to be with a winner,” says one
of the principals in the show. “It’s nice to trust somebody like that, to
know that it’s going to come out good.” Ragozzino seems to have that
confidence, too: he clearly has the respect of his cast. In six hours of
rehearsals Saturday, he never had to>ask for their attention. It was
always there.
Yet. Ragozzino exercises a good-humored discipline. His fifteen
years of directorial experience in Eugene — at the University, and
South Eugene High School, and now at Lane Community College and
for the Lane County Auditorium Association — Ragozzino has clearly
mastered the art of managing a cast. Clearly, too, he has learned how
to give an audience what it wants, since the eight LCAA Summer
Musicals he has directed have, in terms of attendance, been by far the
biggest thing in Eugene theater for a decade. Ed Ragozzino is an artist
and an institution. Here are a few of his comments on his art, his
audience, and his current production of “West Side Story,” due to open
July 27 at South Eugene High School Auditorium.)
There’s really no such thing as a Ragozzino musical. That’s a
handle somebody put on it, but it’s just part of trying to sell tickets. I
don’t set out to make a mark, because I think it’s wrong for a director
to stamp his shows. The director’s work ought to be just to give the
play; not to say “Look what I’ve done!” What you’ve heard of as
Ragozzino style is really just PR talk.
Everybody thinks that my forte is musical comedy. That’s cer
tainly not all I do all the rest of the year. It’s just that vast summer
audience who think I’m the Music Man; and I suppose that’s okay.
There is a certain commercial value to it. During my college season, I
have a responsibility first to my students as performers, in the
literature that they’re exposed to and get to try. In the summer, on the
other hand, my responsibility is first to the audience, and it is, above
all, to entertain them. Beyond that, perhaps I have to bring them along
a little — though I never say that blatantly. They don’t like to be told
they’re being taught.
My audience is a pretty good cross-section. It’s not composed of
the usual theatre-goers. Over the years, we have been able to build an
audience of all groups, all types — including some very un
sophisticated ones. They may even dominate. A lot of them, all year,
don’t see any other theater than this. There’s that element. Then
there’s the social element who come just to be coming to the theater.
And. they don’t really care what they’re watching. But, I also have the
feeling that we’re building a real audience — not just in terms of
boxoffice — but by introducing theater to people. And I think that as a
result of that, some of them venture forth to straight drama, and go on
to other theater.
Audiences are changing. They’re getting over-entertained,and
demanding theater to use as an opiate. They want to be washed over
with good times, and for a few hours to forget Watergate and
everything else. It’s a bad scene when theater does only that. Theater
has other functions.
Then there’s the question of the economics of theater, which are
rotten We can probably predict the demise of Broadway as an in
stitution ; which is positive, really, because then we will finally be able
to spread theater out, and make it not a centralized thing but a
national one.
About 18,000 people see one of these musicals in a single run. If you
total up all the audiences for the nine shows, we’ve gone over a quarter
of a million. That’s a rather unique position, since most amateur
theater never succeeds financially. In fact, I think there are very few
professional theaters that make money. But, for some reason, we
click, and I think our success carries over to all the people who
produce theater in Eugene.
And, there’s a kind of festival quality about the summer musicals.
We take a certain pride in the fact that we have something to which
people invite their relatives in from Idaho, and which they plan their
vacations around.
I make absolutely no apologies for “West Side Story.” I want to do
it. I think it’s good for the participants, and I think it’s good for
audiences. So, I’m in no way thinking I’ve foisted some old-hat thing
on them. Zubin Mehta, director of the Los Angeles Philharmonic, was
asked in a New York Times interview what he thought was the
greatest piece of music. And he said “West Side Story.” It has one of
the best books, some of the best thematic material to work with, in
terms of good drama. And the music is tough. The orchestration is
hard But. I have a fine orchestra, and they get an absolutely sym
phonic score. At two points in the show it goes to a pure operatic form:
the montage in “Tonight,” for example, is pure opera. It’s more of an
opera than it is a musical comedy.
The “Jets” and the “Sharks” could be Blacks and Whites, they
could be the Tong Wars. And if you really look at the situation in New
York today on the West Side, it’s worse than it was. It’s heavier, it’s
uglier. I don’t think you can look at “West Side Story” today and think
that it’s old stuff, that it’s passe, it’s ‘Fifties; but that doesn’t make
much difference. The two gangs represent the Montagues and the
Capulets, the opposing families.
I am treating the play as a period piece, and we are trying to be
faithful to the period. We have not updated the lingo, nor changed the
costumes. And, actually, it has been very hard to get that look. I could
say something like that ethnically this says something about bigotry,
but that ’s a lot of nonsense I’m doing it because it’s the best theater
available to me. I’m really not trying to reveal any great social ill. I
think that takes care of itself. There’s the danger of beating people
over the head, and that’s offensive.
I think Bernstein and Sondheim began with a love story. The
predominance of music is romantic. And there are no subplots. The
story of “West Side Story” really is the love story between Tony and
Maria; everything else is subsidiary to that. This gives it a univer
sality similar to the best musicals, similar to “Fiddler on the Roof.”
We’re working inhumanly. We’ve been working since May 7, from
7:30 until we close the doors after midnight, and we come back the
next day, if it’s a Saturday, at nine in the morning, and work until
three. Unions would not fare well here. I’m working with different
people, and I’m exploiting their level of sensitivity and talent. And in
every show, if you’re doing a show more than once, you ought to work
with the particular advantages and disadvantages of the particular
company.
But, I love it. And they love it. There’s a dynamic mood. That’s
why this cast is jumping.
Alan Brown
Go to hell.
But do it the easy way, by taking in one of the premiere per
formances of “Inferno,” an original rock opera now playing at Car
nival Theatre.
“Inferno” was written by Randy Bowser (music) and John Belles
(lyrics), both of whom are well-known figures in Eugene theater
circles — and who both appear, incidentally, in the show itself.
The show traces Dante’s infamous journey, accompanied by the
poet Virgil, into the depths of Hades, and the entire production is told
in song, music and dance.
Although “Inferno” is a “free adaptation” of the Dante original,
Belles quickly adds that “everything Dante wanted to say, I think
we’ve retained in ours.” Dante had his own private conception of hell,
and, consequently, “he put a lot of characters down there just for
personal or political reasons — like a noisy upstairs neighbor, for
example — and many of these wouldn’t come across well on stage, or
make sense to an audience today,” says Belles. “We’ve cut some of
those weaker characters out and improved a few others, so, even
though we’ve been faithful to Dante’s intent, I think there will be a few
surprises for those who are familiar with Dante.
“In other words,” grins Belles, “if Dante had written his book
today, it might have turned out like our show... maybe.”
From a technical standpoint, “Inferno” is the most difficult show
ever done on the University Theater stage, according to the show’s
director, Joe Zingo.
To begin with, the cast of 18 also doubles as their own orchestra
combo when they’re not on stage. (“Some of Joe’s most brilliant
choreography is done around the piano stool in this show,” quips
Belles.) In addition, nearly everyone in the show plays two or three
different roles, necessitating some rather desperate costume changes
at times.
The single set is actually many sets in one, combining moving
sections, incredibly diverse lighting schemes, blocking and use of
color slides to depict the various levels of hell into which Dante
descends.
To further demonstrate the specialized technical complexity of
the show.no less than three assistant directors are being used — one of
which is solely in charge of the microphones: two mikes for the or
chestra, two permanent on-stage mikes, and six traveling (hand)
mikes — which, until recently, continually resulted in a spaghetti
network of cords by the end of Act I.
Another assistant director, Lisa Heft, was personally responsible
for creating the nearly 50 masks used in the show.
The lighting scheme for the show is equally complex, utilizing a
number of special effects and no less than six slide projectors. “There
are 32light cues in the first 15 minutes of the show alone,’’ says Zingo.
The cast of “Inferno” is a highly select group of talent. “About 75
people tried out,” says Zingo, “and we took the best 18. As a result,
everyone in the show has a two-octave vocal range and at least a year
and a half of dance training.”
Because of the cast’s extensive background and because of the
inherent flexibility of doing a new work, the whole cast has par
ticipated in the “direction” of the show along with Zingo, who has
acted more in the capacity of “overseer,” to make final decisions and
insure the show has continuity.
Since the show went into production more than three weeks ago,
Belles and Bowser’s original concepts of the show have changed in
many instances, but they are more than satisfied with those changes.
Six new numbers have been added as the show has progressed, to
more fully utilize the special qualities and talents of the cast. One
song, in fact, was written especially for one cast member.
Are Eugene audiences ready to appreciate rock opera? Bowser,
Zingo and Belles all feel the answer is yes.
“I see it kind of blowing their minds in a quiet way,” says Bowser.
“One of the things that has been such a challenge for us is to make
something this subtle end up being so powerful.”
Zingo agrees. “I think they’ll be really surprised, because it’s not
a show that’s going to blast them out of their seats with a lot of loud
rock music. The music is really quite calm, particularly in com
parison to the last two rock shows Carnival has done (“Tommy” in
1971 and “St. Joan” in 1972). One of the really great things about this
show is its dramatic contrast between the gentle music and the in
credibly wild visual action that is taking place at the same time.”
Still, Zingo maintains there is a high degree of integration in the
show, even though there are several different types of music involved
— including some original Moog synthesizer tapes.
And, contrary to popular notions about rock operas (or regular
operas, for that matter), many of the show’s songs are singable — or
at least hum-able, according to Belles.
Following its premiere run at Carnival, the cast of “Inferno” is
looking forward to the next hurdle on the horizon: the American
College Theatre Festival, to be held this fall in Washington, D.C.
“Inferno” is entered in the “original works” division, and the cast is
excited and optimistic about the show’s chances.
Beyond that, “Inferno” stands a fair chance at some sort of
commercial distribution; several inquiries and requests for tapes
have already been received from eastern sources.
But before those dreams are realized, Dante will be walking into
hell right here on the University Theater stage July 11, 12, 18, 19, 25
and 26. Current plans also call for some repeat performances for
University students early during fall term.
All seats are $2.50 and may be reserved or purchased at the
Carnival Theatre box office (686-4191) in Villard Hall from noon to 5
p.m. and until 9 p.m. on performance nights. Curtain time is 8:30.
Scott Barkhurst
Photo by Phil Woldstoin
A romantic fantasy for children
John Savage. Charlotte Riersgard, and Becky Bernhard perform in Carnival Theater’s first “11 a.m.
Children’s Theater” production, called “The Land of the Dragon.” The play, which is written by
Madge Miller, is a romantic fantasy about a beautiful princess who is rescued from a scheming step
aunt and her conniving chancellor by a wandering minstrel with a pet dragon. Performances are set
for lla.m. today, and July 18 and 19.