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About Oregon daily emerald. (Eugene, Or.) 1920-2012 | View Entire Issue (March 31, 1977)
Play lacks sobriety, not talent By CHERYL RUDERT Of the Emerald There ought to be a line of demarcation in the play writing zone. Certain subjects are ideal for comedy while others should only be handled with a respectable sobri ety. The Sudden and Accidental Re-Education of Horse Johnson is a blaring case of a faux-pas subject treatment. Playwright Douglas Taylor has taken the instance of one man’s moment of expanded awareness and tried to apply a Neil Simon comedy format to it. The combination fails miserably and it is not because the subject is such a poor choice — quite simply it is because Taylor has attempted to extract laughter from an unfunny situation. With this in mind Very Little Theatre’s production of the play is a noble effort. As a first-time director, John Biggs’ misfortune in having to deal with the material is almost overshadowed by a well blocked, well character matched performance. The only blatant faults are a bit of stiffness and a tone level that never gives way to a full range of dynamics. After the first 15 minutes the constant barrage of over-exerted voices makes the audience numb to the subtle nuances of drama happening on stage. Horse Johnson is a loud, dull-witted warehouse worker who sudden ly gives up work and sex to wait for a jolt of inspi ra tion. The tension that ensues between him and the rest of his immediate society may be enough to justify the high decibel level but all sense of climax and proportion is lost in the melee. As Horse, Howard Hummel's poetic trance ravings are somewhat effective. Confronted by a mechanistic society demanding a definition of poetry, he becomes a snapping animal — desperately snatching for an intuitive response in a vain attempt to dispel his restrictive image of dull-witted warehouse worker. In a more fitting script he could have been quite a poignant figure — the 20th cen tury worker responding to the pleas of Thoreau, Emerson and Whitman to wake up and start living. Here, however, he is written in as a mocked fool and remains beyond the talents of Hummel to enhance. Horse is surrounded by shallow, predictable charac ters — a wife who doesn’t understand him, a sister-in-law who begins to understand him, a fellow worker who blindly idolizes him and an itinerant mentor who sparks his re-education. Of these characters only Dolly, his sister-in-law, has some lines to throw out that aren’t average sitcom mater ial. Clint Barlowe, the dubious mentor, has neither the mystique nor cunning expected. Partly the playwright's fault, Jim Whetstine doesn’t help matters. He delivers lines in such a halting, garbled manner it was quite hard to understand him. However, he did well in fitting the character’s image — that of the educated cynic won over to the hedonism of a defeatist attitude. Marilyn Bell, as Dolly, stands out from the cast primarily because she's the only one who doesn’t have to shout. Her stage presence is much smoother than Con nie, Horse’s wife (played by Lana Pope) and his neurotic friend Herman (Vernon Howard). Allen Van Dyke Murphy, as Dolly's boyfriend Bud, is rather low-keyed and rigid, like the computerized society he represents. The conclusion of Horse’s excursion into a wider consciousness could have had more significance if Taylor had permitted it. The potential of Dolly as the one charac ter who actually realized what Horse was so clumsily saying is not given a chance. She wanders off the stage muttering that she needs some time to think while Horse reaches a compromise and goes back to his old life. Supposedly he has changed for the better, but somehow that just doesn’t come across. Cutting out some of the excess the play could have continued for a few more minutes to tell us how anyone can incorporate an ex panded awareness into the working world. For a cast, half of whose members are new to the stage, the performance was basically a decent rendering of a script that should not have been tackled. Hopefully those members won’t let the play deter their further efforts and VLT will show more wisdom in future choices. Open Gallery presents a collection of works by Steven Oshatz entitled, “In Search of a Friend." A reception will be held at the gallery (775 E. 25 St.) on Sunday from 2-5 p.m. Musical opens at Robinson By BOB WEBB Of the Emerald The musical The Roar of the Greasepaint... The Smell of the Crowd, by Leslie Bricusse and Anthony Newley, will be presented in the University’s Robin son Theatre for two weekends, beginning this Friday and Saturday and April 8 and 9 at 8 p.m. The popular musical is based on characters from Beckett’s Waiting for Godot. Sir is a member of the “haves” and is always besting his foil Cocky of the “have nots.” They meet to play “The Game.” Sir insists that the “haves” must retain their positions even if the rules of the game must be constantly changed to accomodate them. Thus Cocky contends with new rules at every turn. Rick Harris heads the cast as Sir. Mark St. Amant is Cocky and Nancy Hills plays “The Kid.” Other cast members include Jim Bartruff, Nancy Julian, Jan Powell and Nathalia J. Smith. Dale Hearth, a graduate student in theatre at the University, directs the play. He holds BA degrees in music and theatre from Willamette University and an MA in theatre design from Portland State University. The orchestra conductor, Bruce McDonald, is a University senior majoring in English and theatre. He has had experience in productions at the University, Lane Community College and the Very Little Theatre and has written a musical entitled The Circle of Life. University students Larry Sutton and Teresa Kil lian have choreographed the production. Set design is by Hearth. The play is a studio production, and according to a new policy announced early this year by the Uni versity Theatre, University students will be admitted to studio productions free of charge. Students need only show their fee card when picking up tickets. Other patrons for studio productions will be admitted for a reduced rate, in this case $1. Tickets must be picked up at the Robinson Theatre box office in advance. The box office is open from noon to 5 p.m. daily and from noon to 9 p.m. on production dates. Benson, Ripperton to appear Friday night By BOB WEBB Of the Emerald George Benson, one of the na tions top jazz guitarists, will ap pear in Mac Court tomorrow night at 8:30 p.m. Opening the evening will be vocalist Minnie Ripperton. It's difficult to talk about Minnie Ripperton, especially concerning voice, without launching into a string of superlatives. This woman possesses a four and a half to five octave range. She is a coloratura soprano who is comfortable at first and second soprano, and as tonishingly, can descend to first alto. On her first Epic album, Perfect Angel, she frequently slips into spine-tingling high notes and lingers on them long and flaw lessly. At those times her voice is indistinguishable from a stringed instrument. In the last two de cades of pop music, only Yma Sumac, the Peruvian singer who was popular in the early ’50 s, has a comparable range. Ripperton began her singing career at a very early age, like many black singers, in church. Un like most black singers, however, she was interested in opera as well. At the age of 11 she started cultivating her gifted voice through opera lessons. But after a few years, she came to the realization that opera didn’t hold a whole lot of opportunity for a black woman. In 1963, she signed a contract with Chess Records. In her eight years on Chess, she worked with many talented performers, includ ing Ramsey Lewis and Muddy Waters. In the late ’60 s she re corded several albums with the Rotary Connection and, when the group disbanded, recorded a solo album, Come to My Garden. It was her final album for Chess. Though she acquired much valu able experience at Chess, she Page 4 Section B didn’t feel like she was getting anywhere with them. In 1971, she severed her contract with the company. Though she was not actively seeking another recording con tract, her talent led to an offer from Epic Records last year, which she accepted. Ripperton is capable of as tounding performances in soul, jazz and pop. Though she has the skill to sing blues, she seldom does. “Blues has to do with feeling sad,” she commented in a press danced at illegal “after-hours” clubs in Pittsburgh at the age of 7. In his late teens he began picking at a guitar his stepfather hand crafted for him and at 17 he began to listen to jazz records. He refined his technique by gig ging with organist Jack McDuff's group and was discovered in 1965 at Harlem’s Palm Cafe by jazz tal ent scout and Columbia producer John Hammond. Benson's solo work led to a succession of al bums for Columbia, A & M and CTI. have both established Benson's credentials and contributed to the growth of instrumental jazz. Benson signed with Warners in 1975 and his first album with them,Breezin', was the first album by a pure-jazz musician to go double platinum (over two million in sales), topping the jazz, pop, soul and easy-listening charts simultaneously. Benson’s achievements have won him the Playboy All-Star Poll, a few Grammys and the long standing support of a loyal follow release. “I’m not into feeling sad. I’m a happy person. I want to touch people with my singing. But I want to do it in a happy way.” George Benson’s professional career began when he sang and His albums with Freddie Hub bard, Stanley Turrentine, Esther Phillips and Hank Crawford, not to mention solo sets like Body Talk, Beyond the Blue Horizon and the Grammy-nominated White Rabbit Photo thanks to Epic Records ing. Tickets for the Double Tee/Cultural Forum event are $5 for University students, $6 for re served and the general public and $6.50 on the day of the show. Puppets, piano rags, film, all used as Portland festival spans week i-toDeri Moran, internationally-known musician, composer and performer will present a series of performance-events, Through Cloud and Eclipse at the Port land Art Museum, April 2 through 10. The festival of puppets, rags, tangos, opera, film and concerts will feature the music of Moran, John Cage, Erik Satie, Maurice Ravel, Tom Constanten, Scott Joplin, Igor Stravinsky, Josef M. Hauer, Ivan Tcherepnin, Luciano Berio and others. Moran, formerly on the music faculty at Portland State Univeisity, returns to Portland to produce the festival of events, from Buffalo where he is a member of the Center for the Creative and Performing Arts at State University of New York. A shadow puppet show, ‘Through Cloud and Eclipse” is the opening night event on April 2 at 8:30 p.m. Text for the show was written by Moran and Portland artist Don Case, with puppets by Case and scenery and musical score by Moran. At 11 p.m. following the shadow pup pet show on April 2, Joseph Kubera will play A Concert of Soft Piano Music, including works by Ravel, Hauer, Cage, Satie and Moran. On Sunday, April 3 at 8:30 p.m. Moran has planned “An Evening with Erik Satie.” The program includes “En tracte,” the film of Rene Clair with the piano score of Satie; three solo piano works, “Gymnopedie” followed by “Sports and Diversions” for speaker and piano. The program will end with Satie s puppet opera “Genevieve de Brabant, a new production by Moran commis sioned for the Music-Theater Festival of the West German Radio in Cologne. Thursday, April 7 at 10 p.m. Joseph Kubera will present the West Coast premiere of John Cage's newest piano score “Etudes Astrales.” On Friday, April 8 at 8:30 p.m. “Once Upon a Time,” Moran’s mini-multi media show, the history of the U S A as told by school children will be performed. Films, slides, and sound montage are used in this production. A concert, “From Rags to Riches” is planned for Saturday, April 9 at 8:30 p.m. Tom Constanten, formerly with The Grateful Dead will come to Portland from San Francisco for this evening. The noted keyboard performer, arranger and composer will play a series of new rags. Pianist Joseph Kubera will play Stravinsky rags and tangos. Experimen tal films will be part of the program. Sunday, April 10 at 3 p.m. there will be a repeat performance of the shadow puppet show “Through Cloud and Ec lipse” and at 8:30 p.m. a repeat perfor mance of “An Evening with Erik Satie.” Tickets to each event are $3 general admission and $2 for students. Tickets may be purchased in advance at the Education Department at the Portland Art Museum. Contact Impi By MICHAEL KESTEN Of the Emerald “Contact Improvisation involves tw people moving in space and in contact witl each other. Through this point of contac they re exchanging weight, momentum ani other kinds of physical impulses and creal ing a dance." Curt Siddall is describing the dance torn he works in with Byron Brown, John LeFan and James Tyler. Together, they are tht members of Mangrove, a dance collects from Berkeley, California. Mangrove’s ap pearance at the Community Center for the Performing Arts (CCPA) early next weel will mark Eugene audiences’ first exposun to Contact Improvisation. Contact Improvisation, or Contact as it is less formally known, is a new movemen form that was conceived in New York anc Vermont just a few years ago. It has since Fleetwood Mac continues to evolve Rumours by Fleetwood Mac Produced by Fleetwood Mac (with Richard Dashut Ken Caillat, Cris Morris). BSK-301D copyright 1977 Warner Bros. Records. By MARK ROWE Of the Emerald When it comes to Fleetwood Mac, I tend to get a little defensive because I ve listened to them probably a lot more than other performers or groups I admire. I delighted in Peter Green’s Fleetwood Mac and their devotion to the blues; the powerful trio of guitarists Peter Green, Danny Kirwan and Jeremy Spencer. When Green dropped out of the group early in the 70s, I even followed their switch to a mellow, ballad style with enthusiasm. The two songwriters of that period, Christine McVie, the keyboard player, and Robert Welch, the guitarist, both turned out interesting tunes, and some that were especially good, like “Revelation” and “Dissatisfied” from Penguin. The omnipresent duo of Mick Fleetwood and John McVie put down their solid drum/bass bottom line and kept things moving. I could seethe end when Fleetwood Mac put out Heroes Are Hard To Find. How that I’ve bought the new album Rumors I must once again applaud Fleetwood Mac for as fine a musical statement as may be found. The band, which is to say the McVies, Fleetwood, and Americans Lindsey Buckingham on guitars, and Stephanie (Stevie) Nicks, the new singer who made a big hit with her “Rhiannon” on the last album, has shifted the emphasis on their albums now from the driving, blues and rock fueled instrumental passages of the past to songwriting and pro duction breakthroughs on the last two albums. The sound is now the finest that it has ever been; the blues are played raw, but this new material requires finesse, a lighter touch. Lindsey Buckingham writes three songs on this record and exercises his vocal cords to good advantage, he also exhibits a greater surety at his instrument, cutting loose with some fine solos and interesting melodies throughout. He is the author of the current hit single from the album, “Go Your Own Way.” Drummer Mick Fleetwood and bassist John McVie play up their steady support. Fleetwood is an interesting drummer, one of the best and most often overlooked. He does not try to come on as the fastest or the craziest percussionist in rock, rather he puts down the basic beat, strong and sure with few solos. To be truly aware of Fleetwood’s skill at his drums, gongs and various other noisemakers he must be seen in concert, in his element. For some reason, probably a very good one, the most distinctive member of the band on Rumours is once again Stevie Nicks. Her songs have a certain something; the others present their messages in similar terms, but hers seem to say the same things on a different level From “Dreams”; “Now here I go again, I see the crystal visions I keep my visions to myself It’s only me Who wants to wrap around your dreams.” Absolutely the steadiest hand in Fleetwood Mac is Christine McVie. She presents the optimistic face of the band in her songs and her stage presence. It is unusual to see two women of such different, diverse talent in the same band ... and making it work too! One of her songs on Rumours, Oh Daddy, is surely one of the best that she has written for the band. Fleetwood Mac, then, has taken on yet another shape and gone with the flow to wind up perhaps in better shape than they have ever been. Rumours is a long way from Peter Green and his lust for the blues, but the changes have turned them into yet another fine incarnation. Now that I’ve bought the new album Rumours I must once again applaud Fleetwood Mac for as fine a musical statement as may be found. Ceramics project on display in Lawrence Hall FOR FAYE: silent sent muse that speaks with color & form from the depths of simplicity comes enriching notice of the small. the potters toil the plate, glorified if we must eat let us eat beautifully to nourish our eyes as well with hand met clay. a still of life is there for those who look line, clay, inlay pleasures of pattern directed with happy cuts of blue & yellow wisdom in a strum of fingers. Sharon C. Spurlock Spring 1977 J •ovisation group stages new dance form spread to the West Coast and there are now small groups scattered throughout the country working with the form. 1 According to Siddall, the only thing pre t conceived in a Contact dance is the begin j ning, the rest is all improvised. However, he says the movement remains recognizable as Contact. “It always works out differently but within the same realm,” he says. “It’s , like building a genera! sense of flexibility in your body and in your mental process so l that you can accept what’s going on no > matter how complex and just ride it through. It’s kind of like surfing because you’re riding . on another person and at the same time that person is riding on you.” Siddall is one of the five persons who has been working with Contact since its incep tion on the East Coast in 1972. Steve Pax ton is credited with coining the term “Con tact Improvisation” and doing the initial work in the form but Siddall believes people have probably experimented with similar forms all through history. “This is just one instance where we re paying attention to it and really developing it into a movement, one that has its own standards like any other dance form,” he says. Mangrove first came together as a group last winter in Berkeley. After a month of rehearsals, they gave a series of six per formances in the Bay Area in January, 1976. Since then they have toured the West Coast as far north as Vancouver, B.C. They will appear at the CCPA in the WOW Hall at Eighth and Lincoln, for two performances Monday and Tuesday night at 8 p.m. Admission is $2 per night. The group will also hold two workshops from 10 a m. to 5 p.m. Tuesday and Wednesday. Admission to the workshops is $8 for a whole day and $5 for a half day. Those interested may want to take advantage of a blanket price of $15 for all four events. Faye Nakamura completed her BFA in ceramics and her terminal project is now being exhibited in the Lawrence Hall gal lery, 141 Lawrence. The showing ends Saturday. Nakamura was bom and raised in Hawaii and came to Oregon six years ago to attend the University. Color and pattern, the design elements found in material prints, first intrigued her and were the basis for composition in her early paintings. She then became involved with Japanese pottery forms which she By SHARON C. SPURLOCK For the Emerald synthesized with her previous design pat terns in painting. In a personal body of work she translates these influences into a con temporary visual language of form, line, color and texture. There are many low wide dishes and plates adorned with images that are hung as pieces of clay canvas. On her plates are Japanese images, faces, lovers and still lifes rendered in colored graphite pencil or inlayed layers of colored clay. The shapes, made up largely of hand built (as opposed to turned on a wheel) spheres and squares, are simple and dynamic. She heightens these shapes to create new series, low plates become jelly jars, and handled baskets, while square plates be come* tall vases. She works on tiles as Japanese screens and scrolls, with sec tions of bent and continuous images. The installation itself reflects her sensitiv ity as the physical arrangement of her pieces, still-lifes themselves, are mirrored images of the still-life she renders de coratively on her work. When referring to Matisse’s writing Nakamura mentions, that “I have always liked that fresh, happy quality that he gave his work and I think that in many ways I try to evoke that same quality in my work, I want people to see my work and understand some kind of message which I think can come in the form of a feeling.”
