Representatives from Findhorn, one of the world's most
famous and interesting new age communities, will be speaking
and conducting a workshop this weekend. Gordon Davidson and
Corinne McLaughlin will speak on “Findhorn and Planetary
Transformation” tommorrow at 7:30 p.m. in the Unitarian Fellow
ship Hall, 40th and Donald. Donation is $3. Saturday and Sunday,
9 a.m. to 5 p.m., the two will present a “Weekend Experience in
Spiritual Community” at the Faculty Club Building, 13th and
University. The weekend costs $24. The event is sponsored by
the Cascadian Regional Library, 485-0366_
If you don’t know by now, the Saturday Market is open for
business again. Entertainment this week is Tommy Smith at 1
p.m. and the Family Circus at 2 p.m_The Fifth Annual Hobby
Fair is scheduled for Portland’s Memorial Coliseum April 22 and
23 from noon to 8 p.m. Over 50 exhibits are planned ... Volunteer
dancers, dance groups, student groups, dance teachers and
other interested persons are being sought to participate in a
spring dance festival planned in Eugene June 3 and 4. The
event will be sponsored by Eugene Dance and the Eugene Parks
and Recreation Department. Interested people should call
687-5311,344-9524, or 344-1800 ....
Coming up at Portland's Civic Auditorium: the Sweet
Adelines regional convention Friday and Saturday; the Oregon
Symphony Pops Orchestra Sunday and Monday, and Chet
Atkins on Wednesday ... At the Paramount, Harry Chapin will
be performing on April 21 and Bob Welch on April 24_
In Eugene, Esther Phillips will be at The Place April 21-22...
and the Fourth Annual Bluegrass Festival at Lane County
Fairgrounds will be presented April 28-30. Headlining will be John
Hartford_
" The Community Center for the Performing Arts is now offer
ing a poster hanging service to individuals and organizations.
Cost is $2 per route for non-profit organizations and $2.50 per
route general charge, and 13 routes are offered. Contact Amanda
Wilcox or Alex Dunnetee at 687-2476_
The latest on the luau this Saturday: starting time is 6 p.m.
Tickets for the Hawaii Club’s event are $5.50 general, $5 for
students, and $3.50 for children, and are available at the EMU
Main Desk, in front of the bookstore, outside the fishbowl and at
Meier and Frank's_
TheThunderbird Motor Inn’s first Cabaret production starting
April 21 will be an original — Eugene, We Kinda Love You!,
written and directed by Tom Gressler_
Hear and Now is edited by Eric Maloney
and Jerril Nilson. All contributions are
welcome, but should be submitted one
week prior to the event or on the Monday
prior to expected publication. All
contributions to Out and About MUST be
submitted the Friday before publication
EMU Cultural Forum presents
The Annual
Undergraduate Art
Show
April 24 - 28
12-4 pm 167 EMU
The Following Guidelines Should Be Followed When
Submitting A Work:
1. Each artist may submit a total of two
works. They may be drawings, photographs,
paintings or self-standing sculpture. All
pieces must be properly mounted, and
2-dimensional works no larger than 4’ x 4’.
2. Each entry must have an entry card
and jury card filled out; the entry card must
be returned to the Forum by April 21 (Fri
day). Jury cards should be attached to the
works. Cards are available in Suite 2, EMU.
3. Pieces must be brought to Room 167
EMU between 3 and 4 pm Saturday, April
22. The works will be juried and rejected
works should be picked up between 5 & 6 pm
Sunday.
4. The pieces may be picked up after the
show on Friday evening, April 28, between
6:30 & 7:30 pm.
D O O P
University production sets
landmarks in Argentine play
By DAN WEBSTER
The stage is bare, except for
two hollow box-like structures. On
the left side stands a small
musician’s platform with two
chairs and various percussive in
struments. As a backdrop there is
a large multicolor mural of a city
scene, with a lone figure wander
ing through empty streets. Six
other murals, rolled up like win
dow shades, surround the stage.
The lighting is muted, causing the
blues, browns and greens of the
painted city to blend into — what?
New York? Chicago? Buenos
Aires?
Suddenly, six figures emerge
from the audience and stride pur
posefully across the stage, each
to a specific position: two to the
musician’s stands, the others to
stand or sit around the boxes.
One beat, two, the strum of a
guitar — and the play begins.
Friday night’s University
Theatre production of Osvaldo
Dragun's Historias para ser Con
tadas (Stories to be Told) marks
two landmark occurences in re
cent university theater experi
ence. One is the presentation of a
play by one of the best known
Latin American playwrights,
Argentina's Osvaldo Dragun. The
other is that the play is directed by
Lowell Fiet, the man responsible
for last spring’s riveting University
Theatre offering of Mother Cour
age. It’s difficult to decide which
event is more important.
An assistant professor in the
Oregon speech department,
Lowell Fiet is an anomaly. While
other directors mount more and
more lavish productions, Fiet cuts
his to the bare necessities. While
other directors consider it a badge
of honor to present a main season
production in the barn-like atmos
phere of Robinson Theatre, he
prefers the intimacy of Villard
Hall’s Pocket or Arena theatres.
While other directors watch ticket
prices rise higher and higher, Fiet
insists that his shows be as inex
pensive as possible. And while
other “directors" revel in the dubi
ous distinction of that title, Fiet
adamantly insists that he is “an
academician in the theater rather
than a practitioner."
But probably the biggest differ
ence between Fiet and his col
leagues is in the choice of material
they select.
In the program notes to Mother
Courage, Fiet wrote, “the Univer
sity Theatre’s responsibility is to
the field or “art” itself and the goal
to strive for standards established
by the most critically valid con
temporary thought about the na
ture and function of theatre and by
what is socially and culturally most
urgent. By nearly all definitions,
theatre remains an overt social act
and as such it must comment on
social, cultural and historical pro
cesses.”
To a certain extent, all four of
last year's main season produc
tions had the potential to fulfill
these requisites. But for one
reason or another, only Mother
Courage did so.
Macbeth was so poorly con
ceived that almost nothing of im
port came across.
In The Time of Your Life, the
character of a union dock worker,
Saroyan's only attempt at social
commentary, was cut for inexplic
able reasons.
And The Prime of Miss Jean
Brodie, while an interesting study
of the passions of a spinsterish
Scottish schoolteacher, was un
fortunately staged as little more
than a melodrama in which the
most memorable scene was a
careful bit of nudity that left the
would-be sophisticated audience
tittering.
But Mother Courage lived up to
every expectation that Fiet held
for it.
Because what he was able to do
was capture the political rele
vance of the play — the current
political relevance. In Fiet’s
hands, as Brecht intended, the
play became much more than just
a struggle for survival in 17th Cen
tury Germany. Rather, it spoke as
well to anyone who suffered
through all the painful bullshit of
the Vietnam war, six years of
Richard Nixon, the race and
anti-war riots, Watergate, etc.,
etc.
And though it wasn’t well re
ceived by the local critics, Brecht
never is. He’s too political; too
much of a “polemicist.” And, as
one reviewer condescendingly
worded it, Fiet's production was
“the sort of play in which the ac
tors shamble onstage at the be
ginning, fully visible to the audi
ence, chatting with each other,
donning parts of their costumes,
doing limbering-up exercises and
so forth."
But enough of such ignorance.
Its only importance is that it is the
same type of inanity that will prob
ably be levied at Dragun and his
political comments, and again at
Fiet and his attempts to interpret
Dragun’s play. Because there are
similarities to Brecht in Dragun's
style.
For one, they both deal in the
same themes: the effects of soci
ety, especially economic effects,
cxi the individual. Just as Anna
Fierling describes the Thirty Years
War alternately as a plague and a
glorious chance for prosperity,
and ultimately claims that she
didn’t have a choice, that any
reasonable person would have
done the same as she, one of
Dragun’s characters jumps at the
chance to earn 5,000 pesos a
month in order to supply tainted
meat to the people of South Africa
and then later claims that, under
the circumstances, he also didn't
have a choice, and that if he had it
all to do over again he still doesn’t
know for sure what his decision
would be. “After all,” he says,
“5,000 pesos is 5,000 pesos."
For another, the structure of
Dragun’s play is told in short story
form similar to Brecht's use of Epic
Theatre. The difference is that
Brecht’s plays, like Mother Cour
age, are split into several acts that
weave together into a continuous
narrative. Dragun’s Historias, on
the other hand, are three separate
stories that are linked together
only by theme. “The Story of the
Abscessed Tooth,” "The Story of
Our Friend Panchito Gonzalez
Who Felt Responsible for the Out
break of Bubonic Plague in South
Africa," and “The Story of the Man
Who Turned into a Dog,” all reflect
the pitfalls of economic oppres
sion, and what ends a person will
go to in order to scratch a living
And as for Fiet's part, he has
further brought the two play
wrights together by incorporating
music into the production, a
Brechtian convention. For the
music, Fiet has employed the ser
vices of the talented Lee Heuer
mann, who co-authored the score
for Fiet’s Mother Courage.
Oscar Oragun’s Historias para
ser Contadas, (Stories to be
Told), a University Theatre pro
duction, will be performed in ViI
lard Hall’s Arena Theatre April 14,
15 and 19, 20, 21, 22 under the
direction of Lowell Fiet. All tickets
are $1.25. Performances are at 8
p.m. Ticket information can be ob
tained at the Robinson Theatre
ticket office, or by calling
686-4191, Monday through Fri
day, noon to 5 p.m.
In Concert
inti-illimani
4
Chile’s Musicians in Exile
SUNDAY APRIL 16 2:00 pm and 7:30 pm EMU Ballroom —) l
TICKETS: Matinee: $4°° in advance, SS°° at door; Evening: S5°» in advance, $6°° at door
AILABLE. EMU Mam Desk, Sun Shop, Everybody’s. Odyssey Records.
SPONSORED by the EMU Cultural Forum. Chilean Support Committee. Eugene Comm.ttee lor a Free Chile