HK2K will offer skits,
food and Jackie Chan
■ Hong Kong Night this
Sunday in the EMU presents
culture in an entertaining and
nourishing fashion
By Lisa Toth
Oregon Daily Emerald
A night featuring action-film hero
Jackie Chan along with a taste of au
thentic Chinese cuisine will add a lit
tle diversity to the weekend.
The University’s Hong Kong Stu
dent Association is hosting its fifth an
nual Hong Kong Night on April 2. The
event, known as HK2K, will begin at
6:30 p.m. in the EMU Fir Room.
There are two sessions incorporat
ed in the event. The first session will
include a skit performed by 12 volun
teers from the HKSA. Sophomore
business major Chuck Wong, one of
the HKSA program team executives,
said the show is about the history of
Hong Kong and a scientist who in
vents a time machine.
“The time machine brings the sci
entist through the decades of the 1970s,
’80s and ’90s until the present,” Wong
said. The skit will demonstrate how
from past to present the culture, fash
ions and behaviors of the Chinese peo
ple have changed.
The HKSA put together video clips
that demonstrate the six weeks of prepa
ration that went into Hong Kong Night.
Following the video clips, the program
will include a modem pop dance per
formed by three members of the HKSA.
The feature performer is coordina
tor Gary Yeung, a sophomore and vi
sual design major. He will appear later
in the first section of the program in a
singing performance.
HKSA’s President Gary Wong said
the opening welcome will be made by
Genny Stark, the assistant director of
the Office of International Education
and Exchange.
In addition to the performances,
brochures from the Hong Kong Tourist
Association will display the most de
sirable tourist spots to visit in Hong
Kong. The audience will also be able
to participate in HK2K through games.
“The audience will have a chance
to try to write the Chinese characters,
and then we will translate them,” said
Wong, a sophomore majoring in archi
tecture. Prizes will include key chains,
posters and calendars, which represent
the current year of the dfagon.
The first session will conclude with
a fashion show emphasizing clothing
from the skit. Fashions will start in the
early 70s and end with modem fashions.
HKSA will*also prepare an infor
mal, buffet-style meal.
“Last year, we had traditional dishes
such as fish bowl, dim sum and Hong
Kong style drinks like tea,” Wong said.
He explained that dim sum is prepared
and tastes like dumplings. The food will
be similar this year.
Following the skit, the second ses
sion, which starts at 9 p.m., will fea
ture Jackie Chan’s newest movie,
“Thunderbolt.”
“We want to let Hong Kong people
know we are here if they have prob
lems, and we want to promote culture
here at the University of Oregon and
Eugene,” said Bonnie Nei.an HKSA
program team executive.
The cost of Hong Kong Night is $5,
and the proceeds go to the HKSA.
Theater
continued from page 1
themselves can participate in fully without any
supervision.’*
The crusade began, however, with a much
narrower idea. Musacchia was originally seeking a
place to present a play he had recently complet
ed, so he went to the theater arts department with
his one-act work entitled “School ofLife.”
Musacchia hoped that he would be able to
produce it in the Pocket Theater, which pres
ents plays directed by and starring University
students every weekend throughout the school
year.
There was a slight problem, however. His
play was set in a Greek amphitheater. The Pock
et, which is a tiny theater in Villard Hall, would
not be substantial enough to accommodate
Musacchia’s creation.
While walking through the EMU after discov
ering the disappointing news, Musacchia spot
ted a solution. Where else to hold a play set in an
amphitheater but in the University’s very own
EMU Amphitheater?
“It was like, you know, ‘idea’ — a little light
bulb went on,” Musacchia said.
As Musacchia began contacting people to get
the process started, and his vision began to grow.
He decided that he not only wanted to perform his
own play, but allow other students to do the same.
A festival of several plays quickly became a
festival of artistic renditions ranging from poet
ry readings to dances, all with the focus on pa
ganistic concepts. Although still in the planning
stage, Musacchia envisions such additions to
these festivities as fortune tellers, tarot card
readers and vendor concessions.
Musacchia has made fliers to generate inter
est in his idea. He has also listed such uncom
mon solicitations as eight virgins to represent
the Oracle of Delphi and people to depict ritual
marriages. Musacchia insisted that paganistic
beliefs are not that strange.
“I think it’s gotten a bad rap,” he said. “It’s the
worship of nature and not some kind of weird
thing.”
One person Musacchia has already recruited
is Darren Reiley, a graduate folklore student
who is writing his thesis on paganism. Reiley
explained his own interest in the religious prac
tice as a “personal, spiritual pursuit.”
“It’s really a big movement, now,” he said.
“People are kind of trying to revive old, pre
Christianity [beliefs]... recognizing divinity in
nature.”
Musacchia started preparations early and
plans to hold the festival this October. Helping
him set the ball rolling has been ASUO Presi
dent Wylie Chen.
“I think an open theater would just be fantas
tic,” Chen said.
While Chen has assisted Musacchia in initiat
ing the festival, there are still a few roadblocks
that must be cleared. Chen has expressed hesi
tance in booking the festival right away because
by the time it will happen, a new ASUO Execu
tive team will be in place. He doesn’t want to
push something onto the new president that
perhaps he or she would not want to sponsor.
There is yet another obstacle Musacchia faces.
In order to utilize the amphitheater, those de
siring to use its space must be a recognized stu
dent group. For that to happen, three organiza
tional meetings need to be held. Musacchia
arranged the first one during finals week of win
ter term, but turnout was fairly low.
That doesn’t kill hope, he said, that the next
meeting will bring a few more people. Several
people have expressed interest to Musacchia in
either attending the April 4 meeting in the Co
quille Room or being involved with the event
in some degree. Many see merit in the idea of
allowing students from all over campus to gath
er together and showcase their abilities.
“He’s really trying to put together an open fo
rum for student talent and for amateur actors
and writers and directors to get together,” Reiley
said. “That’s one of the things that grabbed me.”
Musacchia said he would eventually like to see
a student repertory group established on campus
that would perform various plays throughout the
year. In what could be considered a twist of irony,
Musacchia has become so devoted to the idea of al
lowing students to run the entire festival that there
is even a possibility his play will not make the cut.
The students will accept it or reject it “demo
cratically,” and whether it is performed will be
up to those arranging the event.
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