Relationship struggles brought
to center stage
■The University’s Pocket
Playhouse presents a show
highlighting intense
one-on-one relationships
By Mason West
Oregon Daily Emerald
The difficulties of the human
condition and human relationships
are the themes of this week’s Pocket
Playhouse production, “The Wool
gatherer.”
The play written by William
Mastrosimone contains only two
characters, both of whom are alone
and looking for someone to open
up to. But at the same time, neither
seems prepared to do it alone. The
question becomes whether these
two people can get past their own
problems and help each other.
In the play, Cliff, played by Cur
tis Williams, is a trucker whose
truck has broken down in Philadel
phia. Knowing that he will be in
town only a few days, he tries his
luck with Rose (Windy Borman),
the clerk at the local five-and-dime
store.
Rose also sees something in Cliff,
but wants something much more
romantic than what Cliff has in
mind. Director Alexander
Pawlowski plays with this contrast
and its consequences to create con
flict and drama in the play.
“Rose is a hopeless romantic and
a dreamer,” Pawlowski said, “and
Cliff is this callous guy who Rose is
trying to find the sweetness in.”
That sweetness is hidden deep
beneath a facade of male ego and
crass humor.
“Cliff has spent a lot of time on
the road and alone, so he has
learned to entertain himself,”
Williams said. “He thinks he’s quite
funny.”
That makes one of them. Rose is
more sensitive and rarely in a jok
ing mood.
“She has a lot of emotional bag
gage that ties her down,” Borman
said.
Making a drama with only two
actors is a difficult process for the
performers. The success or failure
of the show lies in the characters’
interactions. It is fair to worry,
when dealing with a drama such as
this, that the characters might be
too extreme for the audience to re
late to. But for his part, Williams is
certain that Cliff is more than two
dimensional.
“I think that I’ve met Cliff; a lot of
people have,” he said. “But the peo
ple that know Cliff probably only
know his joking side.”
Borman carries the heavier re
sponsibility by playing a character
with serious emotional problems.
She said that while such a charac
ter is easier to see as a caricature, all
of the small elements that compose
Mason West Emerald -v
Rose (Windy Borman) and Cliff (Curtis Williams) explore the paradoxes of love and personality in ‘The Woolgatherer’ at the Pocket.
her persona could be found spread
out amongst many people.
Pawlowski hopes that the com
mon experience everyone shares
with one-on-one relationships will
be enough to carry the show.
“Think of all the time you have
spent in your life being with just
one other person and think of how
important every word and action
was,” he said. “The ability of hu
mans to relate on a one-to-one basis
creates amazing situations.”
In the end, each character is look
ing for some small, honest connec
tion with another person. Their re
lationship does seem to be
something special, but its destina
tion remains uncertain. Pawlowski
doesn’t attempt to answer any
questions with this play — he
wants the audience members to
leave questioning themselves.
“This play will make audiences
think about opportunities that may
have been missed, and it also might
make them look at the next guy/girl
who offers to buy them a drink a lit
tle different,” he said.
“The Woolgatherer” runs today,
Friday and Saturday at 5 p.m. in
the Pocket Playhouse in Villard
Hall. A $1 donation is suggested.
WOW hall rocks Eugene with exotic sounds this week
■Three hands have traveled
to the Eugene ar£a to give
enthusiastic performances
and play outrageous tunes
By Rebecca Wilson
Oregon Daily Emerald
This is a special announcement go
ing out to guitar nerds, star-gazers,
rock aficionados and music lovers of
all ages! This week, several critically
acclaimed musicians will bring their
distinctive brands of rock to WOW
Hall. Tonight, jazz, classic rock and
world beats will come together with
the efforts of Alien Love Child and
The Derek Trucks Band. Then on
Sunday, The Trey Gunn Band will
display some of the most bizarre in
struments to grace the rock genre.
The Derek Trucks Band
Derek Trucks loves playing guitar.
It’s a good thing — he has been on
tour almost continually since the age
ofll.
Trucks views touring as a way to
spread a message. “I want to turn peo
ple on to the great music,” Trucks
said in a phone interview from Ven
tura, Calif. “A whole lot of bands
aren’t playing for the right reasons
anymore.”
Trucks is quick to point out the im
portance of his musical influences—
the great musicians who came before
him. “If I had to pick out my biggest
influences, I would say Duane All
man, John Coltrane, Miles Davis,” he
said, adding, “and Eastern Indian
classical.” In addition, Trucks’ uncle
Butch is the longtime drummer for
the Allman Brothers Band.
According to a January 2000 arti
cle in the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette,
Trucks has been listening to the mas
ters since he was a baby.
“He went to sleep at night listening
to Duane Allman’s blistering work on
‘Live at the Fillmore East,”’ said re
porter Scott Mends, “and at the age of
nine, his dad bought him a $5
acoustic guitar at a garage sale.”
Since his debut, the native of Jack
sonville, Fla., has performed with leg
ends such as Bob Dylan, Buddy Guy,
Willie Nelson, Widespread Panic,
John Lee Hooker, Phish and Blues
Traveler. In 1999, Trucks joined clas
sic rock legend the Allman Brothers
Band as lead and slide guitarist to re
place the late Duane Allman. These
days, Trucks, now 21, leads The
Derek Trucks Band in his time off
from the Allman Brothers Band.
“ It took a long time to get the chem
istry of the band just right,” he said.
“We just recently got it.”
The other members of Trucks’
band are Yonrico Scott on drums,
Todd Smallie on bass, Javier Colon on
lead vocals and percussion, and Kofi
Burbridge on flute and keyboards.
Trucks plays the lead and slide gui
tar's.
“We have a strange mix of musi
cians,” Trucks said. “It catches peo
ple offguard. Like Kofi will just start
playing ‘A Love Supreme’ on his
flute in the middle of the set,” he said,
referring to the John Coltrane master
piece. “It’s worth hearing.”
The Derek Trucks Band is touring
with GRAMMY Award winning Eric
Johnson and his band, Alien Love
Child. Tickets are $22.50 in advance
and $25 at the door. They may be pur
chased at WOW Hall and FASTIXX
outlets. Doors open tonight at 7 p.m.
and showtime is at 8 p.m. For more
information, call 687-2746.
TheTreyGunn Band
Trey Gunn has come a long way
from his student days in the Universi
ty’s School of Music. Now, Gunn trav
els around the world, delivering mu
sic that “grooves.” His masterful
guitar skills even landed him a well
paying job with progressive rock
masterminds King Crimson. When
Gunn isn’t playing with the other five
members of Crimson, he tours with
his own band.
“Playing with this band is more
fun than Crimson, which is still pret
ty fun,” said Gunn in a phone inter
view from his Seattle home. “It’s real
ly exciting. We’re doing a lot of
improvisation. We’re walking a
tightrope.”
Gunn works with Tony Geballe,
who plays electric guitar and adds a
world flavor to the music.
“He studied Turkish music in
America and then moved to Turkey
to study with a master,” Gunn said.
The third member of the band, Bob
tMulleivlends a laT?hfSS?‘array dfufe
pronounceable percussives to the
mix. Among the exotic drums are
tabla, darbouka, gamelan drum, rik
and metals.
However, Gunn himself plays the
band’s signature instrument: the
“touch” guitar. Developed by Gunn
and Mark Warr of Warr Guitars, the
touch guitar is played with both
hands on the neck of the guitar, Gunn
said.
“The touch guitar has six octaves
and nearly the range of a piano. You
can play bass notes or higher solo
notes — or both at once.”
For this tour, touch guitarist Randy
Strom will join The Trey Gunn Band
for added complexity. “We can
switch playing bass or solo parts just
like that! ” Gunn said.
The band’s performances tend to
be eclectic and spur-of-the-moment.
“I would say a third to a half of our
performances are improvised,” Gunn
said. “But you would never know...
It’s exciting to me.”
The Trey Gunn Band is playing at
WOW Hall on Sunday night. Tickets
are $10 in advance and $12 at the
door. Showtime is 8 p.m. For more
information, call 687-2746.
Ingrid Pape-Sheldon Discipline Global Mobile
The Trey Gunn Band will groove audiences with their world-infused brand of rock at
WOW Hall 8 p.m. Sunday. Here, Gunn poses with his famous ‘touch’ guitar.
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