Features Editor:
LisaToth
lisatoth@dailyemeralcl.com
Thursday, January 31,2002
Nelly tickets go on safe
Read about Nelly coming to the EMU
and see the full Pulse calendar at
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Adam Jones Emerald
Ermengarde(left), played by Teresa Koberstein, looks onto a concerned Mr. Vandergelder (Rowan Morrison) in ‘The Matchmaker,’ playing this weekend in the Robinson Theater.
■The Matchmaker,’the Robinson
Theatre’s latest production, has
audiences laughing from start to finish
The Matchmaker’
Robinson Theatre
By Jen West
Oregon Daily Emerald
forbidden love, mistaken identities and
complicated stratagems can make for a great
romantic comedy. Thornton Wilder’s play
“The Matchmaker,” directed by Jack Wat
son, has all these elements and more.
“The Matchmaker” opened last Friday at
the University’s Robinson Theatre and will
hold performances Jan. 31 through Feb. 3 and
Feb. 8 and 9.
The audience smiled from the first moments
of the play and continued laughing all the way
to the end.
Mrs. Dolly Levi, played by Jocelyn Fultz, is a
businesswoman who has held just about every
job imaginable. Her latest endeavor is trying to
find a wife for a wealthy merchant from
Yonkers, Mr. Horace Vandergelder. Her compli
cated matchmaking schemes lead all of the
characters to find their own true love connec
tions. But instead of finding a wife for Mr. Van
dergelder, she falls for him herself.
The entire cast infuses the performance with
high energy and sharp wit.
Fultz stands out from the cast with her
whimsical facial expressions, and her Betty
Rubble-esque giggle is enough to get anybody
laughing. She does a wonderful job bringing
the audience into the action of the play when
she passes out her business cards.
Bamaby Tucker, played by Quinn Mattfeld,
steals the show with his theatrical hijinks.
Tucker, a timid 17-year-old boy whose voice has
not yet hit puberty, is an employee of Mr. Van
dergelder and the sidekick of his co worker Cor
nelius Hackl, played by Andrew Beck. Tucker
finds himself forced into just about every nook
and cranny of the set while accompanying
Hackl on his quest for adventure.
Just when the audience thinks their cheeks
can’t take any more laughter, Ms. Van Huysen,
played by Katie Plein, sweeps across the stage
in all her comical hauteur, sporting a farcical
“deer in the headlights” look. Her first line, a
dramatic “Ohhhh!” caused hysterical laughter
from the audience.
This is a thoroughly enjoyable, lighthearted play.
Tickets are $12 for the general public and $5
for students. Tickets are available at the UO
Ticket Office at 346-4363.
E-mailreporterJenWestatjenwest@dailyemerald.com.
Ten years later, music dean will return to full-time teaching
■Anne Dhu McLucas has spent
a decade dividing her time between
fundraising for a school expansion,
administration and teaching classes
By Mason West
Oregon Daily Emerald
After 10 years of service, School of
Music Dean Anne Dhu McLucas is leav
ing her position at the end of the aca
demic year to join the full-time teaching
faculty at the University.
McLucas, 60, began her tenure as
dean in 1992, leaving the music depart
ment she created at Boston College. At
the University of Oregon, she initiated
work on raising the funds to renovate
the School of Music, but the completion
of that task will fall to the new dean.
“A lot of me said ‘I need to stay on
board and get this done.’ But after 10
years, a lot of me has diminished, and I
think the campaign will need a new
spark,” she said.
To refresh herself, McLucas will take a
sabbatical during the 2002-03 school year.
She plans to use the time to write a book
about oral traditions" in American music
and study different styles of ethnic music.
McLucas has continued to teach two
classes per year while performing her
administrative duties. She said she gen
erally teaches one introductory under
graduate class and one specialized grad
uate course to “take the temperature of
the school.”
“I wanted to keep my hand in teach
ing because I always intended to go back
to it,” she said.
Mark Levy, assistant professor of eth
nomusicology, said he is “excited about
the possibility” ofMcLucas teaching the
understaffed world music courses when
she returns to the University.
“I’ve been pretty much teaching
world music single-handedly,” he said.
McLucas also said she envisions
teaching music courses not specifically
geared to music students, perhaps in the
Honors College.
But the approval of these ideas will
fall to other authorities. While McLucas’
return to teaching takes away some of
her power, it gives her the opportunity
to present new ideas.
“As a dean, you learn you can support
or not support people’s ideas, but there
is very little that you can create on your
own,” she said.
Robert Hurwitz, professor of music
theory and associate dean of undergrad
uate studies, said welcoming McLucas
into the faculty won’t be a problem.
“She has been a member of the faculty
all along,” he said.
Hurwitz said in the business world it
would be unheard of for a CEO to return
to a position in office management, but a
dean returning to teaching is almost ex
pected in academia.
McLucas said she looks forward to re
joining her colleagues, and she plans to
finish her teaching career at the University.
“The best accomplishment of any
dean is to have a good faculty, and this
faculty is stellar,” she said.
E-mail reporter Mason West
at masonwest@dailyemerald.com.