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OREGON
WOMEN HELPING WOMEN
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Procedures are done in a local clinic over
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Friday Night Flicks
Best of the 31 st
Northwest
Film & Video
Festival
The Best new work from
filmmakers in Oregon,
Washington, Idaho,
Montana, Alaska, and
BC Canada
PLC 180, 7 pm, FREE
the Films of
Pedro Almodovar
May IV
Humidiflyers
with Takimoto
Seattle’s Humidiflyers are
a funk folk rock explosion
with hip hop flow and
jazz precision.
Agate Hall,
h 808120
May 20-22
35 Annual Free
Willamette Valley
Folk Festival at EMU
Folk, World Beat, R & B, Food,
Crafts, and more!
Festival program guide at
www.eugeneweekly.com/wvff/
VOLUNTEERS NEEDED
stage crew, info booth,
and production assistants.
Shifts available throughout the day May 20-22:
Fun - Food - Free T’s. Sign-up at Cultural Forum
office, EMU Suite #2 or call 346-4373
http://culturalforum.uoregon.edu
The production leaves
Kafka's stories of alienation
for personal interpretation
BY JOSH LINTEREUR
PULSE REPORTER
The 20th century broughtto us by
Franz Kafka was one filled with the
anxiety and alienation the Czech writer
saw in an increasingly indecipherable
world. Though the writer’s core the
matic content has become synony
mous with the term "Kafkaesque," his
writing stands as some of literature's
most abstruse works by eluding defini
tive interpretation.
Staying true to the enigmatic na
ture of the influential author's work
was the underlying approach to the
University Theatre's "Kafka Para
bles/' an original production derived
from more than 30 of Kafka's short
stories and diary excerpts.
"We don't want people walking
away thinking there's only one way
to imagine these stories," director
John Schmor said. "We'd be limiting
our audience's ability to follow the
story imaginatively."
Opening Friday, the show is the
collaborative effort of students and
faculty who began meeting atthe
beginning of winter term to assem
ble a selection of the author's writ
ings around visual images, music
and movement.
Underthe guidance of choreogra
pher Walter Kennedy, an assistant
professor of dance atthe University,
the production emphasizes bodies,
space and the collective presence of
the actors on stage, an aesthetic
more often found in dance.
"You don’t want to classify it,"
Kennedy said of the show, which
avoidsthe recognizable devices of a
play. "We've had to deal with things in
a very different way than you would
with an existing script."
Instead, the show weaves together
a series of Kafka's stories, with
sparse dialogue taken nearly verba
tim from his texts. Kennedy choreo
graphed scenes that bookend each of
Lauren Wimer | Senior photographer
From left: Sergio Martinez, Teresa Koberstein, Katie McEntee,
Kyle Warren and Alexander Dupre star in the University Theatre
original production of "Kafka Parables."
the shows two acts.
Though Kafka's short stories pro
vide the backbone of the production,
Schmor said calling the show a series
of vignettes would be misleading.
"It's a series of overlapping images
and texts that begin to tell a larger
story," he said. "The first act is really
about life in a city, and in particular,
modern alienation in a city. In the sec
ond act you see what happens to that
city: A kind of police state emerges,
people are being arrested for no rea
son, you can'tfind lawyers, a lot of
people are in prison, and the next
thing that happens is war."
Though Kafka's writings were
about anxiety and alienation after the
turn ofthe 19th century, those themes
can carry even greater weight with
contemporary audiences.
"If anything, postmodern urban life
is even more alienating," Schmor
said. "Back in Kafka's day, people still
took walks. There weren’t cell
phones, e-mails and all of these other
distancing devices."
Despite these overtthemes, "Kafka
Parables" remains constructed in the
tradition of German playwright Bertolt
Brecht, whose techniques chal
lenged audiences to experiencethe
aterin a different way.
"Brecht's aesthetic is that you
don't give audiences full-blown allu
sions because then they stop
tmnKing, bcnmorsaia. usiiKeine
way children can immediately and
imaginatively fill in the gaps by the
sparest kind of performance. And
they interact with the performance
more imaginatively."
As a devised work hinging on the
collective efforts of the cast and pro
duction crew, audiences will only
get one chance to experience this
original production.
"It has never been seen and it will
never be seen again," Schmor said.
The University Theatre's produc
tion of "Kafka Parables" will be per
formed at the Robinson Theatre on
May 13-14,19-22, and 27-28. From
May 19-22, audience members can
donate to the fund assisting the reha
bilitation efforts of former University
student Noah Smith, who was se
verely injured in a car accident more
than two years ago and is making
progress toward walking again.
Tickets are $5 for University stu
dents, $12 for general admission, $9
for senior citizens, University faculty
and non-University students, and $7
for youth. Tickets are available atthe
EMU and atthe University Theatre
Box Office in the Robinson Theatre
on the night of the performances.
Free parking is available in the Uni
versity lot atthe corner of East 11th
Avenue and Kincaid Street.
joshlintereur@dailyemerald.com
I
1097 Willamette St.
Eugene, OR
541-345-6465
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