Oregon Daily Emerald
Thursday, October 27, 2005
Check out stories online about campus and
School of Music events during October at
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A Piece of My Heart' opens new season
I__I
Hasang Cheon | Freelance photographer
Morgan McFadden, left, and Anna Metzger-Seig rehearse as Sissy
and Mary Jo at the Arena Theater on Oct. 13.
The Vietnam War-era play explores the experiences of six women
during the war, both on the battlefield and in the homeland
BY AMY LICHTY
PULSE EDITOR
When doctoral student Christina Allaback
decided to propose a play to directforthe Uni
versity Theatre's Second Season, which be
gan last night, she knew she wanted to cover
the horrifying effects of war without turning off
any potential pro-war audience members. It
was a difficult taskto find such a play, but she
found exactly what she was looking for in "A
Piece of My Heart," a haunting tale of six
women during the throes of the Vietnam War.
"For some reason, high school teachers or
American society at large doesn't want to ac
knowledge this huge failure (of the Vietnam
War), so that got me thinking," Allaback said.
"When it came time to propose a play, I
thought I'd really like to do something explor
ing war because we are at war. We should be
doing art that expresses what we feel about
war, how war affects us ... not only as individ
uals, but as a society as well."
"A Piece of My Heart," written by award
winning playwright Shirley Lauro, explores the
true-life tales of six women—from nurses to
an entertainerto an intelligence officer—
who struggle with the effects of war abroad as
well as at home. They each must deal with
their own personal demons, as well as those
created by the war. But what makes this play
so different from other Vietnam War artistic
expressions is that it is solely about the
women's roles and experiences in the war—
something that had been overlooked for
manyyears.
"(Women) were ignored," Michelle Ro
drigue, who plays "Martha," said. "I like that
you get a different side of a singer, a military
brat, an officer, a black woman, an Asian
woman—just a huge variety of women. But I
like how they represent that we’re all kind of
one woman and that no matter who we were,
we were all ignored and treated like crap
when we came back (from Vietnam)."
Anna Metzger-Seig, who plays singer
"Mary Jo," has high hopes that the audience
will take something meaningful out of
their performance.
"I hope that (the audience) opens their
minds a little bit more," Metzger-Seig said.
"What’s so interesting a bout this show is that
you actually get to delve into these women's
lives, really delve into them, and see what hap
pens before and after the war."
Jay Hash, the sole male in the play, sees this
piece as a more balanced story than most of the
tales that have come out of the Vietnam era.
PLAY, page 11
■ In My Opinion
AMY LICHTY
POP ROCKS
It's easy to become
famous on Halloween
Halloween is almost here. But if you're any
thing like me, you've waited until the last
minute to put your costume together. Still have
no idea how you're going to dress up? Well
here are a few easy ways to look like your fa
vorite celebrity on the scariest night of the year.
First things first. If you want to pull off any
star's look, you need a few staple items. Of
course, you must have a pair of ginormous sun
glasses thattake up waytoo much of yourface.
Make sure you keep these glasses on at all
times; stars don't care if they're indoors or if it's
nighttime. Hello, they're famous and normal
rules about fashion don't apply. Having your
cell phone attached to your ear is also a tell
tale sign that you're a famous celebrity. But if
it's too tiring to hold your phone all the time,
just text-message on your Sidekick as much
as possible.
The easiest celebrity look to pull off is probably
Mary-Kate"You-can-fit-me-in-your-pocket"
LICHTY, page 8
PULSEMUSIC PULSEMUSIC
Atmosphere, "You Can't Imagine How Much Fun We're Having": "I'm not really sup
posed to talk about this," Slug,the MCfrom Atmosphere, whispers atthe beginning of
thegroap's new album "YouCan't Imagine How Much Ftp We're Having." And with that
statement, listeners are tHnnp once agaihfnfo the innppost reaches of t$sj|dte rap
m the MinrMolis-ba^hip-hop duo. |
release, tS§|ph some hpp criticized its lack of novelty,
always, wffehore than one nod in the dire-chan ol his
SlqflpFies are confessiol
relBnships with wometi
if ydrve ever loved someoi
with Slug and his girl Lucy, But novelty is not always a sign of quality and the rhymes are not bad by any stretch of
the imagination.
INSIDE PULSE
Ghost Stories
Halloween Calender
Comics
Today
Kate Clinton at
McDonald Theatre
8 p.m., $25 at door
Friday
Amelia
Luna
8 p.m., $6
Saturday
Like.Jt's a Totally 80's
Halloween Dance
Party
John Henry's
10 p.m., $3
TOP 5 MOVIES
1:"Doom"($15.4M)
2:"Dreamer"($11M)
3:"Wallace and
Gromit: The Curse of
the Were-Rabbit"
($8.7M)
4: "The Fog"($6.47M)
5:"North
Country"($6.47M)
NYTIMES TOP 5
FICTION
1: Khaled Hosseini,
"The Kite Runner"
2: Gregory Maguire,
"Wicked: The Life and
Times of the Wicked
Witch of the West"
3:MarkHaddon,
"The Curious Incident
of the Dog in the Night
Time"
4: Phillip Roth,
"The Plot Against
America"
5: Carlos Ruiz Zafon,
"The Shadow of the
Wind"
ITUNESTOP 5
1:Kanye West (feat.
Jamie Foxx),
"Gold Digger"
2: Black Eyed Peas,
"My Humps"
3: Madonna,
"Hung Up" (Radio Edit)
4: Chris Brown (feat
Juelz Santana),
"Run it!"
5: Nickleback,
"Photograph"