Production work on the
up-coming one-act plays is
going according to schedule,
Student-Directors Maggie
Bragg and Joel Hladacek
said.
The theater projects
class will present two shows,
“The Still Alarm” and
“Napoleon’s Dinner.”
Hladacek is directing the
former, Bragg the latter. The
one-acts will be presented
together on Dec. 5, 6 and 7.
The Monday show will be at 8
p.m., the Tuesday show at
noon, and the Wednesday
show at 8 p.m. Admission will
be free.
Hladacek chose “The the first stage presentation
Still Alarm” accidentally, he Hladacek has ever directed
said, while thumbing through and he feels confident in the
a book of scripts» It is approx .«presentation, he said.
“Napoleon’s Dinner”
imately 15 minutes long and
was written in the mid-1920’s was chosen by Director Mag
gie Bragg and was written bj
by George F. Kaufman.
“It is a very off-the-wall Samuel Shem. It will run ap
farce,” Hladacek said. The proximately 50 minutes anc
show takes place in a hotel stars Dave Harvey, Pat Sterl
that is on fire. “It’s about the ing and Hladacek.
Bragg pointed out tha
character’s reactions. Or
rather, how they don’t react,” “Napoleon’s Dinner” is £
“hard-core” show, complet«
he said.
The cast for “The Still with obscenities. “Some peo
Alarm” includes students ple might think it’s vulgar, bui
Dave Harvey, Pat Sterling, without it (the language), the
Joe Schenck, Don Williams point wouldn’t be made ai
and Roberta Ellsworth. This is well,” she said.
‘Right Stuff ’ wonderful but far too long
By J. Dana Haynes
Of The Print
“The Right Stuff” is a dazzler of a movie
with only one major flaw. Unfortunately, that
flaw may be fatal.
“Right Stuff” is the story of the early days
of NASA and the strange breed of test pilots
who made space flight possible. It is also the
story of the wives who sat at home and learned
to deal with death as an everyday enemy.
Based on the book of the same title by
Tom Wolfe, the movie is three hours, 20
minutes long not counting the intermission. It is
about people and historic events, rather than
car chases and the sexual revolution. Maybe
that’s one reason it is not doing as well at the
box office as anticipated. Whatever the reason,
it is a movie worth seeing.
The Right Stuff is a seldom understood,
never talked about quality possessed by the test
pilots who came out of World War II with a
different outlook on life and death. The term
“Right Stuff” was coined by Tom Wolfe. It is
that je ne se quoi that made those men go up
day after day in untested aircraft, “hang their
hides out over the edge” and, quite often, not
return.
The story begins with Chuck Yeager, por
trayed with terrific reserve by playwright Sam
Shepard (who won a Pulitzer and four Obies
for his writing and who acted in “Frances” and
“Raggedy Man”). Yeager was one of the first,
best known jet jocks. In the late ‘40’s, Yeager,
flew the first rocket plane, X-l, and broke the
sound barrier for the first time.
From Yeager, the movie goes on to other
test pilots, many of whom, like Yeager, “hung
out” at Edwards Air Force Base, which theii
was a near-ghost town in the Californian high
desert.
The film moves on the 1950’s and the race
between the USSR and USA to reach outer
space. Realizing the Russians have a clear lead
with the launching of Sputnik I, the United
States government pushes an all-out project to
get men into space. They begin by taking the
top pilots from the air force, navy and marines
and subjecting them to rigorous testing. Their
goal is to create the first astronauts.
When all is said and done the government
unveils the Mercury mission team, consisting of
pilots Alan Shepard, John Glenn, Gordon
Cooper, Gus Grissom, Deke Slayton, Scott
Carpenter and Wally Schirra. These seven at
Cape Canaveral and Yeager at Edwards are the
nucleus of the film.
All the acting in this film is top-notch,
although none of the actors are big-name stars.
Still, there are stand-out performances, most
notably that of Ed Harris as super straight John
Glenn, dubbed “Mr. Clean Marine” by the
others. Harris gives a terrific performance here
and the work is even better when compared to
his performance in “Under Fire,” currently
making the rounds of theaters.
The flip side of the movie is the long suf
fering wives, beginning with Barbara Hershey
as “Glamorous Glennis” Yeager. The other ac
tresses include Kathy Baker, Veronica Cart
wright, Micky Crocker, Mary Jo Deschanel,
Susan Kase, Pamela Reed and Mittie Smith.
All eight give fine performances, with the
standouts being Deschanel as John Glenn’s
wife, Annie, who suffers from chronic stutter
ing and is hounded by the press to give
statements. I don’t know if Deschanel is terrific
or the writing is. One way or another, the
character works fine.
Hershey (“Boxcar Bertha,” “The Stunt
man”) plays Glennis Yeager. She is wonderful
I
I
I
I
I
I
SAM SHEPARD (CHUCK YEAGER) and Barbara Hershey
(Glennis Yeager) stand in the burned ruins of Pancho’s Happy
Bottom Riding Club in a scene from “The Right Stuff.”
|I
THE SPACE AGE began with the Mercury astronauts, (left to right) Alan Shepard (Scott Glenn), Deke
Slayton (Scott Paulin), Scott Carpenter (Charles Frank), Gus Grissom (Fred Ward), Wally Schirra (Lance
Wednesday November 16,19«3 He”rikse"»- “G«*>” Cooper (Dennis Qnald) and John Glenn (Ed Harris).
in this film as a woman who married a test
pilot, knowing well in advance what kind of life
they lead and thus feeling unable to complain.
At one point, she tells her husband the govern
ment has spent millions teaching the boys how
to fly and not one penny teaching the wives how
to sit and wait. Hershey and Shepard play well
off each other and many times I wished to see
more of them at Edwards Air Force Base (and
the Happy Bottom Riding Club) and less of
Cape Canaveral.
This is not a flawless film. The first and
most obvious problem is the length. Three
hours 20 minutes is inexcusable, even for a flick
of this magnitude. That is, I suspect, the main
cause for the low box-office success.
The second main problem is in the
stereotyping. In “The Right Stuff” every pilot
is shown as brave, care-free and bon vivant,
every bureaucrat, scientist and government
representative is bumbling, unintelligent and in
terfering, and every reporter and photographer
is uncaring, insensitive and a clod (well, there’s
something to that, of course).
All in all, this is probably going to be a
classic movie, or at least it should be. It’s only
big flaw, and it might be fatal, is the length. No
one is going to book a three-and-a-half-hours
long flick for second or third runs.
“The Right Stuff” is currently playing at
the East Gate and West Gate theaters.
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