6________
A&E
Pioneer journalist shares past, present
TI he CI ac I camas P rint
WedNEsdAy, Apnil 11, 2001
TAM OLIVER
tion.
At the age of 23, Buckley, a
graduate of Smith College, landed
Priscilla L. Buckley will be read her first big job at United Press Ra
ing from her memoir String of dio in New York City during WWE.
Pearls tomorrow at 7 p.m. in the She has the distinction of being
one of the first journalists to re
Gregory Forum.
For 27 years, she served as man port the end of the war.
In an excerpt from String of
aging editor of the National Re
view, founded by her brother Will Pearls, she describes the momen
iam F. Buckley, Jr., from its incep tous day.
“As I walked in
tion until she re
the door it was
tired last year.
apparent noth
President Ronald
"Z would write the
ing much was
Reagan once de
first fifteen-minute
happening, but
scribed her as
just minutes
“one of the sharp
radio news broadcast
later we got the
est conservative
on the end of World
word
that
minds in the coun
War IL”
Truman, who
try.”
Priscilla Buckley
had
become
Additionally,
Journalist
president on
Buckley will give
Roosevelt’s
a presentation,
death in April,
“From Gutenberg
to Gates: how print production has would speak to the nation at 7 p.m.,
changed,” on Friday, April 13 at and in London, Clement Attlee,
noon in CC127. She will be discuss who had replaced Churchill in July,
ing the mechanics of print produc would speak to the British people
tion and how the advent of tech at midnight, when BBC ordinarily
nology has shaped news produc went off the air.
A&E editor
“This was it: the BIG ONE...I
would write the first fifteen-minute
radio news broadcast on the end
of World War II. I have it still, on
faded teletype paper. Not world
shaking prose, but competent and
comprehensive. The FLASH—“Ja
pan Surrenders”—went out at two
seconds after 7 p.m. My fifteen-
minute broadcast cleared the line
at 7:48 p.m. August 14,1945.”
Her recently published book is
filled with autobiographical recol
lections of a world of journalism
that is quite different from the one
of today. It is centered on her first
experiences as a correspondant in
Paris.
According to the Senior Editor
Richard Brookhiser at National
Review, her memoir String of
Pearls is “full of great stories, clear-
as-a-bell memories and laughs. A
lost world of journalism lives again.”
Buckley is at Clackamas Commu
nity College by invitation of En
glish Instructor Kate Gray. Both
the reading tomorrow night and the
workshop Friday are free and open
to the public.
PHOTOGRAPH COURTESY OF FPG INTERNATIONAL
Priscilla L Buckley, journalist and author, will read from her
memoir tomorrow night at 7p.m. in Gregory Forum and host a
discussion of changes in journalism at noon Friday in CC 127.
Talented cast sustains A New Brain
TAM OLIVER
A & E editor
Spending the evening attending
Portland Center Stage’s first musi
cal, A New Brain, is a pleasant ex
perience, although not profound.
The play explores the liberating
qualities of the near death experi
enced by composer, lyricist and
writer William Finn. With co-writer
James Lapine, the
music Finn created
during that time in
his life was devel
oped into the au
tobiographical
musical, A New
Brain.
Shortly after re
ceiving two Tony
Awards for Falset
tos in 1992, Finn
was diagnosed
with an inoperable
brain tumor. This
turned out to be a
misdiagnosis, but
while he contem
plated the very real
possibility of immi
nent death, his first
thought was of the music he would
never have the chance to write.
When he returned from the hospi
tal, he sat down at the piano and
found that music flowed from him
like never before in his life. This
became the substance of this mu
sical.
The play’s main character, Gor
don Schwinn (Darrin Baker), is a
songwriter who makes a living writ
ing songs for a large, demanding
television frog named Mr. Bungee
(Steve Wilkerson). Feeling that
writing for the tyrannical amphib
ian is stifling his creativity, Gor
don is complaining to his friend
Rhoda (Susannah Mars) over
lunch, when he begins to feel
strange and collapses face first
into his baked ziti.
He is rushed to the hospital
where he is quickly diagnosed
with a possibly fatal brain condi
tion. Scheduled for life-threaten
ing surgery, Gordon laments the
music he may never be able to
write. Though consoled by Rhoda,
his
mother
Mimi (Michele
M. Mariana)
and his lover
Roger (David
Ayers),
he
sends them
away the night
before the sur
gery so he can
be alone to
possibly com
pose the last
song he’ll ever
write.
There
is no dialogue
in A New Brain
so the success
of the work de
pends on the
stage settings, lyrics and actors’
performances.
z
The settings, which were sparse,
worked well in that they didn’t dis
tract from the impression that the
action was taking place inside
Gordon’s head, except for one
scene in which a mast with sails
appears for'a song Roger sang
about his love of sailing. This'
might have worked fine for the
audience on the main floor, but
from the balcony, the sight of a set
of sails unattached to a boat ap
peared ludicrous.
As for the actors, their perfor
mances were sincere and their
singing clear and well enunciated.
However, one performance stood
out above the, others. Bernadine
Mitchell plays the bag lady that
Gordon first encounters when hur
rying to lunch with Rhoda and
continues to encounter through
out the play with equal parts bel
ligerence and panache. She is a
commanding presence as she
sings and swaggers across the
stage. Also notable was the crys
tal-clear quality of the voice of the
minister played by Edward M.
Barker.
“A New Brain” is an entertain
ing production, but it lacks the
depth that could be expected from
a close call with death. It feels more
like a work in
progress needing
more humor to be
considered com
edy or more emo
tional penetration
to be deeply felt as
drama.
Although the
cast was flawless,
talented and exu
berant,
they
didn’t
have
enough, to work
with td have a
great production. It was difficult
not to try to imagine what the same
group of actors might do with a
work with more
substance..
Performances
of A New Brain will
continue at Port
land Center Stage
through the mati
nee on Sunday,
April 22. Tickets
range from $10 for
those under the
age of 2.5, to $15 -
$43 general admis
sion. Box office:
503-274-6588; Gen
eral information: 503-248-6309 or
www.pcs.org.
Mitchell, as the
bag lady, "is a
commanding
presence as she
sings and swag
gers across the
stage. "
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