VOLUME XVII NO. 5 SGA Allocates Funds At a recent meeting, the Behrend Student Government Association allocated funds to student organizations from a special "undistributed funds" budget. Approximately $7,000 was available in the account for allocation. $2,650 was firmly com mitted to organizations. $3,550 was set aside on a contingency basis. To obtain these funds, a club must either state more precisely what the money will be used for, or match funds from outside sources in a stated proportion. Recipients of available funds this year were: The Behrend Collegian Newspaper: $1,550 Operating Ex penses; a 1-for 2ma Pbing struc ture, $l,OOO max., and $350 for purchase of a "waxer." Student Union Board: $l,OOO on a contingency basis, providing the S.U.B. finds a "name" speaker to come to Behrend and can match the $l,OOO amount. S.G.A.: $1,200 for operating Psychology Club: opera expenses. Commuter Council: $2OO for World Hu Lecture The world can produce enon&l grain to adequately feed itself, according to Sister Mary Clair Kennedy, a professor of biochern'stry at Villa Maria Col lege. Sr. Kennedy spoke at Behrend this past Tuesday on the topic "Some Thoughts On World Hunger For the Christmas Season." Her visit is one of a series of political lectures to be held at Behrend in the coming months. • Sr. Kennedy presented several disturbing facts during her one hour lecture. Included in her talk were transparencies which il lustrated food production/con sumption levels of both developed and underdeveloped countries. Sr. Kennedy noted that El Salvador, for example, has 87 per cent of its population living in ab ject poverty. Yet the country still exports large quantities of "ca h crops," such as coffee, sugar, and cocoa in order -to maintain the standards of living in the comfortable, developed countries. ' Sr. Kennedy noted that the im balance between countries which have low numbers of underfed people - and those where starva tion is common is "simply a mat ter of economics." The op prtlssor and .the oppressed still operating expenses. Association of Black Col legians: $350, pending further ex planation of their proposed activities. "Cheese and Chat" Programs: Funded by a Mini-Grant from University Park last year, this program brought together various Behrend majors and social groups for informal parties and discussions. MIS year, $5OO was allotted for 10 "chats." Of the applicants to University Park for Mini-Grants, only two were funded. The Commuter Council was allotted $332 for pur chase of a large map of the Erie area; and $2BO for the Student Government's "Spirit Week." Unsuccessful applicants for Mini-Grants. included: a Winter Fest sponsored by the S.G.A.; a Beach Party (in the Gorge) spon sored by the Joint Residence Council; and a poetry or fiction reader sponsored by the "Tern pus" Literary Magazine. Accbrding to Chris Reber, the remaining monies in the Un distributed Funds account may be used to fund the projects re jected from University Park. $lOO for nger exist, she said; but the weapons have become more subtle. When asked about the "Lifeboat" theory of how to feed the world, Sr. Kennedy said she didn't think it necessary for any of the nations of the world to be thrown from the boat. The main problem, she stated, was to re distribute both money and food to the poor countries. In her closing words, Sr. Ken nedy criticized American Foreign Policy, stating that. the U.S. is living in a "myth of the past" regarding foreign aid. While next year's Defense Budget is set at over 200 billion dollars, foreign aid will be allocated at about 11 billion dollars, most of that going for "security reasons" she said. The U.S. currently ranks 14th in the world on the list of giving foreign aid to countries. Dr. John McDiarmid, coor dinator of the lecture, said he was "glad that there are twenty to thirty politically active peopl6 on campus," but added he d like to see more students in attendance. (Ed. Note: Future topics will range from the federal govern ment to abortion. The Collegian will publish dates and times of future lectures when they are confirmed). STATION ROAD, ERIE, PA. 16563 "DazY" Milquetoast And Melodrama This may make a lot of enemies. I recently attended a perfor mance of `Dazy", the much publicized Broadway-bound "musical drama" under the auspices of Bebrend's own Paul Iddings. Now, I have no reputa tion as a theater critic, but as the expression goes, I know what I like. Unfortunately, "Dazy" isn't on the list. Following a twenty minute pre show improvisation which allow ed each character freedom to be a street person (including panhandling the audience), "Dazy" took off with all the vitality of a lumbering locomotive. Binello the Baker (Bill Robbins) scatters the street people who have collected in front of his bakery and promptly violates nearly all of the modern playwright's perceptions of the audience as a "fourth wall." The character Binello promptly asks the audience whether they would tolerate these bums around their businesses. This, in turn, makes the audience conscious of themselves, and conscious of the fact that they are watching a play. This indicates one of the first flaws in "Dazy": a lack of believability. Enter Dazy, played by Susan Edwards, and the one consistent shining star. Edwards indeed shows a striking range and subtlety of emotions. She has a difficult task as the lead character, having to portray all ages of the character's life; from a battered and molested child, to a decrepit, sleazy 42-year-old bag lady. Certainly, any problem with Edwards' performance resides in the weaknesses of Nor man Simon's script than in how she interpreted the lines (this goes for the entire cast). "Dazy" is comprised of two acts. The first act introduces the dilemma, and the second resolves the problem. Incidental ly, the play is properly called a "Musical Comedy", if comedy is still interpreted in the way I learned it in high school: at the end of the play, we see that the character has won; "Drama" is more or less simply the generic term. Act 1, as mentioned, sets up the action, but the set-up is contrived to the point of near absurdity. Dorothy, a nineteen year old col lege student from Indiana hap pens upon the precise street where her mother (who gave her up for adoption) trolls along in all her filth. Charlie Gallagher, an By Chuck Beckman Irish New York City cop (John Wilkerson) is attracted to her and says he'll put the name of Dorothy's mother into the com puter down at the staton and see what he can come up with. Well! Gallagher does this and finds that Dorothy's mother is Dazy, who sat not thirty feet from her daughter! Not a bad coin cidence for a girl from Indiana. Perhaps one could overlook this had it been of minor significance: however, the remainder of the play revolves around this discovery and Dazy's subsequent relationship with her daughter. The freak chance of their meeting left me with the distinct impression that I was watching art imitating art rather than art imitating life. Over all this, Simon heaps on an almost smothering sentimentalism, which pervades both Acts 1 and 2. Another problem I - had with "Dazy" involved the awkward situations authors Norman Simon and Howard Berland got their characters into. Particular in stances of this include many of the flashback sequences, especially when Dazy is twelve years old and has to hop around the stage, saying "why are you slapping me?" a tacit admission that without an explanatory line, the audience wouldn't be able to know what was going on. In another sequence, a hope chest becomes a Pandora's Box in a nice bit of symbolism. The only problem is, after the flashback ends, we return to a New York City Street and right in the middle of the stage sits this cedar chest with no particular purpose. Two of the characters playingbums carry the chest off with much awkwardness and lit tle explAnation. Simon also tries to explain Dazy's circumstances too easily. He shows us, in fantasies, Dazy's fatherless household (the Electra complex lives on in Dazy's con tempt for men); her lost love to Carlton, (Brian Chaffee) a Berkeley-bound Utopian Socialist; her marriage to the OCZ THURSDAY, DECEMBER 18, 1981 sniveling Chuck, (Rich Herbert) Carlton's greasy buddy; and her traumatic pregnancy and conse quent loss of her husband. These explanations are too "stock" and overworked. Dazy becomes en tirely fictional rather than credible. A reviewer for the Erie Times wrote that she couldn't wait to leave the theater to hum the songs in "Dazy." I found many of the songs in "Dazy" both uninspiring and uninspired. Sure, Susan Edwards, .Rich Herbert and John Wilkerson are all superb vocalists; but when Wilkerson belted the line "Taste all you can of the sweetness all around," I could - taste my din ner. In another memorable bad line, young Dazy and her future husband Chuck, sing about his premarital lust, going to bed "Equipped with pornographic wiles." At the end of "Dazy", the street people all gather around and sing "Love is Everything" (apparently having transgressed the point of being a many splen dored thing). Dazy and her daughter accept one another at last, and all's right with the world. Still, I don't thinkmany people cared whether or not the two did come to terms with each other. Sure, I saw a few people in the au dience passing handkerchiefs, but I saw just as many, if not more, walking silently and without expression out of Mer cyhurst's Little Theater, one sure sign that these people, too, had problems with the play. It's not that Paul Iddings settl ed for second-best, except in the case of the choreoraphy which was for the most part -uninven tive, and at times, clumsy. Rather, Simon gave Iddings a flawed vehicle, a '6B Ford. Unfor tunately, "Dazy" has more holes than any mechanic can bondo, short of rebuilding it from scratch. Alas, "Dazy." I can only hope that in two years we'll all sit back and laugh at this review. rim „%taff
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