—The Daily Collegian Friday, May 11, 1979 iDoo Doo': A blunt confrontation By PATTIE PLATZ Daily Collegian Staff Writer Questions, questions, questions. Paul Malluk, author of this season's final 5 O'Clock production "Doo Doo," is full of them. And now, having seen his play in the Pavilion, so am I. Not much, so much, too much. Choose one? I don't dare. I hardly dare to begin. Begin? Where? In the beginning. To begin? To begin. "We show! We tell! We even show what you tell!" a barker blares. And this, Sonny, is your life! And you're welcome to it. Ha! Some life. The phrases written here slightly paraphrase Malluk's style, his fine play with words, his obvious finesse with language and how it can be interpreted. Such words lie on the mere surface of this disturbingly deep, murky, monster infested pool which we so blithely call "life." Sonny is buffeted, pommeled, abused by family, society, sexual strife, and self. Don't ask him who he is, where he is going, why he is. Spun from scene to scene as the young son of mismatched parents; as an adolescent on a movie date; as a young man at a dull job; as a drunkard whose only friend and solace is Fred, a silver hip flask Sonny spins this web of confusion of morals, values, and principles tighter and tighter. He truly represents, to one degree or another, me. And you. And each of us, and all of us who comprise society. Exactly. And "Doo Doo" forces us to judge, through Sonny, our own selves. Although . the play begins as a comedy, it ends quite tragically. Somehow, this disturbing combination works well. It almost goes hand-in-hand with how Sonny begins as a very real character, and then "goes off" from there, due to the great number of extremes pushing in on him, each adding another brick to the unsteadily founded building of his life. If the UniVersity gave theatre awards, 'Ledge': A Molly used to talk to her plants, but they all died. Jerry's a writer who's terrible with words, and can't even spell. Both are about to do themselves in by jumping from a 14th floor window ledge. But, naturally, they don't. The 5 O'Clock production of Peter Michaelson's "On a Ledge Sitting Sideways," ably directed by Fred Mirbach, premiered at the Pavilion Theatre Wednesday. Although a light, fun comedy, "On a Ledge" was regretfully too short. The play desperately needed rewriting and reworking of the characters' lines, but the potential was certainly there. A number of lines were worthy of the spontaneous laughter they received, most of which were delivered with a fine sense of comedic timing by Eric Wolf, who played the character of Jerry. This humorous, yet pitifully tragic character even admitted, "I could write a book about my life between here k u: V Eric Wolf plays Jerry in the 5 O'Clock production, "On a Ledge." It's on a double bill with "Doo Doo" at 5:30 today at the Pavilion. the cast and crew would cretainly win Most Courageous. The play's obscenity and sexual confrontations were handled by both director and actors with a great deal of professionlism. Joe Seefeldt gave a most impressive performance as Sonny. With the greatest play too short for impact Buy Come In and Get SCASHS for your used textbooks All Day, Every Day! THE STUDENT BOOK STOR 330 East College A and the fifth floor footnotes included!" Molly, nicely portrayed by Rachel Feldman, was a kooky, yet likeable young woman, direct from the School of Hard Knocks. Upon her first realization that perhaps she wasn't its sole graduate after all, Feldman's interpretation of this bubbling, blithe new Molly was at once both humorous and charming. The set was, a simple, yet clever arrangement of poles and rods, alluding to the windows of the building, and was placed on a plain black stage, about three feet off the floor. I found the play to be an enjoyable little ditty, quite literally, because it ran under 20 minutes. The play seemed to be an egg, just starting to crack its fragile shell, right on the verge of hatching. It's a shame I never got to see what animal emerged. —by Pattie Platz demand on a high, continuous flow of energy, Seefeldt allowed us to follow him as Sonny through the twisting paths of his pitiful life. Sonny's father, Harry, was portrayed with a high degree of intensity of Randy Miles. Indeed, a dynamic performance. -.:..= . .. - .......:' : :.1' : . _;t 7 :!. :: :c011 . '0'0.:..00.''. , ::,..0'0'0...i.... - .•_: . :.i..:.. Voight, Dunaway also in remake Boy steals emotions By PAM MEDVE Daily Collegian Staff Writer Be prepared to find your heart battered around a bit by Franco Zeffirelli's "The Champ." • The movie is a romanticized story of an ex-boxing champion, played by Jon Voight, whose wife, played by Faye Dunaway, has left him and their son, played by Ricky Schroder. Father and son T.J. become very close, the level-headed son keeping his gambler-drinker-fighter father in line, yet admiring his father so much that he calls him "Champ." After a seven year absence, however, mother Katie coincidentally meets her:son at a race track and wants to start a "relationship" with him. This intrusion causes strain between the three characters which predominates through the rest of the movie. Director Zeffirelli is a master of the tear-jerker, well known 'Campus Visions: By GAIL STRAMA Daily Collegian Staff Writer A chance at the big time. For some students of speech com munications, broadcast journalism and theatre, that's what "Campus Visions" Technically, "campus Visions" is a one-hour television show which is composed of some of the best work done by students of television and film courses at the University. It is originated, written and, for the most part, produced by students. "Campus Visions," aired Wednesday evening, will be shown again at noon tomorrow on WPSX-TV channel three. Sam Small (12th-speech com munications), executive student producer of "Campus Visions," says the program is put together by students about student projects. "Here is a chance for them to have their work seen by a large audience," he Students on the air Small says that students feel dissatisfied realizing their projects often go nowhere beyond the final grade. "The program gives students an added incentive," he says, "Campus - Visions" originated last year among five students in speech communications, theatre and film, and broadcast journalism. Small says last year's program, although largely an experiment, was pretty successful. The group wanted to' o the show every term, Small says, but the equipment and facilities were not available, so it was decided to have the show once a year. He cited a major problem of , the production as being the lack of equip ment and the "tremendous limitation on facilities." "Campus Visions" presents a variety of ideas, from a documentary on Amtrak (very professional-looking), to a comedy in 'Champ' for his ."Romeo and Juliet" with Len Whiting and Olivia Hussey. His misty shots, pretty settings, and successive in tense scenes are done purposefully to make for this sen timental picture. Lovers of realism will scoff, but realism was never the intention of this idealistic film. Nine-year-old Ricky Schroder plays the perfect son in the role that Jackie Cooper originated at age eight 48 years ago. An Academy Award nomination for his performance would not surprise me because when the movie ends, it is he who is remembered for rendering greatest emotion. Voight and Dunaway contribute good, strong performances also. Though the basic plot is nothing new, Zeffirelli manages to touch us with this updated story. His casting of Ricky Schroder out of 2,000 applicants screened was a move which will cer tainly put Schroder in demand after "The Champ." Small says this creates a context for the productions and gives the audience an idea of what goes on in students' minds while doing the productions. He says the professors try to present an idea of what is involved in the departments and the courses, and why television and film courses are taught at the Univer sity. psychodrama (weird), to an animated film which Small says is "just beautifully done." Chuck Fusina is also the subject of one of the shows. The graphic design department has also gotten in on the act with actual graphics drawn on frames of film to create motion. The whole presentation is then set to music. Interviews with professors in the departments who teach the courses the productions resulted from are also featured, along with interviews of the students themselves.
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