arts
URTC plans a season of diverse theatrical entertainment
By JENNIFER EDWARDS
Collegian Arts Writer
This year the University Resident
Theatre Company is offering some
thing for everyone. Whether you like
classical or contemporary plays,
comedy or drama, the 1985-86 season
is for you
The URTC is a group of advanced
theater students, professional faculty
artists and .visiting artists-in-resi
dence that provide the University
with an all-encompassing dramatic
experience. Along with two workshop
productions and two 5 O’clock
Theatre performances, the group is
offering four very diverse mainstage
plays.
The first mainstage production of
the season is Cloud Nine, written by
Caryl Churchill and directed by Wil
liam Kelly. One of the biggest off-
Broadway hits in recent times, Cloud
Nine is a play about a very proper
British public servant named Clive
and his family, servants and friends.
Clive, his wife and children are trans
ported from their age of Victorian
hypocrisy and repression to the free
dom of present day London’s postsex
ual revolution. There they must try to
establish some sort of social and
sexual identity. A blend of comedy,
satire and drama, the play exposes
the absurdities of the repression and
hypocrisy of the Victorian age.
' “We want people to know ahead of
time that there are offensive things in
(the play),” said Marci Maullar, di
rector of public relations for the
URTC. Cross-gender casting, farcical
antics and a variety of sexual cou-
MTV Video Awards:
Celebrities mug, lip sync and read cue cards in massive television non-event
• Best Overall Performance
Phillip Bailey and Phil Collins
• Best Stage Video “Dancing in the Dark,”
Not everyone enjoys watching MTV, but no one Bruce Springsteen
can deny its influence on the music industry over • Best New Artist Til Tuesday
the past three and a half years. A lot of new bands • Best Artistic Direction - The Boys of Sum
(’Til Tuesday and Lone Justice, for example) first mer,” Bryan Jones
gained national exposure on Music Television, • Best Cinematography
while other bands (Duran Duran, Culture Club) mer,” Pascal Lebegue
became popular more for their video accomplish- • Best Special Effects - “Don tCome■ Around
ments than their music. With this notoriety under Here No More, Peter Cohen, Kathy Dougherty,
its belt, you wouldn’t think that MTV would want Tony Mitchell
to air an awards show in which the presenters tell • Best Choreography
dumber jokes than David Letterman, the enter- Baytos „
tainers lip sync their way through songs and the • Best Concept Video Smuggler, s Blue ,
host insults the intelligence of the audience and Glenn Frey and Duncan Gibbons
television viewers. Yet, that’s exactly what MTV • Best Direction The Boys of Summer ,
presented last Friday night. Jean Baptiste Mondino
The Second Annual MTV Video Music Awards, • Best Group Video
hosted by the uncontrollable Eddie Murphy, fea- USA for Africa •
tured stupid jokes, stupid special segments and • Best Male Video
stupid awards. (You’d be much better off watch- Springsteen
ing “Stupid Pet Tricks.”) Murphy started off the • Best Female Video
evening by explaining why he was hosting the with It,” Tina Turner
show: “When they first asked me to do the show, I # Viewers’ Choice
said, ‘f— MTV’ But now I have a record f or Africa
out. .. so I’m here to kiss MTV’s ass, like I’m # video of the year
sure a lot of you here tonight are.” USA for A f r j ca
Ha. Ha. Were any of MTVs directors; rolling on The problem with the presentation was that it
the floor? Not many people in the audience were. poorly constructed show of its kind .
And speaking of non-humor, it embarrassed this didn’t win any new fans from
viewer to listen to the awful jokes the presenters M h , g cocky att itude toward the show. He read
were forced to tell. The worst joke of Uie evening frQm nQte cards most of the time> and he intro
was bestowed upon Paul Young. What s tne duced the presenters about as enthusiastically as
difference between Simon L ® B °" ana . if he were stating what he had for breakfast. When
soap?” Young’s question resounded through Radio he asked Lqu Reed if anyone ever told him that he
City Music Hall. The answer: Ivory soap floats. looked like Joe pi scopo , the ever-cool Reed re
(Simon Leßon, lead singer for Duran Duran, was stone _ faced) “ NO .” The highlight of the
trapped underwater for six hours m early August evening was when Murphy left the auditorium and
when his racing yacht capsized.) picked a man standing outside the theater to
The video music awards were^ chosen by 1600 announce some of the preS enters. Letterman does
members of the music industry. Singers. Song- sort of thing wit h more style,
writers’ Producers? Who knows maybe sleeve __ „
designers At least they kept David Lee Roth from And then there were the entertainers The Eu-
Sng in any of thl six categories in which he rythmics did a lip sync version of “Would I Lie o
w,s„„ g m ,„,.ed y Aw ar dca,eg. rie sandU«w i n„«rs v™."
By DIANE D. DiPIERO
Collegian Arts Writer
Much Ado About Nothing was one of the plays featured by the URTC last year. This season promises to provide even
more exciting theatrical entertainment.
plings are used to illustrate the mes
sage of the satire
“It (the play) makes the audience a
little uncomfortable so they' become
more involved with the show and
react,” John Bayless, general man
ager of the URTC, said. “We’re try
ing to stretch their
imaginations.” “People are either
going to love it or they’re not,” Maul
lar added. Cloud Nine will be pre
sented at 8 p.m. on Oct. 4,5, 8-12 and
15-19 at the Pavillion Theatre.
The second mainstage production
of the season is William Shake
speare’s masterpiece, Hamlet. One of
“Easy Lover,”
“The Boys of Sum-
“Sad Songs,” Eddie
“We Are the World,”
“I’m on Fire,” Bruce
“What’s Love Got to Do
“We Are the World,” USA
“We Are the World,”
the greatest tragedies ever written,
this timeless piece of classical drama
tells a tale of revenge and torment,
passion and betrayal, murder and
madness. Directed by Albert Perta
lion, Hamlet will be presented at 8
p.m. on Nov. 15, 16 and 19-23 at the
Playhouse Theatre.
had a microphone. Sting jumped around the stage
mouthing “If You Love Someone (Set Them
Free)” without anything to project his voice. If
you’re going to fake a song, at least make it
believable. Luckily, John Mellencamp chose to (or
perhaps was permitted to) sing live, and the
audience thanked him kindly with strong ap
plause.
MTV featured many special segments during
the evening: the Video Year in Review and Video
Vangard. The former presentation showed three
second clips from about 30 videos, hardly enough
time to remember if you even liked any of them.
Video Vangard is MTV’s “hall of fame.” Elected
this year: Russell Mulcahy, creator of such videos
as Duran Duran’s “Rio” and Elton John’s “I’m
Still Standing”; Kevin Godley and Lol Creme, who
made Herbie Hancock’s “Rockit” and Frankie
Goes to Hollywood’s “Two Tribes”; and the Talk
ing Heads’ David Byrne, who accepted his award
in a laundromat and pulled the statue of an
astronaut out of a dryer.
Band-Aid and Live-Aid creator, Bob Geldof, was
honored during the evening for proving that music
can bring wealth to more than just the people who
create it. Geldof used the time to express how tired
he is of people asking why they haven’t seen any
visible signs of improvement in Africa. “It takes a
long time for a tree to grow and for a child to
grow,” he said. “But one day the tree will grow
and the child will grow. All because you sat and
watched a pop concert.” Not even Murphy could
come up with a wise crack after that speech. It’s a
shame that Band-Aid’s “Feed the World” video
wasn’t at least nominated for an award, since it
was the grandaddy of all those that followed.
The evening ended about as creatively as it
started, with Murphy lip-syncing the words to his
new song, “Party All Night.”
If MTV wants to survive through this decade, it’s
going to have to learn to be true to its viewers. We
aren’t simpletons who have nothing better to do
than stare at the same videos all the time and
watch unexpurgated, unrehearsed awards shows.
If this keeps up, see how many people start saying
“I don’t want my MTV.”
The second half of the season be
gins with The Adding Machine, writ
ten by Elmer Rice. An aging
accountant is driven to madness after
he is replaced by a machine. Directed
by Natalie Sokoloff as. part of the
requirements for her MFA in direct
ing, this grimly humorous play shows
the oppressive effects of the compute
rized modern world. It will be pre
sented at 8 p.m. on Feb. 14,15 and 18-
22 at the Playhouse Theater.
The last mainstage performance of
the year is Another Part of the For
est, writen by Lillian Heilman and
directed by Tom McNally. To be
presented on April 11,12,15-19 and 22-
26 at the Pavillion Theatre, this play
is about the Hubbard family, a group
of ruthless Southern industrialists
whose lives center around money and
their hate for each other.
The URTC is also offering two
workshop performances: Cricket on
the Hearth, adapted by Lowell Man
full from Charles Dickens story, and
Nobody’s Hart. A new addition to the
URTC’s schedule, “It (the workshop)
gives us the opportunity to do some
more shows,” Maullar said.
Although the quality of workshop
productions is the same as mainstage
productions, they differ in several
ways, such as on the emphasis
workshop performances put on the
scripts. “They (workshops) are a
format for the production of new full
length plays and/or musicals concen
trating on the development of script
and characters rather than having to
deal with the additional facts of pro
duction like costumes, scenery and
lighting,” Bayless said. “They give
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Phillip Bailey was on hand to receive the Best Overall Performance award for
“Easy Lover,” his duo with Phil Collins.
The Daily Collegian
Monday, Sept. 16,1985
the directors and playwrights the
opportunity to really concentrate on
the plays.” The performers rehearse
for longer periods of time for these
shows in order to explore and devel
ope the script’s potentials. In addi
tion, the budget for these plays is
smaller so the scenery and costumes
are not emphasized.
The second difference is that in a
workshop production, the actors work
as an ensemble. All of the actors work
on every aspect of the production,
from hanging lights to making cos
tumes.
Lastly, there is no admission fee to
these workshop performances. “We
don’t want the audience to come with
expectations of seeing beautiful scen
ery and constumes,” Bayless said.
Both of the workshop productions
will held at the Pavillion Theatre.
Cricket on the Hearth will be pre
sented at 8 p.m. on Dec. 4,5, and 6;
and at 2:30 and 7:30 p.m. on Dec. 7.
Nobody’s Hart will be performed at 8
p.m. on March 19, 20, and 21; and at
2:30 and 7:30 p.m. on March 22.
Once again the URTC will be hav
ing the 5 O’clock Playwright’s
Theatre. All of the plays performed
by the 5 O’clock Theatre are written
by University students an'd are cho
sen by the theatre department from
all of the plays submitted for the
year. Any student who thinks their
play is good enough to be performed
by the company can submit it to the’
theater department for possible pro
duction next season.
Him, Him, Her, Her, Him, Her by
Edie Pistolesi is the first presenta
tion.
<*»
■i
Wang tired of Hollywood's Asian stereotypes
By THOMAS MURPHY
Associated Press Writer
SAN FRANCISCO Frustrated with the
image of Asians in movies as inscrutable
mystics or opium den hoodlums, filmmaker
Wayne Wang has been offering audiences a
vision of Chinese-Americans as just plain
folks.
It’s an approach that worked well for the
36-year-old Hong Kong-born director in his
1982 low-budget comedy, Chan Is Missing,
and one he relies on again in Dim Sum, a
Child art classes
By VICTORIA JAFFE
Collegian Arts Writer
As part of the University’s art ence that prepares students to
education program, Saturday morn- student-teach in public schools,
ing art classes for children, teens and grades kindergarten through 12,
adults will be offered on campus Turner said
beginning October 5.
In addition to the curriculum of
drawing, painting, crafts and photog
raphy that has been offered every
Fall semester for more than 20 years,
a new museum club for eight through
12 year-olds is scheduled, Diane
Turner, program supervisor, said
The instructors for each class are
undergraduates working towards
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mother-daughter story whose title means A
Little Bit of Heart.
The new film has been drawing raves from
critics and Asian groups who blasted another
recent release, Year of the Dragon, for its
shallow portrayal of Chinese-Americans as
drug-importing hoodlums.
“We’ll end up afraid to walk down the
street after a. while if more movies like that
come out,” said Wang, who believes such
images as set forth in Year of the Dragon
persist in Hollywood because of the quest by
major studios for big dramas.
“For them to do a well-researched story
their Bachelor of Science degrees in
art education. Teaching these Satur
day courses is a practicum experi-
Class times will not conflict with
home football games! They begin at 9
a.m. and end at 11 p.m.
Some of the eleven classes offered
include a general arts class for five
and six-year-olds, an arts and crafts
class for six and seven-year-olds, and
a course for eight through twelve
year-olds.
that doesn’t exploit the more superficial
things either takes too long, is too much work
or is not as interesting to the mass audience,”
he said.
Wang thinks it’s possible to produce an
action picture that would draw audiences and
still provide complex characters in an origi
nal story, but it would cost time and money.
He got his first name because his father
was a big fan of John Wayne, and the director
has nothing against the kind of action that
made the Duke a larger-than-life hero on the
screen.
offered
The new museum club, in cooper
ation with the Museum of Art, will
conduct three classes aimed to devel
op the relationship between art edu
cation and museum appreciation.
The membership fee is $l5; the other
classes cost $l2 for children and $l4
for adults, which covers supply costs.
This art education program serves
the State College community and
surrounding areas and gives partici
pants the opportunity to learn more
than what can be acquired in a regu
lar school day.
You may register by calling 865-
5601,
•••••••••••••••••
The College of
ARTS & ARCHITECTURE
STUDENT COUNCIL
ORGANIZATIONAL M66TING
• 7 PM in 128 Arts Building
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Appointments not necessary but always appreciated
R 047-325
and a Killer, was a Hollywood-style gang
movie that did well in Europe but found no
audience in the United States. In 1982, he
released Chan Is Missing, a $23,000 comedy
about a missing cab driver in San Francisco.
But Chan was almost missing from movie
theaters as well. It was rejected by the San
Francisco International Film Festival, by the
Chicago film festival and by several distribu
tors before it was finally screened at the New
Directors Film Festival in New York.
New York Times critic Vincent Canby
hailed it as “one of the funniest, most humane
and wisest films” he’d seen.
ore Than A Hair Salon
sor
ARDS
a
41
' 143 South Fraser St.
State College, PA 16801
234-6090
Cloud Nine
The Pavilion Theatre
October 4,5, 8-12, 15-19
Hamlet
The Playhouse
November 15, 16,19-23
The Adding Machine
The Playhouse
February 14, 15, 18-22
Another Part
of the Forest
The Pavilion Theatre
April 11, 12, 15-19, 22-26
ly Collegian Monday, Sept. IG, 1985—13
The Dail'
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