arts
Movement exercises help
identify with roles
actors
By JENNIFER EDWARDS
Collegian Arts Writer
Several weeks ago, three University theater profes
sors were invited to share some of their skills and
professional expertise at a series of workshops pre
sented to Blackfriars find Center Stage in Rochester,
N.Y. Jim Hoskins, Tom McNally and Barry Kur
presented a two-day series of workshops dealing with
movement, improvisation and voice and speech on
Nov. 8 and 9.
Blackfriars and Center Stage are two community
theater groups housed in Rochester. Community the
ater groups differ from other theater groups in that, for
the most part, they are composed of volunteer work
ers. They are a group of people with a common interest
in theater who get together to perform.
About a year ago, Kur, director of actor voice and
speech training and head of the performance faculty at
the University, was invited to do a workshop on stage
dialects for these two groups. This year, he was asked
to put together a comprehensive weekend of theater
workshops. Movement, voice warm-up techniques and
acting were the three areas chosen for presentation.
“It is a basic actors training program,” Kur said.
“They are the basic skills needed for getting the
instrument in shape (body and voice) and then estab
lishing a purpose for doing what you do on stage.”
The series began on Saturday with a two-hour
workshop on movement presented by Jim Hoskins.
This seminar dealt with the body through focusing,
breathing and basic movement exercises. “The pur
pose of these are to release tension and to relax, so the
body can become part of what they (the actors) are
saying instead of a hindrance,” said Hoskins, director
of theater movement training at the University;
Movement focuses on how actions should grow out of
a character. “As you build the character, the
movement comes out. This is more consistent than
affecting movement,” said Hoskins.
In order to explain this concept, Hoskins used the
idea of an actor portraying an old man. Instead of just
pretending to walk like an old man, the actor realizes
the limitations and physical restrictions of the body of
an old person. It might hurt a little to walk fast, so the
person walks slower and is hunched over because their
center of gravity has shifted. By dealing with these
restrictions, the actor learns what the character is
really like
The group at Blackfriars and Center Stage was
interested in period movement, especially of the Medi
eval, Renaissance, and Restoration eras. With this
concept the actor must learn to sit, stand and walk in
the elaborate, heavy and bulky costumes of these ages,
Hoskins said.
The Grinch: beloved author's self-portrait?
CEDAR RAPIDS, lowa (AP)
Theodor Seuss Geisel, better
known to young readers as Dr.
Seuss, says there’s one character
in his books he most resembles
“The Grinch.”
The despicable figure in Geisel’s
How The Grinch Stole Christmas
takes away the presents, the trim
"Red
new
The following records make up
WPSU’s Top 20 for the week ending
Dec. 10. Tonight at 8 p.m., 91.1 FM
will present the Top 20 Countdown.
1. “Red Snake” A-Witness
2. “Gimmie, Gimmie, Gimmie (A
Man After Midnight)” Leather
Nun
3. “Smells Like
Fiend
4. “Sacred Love” Bad Brains
5. “When The Fever Breaks”
Wild Seeds
6. “Motorcycle Maniac”
Angry Poles
7. “The Carney” Nick Cave
8. “Neita Grew Up” Sex Clark 5
mings and even the trees from the
Whos in the mythical town of Who
ville. Nevertheless, the town cele
brates, bringing a change to the
Grinch’s heart.
Asked to explain his choice of
who he resembles, Geisel smiled
an un-Grinch-like grin: “Ask my
wife.”
Nick Cave
Snake' heads
music Top 20
9. “Crack Up” Big Black
10. “Don’t Go Away” Primitons
11. “Heads I Win” Tryfles
12. “The Jeweler” This Mortal
Coil
13. “Beverly” Frightwig
14. “Johnny Thunderhead”
tors
15. “I Want Everything”
fathers
Alien Sex
16. “51st State”
Army
17. “Ask”
18. “Another Place” Mr. Mehta
19. “Real Good Time” Ruin
20. “Mary, Mary” Mr. T. Experi
ence
Three
Later that day, Tom McNally presented a workshop
called “Action in Acting.” “This was an improvisatio
nal workshop centered on Stanislavski’s principles of
connecting action and purpose,” said McNally, asso
ciate professor and coordinator of the professional
acting programs at the University. “We worked an
awful lot on how the life of acting can spring from a
clearly defined purpose.”
One of the exercises McNally used in his program is
called "Continuous Subtext.” “This is an actors’ game
which requires the actor to find acting choices, which
are based on what’s going on inside the person rather
than just an exterior representation of a line reading,”
he said.
This game has three basic steps, McNally explained.
The first step is finding an action what has to happen
on stage. In order to do this, McNally said, the actor
asks himself the following questions: What do I want?
What’s in my way? What do I do to get what I want?
The second step is to come up with a more personal
subtext line to help the actor begin to focus on what to
convey. As an example, McNally used the line “To be
or not to be... ” from Shakespeare’s Hamlet. The
subtext line for this might be, "I have to choose
whether or not I’m going to kill myself right now or
not.” The actor focuses on this subtext line and the
actions and emotions it evokes.
Step three in the game is to get those same actions
and emotions from the subtext line into the textual line.
Thus, the motions and the purpose for the actions come
from within the actor.
Kur finished up the weekend on Sunday morning with
a two-hour workshop on voice warm-up techniques. “It
dealt with what the actor needs to do before a perfor
mance,” he said. “It’s to remind the actor of what’s
accessible vocally.”
The workshop focused on exercises in posture,
breathing, resonance and tension release. “They do'
these so that the hody is in good condition for the
performing task,” Kur said. He also stressed that daily
repetition of these exercises is an important part of an
actor’s performing activity. After a while, the tensions
won’t come back as quickly and the voice will be more
easily conditioned and ready to undertake the perform
ing task.
By commissioning these three workshops, Blackfri
ars and Center Stage have shown that they are more
serious than the average community theater groups.
“It’s not usual that a community theater takes an
interest in training the actors in these basic skills
(movement, acting and voice and speech),” said Kur.
The groups are interested in improving the quality of
community theater, he added.
Jani-
- God
New Model
Smiths
Geisel appeared Monday night
for a reading of his works at the
Carnegie Building, where a travel
ing exhibit of his works is housed.
In his 60-year career, Geisel has
authored more than 40 books, in
cluding such favorites as The Cat
in the Hat, Horton Hatches the Egg
and Green Eggs and Ham.
1
Farewell:
Mainstream at PSU should open eyes
By NATALIE NICHOLS
Collegian Arts Writer
It’s the end-of-the-semester
crunch once again, with one differ
ence: it’s my last. I’m graduating
(“say the secret word and win a
hundred dollars”), and I just can’t
wait.
Before I go, however, I can’t
resist a few parting shots, construc
tive and destructive, about this hor
rible place so affectionately called
“dear old State” (make me vomit).
Thank you very much to the Arts
staff, and especially Pat and Jill
and Jeff for being such swell eggs
and such fun to work with. If not for
Arts, this rag they call a newspaper
would be unreadable.
Thanks to everybody who reads
the Arts page for giving us a reason
to exist. I’m not sure how many of
you there are out there you
should write to us more often. Input
and feedback are always helpful,
especially for something as diversi
fied as this page is! I can’t guar
antee that what you like is what we
want to write about. If enough peo
ple are interested, however, your
favorite art may get investigated
more thoroughly. But be patient
we have limited space and operate
under oppression sometimes.
For instance, did you know that
there are some people here at the
Daily Collegian who don’t even
think there should be an Arts
page??? The arts just aren’t impor
tant to some of our fellow staffers.
Yet the arts are the very record of a
civilization, revealing much of its
culture. Everything that appears on
Rockin' sounds
The Sharks, pictured below, will play
tonight at the Scorpion, 232 W.Calder
Way; while Pittsburgh’s ever popular
Billy Price (the dude with the shades)
and his Keystone Rhythm Band will
perform at Gatsby's, 100 W. College
Ave., tomorrow night.
the Arts page is not a priceless
piece of future wisdom, of course.
But think about how boring this
paper would be if it just-published
stories about Penn State football
and the Interfraternity Council get
ting its feathers ruffled by the State
College cops.
Since the Arts page does exist,
however, the next idea some people
have here is that we should be more
mainstream. Why not review and
write about more “popular” bands,
like those in the Top 40? A majority
of people listen to and like these
groups, so we’re told to give the
people what they want.
If we wanted the Arts page to look
like Rolling Stone or Creem, we’d
write about such “pop giants” as
David Lee Roth' and Phil Collins.
Obviously there is no value in being
a duplicate of the mainstream art
s/entertainment press.
Because this is a college newspa
per, those of us on the Arts staff
have a unique opportunity to exper
iment. There is so much happening
in the “college” music scene, as
well as in the alternative, under
ground, or whatever-you-call-non
mainstream music scene. We have
no reason to write about Madonna’s
latest exploits, since they are aptly
chronicled elsewhere.
Besides that, the people at this
University desperately need their
eyes opened to things like alterna
tive music. The stuff the corpora
tions are pumping into your brains
is guaranteed to cause you to ac
cept, even prefer, mediocrity. Sen
timental slop like the Peter
Cetera/Amy Grant duet, or Bruce
Springsteen’s cover version of
“War” just isn’t where it’s at,
folks!
Non-mainstream bands are only
accepted by mainstream fans when
these groups manage to get a song
on the Top 40. People tend to reject
these bands unfairly because they
don’t have hits. But usually their
quality is much better than your
average hit-making band.
At a recent R.E.M. concert, for
example, opening band Camper
Van Beethoven was booed by the
audience. One of the most innova
tive, intelligent and fun bands
around was rejected by the fans of a
band that was once just as obscure.
But enough about music let’s
talk about movies. X-rated films
shown on campus have been a hot
topic of debate for the past year or
two. Here is a true example of
giving the people what they want.
Again and again and again.
Within the last semester, I must
admit, the porn movie titles have
varied more than usual. When I
wrote capsules for the Weekend
pagej however, the same titles
came up constantly: Debbie Does
Dallas, Insatiable and the ever-pop
ular Deep Throat. Is Deep Throat a
classic or a tired old curio, rep
resentative of how complacent this
student body is? The question will
remain unanswered, I’m sure, long
after I’ve left.
Of course, there are other movies
besides porn flicks shown at the
University. All kinds of films are
shown each weekend, in much the
same vein of giving people what
they want, over and over again.
The Daily Collegian
Wednesday, Dec. 10, 1986
•H®si&ti
■ -. ~- t ‘- : “'' " ■ ■£*j
How many times has Ferris Buel
ler’s Day Off been here this semes
ter? Name any John Hughes film
(besides the latter) that has been
here less than twice in one year.
Showing the same movies all the
time is just more evidence of how
the students here are satisfied with
the status quo. The sponsors don’t
care that they show students the
same old junk; and it seems few
students care that they are given
such a small selection of movies
each semester.
If anyone does care, however, get
on the Penn State Cinemas’ case
about it. Bug the Graduate Student
Association and the Student Union
Board, too, and all those folks who
bring you, again and again, such
tired old pieces of celluloid as St.
Elmo’s Fire and The Rocky Horror
Picture Show.
As I prepare to get the stench of
stagnated minds out of my nostrils
once and for all, fervently hoping
that I don’t have nightmares about
being verbally attacked by patrioti
cally rabid Marine Corps wanna
bes, I’d like to thank some more
people. Thanks to my parents, with
out whom this experience would not
have been possible; and my friends,
whose help got me by more than
once.
To this University’s population at
large I can only say, open your
minds. You need to do it, believe
me. Thank you, and goodbye.
Natalie Nichols is a graduating (!)
senior majoring in journalism and
an arts writer for the Daily Colle
gian.
-"t
<*» V. ' »
■i
.
■Wi
Filmmakers' exploitation of season
runs gamut from tradition to gore
By 808 THOMAS
Associated Press Writer
. HOLLYWOOD - From Dickens’ A
Christmas Carol to the slasher movie
Silent Night, Deadly Night, filmmak
ers have long been fascinated with
the yuictide season.
The time-worn tale of Scrooge and
Tiny Tim may well be the most recur
rent of the Christmas movies. It ap
peared in several versions during the
silent film era, then MGM in 1938
produced A Christmas Carol with
Reginald Owen as Scrooge. In 1951,
the English did their own version with
Alastair Sim as the legendary penny
pincher (the British had done an
undistinguished “Scrooge” in 1935).
Albert Finney was unrecognizable
in the title role of the 1970 Scrooge,
which featured songs by Leslie Bri
cusse. A recent version starring
George C. Scott has become a tele
vision perennial. A couple of years
ago, the Walt Disney company en
listed all of its cartoon stars for a
featurette called Mickey’s Christmas
Carol.
At the other end of the scale was
last year’s Silent . Night, Deadly
Night, which depicted a Santa Claus
impersonator as a mad killer. The
uproar from outraged parents was so
great that Tri-Star Pictures pulled
out as distributor.
Think of Christmas movies and you
immediately remember songs. Fore
most is White Christmas, sung by
Bing Crosby in Holiday Inn in 1942. It
I ...
became Irving Berlin’s greatest hit
and resulted in the 1954 White
Christmas, starring Crosby, Danny
Kaye, Rosemary Clooney and Vera-
Ellen.
“Silver Bells” was a little song Jay
Evans and Ray Livingston wrote for
Christmas sequences of a Bob Hope
comedy The Lemon Drop Kid in 1951.
It became the biggest seller for the
song-writing team, who won Oscars
for “Button and Bows,” “Mona Lisa”
and “Que Sera Sera.”
One of the many joys of Meet Me in
St. Louis in 1944 was Judy Garland’s
singing “Have Yourself a Merry
Little Christmas.”
Frank Capra’s unabashed senti
ment often resulted in Christmas
scenes, notably in Meet John Doe and
It’s a Wonderful Life. The latter
shows up regularly on holiday tele
vision, partly because of its immense
popularity, partly because its lapsed
copyright allows any channel to carry
it.
Oddly, most films with
“Christmas” in the title have fared
poorly at the box office.
The Christmas Tree, starring Wil
liam Holden and Virna Lisi, was a
1969 bomb. Wrote critic Judith Crist:
“There won’t be a dry eye or a full
stomach in the house.”
In 1944, Universal cast its biggest
star, Deanna Durbin, in a grim melo
drama with Gene Kelly, Christmas
Holiday. Audiences voted over
whelmingly for Deanna to return to
musicals.
Other misfires were Christmas
Eve, the 1944 movie in which three
wayward sons (George Raft, Ran
dolph Scott, George Brent) return to
their mother (Ann Harding) for the
holiday and Christmas in July, a
tame satire of the advertising indus
try by Preston Sturges released in
1940.
The producers of Superman
thought they would have another box
office bonanza with a big-budget San
ta Claus: The Movie, starring David
Huddleston in the title role and Dud
ley Moore as chief elf. They thought
wrong. The film was the turkey of
1985.
The most successful film about
Christmas has been George Seaton’s
Miracle on 34th Street, starring Ed
mund Gwenn as a department store
Santa Claus who claims to be the real
thing. The film, which also starred
Maureen O’Hara, John Payne and a
young Natalie Wood, has become a
television perennial and has now been
colorized much to the distress of
many purists.
This year Disney re-released for
the holiday season the 1955 Lady and
the Tramp, which- features a
Christmas scene when puppies are
born to the two leading characters.
Other films featuring Christmas:
The Holly and the Ivy (1952), The Inn
of the Sixth Happiness (1958), The
Bells of St. Mary’s (1945), The Man
Who Came to Dinner (1941), Young at
Heart (1954), The Apartment (1960),
The Qlenn Miller Story (1954).
The Daily Collegian Wednesday, Dee. 10,1986 —1