PAGE TWO
THE MICHIGAN DAILY
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arts
Brown
By DAVID SPURR
You could tell from the begin-
ning that Claude Brown was
going to raise hell Sunday night.
And he did. With a lot of other
Negroes as well as with whites.
The 28-year-old author of,
Manchild in the Promised Land,
an autobiography of his childhood;
in Harlem, strolled onto the
speaking platform in the Union,
30 minutes late, clowned around
on the piano a bit and said, "I
would apologize for being late, but
I've been so messed up since I've'
been here. .:."s
The mood was set. "I guess I'm
supposed to talk about the Negro
and art, or something," he
laughed.
And he did for awhile, anyway.
He talked to the packed ballroom
audience about the role of the
Negro artist in his own society, in
America, and how his art takes
form. Brown's speech was apoli-
tical at first-he was only con-
cerned with art. But a lot of peo-
ple misunderstood him until
later, at a "reception" in the base-
ment, when he was able to speak
directly about politics and the:
Negro cause.
Negro Thing
"That real Negro artistic thing,"
as Brown called it, has its source
in the old South - soul sisters,
holy rollers, tambourines, and
blues sung in the backwoods
churches. "Those same blues are
sung on the streets of Harlem
now," he said,
"It's all a part of that old soul
bag. Like -colored pimps, man,
they're artists. A colored pimp's
supposed to be able to thrill a
girl just walkin' past her."
"Let me tell you about this sax
player for Duke Ellington. One
time at the Newport Jazz FestivalI
he got high, man, and he wouldn't
stop blowin'. Well, all these chicks'
in the audience started throwin'
their drawers at him, and they
had to carry him off the stage be-
fore things started to calm down."
"All niggers got ,somethin' in,
common-this soul thing, this ar-
tistic thing." 'o Brown, art is an
integral element in the Negro's
society and personality.
Opens L
As for Western art in general,
"Acting is the only place they're
really going to let us in," he said.
Brown, a law student, expressed
sympathy for the "young artists
who haven't made it yet." Part
of the reason for this, he said, is
the "alienation between the young
and old. It's always the same old
scene. I tried to say this in Man-
child."
Brown criticized artists with
talent who use that talent to pro-
mote a ;social cause. "Leroi Jones
used to be a good poet, but he
became a firebrand. And John
Coltrane was really an artist-un-
til he started blowin' protest
music."
"To be an artist you've got to
festival
'That Old Soul Bag'
I
theatre
'The Fantasticks': Love, Humor,
Pathos Combine for a Winner
be able to stand alone and say
your own truths. I have no re-
spect for any factions. God,
mother, country-I don't give a
damn for those things. . . . That's
how artists have to look at it."
Brown stressed the duty of the
artist to express truth. The truth
and nothing else, as he did in
Manchild. In Manchild, Brown
wrote about his growing up in the
Harlem of the forties and fifties.
The oldest son of migrated south-
ern sharecroppers, he was a gang
member at nine, shot in the
stomach at 13, and pushed pot and
cocaine as a teenager. He was in
and out of reform school, but
something in the late years of his
chaotic youth must have happen-
ed to make him go to night school
while others, like his brother, went
to prison.
"It's hard for me to address col-
lege audiences," he said. "You al-
ways feel as though you're going
to corrupt somebody with the
truth." So, in a largely spontane-
ous and disorganized speech, one
began to see Brown's theme:
truth.
"The responsibility of the artist
is always to the truth." He spoke
of last summer's Black Power con-
ference in Newark as a "tragedy."
"The people with the best minds
were afraid to speak."
Brown ridiculed the Negroes
who "shout Black Power from the
roof tops and think they're doing
something about it. You've never
seen any black militants," he told
the heavily-integrated audience.
"The real militants are down on
Lennox Avenue in Harlem, and
they get stabbed before they're
15."
He pointed out that SNCC,
CORE, NAACP and SCLC com-
pose "less. than one-fifth of the
A m e r i c a n Negro population.
Stokely Carmichael is just clownin'
around."
Kid Out There
"The real threat is that kid out
there on the street. And he's the
one who exerts pressure on the
artist."
About the war in Vietnam: "If
it don't mess with me, I won't
mess with the war in Vietnam-
I've got too many illegitimate kids
to support."
But Brown did not mean to
talk politics. "I'm not an idealist,"
he said, "I suppose I'm an artist."
When the time came for ques-
tions, those who had held back
their anger now blew up. "You're
telling the white people exactly
what they want to hear," a girl
shouted. "You're cutting down our
race!"
Black Artist
"I'm giving you the position of
one black artist," Brown retorted.
Others yelled, "What about that
thousand grand you're getting?-
You're obviously just trying to sell
your book."
Brown screamed at another stu-
dent who had mentioned CORE.
"You're trying to tell me Ray
Inness or Stokely Carmichael
started Black Power -- Bull!!! I've
seen it, baby, it started in Har-
lem."
And then, finally, when the rest-
less audience had quieted for a
moment, Brown said, "That's the
whole thing with Negro art -
we just had a good example of
Negro art."
Later, at a Union basement "re-
ception" - which actually turned
out to be another speech, the sub-
ject was changed. Many people
didn't understand, however, and
they thought Brown's viewpoint
had changed.
Deacons for Defense
"I don't know what he was doing
upstairs," said Henry Austan, cam-
pus leader of the Deacons for De-
fense, "but down here he was
beautiful."
What Brown talked about down-
stairs was the Negro cause and
how it relates to American society
and politics. This time nothing
was said about art.
Brown got a chance to explain
what he really meant about Black
Power. "Liberalism was a fad
among American whites. When
Stokely Carmichael said "Black
Power," white folks were scared-
they started looking under their
beds. And it gave the whites a
chance to throw off their mask
of liberalism."
Hot Summer
"So we had the long hot sum-
mer of '67. Brown said rioting is
the most effective form of social
protest. "Next summer'll be cool.
They won't be throwing bottles.
They'll be in your house, planting
dynamite. There ain't going to be
any country after this summer."
Brown was never a civil rights
marcher. "I wasn't going to go
down there and get kicked in the
ass. Civil rights has never been a
ten-cent coffee scene at. Wool-
worth's. It's been a tradition in
this country to kill niggers at
whim."
He mocked what other Negro
sympathizers have called progress.
"Integration - From the time the
first Negro moves into a neighbor-
hood to the time the last white
moves out - that's integration."
Creative Arts
Festival
Tuesday, Feb. 6
CLIFTON OLDS
Aud. A, Angell Hall, 4 p.m.
THE FANTASTICKS
Hill Aud., 8:30 p.m.
JOHN BARTH
Trueblood Aud., 8 p.m.
Wednesday, Feb. 7
ROBERT BECKLEY
Rackham Amphitheatre,
8 p.m.
JOHN HOUSEMAN
Aud. A, Angell Hall, 8 p.m.
By NEIL SHISTER
"The Fantasticks" is, of course,
a winner.
It is sugar and spice and every-
thing nice, and comes acrossj ust
true enough so that you don't
resent it once you get accustomed
to seeing the, world through the
eyes of adolescent lovers.
The play has been running
eight years in New York, which
must constitute some kind of
record, and what does one say
about a play that has beaten that
town for so long?
The story glories, I suppose, in
its convention, for it is the classic
love story which perhaps all men
secretly dream about and all wo-
men publicly seek at one time or
another.
Yet there is the presence of
reality, lurking just the far side of
the wonderous road upon which
journeys in quest of adventure are
launched, and reality intrudes in-
to action of the play sufficiently
often to keep things in line. For,
just as its famous song "Try to
Remember" says at one point,
"without a hurt the heart is hol-
low."
It is reality which serves up the
hurts and keeps the play from
dissolving into saccharine.
The strength and beauty of this
play - and it is indeed a beau-
tiful play - is in its simplicity
and tightness. It is clean and
sharply honed and still theatric.
The love is punctuated by humor,
and the humor by the slightest
hint of impending pathos, and
these ingredients keep the whole
thing paced and moving.
The story line itself is a delicate
motif. Boy loves and is loved by
Girl next door, but their love is
bad and weak in the sense that
they see each other only in idyllic
caricatures and not as flawed
people. Father of Boy and father
of Girl want boy and girl to marry
so that they can have one big
garden instead of two little ones,
but plot a campaign to get Boy
and Girl to think that they are
disobeying them in loving. Strategy
succeeds. To make the whole af-
fair grandly romantic, an abduct-
ion of Girl is programmed into the
scenario and foiled-as planned-
by Boy to the delight of Girl. All
is still well in Mudsville as the
fathers proudly clasp arms in a
florid tableau.
But with morning comes the
second art, and what was "scenic
becomes cynic" as the moon is
replaced by the sun and the mun-
danity and irritation of day-by-
day existence catches up with the
star-crossed lovers. It is the sec-
:.pd act which saves the play,
which makes it more than simply
nice and provides the vitality
which sends the audience out feel-
ing good inside.
In this second act the way-up
love cools down, Boy and Girl
split to tempt fate and seek some-
thing better, they lose - not fa-
tally, but badly enough to under-
stand what living is about - and
come back in the end once again
to give their love a try. And the Girl, Donna Curtis, do what they
fathers are warned not to tear are supposed to do. but seemed
down the wall they have built be- to lack any real charisma last
tween their yards, warned to pre- night. But igniting Hill Audi-
serve their separate selves and torium is a rough business, as was
not desperately lurch out in an said earlier. All the cast members,
attempt at instant community. it must be emphasized, are quite
The acting is quite good quite obviously pros, and as such they
often, although Hill Aud. is a carry their roles off with depend-
horrible place to perform as inti- ability and precision.
mate a play as this. The cavern The orchestra consists of a
of an auditorium swallows up the piano, a harp and drums. The
players, and while they are pro- pianist, Rod Derefinko, was in-
fessional and periodically display deed alive and into his music.
real flashes of zest, the whole ef- There is an extremely effective
fect of their performance is hin- song number where Girl is alone
dered by the obvious distance be- on the stage, lit singly with the
tween them and the audience, harp orchestrating her, wondering
The fathers, Tom Lacey and if she is ever to find the dreams
Art Wallace, are first-rate. They she loves dreaming, and this per-
dash off a song-and-dance in the haps is the play's most dramatic
second act when they rediscover moment. The rogue who is to
what they were once into, and it tempt her joins in her song, and
serves to get the play rolling up the piano picks up and for that
to its subsequent peak. moment it seems to be the way
The Man Who Dies dies with things are. From his perch in
exceeding grace and comic flair, the tree the rogue sees "all there
stretching his sham death out is to see" and when Girl joins
into an extended pantomine less him she sees nothing but her
of agony than garbled confusion. house and backyard, and is dis-
The Boy, Don Pinson, and the appointed .
100 Heart A ttack Victims
Sought for Drug Study
P4
w
-Daily-Jay Cassidy
Claude Brown at the Union
New George Sklar Play Hovers
Between Melodrama, Liveliness
ANN ARBOR (p) -- Some 100
male heart attack victims are be-
ing sought by two University doc-
tors participating in a study to
determine whether drugs can pro-
tect against repeated heart sei-
zures.
Health Service
Resets Hours
A doctor on call 24 hours a day
and an extended clinic service
were the new innovations this
week at the University Health
Service.
The extended clinic service,
which began on Feb. 1, is being
held from 5 p.m. until 12 mid-
night. Previously students had to
restrict their medical complaints
to the hours, between 7 a.m. and
5 p.m.
The extended clinic is being held
on the first floor of the Health
Service building, in what was
formerly the Nurses' Clinic. A
doctor is on hand at all times for
consultation.
In addition, a doctor will re-
main in the building on call from
12 midnight until 7 a.m., when
Health Service regularly opens.
The Michigan project is part of
a $26 million national program
involving 55 medical centers and
financed by the National Heart
Institute.
The plan calls for four drugs to
be evaluated on 8,500 patients
over five years.
"This is the most ambitious
field study testing the effective-
ness of drugs in coronary heart
disease in the history of this
country," said Dr. Henry Schoch,
associate professor of internal
medicine at the University.
Schoch is directing the project
in Michigan, assisted by co-in-
vestigator Dr. Rudolph Reichert
Jr., clinical assistant professor of
internal medicine at the Univer-
sity and a St. Joseph Mercy Hos-
pital staff member.
Schoch said the program gives
men who have suffered: a heart
attack a chance to participate in
research aimed at reducing mor-
tality from the nation's No. 2
killer.
"The need for immediate pro-
tection for these men is press-
ing," Schoch added.
To be considered, volunteers
must have their doctors' permis-
sion, between the ages of 30 and
64.
4
By RICHARD KELLER SIMON
George Sklar's new play "And
People All Around" (at Meadow-
brook Theatre, Oakland Univer-
sity, through Feb. 18) is an am-
bitious mistake..
If Bertolt Brecht had ever tried
to write a classic American soap
opera, early in his career, in one
of his weaker moments, he might
very well have come up with this
play. Sklar has chosen a typically
Brechtian subject (the life and
death of civil rights workers in
Mississippi) and used typically
Brechtian techniques (songs and
chants alternating with the plot
line).
But where Brecht was able to
merge songs and action into one
good play, Sklar cannot. Brecht's
characters both sing and act, and
do so in the same style. Sklar's
characters either sing or act
Romney's
Supporters
Conident
(Continued from Page 1)
said they consider the governor
as something of a peace candi-
date. "Romney's position is more
likely to lead to peace in Vietnam
than is Johnson's," Leydens said.
"I know he was hurt by -some
of his statements on Vietnam,"
Davidson added, referring to
Romney's recent claim that he
had been "brainwashed" by U.S.
,military officials during a 1965
visit to South Vietnam.
"He is far more peaceful than
Johnson," Davidson added. 'But
he is not naive and no matter
how strongly you feel, you can't
come out and say you want im-
mediate withdrawal if you expect
to win."
Leydens said Romney will
maintain his position that the
solution to the Vietnam conflict
lies in guaranteed neutrality for
South Vietnam. He would not
elaborate on Just how such neu-
tralization could be effected.
(never both) and do so in radical-
ly different styles. "And People
All Around" neatly divides itself
into two plays - overwritten, un-
convincing melodrama-, (the mis-
take part) and lively penetrating
choral interludes (the ambitious
part).
If both parts were good, one
would not mind so much. Unfor-
tunately, when this play is good,
it is very very good, but when
it is bad, it is more tedious than
the senior class offering at any
local high school, or junior high.
Morality plays are never subtle,
and "And People AllnAround" is
no exception. The problem is to
make the didacticism interesting.
The chorus, the most didactic ele-
ment, is a joy to experience in its-
song, dance, and chant. It never
tries to make the audience cry.
The plot-line is quite another
story. The actual details of the
1964 Philadelphia, Miss, slayings
have been altered in minor ways.
(To protect the innocent?) For
example, one of the- murdered
boys is given a Detroit home ad-
dress - presumably to give the
Detroit audience something , to
ponder.
The play is constructed around
a central character (Don Tindall,
a "human" Southerner who wit-
nesses the murders) and his love
life (First there is Gwen, his
Southern fiancee, whose brother,
of course, is a "White Redeemer,"
and then there is Jean, the slight-
ly jaded COFO worker from New
York City. The romance provides
a structure for Sklar, and a
means of making the events
"real"-however, it remains com-
pletely irrelevant to our concerns.
The romance is straight out of
"Search For Tomorrow" or "Pey-
ton Place." After a few lines of
"It won't work, Gwen, it won't
work," or "You've got something
on your mind that you are not
telling me," one is ready for the
man to appear selling the latest
washday miracle.
Sklar turns the action into
melodrama by selecting out all
the human details, leaving only
the big confrontations and deci-
sions. Each scene is an emotional
high spot. The \characters never
become human, they remain card-
board. (All the civil rights work-
ers are impossible to believe.) As
if this wasn't enough, most of the
big lines end a scene which is fol-
lowed by terrific drum fanfares.
(Girl calls Mother-in-law in De-
troit, and says very slowly, "Your
Son is Dead." Blackout. Drums.)
The melodrama, instead of
making facts come to life, dead-
ens facts with a stupid story. The
potentialities for a fine and rele-
vant plot are in the actual events
themselves, not in Sklar's at-
tempts to graft "Modern Ro-
mances" to something that de-I
serves much better.
The John Fernald Company
does what it can to make "And
People All Around" come to life
in the theatre. Sklar's cardboard
characters remain c a r d b o a r d
("Don't be a damn fool, Don";
"Blind, I was blind!") but it is
hardly the fault of the acting or
directing.
Booker T. Bradshaw wrote the
songs for Sklar's play, and ap-
peared in three roles (including
the inspired, perfectly played
Chorus Leader). Without his con-
tributions, the evening would
have been uniformly dismal.
George Guidall, as the Sheriff,
also did more than an ordinary
acting job.
The hero (Joshua Bryant),
"heroine one" (Barbara Caruso),
and "heroine two" (Lorna Lewis)
were content to pick simple
stereotyped characterizations, and
leave it at that. The hero wras
well - meaning - but - contused;
"heroine one" was infantile Ten-
nessee Williams; and "heroine
two" was (accidentally perhaps)
sex (those liberated Northerners!)
Frank Masi's rotating set was
perfect for the Chorus part of
the play, but left the melodrama
without-the artifacts of humanity
it very much needed. Elizabeth
Penn's costumes. were very well
suited to both styles of the play.
And somebody should take
GeorgeSklar aside and introduce'
him to a few more civil rights
workers. Evidently, the ones he
has met were walking automatons.
TOTAL VIEW:
G;uild House Probes
'Third World' Idea
..-r
By LESLIE WAYNE
What interest does the U.S.
have in Bolivian tin production?
Is the U.S. suppressing revolu-
tionary activity in the emerging
African nations? Why are we
bombing Laos?
These questions and others re-
volving around relations between
the U.S. and the underdeveloped
countries will provide the focus
for the Monday Luncheon Series
at Guild House.
This series, which began last
Monday is part of a continuing
Guild House program in which
various professors initiate a noon,
hour discussion on particular as-
pects of a semester-long inquiry
into a broad topic.
"Within the last five years,
there has been a great deal of
change in the idea of the third,
world," says Naunit Kothary, co-
director of the Guild House. "We
will attempt to examine these new
ideas. The speakers belong to this
younger age and we will be view-
ing it through these new eyes."
The discussion topics will not
be limited to a political view of
the situation but rather will at-
tempt to examine many aspects
of the topic.
"We hope to make it a total
view," Kothary continues, "al-
though we will probably take a
political and economic viewpoint,,
we are not going to limit our-
selves in subject matter."
The scheduled speakers vary
from Prof. Henry Bretton of the
Political Science Dept. discussing
"Political Thought in West and
South Africa" to Prof. Vernon
Terpstra, of the School of Busi-
ness discussing "U.S. Business In-
terests in the Third World." Ko-
thary, a native of India, will pre-
sent "Democracy and Cold War.
Impositions in India."
The Monday Luncheon Series
is an attempt to carry out Guild
House's basic intent which Rev.
J. Edgar Edwards, director of
Guild House says is "to offer a
semi-structured programming to
understand current campus issues
'and needs."
"Weare experimental and ex-
ploratory here," Edwards says.
"You might say that we're com-
plementary and supplementary to
the University in that we offer a
ready forum 'for current ideas.
We try to be adaptable to what-
ever is going on."
"A lot of concrete results have
evolved that are relevant to the
Ann Arbor community and the
students in general," Edwards
points out. He noted that the sit-
ins at the Ann Arbor Draft Board
resulted from discussions at the
Guild House. Last year Guild
House compiled and distributed a
booklet on "The Students and
University Decision - Making"
which contains articles by various
faculty members and leaders of
student power.
In addition Guild House sched-
ules Friday evening dinners fea-
turing speeches or international
cultural exchange programs.
Between Ann Arbor and Ypsilanti
WaftlDisnpyb
HaP
xf1mIonahe
TECHNICOLOR * ,w "<'c'
Shows wed., Sat., Sun.
1:15; 3:50; 6:30; 9:10
Other Days 6:30-9:10
SOON-"VALLEY OF THE ODLLS"
"Maybe you'll
have better
luck tonight."
MUSKET
Ckari y
MENDELSSOHN THEATRE
I
0
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ti
FEB. 14-17
-------imw
Colm GVILD- ---- --I
I
I
THIS WEEK
WEDNESDAY, FEB. 7
BUSTER
KEATON
selected
films of
HAROLD
LLOYD
4
Program Information. 2-6264
_ _LAST 2 DAYS
t
Positively
Ends
Thursday
rGoIrFAICHIGAN
SHOWS AT
1,35,
7, 9 P.M.
-N.Y. TIMES
ENDING WEDNESDAY
"SPLENDID!
INGENIOUS !"
-Time Magazine
Program Information J 8-641
"A movie you won't
want to miss!
--Judith Cr/st. theTodayShow
6
CLINTEAST1VOOD
"THE GOOD.
7.THE BAD
hEUGIY"
LEEVANCLEEF
4.:.
THURSDAY and FRIDAY, FEB. 8, 9
GORKY TRILOGY
PART 2:
MY APPRECNTICESHIP
SATURDAY and SUNDAY, FEB. 10, 11
ASHES AND
4
"The Tension Is Terrific !"
"Keeps You Glued To Your Seat !"
"EXCELLENT
PERFORMANCES
Ti"
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