EXTRA Y Ink i!gzrn &t iii EXTRA Vol. LXXIX, No. 98A Ann Arbor, Michigan-Monday, January 27, 1969 FREE ISSUE Four Pages a Play creates fiscal, legal Police book issues for GU, By DAVID SPURR The performance of "Dionysus in 69" and the subsequent arrest of ten actors drew quick reaction last night from Uni- versity and community leaders. University President Robben W. Fleming said he stood by his statement Saturday defending the perforiance of the play while warning that "the law applies on campus as well in ,the community." But he added, "They don't have much of a case if they performed clothed on Saturday." "Dionysus" ran Saturday night in Detroit without inci- dent. Police said the actors "kept their clothes on." When asked whether he thought last night's incident would hurt the University financially, Fleming said, "There are many state legislators who are quite concerned about this sort of thing." However, one legislator who attended the play, Sen. Gil- Bert Bursley (R-Ann Arbor) reacted favorably to the produc- tion. "The dramatic techniques were most unusual and inter- esting," he said. "I enjoyed it." However, Bursley said the performance "could have fi- U4>nancial repercussions for the ° University." .A C 11 S"I will try to give my colleagues t~LSin the State Senate a factualac count of what happened, but they ion will read the news reports and ac 1b1 Vmay make their own opinions," he added. Bursley recently signed a reso- ity o ice lution calling for the formation ofa Sa special legislative subcommittee to investigate student activism in the state, universities. 'The senior officers of .Univer- An American Civil Liberties Un- sity Activities Center, which spon- ion spokesman .said the case might sored "Dionysus in 69" as part be defended on the same grounds of its Creative Arts Festival, re- as the "Flaming Creatures" case acted angrily to the arrests last two years ago. night of ten members of the "In any case this incident po-. play's cast. tentially raises a first amendment. "We believe "Dionysus in 69" issue that the ACLU might get in- is a serious dramatic effort and volved in," said Ann Arbor ACLU should be accepted as such." the chair~man Lawrence Berlin. UAC senior officers said in a "In the new theatre a good deal joint statement released at 3 a.m. of the way in which actors per- today. form is based on the mood and "The production was brought effective feeling of a particular; ~ to the University community as moment. I feel that's a legitimate legitimate, topical, experimental kind of statement they can make theater," they explained. to defend their disrobing one night "We reaffirm the right of the and not another." Berlin explain- University community to view ed. such theater. We regard the ar- Prof. Joseph Sax of the Law rests as a serious violation of the School was critical of the Univer- basic freedom of artistic expres- sity's role in the controversy. "The Ssion." University has an interest in the It will not be clear until after whole range of criminal law con- the warrants are issued today cerning the first amendment," he whether the officers of UAC will said. be liable for prosecution for spon- "If the University were to stand soring the performance. by and do nothing, we might find However, the fact that Prosecu many individuals subjected to ar'- tor William Delhey and Police rest who were not in a position to 4 Chief Walter Krasny chose to defend themselves," Sax added. charge the performers with inde- He explained that a trial would cent exposure indicates that the center on whether the nudity was UAC officers may not be affected. in fact obscene. -Te Michigan Daily (elehratiiig tlie birth of Dionvstis teat re Towa rc By DANIEL OKRENT Feature Editor I, a rew environment To censor the nudity out "Dionysus in 69" would be deprive it of its sinews. of to Two nude scenes, coming at beginning and end, make the perfect frame for all that pass- es in between; the birth and the death scenes, with the en- tire case arrayed in a ritual- istic tableau of raw sexuality -raw "being"-are such quin- tessential elements, it is hard to understand how the com- pany performed the same scenes clothed in Minneapolis last week. It is equally hard to under- stand how the guardians of the public morality could find any appeal to prurient interests whatsoever. "Dionysus" is not that type of play. And it is the type of play. rather than the play itself, which redeems "Dionysus" and makes it important. It sits nes- tled between Euripides and Jul- ian Beck, picking the best of both, and keeping enough of an internal fit to make it both startling and noteworthy. The concept of environmen- tal theatre often suffers in practice, and for much of last night's performance, the suf- fering showed as the "Diony- sus" audience offered an in- credible mess of false respons- es which enabled them to feel they were "participating." But even though each cliched epithet hurled at Pentheus was almostbinevitablyfollowed by an embarrassed flush, the im- portant thing was the fact the audience bothered to take part at all. In his review of '"Dionysus" in the Aug. 10 issue of The New Republic, Robert Brustein of the Yale Drama School be- moaned the state of an avant- garde theatre movement which, he felt, was moving toward "self-indulgence and accident." While Brustein may have been right about the seeming lack of intended, coherent, and worthwhile content, he never- theless misses the entire point that such theatre is trying to make: that the self-indulgence represented by cast members who physically carry a member of the audience to his seat, practically without regard for the spectator's own wishes. scores heavily against the re- strictions of the complacent drama we have grown up with. Nevertheless, for the walls of convention thaththe play knocks down, for the sponta- neity and truthfulness and the sheer artistic chutzpah that Di- rector Richard Shechner's com- pany pulled off, much of the evening was unfulfilling. It seems that there must be a lim- it to the display of narcisssistic self-praise that the play and the company lavish upon them- selves. And, at various times, this updated version of "The Bacchae" was simply, and un- forgiveably, boring. Technically, there is little fault to be found. Shechner is a .virtuoso at creating a per- fectly ordered chaos. As his players fan out into the audi- ence, mumbling gibberish and droning chants that consist of equal parts of the Gregorian and of those of the asylum, each part meshes with each of the others. The company itself, cloaked in all the anonymity of modish theatre, is equally good. The men perform first-class ballet, as well as fine theatre, and the four female cast members con- trol the entire spectrum of emotion and non-emotion. Furthermore, one girl in par- ticular looks particularly fine when undressed. And believe me-there's nothing in the world wrong with that. per formers By STEVE NISSEN and JIM NEU3ACHER Ann Arbor Police Chief Walter Krasny said last night he will seek warrants this morning for the arrest Of the ten- member cast of "Dionysus in 69"' on charges of indecent ex- posure. The play, a modern adaptation of Euripides' Greek classic "The Bacchae", was performed with two nude scenes before an overflow crowd in the Union Ballroom last night as part of the Creative Arts Festival sponsored by the Univer- sity Activities Center. None of the UAC officers were immediately arrested. However, Krasny indicated that County Prosecutor William Delhey would be responsible for the final decision in any fur- 'ther arrests. The players were detained briefly following the perform ance while police fingerprinted and photographed them. They were allowed to remain free on personal recognizance - no bond money was required. The ten performers were ordered to report to District Court at 10 a.m. this morning. Formal arrests will be made after the issuance of. warrants in the court, Krasny said. "They have assured us they will stay in town until tonight at least," the police chief said. If the players left the state, no extradition would be possible, he explained. Attorney Peter Darrow has offered his legal services to 'the group, and is expected to represent the players today. The charge of indecent exposure is classified as a "high misdemeanor" and carries a maximum sentence of one year in jail and a $500 fine. The players arrested last night performed two scenes of the controversial play in total nudity. In the first nude scene, five men and four women strip- ped off their clothes on stage. With four of the men lying on gym mats the women formed an arch over them. A fifth man was shoved through the gap to thesound of grunts and groans in the symbolic birth of Dionysus, or Bac- chus, the Greek and Roman god of wine. Following the "birth," the nine actors performed a fren- zied dance, all of them still nude. A similar arch was formed at the end of the play as cast members doused one another with red fluid symbolizing blood. A man was forced into the arch, which fell in a heap on the floor, in the enactment of the death of Pentheus, king of Thebes. Early yesterday afternoon, a representative of the per- formers met with Krasny and UAC senior officers to discuss standards of conduct for the play Krasny then told the players that nudity would be grounds for arrest. But the players decided to go ahead and perform the play "according to the script," said Pat McDermott, one of the performers. However, McDermott said the actors adjusted the script to rule out portions of the play which encouraged members of the audience to disrobe and join the cast. Following the performance, as rumors spread that ar- rests were about to be made, an angry crowd of several hun- dred gathered in the corridor leading to the ballroom. Richard Shechner, producer of the play, after conferring with Krasny behind closed doors, emerged angrily from the room and led the group into the lobby on the second floor. There he confirmed that the arrests were going to be made. He asked for support from the spectators, but ruled out vio- lent action. "What we did we did partly for ourselves, but most of all for you," he said. "For if there is to be political freedom in this country, there must be artistic freedom." However, he added, "We did not come here seeking confrontation." The crowd drifted away after Shechner finished speaking, and the threat of an immediate confrontation was ceased. However, at a 2 a.m. meeting at Canterbury House, She- chner changed his tone. "To be neutral is to be on the side of the oppressors," he told a group of about 50 playgers who met with several ac- tors to consider further action. Shechner said the "censorship" displayed in the arrest of the cast has raised serious questions with regard to artistic freedom. He said the group chose Ann Arbor for a "frontal expo- sure" of censorship because the atmosphere of the University was better than that of Detroit, where the group performed the play without the nude. scenes Saturday night. He said the group had not been prepared to confront the Detroit police. "You have to pick your battles," the director explained. "We're interested in guerrilla tactics, and not interested in getting into fights we can't win." Shechner insisted that the central issue is "not the sim- ple question of nakedness, but of freedom of expression." He indicated that at least two, and maybe all of the MEETING IN AUD. A TONIGHT 0 0 Crisisa By RON LANDSMAN The controversy over the literary college's language and distribution requirements appears headed for its climax this week. The mass meeting scheduled for tonight will be held in Aud. A of Angell Hall in- stead of the Union Assembly Hall. It was moved to the larger room because of the expected turn-out. Students will decide then what action should be taken on the requirements. Proposed action ranges from a disruptive sit-in in the' office of literary college Dean William Hays to waiting for faculty action, which may come as early as next week. On Thursday the college faculty meets to consider changing the language require- ment and whether to open their meetings. The mass meeting tonight follows months pp roach e., not to attend the meeting, charging that it side-stepped the issue of open meetings. They changed their minds the next day, though, but added the proviso that some faculty member must move that the meet- ing be made a regular faculty meeting with decision-making power. The forum went on as scheduled and the demand was not imet. The day after the announcement of the forum, SGC voted to back the caucus ini- tiated mass meeting. However, an SGC resolution prohibiting disruptive sit-ins barred their further support of the caucus. The forum last Tuesday to discuss the language requirement was quite a surprise. Over 1000 students and faculty turned out for the meeting, forcing it to be moved from Natural Science Aud. to Hill Aud. in LSA caucus members decided to move the begin- ning of the sit-in back one day, to noon Wednesday. On Thursday Hays. suggested a compro- mise. In an open letter to the student body, Hays called for elected, voting student rep- resentatives on the curriculum committee and came out in favor of open meetings. The move forced the caucus to shift its position. Caucus leaders indicated they would probably move the sit-in from Wed- nesday to Thursday and that it would not be disruptive-pending what the faculty did at their meeting. That same night, SGC defeated an at- tempt to suspend their rules barring disrup- tive sit-ins, which would have left them free to support the caucus' position. The move was not related to Hays' letter. di sp U e ready by the March faculty meeting, and it is a commitment current committee chair- man Prof. James Gindin says he can meet. But by last semester, students were on the move, too. In September the caucus began its petition drive against both the language and distribution requirements which was to net some 3,500 signatures. SGC started its own petition drive a short time later. In lateNovember more than 150 students joined in presenting the petitions to Hays. Hays later turned the petitions over to Gindin, who in turn informed the faculty officially of the petitions at the Dec. 2 meeting. The student demand at the time wasfor a decision by the end of January, although no specific action was threatened if the demand wasn't met.