The Michigan Daily-Sunday Page 2-Sunday, October 7, 1979-The Michigan Daily Hard Nox- BY TERR YLaBAN . - r - Z Mt GatA1C a A GOFt l Ep.q. Oc o WpN t C t'' i13 T , c Stfa ! r SAID U W1rA cam to A _ _ sa .Qar's- n, Sttn haw a+k3cw ' .. . tttu d! c1aST Y Lam ,wc a/ guy A TAheater Theater cabal's annual agony; Choosing and refusing plays By Joshua Peck j KJLOW TVo ito -. 1f1 -a 3 AST iSi' ACH SPRING, a little ritual is enacted before the Theatre De- partment bulletin board in the Frieze Building that might well baffle any curious alien anthropologists. Gaggles of two or three aspiring thespians approach the board, digest its proclamations (figuratively, in most instances), and, depending on in- dividual quirks which the ex- traterrestrial observers would be hard- put to discover, either squeal with glee at the mysterious tidings or recoil in, horror. What the aliens would need to decipher in the cult's various behaviors would be a grasp of the ins and outs of human dramatic tastes; for the legend borne by the brown planks of balsa is. nothing more esoteric than the schedule of plays to be staged by the department over the following school year. The task of tacking the dramatic itinerary to the board may be elemen- tary, but the months of speculation, debate, and effort that department per- sonnel pour into consideration of productions to stage are not quite such a lark. In talks with Prof. Jack Bender, in- terim chairman of the newly- independent Department of Theatre and Drama, and other Frieze Building personalities, I ferreted out some of the dozen-odd considerations that figure in- to the final choices. The results were not entirely surprising, and yet not as dismaying as some dissatisfied studen- ts in the department would have one think. - Joshua Peck is a theater critic for the Daily's arts page: In recent years, the first conference for the play selectors has been held in mid-winter. This season, Bender hopes to get talks rolling earlier, perhaps before Christmas. In on the decision- making are several acting and direc- ting faculty members, a representative from each of the areas of design, a couple of graduate students, and one or two undergraduates. Bender, whois also the interim direc- tor of the Professional Theatre Program, says the department has tried to attain this goal in play selec- tion: To offer a reasonable represen- tation of each significant dramatic period and style over the course of each student's four-year tenure in Ann Ar- bor. The wry, white-haired professor seems to feel the department has done relatively well with regard to its diver- sity quotient, and in fact, if the last four years are an indication, the major productions provide a decent, if not overwhelming, spread: two Shakespearean tragedies, a history and a comedy; three 20th Century English and American plays by white authors; two black musicals and two straight plays; two Russian plays; an English musical; a restoration comedy; and the unclassifiable Under Milkwood by Dylan Thomas. Outside the Power Cen- ter, seasons have been filled out with an overgenerous helping of contemporary English drama, an undergenerous one of Shaw, and much too little of O'Neill. Bender, candidly enough, concedes that certain eras have been neglected. Shakespeare was largely given the cold shoulder until the mid-1930s, whereas the Bard's contemporaries under r SundauI A CR OS TIC PUZZLE BY S TEPHEN J. POZSGA I Copyright 1977 1 I 22 -44 W45 I 67 0 68 89 90 K 2 W 23 F 69 D 91 I 113 B 0 E 5 S 24 L 25 T 26 F 27 S 19 M 20 L 41 H 42I W 64 E 65 W 47 G 21 V 4 1 4$ 4K 501 V 70 R 71 B 72 B 92 F 93 L 114 P 115 R 116 Si 1 19O jL 1"8 jG q1P11111 c 117 r118 1341L 135: -I 1 I I I *1138@~ 139 7L 140ID 1411G 142 W 143 C164 157 1 178 > 162E 163 K 168 169 L 189 N 190 LJT'91J 174 0175 Z94T 196 U197 : 182 x 3 3 Q 8 4 J 1 3 5 A 186!0 187!N 19 E 43 INSTRUCTIONS Guess the words defined at the A 66 left and write them in over their numbered dashes. Then, x 88 transfer each letter to the cor- responding numbered square W 111 in the grid above. The letters printed in the upper-right-hand S 136 corners of the squares indi- cate from what clue-word a G 158 particular square's letter comes from. The grid, when T 179 filled in, should read as a quotation from a published work.-The darkened squares are the spaces between words. Some words may carry over to- the next line. Meanwhile, the first letter of each guessed word at the left, reading down, forms an acrostic, giving the, author's name anI the title of the work from which the quote is extracted. As words and phrases begin to form in the grid, you can work back and forth from clues to grid until the puzzle is complete. Elizabeth's reign have been undeser- vedly ignored all along. Moliere and his Gallic associates are sometimes given the short shrift, save for interludes when the French playwrights replace the Bard as the most honored scribes. Last and saddest, the fathers of us all, Aeschylus, Aristophanes, and Euripides, have gained rare exposure in these frigid parts. F THE department's goal is as simple as achieving maximal di- versity, what then is all the haggling about? Why do the good doctor and his colleagues spend all those mon- ths bargaining in smoke-filled rooms? (They don't really - costume chief Zelma Weisfeld is an ardent anti- smoker.) One would think the faculty could spare itself a good measure of agony by simply coming to some sort of agreement about what the best plays of each era are, and wade through them once each, say, in a 20-year cycle. The apparent cause of the hardship is the host of circumstances and special conditions that plague the selectors and render impossible any manner of straightforward decision. One such consideration is the long-standing preponderance of actresses at American universities, a condition to which the University provides no ex- ception. It wasn't all that long ago that the abundance of part-hungry women was brushed aside when plays were considered for production. No longer. The difficulties are immediately ap- parent: Shakespeare, to name just one discriminatory playwright, offers at most three or four sizable roles per play V to actres can try fc tial roles themselv spear car Bard's p entrenche currently want then feels boun tly for v basis, sa: picked fi season, d its inferic With r terest gre ahead of arrangen dents se' Black Ac From a I few extra in the tiny ater prog upstairs i Guest A shows wi the cure with such toward it tors was personali Washingi In additio ber of sh April, 19?, role in tl - Wash managed self. Of all t tion com restrictiv play ch finances. question lose mor casionall schedule1 but as Thomas' countera moneym Equus. financial .Equus reasons a '.about "1 costs of designs f equine elf spare sta for its hor two for tf d'fr&!tif aair . , . mn - A. Perfected; completed 131 66 77 99 186 156 84 --I B. Boiling; enthusiastic C. Depression of strata below the the general level on one side of a fault (Geol.) D. Render vocalic E. Current.TV soap opera (with The) (3 words) F. - Afternoon, Hemingway novel (3 words) G. Science that deals with the division of mankind into races H. Prophetic; inspired . Byproduct of plutonium production (2 words) J. isclined; unruly: stubborn K. Region of occidental radioactive explosion in Soviet Union in the late 1950's 3 13 49 124 166 62 72 92 112 10 117 35 48 73 78 82 127 164 122 11 91 110 141 162 148 177 5 60 A3 65 90 194 128 144 173 182 163 27 52 57 69 74 93 150 154 104 176 21, 32 39 63 142 167 158 109 61 178 86 105 42 145 8 22 67 83 101 107 113 157 181 193 129 138 ,12 153 170 174 200 191 195 185 50 2 59 106 125 130 171 152 168 29 88 L. Site for scientifice experiments M. Inhabitants of the world N Linear and tapering to a fine point (Comp) 0. Unit of radiation P. Somewhat peculiar Q. Carl Fischer text for second graders (4 words)" R. --"90, chief contaminant of Clue K S. Frequented; accompanied T. Clue I problem that led tb accident according to author U. American Island in current disrepute (2 words) 25 30 41 97 108 114 135 140 159 189 33 75 192 120 20 17 80 51 37 155 F34 95 190 188 4 169 123 175 76 58 187 198 9 115 137 28 46 85 6 139 36 184 98 199 165 18 7 14 34 149 89 94 116 183 71 24 15 19 136 180 102 172 161 26 38 196 96 118 44 179 1 16 56 68 79 197 132 147 151 40 119 31 47 53 55 70 126 146 160 23- 45 64 54 81 100 105. 87 11.1 .12113: M~ 1a3 Answer to last week's puzzle They became more and more architects of the national agenda, making more decisions on what the great issues were rather than just responding -'to the decisions of others. The press corps was becoming a dif- ferent, more serious, and bet- ter informed body. (David) Halberstam The Powers That Be , 'i-I. I J 1-. c*3 1+ ' .ff~i F l t .-. 9 t a --1 . . . i. ° ' _a ; .J aft< 3( . f, t ii I. 'x'~ Y i V. Frenzied; in a trance W. Type of plutonium .production plant f 1 ) f I . to make money.