ge 6-Friday, November 2, 1979-The Michigan Daily
venue btr St. 70-970
MONTY PYTHON'S
1LIFE OF BRIAN
FINAL 14 DAYS!
Fri, Mon 6:30, 8:20; 10:10
Mon Tues, Thur, Fri Adults
$1.50 til 7:00 (or capacity)
Sat, Sun, Wed 12:50, 2:40
4:30, 6:30, 8:20,10:10
Sat, Sun, Wed, Adults
$1.50 til 1:30 (or capacity)
' $2.50 til 5:30 (or capacity)
COMING IN14 DAYS
Guess Who's Back?
"ANIMAL. HOUSE' (R)
THE $1.50
,BARGAIN!
By GILLIAN BOLLING
The stage of the Trueblood Theatre
shakes alive with the bright colors and
vibrant rhythms of The Lion and the
Jewel. The play uses music, dance,
mime and African ceremony to tell the
,story of a young village maiden being
courted both by the chief of the bush
tribe and by a Westernized school
teacher.
Director Janice Reid does very well
in her handling of tribal scenes with
naturally vivacious performances
coming from the many actors who play
natives. In some of the later parts,
though, the pace slows down and loses
some of the involvement produced by
the massive energy of the natives. Most
notably, the' scene featuring interac-
tion between the maiden, Sidi, and the
village chief, Bale Baroka, is quite
draggy and causes the tempo to be in-
The Lion and The Jewel
By Wole Soyinka
Trueblood Theater, Nov. 1-2, 8p.m.
Sidi ..........................Kayjona Jackson
Lakunle...................Rhonnie Washington
Bale Baroka......................Junye Brown
Janice Reid, director; Larry
Ham, choreographer
terrupted. Fortunately, the lively pace
is soon restored, leaving the play to
continue until its upbeat ending.
THE PLAYWRIGHT, Nigerian-born
Wole Soyinka, uses highly colorful
language to convey word pictures. The
actors do a fine job with the melodies
of the words using various cadences to
create a harmonious interaction with
the jungle drums,
Rhonnie Washington is delightfully
stuffy in the lead role as the school
teacher, Lakunle. He possesses the fine
timing and vocal dexterity necessary to
DANCE JAZZ
Nov. 3-Dec. 15
BEG. 2-3:00
INT. 3-4:00
ADVANCED &AFRICAN
also offered
CALL 668-7731
evenings
DANCE SPACE
621 E. William
$28 for 7 wk. session
a roaring success
bring a great deal of grace and humor
to his role. He also does vey well with
several mime sequences, as he is ex-
tremely expressive with his hands and
lithe physique.
The object of Lakunle's desire, Sidi,
is played by Kayjona Jackson with not
quite enough spark to incite believably
the lust of two men. Although she
possesses a certain charm and has a.
winningly bright smile, she is often stiff
in her mannerisms, especially when
posed against the agile Washington.
She does well, however, in deflecting
Washington's Westernized passes,
humorously denouncing kisses as
"mouthing and licking" and thus
deflating the amorous teacher.
JUNYE BROWN gives a spry dignity
to his role as the aging tribal chief wan-
ting the lovely Sidi for his latest wife.
Marietta Baylis, as Sadiku, the chief's
oldest and most faithful wife plays her
role too broadly, with her mugging to
the audience receiving a lot of laughs
but ultimately becoming tiresome. Pat
Garner and Jon W. Hallquist do well
as the surveyor and his foreman,
creating complete and very funny
characters without lines but rather
through physical and facial gestures.
Much of the credit for the excitement
and rejoicing in the native scenes goes
to choreographer Larry Ham and his
assistant Duke Atano Osima. The dan-
ces are designed especially for The
Lion and the Jewel and Osima, who is
from Nigeria, serves as cultural ad-
visor along with Larry Hunter as a
musician. In the first act there is a
native play enacted and later a
memory sequence featuring the arrival
of the white man, in which the dancers
effectively transcend the stage and spill
into the aisles. The dances become
joyful celebrations of life and color as
the dancers whirl in their bright native
costumes and convey an uninhibited
sense of abandonment (with an
especially fine performance from
Willia Wright, as a slithering snake and
later a masked man). Also of note is the
extremely engaging performance by
nymphlike young dancer Jabari Nkosi
James, as the baby of the tribe.
The set is simply designed with bam-
boo platforms and stairs facilitating
good use by the director of the different
stage levels. The green bush motifs and
the lush lighting help give a feel of the
bush. Lighting was also used effectively
in creating a colorfully warm trance-
like sense during the tribal dances.
At a few points in the play, the
..T i
r
Kayjona Jackson plays the beautiful village maiden Sidi to Rhonnie
Washington's "Westernized" schoolteacher Lakunke in Wole Soyinka's
"The Lion and the Jewel," tonight through Saturday at 8 p.m. in Trueblood
Theater.
physicality becomes belabored and
distracting, such as when the natives
are gathered on the staircase, each on a
different step down to the bottom, with
choreographed movements showing the
passing of an offering up to the white
man one by one to the beat of the
drum.
This movement is ingenious and
visually exciting, however, it is
repeated so many times that it becomes
monotonous. At another point, the chief
and his attendant wrestle for so long
and so vigorously that their lines are
rather lost in the process of the fleshy.'
battle.
All in all, director Reid effectively
brings a vivid celebration onto thef
stage with The Lion and the Jewel. The,
show is an entertaining selection for the
first of this year's University Showcase.
Series and the University's entry in the
annual American College Theatre
Festival competition. The show
sparkles with many vital performances
and matches the jungle drums in
creating a pulse of life.
r*
Unique opportunity to v
several graduate schc
tion on admissions, cot
with M.B.A. degree.
Sponsored by the Pre-Prof
Interested Students and Faculty Invited
f-R1US 12E DAY
Thulrsd, No. 8, 1979--1-2 am, 1-4 pm
Algerian forces show off
ALGIERS, Algeria (AP) - Algeria paraded its military plaining bitterly about U.S. moves to supply arms to its
might yesterday amid a rumble of war talk in North Africa, neighbor and foe, Morocco.
showing off Soviet-supplied MiG-25 warplanes, T-72 tanks, LIBYA IS the only other Arab country known to possess the.
and SAM-9 missiles never before displayed here. MiG-25, the Soviet Union's most advanced warplane. Algeria
The hour-long military parade tended to confirm Algeria's has a squadron of nine, seven of which screamed low over
weapons supremacy in North Africa, even as it was com- Algiers harbor to wild applause from a throng of thousands.
Shapiro on leave; Sussman on job
(Continued from Page 1)
center - for a number of years.
One of the reasons Shapiro cited for
postponing taking the presidency until
Jan. 1 was to assess the University's
strengths and weaknesses, and to think
about his priorities for the institution in
the next decade.
Interim President Allan Smith will
continue to serve until Shapiro takes
over.
SUSSMAN SAID he can see acting as
vice-president for academic affairs
through winter term, depending on
when a new administrator is selected
and how long the transition takes.
The 60-year-old administrator said
that despite the short time he will be
serving, he does not see himself acting
as simply a caretaker.
"The risk always is in these appoin-
tments that it will be as just a
caretaker," Sussman said. "There's no
such thing as standing still. Decisions
have to be made, and there are things
you have to do."
HE SAID HE would address himself
to certain matters already on the agen-
da for the next several months such as
the preparation of the budget and
defending the University's request for
money in Lansing.
The deadline for nominations for the
job of vice-president for academic af-
fairs is Nov. 15. The Senate Advisory
Committee on University Affairs
(SACUA) and two MSA-appointed'
students will sift through those
nominations before narrowing the list'
down to about five candidates. Smith
and Shapiro will use that list to nake a
decision on the final candidates.
The committee is still collectinga
names, according to Mathematics Prof.
and SACUA member Morton Brown. He
also said the group has not yet set a
timetable. There have been about 130-
170 nominations thus far, Brown said he
had been told.
"WE'RE HOPING TO GET (a new
vice-president) reasonably quickly,"
said Brown. "We don't want this to drag
on."
In administrative action on other
campuses, Eastern Michigan Univer-
sity President John Porter announced
yesterday that former acting president
Anthony Evans will become provost.1
and vice-president for academic affairs
at that university Monday.
Under the initiative of Porter, the
university bypassed a nationwide sear-
ch to appoint one of its current ad- w
ministrators to the post.
PREPARE FOR.
1AT BAT -* FAT1-.G
i A ' 1A VAT-*AT
M I, I ] I
NAT'L DETALBOARDS
NURSING BOARDS 4
Flexible Programs & Hours
i ,9