Saturday, December 9, 1971
THE MICHIGAN DAILY
Page Three
Saturday, December 9, 1972 THE MICHIGAN DAILY Page Three
AA Troupe gives
new insight gto mime
By MELANIE GRANFORS
Creativity, imagination and
frolic is a lifestyle for the Ann
Arbor Mime Troupe. The inti-
macy of being five artists who
are also friends, and their genu-
ine dedication to mime comprises
a unique and revolutionary new
form of theater.
Clive Sykes and Steve Chap-
man formed the troupe, and both
are experienced in theater and
classical mime. They traveled
and performed in Europe; de-
veloped some ideas, and return-
ed to Ann Arbor to try them out.
Donna Kost, Pam Martin and
Scott McKay joined them after
attending a workshop that Sykes
directed.
DIAL 668-6416
SAT., SUN., .
WED.
at
1:20 /
5:10
9P.M
TUE
at H
9 P.M GRADUATE
Only
PLUS
'AMOVIE THAT YOU
SHOULD NOT MISS!"
-JUDITH CR/ST,
on NBC-TV "TODAY" show
r ,illse.1 e weins
1JPI'C C 8fV6Y- DIR B668P0-
an emeassv picrues reLease@O
Darling Sat., Sun. & Wed.
at 3:05 & 7p.m.
Tue. at 7 p.m. only
NEXT-
"CABARET"
Late last summer the troupe
did "Alice's Adventures Under-
ground" in conjunction with the
Ann Arbor Civic Theater. The
show was so successful that they
will be doing an encore on Dec.
14, 15, and 16.
Presence during one rehearsal
reveals the enthusiasm and cre-
ativity of these "new" artists.
They're providing fresh insights
to an ancient art . . . and one
which is frequently misunder-
stood.
Mime may bring visions of
Marcel Marceau, or Charlie
Chaplin or Buster Keaton. Many
people think of it as a cultural
game of charades.
"Audience misconception is a
real problem," Sykes says dur-
ing a break in rehearsal. "While
we respect and appreciate our
training in the classical disci-
plines, we are breaking away
from restrictive theories or
schools of mime.'
Clive doesn't want the troupe
to be categorized in terms of
mime's history. Their approach
to movement is individualistic
and self-expressive.
Mime is the ultimate body lan-
guage. The painter creates a
character or idea with canvas
and brush, the mime creates
and communicates with gesture
and movement. A basic misun-
derstanding is that a mime acts
out ideas meant to be spoken.
"We believe that mime is
more expressive that words
could ever be," Donna explains.
Once an audience can be "edu-
cated" to forget words, their
imagination can go anywhere."
Because the imagination reaches
far beyond the bounds of lan-
giage, mime is a mode of uni-
versal communication.
Chapman wrote the script for
"Alice" and is working on sev-
eral more. He, too, stresses that
mime does not translate the writ-
ten word. When adapting a story,
he takes the intention of a scene
and says it the way mime says
it best: with intricate, expres-
sive and emotionally inspired
movement.
McKay does pull-ups from
ceiling pipes, Kost makes faces
at the huge wall mirror of the
dance studio. Watching them
exercise one realizes that it
takes more than just warming-
up. Mime requires remember-
ing each part of the body. "Mime
demands total awareness of the
body and its capabilities," Mar-
tin explains.
Mime is a fusion of the talents
of actor, dancer, silent film ar-
tist and circus clown. McKay,
who was once a member of the
marching band, is also a mem-
ber of a clown troupe. His study
of Eastern religions and yoga has
helped him develop body con-
trol and awareness. The two
woman are dancers, and both
have done acting in convention-
al theater. Chapman is an author
of science fiction and children's
books as well as writer for the
troupe. Sykes' experience ranges
from acting to classical French
mime to directing. Each member
plays an important role in pro-
viding a fresh, innovative ap-
proach to the traditionally styliz-
ed art of mime.
A
R
T
S
Winchester: Quiet
power of simplicity
toeI
0
tonight
6:00 4 News
9 This Is Your Life
50 Star Trek
56 Thirty Minutes With
6:30 4 NBC News
7 News
9 Beachcombers
56 Just Generation
7:00 2 News
4 Explorers
7Michigan Outdoors
9 Billy Graham Crusade
50 Hee Haw
56 Family Game
7:30 2 Young Dr. Kildare
4 Adventurer
7 Town Meeting
56 Playhouse New York
8:00 2 All in the Family
4 Emergency
7 Alias Smith and Jones
9 Pro Hockey
50 Roller Game of the Week
8:30 2 Bridget Loves Bernie
9:00 2 Mary Tyler Moore
4 Movie
"Love is a Ball" (1963)
7 Streets of San Francisco
50 NHL Hockey
56 Film Scene
9:30 2 Bob Newhart
56 U.s. Industrial Film Festival
10:00 2 Mission: Impossible
7 Sixth Sense
56 Hollywood Television Theatre
10:30 9 Document
11:00 2 7 9 News
11:15 4 News
I,
7 ABC News--Sam Donaldson
9 Provincial Affairs
11:20 9 News
11:30 2 Movie-Drama
"Tunes of Glory." (English;
1960)
7 Movie
"Toys in the Attic." (1963)
9 Movie
"Accident." (English; 1967)
50 Movie
"The Atomic Submarine."
(1960)
11:45 4 Johnny Carson
1:00 50 Baron
1:15 4 News
1:30 2 Movie
"The Captain Is a Lady."
(1940)
7 Movie
"The Glass Menagerie." (1950)
3:00 2 7 News
Have a flair for
artistic writing?
If you are interest-
ed in reviewing
poetry, and music.
or writing feature
stories about the
arts: Contact Artf
Editor; c/o The
drama, dance, film,
Michigan Daily.
By HERB BOWIE
On Third Down, 110 to Go
(Bearsville Records BR 2102)
Jesse Winchester has pulled off
a perfectly timed reverse Dylan
move. Back in '65 Dylan shock-
ed everyone by appearing at
Newport with an electric guitar.
With the help of The Band he
successfully made the transition
from folk singer to rock star,
helping to usher in a whole host
of new trends in the process.
Dylan's move to rock not only
gave the stamp of artistic valid-
ity to the Big Seat, his genius
helped give a whole now form to
rock. Since the late '60's the
song itself has increasingly be-
come the mere starting point
for the dense, multi-leveled cut
that is finally produced. As the
singers strove to keen up with
the instruments, weird voices
like those of Dylan himself, Ste-
wart, Joplin, and Cocker began
to seem natural, as did the un-
usual phrasings and large chang-
es in volume that characterized
these singers. As Jagger said,
"It's the singer," and the band,
one might add, "not the song."
On Third Down Winchester,
with his full, pleasant voice, re-
verses the emphasis, presenting
his songs almost as simply as
possible. The result is an album
of refreshing and distinctive
beauty that reasserts the quiet
power of the simple song.
Winchester is a native Amer-
ican who emigrated to Canada
in '67 in order to avoid the draft.
About three years ago Robbie
Robertson of The Band 'discover-
ed' him in Montreal and pro-
duced his first album. The re-
cord met with reserved critical
praise and pervasive public
apathy (it's now making the
rounds of the bargain-bin cir-
cuit).
Since Robertson produced it,
and he and Levon Helm played
on it, it's not surprising that
Jesse Winchester has a dense
sound reminiscent of the Band's.
It's an unusually fine first ef-
fort, but my overall impression
of the album is that it sounds
a little stale. "Biloxi" is the
finest Neil Diamond song I've
ever heard, even though Dia-
mond had nothing to do with it;
"Quiet About It," with Robert-
son's tough guitar-work, is a
great two-and-a-half m i n u t e
rocker that should have been a
hit single; "Black Dog" is an
eerie, moody piece with tremen-
dous intensity. Unfortunately, the
places where the accompani-
ment gels perfectly with ;Win-
chester's own talents are about
equally matched with spots
where the session men's contri-
butions add nothing but super-
flous sound. In retrospect it
seems that Robertson, instead of
sympathetically and sensitively
nurturing Winchester's own dis-
tinctive style, tended to bury his
talents under Robertson's own
ideas of what a record should
sound like.
Third Down is an entirely dif-
ferent affair. Winchester goes
it pretty much alone, producing
most of the cuts himself (three
were handled by Todd Rundgren,
w h o engineered Winchester's
first album) and making mini-
mal use of session men. The
result is an album of astounding
simplicity. There are thirteen
songs on the album, only one of
them over three minutes. There
are no drums or bass on most
of the cuts, in fact there's gen-
erally damn little besides Win-
chester's acoustic guitar.
Admittedly, it took me a while
to get used to Winchester's
straightforward a p. p r o a c h
to his songs. I was continually
annoyed the first couple of times
I listened to the album when,
just as I was expecting, another
instrument to come in or Win-
chester to play some lead, the
song would invariably end rath-
er unceremoniously. I began to
suspect that the cuts on Third
Down are something like econo-
my models of American cars,
with conspicuous panels where
the radios and cigarette lighters
should be.
As a matter of fact, the anal-
ogy is much closer to European
cars, which seem funny only be-
cause of our biases about what a
car should be. I soon realized
that the brevity of the songs was
more than compensated for by
their quantity. After all, thir-
teen songs is enough to make
a two-record set for most groups
these days.
As for the sparseness of the
accornnaniment, it's only rela-
tive. Who says you need a lot of
comlex instrumentation? Even
a simple, relatively unadorned
s o n g can't get monotonous
through renetition when it only
Insts two-nnd-a-half minutes. As
for the cuts sounding thin, Win-
chester demonstrates convincing-
lv that you don't need multi-
tr-eking for a satisfying full
soumd. Winchester's excellent,
versatile guitar-work, comple-
meting each song's melody ner-
fectly with a series of neat little
riffs. almost makes other instru-
ments s'nerflous. When they are
used, they generally play the
simlest of roles. Listen, for ex-.
amnle, to the classic simlicity
of the electric guitar on "Isn't
That So?" and "God's Own Juke-
box," as well as the repetitive
piano on "The Easy Way." And
who except Winchester would
seriously use hand-clapping as a
percussive device?
Of course, the success of Win-
chester's restrained approach is
due mainly to the quality of the
songs themselves: they're all
superb. In the department of
lyrics, Winchester shows consid-
erable originality in both theme
and imagery. After all the
songs of unrequited love you've
heard ,aren't these lines from-
"The Easy Way" refreshing?
Palest blossoms
At my window,
Maybe you know what they're
called.
They weren't planted.
No, they just grew there.
Just appeared along my wall.
Now come to think, love,
Where are you from?
I guess you just turned up one
day.
And here I was, love,
Trying so hard.
I guess love comes the easy
way.
And how about these lines
from "North Star" for unique
imagery?
Now does the' world have a
belly-button?
I can't get this out of my head.
'Cause if it turns up in my
yard,
I'll tickle it so hard,
The whole world's gonna laugh
to wake the dead.
I haven't the faintest- idea
what it means, but the nursery
rhyme-like image is fascinating.
In case you haven't guessed by
now, I like this album a hell of a
lot. Wi-ch-ster's firstarelease
was awfully good for an initial
effort, and his second album
shows, not only that he can
maintain the pace, but that he
has his own distinctive style. In
my book, Third Down, 110 to Go
has earned Winchester a spot
right next to- solo artists like Neil
Young, Van Morrison, and Joni
Mitchell.
I just hope I don't have to wait
two-and-a-half more years for his
next release.
l r w
Poets--
The Michigan
Daily Arts
Page is now
r accepting
poetry for
publication.
Submit work
to Arts Editor
c/o The Daily.
-:r:m -e -..:-.
CULTUREjCALENDAR
GET-DOWN BOOGIE TIME-UAC-Daystar presents the All-
man Brothers, Dr. John, Rockets in concert tonight at
8, Crisler Arena. It's a dance; general admission tickets
still available at the Union Lobby this afternoon from
noon 'til 4.
DANCE--2 Dances Homemade Dance choreographed and per-
formed by Gay Delanghe and Rag For A Compass and A
Rule choreographed by Carol Richard tonight at 7, 9,
Barbour Gym.
DRAMA-UAC-Ebony Players present Contribution and Hap-
py Ending today at 2, 8 in Frieze Arena; U. Players pre-
sent Jellicoe's The Knack tonight at 8, Mendelssohn;
Junior Light Opera presents Hello Dolly today at 2, 7:30,
Power Center.
SCHOOL OF MUSIC-The Daily's own reviewer extraor-
dinaire Donald Sosin, also known for his musical accom-
paniment to Cinema Guild films, presents his honors
lecture, piano, and film this afternoon at 2:30, SM Re-
cital Hall; Elinor Hathaway, harp tonight at 8, SM Re-
cital Hall.
FILMS-Cinema Guild shows Murnau's Nosferatu tonight at
7, 9:05 in Arch. Aud.; Cinema II shows Bogart in Casa-
blanca tonight at 7, 9:05, Aud. A; Bursley Hall shows
True Grit tonight at 9, W. Cafeteria; Friends of News-
reel show Cream and 200 Motels tonight at 7:30, 9:30,
MLB.
POTTERY-Blue Sky Pottery, Handweaving Studio (7280
Platt) sale today 11-8. (runs through Dec. 15)
WEEKEND BARS AND MUSIC--Ark, Friends of Fiddler
Green (Fri., Sat.) at 8:30, Admission, Jim Ringer and
Mary McCaslin (Sun.) 8:30, Admission; Rive Gauche,
Betsy Beckerman & Friends (Sat.) 8:00, Admission;
t People's Ballroom, Ruby Dee and Pyrumus (Fri.), 8:00
Admission; Union Gallery, Dave Moultran and Lorre
Weidlich (Sun.), 8:00; Bimbo's On the Hill, Cricket Smith
(Fri., Sat.) cover; Pretzel Bell, RFD Boys (Fri., Sat.)
cover; Rubaiyat, Irish Bell Adventure (Fri., Sat., Sun.)
no cover; Del Rio, Armando's Jazz Group (Sun.) no cov-
er; Bimbo's, Gaslighters (Fri., Sat., Sun.) cover; Blind
Pig, Brooklyn Blues Busters (Fri., Sat.) cover, Classical
Trio (Sun.) 9:00 no cover; Golden Falcon, Grant Green
(Fri., Sat.) cover; Mackinac Jack's, Radio King and His
Court of Rhythm (Fri., Sat., Sun.) cover; Mr. Flood's
Party, Mojo Boogie Band (Fri.) cover, Diesel Smoke and
Dangerous Curves (Sat.) cover: Odyssey. Rockets (Fri.)
cover, Lightning (Sat.) cover.
- I
"'LADY SIN(
TH E BLUE
A RED HO'
-Gene Shouit, NBC-Tv
Gas 2nd SMASH
aft 3 yHIT WEEK!
DOY
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THE
BLUES
In. (' ,I
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231 south state Shows Times at Every
1:15-3:45-6:15- Wed.
8:45 p.m. 1-5 P.M.
T A T E Box Office Opens Bargain
12:45 Day
Theatre Phone 62-6264HO IS THE MECHANIC?
music by
The Mothers of Invention
The Royal Philharmonic Orchestra
plus-
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WORLD PREMIERE
The John Sinclair
Freedom Rally
TEN for
TWO
A full length color film, produced by JOHN LEN-
NON & YOKO ONO.
JOHN LENNON
YOKO ONO
STEVIE WONDER
With a Wonder Love
BOBBY SEALE
COMMANDER CODY
* * * AND HIS LOST PLANET AIRMEN ***
ALLEN GINSBERG * BOB SEGER
WITH TEEGARDEN AND VAN WINKLE
ARCHIE SHEPP * ROSWELL RUDD WITH CJQ
ED SANDERS * PHIL OCHS * UP * RENNIS DAVIS
JERRY RUBIN * DAVID PEEL * LOWER EAST SIDE
DAVE DELLINGER * Fr. JAMES GROPPI
ELSIE SINCLAIR
SUNDAY, December 10
4 SHOWS-1 DAY ONLY
Eric ClantnnGinger Baker-Jac Bruce