Arts & Entertainment THE MICHIGAN DAILY Ars& E tran e t Page Six Thursday, June 10, 1976 NT UMBC: Wid, exhilirating t% ff a T st t c al A r ir a a7 fi ti ti tf fi fl fcl p 2'y ti d in ec a] By CARA PRIESKORN helium-filled balloons tied to The worst show I have seen Special To The Daily long strings (since they were thus far is Chi-Kanji: a three- BALTIMORE, June 9-After audience volunteers to help tie) woman show with no plot, little wo days of rather intensive which they let fly. That was it, dialogue and a few attempts at heatregoing, I am both cynical behind schedule, they called for chanting. The main action con- nd excited about the New and pardon the pun, but it was sists of butch-looking naked heatre Festival (TNT). I have a letdown. I have not been women contorting themselves on een some of the most idotic fascinated by helium ballons stage. tuff ever to be classified as since I was nine years old. heatre, but I have also had the BUT ON to the goodies. hance to see some very moving s. arre (ACT) has a totally I have seen two excellent pro- nd iebsiarreconcept of performance,ductions of what I would truly The first show I attempted to whichthey do well. Their show call progressive theatre. The ee was the Royal Canadian lasts over six hours, but most first was performed by Antioch's erial Theatre. It sounded people I talked to left after 15 Flying Dust Company. It is an ather kinky and they had some minutes. They leave the audi- existentialist play, Of a Silence mpressive looking scaffolding ence, in groups of three, into a in the Sun by Mark J. Dunau. assembled on the hillside. I pitch dark room with one dis- The drama has a single schizoid rrived at the designated time, tinguishing feature, a diagonal character, but he is played si- ound a patch of grass, parked line of light across tbe floor. multaneously by four actors. It nyself and began to wait for One then begins to notice what moves quickly between games he show. I was soon informed of reality and fantasy, probing hat it would be delayed because flash fluorescent lights periodi- the question of choice. The heir first balloon had "uncere- cally. seemingly nonsensical dialogue noniously popped." is reminiscent of Beckett's Wait- I looked down as a group of I managed to find safety in a ing for Godot. estival volunteers cautiously in- row of chairs along the wall, The set was assembled in an lated a large gray balloon and and from that vantage point I art studio two stories high. The lumsily splattered it with blue was able to determine that those play is classified as an "en- aint, trying to make a repre- egg-shaped objects were the vironmental' one, meaning that entative globe. This was hoisted faces of some mysterious twelve- the action and the audience are o a position about 30 feet above foot high creatures robed in spread all over their space. he crowd between the scaffold- black. The idea is for the audi- Their props included all sorts ig. After this was accomplish- ence to mix with these things, of torturous-looking contraptions, d, two tin cans painted yellow communication begins and that along with some adult-sized toys. nd a U.S. flag were raised. is how they derive the term They changed costumes as The finale was dozens of black "theatre." quickly as they changed games New theater shines atQuad and all is done in front of the audience. THE OTHER excellent piece I saw was from a professional group out of Milwaukee, Theatre K. They performed two plays, both concerning fear. I had the opportunity to see Razor Blade, which puts fear at a very per- sonal level; I thought the actors were sincerely communicating their own emotions and experi- ences to the audience. The first half was extremely poignant, particularly J o h n Schneider's tale of his participa- tion in the first draft lottery. This play is also of an existen- tialist nature, revolving around the theme of change and nega- tive definition. The play did have its serious moments and though they were done in a surrealistic manner, they were very effective. A 3o year-old woman who wants to commit suicide thinks that per- haps she died when she was a baby and it has taken her this long to write the death note. They play does end with a light touch--the five-member cast on- stage using the threatening razor blades for "normal" pur- poses. Theatre X has proven one of the more popular and original groups at the Festival; the audi- ence gave them a well-deserved standing ovation. I think this surprised the actors, as they gave the audience a gushy thank See BALTIMORE, Page 10 P rine eto show at Ark festival By TIM PRENTISS PERFORMING ORIGINAL DRAMA is risky, questionable business. Not questionable in its worth, but in its effect on an audience. While Steve Kronovet's play The North Beach Gang raises questions that probably aren't answered until after the curtain call, it is unquestionably a worthwhile experience. A play is not a play until it has had an audience, and for this reason premier runs like this week's at the Residential College Auditorium are especially exciting, experimental, though also prone to weakness and miscalculation. Even with its flaws and occasional slowness, how- ever, The North Beach Gang is rich and in- triguing. The story is of the disintegration of a gang as it wages an unprovoked war on an inter- national exposition in 1914, as the world disin- tegrates in another equally senseless war. Eggs thrown at the President become real bullets soon enough, and the members of The North Beach Gang are victims as much as the peasants in France are. Here, though, it's harder to sympa- thize with their plight than it is to feel for those on the front pages. Unfortunately, these complex relationships do not take hold until a third of the play has passed. Some aspects of Christine Child's staging do not help this slowness, and the audience is often lost during the first half. This may be due to the many blackouts dividing the numerous, often very short scenes. They gave parts of the pro- duction a choppy feeling, too often lessening the tensions and too rarely making statements. THIS FLAW COULD BE countered by short- ening the duration of these blackouts, gaining a quickness that is dictated by the multiplicity of scenes. This juxtaposition of scene method be- gins to work very well later on, when some scenes have crashing impact on the ones that immediately follow. I particularly liked having the previous scene frozen onstage during the next, and more of the same might have helped pace and transitional problems. The acting was spirited and energetic, but sometimes quite puzzling. Levanich (Bob Honey- man), leader of t'e gang, lacked the silent power and defiance that was needed to portray a character with so much control over others. He was too likable and graceful to strike outs as viciously as his character should have. The rest of the gang was held up by Jimmy Robbins' Glenny, the conspired-against nice guy. Another gang member, Roberts, is homeless, friendless, searching, was played by Drew Al- lison, and eventually captured our hearts. His tragic situation was helped by a fine perform- ance by Heather Phillips as the elusive girl- friend Alice. One of the most successful scenes in the show had Jeff Wine portraying the President of the Exposition. His character had animation, boldness, and a striking sense of entertain- ment, even while expertly revealing his bom- bastic hypocrisy. In another highlight, author Steve Kronovet appeared shortly as a sharply defined gateman to the exposition.- His sense of the comic con- trasted greatly with the comedy that was more forced than funny at other points in the play.. Also good was the Mayor of San Francisco (Lee Johnson), who tried valiantly to resist his politically pompous impulses, failing ex- cellently each time. A character not used enough, but quite valu- able nonetheless, was Levanich's grandfather, °played by Eddie Miller. His wisdom, addresses to the audience and vantage point (the after- world) made him a completely trustful soul. The audience needed some of the special guid- ance that Grandfather could offer, even though his insights were appreciated as they stood, The unanswered questions raised by the play were both strengths and weaknesses. They caus- ed a lot of thought on the part of the specta- tors throughout the show as well as after, I'm sure. However, this imposed a gap at the be- ginning that was difficult for the company to gap. The strength of lines and scenes in the last half permitted this essential bridging, to the success of the work. Kronovet's original play is fresh and exciting, and since it is still in the evolutionary process, providing theatregoers, a chance rarely offered anywhere: the opportunity to participate in a playwright's creative- development. Also rare is the chance to see a work never before per- formed. It should not be passed up, if we are to encourage and receive new and alive drama from playwrights in the future. Rest assured that changes will be made in the script. The final question comes to mind: will the public help make these changes? That's what is really exciting.- By JOAN BORUS A RATHER special event will take place at Power Center this Sunday. Starting at two o'clock, an all-day festival fea- turing a diverse lineup of out- standig folk artists will be held in an attempt to raise money for the Ark Coffeehouse, which recently lost its federal and state grants due to red tape and bureaucratic semantics. The concert has been well publicized. Wih John Prine as emcee, Ramblin' Jack Elliott, and cheap ticket prices, the show should effectively help put the Ark back in working shape, to bring their message to Ann Arbor. The closest anyone has been able to come towards defining the message is by describing the Ark as having a certain spirit about it that transcends people's differences and brings them together through a music that they can all share. In fact, in many ways the Ark not only fulfills the expectations of its original church sponsors, but replicates their religious exper- ience as well, for it serves a community of people who share a common goal, and gives them a place to feel at peace with themselves. People who really get involved with the Ark become prosely- tizers of a sort, and the upcom- ing benefit concert as well as the activity surrounding it, is a case in point. When Linda and David Siglin first approached Prine with the idea of doing a benefit, he in turn contacted other musicians, all of whom have played at the Ark prev- iously, and illustrated their com- mitment to keeping it open by agreeing to appear for nothing, save the cost of transportation. The net result snowballed to in- clude not only the present lineup of eight artists, but a number of surprise guest artists as well. SIMILARLY, local musicians have offered theirhelp through holding benefit concerts at the Ark on weekends. Even more heartening are the many people who have simply walked off the street and donated $5, $10, or whatever they can afford. Clear- ly, musicianshare not the only people who have a vested in- terest in keeping the Ark afloat; it has a claim on a far larger, less specialized sector of the community. Last year, in an attempt to augment its funding, the Ark put out a calendar which fea- tured photographs taken by lo- cal photographers of some of the many different artists who perform there. Looking through it not only provides some fas- cinating portraits of artists at work and how they interact with their audiences here, but also offers some clues about the artists who will be featured at this Sunday's concert. Actually, the word concert is a little misleading; festival is a more accurate description. Like the programming of the Ark itself, Sunday's benefit will try to give an overview of the many different kinds of folk music there are, and the range is wide indeed. The calendar shows us a short-haired bearded John Prine, whose acrid, coun- try-like songs are held in great acclaim. PICTURED here also are a benign-looking Owen McBride, a popular snger of traditional Irish songs, who will help Prine host the afternomn part of the festival; a rather subdued Jack Elliott, who travelled with Woody Guthrie, learned much of his repertoire from rodeo work- ers, and had a decided influ- ence upon the young Bob Dylan; Paul Geremia, a blues singer who once reduced an Ark audi. ence to hysterics with his orig inal rendition of "Johnny Be Good;" a sweaty David Amram hitting what looks like a home run - from this photo you'd never guess he was once the resident composer of the New York Philharmonic; the ever- inscrutable Leon R e d b o n e, whose perfect renditions of '24s and '30s popular songs have made some wonder if he is a human jukebox with a bunch of old '78's; and, finally, that wild- haired folk comedienne, Diana Marcovitz. Not shown are: Jay Unger and Lyn Hardy who fort half of the Putnam County String Band, and Bryan Bow ers, an autoharp virtuoso. THIS IS NOT the first time the Ark has experienced finan- cial difficulties; it has happened several times over the years. Yet, it has always managed to keep afloat. Community re sponse refuses to let it sink.