i aRTS Saturday, January 24, 1981 The Michigan Daily Page 5 New play at Loft Ann Arbor loves Madcat' By ANNE GADON When graduate theatre student Bill Sharp was looking for an original play for a directing project, his friends ad- vised him to stay away from works by Al Sjoerdsma. Sjoerdsma's 'never going anywhere as a writer they told Sharpe. Arthur Miller he's not, nor can he ever hope to be. Sjoerdsma went on to win a major Hopwood award for drama, an honor conferred on Miller during his undergraduate days. Well, so much for listening to your friends "Obie" Sjoedsma, as his co-workers at the Canterbury Loft jokingly refer to him after the Obies, the off-Broadway theatre awards, claims that even after he woi the prestigious Hopwood Award he wasn't sure that he wanted to make a serious go at a career in playwriting. But after graduating with a B.A. in English last year, buddy Sharpe asked him to join the staff of the new Canter- bury Loft Stage Company as a sort of playwright-in-residence Sharpe promised him that the Stage Com- pany's first full season would include a Sjoerdsma play, Judgement Day. Sjoerdsma later decided that he didn't feel that Judgement Day was ready for production, and he created a new work. NOW IT'S ONLY a matter of days before the premiere of Saturn's Young, the product of a three month frenzy ("an act a month," he said breathlessly) and Sjoerdsma is sur- prisingly calm as he chats with me about his work. "Everyone knows Chekhov wrote well but not everyone knows what the people in town are writing and doing," Sjoerdsma said. The Loft is committed to doing at least one original show each year. That's a big thing. I don't think the University would do that." Along with Sjoerdsma's work, the Loft is featuring plays by contem- porary playwrights Samual Beckett and Harold Pinter. "We're doing con- temporary plays that deserve to be seen in this town and just aren't done," Sjoerdsma commented. THE STRUCTURE of the Loft Stage Company is such that members are ex-, pected to work in areas other than their major field of interest. Sjoerdsma has stage managed and ran lights for Loft productions and he appeared in the Stage Company's production of Papp. "Almost anything I do in the nature of the theatre helps me with my writing," Sjoerdsma said. "I have a much better idea of what's good for actors. I try to keep in mind what's the best thing for performers when I write." Sjoerdsma began his writing career with short stories and novels. "I never made it past page 35," he said with a sigh. He soon realized that half of his writing was dialogue. Playwriting seemed a natural -extension of his talent, and a class with English professor Peter Bauland "tied it all together" in Sjoerdsma's words. ALTHOUGH SJOERDSMA has scar- cely produced two plays to his name, he speaks about playwriting with an air of a seasoned writer. He defines charac- terization and a natural flow of dialogue as the two most important elements of good script writing. "My biggest bugaboo is problems with the way people sound. New playwrights have brought me their work and I say to a lot of them, 'But that's just not the way people talk.' And how does he write? What's the Al Sjoerdsma secret, I ask him? "People ask me how I construct a play and I tell them that I have two characters, I get them to talk to each other and then I just see what happens. You start out with five minutes of dialogue, then you add five minutes more and pretty soon you've got a play. That's about it., The onlytthing that it's impossible to get Sjoerdsma to discuss is, sur- prisingly enough, his play. Apparently much of the work hinges on illusion and Sjoerdsma refuses to talk lest I reveal anything crucial about the production. "It's about a conflict between a father)afid son who are both in bad situations. They fix their problems on each other because it's the only thing that they can do to survive.' And that was all he would say. He sat back smiling, took a drag on his cigarette and waited for more questions. Just come next Thursday and see for yourself, he seemed to be thinking. I'd like to see the Daily pan this one. By ELLEN LETTVIN Peter "Madcat" Ruth packs 'em wall-to-wall. Though his Soundstage Cof- feehouse concert was moved from the University Club to the larger Anderson Room Thursday night, people still sat on the floor, on extra chairs scrounged from hither, thither and yon and even on the piano against the wall.. Crowded conditions to the contrary, the crowd was comforted by Madcat's dynamism, his cool relaxation, and his charismatic personality. STARTING THE set off with "Bad Luck Blues," a song written by Sonny Terry, one of his earliest influences, Madcat immediately impressed the audience with his technical virtuosity, his tonal variety and fast-paced changing style. His amazing range and his breadth of repertoire evade the usual categorization of musical styles and musicians. But it is variety that makes Madcat such a charming and unusual perfor- mer. Drawing from various jazz, blues and folk sources, he adds his own vivacious personality to familiar pieces in order to produce a pleasing and custom-fit performance. Each song seemed in some way revised by Madcat to accomodate his personality and his personal rapport with the audience. For instance, in directing his revision means of spacious pockets) to use four different harmonicas as well as to sing in this new edition of an old time song. PART OF THE reason that Madcat is such an enjoyable performer is because of his stage presence. He is somehow able to seem completely spontaneous and relaxed while maintaining a keen awareness of his own playing as well as a strong sense of cohesiveness with the other members of his group, bassist Jason Boekeloo and drummer Rick Hollander. They make an amazingly "big" sound for such a small group. But then again Madcat is no "small" per- former. His career as a soloist was preceded by a long history of working with other great musicians including Dave Brubeck and Brubeck's sons: Darius and Chris. Madcat's experience wears well on him - he's seasoned yet clearly loves to perform. A sense of mutual interest has developed between the people of Ann Arbor and Peter "Madcat" Ruth. After his numerous Ark appearances, Hill Auditorium concerts, as well as an autumn jam on the Diag, many people have found an interest in Madcat which he enthusiastically returns. Judging from the overwhelming turnout at the Soundstage concert and from his con- stantly progressing career, we will probably be seeing quite a bit more of Madcat in the months to come. , Daily Photo by DEBORAH LEWIS Ann Arbor's mad over harmonica player Peter "Madcat" Ruth, who packed the house of the Anderson Room of the Michigan Union Thursday night in his first local performance since September. Judging from the crowd's reac- tion, Madcat will be welcome around here much more frequently. Make sure you catch him the next time around. of Taj Mahal's "Scooby Dooby Dooby Song" to the Ann Arbor audience, he used such lines as "Let's all move out to Dexter where there's no student types 4round.. .", which got an enthusiastic response from all. In a song about "Going Fishing," he again made the spectators a part of his act and an ex- tension of his own sense of humor using just the twinkle of his eyes and his smile. In a personal rendition of "Shor- tenin' Bread," Madcat managed (by Going 'Home' with Bower By PHIL DESCHAINE The cover of Bryan Bowers' new album, Home, Home on the Road displays an old yellow truck with none other than the grinning autoharp player on the hood sporting a new pair of high- tops and a bright green Flying Fish t- shirt. Reference to this "old yellow truck" was one of the few bits of ex- citement on Bowers' very traditional first album The View From Home. Home, Home on the Road displays the traditional side of Bowers beginning with "The Flowers of Edinburgh," "Grandfather Clock," and a pair of songs direct from Bowers childhood days. Set against them are songs like "This Age We Live In," "The Scot- sman," and "The Prison Song. The result is a pleasant duality, a two-sided look at a pleasing folk enter- tainer. "Berkeley Woman" for example contains the archaic lines "Woman is the sweetest fruit/God ever put on the vine/Still I can no more love just one kind of woman/Than drink just one kind of wine" which is set against "This Age We Live In" in which his woman- as-grape analogy is turned against him. Bowers' most commanding moments on the album are in "The Scotsman" and "Scotland" which bring together a harmony of voice and autoharp heard previously only in his live performan- ces. In fact, "The Scotsman" ballad is a live cut from a national flatpicking con- test. "Scotland" is the instrumental highlight of Home largely because of accompaniment by Adelle Weiland on cello. Bowers' arrangement here achieves a bagpipe effect from four string instruments. A poignant protest, "The Prison Song" is the most striking piece and could have carried the entire album if it had been called upon. Any attempt to convey on vinyl the terrors of prison risks sentimentality. Yet Bowers avoids affectation by reporting without moralizing. Join c1he ttilr A rts Staff Vincent Price will be appearing as Oscar Wilde in his one man show, 'Diver- sions and Delights' at the Power Center for one performance only February 5 at 8 p.m. Hey, Vince, I thought Gertrude Stein was the one who coined the phrase, "A rose is a rose is a rose..."