ARTS The Michigan Daily Monday, December 9, 1985 Page5 'House' strong but predictable By Noelle Brower ASK ANY PERSON the one play by Henrik Ibsen that they have either heard of, read, or seen performed and they will invariably mention A Doll's House. It is a standard item on everyone's reading list. Perform A Doll's House and you're almost assured a sold out show, and judging from the full house at the Trueblood Theatre Thursday night, A Doll's House was a big success for the En- semble Theatre Company. Outstanding were the strong per- formances by both the leading actors and the minor characters. All handled the often verbose and difficult language of Ibsen with ease and con- fidence. Especially good was Marcy McGuigan as Nora. Her delicate shif- ting between the sprite-like happy wife of the household and a woman whose dark secret could ruin her world, kept the necessary tension in the play and held the audience's at- tention. Equally good was Stephen Smith as Nils Krogstad, the man who threatens Nora's happy world. His performance was by far the truest. He did not play Krogstad as an evil man bent on ruining another person, but rather as a man with no other choice left to him. He made the audience understand Krogstad. It would have been so easy to put the onus of Nora's predicament on him. The overall conception of the play, by director Philip Kerr, was well executed. His Doll's House was neither too preachy, nor overly melodramatic as it easily could have been. Under Kerr's direction, A Doll's House became a drama about people, not mouthpieces for the author. Yet, even with a good show, I ask myself, why A Doll's House again? Wasn't it just performed here a few years ago? Certainly it is a solid play to produce, but there are other, bet- ter, Ibsen dramas. Compared to some of his later, more mystic plays of his earlier epic dramas, the small refined atmosphere of A Doll's House hardly warrants the attention it receives. Yet here it is once again. I would think that a drama department whose main objective is to teach their students through actual experience, the Ensemble Theatre Company is mostly made up of M.F.A. candidates, would want to challenge their actors with fuller roles. This is not to belittle the cast or their fine performances, but please, with the money and sup- port system available to University productions, why not clear the dust off of some of Ibsen's true masterpieces and challenge both the audience and the actors? Pictured are Jeff Schneiter as Dr. Rank, Leesa Markbreiter as Helene, and Marcy McGuigan as Nora, in The Ensemble Theatre Company's production of 'A Doll's House' this past weekend at the Trueblood Theatre. BroM berg brings big folk' Time to Renew your subscription OR, if you haven't been able to get a f ree copy - It's time to order one! RATES: IN-TOWN OUT-OF-TOWN Winter term $10.00 $20.00 (We're sorry but we can't f ford to print more than 10,000 copies daily) D AVID BROMBERG is the type of guy who's so talented at everything he does that it's hard to take it seriously when he says he's found a niche. As one of the finest folk-blues guitarists alive, he remains so much in demand that he's never able to let finished projects stay finished. Half out of a "what-the- hell" feeling and half from audience demand, he's reformed the big band that bore his name and won him fleeting public fame throughout the early '70s. The Dave Bromberg Band came together gradually as Bromberg or another band member would drag in talented recruits for one-time-only engagements that wound up lasting indefinitely. The band expanded on the traditional blues format that Bromberg had mastered while still a young man, and brought in horn and fiddle arrangements un- paralleled anywhere. In 1977, though, Bromberg went through another of his patented career shifts. Having already moved from being one of the top session guitarists in the late '60s (he'd played with Bob Dylan, Jerry Jeff Walker, Ringo Starr, and even Chubby Checker) to a being solo per- former, he abruptly broke up the band and sought greener pastures. He continued to play solo and with small ensembles and eventually wound up as an almost full-time student at violin-making school. But Bromberg can't sit still, and he's been to Ann Arbor at least once each of the past five years. The reunited band should be able to provide an unusual mixture of familiarity and surprise. Tickets to the Dave Bromberg band are $10.50. Showtimes are 7:30 and 10:30 p.m. at the Ark, 637 South Main. -Joseph Kraus , l ! 1 V4ii 1 Per copy depending on copies/original with this ad i ORIGINAL MUST BE FEEDABLE -20 lb. white paper I 1- xpir-es - b.m-2-,- -6 I t, . Choral Union 'S 'Mess By Rebecca Chung L AST SATURDAY night's perfor- mance of George Frederick Han- del's Messiah reaffirmed my feeling that there is nothing like the sound of a full choir re-creating the best music ever written for voice. The concert was a delight to listen to from the very beginning. The or- chestra's good tempo, purposeful phrasing, and abundant baroque-style gusto gave it the expressive, energetic start it needed. Throughout the performance, the musicians were generally alert, usually in tune, and always musical, capably handling the difficult transitions between the recitatives, arias, and choruses. All of the soloists sung well, each one adding color and beauty to the performance. Form echoed content when Mary Wescott (contralto) sang "Life up they voice with strength." (Pity she came in too early during "How beautiful are the feet..."). Carroll Freeman gave as much of his body as his voice, often standing chest out, on tip-toe, as he delivered his rich tenor with curring diction. William Parker's "The trumpet shall sound" w\as inspirational, making it seem as if the trumpet was responding to his voice rather than to the score. It was Kathryn Bouleyn, soprano, who earned the highest praises that ACCESS -an opportunity to develop foreign language commercial business skills night & day tutorial language classes Call Dr. Milne at 994-1456 Visit 617 E. University Suite 250 -Michigan's 1st & Only State & Certified Commerical Translating Study Program EXCUSE #1 FOR EATING CHOCOLATE: Chocolate makes me feel sexy. C4tnr% by nn ti n- , z. n evening. Her voice was stunningly rich and liquid, her earnestness moving. She gave the arias her full musical attention, singing melodiously, moving through the dif- ficult melismas with deceptive ease. The choir kept me floating close to ceiling for most of the concert, the in- terplay and harmony during "For un- to us a child is born," and the effec- iah 'joyful tively soft opening of "Since by man came death" being but a few of the highlights of the performance. Sometimes I wondered if the group was lacking togetherness, or if the sopranos were a bit overenthusiastic. But when I walked out of Hill that night, I felt happy and inspired enough to sing my relatively pathetic "Hallelujahs" all the way home. SELF SERVE 3C Expires 12/31/85 DOLLAR BILL COPYING 611 CHURCH 665-9200 OPEN 7-DAYS TAU BETA PI GAMMA OF MICHIGAN Tau Beta Pi, the national engineering honor society, will celebrate its Centennial this year. The Association was founded in 1865 at Lehigh University "to mark in a fitting manner those who have conferred honor upon their Alma Mater by distinguished scholarship and exemplary character. . . and to foster a spirit of liberal culture in engineering colleges." We, the officers and faculty advisors of the Michigan Gamma Chapter of Tau Beta Pi, wish to congratulate the following people who have achieved our high standards and have successfully completed the initiation rituals, thereby becoming active members of Tau Beta Pi: OVERLOADEDP The University Cellar offers the BESToverall buyback prices in town. We pay 50% or more of current list price for cur- rent editions reported for usage in future courses. If your book has been dropped from use in the class, we will offer you a top wholesale price. Trade books, (those small, prepriced, paperback books of mass market variety), generally get 25% to 33%10 of the original cover price. 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