t
ARTS
The Michigan Daily
Page
Thursday, March 17, 1988
Good
By Elizabeth Block
A unique collaboration of Tom
Stoppard's play Every Good Boy De-
serves Favour with the world
premier of Nicholas Delbanco's Wolf
opens tonight at the Power Center.
Director John Russell Brown unites
the Project Theatre Company with
the University Symphony Orchestra,
conducted by Gustav Meier.
WOLF, the commissioned com-
panion piece to Every Good Boy De-
serves Favour , was written as a re-
sponse to Stoppard's play, and the
double billing combines different
worlds that somehow unite.
Stoppard creates a world in which
opinions become symptoms of a
particular bureaucratic paradigm;
specifically the State of the Soviet
Union. According to Stoppard, the
play is about a triangle player "who
thinks he has an orchestra in his
head, and about a political dissident
who has struck his insistent, discor-
Boy
dant note in an orchestrated society."
The two meet in a psychiatric prison.
Alexander, the political dissident, is
imprisoned because he refuses to say
that the State allows freedom of
speech, while Ivanov is branded mad
because of his relentless imagination.
As director Brown defines it, the tri-
angle player, Ivanov, is the "clown-
artist seeking perfection against all
odds. He has to dare to live with his
imaginary world, and somehow tie it
down and communicate it" -
whereas Alexander seeks perfection of
conscience, at the expense of his own
physical freedom.
The supposed madness for which
they are imprisoned is a product of
Soviet Bureaucracy. Here exist two
extremes of potential insanity as de-
fined within the borders of one coun-
try. Stoppard, then, seems to solidify
a notion that madness is no longer a
universal standard, but rather a
multicultural exchange of meaning. It
is precisely that elasticity of meaning
(as defined by a country), that illus-
trates the paradox of insanity versus
cries
reality.
The role of the orchestra in Every
Good Boy Deserves Favor, seems to
symbolize these conflicting layers of
reality, as the music, by Andre
Previn, creates both harmony and
dissonance. Somehow, it seems to
serve as a reminder that the chase
after perfection only leads to chaos in
any bureaucracy.
In the second play,WOLF, a clock
collector struggles for a perfect life
by controlling time. Unlike Alexan-
der and Ivanov, pawns of bureaucratic
manipulation, the main character in
WOLF deliberately isolates himself
from society. He decides, according to
Delbanco, not to "try and link him-
self up with the world's system any
longer, but that he will release him-
self from connection to the world
outside - and simply take it all in-
side him." Because the play is not
literal in form, this implies a
metaphorical death or escape.
The synthesized music of WOLF,
composed and performed by David
Gregory, intends to propel this sub-
Wolf'
textual, inner world of alienated col-
lector of clocks, as it apparently un-
dercuts his entire bureaucratic exis-
tence. The music also seems to cap-
ture the wolf-like qualities found in
any civilized but discordant individ-
ual.
But if one looks at both plays, it
is obvious that regardless of choice,
extremism in imagination, truth or
perfection, has no place in any sys-
tem. The metronome-like ticking of
these minds is indeed the music of
the misfit. Fortunately, Brown and
the Project Theatre welcomes the
Ann Arbor community to witness
and celebrate the uniqueness of each
individual's self-exploration.
Every Good Boy Deserves Favour
and WOLF will be performed at The
Power Center, tonight, through Sun-
day. Performances begin at 8 p.m.
The Sunday matinee will begin at 2
p.m. Ticketsare $12.50 and $6 with
a special student rate of $4. For in-
formation call 764-0450.
y V
Leigh Woods and Cynthia Crumlish star in the premiere of NicholasA
Deibanco's 'WOLF,' a companion piece to Tom Stoppard's 'Every Good'
Boy Deserves Favor.'
People Dancing celebrates the
'life as theatre'
art of Salomon
Z 1.+
By Juliet James
The Ann Arbor based dance com-
pany, People Dancing, will premiere
their original presentation of Char-
lotte: Life or Theatre tonight at Per-
formance Network. The subject of
this multi-media production is the
tumultuous life and work of painter
Charlotte Salomon, a young artist
killed in the death camps of the
Holocaust.
Salomon saw her life "as theatre"
and incorporated dramatic text into
her autobiographical paintings.
These compositions are brilliant
portrayals of the emotionally turbu-
lent environment encountered by a
Jewish woman living in Berlin and
Southern France during the hysteria
leading up to World War II.
Inspired by a collection of paint-
ings that chronicle Salomon's all
too brief life, artistic director Whit-
ley Setrakian has choreographed an
abstract modern ballet dramatizing
the political and social turmoil Sa-
lomon experienced as she approached
womanhood. The presentation is an
interdisciplinary project that uses
actors, slides, and music to accentu-
ate the choreography that expresses
several facets of Salomon's
personality as viewed through her
works. The original score was com-
posed by Dick Siegel, more popu-
larly known for his work with Tracy
Lee And the Leonards. Performance
Network's resident theatre ensemble
"La" will contribute to the dramatic
aspect of the project.
Setrakian founded People Dancing
in 1983 in order to explore the rela-
tionship between humor, dance, and
theatre. Her formal education in
drama began at the High School for
the Performing Arts, and she studied
ballet at The Joffrey School and jazz
with the Alvin Ailey School of the
American Dance Center. Setrakian
has earned a Bachelor of Fine Arts
here at the University. In addition,
she has been honored as an
Outstanding Creative Artist by the
Michigan Council for the Arts.
A founding member of the com-
pany, Susan Cowling, began study-
ing dance with Setrakian in 1982.
She has also studied at the Univer-
sity, and with Viola Farber and
Margaret Jenkins.
Yet another original member of
the company, David Genson, began
studying dance while attending the
School of Art here at the University.
His credits include a scholarship to
the American Dance Festival. More
MUSICAL
lECORD YOUR MUSIC AT EQMCIQUAD
studios. Low cost, 8-track. Info at 764-3456.
recently, he has performed with the
Detroit Dance Collective.
Giles Brown has two degrees
from the University, a Bachelor's
degree in Dance and also in Arts and
Ideas. He has studied and performed
with Bill T. Jones and Arnie Zane of
New York City and in San Francisco
with Mangrove and Margaret Jenk-
ins.
Jeannette Duane is another
recipient of a Bachelor of Fine Arts
in Dance from the University. While
in Paris, she studied at the Centre
Americain and Le Centre de la Danse
du Marais. After returning to the
States, she worked with Margaret
Jenkins in San Francisco. Cur-
rently, she is a faculty member of
the Dance department of Washtenaw
Community College.
Leslie Dworkin began her modern
dance training at Oberlin College. as
an undergraduate and was a member
of the Oberlin Dance Company and
the Zero Moving Company. She has
also worked with Susan Matheke of
San Francisco and at the American
Dance Festival. This month marks
the beginning of her second year
with People Dancing.
The most recent addition to the
company, Wendy Millar, has earned
a Bachelor's degree in Dance from
the University of Utah. Since her
graduation in 1984, the Michigan
native has taught dance in Ann Ar-
bor and performed with the J. Parker
Copley Dance Company of Detroit.
The presentations coincide with
the Hillel Foundation'scninth annual
conference on the Holocaust. After
EURPEIajA
this Sunday's matinee, art historian
and doctoral candidate Janice Simon
will speak on Charlotte Salomon
and her artistic influences. The
dancers, actors, choreographer, and
composer will also participate in a
discussion. Simon will present an
additional lecture at 7 p.m. on
Thursday at" the Performance Net-
work.
Though created in the '30s, the
emotional, expressive works of
Charlotte Salomon show a striking
parallel to contemporary explo-
rations in dance and performance art.
This project promises to be interest-
ing and thought-provoking, indeed a
focal point of Performance Net-
work's spring season.
CHARLOTTE: LIFE OR TIIE-
ATRE will be performed March 17-
20 and March 24-27. All perfor-
mances will take place at the Per-
formance Network of Ann Arbor,
408 W. Washington St. Evening
performances start at 8 p.m. and
Sunday matinees at 2 p.m. Tickets
are $7, with discount senior and stu-
dent tickets available for Thursday
and Sunday performances. Advance
purchases can be made at First Posi
tion on Williams St. or by contact-
ing Performance Network at 66-
0681.
In Conjuction with the Conference on the Holocaust
DR. CHARLES
THE BLACK -
THURSDAY MA
RACKHAM AUI
ADAMS:
JEWISH
RCH 17
DIALOGUE
7PM
DI TORIUM
Dr. Charles Adams of the Second Baptist Church in Detroit
is the past president of the Detroit chapter of NAC2P.
Introductions by Dr. Charles Moody, U-M Vice Provost
for Academic Affairs and Dr. Richard
Loebenthal, Anti-Defamation League.
lli~I
Y#
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