ARTS Monday, February 13, 1989 The Michigan Daily Paget 0 Harb crosses literary borders BY JAY PINKA PROBABLY every student has felt it: that sense of confinement, of being penned in by the con- fines of campus and the structure of academia. The urge to hit the road, to travel to distant lands, to live a life unformatted by class sched- ules. Most of us will never give in to the urge. But you can do so vicariously by listening to the cosmopolitan fiction of ex-student, artist and traveler, Marcella Harb. Harb, who published her short stories "Sotto Voce" and "Cambiare" while staying with a sculptor in a 16th-century Italian farmhouse, rebels against traditional fiction writing and humdrum academia. Her dislike of formal education "all started when I got kicked out of (a Metro Detroit) high school," said Harb. She defined school as "very didactic - a heavy-handed way of imparting something to someone." "I'm really more curious than anything," she akkd. Harb's experiences demonstrate her strong, Renaissance-like nature. Not only did she create stories in Italian, a language in which she had no previous training, but she sold her paintings and sculpted works to support herself while in Italy. Her interest in "abstract expression and figurative work" is reflected in both her art and fiction. For example, she is presently working on a series of stories with "non-meaning" in which "the people will be irrelevant." Thematically provoking is the "denial of self-denial" in her current Princess of Abignation, from which she will read this evening. Though Harb doesn't "like to listen to male authority figures," she continues to grow with others who share her talents and interests. An example is her development of "a new form of dialogue" with New York author Fielding Daw- son. Dawson recently dedicated several stories to Harb in his book Crazy Cat and Seventy-Six More. The writer chooses not to trace her inspiration to any particular artist or author; her literary tastes are as transitory and revolutionary as her activities. "Every two months I'm into someone new," she said. Harb, a Palestinian, resonated certainty in dis- cussing her plans for next August to go to the Israeli-annexed West Bank "to write about the culture." The fact that she finances her travels and experiences through grants reflects her ambitious nature. "I'm confident about my future," she said. "I feel very strong as my own person, as a woman." MARCELLA HARB will read from her works at 8 p.m. this evening at the Guild House. Richard Terrill will also read. a American BY MARK MAINE IT is an archetypal story in the American cinema: An American man, dissatisfied with his shallow life in America, puts his life on hold, and goes to live a carefree, simple life in Paris. He meets a naive young Frenchwoman, whom he captures with his fun-loving American charm. She falls in love with him, but, in the end, he returns to his former life a new man, leaving her heartbroken in Paris. The cinema has created culturalj myths to go along with the story, myths about Europeans and women especially. The Last American ini Paris/Le Dernier Americain a Paris, which made its world premiere here Thursday, takes aim at these myths, confronts cinematic myths and the cinema's role in perpetuating them in an "avant-garde" production at the Trueblood Theatre. The play, directed by Travis Preston and written by Preston and dramaturge Roy Coppenger, was created here. The play certainly looks experimental. There is almost no dialogue, and the characters move about the stage with a slow, mea- sured pace, performing actions with a flowing, dance-like quality. It pre- sents visual and aural images, one after the other, creating a montage effect, and is bound loosely by the relationship between The American and The Frenchwoman, following them from meeting in a caf6, to a frenzied consummation on the stage floor. Most of the text is in mono- logue form, and some of it is even in French. Visually, the production conjures up some striking images. The deep, bare stage is selectively lit, making the space seem even larger with undefined areas. A movie camera keeps the connection with the cin- ema alive as it is lurks around the stage taking in the action, creating a sinister presence throughout the play. The actors also projected shadows on the rear wall, which often distorted their shapes and sizes -just as film can do to life. The events on the stage are, on the outside, a representation of the myths we expect from these films about Paris, but with a twist that examines them in a new context. A good example of this technique was the American's monologue about how he picked up the Frenchwoman. A film would show us only the exterior charm of the scene, but through his cynical monologue, we see his true motives under the sur- face, which are not very charming, to say the least. Much of the play works on these lines, using, at various times, words, music and visual images to get us to re-examine our film-created attitudes toward the situations presented. It certainly succeeds in doing that, es- pecially by casting a male character with a female and vice versa. The fi- nal sequence confronts sexual atti- tudes head on, reversing our ex- pectations as the Frenchwoman exits arm in arm with The Director, now revealed as a woman. That reversal effect succeeds - at first. However, the play relies on it too much, and by the end, it loses its power. It left a certain confusion as to what was the stereotype and what was not. Perhaps that uncertainty is part of what the play was crafted to create, but it clouds the overall im- pression. The final impression is somewhat fragmented. While the individual im- ages in the production are often quite arresting, they lacked connection to one another. Film presents visual images in a sequence, and while the play was perhaps trying to duplicate that, the resulting collage made it hard to say whether any point was at the beginning, middle, or end. No single image in the eclectic col- lection was essential to the whole. An example of this was the use of French text, which some of the audi- ence could understand, and some couldn't. It didn't seem to matter. For an "avant-garde" production, the play relied on convention a good deal. Especially in the last decade, the blank-faced actor moving slowly through actions, often speaking text unconnected to the action, has be- come an "avant-garde" cliche. That type of slow movement also tends to give the play a serious, weighty tone, which stifles much of the real humor in the production. The audi- ence became almost reverential in the presence of "real art," as I found See Myths, Page 9 0 Maritz, the Performance Improvement Company, has over 4000 people employed worldwide who provide motivation. travel. communications. training and marketing research services to companies throughout the United States and Europe. These services help our clients motivate, move, inform. train and learn more about their employees, the people who sell and service their products and services, and their customers. Maritz offers a number of challenging positions for the accomp- lished college graduate. One of the most sought after entry positions is that of Travel Director with Maritz Travel Company. Our Travel Directors travel throughout the world and become our client's personal representatives by serving as information sources, administrators and logistics experts. Last year Maritz Travel Directors assisted in the operation of a record setting 6373 incentive and business meetings programs for our clients and served over 1(it, 1oo participants on these travel programs. Maritz people are treated well and rewarded for achievement. In the hiring and treating of its people, there is no discrimination based on age, sex, race, national origin, or religious preference. Maritz is a peopleoriented company and places consideration of its people equal to the consideration of its clients. It is a major objective of Maritz to employ the BEST people. Energetic people who have demonstrated leadership abilities in their academic. social and work background. Dedicated people who have a desire to begin their career in a demanding yet challenging environment. Honest people who will commit to giving their best and who want to grow and prosper with us. Additional information about Maritz can be found at the Career Planning and Placement Office. Applications and Resumes for the position of Travel Director may be forwarded to: Human Resources Division/HP Maritz Travel Company 1395 N. Highway Drive Fenton. Mo 63099 An additional copy of your application and resume should be forwarded to the Career Planning and Placement Office. Enhance your presentation! * Listings , Flyers " Overhead Transparencies - Menus Storyboards * Illustrations *"Maps - Announcements - Renderings - Photographs Copy one or hundreds! There's no need to wait days or weeks Honduras: The Making of a Banana Republic By Alison Acker South End (1988) $10.00/Paper Alison Acker begins her dismal tour of Honduran history in the company of Donald Duck as he travels through the tropical paradise of Hondurica - a land where all the inhabitants speak English and gladly give Donald and his entourage all the native treasures they are too "uncivilized" to appreciate on their own. She ends, many lugubrious chapters later, confronting the possibility that the U.S. militarization of Honduras since the mid-'70s leaves the country with no hope of escaping a dismal history of political corruption, military repression, and economic underdevelopment. It is no accident that Acker confines her story of Honduras itself to the space between incidents such as these. As her account demonstrates, Hondurans have repeatedly watched the U.S. determine the shape of their history and culture, from the days when Eugene O'Neill referred to its citizens as "human maggots" who would have to be "exterminated" through the dark moment when President Azcona was ordered by the U.S. Embassy to "invite" U.S. troops to Honduras as "protection" last March. Acker devotes considerable space to the still increasing U.S. military presence in Honduras, where, this year, close to 20,000 U.S. troops will see duty. Furthermore, she demonstrates, the economic benefits for Honduras that were supposed to follow upon this presence have failed to materialize. Instead, unemployment has risen 61 percent and the minimum wage in the non-agricultural sector has fallen 25 percent since 1980 - even as the defense budget has climbed 50 percent. But U.S. "security" interests alone cannot explain Honduras' sorry economic state. U.S. business interests contributed their fair share too, as the subtitle of Acker's book might suggest. As late as 1870, the banana was grown exclusively for domestic consumption. Within half a century, thanks to the efforts - and swindles - of banana moguls such as Minor Keith and Sam Zemurray, the banana company United Fruit owned an astounding 3,000,000 acres of Honduran soil as well as most of its railroads. It constituted a private fiefdom, aptly symbolized by the intricate web of rail lines connecting its numerous Atlantic coast holdings while, even today, no railroad connects this coastal region with the capital city of Tegucigalpa. Acker claims that Honduras could have been Central America's success story. Rich in minerals and land, it has the potential to not only sustain itself, but flourish. And yet as Acker demonstrates, Honduras' riches have no more benefitted the native population than they did in the Hondurica of Donald Duck fame. Today U.S. transnational corporations own Honduras' five largest corporations outright. They control 88 percent of the 20 largest and 82 percent of the 50 largest companies. See Books, Page 9 I i t- A' / '1|fjt),'g R ESTA UR AN T "24 YEARS EXPERIENCE'" CHEF JAN TOP GOLD MEDAL WINNER JUDGES SPECIAL AWARD SPONSORED BY MICHIGAN RESTAURANT ASSOCIATION MICHIGAN CHEFS DE CUISINE ASSOCIATION BLUE RIBBON WINNER BEST CHEF AWARD IN WASHINGTON D.C. i for quality color copies at Kinko's. Open 24 Hours 540 E. Liberty 761-4539 k-nko's the copy center 1. _ / Now Hiring! Quali--ty-(kwile t) 1. any of the features that make something what it is: char- acteristic element. 2. the degree of excellence which a thing possesses. 3. a new bar on Main Street in Ann Arbor. Job (Jab) 1. a position of employment 2. Now available at the Quality Bar for sports minded counter help, line cooks, prep cooks, porters, dish- washers, dining room waitstaff, cashiers, bartenders, bus people Applications being accepted between hours of 1:00 p.m. and 7:00 p.m., Mon. thru Fri. 10:00 a.m. and 4:00 p.m., Sat., at Quality Bar, (next to Real Seafood Co.) 347 S. Main, Ann Arbor