The Michigan Daily - Friday, September 6, 1991 - Page 17
He's just Wilde
about Oscar...
dry Jenie Dahlmann
Five years ago, local actor Glenn
Allen Pruett portrayed Algernon in
a Texas repertory company's pro-
duction of Oscar Wilde's The Im-
portance of Being Earnest. The re-
4iews were good and repeatedly re-
marked on the extraordinary resem-
blance between Pruett and Wilde
hinself. Critics proclaimed this co-
I*hcidence to be an ironic but delight-
ful twist to Earnest.
Sometimes coincidences lead to
bigger and better things. This was
one of those times. Pruett says that
he thought, "Why not take advan-
tage of this genetic wonder by
commissioning a one man play with
Oscar Wilde as its only character?"
Enter Pruett's good friend, play-
wright Peter D. Sieruta, who fash-
1oned an "emotional, humorous and
very revealing look at the classic au-
thor." The work focused on the au-
thor at age 27 and dealt mostly with
his hopes and aspirations for the fu-
ture. It showcased Pruett's talents,
and his bone structure.
The completed play, however,
spent many years on Pruett's book-
shelf while the actor continued his
"areer - working in over 50 re-
ginal theaters and pounding De-
troit's pavement looking for work
in industrial films to pay his bills.
"When I was younger," says Pruett,
"my idea of an actor's life consisted
of a little apartment in New York
with no financial obligations except
my own bare necessities. But things
change, I have a mortgage, a car, a
wife, a child and one on the way. It's
important to have steady work."
Pruett says, however, that con-
stant work in industrial-type spots
numbs an actor's talents, and that it
is necessary to work on projects that
can truly be considered art. Finally,
last year, under the direction of fel-
low actor Thomas Mahard and with
the patient guidance of mentors
Booth Coleman and Charles Nolte,
Pruett began rehearsing his portrait
of Wilde while working at Mead-
owbrook Theater in Dickens' classic
A Christmas Carol. The show
opened in Detroit later that year at
15 15 Broadway to splendid reviews
of both Pruett's talent and of the
author's ability in capturing the
essence of a great writer.
Pruett will be taking audience
members back in time to Oscar
Wilde's 27th Birthday Eve this
weekend at Ann Arbor's Perfor-
mance Network. How often does
one get to spend an evening with the
Wilde one?
A PICTURE OF OSCAR WILDE
ENTERTAINMENT FOR THE NOT
SO MILD will run tonight and to-
morrow at 8 p.m. and Sunday at 6:30
p.m. $9, $7 seniors and students at
the Performance Network For info,
call 663-0681.
EATING
Continued from page 16
seem more realistic, but the choppy
editing and pacing was just distract-
ing and tiresome.
Elizabeth: You may be right in
the dramatic parts. But the shots
from the "documentary" that
Martine was making about wimmin
and food in which she interviewed
womyn at the party were some of
the most telling and entertaining
elements. One of the wimmin spoke
painfully about her grandfather's
unconditional love. When she lost
that, and couldn't get it back from
men, she resorted to food. These
wimmin's quirks may have been hi-
larious, but they were also, sadly,
real.
Mark: Well, all right, I'll give
you that. Jaglom was intenionally
being extreme to make a point; that
is, if wo-MEN can't even eat what
they want to, and eating is a basic
human necessity, then imagine how
oppressed they still are by our male-
dominated society. Hey, wait a
minute. What am I saying?
Elizabeth: Ha,ha,ha.
Mark: All right. Let's continue
our discussion at Steve's.
Elizabeth: Do they have yogurt
there?
A few fun facts about Oscar Wilde -full name: Oscar Fingal O'Flahertie Wills Wilde; lived from: 1854-1900; alma
mater: Oxford; the Smiths wrote a song called: "Oscillate Wildly" (from Louder Than Bombs); accused of:
homosexuality; found: guilty; sentenced to: imprisonment (and hard labor); died: underappreciated and
miserable. Oh, the guy in the picture above isn't Oscar Wilde, but Glenn Allen Pruett, who'll be playing the man
himself in a one-man show at the Performance Network this weekend.
EATING is being showni
the Michigan Theater.
tonight at
I I I
THE GREAT WALL_____
RESTAURANT
r I
Ann Arbor Civic Theatre
MainStage Productions X
PR ESENTS..
Book by ,
Neil Simon
Music by
Cy Coleman.,'
Lyrics by
Dorothy Fields
screenplay by Frederico Fellini
Tullio Pinelli and Ennio Plaiano
Directed and Choreographed
by Jim Posante
p Musical Direction by Jim Nissen
For ticket information
For ticket information
IC
p .
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