S Page 8-The Michigan Daily- Wednesday, November 11, 1992 Attitude, suits and some singing roosters by Jen Slajus .:You've gotta love promotional brochures: "Chanticleer's captivat- ing stage presence and flair make the ensemble one of America's finest musical attractions." "Hrnm. I wonder who wrote that. We're just a bunch of guys wearing tuxedos," admitted Frank Albinder, assistant conductor and really mel- low member of Chanticleer. Of course, they are more than that. They must be, with their records, which include two new ones this fall: "With a Poet's Eye," a col- lection of new American choral mu- sic, and Antoine Brumnel's "Missa Berzerette savoyenne." Not to men- tion that for the last four years, the Naticnal Endowment for the Arts has awarded them its largest choral grant. Plus, they've performed all over the world, citing the National Concert Hal in Taiwan as one of the stand-out concert arenas. And you may even have heard them crooning through the waves of National Pub- lic Radio. This Wednesday evening they're doing Ann Arbor fwr the first time in two years, as part of a six-week trans-continental tour. "Thanks- giying (will be spent) in a small town in Austria that I can't even find on the map," noted Albinder. For those of us who have been living in the silence of books since 1978, when the group was founded in San Francisco, Chanticleer hap- pens to be the only full-time profes- siqnal a cappella group in the United Stites. "For people who have heard a lot of a cappella groups, we're ... a cross between lots of other groups, not the same as anybody," explained Albinder. "The group started out do- ing only Renaissance music, and be- cause of that, we're still doing lots of early music (written before 1700). But over the years, the group's ex- panded its repertoire, and now we do a lot of stuff that's written especially for us. Also a lot of pop stuff, like gospel and jazz, swing and '40s and barbershop. (Tonight's program) will be a very eclectic mix." Essentially an orchestra of voices,' the group is composed of 12 men who hail from all over the U.S., accompanied with comparably di- verse musical backgrounds, inlclud- ing musical theater, opera, and spiri- tual. This variety of tastes and expe- rience, noted Albinder, fuels their creative appetite. "One of the great strengths of the group is the fact that we do so many styles of music and. that we try and create a different sound for each style we sing," he said. As for Chanticleer's all-maleness, Albinder offered a brief history lesson. "When the group started, they only did Renaissance church music. In the church of that period, there weren't any women who sang, because it wasn't permitted. They either used boys to sing the high parts or men, (countertenors), sing- ing in their high registers. So they were trying to cOme closer to the performance style of the period." Though this somewhat hinders the group's musical options, Al- binder noticed its supreme value in Thayer sniffs out political Tg No, it's not an Arrow shirt ad. Decked out in white, the men of Chanticleer are everything the Friars want to be. performance. "It has to do with the timbre, or color, of the voices," he said. -le likened the vocal purity of any group of related voices to that of a family singing group. "Their in- struments are all made by the same people," he opined. If they sound smart, it's probably because they are. They select songs only if the words are right: "Poetry that has some meaning for us," said Albinder. All - except the guy (Tim Krol) who graduated from M.S.U. with a B.A. in business - have music degrees. And even the name Chanticleer derives from liter- ature: Chaucer's "Canterbury Tales." So. Midterms are over. Stop fret- ting and go see these guys. But don't forget extra cash to pick up their lat- est Christmas album. (Perry Como just won't cut it anymore this sea- son.) And say hi to Frank. CHANTICLEER will perform in Rackham Auditorium today at 8 p.m. Tickets range from $16 to $26. Call 764-2538. LESTER Continued from page 5 laughed OyamO. "I (had) to let the spirit of playfulness that he mani- fested all of his life be also mani- fested in the play." OyamO's solution? "I had a big plyoto of him blown up, and I put it up on my wall. Underneath it I al- ways kept a candle and incense burning, and I never wrote unless his music was playing." "I used to get in front of this photo there, my altar, if you will, and say 'Lester, what kind of play should I write about you? Talk to me man!"' GyamO believed that Ycung wanted him to make certain that it was a uniquely original play. "I like to believe I followed his directions." This performance of "Lady Lester" will hopefully give Young the recognition he didn't receive during his lifetime. One of the main features - a °professional on-stage jazz combo - led by tenor saxo- phonist Vincent York will be on- stage, behind a scrim, throughout the performance. "Vincent York will be dressed as the actor (playing Young) is dressed," remarked director Kate Mendeloff. "This is a dream play; it goes back and forth in time, bound together by the structure of jazz." "However," stated OyamO, "and I want to stress - it is not a musical. It is not a black musical revue." On the contrary, this production has both black and white actors in it. "In the middle of the racial strife that ex- ists in our country, here's a group of people sitting down and they're making somnething work together, and that is a very beautiful sight." THE RESURRECTION OF LADY LESTER will be periformed at the Mendelssohn Theater this Thursday through Sunday. Tickets are $14 and $10, $6 for students. Call 764-0450. Patricide in East Quad . .,_ i by Lia Kushnir Everybody wants their parents out of their lives at one time or an- other, but murder? The story sounds familiar, but once you see these teenagers actually get together in their own basement to plot their par- ents' murder and trial, the fantasy comes to life. The RC Players' pro- duction of "The Criminals" exam- ines the relationship between parents and children and who is to blame. As it turns out, planning a murder isn't easy for Lalo (Peter Campbell) and his sisters,;Cuca (Mary Hannah) and Beba (Nancy Skinner-Oclander). As these characters imitate how they perceive their parents to be, am- biguities arfise. There's a question of authority and the siblings are torn when they find themselves identify- ing with the parents they once blamed. "They're trying to fight with the fact that they live with these parents, and are alike in many ways and even understand them," Skinner-Oclander said. The play also portrays the rebel- lion against social hypocrisy, as the children act out a variety of charac- ters, from their parents, friends and neighbors, to the police, lawyers, and judges. At last, society can be seen from the younger generation's perspective and how they try to re- late to adult issues. Reality and illu- sion become intertwined. "We never know if what we're seeing is just a game or if there's really a murder or really a trial," admitted the director Leah Beecher. Everybody is sub- jected to outside influences, so there is no such thing as a truly guilty or innocent person. Don't worry if you can't find Jose Triana's award winning play, "The Criminals" in your family li- brary or American theater classes. Rarely seen on the Western stage, this play is a product of the Latin American theater movement. Beecher finds this intriguing. "It deals with human emotions, because the people of these countries are suf- fering great cruelties and hardships under oppression, which enables them to write about their experiences with such richness and eloquence," she said. "The Criminals" was originally introduced as "The Night of the As- sassins" and produced in Cuba. It won the 1965 Havana Concurso de Theatro award for best play. Triana gained literary acclaim at the outset of the Cuban cultural revolution, but fled to France in exile. "Although he was initially part of the revolu- tionary movement," Beecher ex- plained, "he refused to abide by Castro's dictates. Ie focused on the audience relating to and identifying with the characters and evoking a re- sponse." The RC production presents a play within a play and characters within characters. Beecher hopes the enactment will be of universal rele- vance, transcending the limits of' time, place and space. "It could be any three children, in any basement, anyplace in the world. The end of the play is actually the beginning of another ... and it could lead any- where." THE CRIMINALS will le performed at the RC Auditorium in East Quad Thursday at 8:30 p.min., Friday and Saturday at 8 p. 1)., and Sunday at 6 p.m. Tickets are $5,(students $3) at the door. corrup ton by Amy Meng Imagine, if you will, the daily toil of an autoworker caught in an indus- trial society whose decay is as ab- surd as it is inevitable. Bruce Thayer, a native Michigan artist, ex- presses his viewpoints about the en- vironment in which he works and lives in the exhibit entitled "Only the Smell Makes Cents." His creations on paper and sculpture represent the changing social and political mean- ing of society on a macrocosmic scale. Moving from piece to piece, the images, colors, and play on words that he uses are overwhelming upon first sight. Thayer draws, paints, and stamps in images that represent mul- tiples of individuals interacting with each other in the political arena. His Bruce Thayer Only the Smell Makes Cents Ann Arbor Art Association approach is straightforward, and he is not afraid to write or draw what he has on his mind. Images span the entire area of the collages. The works are bombarded with parts and pieces of people close up and far away. He portrays individuals who possess great power and status ver- sus those of great worth to society, but who lack real political status. By intentionally representing people as a smorgasbord of images, Thayer hopes to cause the viewer to stop and reflect upon one's own re- ality and question larger issues in; life, such as the importance of im- : age, attitudes, size, and composition. Thayer believes that there is no; rhyme or reason foY the way society functions. There has always been a pyramid-like structure in which em-a. ployees and employers backstab" regularly, unemployment runs ram- ' pant, and the taxing system alows. outrageous and unjust con fiscation, of material goods. All of these ele-' ments add to the slow erosion of sO- : ciety - the disasters of industry. i "Searching for Pair-A-Dice" gives viewers a good taste of the satirical attitude that Thayer strongly4 asserts. He uses words written as ifV from the hand of a child, words likes "PAY, PAY, PAY," implying that, though adults struggle to overcome social inequality, it is comforting to:: imagine ourselves as children, wish- ing that there were no taxes and; other ominous storm clouds hanging over our heads. An I.R.S. man is" drawn to immense proportions, holding a "TAX" book in his hands~i with his eyes covered as if he were ready to rob the next victim of his': monetary worth. He depicts anonymous workers: like lab rats who move along the as-" sembly line with distorted, demonic" faces, complete with gritted teeth and bloodshot eyes. They are subjectm to manipulation by the players of. society, those who work in highem echelons and make the judgment; calls. These powerful representative0 are drawn on a much larger scale,h while the workers are drawn like ants in comparison. Thayer uses a horizontal band of TV images frozen in time as then foundation for his pieces. Each suc; cessive frame represents the big characters of society who relate the workers to their bosses who lineg them up like bricks in a set pattern in order to build upon the structure of society, to heighten the level of pro- duction and thus give more power to:; the government hot shots. "Monkey See, Monkey Do":: shows government figureheads with; lifeless eyes, expressing no sign of; concern for humanity. Their con-° cerns are elsewhere, mainly to make America look good in the eyes of its foreign competitors, seemingly un-i, aware of corruption and implicit; business dealings exchanged beneath; the glossy surface. °I Thayer mocks the government,:: comparing it to a baseball game; where one side has a baseball bat, and the other side holds a gun. His work is full of signs that illegal bar-; tering occurs all the time. The point; is very aggressively stated: one must find humor in an insane society such; m a v ____ .~1, mu n * uu~ i . i