10 - The Michigan Daily - Friday, February 13, 1998
Delbanco keeps rewarding Hopwood legacy alive
By Erin Diane Schwartz Hopwood festivities this week include a lecture given Katherine Beam, a curator for the Hopwood collec-
For the Daily by biographer Jack Sharrar, titled "Avery Hopwood's tion exnressed her admiration for Honwood. "What a
Old photos and yellowed writings sheltered within
Mass cases on the seventh floor of the Hatcher
raduate Library dictate the presence of the legendary
Avery Hopwood. Upon his death, Hopwood ordered
that his wealth be donated to the University of
Michigan in a special fund designated for aspiring stu-
dent writers. This exhibition, which runs through June
27, recently prompted a lecture from author and the
director of the Hopwood Awards Program, Nicholas
Delbanco.
Avery Hopwood became a prolific playwright and
author, but he is most remembered - 70years after
his death - through the prestigious Hopwood
awards. Delbanco hopes to shed some light on the
writings and personality of Hopwood through the fes-
tivities taking place this year.
The events will help remind the University com-
Munity that before the Hopwood Awards existed,
there was a time when Avery Hopwood couldn't
afford to pay tuition.
Nicholas Delbanco related during his lecture that,
"when Hopwood learned that his mother had sold her
diamond engagement ring to help with his college
expenses, he said that he would replace the diamond
with his first earnings. But Hopwood's writing
became very lucrative and instead Hopwood present-
ed his mother with a new diamond on the opening of
every play."
In addition to the opening of the exhibition, other
Life and Plays,' and another lecture by Delbanco,
called "Avery Hopwood and the Theatre of the
Twenties," as well as the department of theatre and
drama's presentation of Hopwood's play, "The Best
People."
Hopwood, originally from Cleveland, Ohio, entered
the University of Michigan in
1901 and eagerly took courses
in English and rhetoric. After
one year at the University, he
Hopwood returned to Cleveland's Western
Lecture Reserve University (now Case
Western Reserve University) to
GHarlan eHatcr reduce the cost of his education.
Feb.10, Lar But he returned to the
University of Michigan for his
junior and senior years.
The Hopwood award cere-
monies, which take place each
year in January and April, rein-
force the importance of the
Hopwood honor. "The cere-
monies are all in the service of saying to young writ-
ers that someone is paying attention," Delbanco said.
"Winning the award is recognized from coast to
coast;' Andrea Beauchamp, Hopwood Program asso-
ciate. "We have had 2500 Hopwood winners and have
given away $1.5 million. There are many Hopwood
winners who go on to write great things."
"Oscar' love story
pays off in spades
By Gerard Cohen-Vrignaud
Daily Arts Writer
"Oscar and Lucinda" starts out like a
_.asterpiece Theater period movie, but
along the way, something knocks the
staid camera out of whack and what
remains is a strange love story by any
measure.
The movie begins with two charac-
ters leading completely disparate lives.
The viewer soon discovers that two
oceans and a continent are not enough
to keep these
threads from
eventually tying a
knot.
Oscar & Oscar (Ralph
Lucinda Fiennes) is the
* awkward son of a
pious English
At State minister. Oscar's
father does not let
his son stray from
the abstemious
way of living he
himself leads.
Equally uncon-
ventional,
Lucinda (Cate Blanchett) is raised on a
ranch in Australia. Her childhood fasci-
nation with glass manifests itself later
when she purchases a glassworks facto-
ry with her inheritance.
Gambling is the force that brings
these two star-crossed lovers together.
While studying to be a minister at
Oxford, Oscar discovers a passion for
the ponies.
Lucinda, on the other hand, finds
solace in playing cards. The two meet
on a ship between England and
Australia.
But the story does not end there.
Once on Australian soil, the two gam-
blers find their passion for gaming
unabated.
Gambling is, for both of them, a risky
business. Oscar interprets gambling as
a divine activity similar to Pascal's
wager. "We bet that there is a God -
we bet our life on it!" When his prudish
landlords discover Oscar's hobby, he is
denounced and cast off from the
church.
Both Oscar and Lucinda get a sort of
nervous thrill from breaking the moral
code of the stiff anglophiles. Their
gambling turns into an illicit activity
that leaves them quivering orgasmical-
ly.
Still, the two do not think they are in
love. Oscar is under the illusion that
Lucinda loves a minister who has been
sent away into the outback. He hatches
the ultimate wager: He guarantees the
delivery of a glass church to the minis-
ter in a certain amount of time.
With the bet in place, Oscar leads an
expedition to deliver the glass cathe-
dral. Along the way, Oscar kills a man
responsible for the deaths of many
natives.
Oscar finally does make it to the
minister's town, where his glass church
is incredulously received.
"Oscar and Lucinda" has all the ele-
ments of a good movie.
Fiennes offers a fine performance as
the quirky Oscar. At times, he plays the
part all too convincingly; he reminded
me of the Mad Hatter in "Alice in
Wonderland."
Blanchett is equally adept at playing
the unconventional and free-spirited
woman with a burning passion for cards.
The film benefits from a screenplay
adapted from the novel by Peter Carey.
Many of the lines in "Oscar and
Lucinda" are witty and lucid, imagina-
tively telling an unconventional story.
The film often falls short with the
cinematography and editing, though.
"Oscar and Lucinda" is perhaps too
introspective and meditative for a play-
ful love story.
At more than two hours, the film can
sometimes be boring.
In the end, though, the freshness of
the concept - two individuals bound
by a love of gambling - makes the
movie worthwhile. "Oscar and
Lucinda" is rarely exciting or visually
spectacular but it is a very well-made
film.
Art galleries a
By Katie Williams
For the Daily
Do paintings have a heartbeat?
This is one of many questions art lovers are
invited to ponder at "Towns, Gowns and the
Arts," a tour of local art galleries debuting today
from 7 until 9 p.m.
The journey begins in the Media Union
Gallery on North Campus with the interactive
"Immedia" exhibition, travels to the Ann Arbor
Art Center and the Michigan Guild Gallery and
ends at the Margaret Parker Studio.
"Towns, Gowns and the Arts" is the brainchild
of Arcitecture graduate student Anne Lusk.
The plan began with her desire to get to know.
townspeople and older faculty members better.
She reasoned that an art gallery, as opposed to a
lecture of symphony, would give people a greater
opportunity to interact. Lusk even developed a
40-year-old Motown ain't too proud to brag
The Hartford Courant
Though ABC's two-part. four-hour special
"Motown 40: The Music is Forever" comes at a time
when much of the nation will be obsessed with the
Winter Olympics and the network put several days
between parts, that won't stop real American music
lovers.
Motown 40:
The Music
Is Forever
ABC
Sunday at 9 p.m.
inside views and outside observations.
to put Gordy's Detroit dream into perspec-
tive.
As Gordy explains early on in the special,
"My dream was that an artist could walk
through one door --just a normal kid off the
street - and come out another door, a star."
And what a parade of stars they turned out to
be: Stevie Wonder, Michael Jackson, Diana
Ross and the Supremes, the Four Tops, the
Temptations, Smokey Robinson and the Miracles,
Martha Reeves & the Vandellas, Mary Wells, the
Commodores, the Jackson 5 and, more recently, Boyz
11 Men.
With a long list of credits - from "Lady Sings the
Blues," "Motown 25: Yesterday, Today,
Forever" and "Lonesome Dove" - and with courtes
an intimate connection to most of the major Motor
Motown players, de Passe certainly knows how Jacks
The University of Michigan
School of Music
Friday, February 13 - Sunday, February 15
Theatre and Drama
Avery Hopwood and David Gray: The Best People
Philip Kerr, director
Mendelssohn Theatre, 8 p.m. (Fri. and Sat.); 2 p.m. (Sun.)
Admission $18, $14; for more information phone 734-764-0450
Sunday, February 15
Michigan Chamber Players
* music by Boehme, Kodaly and Brahms
Britton Recital Hall, E. V. Moore Bldg., 4 p.m.
Faculty/Guest Recital
Larry Hensel, baritone; Timothy Cheek, piano CANCELLED
* Schubert: Winterreise
Tuesday, February 17
Pre-Concert Informal Talk
Ellwood Derr, UM Professor of Music Theory
"Haydn's Harmoniemesse, a Mass for a Princely Celebration"
Auditorium 4, Modern Languages Bldg., 7p.m.
Chamber Choir and Chamber Orchestra
Jerry Blackstone, conductor
" Haydn: Harmoniemesse
Hill Auditorium, 8 p.m.
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