ARTs The Michigan Daily - Friday, March 24, 2000 - 9 Theater group takes its revenge with Shue comedy 'The Nerd' By Rosemary Metz Baily Arts NNriter There are no really clear definitions for the word "nerd." The word has Snegativeand positive con- a notations, depending on in reference to whom, when T Nerd or how it is used. Yet another connotation will be spun from the word Mendelssohn Theatre when the curtain rises on March24-25at8p.m. the Larry Shue comedy, March 26 at 2 p.m. "The Nerd," this weekend at the Mendelsohn The- atre. Rude Mechanicals, a student-run theatrical group, is staging this con- temporary work, which mirrors those nerd-y quali- ties that affect daily life, but can remain so indefinable. Terre Haute, Ind., a rustic, homey little town south of the Michigan border is the locale for the sudden arrival of "The Nerd," Rick. Rick arrives for a visit with his old Army buddy, Willem, an architect who is determined to move up the corporate ladder. Willem leads a very quiet existence, enjoying his fox trot recordings. Politically conservative, Willem reflects the Reagan years, since the play is of 1982 vintage. Rick's descent into the life and times of Willem, with the chaos that ensues, forms the center of the story and laughter that follows. Music Theatre junior and "Nerd" director Aral Gribble describes Rick as the "most annoying person the world," and that Rick turns the quiet town of Terre Haute "upside down." To further complicate the plot, Willem's boss and his boss' wife are invited to a swanky dinner party at his apartment. The invitation was issued before Rick's arrival, so all rules are broken at this event. LSA junior and producer Gabe Burnstein describes the actor portraying Rick, L. Blake Lynch, as pos- sessing a "Jim Carrey-style of acting." Gribble wanted to direct the show due to its humor. He admits to "loving comedy." "The Nerd" features sight gags as well as verbal jokes, as the sudden lifestyle-sharing turns into mass confusion. Gribble said it takes the complete self-disci- pline of the actors to restrain themselves from laughing during these raucous scenes. "We enter their world, but they cannot enter ours," he said. Rude Mechanicals derives its name from the group of bumbling actors in Shakespeare's "Midsummer Night's Dream," since the group performs one of Shakespeare's shows every year. The name is both a challenge and an act of defiance for this group. The polished, comedic performance of "The Nerd" will give The Bard of Avon plenty of new ideas regard- ing Rude Mechanicals. Major label signee Taproot makes a hardcore homecoming to the Blind Pig. Locl hardcore $and returns home By Adlin Rosli Daily Arts Writer Ann Arbor's Taproot has been play- ing everywhere it possibly can since its formation about three years ago. Our very own Blind Pig, Ypsilanti's Cross Street Station, St. Andrew's Wall - why, the band has even played a show at Harpo's of Detroit. Howev- er, band will be playing the mother of all local venues soon. Taproot's lead singer, Steve Richards explained, "We will be playing Pine Knob for this year's Ozzfest Michigan stop on the show's second stage." If you can't wait to see Taproot in Pine Knob later this summer, perhaps *a better option is to check out the band play what it dubs as it's "home coming" show at the Taproot Blind Pig this Saturday night. Blind Pig A "home com- Tomorrow at 10 p.m. ing" show as the band has not had a chance to play other major glossy magazines publica- tions on the way. Why even early self released Taproot albums have been surfacing on ebay. Most of Taproot's press appear- ances have focused around the band's former relationship with Limp Bizkit's mainman, Fred Durst, and how Durst's wrath was incurred when Tap- root decided to shop around with other interested record labels as opposed to immediately signing the record deal Durst offered. Conse- quently, Taproot appears to be quickly growing under the tag of "the band that pissed off Fred Durst." Richards clarifies that this is a situation he and the band do not really intend to be in for long. "Our album isn't out yet so it's okay with me if this goes on right now. When 'Gift' comes out though, I think we should be able to leave all this behind. I want to make it clear that I don't have any grievances with Fred for anything. If nothing else, all he did was help us early on in our band's career and anything he may have said about us seems to only be hurting him anyway. I have no hard feelings for him or from this situa- tion," Richards said. Although most people would see the long stretch of touring dates in Taproot's immediate future as an arduous task awaiting to be taken, the band sees it as a great opportu- nity for itself. "This is what we have been wanting to do. I am actually looking forward to touring actually since we have made so many friends across the country through our music. I think this is a great chance to meet these people in person," Richards said. The group has even done some preparation to deal with the touring ahead. "Well, right now all we have done is practice in a tiny room in my house. The sound system sucks but that doesn't matter. Were ready to go out there and play!" Richards said. DEAD Continued from Page 8 patronizing and infuriating in all the worst ways. In addition to these petty-yet- important complaints, "Waking The Dead" has a larger problem in that by focusing so sharply and lovingly on Fielding and Sarah's relation- ship, it ignores the supporting char- acters. They take on the idiotic one-dimensionality that Gordon imagines in his audience. It's not such an awful thing for Gordon to mistake us for dimwits - after all, we're still people, flesh and blood. Gordon's characters, on the other hand, are not. Isaac Green (Hal Holbrook), Fielding's political mentor pops in and out to give the boy a push in the right direction. Fielding's brother Danny (Paul Hipp) is the worst offender, a caricature of a hippie who has what has to be an early contender for worst subplot of the year, a love affair with a Korean prostitute (Sandra Oh, whose pres- ence here is an utter mystery to any- body who has seen her work elsewhere) that is unsure whether to be played for laughs or tears. It's nothing but pain every time he's on the screen; at least Janet McTeer does a passable job in a nothing role as sister Caroline. "Waking The Dead" suffers from nearly every dead lover cliche Hol- lywood has thrown at us over the years. It's to its credit that the rela- tionship between Fielding and Sarah remains not just passable but extremely credible. Fielding's rise and fall are credible as well (Sarah pins him down with perfection when she points out that even though he comes from a working class family, his parents gave him an upper crusty moniker) - but just as God is in the details, so is enter- tainment. Perhaps Crudup and Con- nelly will work together a third time and finally get it right. {': I U I ::>m i How a local gig in months thanks to the fact that the band got signed to major label, Atlantic Records do you say "I Love You and have been busy out in Los Ange- les recording its debut release. Richards said that "the album is called 'Gift' and we have recorded about 14 songs for it. It looks like there is going to be 12 songs or so on the album and we are probably going to use the other songs for soundtracks or something like that." Gift is slated for a June release. Although June is still a couple of months away, the buzz surrounding Taproot has been absolutely deafen- ing. The group has already made an appearance in this month's CMJ mag- azine, MTV's "News 1515" show as well as appearances in a number of for the first time, thirty years late? 11 S 'lichot (Forgiveness) A new play by Kim Yaged about the ties that bind when a family falls apart. Mar. 23 -25, Mar. 30 -Apr.1 at 8pm Mar.26 & Apr. 2 at 2pm Trueblood Theatre Tickets are $14 & Students $7 with ID League Ticket Office 734-764-0450 UM School of Music Department ofTheatre and Drama HOT TUNA, EX.JEFFERSON AIRPLANE GUITARIST JOKM ENNUR A tLN WITH MICHAEL FALZARANO SATURDAY MARCH 25 " THE ARK " 7:30PM Courtesy of USA"Films Fielding (Billy Crudup) gets a wake-up call in Keith Gordan's "Waking the Dead." THE UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN SCHOOL OF Music THEATRE DEPARTMENT: S'lichot by Kim Ya ed Thursday-Sunday, March 23-26 (Thu-Sat 8:OOPNI; Sun. 2:00P) Trueblood Theatre, Frieze Building How do our parents' expectations of us affect our own? What do we expect of our parents? The Levy family attempts to come to terms with the terminal illness of their matriarch. For tickets call 764-0450. GUEST WORKSHOP: Karl Berger, piano and vibes Friday, March 24, 12:30pm Stearns Cady Room SALLY FLEMING MASTERCLASS SERIES: Don Greene, sports psychologist Saturday, March 25,1:00 PM Britton Recital Hall An Olympic Sports Psychologist and author of "Audition Success". His techniques are a revolutionary approach to the audition process. FACULTY LECTURE/RECITAL: Louis Nagel, piano Saturday, March 25, 4:00PM (lecture) 6:00 PM (recital) Stearns Cady Rm 202 WOMEN'S GLEE CLUB Cho ir hosts Jam, spirited voices Saturday, March 25, 8:00 PM. Hill Auditorium Sandra Snow, conductor. GUEST WORKSHOP: Kenny Endo, Japanese percus> Sat uday, March 25,10:30 AM Rehearsal Hall A workshop on the traditional style of Japanese festiva ercussion music. RECITAL SERIES: The Coniplete ch Organ Works By Jee Chang )yail Arts Wnter GoodNews, a local Christian a cap- pella choir, is hosting the annual event Gospel Jam this Saturday. The night's theme will be "Testify to Love," with songs and skits based around this central theme. The perfor- mance features groups from Northwest- ern, Indiana University, Carnegi-Mellon and Princeton, in addi- ' ion to the University. Gospel Jam, a ten-year-old confer- ence for Christian a cappella groups, has been put into the show, and the groups performing are expected to be excellent. GoodNews alone has been growing in terms of popularity over the years. This five-year-old group that started with a small group of students has established a reputation here in Ann Arbor. Dunlap said he aims for the performance to be informational and enlightening, but most of all a lot of fun. There are no instruments involved, so the auditorium will be filled simply with a collaboration of voices. Gospel Jam will surely give the audience a chance to appreciate vocal music at its purest, something we rarely get to hear these days. James Kibbie, organ Sunday, March 26, 4:00 PM Blanche Anderson Moore Hall Seventh of Eighteen Recitals. Concerto AM b BWV 593; Individually Transmitted Chorales; Fantasie in CWV 1121; Chorales from the Neumeister Collection; Fantasia ad |Fugue [rncomplete] in C Minor, BWV 562; Chorales for Passiontide; Prelud &Fgue m E, BWV 566. PERCUSSION EN$EMBL.: Sunday, March 26, 4 PM McIntosh Theatre MICHIGAN YOUTH WOMENS :CHORALE & MICHIGAN YOUTH CHAMBER SINGERS will consist of a full GoodNews Rackham Auditorium Tomorrow at 7:30 p.m. weekend of sem- inars and discus- sions to learn different aspects of being in an a cappella group. This includes rehearsals, arranging music, p e r fo r m a n c e issues and group building activi- ties. The entire day will be devoted to time Sunday, March 26, 8:00 PM Hill Auditorium Sandra Snow & Jerry Blackstfre, conduct s MICHIGAN YOUTIBANDW MICHIGAN YOUTH SYMIHONY ORCHESTRA Monday, March 27, 7:00 PM Hill Auditorium Band: J. Eric Wilson, condttt W ks by: Mennin, Reed, & Ticheli. Orchestra: James Tapia, cndu ta*Firebird Suite (1919), Stravinsky; Polonaise from Eugene Ongi, haikovsy. UNIVERSITY SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA Tuesday, March 28, 8:00 PM Hill Auditorium Kenneth Kiesler, conductor. Violoncello Concerto, op.104, Dvorak, Thomas Landschoot, soloist; Symphony No.7, Beethoven. GUEST RECITAL: THE UNITED STATES CONTI- with speciai guest ZEN TRICKSTERS SATURDAY APRIL 1 9 MICHIGAN THEATER " 7:30PM N Apply now at the Law Library ~~ I =U= NENTAL ARMY BAND WOODWIND QUINTET Thursday, March 30, 8:00 PM Britton Recital Hall Sechs Bagatellen, Ligeit; Trois pices breves, Ibert; Quintet # 3, Cambin; Kleine KammArmusik. Hindemith. .I I 1 RLLA*xa::;HUO GOB I