4B - Thursday, A prill1, 2010

The Michigan Daily, - michigandaily.com

4B - Thursday, April 1, 2010 The Michigan Daily - michigandailycom

TANZI
From Page 1B
"For agood awkward stage, I was
a tomboy," she explained. "I believe
it was the period of my life when I
was missing my two front teeth ...
and I refused to wear dresses. All
I would ever wear were boys' plaid
shirts from Old Navy and cut-off
shorts. SoI rocked the look at some
point."
"(With Tanzi) being a tomboy
and not a classic girly-girl, it made it
easier to relate to her, and painting a
clear picture of who she was made
her more likeable tnno" she added.

Portraying a tomboy may not
have been too difficult, but Gold-
man found that playing the role of a
championship wrestler with a Brit-
ish accent posed a greater challenge.
Overcoming the stereotype that
women should not be allowed to
compete with men in athletic.com-
petition - an opinion that still
remains true for some - becomes
a focal point of the performance.
After all, Luckham wrote the play,
during a time when sexismin sports
was a hot-button issue. Billie Jean
King had only recently defeated
Bobby Riggs in the "Battle of Sexes"
tennis match. Her victory spurred
a debate that - despite legisla-
tive efforts like Title TX - has not

ceased since. . social barriers in her pursuit to
An even clearer portrait of female become a championship wrestler.
oppression is presented in the role of For assistant director and Music,
Tanzi's Mum, played by Music, The- Theatre & Dance sophomore Pors-
atre & Dance junior Kelsey Lappa. cha Kazmierczak, Tanzi's effort in
"She's kind of the stereotypical attaining this goal is clearly a femi-
1950s woman-in-a-man's-world nist statement.
type of person," Lappa explained. "I hope (the audience) can take
"She thinks men are all pigs but away that women are still oppressed
she's also into conforming with all in one way or another (even if) in
the men ... (Tulip) said to me in one subtle ways we take for granted,"
of the rehearsals, 'Imagine a mother she said.
breastfeeding her child with a beer Ultimately, you don't have to be
in the other hand."' Betty Friedan or Hulk Hogan to
Attacking this image of a broken- enjoy "Trafford Tanzi." The pro-
down mother who cooks, cleans duction will put your loudest whis-
and takes care of her children all tle, capacity for laughter and tear
day is the story's primary purpose. ducts to the test as you root Tanzi
Tanzi faces countless physical and on until the very end.

'Trafford Tanzi' started out in bars in Liverpool before making its way to London.

Everything's Beachy

0

The cast of this production was trained by Charles Fairbanks, who spent last summer as a luchafibre.

By JASMINE ZHU
Daily Arts Writer
It seems almost too good to be
true, but Beach House will be play-
ing tonight at
the Crofoot in Beach House
Pontiac. And
fans of Victo- Tonight at
ria Legrand's 8 p.m.
haunting vocals The Crofoot
needn't worry. Ballroom, Pontiac
Fellow band Ticketsfrom $12
member Alex
Scally reas-
sured The Michigan Daily that
the Baltimore-based dreamy duo
will indeed be playing their fourth
Michigan concert this Thursday
to support their latest album Teen
Dream.
Scally talked to the Daily after
his band had just finished doing
a soundcheck before a concert in
Boston. The show came just days
after a whirlwind European tour.
The hectic schedule seemed to
have left poor Alex a little weary.
"I don't know," he laughed, when
asked about his favorite Beach
House song. "I hate them all."
Luckily for Scally, the band
always seems to be in the process of
creating a new album.
"We're always writing. So yeah,
there's always a new album brew-
ing," he said. "I think it comes from
different places for me and Victoria
both. I think t'm very much a musi-
cal being, I think about it all the
time, I listen to it all the time."
Scally said that however gruel-
ing the tour was, he was still having
fun.
"It's goin'gpretty well, we're try-
ing to figure things out," he said.
"It's nerve-wracking, but it's a good
time."
When asked about his favorite
venues, Scally couldn't decide, and
instead cited all four of the shows
Beach House played in Michigan
among his favorites.

Beach House just finished up a whirlwind tour of Europe.
"I personally enjoyed all four of you don't want to take home to
my Michigan shows. I'm not jok- Mom," he said.
ing. We played at a cool art museum While opening up, Scally also
in Detroit, we played in Ann Arbor, admitted to his current band
we played at the Magic Stick, crush.
which is like this crazy bowling "I kind of have a crush on
alley, and we played at the Ladies Washed Out, who we're going on
Literary Club in Grand Rapids. So tour with," he said.
we played like four really amazing And if he could be in any band
shows in Michigan alone that were other than Beach House?
all pretty interesting," he said. "Celine Dion's backing band,"
he said definitively and without
hesitation.
"tsn r eCarefully disarrayed outfits
seem to play an important role in
w rcking but it's many band's image. Scally's sar-
torial tastes, not unexpectedly,
a good time." lean toward secondhand shops.
Legrand gets most of her stage
clothing from thrift stores as well.
"We literally go to thrift stores
Things quickly got person- all the time. We actually went to
al during the interview. Scally one today. And we got some awe-
defined real love without any kind some clothing," he said.
of bullshitting. The best time and place to lis-
'Real Love' is a song that ten to Beach House?
Victoria wrote the lyrics for and "In the woods, blaring out of
titled. I think it's a kind of fucked a jeep. While you're making out
up, sick kind of thing. It's not with somebody," Scally said.
cryptic. It's not like the movies. Good to know.
It's kind of an unbalanced wild Also, Scally enjoys Twixbars as
kind of thing. The kind of thing his favorite candy treat.


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IMPROV
From Page 3B
"The relationship has been real-
ly wonderful for us," Gumbiner
added.
In essence, improvisational com-
edy is a collaborative process. Of
course, a strong rapport between
group . members is vital, but a
group's relationship with its audi-
ence is perhaps equally important.
"If an audience member is
engaged and listening, the payoff
is so much better when every-
thing clicks for us and we're in
that zone making people laugh.
Everything clicks. You feel good,"
Brannon said.
A disengaged or noncommittal
audience usually spells disaster.
"We're very frequently asked to
do appearances at charity events
or open for other groups ... and
sometimes they can be very dead
because they're not the audiences
that are coming out to see us. It's
very, very hard to be making a joke
onstage and having no response,"
Pirzada said.
Brannon knows the nightmare
of performing for another group's
less-than-enthusiastic audience

quite well. He described one show
in which they performed during an
"Indian dance extravaganza."
"It was like a crowd full of
drunk Indians and they were like
yelling at us, 'Get off the stage! Put
the dancers back on!' And we'd ask
for suggestions and they'd be like,
'7-Eleven, ha-ha-ha!' It was hor-
rible," Brannon said.
Still, there are far graver risks in
improv than the occasional drunk-
en jeering. With no script to rely on,
the show could bomb at any minute.
Clearly, it takes aspecialkind of for-
titude to take the stage having no
idea what you're about to say.
"(Improv is) mostly just about
being able to be completely vulner-
able and just letting yourself go on
stage," Pirzada said. "You're basi-
cally being an ass on stage so you
have to be able to let go of any inhi-
bitions."
Finding that certain type of
"ass" can be difficult. The groups'
audition processes try to gauge the
fearlessness - and the wits - of
potential members.
"The first thing (I was told)
was like, 'Be a porcupine that just
received the best news of his life.'
And to react quickly to something
like that requires not only quick
thinking but the ability to lust do

what your gut feeling says. We're
looking for people who have funny
guts, pretty much," Stuessy said.
Despite technically being com-
petitors, the improv groups on
campus have a generally amiable
relationship with each other.
"You see other people from
improv groups and you say hello.
..Idon't think anybody hates each
other. It's not like a rivalry. Every-
body's really doing their own thing
and it's all about making people
laugh anyway," Brannon said.
"I've been a fan of Witt's End,"
Pirzada said. "One of our members
who was in ComCo last year is
doing Witt's End this year because
she wanted to flip to more long
form, so there's maybe like a jokey
thing there. (But) we all put on
shows. We all get audiences."
It's not surprising that there's
no bad blood between groups,
even though they might often be
competing for the same audiences.
'There just doesn't seem to be any
room for animosity in between the
laughs.
"I mean, even if we flop it's going
to be pretty funny," Brannon said.
"Ifyou're not laughing with us,you
can laugh at us. Just come in, pre-
game it, have some fun. tt should
just be fun."
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