6 — Tuesday, February 18, 2020
Arts
The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com

WHISPER

SUBMIT A 
WHISPER

By Craig Stowe
©2020 Tribune Content Agency, LLC
02/18/20

Los Angeles Times Daily Crossword Puzzle

Edited by Rich Norris and Joyce Nichols Lewis

02/18/20

ANSWER TO PREVIOUS PUZZLE:

Release Date: Tuesday, February 18, 2020

ACROSS
1 Govt.-backed 
investment
6 Travelocity 
recommendations
10 Comprehends
14 Commandment 
verb involving 
parents
15 Niño’s “nothing”
16 Difficult exam
17 Kagan of the 
Supreme Court
18 Fruit grown in 
bogs
20 *Billy Crystal 
comedy featuring 
a cattle drive
22 __, amas, amat ...
23 Gnaw (at)
24 Grocery walkway
28 Offshore oil 
drillers
30 *Exact look-alike
34 Stiff-upper-lip 
type
36 Under, in French
37 Graffiti signature
38 *Daily filming 
schedule on the 
set
42 Musical gift
45 Roman robe
46 Hustle genre
50 *One in la-la land
54 Croat or Serb
55 Mexican mister
56 Correct
58 “__ had it!”
59 Somewhat 
liberal, or where 
you might find 
the first words in 
the answers to 
starred clues
64 Soap opera 
genre
67 1960s jacket style
68 Cooking spot
69 Large-scale
70 Warning signs
71 Like fake fruit
72 See socially
73 From 
Lillehammer, say

DOWN
1 “My Best Friend’s 
Girl” rock band
2 Like poker games 
for high rollers
3 Small takeout 
order
4 Tiger mascot with 
a red scarf

5 Clear data from
6 Provoke
7 Dealer’s foil, 
briefly
8 Southern 
neighbor of 
Sask.
9 Reasonable
10 Enters
11 “To say they 
__ I dare not 
be so bold”: 
Shakespeare
12 North Carolina 
__ Heels
13 Cunning
19 Slow-cooked, as 
short ribs
21 Young chap
25 Bilko’s rank: 
Abbr.
26 Grazing area
27 Joule fraction
29 [not my error]
31 Family name in 
Mideast politics
32 Homer’s “I’m an 
idiot!”
33 Feel remorse 
over
35 Provided food for
39 Tone-__: “Wild 
Thing” rapper
40 NYC airport near 
Citi Field

41 “__ the 
season ... ”
42 Scout leader?
43 Monkey 
relative
44 Sought a political 
seat
47 Move like a 
mamba
48 Carlsbad __ 
National Park
49 Do to death
51 Revolutionary 
territory

52 Wear away, as a 
coin surface
53 Nervous twitch
57 Noble gas
60 Dancer Astaire
61 Spanish 
appetizer
62 Leave out
63 Verne captain
64 Work on a lawn
65 “Training Day” 
actress Mendes
66 “Superman” 
villain Luthor

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SUDOKU

MEDIUM

5

3

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5
3
8

7

3

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5
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1
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2

5

Sudoku Syndication
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1 of 1
3/30/09 10:03 AM

SUDOKU

It’s no shock that Carly Pearce 
released her self-titled sophomore 
album on Valentine’s Day. She tied 
the knot with fellow country artist 
Michael Ray last October and hasn’t 
been very shy about her feelings for 
him on social media. It makes sense 
that her starry-eyed Instagram 
posts would carry over to her music. 
Luckily for listeners though, Carly 
Pearce isn’t mushy gushy, but open-
hearted. 
Sure, this album is stocked with 
its fair share of love songs. The 
most conventional of these sounds 
so sweet it feels sour: On “Finish 
Your Sentences” Pearce and her 
husband alternate verses, proving 
that they literally have the ability 
to accomplish the title’s cliche. 
It should be cute, but when the 
answers to questions like “Should I 
wear this dress?” are obvious, it just 
comes off as trying too hard.
On “Closer to You,” “Call Me” 
and “You Kissed Me First” Pearce is 
far more in her element: flirtatious, 
lively and light-hearted. Using these 

songs, one could easily trace the 
beginnings of her love story with 
her husband. That’s why it’s a little 
off-putting to discover that Pearce 
didn’t write any of them.
On an Instagram post for “You 
Kissed Me First,” Pearce wrote 
that she felt like songwriter Hillary 
Lindsey had written her story for 
her. Even though there’s a certain 
expectation in country music that 
singers write their own material, 

Pearce’s choice to cut these tracks 
is commendable. She isn’t going 
to stop herself from singing a song 
that suits her just because she didn’t 
write it.
The stand out track is a song that 
Pearce did have a hand in writing — 
it’s about an ex. On “I Hope You’re 
Happy Now,” a soaring duet with 
Lee Brice, Pearce takes all the blame 

for the failed relationship. “It’s all on 
me / it’s my mistake / I said ‘I don’t 
love you’ a little too late,” she admits.
The 
album’s 
throughline 
is 
Pearce’s vulnerability. Everyone 
loves a good party song or a bit of 
alcohol-related word play, but it’s 
refreshing that Pearce didn’t lean 
on either common country music 
crutch to compile her record. 
Because country radio’s airwaves 
are male-dominated and beer-
loving, not playing into that kind of 
song is a risk. One that Pearce makes 
the most of. 
For 
every 
party 
song 
slot 
she sacrifices, Pearce flexes her 
storytelling skills. “Woman Down” 
is a high-stakes late night drive 
following a woman “down on her 
luck.” “Dashboard Jesus” is a sunny 
update to “Jesus Takes the Wheel.” 
And the most personal song on 
the album, “It Won’t Always Be 
Like This” catches Carly in the 
strangeness of feeling nostalgic for 
both the past and present. Anyone 
can (and pretty much everyone 
does) sing about love, but stories are 
a more difficult feat.

Pearce is open-hearted on 
self-titled sophomore LP

BIG MACHINE

KATIE BEEKMAN
Daily Arts Writer

Inside the Newman Studio 
of the Walgreen Drama Center, 
two rows of actors wearing 
white face paint silently sat 
facing each other on either side 
of an empty black stage, while 
audience members filtered in. 
This was the student-run theatre 
organization 
Basement 
Arts’ 
“Spring Awakening,” the original 
play written by Frank Wedekind 
in 1906 from which the 2006 hit 
Broadway rock musical of the 
same name took inspiration. But 
the viewer experience was far 
from the same.
The 
play 
follows 
several 
interwoven stories of teenagers 
growing up in an oppressive 
provincial 
Germany 
in 
the 
late 1800s. They grapple with 
newfound 
and 
unexplained 
sexual desires, spar with their 
parents and face the crushing 
pressure to succeed in school, 
all while struggling with their 
new identities as young adults. 
“Spring Awakening” is famous 
for dealing with teen sexuality, 
suicide and the dangers that 
institutionalized pressure and 
silence can have on young people.
To no fault of Basement 
Arts, the major downfall of this 
production was the writing. The 
language was archaic and at 
times incomprehensible. The play 
opened with a scene supposedly 
set in a schoolyard. However, 
as the actors played catch with 
a rubber ball, their antiquated 
dialogue was a harsh contrast to 
their childish demeanors. The 
overly complex and philosophical 
language continued to detract 
from the powerful story. The play 
was also two hours of non-stop 
darkly heavy content. While the 
ideas may be timeless, the show 
was too serious to sit through 

without any comedic relief, or, 
for that matter, an intermission.
Even with this controversial 
and slightly problematic script, 
the direction could have been 
what saved the show, but I did 
not find this to be the case. When 
delivering their lines, most of 
the actors employed the same 
strange mix of teen angst through 
a somewhat Shakespearian tone.
Even more unsettling was 
that, for the majority of the 
play, every line seemed to be 
screamed. For yelling to be at 
all effective, it needs to happen 
rarely. However, I found it 
hard to care more about a main 
character’s speech preceding his 
death than his woes regarding 
his class rank because both were 
delivered in the same tone and 
volume. Given the consistency 
in screaming across characters, 
it seems more plausible that this 
was a directing issue rather than 
a personal choice coincidentally 
made by almost the entire cast of 
drama students.
For a show that deals so 
heavily with female adolescence 
and female sexuality, I was 
surprised to learn that both 
directors were male. It was 
definitely interesting to watch 
the actors, both male and female, 
work 
through 
this 
material 
knowing it was both written 
and directed by men. While it’s 
admirable that these students 
desired to shed light on female 
issues, watching this raised the 
question of why we continue to 
perform and celebrate stories 
written about women by men, 
instead of bringing the opinions 
and 
perspectives 
of 
women 
themselves forward.
Despite 
the 
questionable 
directing, it was clear that 
the actors were well-trained 
drama 
students. 
Particularly 
successful was SMTD junior 
Emma 
Steiner 
as 
Wendla 
Bergmann. Steiner carefully and 
maturely executed the innocence 

and 
sincerity 
necessary 
for 
Wendla. She had clear intention 
behind her actions, as well as 
an understanding of both the 
language and the objectives of 
her character. Consequently, her 
scenes were some of the most 
enjoyable, as she was able to 
more explicitly convey the plot 
points and underlying emotions. 
SMTD junior Nathan Correll as 
Hansy/Mrs. Gabor also stood 
out because of the contrast in his 
portrayals of the overbearing, 
ultimately 
sympathetic 
Mrs. 
Gabor and the closeted gay 
schoolboy, Hansy. He was able 
to reach the audience because of 
the variation both between and 
within each of his performances, 
and he was exceptionally precise 
in his emotional delivery of each 
of his monologues.
Most importantly, audiences 
might be tired of shows that 
merely present how bad things 
were (or are). It’s harmful to 
present themes of homophobia, 
sexism, suicide and rape to 
audiences if there is no new or 
insightful take on them. We know 
that things used to be and still are 
bad, and a lot of times this stems 
from deep-rooted societal issues. 
But what next? There needs to be 
an adequate justification to show 
these deeply personal topics in 
such a blunt and graphic way, 
and this play did not deliver this. 
Furthermore, to present these 
heavy and extremely relevant 
topics so inaccessibly borders on 
irresponsible.
In the end, the content and 
delivery left me wondering why 
Basement Arts chose this play. 
The reason why the 2006 musical 
adaptation was so successful 
was because it took a heavy yet 
important story and presented 
it appropriately for 21st century 
audiences. This return to the 
original play fell flat because 
neither the presentation nor the 
source material are relevant to 
modern viewers.

‘Spring Awakening’ can’t 
reach modern audiences

CAROLINE ATKINSON
For The Daily

Carly Pearce

Carly Pearce

Big Machine

ALBUM REVIEW
ALBUM REVIEW
COMMUNITY CULTURE REVIEW

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michigandaily.com

