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VOL. 62, ISSUE 10 I WEDNESDAY, APRIL 8, 2015 I THEBLUEBANNER.NET Traveler opts out of city living ERIKA WILLIAMS ewilla6@unca.edu - Contributor Reflected in the wire- rimmed circle of glass which rested on the musician’s nose, the dusty workshop itself became a sphere. His old almond eyes, glistening like they could recite the knowledge of the world, rarely strayed from his wife while he spoke with an earthy, yet eloquent tone. “1 build homes, some times like castles for the people in Toxaway,” said Rob Olrech, fiddling with the grey hairs of his beard with a calloused hand that was spluttered with black caulk to match his jeans. Qlrech, who has no permanent residency but in the heart of his wife. May Goring, said he would never own a house like this. Olrech said he doesn’t think anyone really needs to own a $3 million home. “I could drive you around the county, and show you about 50 houses I have built or renovated, and 1 am proud of that. Someone has to do it,” Olrech said. He spent many years of his life working odd jobs in exchange for food and shelter. “1 never really thought of myself as a homeless person, just hoboing around, I guess,” Olrech said. “I spent some time living in my car, camping and in cabins.” David Williams, one of Olrech’s previous employers, said he works harder than anyone he ever SEE TRAVELER ON PAGE 7 Sexy Evil Genius’ eiieis a devieus delight REVIEW LARISA KARR A&F Editor . The lights were dim, the alcohol was flowing and trouble was afoot. So began the opening scene of “Sexy Evil Ge nius,” a new play brewed up from Asheville’s warped and wonderful Dark Horse Theatre col lective. “Dark Horse Theatre is my company, and I have a lot of roles actually,” said Emily McClain, the mastermind behind Dark Horse. “We have a guest director, Stephanie Hickling Beckman, from Different Strokes theater, k actually got Stephanie the rights to the show by call ing the agent of the author, it was authorized and then I wrote the script for it.” Based on a 2013 film of the same name starring Michelle Trachtenberg' and Seth Green, theatrical adaptations of film.are nothing new for the seven- year-old company. “We tend to do dark comedy like ‘Heathers’ and ‘The Last Supper,”’ McClain said. “I look for stuff that has one set. This was set in a bar, and so it was made for that. It also just has to have a dark un dercurrent of craziness.” A theater major in college who ended up rebelling “because of the studying,” McClain reveals that Dark Horse’s slow but steady gallop started because of a dare in 2008. “I was hanging out with friends at a lake house and somebody said that they would like to do Heathers on stage and I said, ‘I’m doing it,”’ McClain said, “That being our first show, we had about 13 people. It was a ridiculous, huge cast of all my friends, so they were impossible to rein in.” “Sexy Evil Genius,” their ninth production, is a demented treat to relish and enjoy, as it provides an chance to observe a series of amusing interactions between odd characters through the course of one . drunken evening. Beginning with ten sion-filled banter between a salesman and a free spirit, it is revealed they have both been asked by the same person, Nikki Franklin, to come to the bar. And yes, both char acters are, it turns out. her exes. Zac is the salesman, disgruntled by the fact that he’s at a bar drinking mar tinis.stuffed with olives when he could be at home, eating dinner and not en gaging in such precarious behavior. Miranda, a for mer junkie fiercely dressed in black, sips her absinthe with cool precision from the other end of the bar, taunting Zac’s white-collar lifestyle all the while. At this point, Miranda reveals her knowledge that Nikki is also an alleged murderer and as they start discussing the periods in their life when they were together with Nicki, a third character appears. Marvin Coolidge, a suave jazz man who is part of a group called the Re Bops, twirls his way into the bar, also revealing his past as Nikki’s former lover. This is the only thing any of them really have in common. Zac, a goody-two-shoes Photo by Makeda Sandford- Staff Photographer. Scott Bean and Desmond Zampella performing “Sexy Evil Genius.” who vomited blueberry pancakes on Nikki’s shoes after prom, was her first boyfriend. Left in the dust because she deemed him too boring, Nikki later developed a heroin addiction and consequent ly, a relationship with the rough-and-tumble Miran da, who she met in rehab. Nikki’s relationship to Marvin, however, did not seem rooted in a seminal period in her life. Rather, it sounds like he is one of many recipients of her sprees of lust. As they delve more into the timeframe and details of the story, the suited individual seated at the bar reveals their presence and what ensues is nothing short of mayhem and madness. Desmond Zampella, an actor from Florida, dis cussed both the positives and pitfalls of playing Marvin, a character who ultimately had more of an impact on Nikki’s life than the audience is initially led to believe. manipulative. “I didn’t like that he was You shouldn’t Emily McClain and holograph Zampella share a moment. SEE GENIUS ON PAGES Queer Studies Conference comes to “Lovetown” TIMBI SHEPHERD jshephe3@unca.edu - A&F Asst. Editor Queer studies scholars from across the country gathered on UNC Ashe ville’s campus this week end for the university’s biennial Queer Studies Conference. Attendees began ar riving Thursday, just one day after April Fools’ Day, pranksters transformed the city’s “Welcome to Pepsi- town” billboard, rendering its message “Welcome to Lovetown.” This literal sign of change reflects a set of questions Joe Urge, in terim provost, asked the crowd while introducing the conference’s keynote speaker, LGBT rights ac tivist Urvashi Vaid. “Will society look the same 50 years from now? Except that then we’ll have queer generals wag ing unjust wars? Queer embezzlers ripping us off? Queer moguls exploiting low-paid queer workers?” Urge said. “Qr will the LGBT movement lead us to something more equita ble, something less violent, something more humane?” These are just a few of the questipns with which Vaid grapples in her work, Urgo said, indicating that this kind of critical inquiry is what the Queer Studies Conference is all about. “This is the hard intel- SEE QUEER ON PAGE 5 Sports profile the man behind the mascot mask Opinion piece a day in the brain of a coffee fiend Historical feature Asheville’s Jewish history -E3'b.-
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April 8, 2015, edition 1
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