n.c. essay, page 7 tlirisday; fd, 13,1975
Theatre Opens
THEATRE From Page 1
began planning the School of the Arts in
1963. She continues to serve on the
school’s advisory board as an artistic
consultant.
In 1970, Miss de Mille staged the world
premiere of her ballet “A Rose For Miss
Emily” at the school. In 1973, she
initiated her “Heritage Dance Theatre”
at NCSA. The world premiere was
presented for Winston-Salem audiences.
The program for the opening of the
theatre include “Serenade” with
choreography by George Balanchine, the
music being “Serenade for Strings” by
Peter Tchaicovsky, and “Ancient Voices
of Children”, choreographed by Richard
Kuch to music composed by George
Crumb.
Also on the program were “Three
Virgins and a EJevil”, chorographed by
Miss de Mille, with “Ancient Airs and
Dances” by Ottorino Respighi, and
“Concerto” choreographed by Duncan
Noble, to Weber’s Grand Piano Concerto
No. 1. The piano solo was performed by
I^slie Spotz, an alumnus of the school.
The music for the program was
provided by School of the Arts faculty
members of the Piedmont Chamber
Orchestra, and their students. The
orchestra was conducted by Nicholas
Harsanyi, dean of music.
The entire program was under the
direction of Robert Lindgren, dean of
dance.
George Crumb, the composer of the
music “Ancient Voices of Children”,
received the Pulitzer Prize in 1968 for his
four processionals for orchestra titled
“Echoes of Time and the River”. He has
also received awards, grants, and
commissions from the Rockefeller,
Koussevitsky, Coolidge, Fromm, and
Guggenheim Foundations, as well as
from the National Institute of Arts and
I^etters.
Crumb was present at the dedicatory
performance and also conducted master
classes. “Ancient Voices” is part of an
extended cycle of vocal compositions
based on poetry by Federico Garcia
Lorca. In composing “Ancient Voices”,
Crumb has drawn on a variety of
luirelated stylistic elements as musical
images to reinforce the imagery of
Lorca’s poetry, which Crumb says is
concerned “with the most primary
things: life, death, love, and smell of the
earth, the sounds of the wind and the
sea.”
The piece was conducted by Chancellor
Robert Suderburg, and featured
Elizabeth Suderburg, soprano, and
Jonathan Suderburg, boy soprano.
“Serenade” was the first work which
George Balanchine choreographed in the
U.S. It was designed for his students at
the School of American Ballet, to show
them how dancing on stage differs from
classroom work. It is now in the
permanent repertory of the New York
City Ballet. Victoria Simon, Balanchine’s
ballet mistress, came to the school to
stage the ballet for the de Mille Theatre.
“Three Virgins and a Devil”, a ballet
in one act, was originally produced by the
Ballet Theatre on Feb. 11, 1941, at the
Majestic Theatre in New York. The
ballet was staged by Miss de Mille for the
production here. The dancers in this
ballet are NCSA students who have been
in Miss de Mille’s Heritage Dance
Theatre Company.
“Food Day” Is Set
Open Letter to Students from Food Day
Coordinator Michael Jacobson
Here are a few facts you may or may
not be aware of:
- The U.S. military budget is 60 times
greater than the budget for overseas
economic aid. During a 14 hour period,
the Defense Department spends more
than the entire annual budget of the
United Nations food program.
- Only about 40 percent of Americans
eligible for food stamps currently receive
them, and President Ford has announced
his intentions to cut the food stamp
program budget by about one billion
dollars or 25 percent.
- The ad budget of General Foods is
ahnost three times bigger than the
budget of the Food Bureau of the U.S.
Food and Drug Administration.
- The American meat-based diet
deprives the world of 18 million tons of
cereal protein, an amount almost equal
to the world’s protein deficiency.
- Diet contributes to half of all deaths in
the United States.
Soaring food prices, increasing world
food shortages, and mounting evidence of
the dangerous health effects of the overly
processed and refined American diet
indicate that, if left to its own devices, the
Federal government will not take the
steps necessary to develop a responsible
food policy. The food industry—the
corporations that bring you Cool Whip
and Twinkies-have sold Americans on a
diet of sugar-laden, fat-rich
“convenience” foods that are
contributing to a national epidemic of
heart disease, diabetes, hypertension
and obesity. While encouraging
unhealthy eating habits through
advertising and availability, these
corporations are also contributing to high
food prices. A Federal Trade
Commission study estimated that
consumers were overcharged $2 billion in
1972, because of the monopolistic
structure of several segments of the food
industry.
We hope that college and University
students will take part in FOOD DAY,
using their campuses as organizing focal
points for both campus- and community-
oriented activities. As a first step in
accomplishing this, we urge students and
faculty to set up joint committees to
investigate what can be done at your
campus, such as creating a campus-
coniniunity garden or food coop,*
initiating sweeping changes in university
food-buying policies, getting nutritious
food in vending machines, or planning
massive teach-ins for April 17th.
The food problems which face the
nation and the world demand immediate
action. Initial FOOD DAY actions may
not make headlines or quickly change
Federal or corporate policies, but they
will put decision-makers on notice that
the American public is no longer willing
to participate in the wasteful use of food
resources.
The rise of the environmental
movement and the end to direct
American involvement in the Vietnam
War are directly traceable to campus
activity. The students of America can
once again make a commitment to
actions that can result in long-overdue
changes in the way in which the Federal
government, corporate America, and
individuals decide how and to whom food
will be allocated.
FOOD DAY national offices are open at
1785 Massachusetts Ave., NW, Room 206,
Washington, D.C. 20036 ( 202462-«510). If
you are interested in organizing FOOD
DAY teach-ins or other activities,
contact the office for further information
and organizing suggestions.
Drama Department Loses Dean
POLLOCK, From Page 1
guest lecturers in mime and other
related fields, are part of a drama
student’s program. Visiting teachers are
often used to add new ideas and fresh
experience.
The London program has been added
for third and fourth year students.
“lx)ndon is the home of classical
theatre,” Pollock said “Students have a
chance to see much of what they have
studied. History is all around them. They
get exposed to a different training
method.”
Student-directed productions have
become a reality. Scene workshops,
initiated by Pollock, were started “to
provide an opportunity for students to
perform and utilize the training they
were getting in classes. And for the first
time in the School of Drama’s history,”
Pollock said, “every student eligible for
casting has been cast.”
“The students need new energy and
thoughts,” Pollock said. “It’s too easy for
a rut to become tradition. We get farther
and farther from professional theatre,
which is what we’re striving for. It’s time
for new blood.”
“On a personal level,” Pollock con
tinued, “I never planned to stay here
seven years. I thought I might stay three
years, or not more than five. I’m still a
Canadian at heart. I’ve never really held
the same attitude as an American -
particularly a Southern American.”
“My family and I hope to return to
Canada,” Pollock said. “I want my
children to be bilin^al and to have a
knowledge of Canadian history.”
Pollock, a natural-bom Canadian,
came to NCSA in 1968. Pollock explained,
“I was working at the Playhouse Theatre
Company in Vancouver as a stage
manager. I had been there five years.
The artistic director there was Malcolm
Black. Malcolm was invited to guest-
direct ‘Henry IV’ here at NCSA. While he
was here, he had trouble getting the
production off the ground. There was no
Design and Production Department at
that time. There were simply some
‘techies’ associated with the drama
department. Malcohn pointed out the
need for a porduction manager. He knew
I was interested in such a job, and
reconmiended me for the position. I was
' ivited for an interview shortly after
ihat.”
renamed.”
In the second year, I also becanie
acting dean of drama. Since we wanted
the schools to be separate, it was a tricky
path to follow. I think I managed to fair
and wear both hats. However, I soon
found that the drama department was
more demanding and required a
disproportionate amount of time. Many
changes were needed.”
“There had been four drama depart
ment deans in three years, and the'
program suffered from the changes.
There was a lot of rebuilding to be done.”
At the end of that second year.
Chancellor Ward offered me my choice of
either department. My training had been
as an actor, and what I knew technically
was learned by experience. I chose the
drama denartment.” '
“We began the search for a dean of
Design and Production. Ward and I went
to East Carolina University to meet John
Sneden and to see his work on ‘Hello
Dolly’. We were impressed and he was
subsequently invited to NCSA.”
Bob Murray, director of acting
program, expressed the opinion of many
students and faculty with this statement
about Pollock: “Students who have at
tended NCSA during Ron PoUock’s
administration are being employed by
motion pictures, television, Broadway
plays, Broadway musicals, repertory
theatre, and are involved in graduate
programs and university theatre com
panies. I think his seven years here have
been very successful and we were very
lucky to have his ability in those for-*
mative years.”
Modules Hit Road
Kssay Hhoio By Kryaiit Arrington
Ron Pollock
“Two weeks after I had returned to
Canada, Robert Ward caUed and asked
organize a
technical department separate from the
drama department. I accepted, and
arrived here one week before the
students, a designer, Charlie Evans, and
two other techies, were to arrive. Charlie
^ room and
started work on a curriculum and made
plans for a studio and shop. The budgets
were small.”
We persuaded the Foundation that we
needed equipment, more room, and what
became the carpentry shop. The present
scene shop was a stack of lumber which
we bulldozed out of the way/’
“I remember how enthusiastic the
students were. We all decided to answer
the phone ‘School of Design and
ProducUon’. At the end of that first year,
that’s how the technical department was
By NANCY COZART
Kssay Staff lleporter
Beginning February 3rd, the school of
the arts is sending out tour modules
which will perform at a central school in
each of 25 counties. The tour will last for
five weeks. Each week a different
module will go out. All the departments
will be represented with not more than
ten students in each module.
Maureen Trotto, instructor in costume
and design, is chairperson of the module
committee. Duncan Noble, assistant to
the dean of dance, is a member of the
committee and is choreographing for the
modules. Christine Turbitt is designing
the costumes for them.
Ms. Trotto says that the first tour
really served as an experiment. She said
that there was lack of grip on the
situation, such as, the per deum for the
students was not enough, and the room
arrangements needed to be straightened
out. The tour is sponsored under the
auspices of the State department of
Public Instruction. It had been suggested- -
by the Department to send out .something
that would give the best the school could
offer. If viewed successfully this year,
the modules will be continued for the next
three years covering 25 counties a year.
THE WEEK OF February 3rd the
module was “Fables and Things”, which
is based on stories by James '^urber. It
was directed by Lesley Hunt. For the
week of the 10th, the program is “Per
formance in Action”, directed by James
Beard. It involves selections from
various musicals such as “West Side
Story”. The week of February 17th \^1
be “Selections from Spoon River
Anthology”, directed by Robert Murray.
“Improvisations”, directed by Duncan
Noble and Maureen Trotto will be on tour
the week of the 24th, and during the first
week of March the tour will be “history of
Jazz”, directed by Scott Schillin and Ken
Miller.
Dave Dillon, a drama major in the
second module, “Performance in
Action” said, “The modules are more
demanding than people seem to realize.
It becomes difficult to keep up with
classes.” Dillon added,” The experience
• isgood; andienjoyrt.’Thrs'is-myidndof •
theatre.”