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Cougar Cry
MEDEA / THE DUMB WAITER
Intellectual Theatre
By’Stormie Campbell
n March 26, 27 & 28, the WCC Theatre Department
presented an evening of two student directed shows,
Medea and The Dumb Waiter. The shows were per
formed on the Walker Center stage in a modified version
of Theatre in the Round, initially called 300 Theatre.
There was also a special Preview Performance on
Wednesday, the 25th at 8 p.m. for $2.
he first show was Euripides’ Medea, and was di-
VL' rected by Shawn Harmon. This 45 minute adapted
version of the Greek tragedy was a guaranteed whirlwind
of spectacle and talent. This age-old tale of a woman
scorned was a feast for the eyes and an accurate portrayal
of the roots of theatre. The show was stage managed by
Alan Seales, and the cast included Louise Hanville as
Medea, Nick Asa as Jason, Beth Parent as the Nurse,
Carlos Garcia as Aegis, Mike Hanville as Creon, Heather
Dean as Chorus, the children played by Caleb Hawkins
and Bo Caudill, plus numerous dancers. Make-up was
done by Chad Reeves.
he second show. The Dumb Waiter by Harold Pin-
ter, was a Theatre of the Absurd classic. It was con
sidered a Comedy, of Menace because it was a casual
play with something sinister lurking beyond the play’s
set. The show was directed by Nat Padgett, who cast two
females. Crystal Dean and Stormie Campbell, as Ben and
Gus - the two hitmen that the show was about. This was-
guaranteed to be thought provoking and an intense thea
tre experience. The show was stage managed by Chad
Reeves.
The cast of "Oh, What a Tangled Web. ” Left to right: Stormie
Canipheii, Dr. Karen Staten, Carlos Garcia and Cliff LeCornu.
This play’ was a part of the Sweetheart Dinner Production.
Batting For the Drama Department
By Shelley Schreiber
Unless you’re involved with the drama department
or with the baseball team, you may not realize that
we have a new batting cage which is housed in the
basement under the stage in the Walker Center. The
strange, unlikely mix of athletics and performing,
arts together in one, close space has resulted in
grumblings of discontent around campus.
Personally, I had only heard one side of the story
and set out to get the facts by interviewing Dr. Rita
Rodabaugh, the Dean of Instruction.
The “bottom line” here is that space is at a
premium for ail at WCC right now.
“Unfortunately, even though we have a huge, new
building, we didn’t gain a lot of actual classroom
space. So what we were trying to do is work as best
we could, together, to get the most use out of the
space we have,” Dr. Rodabaugh told me.
Why do we need a batting cage at all?
Wes Scroggs, the newly appointed athletic director,
is trying to build up our athletic teams, so we have a
lot of students who came to WCC this year specifi
cally to play certain sports. One of them is baseball.
The students enrolled for these teams have required
classes with the required number of hours to com
plete. One of these classes involves batting practice.
When this class is mandatory in the spring semester,
it’s hard to get in the required number of hours to
complete the class if it’s raining, cold and windy
outside. This year’s weather has been especially
hard on us.
What was needed was a place to practice inside and
an area that has a very high ceiling and is wide
enough for the students to bat. One of the few areas
on campus that fit this criteria was in the basement
of the Walker Center. The gym, although large
enough, was not a reasonable choice. It is usually
scheduled for various sorts of other classes and ac
tivities; basketball games, volleyball intramurals,
aerobics and self-defense classes, plus high school
and community usage. Another reason to not use the
gym is that the batting cage can’t be assembled and
disassembled, just slid from one space to another
and that would ruin the newly refmished gym floor.
(Cominued on page I