November 25, 1991
Social commentator Hal Crowther speaks on campus
Lee Fessler
Staff Writer
He hates Madonna, refers to Nancy Reagan
as an "anorexic voodoo doll," applies the
label "Luddite" to himself, has been sued for
$9 million (and won) and feels Americans
have experienced culture death.
Meet Hal Crowther, ultra-skeptical social
critic who spoke on campus Nov. 19.
Crowther is a weekly columnist for The
Independent , a Raleigh based alternative
media publication. His articles, which he
admits stem from "frustration, fury and the
front page," can bring out the best and worst
in all of us. He searches to bring out the truth
in everything, and when accused of liability,
Playwright talks of collaborative creation about death
Christopher M. Craig
Copy Editor
New York playwright Susan Yankowitz,
who worked with well-known director Jo
seph Chaikin in the late sixties, came to
Sternberger Auditorum this past Wednes
day to discuss the Open Theater Ensemble's
creation and production of the play "Termi
nal."
'Terminal" is an avant-garde "explora
tion into mortality," which shows audiences
that the molds of modern theatrical appre
ciation are, but don't have to be, restraining.
The reason the Theater Department, Fac
ulty Development, and the Office of the
Academic Vice President brought
Yankowitz to speak was to spread the idea
that people should reconsider their modern
but-stilted beliefs of what constitutes good
theater.
'Terminal" is a piece about Death. How
ever, this statement captures only the gist of
the play. It is also a retrospective view of life
and how people live it in terms of morality,
happiness and social issues.
'Terminal" was created through collabo
ration in the late sixties. 'The individual
became subordinated to the group," said
Yankowitz of the production process, "but
anybody in the group could bring in
[lt was] an expression of the mental'*' ~ r '
sixties." _... va is, the ensemble would
_...liftl&neously write and act out the play. In
the end, they were left with psychologies,
not characters.
"What we tried to create was [something
which] engaged the intellect and the heart,
not through individuality of character, but
through impact.... The work was shaped in
fragments, not linearly. [So that the pro
duced] view of the world was something not
fitting 'neatly,' but something episodic and
in a series that, at the core, had some mean
ing," said Yankowitz. This explains the me
dium of the play, which reaches for under
standing not through plot, but through pre
sentation.
'Terminal" can be described as a chaotic
he responds, "It's just the truth."
His main problem isn't his small salary,
because he is passionate about his work;
rather, it is that he may only print one article
a week. This guy is overloaded with ideas.
Crowther speaks from experience. He has
studied at Edinburgh University in Scotland
and graduate degree in journal
ism from Columbia University. However, it
was not school that best prepared him to
write. Instead, he says "living in an active,
urban environment," as he did in both Los
Angeles and New York, helped to broaden
his spectrum of ideas.
He has written for the Toronto Star , was a
sports editor for Time and at age 27 took the
position as a television critic for Newsweek,
montage of incantations, rhythms, solilo
quies and dance. The language varies from
the colloquial to legalese, depending on the
underlying effect desired, and, as a work
which artfully captures the psychologies of
many different types of people, these differ
ent styles of language are distinct.
For instance, the character of "The Re
sponsible Person," one of the portraits of the
dying, repeats in a frantic semi-scream her
schizophrenic delusion that, as Yankowitz
said, "any tragedy was her responsibility."
This character takes the burden of fault for
any suffering she has seen, as in one section
of her monologue when, while stepping to a
fast drum-beat, she screams "I saw a woman.
Vp/'H "23W*
('UJOUIV 30J STILL*) j
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Features
which was one of his greatest learning expe
riences.
"I was given the choice to critique televi
sion or law. I chose TV," Crowther said. He
still has a guilty conscience from having
anything to do with television, however.
"I was out there criticizing the garbage
TV producers were coming out with, but
really I was acting as a publicist, letting
people know this stuff even exists." He has
yet to watch any television since 1977.
As a sports writer he found that he had too
much curiosity to just write about sports.
"Sports writers are brilliant, because they
can watch a baseball game repeatedly and
still make it exciting."
In 1969 he came to Durham, and was a
. .chewing at the pavement... What have I
done?" Like many of' Terminal's" portraits
of the dead and dying, the impact of the
whole (the rhythm, the movements, the text)
affects the kind of emotions that come only
with deep psychological delving.
'To live with integrity. . . ." exclaimed
Yankowitz. "Though the piece is exten
sively about death, it is about living. We
hoped people would leave the play and be
compelled to ask themselves if their lives
were really worth something. We were
most happy when people left the theater
compelled to ask themselves, 'is this all
worth it?"'
The Open Theater Ensemble was created
THE GUILFORD lAN
founder of The Spectator, another alterna
tive publication, and started writing for The
Independent. "I chose to enter alternative
media, because I thought it was the most
honest, even if they are responsible for the
900 numbers industry."
As a social critic, Crowther realizes his
vulnerability to criticism. "Any critic sets
himself up," he calmly explained, "and I'm
thin-skinned. I especially hate it when people
preach to me as if they 're towering above me
on their stool of righteousness."
As far as his advice to aspiring writers
goes, he states that to get in print, you have
to compromise, because, "if you're not in
print, you're nowhere."
in 1963 under director Joseph Chaikin. In
1968, after graduating from Yale Drama
School, Yankowitz joined Chaikin and his
ensemble as their regular playwright. She
received the Drama Desk Award for Most
Promising Playwright of 1969 for "Termi
nal," and has since gone on to work on such
endeavors as "Baby," which Guilford's
Theater Department presented in the fall of
1990, and "SILENT WITNESS," her first
novel from 1976.
Yankowitz' newest play, "Night Sky,"
which Joseph Chaikin directed, was pro
duced in May 1991 by the Women's Project
at the Judith Anderson Theater in New
York.
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