".-car' y :
Theme may he too intellectual
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8 The Weekender Friday, September 1, 1978
By JERE LINK
Staff Writer
If Joseph Coleman has his way, there may yet
appear in the local papers the following ad:
Warning.You must be smart to enjoy Jumpers.
As artistic director of the Unexpected Company (a
summer theater group, recently formed), Coleman
has a lot to say about the profit motive, drama, and
other related topics, but mostly about his current
production of Tom Stoppard's Jumpers.
He worries that Jumpers, so successful that it has
been held over, may have been too intellectual a
choice for area audiences. "Some of the development
in the second act depend on a good memoryof what
happened in the first scene, but most people are out of
practice in listening to the spoken word," Coleman
said.
According to Coleman, Jumpers is a very cynical
play depicting the utter decadence of a valueless
world. But Stoppard has transformed that bleak vision
with such wit (never just humor, according to
Coleman), that Jumpers comes off as a light piece, or
as he put it: "Like a spider web over a dark well. Stop
pard keeps your eye on the delicate spider web, but
you know the abyss is right below."
Coleman's group does not seem to be facing such
abysses itself. The UnexiJected Company is a profit
oriented enterprise based on the limited partnership of
Coleman and Shannon Julian, the producer. So far the
troupe has met its expenses (and then some) in in
teresting ways, a difficult task considering most com
panies have to rely on government aid or nonprofit
status, like the Playmakers Repertory Company.)
Presently the company is backed solely by com
munity support (15 shares costing $1,000 each were
sold to local investors for underwriting). That income
along with play proceeds covers the technical crew,
actors and general expenses through Coleman says
he's not becoming a millionaire in the bargain.
Whereas a University-affiliated company like the
PRC can offer a wide repertory with some experimen
tal ventures, the Unexpected Company, in its more
commercial Ranch House setting, must stick primarily
to sure bets.
Hence Coleman plans more popular fare for next
summer, including perhaps a musical. "Not The
Sound of Music, though," he said. In addition, there
may be three productions instead of one.
Coleman, who holds a master of fine arts degree in
directing from UNC, will wing it to New York City in
October in hopes of directing one of the plays of
Vaclav Havel, a Czech playwright enjoying a New
Yorker-inspired vogue.
He confesses to other personal ambitions, directing
projects he might like to try here or elsewhere: Philip
Barry's elegant hits from the '30s, Philadelphia Story
and ' Holiday , something by Giradoux; and (top ol
the list) anything by Harold Pinter, Coleman's favorite
living playwright.
Of course there is the favorite Shakespeare he
itches to do Troilus and. Cressida, but oddest of all is
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The Unexpected Company
Coleman's ambition to do Oedipus Rex by Sophocles.
"Oedipus would be something good for a director to
teethe on," Coleman said. ,
One has visions of Oedipus at the Ranch House...