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4The Daily Tar HeelWednesday. November 17, 1982 '1 J A wv I isms 5 I A ,0. Elect-a-toon 2f-a 77w? to7y Tar ? wants to know which comic strip Carolina students would like J J f (iAUM to replace Doonesbury. Just fill out the ballot below with your nominee. Please only ft f Mlttjl1 ij select one. . ' ' T ' 7 ' ; -- fNA"" V-Zr1' "rS A. By Doug Marlette By Jeff MacNelly DICK TRACY ' " "' f ' ( fv ' By Max Collins and Rick fMj . : ' ' V" Jv- ByKupperberg-Delbo-Colletta., 8RENDA STARR (vi- V-l " Y j By Dale Messick and Ramona Fradon CATFISH 1 UiTS "sTi r"""l rJLi. , -I, . By Roger Bollen and "v. VyVJv- 7v y-L ( jSTiSM'. 7l GaryPe,ermaV, " MOON MULUKS C s - I I 1 I jf .s ' 1 y By Ferd and Tom Johnson MOTLEY'S CREW v ' I t i ;" "" 1 , . By Ben Tempieton and Tom Forman yj-T' ' ( ":'v'j"""' if I (; j&SSZ(&. J 4m ) Kl' JSi ITU r LOLLY v fJ 7 fCj LE GRAND CHEF PIERRE L 1 V&S. , XTV JzX Vu----- 1 By Brian Fray 7 1 A re2p& fr. 61L THORP I .tw) n ww.4s 1 ;.; a":A'1,.': ;i--,V'--s, Vl ' ' f'-ri V- V V w'' -" ' By Jack Bemll j rrV . Lt3M COUNTY VV" ' ' By Berke Breathed I r--w Elect-a-toon . "Y'-iy--M-T .":J-.il 5 Animal Crackers : I t ; ' I Annie : I - - -J- ,- Bloom County ; " 1 ' 1 ; " J" --f J Brenda Starr ' " . 1 ' Broom-Hilda . v -'". In.'- , I v ' - Catfish 8 -DickTracy- ferwinwLimiji' ,m (ii)iiiiiiritt6B liiiinliWWlftMWftliir3 ttxtenoea leave Timdeau strip on sabbatical to mature Dondi - : Garfield . Gasoline Alley . Gif Thorpe . Kulzu Le Grand Chef Pierre tally Please Dlace ballot in "Flprt-a-tnnn" hny in Tho ristilu Tar Uoal -ff voting day Nov. 23. ? ZIGGY By Tom Wilson . All comics copynght 1982 Dy Tnbune Company Syndicate, Inc.. except Superman. TM. copyright. 1982. DC Comics. Inc.: Shoe. TM. and Kudzu, copynght. 1982. by Jefferson Communications. Inc. Garfield, copyright 1982 by United Feature Syndicate, .'Inc.; Ziggy. copyright 1982 by Universal Press . Syndicate. Bloom County, copyright 1982 by The Washington Post Writers Group. I I 1 : Moon Mullins Motley's Crew I . : Shoe 1 1 I I I Superwoman Winnie Winkle -2'ggy By BELINDA ROLLINS Staff Writer - As of Jan. 3, 1983, millions of Americans will have one less news source at their disposal. Radio, television and newspapers will still be around, but readers of 700 newspapers nationwide will find that their paper is missing something. "Doonesbury," the most controversial comic strip of all time, will not be there. No, it is not a mass a cancellation. The reason for the comic strip's absence is that G.B. (Garry) Trudeau, creator of the Pulitzer Prize-winner is taking an extended leave of absence. "I need a breather," said the 34-year-old cartoonist in a recent pf,ess release. "Investigative cartooning is a young man's game." Trudeau has been producing Doonesbury for 14 years, 12 of them for daily syndication. He said he will resume the strip by the fallof 1984. "This is simply a lull in the action. It is not, repeat not, a mid life crisis," he said. Trudeau said he viewed the time off not only as a break from the pressure of writing a daily topical comic strip, but also as an opportunity to work on the characters and the development of the strip.-' . One of the problems Trudeau hopes to correct is the "time warp" he created for the characters. "It was unfair to stretch their formative years to embrace both Vietnam and preppy," he said. Trudeau wants to get his characters out of school and into the real world, he said. "The trip from draft beer and mixers to co caine and herpes is a long one,1 and it's time they got a start on it." , IXJoonesbu'fie Oct. 26,rT970l and -v? quickly established itself as a distinctively different comic strip with outspoken characters Michael J. Doonesbury, Joanie Caucus, B.D. and Uncle Duke. The only strip to win the Pulitzer , Prize, Doonesbury deals with the social and political problems that Americans face. I Doonesbury' s success is to a great extent linked to its con troversy, which has caused many editors to pull the strip before publication. r According to the press release, these incidents were the most controversial in the comic strip's history: " A declaration that former Attorney General John Mitchell was "guilty, guilty, guilty" by one of the characters before the Senate had even begun its Watergate investigation. The introduction of a male homosexual character. A scene showing two unmarried characters, Joanie Caucus, and Rick Redfern, lying in bed together. A mail-in coupon which implied that House Speaker Tip O'Neill was involved in the Korean scandal. (Ten mail bags of coupons arrived at the Speaker's office before the Post Office was alerted to stop the delivery.) ' A two-week sequence linking California Gov. Jerry Brown with organized crime." A satire of Virginia Sen. John Warner that prompted the , GOP Caucus of the Virginia General Assembly to pass a motion of censure against Trudeau. A week-long tour of Ronald Reagan's brain on the eve of the p. 1980 election. . A favorite among college students, Doonesbury has a form of humor more mature and satirical than the slapstick of traditional comic strips. . . Julia Spicer, a sophomore speech communications and Radio, Television and Motion Pictures major, said, "I like it because you have to think. It's more a play on current events than a comic Although UNC students like Doonesbury, those interviewed agreed that it is time for the strip to move bn. William Sapp, a junior from Greensboro, said, "I think Doonesbury makes a lot of positive social statements, but he needs this leave of absence to bring the characters' personalities up to date." Trudeau is taking this leave of absence to find a way to help his characters make the transition to the political and social issues of the '80s. He also plans to use his sabbatical for study and writing. He has contributed articles to such publications as Harper's, Rolling Stone and The New Republic, and he wrote a daily syn dicated column for 80 newspapers during the 1980 Democratic and Republican National Conventions. The Doonesbury author has won a number of awards and honors. In 1975, Trudeau received an Academy Award nomina tion and the Cannes Film Festival Special Jury Prize for his co direction of his animated film, A Doonesbury Special. He has been the subject of a Time cover story and has received 14 honorary degress from major colleges, including' his alma mater, Yale, where he was the youngest jrecipient .ever so honored in that university's history. Shakespeare as plagiarist 'Starcrossed Lovers' premieres at - ' . By KAREN ROSEN . : ' Staff Writer , ' , V Shakespeare may have been the world's greatest plagiarist. Seven writers wrote Romeo and Juliet 'before the Bard put the world's greatest love story into his own verse, and he had the luxury of picking and choosing the best from each work. Did Shakespeare suffer any guilt pangs for pirating the story? Starcrossed Lovers, opening Thursday at the Paul Green Theatre and running through Sunday, tells how and why Romeo and Juliet was written. The world-premiere musical hints that Shakespeare had . more than a little help with his masterpiece. As he researches the story of the two feuding Italian families, four of the authors who had written the story before pop into his study to inspire and annoy him. The idea for this twist came from the show's pro ducer, Theodore J. Richfield, who is based in New York. '-; ! The average student show doesn't have a New York producer. But Richfield wanted to test his play before lie booked it into a Broadway theatre, and Carolina's department of dramatic art was the most receptive of all the universities and regional theatres contacted. "It works out real well on paper and needed a pro duction," said R. Vincent Park, director and one of three book writers. "We have brought to the drama . department something they couldn't afford to do. We have a cast of 25 people, a mammoth set, and an eight-piece orchestra." Park said that the actors' union in Manhattan made it impossible to do a workshop there because the union demands a cut of everything. "But the nature of the theatre is it's developmental," he said. "You rarely get an opportunity to create from scratch, with no rules and regulations and with new actors." The entire Starcrossed Lovers east is made up of undergraduates, including Carl Espy, John Borden, Sharon Lawrence, Eugene Muray, David zum Brun ner, Greg Todaro and Jeff Burcher. "What needs to be worked on is the product itself, -Park said. "We didn't want to have actors who had already reached a professional level and knew a lot of shortcuts to take with the script. We wanted mistakes to scream out at us." I When an awkwardly phrased line cries for revision, book writer Kathleen Lindsey is in Chapel Hill to smooth out the rough spots. "After hearing a human being struggle with the language, I restructure it so it becomes more natural," she said. Romeo and Juliet appear in the play, but they ex press themselves only in song. "I can't write dialogue better than Shakespeare," Lindsey said. The songs were already written before Park, Lind sey and Robert Barands began the book, so they had to work around the songs in creating the four. Muses who burst out of obscurity. ' "It's very simple," Park said. "We have a story of a man about to write a play and these magical Twilight Zone characters -tare here. They function like Rod Sterling throughout the play." The choice of which four muses to use two Italians, a Frenchman and a Cockney set up the widest range of dramatic possibilities, Lindsey said. "We invented their personalities; nothing historical is known since none ever made it to fame." Both Park and Lindsey are very familiar with the period. Park serves as artistic director of a group that presents jousting contests and comedic shows from a pageant wagon; for example, Quasimodo, the Early Years. :Z' r- . : . Park and Kent Shelton, fight and juggling choreo grapher, used their expertise to bring sword fighting, juggling, acrobatics and magic to the Paul Green stage.. : ; , ; . - "To tell a story that is supernatural almost, you either do it through a Walt Disney or Steven Spielberg technique trap doors, mirrors and a lot of special effects," Park said. "But with something this grand and gigantic, the best way to communicate is to enter tain them with music as well as the spoken word. I add a feeling of spectacle." Park said that the students picked up the sword fighting without much trouble. "Stage combat is made to look as if it's real, but it's a very highly choreographed, intricate ballet. Every single move ment is planned; not one action of the body is wasted." ; ' ' '-. After the Chapel Hill run of Starcrossed Lovers is finished, the next step is to go back to the laboratory and start rewrites, Park said. "We've gained a vast amount of knowledge with the book, staging problems and lyrics," he said. "After Christmas we'll get out the pencil and paper, videotapes and old notes and start afresh," Park said. "It's called a post-mortem," Lindsey added. Because of. financial and time considerations, Chapel Hill wiH probably be the only , test of Star crossed Lovers before its New York debut. In New York, a theatre will be rented and an open ing date will be set. Will Starcrossed Lovers be ready? "You don't know," Park said. "You just have to ride in on the seat of your pants and trust your instincts."- : ; " ; ' UNC This past spring alone, Trudeau was offered nine honorary doctorates. ';;,, He also recently received the National Wildlife Federation Special Conservation Award for his "unique contributions in pro moting a greater public awareness for the appreciation of our wildlife and natural resources through Doonesbury." Even though these honors have cast Trudeau into the public eye frequently, he still resists fame. In the only interview he has ever given, Trudeau said that fame is corrupting and time consuming because it keeps the famous person busy trying to live up to the public's latest version of riimself. "I admire someone who's so successful and can just let it drop because he sees other things in life as being more important," Mike Ward, an English teaching assistant. "I like the way Henry David Thoreau put it when he said a man is not equal to his job. Trudeau is greater than Doonesbury." . Some have claimed that Trudeau presents unfair pictures of political .figures. But Jon Reckford, an English and political science major, disagreed. "He's able to get away with political comment that a more serious journalist could never get away with," he said. , Trudeau explained his methods this way: "I'm not interested in private assurances or endearments, the insider's access. I'm in terested in what the outsider sees the public face the politician chooses to project, chooses to be judged on. Nothing could be fairer. He's setting the agenda; I'm merely reacting." College students and other Doonesbury fans may miss reading break. Reader 's Theatre turns Irving's6 arp into drama ' Jenny' By GIGI SONNER Staff Writer Jenny, an adaptation of the first chapter of John living's The World According to Garp, will be presented tonight and Thurs day night by the UNC Reader's Theatre. Dina Kailer, crew member and assistant director, said, "It's going to be a real shocker." The Reader's Theatre production is directed by Lewis Hershey, a graduate stu dent of interpretation in the department of speech communication. The plot is a dif ficult one to dramatize, but Hershey' s adaptation remains true to the novel and successfully captures living's funny, ir reverent, and often touching treatment of a rather odd situation. What makes a ReaderS Theatre pro duction unique is the importance of nar rator involvement. "The narration is cen tral to the story. Everything that happens in the story is peripheral to the narration." Hershey said. "It's a very exciting form. It picks something up off the paise and makes it work dramatically," said Martha Nell Hardy, professor ot speech com munication. This emphasis on narration makes any comparison with the recently released movie version meaningless. "They were not trying to stage the novel. We are. There are different mediums involved," Hershey said. "The whole presumption is that narratable fiction can be presented." Hershey, who was a history major as an undergraduate, is enjoying his switch to speech communications. "1 love it. I like the way you study literature for the inter pretation. You look at a story for the in terpretation, and you end up learning a lot about literature," he said. Jenny is the fourth production of a series of five this semester. The cast and crew members are drawn from under graduates taking Speech 141. Each pro duction is directed by a graduate student enrolled in Speech 245. Both courses re quire much energy and creativity, and the production of Jenny should demonstrate this- ' '; ', ' v .The show begins at 8 both nights in 20 Bmgham.
Daily Tar Heel (Chapel Hill, N.C.)
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