4BThe Daily Tar HeelMonday, August 29, 1983
Symphony
fights for pay,
benefit gains
The Associated Press
RALEIGH Concerns over job security and
a proposal for more concerts and travel time have
stalled negotiations for North Carolina Sym
phony musicians as they enter their second week
without a contract.
"The sheer number of changes of what we've
had in the past is a stumbling block," said
Patricia W. Banko, leader of the musicians'
negotiating team. "I am not hopeful that we will
reach an agreement by the end of the week, but
it's not impossible."
Banko said the musicians had rejected pro
posals by the symphony's governing board
because of benefits the board wanted to eliminate
from the previous three-year contract, which ex
pired Aug. 15.
Thomas H. McGuire, executive director of the
symphony, said the board was trying to forge an
agreement that "will serve in the long
term ... in the best possible way."
"I don't see a stumbling block on any specific
issues," he said. "Everything is open to negotia
tion." Banko said the board wanted to eliminate an
appeals committee that made decisions on fir
ings, leaving decisions up to the conductor. She
said other items proposed by the board and op
posed by musicians include eliminating overtime
pay, eliminating health insurance for dependents
and increasing concerts and travel time without
increasing pay.
The negotiations are the latest dispute in what
has been a discordant decade for the North
Carolina Symphony. In 1980, it took a one-week
musicians' strike to spur a new contract. Last
year, controversy swirled over the search for a
new conductor until Gerhardt Zimmerman was
chosen.
The lack of a contract led symphony officials
to cancel the first scheduled concert, which was
to be held Sept. 4 at Meredith College in Raleigh.
The first formal concert is set for Sept. 15 in
Raleigh.
3 -play festival highlights season
PRC packs year with top-rate plays
By DAVID SCHMIDT
Assistant Arts Editor
The cast of Playmakers Repertory Company
directors changed this summer as the roles of artistic
director and producing director went to last year's
PRC Associate Artistic Director Gregory Boyd and
to Robert Tolan, former producing director with the
Virginia Stage Company of Norfolk. Executive pro
ducer Milly Bar anger said Boyd and Tolan will work
closely to continue PRC's growing tradition of stu
dent involvement in and out of the classroom.
"The students at no time are separate from what
is happening at the Rep," said Barranger, who also
serves as chairman of the department of dramatic
art. According to her, undergraduate and graduate
involvement as PRC actors or members of the
technical crew alone is as high as 90 percent of the
total cast and crew.
Barranger's dual positions parallel each other and
allow coordination that gives drama students the
chance to learn their craft from visiting artists
without necessarily reforming in a PRC produc
tion. This rare symbiotic relationship between a pro
fessional resident theater company and a depart
ment of dramatic art has been very successful, she
said.
Boyd's jobs provide another link. In addition to
his new position at PRC, he is an associate professor
and head of the professional theater training pro
gram in the department of dramatic art, where he
teaches the popular Drama 15 course. He came to
Chapel Hill in 1981 and has since directed
Pygmalion, The Greeks, A Moon for the Misbegot
ten, Angel Street and The Glass Menagerie for
PRC.
"Greg Boyd proved from our point of view to be
the most outstanding candidate," Barranger said.
"He is important for the national reputation of this
theater program."
Following a national search in the spring, Boyd
replaced the previous artistic director, David
Rotenberg, who left to join his wife in New York.
After returning today from the Great Lakes
Shakespeare Festival in Cleveland where he
directed Henry V Boyd will have artistic control
of all PRC productions, Barranger said.
But part of the artistic input will come from
Tolan. For him, replacing George Parides as
managing director also meant replacing that title
the new producing director said he planned to add
to his current duties as fiscal manager.
"Rather than building fences around people, we
have primary and corollary concerns," Tolan said.
"The reason we didn't go with that arrangement is
that I expect my interests will embrace some artistic
and programatic aspects."
Increased student involvement from the other end
of the theater falls under one of Tolan's marketing
concerns the Incredible Student Pass. It works
like a ticket discount coupon, and in its inaugural
season last year PRC sold 512 passes 12 more
than were originally printed. Tolan said approx
imately 1,000 passes will be available beginning to
day. The Incredible Student Pass is "a great begin
ning y . a tool for developing the habit of playgo
ing," Tolan said, adding that he felt the real
"playgoers" were full subscribers. These people are
buying into the whole season, he explained, and buy
PRC the freedom to present some exciting plays,
even though they may not be blockbusters.
"There is a leap of faith involved," Tolan said.
"I'm not buying stars, I'm not buying hit titles.
We're in the business of marketing the theater in all
its diversity and richness.
More than 2,000 subscriptions already have been
renewed, and he said he hoped to sell another 2,000
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PRG Artistic Director Robert Tolan
looking for increased student involvement
before the season begins. About 3,400 playgoers
bought full subscriptions last year. The total capaci
ty for a series of performances in either Paul Green
Theatre or Playmakers Theatre is a little more than
6,000.
"I'm really excited about the potential of this
place," Tolan said, echoing the enthusiasm of his
colleagues in Graham Memorial over the upcoming
theater season. Special events like "The Elizabethan
Project" in the fall and a possible adaptation of
William Faulkner's As I Lay Dying this spring will
co-star with single PRC productions introducing
each semester, a department of dramatic art
Christmas show and a three-play PRC Festival in
March and April.
"There's a potential for non-stop production,'
Barranger said. "We've given ourselves more
rehearsal time. We're not in the business of three
hours' rehearsal time. We're in the business of train-
ing.
Drama students will work on "The Elizabethan
Project" in the classroom, introducing it to the
public when completed, much like a chemistry ex
periment which is published after the work is done,
Barranger said.
Shakespeare's comedy As You Like It, starring
Hope Alexander-Willis as Rosalind, will open the
PRC season Oct. 6. The next production, The
Hostage by Brendan Behan, will feature members
of the professional training program in a theatrical
exploration of Irish troubles in the 1950s and will
begin its' run Feb. 2.
Pickwick! A Dickens Celebration of Christmas
will make its American debut in December. Based
on The Pickwick Papers, this production will
feature the talents of undergraduates and graduates
in the department of dramatic art as well as PRC
members.
The highlight of the season seems to be the PRC
Festival, which opens with Tom Stoppard's
Travesties March 8 and closes with Oscar Wilde's
The Importance of Being Earnest April 29.
In between, Joe Spano of NBC's Hill Street Blues
visits Chapel Hill to star in Dracula, a Musical
Nightmare. Written for Spano by Douglas Johnson
at the University of California at Berkeley, where
they both worked with Boyd, this strange vampire
promises to be more of a theatrical dream.
"It is now, I think, in a form for New York pro
ducers to look at," Barranger said.
V v
Milly Barranger, PRC executive producer,
also serves as drama department chairman
Tolan expects it to be "The Carolina campus's
version of The Rocky Horror Picture Show," with
a cult-like following. A dance called "The Bat"
could reach "Time Warp" dimensions, he said, and
the show's scheduled run starting March 22 will end
with a midnight performance on Friday the 13th in
April.
The festival format allows students to turn their
entire attention to the plays as early as January,
Barranger said. It not only saves money by contract
ing professional performers to two plays under one
agreement, but also lets students see an actor tackle
two major roles. Besides, Barranger said, it's con
veniently scheduled for tourists on their way to the
Spoleto Festival in Charleston, S.C.
One way into the theatre for students who can't
afford ticket prices and wish to see these plays is to
volunteer as an usher. A sign-up sheet is located at
PRC offices in Graham Memorial.
And if all the world's a stage, then anyone can be
an actor; auditions for As You Like It will be held
Wednesday beginning at 6 p.m. in 103 Graham
Memorial. All interested persons must sign up for a
specific audition time in 203 Graham Memorial or
by calling 962-1122 and should prepare a speech
from the play not exceeding two minutes. Rehear
sals begin Sept. 4.
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HO TEACHES EALLET AT
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M'Liss Dorrance
Scholarship student at
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Feld's American Ballet Co..
National Ballet and
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Artistic Director, Chapel
Hill Ballet Company.
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Jennifer
Potts-Arnold
Scholarship student,
Balanchine's School of
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Whether or not you intend
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