Weekend
Thursday, November 3, 1983The Daily Tar Heel7
Student directors
have opportunity
to show off work
Art
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By GIGI SONNER
Staff Writer
Sunday night offers the chance to see some short film classics
by such renowned directors as John Schultz and Peyton Reed.
Who? Well, maybe their work can't be called classic yet, but
budding directors on campus have the chance to show their
cinematic masterpieces at 7 p.m. in the Union Auditorium as
part of Student Film Night, sponsored by the Carolina Union
Film Committee.
'7 think the problem is the people who
make serious (films). They're going to have
a hard time finding an audience for that.
They think Student Film Night is an event
for art, but it's really an event for fun. "
John Schultz
UNC student filmmaker
In the past, the films shown have ranged from the expres
sionistic to the absurd, from the deeply philosophical to the
comic, one-punch line joke variety.
"They vary in quality, subject matter and consistency," said
Sorien Schmidt, film committee chairperson. "Some people get
experimental and others are just trying to make a good film."
The variation has given previous student film nights a certain
amount of unevenness. "Sometimes people expect them all to
be funny, and when a serious film gets in, they don't know how
to take it," Schmidt said.
"I think the problem is the people who make serious things,'"
said John Schultz, a junior from Raleigh who has shown his
films at student film nights before. "They're going to have a
hard time finding an audience for that. They think student film
night is an event for art, but it's really an event for fun."
Schultz ran little risk of being taken too seriously last spring
when he showed his film Buford Pusser Enters The Dragon, a
film he made in the eighth grade. This year he is showing In
tricacies Between, or Something About a Parking lot, a film he
co-directed with sophomore Peyton Reed.
"We usually just make them for our own use," Schultz said.
"We do it more for fun than for art. People at school here seem
to take their films too seriously. Or they really just make films
that are, in an academic sense, technically good. But I think the
best way to do it is just by natural instincts."
Intricacies Between is a "study of human conflict from a sim
ple everyday occurrence," according to Schultz.
"So far, it's been strictly for fun," said Reed. "I think that
will be apparent when you see the films."
Reed is also showing a take-off of the movie Quadrophenia,
which features a beachside battle between teen-aged Mods and
Rockers.
"We went down to Myrtle (Beach) for fall break and decided
to make a movie," he said. "It's a gang fight that starts out kind
of serious and then gets slapstick."
Whether for fun or for art, the evening promises to be enter
taining. "I definitely think people should come," Schultz said.
"There are always good refreshments afterwards."
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Paul Kendall, a hollerer, makes faces three different ways as part of the "Rural Arts Festival" in the Pit Wednesday.
The festival, sponsored by the Carolina Union, featured folk crafts including spinning. Apple cider was also served.
Sociology course upholds 46-year Southern tradition
By CLINTON WEAVER
Staff Writer
Professor John Reed carries on a tradition at
UNC.
Reed teaches a course on the sociology of the
South in the nation's oldest sociology depart
ment. The course, Sociology 15, has been
taught by only five men in its 46-year history.
Howard Odum founded the UNC sociology
department in 1920, Reed says, along with the
Institute for Research in Social Sciences. In
1937, L.M. Brooks became the first instructor
of the class on Southern sociology. He was
followed by Gordon Blackwell and then George
Simpson; Rupert Vance taught the class from
1964 to 1969.
"I don't know whose idea, really, it was to
offer a course on the South," Reed says,
"whether it was Odum's idea or Vance's or
Blackwell's. But I'm sure it would not have
been done without Odum's blessing."
According to Regionalism and the South, a
book of selected papers by Vance, edited by
Reed and Daniel Joseph Singal, "Odum had
come to Chapel Hill in 1920 to found an
academic empire His two basic goals were
closely related: he wished to promote the scien
tific study of Southern society so that people in
the region could begin tackling their immense
problems in constructive ways, and he hoped
to provide an opportunity for talented
Southerners to train in new social science
disciplines."
Vance was later a student of Odum's, and he
helped found the Southern Sociological Society
in 1935. He became its third president in 1938.-
But perhaps his greatest contribution was
Human Geography of the South, a book which
Reed and Singal say belongs among the classics
of American social science.
In 1964 Vance began teaching the course on
Southern sociology, continuing until his retire
ment in 1969, when Reed took over.
A native of Tennessee, Reed became in
terested in Southern society while a student in
Massachusetts and at Columbia University in
New York. "I came to believe that there are
regional differences worth talking about," he
says. "That's a favorite occupation of
Southerners in the North sitting around talk
ing about how the South is different from the
North.,"
"While doing that," Reed says, "it occurred
to me that I could write a dissertation about it."
That dissertation became his first book, The
Enduring South, published in 1970.
After school, Reed came to UNC. "I was
damn lucky to get a job at the one sociology
department where somebody wanted me to
teach what I wanted to teach," he says.
Lucky indeed. Ten years ago, no other
school in the country offered a class on
Southern sociology. "Everybody sort of as
sumed that the South was going away," Reed
says with a laugh. "It wasn't as interesting any
more because it wasn't as poor as it used to be
or as diseased as it used to be."
Interest in the South still seems to be flag
ging, though; only five other schools now offer
courses on the South: the University of
Mississippi, William & Mary, the University of
Kansas, the University of Massachusetts at
Boston and Whitman College in Walla Walla,
Wash. Duke offered a Southern sociology class
briefly, and Vanderbilt is searching for an in
structor. The class at UNC has persisted, although it
has changed greatly over the years. "Partly that
reflects teachers' interests, partly that reflects
the nature of the South," Reed says.
"Vance and I presume Blackwell as well
pretty much taught it as a social problems
course because you look at the South in the
'30s, '40s or '50s, and what you see are a bunch
of social problems."
By the time Reed took over the course, the
South's problems weren't as acute, and the
course now reflects his interests in ethnic
groups, social psychology and group identity.
"Unlike social problems," he says, "those sorts
of things don't seem to be going away.
"We look less at the South, really, than at
Southerners, and we ask the same questions
about Southerners that people tend to ask
about ethnic groups," Reed says. "I put a lot
less emphasis on the economic problems of the
South, because they're a lot less distinctive than
they used to be."
Reed has been teaching Southern sociology
for 14 years, and he says he will teach it as long
as the job isn't boring.
"The interesting thing about this course is,
first of all, it's been going on for a long time,"
he says. "Second of all, it's often been unique
to this institution.
"This sociology department as a whole has
been concerned with studying the region ever
since Odum founded it Most people in the
department are not particularly interested in the
South, but we do have a tradition of having at
least somebody around here who's interested in
the region.
"I'm happy to be carrying that on."
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The original cast of Pump Boys and Dinettes move to their own special
brand of bluegrass, rockabilly, gospel and blues.
'Pump Boys and Dinettes'opensFriday
By JEFF GROVE
Arts Editor
America's favorite cat, Garfield, once
said, "Well, shucky darn and slop the
chickens!" First Carolina experienced a
Union-sponsored Rural Arts Festival in
the Pit Wednesday. Now Chapel Hill will
be treated to a Broadway celebration of
the South when Pump Boys and Dinettes
opens the Carolina Union's Broadway on
Tour series with performances on campus
this weekend.
Pump Boys and Dinettes is a musical
revue featuring original songs in blue
grass, rockabilly, gospel and blues
idioms. The setting is a widening in the
road along Highway 57 somewhere be
tween Smyrna and Frog Level. On one
side of the highway is a gas station man
ned by four "pump boys," while a diner,
run by two sisters, sits on the other side of
the road. For 90 minutes, the cast rips
through a wide variety of southern
musical styles.
In a way, this weekend's engagement
will be a homecoming. Jim Warm and
John Foley, who wrote part of the show's
material and performed in the original
cast, both attended UNC. Collaborating
with Wann and Foley on the show were
Mark Hardwick, Debra Monk, Cass
Morgan and John Schimmel. The
musical was nominated for the Tony
Award for Best Musical of the 1981-82
season but was shunted aside by the glit
tery, urbanized likes of Dreamgirls and
Nine, which actually won the Tony. That
didn't mean the show was unpopular,
though it ran on Broadway for a year
and a half following an extensive off
Broadway run.
Country singer Nicolette Larson heads
the cast of the touring production Chapel
Hill will see. This is her first musical com
edy performance, but she has said she is
up to the challenge. "I'm really psyched
for this," she said in a press release. "I've
always wanted to do a musical, just for
the experience of the format. Pump Boys
is especially exciting because the music is
much like my own it's the best of both
worlds."
That's not all Larson has in common
with Pump Boys. Of Rhetta Cupp, the
character she plays, Larson said, "I know
Rhetta. I know how she thinks and how
she feels. I've been there it's just that
my life took another turn."
Another well-known country singer,
Jonathan Edwards, also appears in the
cast, joined by Sha Na Na co-founder
Henry Gross. Like Larson, Gross feels
personal ties to the characters in Pump
Boys. "The guys in Pump Boys, creative
ly speaking, are an extension of the
music," Gross said. "It's music I feel a
part of; those people aren't strangers to
me."
Pump Boys and Dinettes will be per
formed at 8:30 p.m. Friday and at 4 and
8:30 p.m. Saturday in Memorial Hall.
Admission is $16.50 and $15 for evening
performances, $14.50 and $13 for the
matinee. For more information, call
962-1449.
For 45 years, she
costumed show
By DIANNA MASSIE
Staff Writer
The Lost Colony it's as much a part of North
Carolina history as Sir Walter Raleigh. It's also the
oldest and longest-running American outdoor sym
phonic drama and is performed each summer at the
Waterside Theater in Manteo.
In addition to the acting, directing and business
aspects of the outdoor drama, costuming Tht Lost
Colony is an important part of each production.
Irene Rains knows. She's been costuming the pro
duction for 45 years.
Rains, born in 1904, began sewing at the age of five.
"When my mother sewed, I would sit in the corner of
the room and sew doll clothes," Rains says.
Rains says she was asked to costume The Lost Col
ony in 1937, the first summer the production opened.
However, she says she refused the offer because she
was only in Manteo on vacation. But the following
summer, she decided to accept the job and has held
the position ever since.
Each summer, Rains travels to Manteo to design
costumes for the play. During the rest of the year, she
continues to work on costumes from her home in
Chapel Hill. She also volunteers at Chapel of the
Cross, taking care of priests' vestments and choir
robes.
Rains has been in Chapel Hill a while. "In 1939, I
came to the University for a 10-day job and have been
here ever since."
Rains taught classes and made costumes for the
University's drama department before retiring at age
69.
For The Lost Colony, Rains must research each
character to be sure of the authenticity of each
costume. She says much of her research comes from
the Playmakers Theater. She uses sketches from, text--books
and paintings. Once, the only model she could
find was the carving on the outside of a tomb.
Currently, Rains is working in Chapel Hill on the
publicity costume for Sir Walter Raleigh. Publicity
costumes are different from regular stage costumes,
she says. So there are usually two different costumes
for each character.
Publicity costumes must have more detail; on stage,
those details would not be seen. For stage costumes,
the silhouette and tiimming are most important, she
says.
Working for an outdoor drama is much different
from working on a regular stage, Rains adds. Many
performers do not have a strong enough voice to reach
the audience sitting in the back of the theater.
"At one time, we lost Queen Elizabeth in the first
week because she lost her voice and the understudy
had to go on," Rains says. "The understudy con
tinued as the queen for several years."
Another problem performers face while working for
an outdoor drama is the heat of the sun. "They like
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Irene Rains irons a costume. She designs costumes for the production of The Lost Colony
in Mauteo. She has costumed the show since 1938.
getting the suntan, but the heat is almost unbearable,"
Rains says.
Twice a year, the production holds open auditions.
Most of the performers are teachers and college stu
dents. Sometimes New York actors also participate in
the production. Many times, the same performers
work for more than one season; some come back for
10 years or more.
Rains says sometimes she and the staff are so busy
that they do not have time to eat at all. "There has
never been a dull minute in all my 40 years."
Rains says one of the reasons she loves this profes
sion is because of the people.
"You do not do this for money you do it for
love."