Children fingerprinted
for NFPC records
By BETH OWNLEY
SUfT Writer
The Orange County Republican
Party, in connection with the
National Fingerprint Center for
Missing Children, fingerprinted 87
children Sunday at the Festifall
Street Festival in Chapel Hill.
Cynthia Farris, a member of the
Orange County Republican Party,
said the group had hoped to finger
print about 100 children. Farris said
she believed the logistics would have
been better if the group had a longer
table to work on. Parents were
extremely interested in the procedure
and have become acutely aware of
the problem, Farris said.
Most of the children fingerprinted
were between two and 15 years old.
Farris said the younger children who
made palm prints "seemed to have
fun with making pictures with their
hands," while most of the older
children agreed to be fingerprinted
because their parents wanted them
to have it done.
The fingerprinting service is an
endeavor which the Republican
Party has been doing in 33 states.
Farris said she became interested in
the service after she read that a
Republican town council in Connec
ticut fingerprinted children. The
Orange County Republican Party
chose the NFPC because it was well
organized and had the only compu
terized network for classifying fin
gerprints, Farris said.
The NFPC, a non-profit organ
J.F.K. High
'Teachers' stretches
A student sits quietly, bleeding from
an ugly gash in his arm. The school
psychologist becomes hysterical in the
main office. The secretary reports a 10
percent absentee rate among the
teachers. Another student gnaws open
a teacher's hand.
Welcome to Monday morning at
John F. Kennedy High School, the
setting of Arthur Hiller's new comedy
drama Teachers.
Neither a farce like Fast Times at
Ridgemont High nor a melodrama like
To Sir, With Love, Teachers dramatizes
events that ring true but occasionally
overstep the bounds of realism.
The plot has lawyer Lisa Hammond,
played by Jobeth Williams, returning
to her old school to investigate the case
of a boy whose family is suing the school
for graduating him without teaching
him to read or write.
School system superintendent Donna
Burke, memorably etched in bureau
cratic acid by Lee Grant, enlists the aid
of a school administrator, played by
Judd Hirsch, to stonewall Hammond.
Social studies teacher Alex Jerrell,
acted by Nick Nolte, is a renegade
among the faculty who falls prey to
Burke's manipulation. Jerrell's life is
complicated because Hammond is one
of his former students and one he
always lusted after from a distance.
As its title implies, Teachers avoids
concentrating explicitly on the students
at J.F.K. High. Only Eddie Pilikian, a
street-wise but illiterate victim of a
broken home, is explored at any length.
Hiller and screenwriter W.R. McKin
ney use this as a means to the end of
staging vignettes of school life.
Individually, these scenes vibrate with
front-page accuracy, whether in comic
episodes of a demented history teacher
dressing up as various historical figures
to bring his subject alive or in gut
wrenching sequences of violence in the
halls. If these ideas seem vaguely
familiar, it is because they probably
were drawn from newspaper accounts.
When strung together, though, these
scenes wrestle each other and, unfor
tunately, pin each other. However real
they seem, it is ric ulous to imagine
they could all happen at one school in
one week.
This would not be a major failing but
for the film's concentration on the idea
of reality and realism. Characters, for
Auditions set for 'Fascination Man'
The department of dramatic art at
North Carolina Central University in
Durham will hold auditions Thursday
and Friday for its production of
Fascination Man.
There are roles for about seven men
and seven women in the play.
Auditions will be held at 4 p.m. and
7 p.m. each day in the University
UUwUpUU
If Oh! Brian' delicious ribs make you feel like dancing, now you can. j
Because Oh! Brian's dance floor rocks to your favorite music every Wednesday through
SDancSng starts at 10. Happy Hour at 11. Wednesday is Ladies Night with specials on beer
and wine.
Durham location only. 4413 Chapel Hill
Blvd., Durham 286-7427.
ization established in Kirksville,
Mo., assists law enforcement agen
cies in identifying and recovering
100,000 abducted children in the
United States each year. About 5,000
children and youths are abducted or
run away each day. Many become
victims of foul play and are never
found or identified.
The center classifies fingerprints,
analyzes palm prints for clarity and
computerizes the information. Fin
gerprints and palm prints never
change and can always be used as
a positive form of identification. The
files, which are destroyed when the
child reaches 18, are not used for
any criminal investigation.
The information filed in the
computer includes the child's sex,
race, blood type, hair and eye color,
and a notation if the child has been
reported missing. A separate file is
kept for palm prints of children
under five. Young children are hard
to fingerprint and their prints are
almost impossible to classify. The fee
for the service is $3.50.
Before the Orange County Repub
lican Party fingerprinted children,
they were given instructions by Lt.
Arthur Summey of the Chapel Hill
Police Department. Lt. Summey
explained what is done to classify
fingerprints and showed the group
how to fingerprint. The police
department allowed the group to use
its fingerprinting equipment at
Festifall.
bounds of reality
Jeff Grove
Review
. instance, are always being urged to "face
reality." A difficult feat at J.F.K., for
where is it to be found?
The actors pull the film together,
though.
Nolte is particularly effective, espe
cially in his scenes with Eddie, played
by the young, talented Ralph Macchio.
Williams and Hirsch also deliver their
parts expertly.
Allen Garfield has a difficult role as
Rosenberg, a teacher hounded by his
students' pranks. Garfield maintains
control so that Rosenberg seems sym
pathetic,fcnot foolish.
- Production designer Richard Mac
Donald and cinematographer David M.
Walsh create a bleak ambience that suits
the film, which was made on location
in Columbus, Ohio.
Sandy Gibson, credited as a "music
supervisor," adds a note of gritty realism
in his selection of original songs. Gibson
puts Bob Seger's "Understanding" and
Joe Cocker's "Edge of a Dream,"
among others, to excellent use.
Thematically, the film addresses the
plight of teachers who are expected by
"the system" (parents, administrators
and the school board) to produce results
when that very system emasculates
innovation and originality in teaching.
Hirsch's character illustrates this in
one scene where he tells Jerrell, "Your
job is to get them through this school
and keep them out of trouble. That's
ur
The teachers, however, are not above
shirking their responsibilities. One of
them complains that she is required to
teach students who cannot read. Asked
why she doesnt remedy this herself, she
replies, "I am a social studies teacher.
It is not my job to teach reading."
The basic question at work here, then,
is simple: How should schools function,
and under what conditions? In defense
of the students, Jerrell points out
"They're not here for us; we're here for
them.'"
If that isn't an answer, it is at least
a direction, and an encouraging one.
Theatre of the Farrison-Newton Com
munications Building on the NCCU
campus.
The play, written by NCCU professor
Randolph Umberger, will be given its
world premiere Nov. 14-18.
For further information, call
Umberger or Linda Kerr-Norflett at
683-6242 or 683-6144.
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'Song of John Proffit' satisfies theater goers
Thompson's script, acting shine
The PlayMakers Repertory Com
pany once again presents a winner in
Tommy Thompson's play with music,
The Last Song of John Proffit.
Thompson's skillfully crafted script and
songs and his own ingratiating charac
terization of John Proffit make this
production an emotionally satisfying
theatre experience.
Thompson, the only actor in the play,
previously appeared in Chapel Hill as
Horace Bixby in PRC's Life on tie
Mississippi, which he co-wrote.
The experience Thompson gained
during his 12-year association with the
Red Clay Ramblers makes his musical
performance in John Proffit an exhi
bition of true talent. Thompson uses the
guitar, banjo and gourd banjo with his
own richly expressive voice to tell John
Proffit's story.
Thompson's play follows Proffit
from his youth in Ohio to North
Carolina and up to West Virginia,
where the play takes place on Proffit's
Point Pleasant Farm.
The script is beautifully written, and
Thompson performs it in an accent that
embellishes it further.
The action, as Proffit tells it, becomes
slow or hard to follow at times.
Generally, however, Proffit's life as
Thompson has written it offers an
enlightening view of many elements of
life in the post-Civil War South, such
as courtship, free enterprise and racism.
As an actor, Thompson makes Proffit
an endearing and often amusing char
acter. Proffit appears as a backwoods
philosopher, bestowing bits of wisdom
on his audience rather like a Descartes
of Dixie. He befriends the audience by
expressing thoughts everyone has
known in his own unique and witty
fashion.
Thompson possesses good comic
timing and uses it to draw out plenty
of laughs. His enunciation, however, is
a problem.
Particularly in the first act, Thomp
son is difficult to understand because
of the speed at which he speaks and
sine At times, only the people seated
Heart is extraordinary film about ordinary people
Few people have ever visited or even
heard of Waxahachie, Texas, because
it is the type of town where people grow
up and die in the same house after living
by old-fashioned ideas of right and
wrong.
Luckily for moviegoers, director
Robert Benton grew up there but moved
away to make films about families, like
Kramer vs. Kramer and now Places in
the Heart, a very personal film about
life in Waxahachie in 1935.
Places in the Heart is a remarkably
Christian tale of a fatherless family and
its struggle to keep its homestead in spite
of mortgage foreclosures, tornadoes
and a cotton harvest deadline. It is also
about relationships between blacks and
whites in those days.
The true heart of the film, however,
is its striking portrayal of Southern
women and their strength, not only to
survive, but to grow.
Those who have lived in the South
most of their lives may recognize their
mothers or grandmothers in some
nuance of Sally Field's performance as
Edna, the widowed sheriff's wife,
whether it be her gentle brand of grief
or her steel will.
This role gives Field the opportunity
to showcase the kind of talent that
earned her an Oscar five years ago for
Norma Rae, but she skillfully avoids
repeating the same characterization and
keeps Edna's growth as a person in step
with the decade.
w
UNC
YEAK-AT-MONTPEEJLIEK
A Year-abroad program of studies at the Universite de Montpellier,
France. Classes from September through June. Open to majors
and non majors with a good knowledge of French. Full academic
credit. Intensive language course in September.
Estimated cost (includes fees, lodging, meals for 10 months and
round trip transportation); modest (dormitory) $5580; moderate
(town) $4635 .
For Information and Applications, write to
Director, UNC Year-at-Montpellier
Application Deadline 239 Dey Hall
March 1 University of North Carolina
Chapel Hill, NC 27514
INFORMATIONAL MEETING, Wednesday, October 10, 1984
3:30-5:30 PM Dey Hall -Toy Lounge, (4th floor)
UNC Campus Chapel Hill
(919)962-0154
Slide Show
3:30 PM
Virginia Smith
Review
in the front of the theatre are laughing;
those in the back simply cannot hear
what is being said on the stage. The
acoustics in the old Playmakers Theatre
may well contribute to this problem.
Thompson is not the only great talent
involved in this production. Director
David Rotenberg has an impressive list
of credits for productions all over the
U.S. and in Canada. The former PRC
artistic director has collaborated with
Thompson to make the acting in this
production of true professional quality.
Linwood Taylor and Bobbi Owen's
designs add significant detail to the
production. The farmhouse set by
Taylor, crowded with Proffit's wood
working marvels, is an imaginative
representation of a West Virginia home.
Owen's costumes for Proffit help
develop the character as an aged
adventurer.
Robert L. Orzolek's lighting design
is appropriate for the play, with an
especially interesting effect of 19th
century footlights for the performance
of Proffit's blackface number in the
second act.
PRC's production of John Proffit is
a pleasure for the audience. The
problems with Thompson's perfor
mance could easily be eliminated, and
the script itself almost makes up for any
inadequacies in the acting. As a prelude
to another PRC season, John Proffit
is an original, enjoyable play.
The Last Song of John Proffit will
be performed by the PlayMakers
Repertory Company at 8 p.m. Wednes
day through Friday, at 5 p.m. and 9
p.m. Saturday and at 2 p.m. and 7 p.m.
Sunday through Oct. 21 in Playmakers
Theatre. Call 962-1121 for ticket
information.
Ivy Hilliard
Review
Although Edna's plight is the focus
of Places in the Heart, two other
women, and the man who loves them
both, create an interesting subplot.
Lindsay Crouse plays Edna's sister,
a beautician whose husband, played by
Ed Harris, is having an affair with her
best friend, the town school teacher,
played by Amy Madigan.
Crouse, always versatile in films like
Daniel and Iceman, gives a subtle and
memorable performance in a type of
role she has seldom taken. Harris and
Madigan, who married while making
the film, are also top-notch in conveying
the furtive quality of a small-town affair
with refreshing style.
Two relative newcomers round out
this superlative cast.
John Malkovich, straight from a
Broadway run of Death of a Salesman,
plays Mr. Will, a blind boarder Edna
takes on reluctantly to placate his
banker brother. The transformation of
this sullen outsider into one of the
family is depicted with skill sure to win
Malkovich an Oscar nod.
Another Broadway veteran, Danny
Glover of 'Master Harold' ... and the
boys, plays Moses, the itinerant black
Km
Panel Presentation by 83-84
Students (4 pm)
The Daily Tar
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Tommy Thompson wrote and stars
farmhand who teaches Edna all about
growing cotton. Glover lends singular
dignity and grace to what could be a
very cliched role.
Benton, who also wrote the screen
play, originally intended Places in the
Heart to be a semi-autobiographical tale
about his family and several murdered
relatives. Although the jolting murders
that start the movie are loosely based
on his past, Benton instead concentrates
the film on the series of constant
revelations, agonies and triumphs that
define family life.
With the help of cinematographer
Nestor Almendros, Benton has created
a gorgeous film full of small details, such
as women who wear aprons all day,
Student tickets are
i
White game which will be played Saturday,
November 3rd after the Maryland football
game as well as for the 2nd Blue-White game
scheduled for Friday evening, November 17th
at 7:30 PM. Present your student I.D. and athletic
pass at Carmichael Ticket Office between 8:30
and 4:30 PM. Students may also purchase three
tickets at $7.00 each in addition to their
complimentary student ticket.
LLUIIULI-iMUU' illOLjllilllJ LJUillLUllUUJillJUJM
LESSONS
LODGING
MEALS
91 9-441
RO. BOX 340- WP
Heel Wednesday. October 10 i " : i i
in The Last Song of John Proffir
stockings rolled down and sleeves rolled
up, hovering in the kitchen ready to feed
whoever comes along.
There are moments in Places in the
Heart that knot the stomach, along with
ones that exhilarate the spirit and touch
the heart. But although it verges on the
sentimental, the film never becomes
maudlin.
In the final, miraculous scene of
Places in the Heart, which should be
" seen to be fully appreciated, Tienton has
offered a wondrous choice to each
viewer to decide for himself what
is inside the heart.
Most of all, it becomes clear that
Benton has offered an extraordinary
film about ordinary people.
available for the Blue-
n
PER PERSON
DOUBLE
OCCUPANCY
41 24
NAGS HEAD, NC 27959