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THE LANCE
February 19, J9S8
Arts ^ Entertainment
Trvnri nvii Original Scripts
H w a n g T o n g - Ca y u »
Shares Korean Culture Featured
Denise Peck
Taking off the professor’s cap.
Dr. Hwang Tong-Gyu read in what he
terms the “human voice” a three-part poem
about Port Chong-ryong.
Thursday night’s Writer’s Fo
rum audience listened intensely as Hwang
made references to the historic port, where
King TanjcMig was abdicated and hung in
the 15th cenuiry.
Hwang, one of the leading
Korean poets, is proud of this jx)em be
cause it is free of his professor voice, even
though he is Professor of English at Seoul
National University in Seoul, Korea.
Hwang is pleased that many
universities and colleges hire poets as pro
fessors, but he warns against complicated
poetry.
“If we make efforts, we may
take off the professor’s gown whenever
we write,” said Hwang. “A professor’s
poem is likely to have a brain-generated
voice, something that retains the dusty
smells of a study or a library.”
“Teaching the audience weakens
art,” said Hwang. He prides himself in
teaching only about life through his poetry.
“An artist should lead an artist’s
life,” suggests Hwang. “There should be
some kind of truth in writing along with
pizzaz in verbal expression.”
Resisting worldly temptations at
times, being independent and never being
a coward are qualities all artists should
embrace, said Hwang.
Hwang has friends as poetry
consultants in Korea and he tries to move at
least one of them with each poem he
writes. His Korean audience is much larger
than a few friends, however.
“Poetry is stronger than poli
tics,” said Hwang. In the first year, his
anthology “Wind Burial” sold about
10.000 copies to an audience of 43 million
Koreans. Hwang also expects 3,000 to
4.000 copies to sell yearly for 10-15 years
after publication.
The strength of emotion in his
poetry is clear when Hwang reads to his
audience in Korean. There is one poem
however, ‘A Passage to the Bronx’, that has
special meaning to him in English.
‘A Passage to the Bronx’ recalls
when he was mugged in New York during
the second week of his visittotheU.S.By
the end of the poem, Hwang said he had
overcome the hatred that grew from the
continued on page 8
Denise Peck
Blackburn, Martin Kick
off Writers' Forum
Beth Russo
Jill Stricklin
The first of the new Spring
Season of Fortner Writer’s Forums took
place on February 11, featuring Kate
Blackburn and Rob Martin. Rob McLean
read a few of his poems in the Open Mike
which followed.
Kate Blackburn earned her
Master’s Degree in Psychology at the
University of Pennsylvania. Some of her
poetry was published by the St Andrews
Press in Four North Carolina
Women Poets. Her first play, entitled
“Check List”, will be premiered on Febru
ary 22 at St. Andrews.
Opening with “Accident for
Sylvia Plath”, Blackburn commemorated
the 25th anniversary of Plath’s death.
Another poem of Blackburn’s was
“Stirfry in One Pan”, in which she con
demned Pandora, the Greek mythologi
cal creature who let loose the world’s
misfortunes, to packaging Jolly Green
A Playwrights Symposium
featuring the original scripts “Magnetic
Fields” and “Check List” will be held at St.
Andrews Presbyterian College on Monday,
Feb. 22 at 8 pjn.
“Magnetic Fields,” a comedy by
Wilmington residents Maggie Maxwell
and Steve Reilly, is a story about
opposites attracting. Readers of the script
include Carl BenneU, Distinguished Pro
fessor of English at St. Andrews, Erik
Faircloth, a St. Andrews student and
Brenda Gilbert, a Laurinburg resident
Scotland High School English
and journalism teacher Kate Blackburn is
the author of the second script, “Check
List.” Readers for this poetry drama in
clude Amy Samo, Alison Foley and
Marian Scholz, St. Andrews students, and
Ellen Wallers, an academic aid at the col
lege.
Janice Burgess, Assistant Pro
fessor of Theatre and D.K. Beyer, Associ
ate Professor of Theatre initiated the idea
of a symposium with an open call for
scripts last December. Although Beyer
taught a scriptwriting course in the fall,
the offer was also open to the community.
The Reader’s Theatre presenta
tion of scripts will be held in the Hagan
Choral room uin the Vardell Building at
St. Andrews. A discussion with the play
wrights and audience will follow the read
ings.
This Monday Night in the Arts
presentation is free and the public is invited
to attend.
¥)uVe
astute enoudi
to discuss tne
philosophicad
rarnilications of
Victor FranM’s
''Existential
Vacuum?
you’re
still smoking?
U.S. Ofparrmonl ot Health Human Srrvite^
when you fill out your Form
W-4 or W-4A, “Employee’s
Withholding Allowance
Certificate,” remember:
If you can be claimed on your
parent’s or another person’s tax
return, you generally cannot be
exempt from income tax
withholding. To get it righf, read
the instructions that came with
your Form W-4 or W-4 A.
Giant Stirfry SwcetandSourChicken. The
last line declared, “1 am satisfied, I am
stirred, we’re all fried.” Manyofherpoems
were inspired by her travels in Scotland,
England, and Brunnenburg castle in the
Italian Alps. Blackburn also read an ex
cerpt from her novel which is soon to be
published.
Rob Martin, who is a 1986 gradu
ate of St. Andrews and is presently Director
of Alumni Affairs, presented to the public
for the first lime a short story which relayed
the dilemma of a man who had gone
through with a vasectomy without yet in
forming his wife.
Martin also read several of his
poems, including “Grandad,” and “The
Visit.”
Martin has performed in the
Vienna Theater for 2 years, sung in night
clubs in New York, and has been published
in the St. Andrews Review and The
Cairn.
Faith Presbyterian Church
Invites you to church school & worship
Located on campus in the Vardell Building
''We need you and you may need us**
9:45 A.M. Church School
11:00 A.M. Worship
Wylie Smith, Pastor
Focus on your faith with Faith Presbyterian Church