the
LANCE
Volume 28
St. Andrews Presbyterian College
Number 2
Krys Wood
Theatre Performs
Shakespeare
Dahn Wade, a junior from
Atlanta, Ga., and Don
Smith, a junior from Ft.
Lauderdale, Fla., each
portray two characters in
the upcoming production of
Shakespeare's "A
Midsummer Night's
Dream."
The story of "A
Midsummer Night's
Dream" is set in Athens'
rocky ledges and a w(}f)d
justoutside the city. Lovers,
weddings, confusion,
fairies, mischief, a drunk
and courtly love are all
encompassed in this comic
show.
Wade plays Hippolyta,
the Amazon Queen, and
Titania, the fairy Queen.
Smith portrays Theseus, the
Duke of Athens, and
Oberon, the Fairy King.
The portrayl of two
characters requires two
entirely different
personalities to be visible to
the audience. The
characters must walk, speak
and gesture differently. The
actor or actress will
memorize the lines as
seperate personalities.
Neither Wade nor Smith is
new to stage. Wade was
involved in television
commercials as a child. She
has performed in several
plays at her home and on the
St. Andrews stage last year
in "Equus."
Smith recently completed
a summer workshop at the
Royal Academy of the
Dramatic Arts in London.
He played a leading role in
last fall's production of "The
Diary of Anne Frank." He
also has performed in
several other St. Andrews
productions.
According to S::. Andrews
cast members, director
Mark Parsons plays upon
Shakespeare's spirit of
comedy producing a
bawdy, hilarious,
thoroughly entertaining
work.
"A Midsummer Night's
Dream" opens Tuesday,
Oct. 17 and runs through
Friday, Oct. 20.
Performances are at 8
O’clock each evening.
I
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Dahn Wade and Don Smith
Bringle Discusses Feminine Theology
Kathy Sellers
Feminist theology, homo
sexuality and Christianity
were the three topics most
discussed at Associate Pro
fessor of Religion Mel
Bringle's speech at Sympo
sium on Tuesday, Sept. 19.
Some 20-25 students at
tended the event which cen
tered on what Bringle calls
"straight talk" and "gay aban
don, two phenomena which
she regards as very prevalent
®d damaging in our society.
Straight talk," according
to Bringle, is any talk "that
«sumes that all human
‘^‘ngs are heterosexual." She
^ this sort of exclusivistic
speech as similar to the use of
the impersonal "he" in Eng
lish, both having the effect of
rendering "invisible" the
unmentioned group through
silence. "Gay abandon" is the
result of this sort of speech on
homosexuals and other
people with other than
heterosexual orientations.
What Bringle describes is a
cycle beginning with straight
talk which leads to gay aban
don on the part of society and
ultimatly to an "abnormali-
zation" of this behavior per
ceived not only by society
but by even the people who
experience these tendencies.
Much of the problem, ac
cording to Bringle, i s based in
the fact that we have a heter
osexist, procreationist soci
ety which tends to accept
only monogamous hetero
sexual relationships which
create children as valid.
Bringle considers the ef
fects of this cycle to be three
fold. One, preventing society
in general from receiving any
clear image of homo- and bi
sexual groups and therefore
perpetuating myths and
prejudices against these
groups. Two, this sort of
speech leads to an abnor-
malization of other than
heterosexually orientated
groups, causing members
themselves to try to fit them
selves to social norms. In ef
fect, denying a part of them
selves, or as Bringle refers to
it, "enforced dishonesty."
Three, dichotomist gender
roles are fortified by hetero
sexual, procreationist
speech. According to
Bringle, our common stere
otypes of what is a "man" and
what is a "woman" are de
fined in terms of this heter
osexist bias. Therefore,
homosexual and female de-
velopement are restricted by
these roles prescribed for
them by society.
Bringle advocates ari ex
amination of this situation to
bring it to the awareness of
the general population.
There are two orgaiuzations
which Bringle feels should
"know better" than to partici
pate in the perpetuation of
this cycle in their theological
discourse because of their
own experience.
One of these groups is the
feminist writers. She cites ex
amples of how nearly all
feminist theology ignores the
existance of other than
heterosexual relationships in
the writings of Penelope
Washboume, Jean Baker
Miller, Ann Wilson-Scheaf
and others. Bringle feels that
"the deafening silence" about
continued on pg. 5.