Page 6-The Compass Elizabeth City State University
ECSU Lifestyles
Players to Present Picnic
Trying BrowD and Joycelyn P. Proctor wiU play Hal and
the young lovers in PICNIC.
submitted by
Shawn Smith
The Pulitzer Prize-winniufe
play Picnicwill be the next major
production of the ECSU
University Players. The
romantic comedy by William
Inge, the author of Bus Stop, will
be performed on March 6, 7, and
9, in the Kermit White Graduate
Center.
The setting for Picnic is the
backyard of a house in a sleepy
sounthern town, where a group of
women are preparing for a Labor
Day evening picnic to liven up
the monotony of their lives. Into
this quiet atmosphere there
suddenly erupts a former college
football star turned drifter who
upsets the routine of the drowsy
neighborhood with his blatant
masculinity.
The play is being directed by
senior theatre student Kenneth
L. Lanier. Ovr the past several
years, Lanier has acquired a
long list of theatre credits,
including stage managing,
Here Comes
The Spring
by Dreena Birdsall
Staff Writer
It’s after the holidays, and the
only things noticeably thinner
are our wallets. However, a
spartan-like regime of dieting
and scholarly meditation
(suggested to keep the mind off
food and partying), should
OToduce an emergence of lovely
isutterflies on campus
everywhere this spring and just
(n time to don the upcoming
aeason’s lissom aristocratic-
looking fashion apparel.
This spring, the lure of pure
white (Like a Virgin) will be
conspicuous in everything from
tailored pieces to simple frocks,
constructed of gauzy cotton or
clingy rayon, and designed to
cover, not conceal.
A hint of the 50’s look is seen in
the bare-backed halter dress,
cinched at the waist and
tastefully sexy.
In evening party wear, the
show-stopping femme fatale look
is electric lame.(Not for the
timid.)
The attraction in casual wear
is an uncomplicated layered
look, with long pleated skirts and
loose cable sweaters or boxy
collarleSs blazers ov'er tank tops!”^
To round out the “well bred
Holley/Fonville
Photography
“Specializing in wedding photography”
Graduating seniors if you are interested in
affordable senior portraits contact Holley/Fbnville
Photography. ATTENTION!
Economy Package
1-8 X 10
2-5x7 $24.95 plus tax
8- wallets
By appointment only. NO SITTING CHARGE!
Other packages available
Call us to capture and preserve
your cherished moments.
Pedro Holley i5os Herrington Road Willie Fonvllle
338-1706 Elizabeth City, N. 0 . 27909 330-2640
directing, and acting. He
appeared as Gabe Gabriel in last
spring’s No Place To Be
Somebody and has worked
professionally as actor and stage
manger in the outdoor dramas
Strike At The Wind and The
Liberty Cart.
Irvin Brown, a senior
English/Drama major from
Portsmouth, Virginia will appear
as Hal Carter, the young athlete
who bums his way into town.
Joycelyn Proctor will play
Madge, the pretty girl who has
the misfortune to fall in love with
Hal. Both Brown and Proctor
have acted hi several University
Players productions.
Madge’s mother, Flo Owens,
will be portrayed by Vera V.
Patillo, a senior political science
major from Gaston, N.C. She
received acclaim for her
portrayal of Nurse Hatched in
last semester’s One Flew Over
the Cuckoo’s Nest.
Jacqueline M. Weddington, a
Charlotte native who majors in
Chemistry, will be seen as the
fading school teacher, Rosemary
Sydney, who manages to snare
Howard, a middle-aged
merchant into marrying her.
Vernel Barco, last seen as Dale
Harding in One Flew Over the
Cuckoo’s Nest, will portray this
reluctant bridegroom. Barco is a
senior biology major from
Elizabeth City.
Millie Owens, the tomboyish
younger sister of Madge, will be
played by Atleacia C. Stokes, a
freshman from Portsmouth,
Virginia.
Sheila Reid, a junior
biology/drama major from
Elizabeth City will appear in the
role of Helen Potts, the next door
neighbor, and Gary D. Sheared,
a freshman from Goldsboro, N.C.
will play Alan Seymour, Madge’s
well-mannered, rich boy friend.
Both Reid and Shearod have a
good deal of acting experienc e.
She was last seen as Nurse Flinn
in “Cuckoo’s Nest and he has
performed in several other
productions including Fly On,
Sweet Angel, in his hometown.
Rounding out the cast will be
Edita Perkins, a junior business
major from Danbury, Ct., as
Irma; Shirley Ann James an
ECSU senior from Elizabeth City
as Christine, and James Kevin
Runyon, a freshman education
major from Herford in the role of
Bomber.
Tracy Hoggard is the
production stage manager, with
Vincent Ruffin serving as stage
manager.
John H. Gibbs is the assistant
director, David Raper is
technical director, and James
Gibbs is the assistant technical
director.
look,” feet should be clad in flat
or nearly flat shoes and slouchy
socks.
For those who prefer a more
jaunty look this spring but still
want to be tres chic, the word is
“short.” Shorter lengths in floral
abstracts and off-the-shoulder
tops will be in the spring fashion
line- up, alongside the lady-like
attire of sophisticates.
Loose, lean shapes ranging
from bright to white capture the
fashion scene for the spring, and
fabrics are primarily cool crisp
linens, lightweight wools and
cotton blends.
In the midst of winter
doldrums, it’s hard to believe
spring is just around the corner.
C’mon, girls: get that body ready
to “show some skin.”
HATS Stuns ECSU Audience
by Rick L. Jones
Executive Editor
Saundra Dunson Franks, in a
one- woman show, gave a
stunning performance on the life
of Harriet Tubman. The show
was full of rich, cultural history
and a deep pathos - punctuated
by periodic, humorous punch
lines which brought immediate
laughter from a very receptive
audience.
Her polished acting technique
of presenting a one-woman show
carried the audience through
many phases of her subject’s life,
especially the scene dealing with
the “underground railroad.” The
scenery, Franks’ costumes, and
the heavily textured make-up
gave the show an air of reality
for an audience of all ages.
Franks is a native of Atlanta,
Georgia and is a member of the
Seventh-Day Adventist Church.
She earned her Bachelor of Arts
degree from Spelman College.
After a few years of traveling
Dreena Reviews
Ironweed by William Kennedy
Francis Phelan, an ex-
ballplayer, has descended to an
abysmal state of despair
following a series of unfortunate
mishaps in his life. We meet
Francis and his hobo girlfriend,
Helen, both full-time bums,
living a less than civilized
existence, lingering on the
outskirts of soriptv
William Kennedy’s Ironweed is
a graphic portrait of post
depression “street people.” His
tattered characters are of
Steinbeck vintage and typify
pathetic human remanents of our
society - a derelict coterie unable
to cope in a world adhering to
“survival of the fittest” and
bound by an unquenchable thirst
for booze. A band of misfits,
their day-to-day existence is
focused on primal instincts for
survival: shelter from the cold
and food and drink for
sustenance. In their world,
sexual favors are reduced to
crude trade, wherever and
whenever needed, and usually in
exchange for temporary shelter
in a hovel or a bottle of cheap
wine.
In a story littered with
depressing characters, we come
to know intimately Francis
Phelans’ sepulchre of past and
present ghosts and to gain
compassion for a pitiful man
seeking asylum from a reverie of
ill-fated yesterdays.
Kennedy’s Pulitzer Prize-
winning novel is an intensely
moving story and one not to be
missed. It profiles one man’s
journey downward, as well as a
glimpse of a touching return to
the world of the living.
Cotton Club
The Cotton Club was “hot” in
its heyday. It was big-city
depravity for white America in
the midst of prohibition, a
“Cabin in the Cotton” for the
white elite.
The Club, at 142nd Street and
Lenox Avenue in Harlem, was
operated by white gansters from
1923-1935, and employed only
black entertainment and black
help — the Harlem royalty of the
day.
The main attraction was the
“Cotton Cluh Girls”- tall
(5’5”minimum), nearly white
mulattos, quatroons, octoroons,
scantily clad beauties that were
custom-made for the racial
voyeur.
Dixie Dwyer, played by
Richard Gere, is a white jazz
coronet player that works “gigs”
in and around Harlem. He
inadvertently saves the life of
“Dutch” Schulz, a psychopathic
killing gangster who befriends
Dixie and hires him as a “yes”
man. Dixie falls in love with
Dutch’s sassy young moll, Vera
Cicero, but Vera wants a
nightclub that Dutch has
promised her and the romancp is
thwarted.
Gregory Hines plays
“Sandman” Williams, half of the
Williams Brothers tap dancing
duo. “Sandman” falls in love at
first sight with Lonette McKee,
one of the “Cotton Club Girls,’’
who easily passes for white.
McKee looks like a young Lena
Horne clone, but despite her
flashing smile and a face that
literally embraces the camera,
she lacks the stage presence and
charisma of Horne.
“Cotton Club” goes more for
razzle dazzle than an in-depth
character study. It merely
serves as a backdrop for a weak
plot and script.
The period costumes
terrific, and the music captures
the jumping jive flavor of Cab
Calloway, Duke Ellington, and a
retinue of high-browHarlem
entertainers.For the dance
numbers, Coppola obviously
hired some of the best “hoofers”
in the business. However, even
with the abundance of glitter and
talent, it looks like Coppola will
have to add “Cotton Club” to his
ever-growing list of “Big Bucks”
turkeys.
and working, she returned to
Spelman for further study. She
has performed in the Lewis
Company productions of Ain’t.
Suppose to Die a Natural Death
and Ladies in Waiting, and
appeared in the Spelman
Morehouse productions of
Macbeth, Three Penny Opera,
and Not Enough Rope
Franks has coordinated a
video-acting workshop for teens,
and completed a certified
program sponsored by CABLE
ATLANTA. She has also trained
in modern and African dance and
ballet, and is a member of (SAG)
Screen Actors Guild and Equity.
Regarding HATS: A TRIBUTE
TO HARRIET TUBMAN,Franks
sees this as more than simply a
theatrical production.
“Instead,” she says, “it is a
service to the people. It is a
unique show that shares the life
of a very special person whowas
the ‘Moses’ of a very special
people.”
The 90-minute one-woman
production was written by Ms.
Franks.
Important
Dates
Did you know that the ECSU
Teacher Education Program
requires all prospective teachers
to take and pass the National
Teachers Examination (NTE)
prior to becoming a Certified
Teacher? A Bachelor of Science
degree in Education does not in
itself entitle you to a teaching
position. One must make a
satisfactory score on the NTE in
order to become certified. If you
are an Education major, be
certain that you read the
following information
Test Dates: A. Core Battery -
March 30, 1985. The regular
registration deadline is Feb. 25
and the late registration deadline
is March 4.
B. Specialty Area - April 20,
1985. The regular registration
deadline is March 18 and the late
registration deadline is March
25. The fee waiver request
deadline is Feb. 27. All tests will
be given in Moore Hall
Auditorium.
Promptness is always a virtue,
but in the case of the NTE it is a
necessity. Do not be late! No one
will be admitted to the
examinations after testing has
begun.
A copy of the NTE Programs
1984-85 Bulletin of Information
may be obtained from the Office
of Student Services.
Monday, March 4
Founders Day