October Issue
THE N.C. ESSAY
Page 3
Essay Investigates Delays in Renovations
Late last spring, plans were
announced for a summer
renovation project. The bulk of
the plan c^ed for major im
provements in the auditorium
and the school’s theatre.
Since much criticism has been
aimed at the administration, the
Essay contacted Sam Stone in the
Foundation office. He cited
several reasons why work has so
far been slow.
The first problem was that the
sdiool was required to obtain
three bids from different com
panies. Second, upon accepting a
bid, funds to be provided by &e
state, were delayed. The last
reason was that the original
estimates were about $180,000
short.
Dance
Workshop
Set
The School of Dance will
present a dance workshop on
October 26-28 at 815 in Studio A.
This workshop will be the first of
three scheduled workshops
throughout the academic year 72-
73.
Studio A has been converted to
accommodate the workshops by
the Department of Desi^ and
Production. Permanent side and
overhead lighting, along with a
set of bleachers with a capacity
of one hundred, have been added
for the Dance productions.
Properties for the productions
will be provided by the Design
and Production department. The
dancers will wear various
colored tights and the music will
be taped.
The workshop will contain
three dances. Thirty dancers will
dance the divertissement from
the Le Deliber Ballet Coppelia.
The divertissement will be staged
by faculty member SonJa Tyven
and Dean of the Dance School
Robert Lindgren.
A modem dance will also be
(resented by 23 dancers per
forming Carnival of the Animals
by Charles Saint-Saens. The
(ioreography will be by faculty
member Miss Nell Fisher.
Another dance also
choreographed by Miss Fisher
from the Araon Copeland work
Sweet Songs, entitled Morning
Song, will be performed by 15
dance students. Morning Song
was previously produced here
two years ago by Miss Fisher.
With the theatre renovations in
progress, the dance department
will have an opportunity to
develop their students in a new
and more informal atmosphere.
The Workshops promise variant
dance directions for the up
coming academic year.
Mike Burner
Along with delays in con
struction the proposed com
pletion date for Qie main building
was moved from this October to
around the first of 1973. Mr. Stone
assured the Essay that the work
would resume any day.
According to plans, the
auditorium is to be completely
renovated. All windows are to be
bricked-in and new lighting will
be installed. The old proscenium
will be removed and the stage
enlarged. A new wing is to be
added that will house restrooms,
dressing areas, and storage
space. TTie entire area will be air-
conditioned. Seating will remain
the same, but carpeting will be
added.
An acoustical shell will be
constructed for concert use and
risers will always be available.
The back of the auditorium will
be changed. A small entrance
foyer will cause removal of the
last few aisles. To one side of the
enclosed foyer, a recording booth
will be constructed.
Across the hall in what is now
the old bookstore, a small recital
hall is proposed. Seating capacity
will be about 50. The room will be
completely changed. One will
enter from the hall off the
auditorium. This hallway will be
richly furnished. A new floor and
ceiling, plus draperies will finish
the recital hall.
Below the auditorium, the
entire area will also be changed.
Plans are set for 15 practice
rooms, 6 faculty studios and 12
large practice areas suitable for
smaU ensemble work. All will be
air-conditioned and carpeted.
A breakdown of coste reveals
that the NCSA Foundation has
raised almost half of the total
costs and these funds came from
outside sources. Below is a listing
of costs and funds as of August 28,
1972:
STATE APPROPRIATIONS
Auditorium $54,500
Recital HaU 24,000
Studios beneath Auditorium 95,000
Theatre 230,000
$403,500
FOUNDATION
Auditorium $60,000
Recital HaU 36,000
Studios beneath Auditorium 85,000
Theatre 199,000
$380,000
TOTAL
Auditorium
Recital Hall
Studios beneath Auditorium
Theatre
Although work hasn’t begun on
the theatre, plans call for it to be
completely rebuilt. Seating will
be improved and all elements of a
modern tiieatre will be included.
Work should start around
January 1973.
$114,500
60,000
180,000
429,000
$783,500
As soon as the NCSA Essay
receives more definite facts,
detailed information on the
theatre and other projects not
mentioned here will be covered in
a later issue.
- Cedel, Wilson
B
I
1972 NCSA DRAMA “GARDEN PARTY”
Fifteen members of the Drama
department spent another six
weeks in Bromley, England
participating in the Rose Bruford
Drama Course.
N.C.S.A. students were ac
companied by their faculty ad
visors Lesley Hunt and Charlie
Frohn. Sandra Lavalle served as
their assistant.
Students had the advantages of
smaller classes, more period
dances, stage fighting, guest
lecturers and tickets to eight
shows. Some students saw as
many as 25 shows in a six week
period. This year’s program
consisted of more work and fewer
field trips.
Pendleton Wins New Play Competition
WINSTON-SALEM, N.C. -
Ronald Pollock, Dean of the
School of Drama, North Carolina
School of the Arts, has announced
the winner of the school’s New
Snack Bar, Health Foods
Fellow NCSA students, our long
awaited Snack Bar is here at last.
The hold-up for the past two
weeks has been the break-down
of the refrigerator-freezer
combination.
This Snack Bar has been
provided through the efforts and
money of our Student Council and
with Uie kind help of the Marriott
Corporation. With the geodesic
dome, it provides pt another
dimension to the skyline of NCSA.
According to Mr. Childress,
there will be 14 different sand
wiches offered, in addition to
assorted pot pies, soups, salads,
and short order dinners. Also to
be offered are milk, assorted
juices, coffee, tea, and hot
chocolate. On the cold cre^
line, there will be yogurt, ice
cream and nutty buddies.
The Snack Bar will be open 7
days a week provided the
students utilize these facilities.
Taking advantage of a good thing
is all that is needed for a full-time
snack bar.
This year has also seen the
adition of more natural foods in
our cafeteria. These include
yogurt, honey, wheat germ,
raisins, brown sugar, raw sugar,
buck wheat pancakes, whole
wheat bread, fresh fruit and
juices, dried beans, milk and
butter. This is at least a begin
ning and it anticipates more
changes for the future.
Play Competition for North
Carolina playwrights.
The winning play is “A Last
Supper” by James D. Pendleton,
a native North Carolinian, now
Associate Professor of English at
Virginia Commonwealth
University.
The New Play Competition was
established through a grant from
the North Carolina State Arts
Council. As the winner, Pen
dleton will receive $500 cash and
wiU be in residence at the School
of the Arts for the studio
production of “A Last Supper”
December 6-14 in the school’s
Dome Theater.
Pendleton’s one-act poetic
drama was selected by faculty
members of the School of Drama
from 21 scripts entered by native
North Carolinians, permanent
state residents or residents at
North Carolina educational in
stitutions.
Pendleton was born in Fort
Bragg, N.C., and lived in
Fayetteville. He received his
B.A. in English from Davidson
College in 1952 and his M.A. from
the University of North Carolina
in Chapel Hill in 1958. In 1959, he
joined the faculty of the Rich
mond Professional Institute
which became Virginia Com
monwealth University in 1967.
“A Last Supper” will be the
seventh play by Pendleton to be
produced. Two of his plays, “The
t3B
Flood Concert Reviewed °
Saturday, September 23,
N.C.S.A. experienced its first full
length rock concert. The music
played by FLOOD began about 8
p.m. and continued until the early
hours of the morning. Other
activities included fireworks and
dancing, plus many in the crowd
seemed to be carrying on their
own activities.
Flood, a local quartet, per
formed their own music which
seemed to be in the style of
middle-sixties acid rock. Their
act consisted of too much
equipment and not enough talent.
To be fair - though they played
well together, their music was
not pleasing.
The group seemed to prefer
modal forms of music, especially
the Phrygian mode. They
overplayed their original motifs,
giving their music a very
repetitive sound. There was some
good work from the organist and
some extremely poor work from
the drummer (who could not keep
from standing on his drums.)
The highpoint of the evening
came when a bearded, young
man urged the crowd to “get it
on.” It appeared that most of the
crowd was enjoying the hap
pening. One must sympathize,
however, with the lone heckler
who yelled epithets from an
adjoining hill and then disap
peared mysteriously into the
™ght. -Wilson
Brief and Violent Reign of Ab
salom” and “The Oaks of
Manru-e” have been published.
For the latter, Pendleton
received the TRAV-TV
Television Writing Award for
1962, sponsored by the
Presbyterian Church, and the
James Helms Playscript Award
for 1963, sponsored by the
University of Virginia and the
Virginia Museum of Fine arts.
For his play “Nightsong”, he
received the Converse College
Drama Award for 1964. His other
plays which have been produced
are “The Defender,” “The Trial
of Judas,” and “The Obscene
Verse of Magdalene Ran-
dallman.”
“A Last Supper” will be
produced with 'The Dumb
Waiter” by Harold Pinter and
“The Stronger” by August
Strindberg under the direction of
Donald Hotton, instructor in
acting at the School of the Arts.
The other finalists in the New
Play Competition were “The Rise
of the Phoenix” by Carol Banks,
“The Twilight’s Last Gleaming”
ay Ira David Wood, “The Wooing
Dance of the Mutated Petunias”
by Earl Settlemire and
“Registration” by Edwin
Schloss. Wood and Schloss are
graduates of the Arts School.