PAGE 8
N.C. ESSAY
Tuesday, April 16, 1974
In Philadelphia
On Rabe’s Play ‘Orphan
By PRUDENCE MASON
F^ssay Staff Reporter
Four NCSA students and one graduate
have just completed work on a produc
tion of “The Orphan” by David Rabe at
the Manning Street Theatre in
Philadelphia. Joseph Papp, the noted
New York producer, helped to finance
the production.
Nancy Mette, Cindy Winkler, and Tom
Hulce, NCSA senior drama majors and
Jon Thompson, a drama school graduate,
played the roles of The Girl, The
Speaker, Orestes and Apollo and Calcus,
respectively. Debe Hale, a design and
production student, designed the set and
Elizabeth Myers, a senior composition
major, composed the music for the
Philadelphia production. All were in
volved in NCSA’s production of the play
last fall in the same capacities.
Barnett Kellman, a young New York
director who staged the play here,
repeated his directing assignment.
“The Orphan,” a juxtaposition of
themes involving the Greek “Oresti's”
SCA Elections
ELECTIONS, From Page 1
The Visual Arts representatives are
Suzanne Stevens of Winston-Salem and
Sandra Boswell of Durham, both high
school juniors, Marguerite Gusdon of
Winston-Salem, also a junior, is the
alternate.
The new president will preside over
both old and new councils at the regular
noon meeting on April 9.
trilogy, the Sharon Tate murders and the
Viet Nam war, was first presented
several years ago at the Public Theatre
in New York under the sponsorship of
Joseph Papp’s New York Shakespeare
Festival. Most critics termed the concept
“interesting” but felt the play needed
work.
Rabe Rewrote
Rabe set about improving the play
using the NCSA production as a trying
ground for his new ideas. He sent
rewrites regularly to the NCSA cast
during its rehearsal period despite the
fact that he was in the midst of constant
revision on his recent play “Boom Boom
Room” then being produced at New
York’s Lincoln Center.
After the opening of “Boom Boom
Room”, Rabe came to Winston-Salem to
see the new “Orphan” production.
Encouraged by the results, Rabe and
Kellman set about finding another
theatre in which to produce the play.
After negotiating with theatres in several
major cities they decided on the Manning
Street Theatre, a resident professional
theatre in Philadelphia. Joseph Papp
was persuaded to finance half the
production costs.
The Philadelphia production
represents the finaUzed form of the play.
In a telephone interview, Kellman said
he expects the Philadelphia version of
the script and Ms. Myers music to be
published by Samuel French. Kellman
and Rabe are now looking for a New York
theatre to house a final production of the
play.
The students will return to the school to
finish work on their degrees when the
production closes this month.
Photo by Charles Weeks
Tom Hulce and Nancy Mette in “The Orphan’
Transcendental Meditation Used in New Ways
TM, From Page 1
TM is done by sitting comfortably with
your eyes closed for 15 to 20 minutes
twice daily and practicing a simple
natural technique, said Jeanne Hecker, a
teacher of TM at the International
Meditation Society Center.
Maharesbi
Chief proponent of the practice is
Mahareshi Mahesh Yogi. In an article by
Tom Elam in the December 1972 issue of
Phi Delta Kappan published by that
fraternity, Mahareshi is described as a
physics major who graduated from
Allahabad University in India. In 1955,
according to Elam,Yogi began teaching
the principles and practices of TM
throughout India and in 1958, he in
stigated a world movement “to bring TM
to everyone.” He made friends with
Nobel prize winners, such as planner,
designer, philosopher Buckminster
Fuller, and world authorities in all fields.
The claim of “deep rest and
relaxation,” has been objectively
verified by various tests run by The
Scientific American, The Lancet, and
other independent organizations anf
universitites.
Metabolic Levels
According to scientists, transcendental
meditators find significant improvement
in their metabolic levels, natural breath
rate change, states of relaxation,
changes in cardiac output, biochemical
Mahareshi Mahesh Yogi
changes, reaction time, increased per
ceptual ability, increased stability and
learning ability as well as reduced use of
tranquilizers and stimulants.
Jan Elder, a college voice major who
has been meditating for about two
months, says:
“I like the letting go, the relaxing.”
When asked if she had any concrete
examples of the benefits of TM, Jan
replied, “Oh yes, before my voice jury
lak term.
“Needless to say, I was just terrified
and tense. I had been taking yoga, so I
did some yoga, and then I meditated for
about 20 minutes. Then I went upstairs.
“Well, I walked into the room and I
wasn’t even tense; the tension just never
came back. It was like, until I meditated,
t was nervous, tight, worried. But af
terwards the tension never came back.
And I did great on my jury. I sang better
than I’d ever sung since I’ve been here.”
Anyone Can
The technique is presented over a
seven-day course; however, teachers
assure beginners that anyone can
meditate perfectly from the first time.
During the two week period prior to
initial instruction, beginners are
required to abstain from any non-
prescription drug use in order to insure a
clear first experience. The student is
asked to return monthly for free
, checking throughout the first year,
though, in order to insure proper
maintenance of the technique.
The building where the checking and
the courses as well as all other Inter
national Meditation Society business in
the Winston-Salem Greensboro area is
located at 1027 South Main Street.
600,000 Meditators
There are TM centers in every major
country in the world, with over 205
centers in the United States alone, said
Loretta Young, a TM instructor here in
Winston-Salem. Ms. Young also men
tioned that France, West Germany,
England, and the Scandinavian countries
have a major concentration of these
^enters. According to IMS figures, there
are over 600,000 meditators throughout
the world.
The impact of TM on US state govern
ment officials has been marked. An
article in the June 10, 1973 issue of the
San Francisco Examiner tells of two
. Oakland, California assemblymen, a
state senator, and an Assembly chaplain
who are all meditators and who report
increased relaxation and emotional
stability.
Also, the State of Illinois has adopted
House Resolution number 677 recom
mending TM to be encouraged in both
educational and medical drug
rehabilitation programs throughout that
state.
In New York, the Eastchester Public
School system has recently installed TM
as a secondary school subject. According
to Mr. Francis G. Driscoll, superin
tendent of Eastchester schools (from a
story in Phi Delta Kappan, December
1973.):
"We believe that transcendental
meditation has been of direct and
positive help to the students in our
secondary school who have begun to
meditate. Students, parents, and
teachers report similar feelings.
Scholastic grades improved, relation
ships with families, teachers, and peers
are better, and, very significantly, drug
abuse disappears or does not begm.”
A1E. Rubottom, a 1969 Yale graduate,
cum laude> with a B.A. degree in
Sociology and Art and a teacher of TM in
California and Connecticut, emphasizes
the scientific studies in this paper
“Transcendental Meditation and Its
Potential Uses for Schools.” Rubottom
also mentions the sciences of Creative
Intelligence, TM’s accompanying area of
applied study:
“The Science of Creative Intelligence
(SCI) may be described as a practical
inquiry into the sources and uses of in
telligence and creativity.”
SCI is also offered as a seperate course
available at the Main Street facility.
Business
The benefits of TM are being extolled
in the world of business as well. In an
article entitled “Business Tries
Meditating” in the June, 1973 issue of
The New Englander, Richard N.
Livingstone tells of several corporations
sponsoring TM and SCI-oriented business
seminars for its executives as a useful
tool in personal and corporate relations.
In the article Michael Dawson, an
executive for Arthur D. Little, Inc.
Cambridge, Massachusettes, admits,
“It’s kinda’slow. You can spend three or
four weeks getting into TM with no
desireable results. The, suddenly, you
realize that you are getting more done in
less time and the pressures do not seem
as great. I used to get home exahusted;
now if I meditate. I’m good for the
evening.”
Two dance students at NCSA, Frank
Holliday and Andy Rees, commented on
their experience with TM:
“My dancing has improved a lot,” says
Holliday, who has been at it since
October, 1973. “I learned how to con
centrate. It’s funny, I was meditating for
awhile and I stopped. I started getting
wrapped up in the useless trivia that can
go on around here. But then, one day, I
started meditating again, and I can feel
the results already.”
Creativity Boom
“I think that if everyone at NCSA did
TM, the creativity around here would
boom. The teachers should do it-
everyone-*cause it’s so easy.”
Comments made by Andy Rees show
some insight into personal and campus
problems. Says Rees, “It’s made me
understand that I should work for myself.
Also, TM has helped me perceive the
mass confusion that sometimes occurs at
this school and in my surroundings here
in Moore dorm and on this campus.”
In a 1973 visit with Haile Selassie, ruler
of Ethiopia , the Mahreshi discussed an
“Alliance for Knowledge.” In an article
in THE ETHIOPIAN HERALD (Sep
tember 2, 1973) the seven goals of SCI
were described: “To develop the full
potential of the individual, to improve
governmental achievements, to realize
the highest ideal of education, to solve
the problems of crime, drug abuse and
all behaviour that brings unhappiness to
the family of man, to maximize the in
telligent use of the environment, to bring
fulfillment to the economic aspirations of
individuals and society, and to achieve
the spiritual goal of mankind in this
generation.”
Costs
Costs for learning the procedure vary.
High school students are charged $55.00;
college students, $65.00; adults, $125.00,
and adult couples pay $200.00. According
to Jeanne Hecker, these costs reflect
both inflation and the‘costs involved to
the IMS and SIMS (Students Inter
national Meditation Society) such as
publicity and teaching costs. These two
organizations are registered non-profit
societies.