Page 16
Arts & Entertainment
March 14, 2002
Dept, of performing arts goes to SETC
Samiha Khanna
A&E Editor
E Ion’s department of per
forming arts sent 37 stu
dents to the
53rd Annual Southeast
ern Theatre Conference
March 6-10 in Mobile,
Ala., to audition for
summer employment.
Elon University had
the largest group of any
school in North Caro
lina to attend the con
ference—^just shy of
half of North Carolina’s allowance
of 77 students, said Catherine
McNeela, chair of Elon’s depart
ment of performing arts.
More than 100 companies were
there to recruit the most talented of
the 780 students from around the
country who attended the confer
ence.
Students auditioned in groups of
25 and singled out by directors for
individual auditions.
“It’s nerve-wracking because in
the first 15 seconds, they’re going
to known if they want you or not,”
Elon freshman Heather Haley said.
“They have to be on their feet
all the time if they want to get the
job,” McNeela said.
Most students brought along
several songs and monologues to
be prepared to display ability in
multiple performing
styles, said senior Amy
Gewant, who attended
the conference for the
fourth time.
Gewant
took seven
songs that
ranged from
Britney
Spears to
classical Italian pieces.
Guest speakers in
cluded Terrance Mann,
who has won Tony
Award nominations for
his roles in Les
Miserables and Disney’s Beauty
and the Beast. Dawn Wells, who
many know as Mary Ann from
Gilligan’s Island, also directed two
workshops.
Five Elon faculty members also
attended the conference and con
ducted workshops on areas of ex
pertise, such as scenic design and
lighting.
Faculty also auditioned high
school juniors for Elon’s perform
ing arts programs.
Students began working on their
90-second monologue and song
packages as early as August. New
York casting director Dave
Clemmons, who has his own cast
ing agency, came to Elon earlier this
year to give students pointers on
auditioning, and photographers
were also brought in
to take headshots.
Gewant said she
spent about one and
a half hours each
day preparing her
audition pieces. She
said she hopes to
land a summer job
with the Jekyll Is
land Musical The
atre in Valdosta, Ga.
Senior Nathan Moore went to
SETC for the third time.
“Each year has been a learning
experience,” he said. “I feel like I’ve
become more efficient [at audition
ing].”
After receiving several job of
fers, Moore has decided to work at
the Heritage Repertory Theatre in
Charlottesville, Va., this summer.
Haley
Gewant
Camerata tours South
AshUy Regan
Reporter
In Fcbmaiy, the Elon Univer*-
si^ Camema proved that it was,
no typical musicui group. Under
the direction of Stephen FutrclK
the 22 Camerata performers
toured from North Carolina to
Geojgia^ showing they could not
oaJy put on a good show, but they
could also become a bonded and
uaified grou^ io the process.
The tour's primary purpose
was to serve as a recruiting tour
for Eion. Peifonning at six high
schools and junior highs over
three days, Camerata members
said they hoped to promote not
only Eion* but the music depart
ment as weli
This tour is compion in
many schpo|s,butFutreil $aid, “It
is uhconmmlat Elonj so we are
trying to into the swing of
thinp.” „ *
Each prpgrain consisted of a
45>mitmie music perforaiance and
a quesiio%a^-answer period
about the sdhool and ihe music de-
parun^ent, Futrell said that this
method of reoiiiting lias proven
successful at other universities,
and he hopes to see results at Elon
in the next few years,
Jason Joyner, a junior music
major and member of Camerata,
enjoyed the closeness brought by
the tour.
‘*You get to know the people
you sing with better and create re
lationships,” Joyner said. He de
cided to join Camerata because he
was involved in choral groups in
high school.
“It was a more select vocal en
semble that I knew would sing
some more difficult music,”
Joyner said.
In addition to their perfor
mances at the schools, Camerata
members also had the opportunity
to perform at Skidaway Island
United Methodist Church in Sa
vannah, Ga.
Although the traveling part of
the tour is over, Camerata will per
form again this spring at Elon. At
7:30 p.m. on March 15, Camei^ta
will give a 45-'miaute perfor
mance in Whitley Auditorium.
The group will perform a wide
array of pieces, including Mozart,
Brahms, Stephen Foster and a
spiritual piece.
‘The Osbournes’ highlights rock family in new MTV reality show
Ellen Gray
Knight Ridder
Ozzie and Harriet they’re not.
But Ozzy and Sharon Osboume
and their children just might be the
perfect sitcom family.
At least the stars of MTV’s “The
Osboumes,” a “situation reality se
ries” that premiered two weeks ago,
seem to possess the ingredients net
works usually look for in casting a
family comedy—a clueless but
charismatic dad whose job allows
him to spend plenty of time at
home.
Sure, being an aging rock star
known for eating bats onstage isn’t
as “normal” as working in a nuclear
power plant, like “The Simpsons’”
Homer, or being a sportswriter like
“Everybody Loves Raymond’s”
Ray Barone.
But it does bring plenty of perks,
including built-in opportunities for
celebrity cameos, such as
Tuesday’s Jay Leno appearance.
And at least we know what this
Ozzy does: In “The Adventures of
Ozzie & Harriet,” which also
starred a real-life Hollywood fam
ily, TV viewers were never really
told how former bandleader Ozzie
Nelson made a living.
—A sensible, good-hurnored
mother, whose grasp of reality
seems to be greater than her
husband’s. ‘
Sharon swears more than most
sitcom mothers —and MTV oblig
ingly bleeps it out each time she
does—^but it’s hard to imagine even
“Malcolm in the Middle’s” formi
dable Lx)is doing a better job as the
ringleader of this particular circus.
—Two squabbling teen-age
children (the Osbournes’ third
child, Amy, 18, isn’t involved in the
show). Kelly, 17, sports pink hair,
while Jack, 16, favors a more mili
tary look. Both inherited their par
ents’ tendency to punctuate with
profanity.
Unlike Showtime’s rock-star
comedy, “The Chris Isaak Show,”
“The Osbournes” is supposedly
unscripted. MTV, using the tech
nique employed in “The Real
World” and “Road Rules,” filmed
the family for nearly six months and
then edited it into something resem
bling a story.
The premiere, which focuses on
the family’s move into their new
home in Beverly Hills—Sharon es
timates it’s the 24th house her kids
have lived in —^might well be an epi
sode of “The Munsters,” as the cam
era focuses on the little decorating
touches that make the Osboumes the
Osboumes, including a box labeled
“dead things.”
But it’s the character touches that
make “The Osboumes” work.
At one point,
Ozzy’s efforts to mas
ter the satellite TV’s
remote control prov
ing in vain, he calls in
Jack, who sets things
up and then settles in
with Dad to watch the
History Channel.
Later, Ozzy, trying
to offer fatherly ad
vice to Jack on han
dling his sister, re
marks, “I love you all.
I love you more than
life itself, but you’re
all f ing mad
photo courtesy of www.mtv.com
Legendary rock star Ozzy Osbourne anST
family are the stars of MTV’s newest reality
An api^ance on T'’® Osbournes," which airs Tuesdays
The Tonight Show”
requires Sharon and Kelly’s pres
ence backstage, Sharon explaining
that Ozzy’s nervous because though
“he likes Jay a lot, doing TV makes
him nervous.”
Looks as if he’d better get used
to it. The show airs Tuesdays at
10:30 p.m.
(c) 2002, Philadelphia Daily
News.