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The Daily tar Heel Thursday, September 18, 19865 4The Daily Tar Heel Thursday, September 18, 1986 Album loses its quality in transatlantic passage In 1982, XTC released a double album in the United Kingdom called English Settlement. About half of that album was on one vinyl in the U.S. When Prince's 1999 was released in the United Kingdom, it was a single album. This tradition of condensing transatlantic albums continues with the new album by Bill Nelson. On A Blue Wing is a single album containing the "best" songs taken from the double album released in Britain. This isnt the first time some thing like this has happened to the former leader of Be Bop Deluxe. A few years ago his American label Portrait released an album called Vistamix that contained songs from several albums released in the U.K. Is this a problem? As long as the best songs are taken from a double album, won't it be a stronger , record? In general, maybe. With Nelson, definitely not. Much of Nelson's work is bridges and snippets that dont really stand up by themselves but add a lot to an album. So, what is On A Blue Wing like? It's a good record. Nelson's music influenced by Eastern sounds and melodies and by his early art-rock meanderings. At least this half of the finished product is tamer than Nelson's music has been in a while; but it is still compelling music. It's a shame Portrait doesnt have the llfynston Smyiho Albums guts to release all of it. Match Game is the second album from Don Dixon's little sister Marti Jones. Jones was once in a nice power pop band called Color Me Gone. Her first solo album sounded similar to Color Me Gone with the noticeable help, of Dixon. Again, on Match Game, she is joined by Dixon (plus other notables), and again, she writes none of the album's songs (although she does co-write with Dixon); but there the sim ilarities stop. Match Game has very little energy; most of the songs are nice, subdued melodies designed to highlight her pleasant, if unremar kable, voice. Her choice of songs is again quite good with the exception of David Bowie's "Soul Love," which she sounds silly trying to sing. It's a good record, just disappointing. On the new album from Talk ing Heads are songs David Byrne wrote for his film True Stories. It is not a soundtrack; the songs are performed by others in the film. From offbeat brainy pop to Eno-land to Talking Heads funk back to pop, Talking Heads keeps critics from writing the same things about the band. True See ALBUM page 7 CONTACT LENS CONTACT LENS CONTACT LENS CONTACT LENS Back by Popular Demand Daily Wear Spherical Soft Contact Lenses $1900 Near Sighted Only Includes: Eye examination, contact lenses, sterilization unit fitting, and follow-up visits. Offer good through 93086 FOR THE CARE OF YOUR Final Two Weeks! eyes Dr. Thomas Costabile Optometrist 968-4774 Mon.-Fri. 9-6 Closed 1-2 Kroger Plaza Chapel Hit: CONTACT LENS CONTACT LENS CONTACT LENS CONTACT LENS NICE-PRICE-BOOKS. RECORDS & MAGAZINES ! Hundreds of U.N.C. Press . '. books at Vi retail or less ; $1.98 SPECIALS The Woodwright's Companions The Transformation of Virginia The Woodwright's Shop (Pulitzer Prize, History) Open 10-10 Monday-Ounday ; 300 E. Main St., Carrboro 923-6222 ( I i Play Makers 5 trains 4i By KATIE WHITE Staff Writer Which of us has known his brother? Which of us has looked into his fathers heart? Which of us has not remained prison-pent? Which of us is not forever a stranger and alone? O waste of loss, in the hotmazes, lost, amoung bright stars on this most weary unbright cinder, lost! Remem bering speechlessly we seek the great forgotten language, the lost lane-end into heaven, a stone, a leaf, an unfound door. Where? When? 0 lost, and by the wind grieved, ghost, come back again. Thomas Wolfe At times, Chapel Hill seems to be just a sea of lost and forgotten faces, zig-zagging across the quad or lines of undefined bodies winding through buildings and halls. Will any of the anonymous find the forgotten lan guage or the unfound door? It has been said that to look at a Harvard graduating class is to see those people who will be controlling the country in 30 years. At UNC, looking at the PlayMakers' Reper tory Company could be to catch a glimpse of those who may be enter taining that class of people for the next 30 years or more.. UNC was one of the first American universities to actively explore the idea of professional theater as a major part of theater education. PlayMakers, opened by Arthur Houseman and Tom Haas in 1976, combines performance and training by bringing students and professional actors together on stage. Sponsored by the Department of Dramatic Art, it is the only full-season, non-profit professional theater in North Carolina. The company begins its 1 986-1 987 season on September 24 with the ELLIOT ROAD at E. FRANKLIN 967-4737 $2.50 I IN KIT Mil2TTKX.CDK.BUUn) AMERICA'S 1 FILM! TOP GUN (PG) 3.00 5:10 7:20 9:25 Woody Allen (PG-13) HANNAH AND HER SISTERS 3:10 5:15 7:25 9:35 DOUBLE FEATURE! FURRIS BUELLER S DAY OFF 3:20 7:15 PRETTY IN PINK (PG-13) 5:20 9:15 f J; f fat jg v.i-i" Jr. i opening of "Look Homeward Angel," written by Thomas Wolfe, a UNC alumnus. The theater itself has been a part of Chapel Hill's cultural community since 1918 when Frederick Henry Koch created what he called "Amer ican folk drama." He originally started the organization to generate lew American plays, and with this playmaking" he captured the atten ion of hopeful playwrights, Thomas Wolfe being one of the first and most "amous. These "folk plays" were bout the native experiences of these vriters: their customs, superstitions, :gends and myths. This program expanded to "town and gown" performances in which the community and the students performed together in order to bring the manuscripts to life. From this, Koch got the idea of generating good actors for the corps, and Carolina PlayMakers was formed. Koch began touring the troupe nation-wide and built a reputation for good acting because of the true-to-life dramas. In 1925, the state donated the Smith Building to the PlayMakers, and it became the first state-owned play house in the United States. When Koch died in 1944, Samuel Seldon took over and continued to expand the program. Their repertoire came to include American classics and Shakespeare, which was often performed in Forest Theater. Selden formalized the program into a strong structure that supported the devel opment of actors, among them Andy Griffith, Louis Fletcher, James Pritchett and George Grizzard. The play writing has continued. Dick Beene, the current playwright-in-residence, recently won a fellow ship from the National Endowment for the Arts. PlayMakers itself has grown into a large department with specialized majors ranging from technical design to costuming. "A repertory company must be an ensemble that can play together in many styles, finding the life in plays from every period," David . Ham mond, artistic director and head of the Conservatory Training Program at PlayMakers, said. "They must bring to each text the skills and sensibility necessary to release the essential truth of the plot, on its own terms and in its own form, for a modern audience." Hammond, a graduate of Harvard and the Carnegie-Mellon University v Drama School, came to UNC two . years ago. He has served on the faculties of the Yale School of' Drama, Julliard School and the SUPER VALUE 100 Cotton Full-Size Futon Now Only $9Q88 Available In a variety of prints ; yam i FURNITURE AND ACCESSORIES "Your source for quality furnishings at affordable prices" RAM'S PLAZA r Credit Terms Available CHAPEL HILL V I J .'15-501 BYPASS',','. . . 967-7060 M-F 10am-8pm, Sat 10am-6pm American Conservatory Theater and has taught special courses in schools and festivals from coast to coast. "An essential function of our work at PlayMakers must be the living maintenance of our theatrical herit age through the production of major European and American classics, plays requiring fresh confrontation and interpretation by each generation of actors and theater-goers," Ham mond said. "Another function must be that of retrieval the rediscovery and rejuvenation of major works that have slipped into neglect despite their importance in theater history and possible significance today, works ripe for reassessment that can change our understanding of our past and of ourselves. "Equally esential is the presenta tion of the best contemporary theater and a wholehearted commitment to the development of new works, because theater that is healthy must . use the knowledge of the past in the present to generate the future." Hammond has worked the organ ization up to what he calls the second best graduate program in the nation. "We teach . . . (the students). We make sure that they are thoroughly trained. It's important that we take only what we can honestly service," he said. "One thing that we can promise them when they graduate is employment." Since Hammond has arrived, applications for the program have tripled, yet only 10 or 11 students are chosen each year to participate. "We must remain committed to the nurturing of our young artists both in our training programs and in our professional company, so that the work we are doing does not stop here but will continue to grow, contribut ing to the future life of the American stage," Hammond said. "The company is almost a dying thing in this country, and it shouldn't be," Melissa Proctor, one of the 21 graduate students in PlayMakers, said. "It should be something that is promoted to grow. So much of it is in the commercial world. The real foundation of theater is a company structure. It's wonderful to still see it being nurtured and preserved in a very healthy and good environment such as this." Behind this commitment to theater lies a grueling schedule of classes, rehearsals and performances that go from 9 a.m. to 1 1 p.m., almost non stop. During the season, the actors perform one play and study another, shifting in and out of characters, often spending hours being someone . If" What Baum Jewelry means to me: -pearl bracelets necklaces '$25-40 up. jewelry restored refashioned BAUM JEWELRY CRAFTSMEN 106 W. Franklin Chapel Hil 9)0-5)0 929-0206 emits wlho looEs forward to terdlom - WT1F - JBSgT, r V ""- - W I ' ft n n n'H n"nJ w ' ' Ht h m " 'VH Jm- - ; XV - I U Jit H 1 -L'M tx. XV i V art xmw( ' Crv - e hi '' l - ..- , ' W " L,.JNM. . UNC Photo Lab Students in the PlayMakers' Repertory Company rehearse Thomas Wolfe' 'Look Homeward, Angel' they are not. "You've got to have a pretty sound personality," David Whalen, a second-year student, said. "If you're a nut, youH never make it." Both actors said they chose Carol ina for the training. Students work together closely during the three-year program, receiving technical training and producing plays in a spirit of growth and unity. The course of study is divided up into a curriculum overview for each distinctive stage of the training. In the first year, called "foundations," the student spends 15 hours a week in acting classes, four hours in speech and voice, six hours in movement, three hours in scene study, and three in dance, rehearsal and performances. They also take special classes in voice, movement and acting. It is during the second and third years that students begin to participate more actively in performances, as well as pursue courses of study, called "style and variations" and "synthesis" respectively. The goal of such an intensive program is to help the actor develop every essence of his or her acting ability. The movement class helps to develop a strong body capable of variety in expression. In these classes, the actor explores the movement space on stage. The head of this department is Craig Turner, a move ment veteran who has been an actor and mime and who has taught at universities and colleges in Washing ton, Ohio, California, Colorado and Massachusetts. He has also pub lished works on mime, juggling and movement theory. The voice and speech classes develop flexibilty, clarity, range and power. The actor explores the net work between voice, body, emotions and the mind and learns to enhance it. The department is headed by Carol Pendergast, who has had training postions at the Guthrie Theater and the Arena Stage Theater in Washing ton D.C. Special instructors, such as Cicely Berry, voice director of the Rotal Shakespeare Company, often come to UNC to give intensive instruction on a specific quality. Proctor said, "Of all the schools that offered me a position, this was the only one of the bunch that I was really interested in just because of the program and what they had to offer, the quality of instruction they had and the ability to both train and work in a professional theater. . . . (The instructors) are willing to work with you and for you." The instructors are caring, Whalen said. "They can really be very nurturing, so the work atmosphere is a great soil for your growth." Both actors have parts in "Look Homeward, Angel." Proctor plays the character of Mrs. Pert, and Whalen will be Benjamin, the brother of Eugene, the lead character. Lance Guest, who plays Eugene, was described by Hammond as being one of the best young actors today. His last movie-role was the lead in "The Last Starfighter," and his other roles include "I Ought to Be in Pictures" and "Halloween II." "... (The professionals) are wonderful to watch," Proctor said. "You get to know these people on a personal level and find out that they're terrific people. Then to work with them and see their methods, we learn so much. That's the beauty of a program like this." The undergraduate program is not as intensive as the graduate. The department recommends a libera' arts degree to give the students a well rounded background before they make the choice of becoming actors. The department further encour ages students to get some life expe rience before returning to school. "Experience and education are neces sary for acting," Hammond said, adding that the ideal age for an actor student is 26. The members of the PlayMakers' Repertory Company are very con scious of the university atmosphere, and Hammond said he chooses the plays he thinks will enrich the experience of the student body. "The audience is our life blood," Proctor said. She said she sees acting as an extension of art, its expression being just as important as any other student's goals in life. "It's incredible. I'm very haDDV that I'm here." From the PlayMakers' Repertory Company, graduates go to work in regional theaters within the League of Resident Theaters or continue on to work on and off Broadway, in movies, commercials and television. Catch a show this season and you might see a face that will stay with you. "Look Homeward, Angel" will run from Sept. 24 to Oct. 11. "Waiting for Godot" will show from Oct. 22 to Nov. 8. At the end of November, the actors will perform Thornton Wilder's "Matchmaker," which will run until December 13. The line-up for the Playfest "87, three plays in repertory, is Ibsen's "A Doll's House," Cocteau's "The Human Voice" and Preston Jones' "Lu Ann Hampton Laverty Oberlander." The company will conclude its season with Shakespeare's "A Midsummer Night's Dream." For more informa tion, call the box office at 962-1 121. $3 To: Martin Clark, Susan Langston, Elizabeth Little, Julie Cianc, Linda Montanari, and tell my other customers who think I've deserted them; I'm working at Mantrap Hair cutters at South Sq. Mall. If this is you or you know these people or you're just looking for a good hairdresser please call me at 489-8574. Thanks Laurie formerly at Towne & Country. 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Daily Tar Heel (Chapel Hill, N.C.)
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Sept. 18, 1986, edition 1
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