Murray State University - Shield Yearbook (Murray, KY)

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They Said Things They Had Never Said Before. 'That 0 hampionshi Season They Portrayed People A Generation Older. They Made People Look At Themselves And Their Past. All Of This For Their Characters To Reach The Game s End ost of us have year- books and scrapbooks minding us of our high school ears. The dances, fundraisers id contests were all impor- nt, but the one thing that al- ays seemed to stick out in the emory of a high school grad as the year the team beat . . . Playwright Jason Miller aborated this seemingly inno- :nt concept into one of the ost popular and stirring plays the last few decades. That 1ampionship Season centers ound a group of men, who 20 ears after winning the Penn- llvania State Basketball hampionship are still living 'e between the foul lines 'awn by their coach. The theater department Jened its fall season with a 'oduction of That Champion- iip Season and the campus id city community raved the erformance of the five actors id their director, Mark Malin- Jskas, as the best opening of season they had ever seen. Malinauskas said the play 'as unique because it looked ito someone's living room win- ow to witness the annual re- pion of the coach and his four players who had a very serious problem. They couldn't define theirown lives as a singular in- dividual personality, he said. The characters, played by Jim Storm, James Davis, Ben Moore, Earl Brown and Billy Ri- cheson were, according to Ma- linauskas, some of the most un- likeable and pathetic people anyone would be likely to meet. He also said the five actors played these unsavory charac- ters beautifully. They were anxious to do the show, that anxiety carried to the show, he said. l wouldn't be fearful of stacking this poduction up with any pro- fessional production, said Ma- linauskas. Earl Brown had the role of the demanding bigoted coach. He said the role was a challenge because, his fthe coach'sJ atti- tudes were so different from mine, but he was like people l know. Brown said after he knew his character, lt just sort of fell into place. I wasn't really playing a character, l was playing a hu- man being, said Jim Storm who added, Championship Season was more diEicult and intense from anything he had every done. The actors were not accus- tomed to the profane language in the play. James Davis said once his character was estab- lished the one part that I didn't like was the language that l used in my personal life - that could be pretty trashy. The play's effects on the ac- tors went further than a dirty mouth. Ben Moore said, I was able to discover some things about myself, regarding preju- dice. He said seeing the bigotry of the characters of George and the coach made him stop and re-evaluate his feelings toward minorities. l'm more outspoken now, said Billy Richeson who feels that this was a positive deriva- tive from the play. All the actors said Cham- pionship Season was unlike anything they had ever done, if not in terms of character devel- opment then in difficulty. l usually play the bad guy, said Storm, unlike Richeson, who was excited for a change in his usual roles. l've always played the boyfriend, Richeson said, l liked Phil this characterjf' They all agree the produc- tion was essential to their ad- vancement as performers. lt was the first time l'd ever got- ten this style of acting right, said Moore. Brown said before Championship Season l've never been pleased with my acting ability. The success of That Cham- pionship Season can be mea- sured in several ways, ticket sales, reviews and public opin- ion, but the bottom line was how the actors and the director felt about it. Storm said he and the other actors had difficulty deciding if Malinauskas was pleased with their performance until the di- rector unemotionally told the group before the last perfor- mance, they had a playable show. Storm recalled their ex- cited reaction - He likes it! - because he said we had a 'playable' show. I That Championship Season

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'mw- 'NO ONE SAID SHOWBIZ WAS ALL - - ELAMOUR Performing one of the first. Stage Il productions of the fall season is Christopher Frank and Jeff Turley in Lone Star, 'X 51 'W 1 - luxe