University of Denver - Kynewisbok Yearbook (Denver, CO)

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Spring Theatre Produces Unique Audience Actor Relationships If U's theater company produced If two successful plays this spring. Both Knuckle, a British play, and The Miser, a French play were handled equally well. The first production. Knuckle, was written by the English playwright David Haro and directed by DU professor Sarah Albertson. Knuckle provides a biting satirical look at today's society and its values. It is the story of an eightcen-ycar-old missing girl, Sarah Delafield (Heidi Olson), and of her brother's attempts to reconstruct the events leading to her disappearance. Sarah's brother, the gun-running Curly Delafield (Gary Carnes), returns to his father's estate after hearing of her disappearance. In his investigation. Curly exposes society's hypocracy at its worst, filled with extortion, corruption and greed. Throughout the play, Sarah's murder or suicide is suggested (as Sarah never appears on stage) but. in the end, her friend, jenny Wilbur (Kim Dorr), receives a letter from Sarah who is in France. The director. Professor Albertson, chose Knuckle liecause she felt that it spoke to today's society as the story of a disillusioned teenager confronted by the compromises of her father. Sarah becomes the emlxxli-ment of moral value ... a 'most admirable' heroine who never appears on stage, said Allx'rtson. David Hare s Knuckle, April 21-24. 27-30 Photos courtesy of DU Publicity.

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■April 30, 1983 ISO Fiesta: United Cultures Amid the crowd, one costumed participant offers a native smile. No matter what costume was worn or what Ian guage spoken, an animated conversation could be Over 300 students from cultures around the world attended the tenth annual International Student Organization's (ISO) Fiesta on April 30. 1983. The semi-formal affair was held in the Centennial Towers cafeteria which was decorated with balloons and flags from different countries. Lending to the international theme was the fact that, many people were speaking different languages, producing a real United Nations effect,” said Gerard Cortinez who attended the event. The highlight of the evening was the international dinner consisting of dishes representing many countries such as Armenia, China, Germany, Greece, Iran and Japan. The dinner was followed by a live band and dancing. At this multi-cultural affair, the international Coca-Cola was at home. The cultures joined together for dancing at the culmination of the evening's festivities.

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 ness ■Njwressivei choreograph created a sense Knuckle, like most Bri suffered in the transition to the (Can culture. Mui h '-.ire asm was iosi to the audience. Another difficulty arose from the length of the scenes. The director admitted that many scenes should have been shortened. However, the lengthy final scene was carried effectively by Gary Carnes. Despite its shortcomings, Albert-son was pleased with the overall performance of the play. Focused on a broken society in a satirical manner, Knuckle touched not just the audience's humor, but also their moral prop f I nq ence disrd Some actors fe - ■■ memorizing of lines, vet Miser had few shortcomings' It was overall a fun play, marked Stacy Carson, ... ant had a good cast. — M.L. Holow ■ tunics, but in modern clothing. Once on stage, the actors donned their costumes and assumed the persona of their character. Ninety percent of the transition from actor to character happened on stage, remarked Stacy Carson. We were ourselves when we walked out, but once we were in costume, we became that character. Another interesting aspect of Geer's production of The Miser was that members of the audience sat on stage, much as they had during Moiiere's time. With this, the director attempted to promote a kind of actor audience relationship. When you break the barrier between the audience and the performer, explained Tom K. Jones, you increase the audience's response and improve your own performance because neither has to be formal. Jones played Master-Jacques, the servant of Much of the success of the audi-ence actor relationship was due to earlier improvisation in rehearsal. For several weeks, the cast rehearsed the scenes impromptu, not using the actual text. This improvisation helped to put the script into the actor’s terms and therefore use their own creative talents. When they did rehearse with the script, the actors allow ed some of the improvisation to filter in. The improvisation also pre- a member of thoaudi-“ L. % not enough conscience. The Miser by Moliere was the second major production of the DU theater. This seventeenth century comedy, directed by guest director Richard Geer, takes place in Italy. It is the story of the miser, Harpagon (Stacey Carson), and Cleante (Michael McClinton), his son, both who want to marry Mariane (Lisa Mumpton). At the same time, Harpa-gon'sdaughter, Elise (Margaret Powers), wishes to marry Valcre (Jon Meyers), 'and not Valere's father, Anselme (Michael Tatlock), whom Harpagon wants her to marrv. The problems are only compounded by Harpagon's obsession with money and the attainment of more. The Miser is essentially a fun play satirizes vanity and materialism. Although Sarah Delafield does not appear. Knuckle featured a huge screen with slides of Sarah. This medium was chosen to create a visual basis for the audience's imagination and to add emotional impact. However, in no way were the slides intended to provide a clue to the mystery surrounding Sarah. The screen was intended to create a sense of alienation between the characters and the audience as the audience had to sit back to view the slides yet focus on each scene. Admittedly, the character audience estrangement was more than the director desired, yet, she was pleased with the overall effect. Knuckle is an aggressive play with little room for the audience's reaction. It proved to be fast and furious which sometimes overwhelmed the audience. The aggression escalated to a myriad of forms, from outright shouting to subtle body language. Even the costumes, some in loud col-added to the overall aggressive-yhe characters' personalities, ss was even seen in the the dancers