Image provided by: University of Nebraska-Lincoln Libraries, Lincoln, NE
About The daily Nebraskan. ([Lincoln, Neb.) 1901-current | View Entire Issue (Nov. 18, 1999)
Page 12 Thursday, November 18,1999 By Emily Pyeatt Staff writer Editors note: In this weekly series, we explore the lives and works of notable Nebraska artists of the 20th century. One of the great ironies of legendary actor Marlon Brando’s life was spoken in his famous slur during the film “On the Waterfront”: “I coulda had class. I coulda been a contender. I coulda been somebody.” From looking at Brando’s talent and early career, one can see he was a contender. “Marlon is a god,” Brando biographer Peter Manso said in a phone interview Tuesday. “Great actors would pay $25 to watch him cross the street.” But the tragedy lies in the pain that wore away at one of the most talentedactors ofall time. It is this pain that kept Brando from feeling like “somebody,” Manso said. In 1994, Manso published an unauthorized biogra phy based on seven years of research and several hun dred interviews. The book worried Brando so much, he wrote an autobiography to counter it. “Brando: Songs My Mother Taught Me” was meant to detail the moti vations that drove Brando to numerous tragedies. Bom in Omaha in 1924, the Nebraskan legend, nicknamed Bud, had a childhood and family life that would lead to a troubled adulthood. “Brando was a very screwed-up kid,” Manso said. Brando struggled throughout his education. He failed kindergarten and was known as a fighter who would jump into school-yard brawls on behalf of the underdog. It wasn’t long until Brando was sent to military school to try to reform his deviant behavior. At military school, Brando discovered acting and used perfor mance to escape from his harsh family life. Brando’s family was tainted by his alcoholic par ents, a fact that is chronicled in his autobiography. Like many children of alcoholics, Brando suf fered from the effects, including the “extrem low self-esteem that plagued his life,” Mans said. Brando’s father was a militaristic anc demanding salesman who traveled frequent ly. The travels allowed Brando to spend muc of his young adult life with his mother, who Manso described as “a free-spirited, poe performer with progressively liberal views.’ Brando’s mother, Dorothy, was “extremi instrumental to the Omaha Communi Playhouse,” said Betsye Paragas, the theater marketing director. She was involved in the first produc tions held at the playhouse and directed actors such as Henry Fonda. “It was tragic that she didn’t pursue her own performing career in New York,” Manso said. Dorothy encouraged her son to move I to New York in 1943, after he was forced ■ out of military school. Needing something to hang onto, Brando was “seeking the gratification of perfor mance,” Manso said. “He constantly want- J ed to please his mother with his success.” f \ In New York, Brando studied at the I \ Actor’s Studio under Stella Adler, £ \ who developed the Method acting £ f Brando practiced and later // / made famous. "" A .#/ - Method acting “allowed ' |// Brando to utilize his explosive f f emotions, which were finally expressed as art,” Manso said. Please see BRANDO on 14 ./ Jf Matt Haney/DN 4 r< ■ By Josh Nichols Staff writer Little white lies. Our lives are filled with them. You tell a friend you have too much homework and can’t go out, when really you just feel like staying home. You tell your professor your print er wouldn’t work, when really you forgot about the 400-word paper. Lies, lies, lies. They rule our lives so much that we don’t even think about them. And sometimes, we even believe our own lies. The romantic comedy “Private Eyes,” being put on by the University of Nebraska at Omaha Department of Dramatic Arts, focuses on this char ' acter trait of whichso many "of us are guilty. “It is a play about self-deception,” -said Jennifer Stewart, the play’s direc tor. “White lies are part of our every day life. We lie so much we actually believe it.” The play, written by Steven Dietz, is about a married couple whose names are Matthew and Lisa. Both work as actors. Throughout the play, their little white lies evolve into big ugly lies. Lisa is having an affair. Maybe. 6r it might all be in Matthew’s mind. But the clues are all there that Lisa is having an affair. But then again, the whole affair might just be part of a play that the couple is in. Who knows? If this sounds confusing, it is sup posed to be. The audience must play the role of the detective, according to the “Private Eyes” press release. “The audience gets a clue as the play unfolds to what is actually going on,” Stewart said. “By the end of the play, they have enough clues to figure it out.” The fact that Matthew sees indica tions that his wife is having an affair but doesn’t want to believe it goes back to the theme of the play: self deception. . “Matthew believes his wife is not having an affair, even though he knows she is,” Stewart said. Craig Fitzpatrick, a senior theater major at UNO, plays Matthew. “Matthew’s life is slowly crum bling around him, and he tries to keep a hold on things, while everyone else is changing their lives,” Fitzpatrick said. “He remains in a fantasy world until it is too absurd, then finally real izes he must face the facts that he doesn’t have control over everything,” he said. Dietz portrays Matthew’s situa tion in a unique way. The play is not done in sequence and in a sense is a play inside a play, Fitzpatrick said. The play’s characters are actors, and some of the scenes are of them rehearsing. “Dietz breaks some conventional rules of the theater,” Fitzpatrick said. It is a mixture of this rule-break ing and the characters’ constant lying that forces the audience to play detec tive. The audience’s role in the production is enhanced by the setup of the theater. Instead of performing on a proscenium stage in front of the audience, the actors perform “in the round,” with audience member on all sides. The action takes place cm a stage in the center of the audience. This offered an added challenge for the actors. I “Actor movement is very, very important,” / Fitzpatrick said. “You / have to be constantly / moving, so everyone / can see you.” / i With all of the' / / complexities, the play 1 I is still a comedy. 1 A “Steven Dietz I ^ holds a mirror up to I the face of society, V using humor as his primary tool,” Stewart said. “He uses comedy because only a comedy can make us realize the truths we are not fond of.’ This unique comedy is the first time Dietz’s work has been done in Omaha. “I would wager that people haven’t seen anything like this,” Fitzpatrick said. Theater Preview Dm facts What: “Private Eyes” Where: Dei and Low Ann Weber Fine Arts Building on UNO campus. When: 8 tonight, Nov. 19-20, Dec. 1-4 The Skinny: Non-traditionaJ comedy/mystery comes to UNO theatre dept. Shawi^Drapm5®K