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About The daily Nebraskan. ([Lincoln, Neb.) 1901-current | View Entire Issue (Nov. 29, 1976)
ken mcnci-y, novcbcr 23, 1073 PC3 I : " : : : : : I I " . . , Lost few woofro. owoys foughos? Overheard in the library Saturday: "Maybe shell give us an extra week." "I really haven't been goofing off, but . . ." "I hope I can find something good enough tQ copy." And at a local bar: "I have so much to do, I don't know where to start, so I don't." "I've got three weeks of hell ahead." The pressure is on. Here we are face to face with the Monday after vacation. Ah yes ... vacation. You remember that three-day stretch we looked forward to for months. That week set aside for typing the term paper and studying for tomorrow's exam is finished. Too bad we can't say the same for the term paper or the studying. The last few weeks of every semester are a frantic effort to finish (or start) all those objects of our procrastination since September, (was it a hint that while the Union was closed this weekend, Love Library was not?) Most of us will get done. We have before. Be-" . sides, we simply have to. In our panic, we shouldn't let the end over shadow the means. This semester, we've worried about the effect fleeing administrators and dis contented faculty members would have on our education here at UNL. We can't completely dis count our role in shaping the value we get from our credits here. So let's not despsir or feel worry for ourselves because it's time to settle down and . . . well, cram. . After all, four weeks of hard studying per semester is about right. End of Lecture. Suggestions vvcrih ccmldorlng After University of Nebraska at Omaha Chancellor Ronald Roskens chided the NU regents for prematurely snapping their briefcases shut at their pre-Thanksgiving meeting, Regent Kermit Wagner admitted "we run through these meetings too quickly," which prompted a suggest ion to return to the two-day Friday nightSatur day morning regents meetings. Now that the foot ball season is over, the idea stands a good chance of being accepted. Hie longer meetings gave re gents a chance to communicate directly with fac ulty members and students, said Regent Ed Schwartzkopf. V Also at the meeting, Curing the unscheduled, yet monthly discussion of football ticket woes, Regent Robert Simmons suggested the university add $25 to the cost of season football tickets, and let the purchasers use the tickets as admission to all UNL sports except basketball games. That way, he said, other sports would get the support they need without draining football revenues. letters SEVER SWCE . - fcjWP . - vane e -mM f-, v TP -JRJSEr.W I LL An wwjzrt fit 1SKT r " LW TT Condemned killer's sentence being treated as old-time drama By Nicholas Von Hoffman Ti.c last 10 years there's not only been too much crime but it's been very poor quality stuff. Of recent years crime may not have lost its sting, but it did lose its zing. The reason was abolition of the death penalty. This only becomes evident with the tale of Gary Mark GUmore, the 35-year-old condemned killer who has done so much to lighten our hours while shc.ening his own in Utah State Prison's death row. GSmore serves to remind us that the most interesting part of any crime is the criminal. The least interesting is the victim who, after all, is just that, a victim, one more person who bought a bad ticket in life's lottery. The sidewise abolition of capital punishment, or at least its nine-year hiatus by those officious legislators in black robes, stole Mhe criminal from us. - In the classic American crime story, where do we get to know the murderer? After the trial and the sentencing. Before that most of the people in the case, the defendant most cf ill, must keep quiet. In the old days, after the death sentence was pronounc ed, there was no reason to continue to observe the rule of secrecy. In fact, the authorities seem to have unconscious ly encouraged the criminal to talk to reporters or whoeveiynot only because it is widely believed that dying rrn tell no lies, but also because in the weeks before dzzih even the perpetrators of horrible if inconsequential alzci like kTIir.g pj slzZlon operators are regarded as bel"2 psrt cf a historical record. GUmcre has given m back a kind of melodrama that ycu a f:i b c!J James Orkney movies. It's been that Icr-j zzzs we've had "ths br,t risute rfprirre from the -jvcrssr'i cfikc" n part . cf car dz!?y news fastis. is m iped &st iff" s&nost as thou he ws drought the Supreme Court visited on us. "Poet-killer, artist-thief," is how The New York Times described Gihnore in rish of rhapsody absent from its pages since the days Caryl Chessman was writing books and waiting to be offed by the State of California. The whole parade of" stereotypes from every well publicized execution cf the past have come back to attend GSmore to the grave. We have the psychiatrist from the Utah State Hospital who tells us that, yes indeed, the condemned man is a mad-dog killer, or, as he puts it, a "hardened, primitive sociopath." But there is the other part of him who is the sensitive high I.Q. poet, and there is the other doctor who satisfy ing tells us that, These men tend to put on a brave front, but they are only covering up a lot of deep personal insecurity and fears of inadequacy," which translates into our lay minds as G 2m ore is a cowardly rat and he deserves anything he gets. - Utah picked cn pcrpose? It is so much more satisfying 'than the bare bones accounts of trials. And then there is the whole business about blood atonement and did Gary Mark Gflmore come from Oregon where there is no death penalty to Utah where they have the firing squad and blood atone ment on purpose? Much has been made in the papers about how Utah is the only state that actually spills blood when it executes someone. Why, The New York Times even reported that he was "spurned sexuaHy" by his girlfriend's younger sister. The sexual spurn hurts wor thaa the acii bum. Nicole Carrett, the older sister of the young woman who s2xsHy rpurrjrd. Gihnore, is a character out of Itilkn opera or a pep culture American mass-media execution. Fcud in a coma with her lover's picture on her fcsrs trcssVfcaJWsad frsrn csnyfcg out her -part in a suicide pact? Csa this te? On'y if we hear it from the lipsofsaEndiorperKjncratcr.or. Ths wiy it should hive ended is wish Nicole, clutching Lsr picture to fcer bosom, hii cut Lie Juliet dead in the grotto ca the front steps cf the Mormon Tabernacle. CUmsrs could th-en be led in tnd stoned to death by a group cf cspmkHy pbui aad tloodthinty Mormons. For hs&g&zzd tavdc we hare the famous choir, naturiich. Productions not ohmontery It has come to my attention that your entertainment department has given the task of previewing and reviewing all the University Theatre Dept. productions to Carla Eng strom. Engstrom may be a Class A journalist, however I see little or no knowledge of entertainment in her writing. In my opinion, the reviews that Miss Engstrom has written would make me believe that the Theatre Dept. is lacking in their productions, and at the high-school level in their creativity. I would believe that only if I didn't know better. . n-'-i. ' '.:.. Perhaps Miss Ertgstrom should k the time to cover one entire production at the Temple Eldg. (where the department is locatcu; 4nd perhaps Jien she would realize that the productions that she has so wonderfully reviewed as easy and elementary, are in actuality the result of literally thousands of hours of hard work on the part of the cast, crew, and the director. . Being a theatre major, I am familiar with people who rarely ever leave Temple. They put as much pride into their productions as the staff of the Daily Nebraskan puts into their newspaper. If the Theatre Dept. (or any other department for that matter) put out a newsletter stating that the journalism department consisted of students who sit down at a typewriter, whip out a few pages of type, throw it into a machine that puts out the finished copy, I am sure the students wouldn't be too happy with the person who wrote the newsletter because they didn't take the time to see what is actually involved in putting out a newspaper. While I cannot speak for all of the theatre majors, I am not pleased with the lack of research and recognition in theatre, reviews. The review of any theatre production deals with what the people have put into it, and a brief outline of the plot. It seems these two have gotten mixed up. A production goes beyond the cast and the script. There are the technicians, lighting, sound, set, props, costumes, make-up and finally the director himself. True, the most important aspect is the result itself, however, there could not have been a final result without the dedi cation and hard work of all these people. As far as Alice in Wonderland goes, I believe Engstrom attended the performance with her mind set on seeing the Walt Disney version of the story. If she would have gone to the production with an objective point of view, perhaps she would have noticed the symbolism that linked the two manuscripts together. Also if she would have done her homework, she would have found out that this script originated from the improvisational work done by a cast iti New York. She would have then known not to expect the usual Alice, but something entirely new and different. As far as her review of The Country Wife, done on Howell mainstage earlier this semester, readers were given the opinion the music and lyrics came with the script. The song that was sung in the show was composed and written by Douglas Anderson, who is a graduate assistant in the department. I am not saying that Engstrom is not a good journalist, and I am not saying that I could do a better job than she, what I am saying is that perhaps Engstrom should research her subjects and the people responsible, giving credit where credit is due. And while a brief plot outline is com mendable, let the people who read her reviews and attend the productions, find out "who done it", themselves. Respectfully, Patricia S. Oxley Background bcking ' In reguard to your review of The University Theatre production of Alice in Wonderland, I would like to point out a few of the many inaccuracies that article contained. First of all, a little background information should have been obtained by the author. She takes it upon her self to contrast our production and Lewis Carroll's book. That is her first mistake. Our production came from an evolved script by Andre Gregory and the Manhattan Pro ject; it is loosely based upon Carroll's book but as Gregory says himself ia the director's note included in the pro gram: "The essential thing is to use the script as a tr;un poline fct the imagination.".-., But the review docs not stop there, it goes cn to in clude a famous song lyric fron. Wilt Diinry's movie of Alice ia Wonderland. The reviewer also decUrc that she expected an liult characterization, but .zt a childi-h perspective was retaked, which sha deems hard to accept and unprofessional Ihi she read the prc-rsm, particu larly the director's note she would have understood the whole concept of the show. Constructive criticism is always welcome and valid, -but there exists none in this review. Just a criiisn of research might have hced. Judie Enaa
