monday, may 2, 1977
psp 12
daily ncbrssktn
Photographs capture the w
eirdne
Review By Jim Williams
Some major midwestern galleries still
don't seem to take photography seriously -but
the Nebraska Union main lounge isn't
really a major gallery. Maybe that's why
they feel no qualms in scheduling two
photo exhibits back-to-back-Hungarian
professional Peter Korniss' last week and
UNL senior Steve Boerner's beginning
today.
The inevitable comparison is interesting.
When looking at Korniss' exhibit last week,
with its straight records of Hungarian folk
costumes, I wondered, "Would anyone pay
attention to these photos if they'd been
taken in eastern Nebraska instead of
eastern Europe?" ;
Now we'll know the answer. One
section of Boerner's show is devoted to
what could be called American folk
costumes, showing people doing what
American folks do. The rites and occasions
are typical-the hoopla surrounding a
Nebraska football game, the Burwell rodeo,
a street festival and so on.
The photographs in this section show
Boerner's background in news photography
-he used to be a photographer for the
Daily Nebraskan and was chosen the 1975
77 Nebraska Press Photographers Associa
tion's college photographer of the year this
spring. The photos are straight, unmanipul
ated "human interest," with the focus on
expression and content.
"I just liked the way they -were,"
ill H IS"
Stud
ents on spot
in theotreCshow.
Review by Jerry DeLorenzo
When actors depend on suggestions from the audience,
often their ability to create humorous situations is "on
the spot."
Appropriately named, "On The Spot" is an experiment
in improvisational theatre in which five actors take ideas
from the audience and work them into a pre-planned
frame. The show played last weekend after the perform
ance of the Howell Theatre production Merry Wives of
Windsor Friday and Saturday nights in Temple Bldg. 310.
The show will be presented by the Union Program Coun
cil Tuesday and Thursday in the Nebraska Union Small
Auditorium at 12:30 p.m. "On The Spot" also will
continue playing sifter The Merry Wives of Windsor on
Friday and Saturday.
Two of what seemed to be the better improvisations of
Saturday night's performance were a fairy tale and a re-
cent event. When the actors asked for a recent event, a
member of the audience shouted, "Oil spills in the North
Sea." The actors showed how six different religions would
handle the problem of oil spills.
This was done : using mainly the technique of a
minister, preacher, priest or rabbi lecturing to the con
gregation about the problem.
When the actors asked for a fairy tale, "Hansel and
Gretel" was the response from one member of the aud
ience. The actors then showed how different playwrights,
including Tennesse Williams, Anton Chekov, Harold Pin
. ter, Sophocles and William Shakespeare, would have
written the fairy tale.
Since the show depends on the actors' abilities to
create . situations, not all the improvisations brought
; thunderous laughter from Saturday's audience of about
;. 20.
But during the funny sketches, the audience could
appreciate the actors quick thinking jand ability to create
impromptu rituations.
Graduate student Jay Perry, who teaches the impro
visation class in which the show's actors are enrolled, said
the secret of improvisational theatre is "freedom within
the form."
"The process involves every acting skill," he said.
"I never know if the show is going to work or not."
Weekend performances cost 75 cents but the Tuesday
and Thursday shows in the Union are free. Profits from
the show will be used to help hire an instructor to teach
workshops in the Theatre Dept., Perry said.
The actors for the shows interchange so. everyone
in the class gets a chance to do a show, Perry said. The
actors in Saturday night's show were Judy Zimmerman,
Eric Sorenson, John Koch, Paula Langdon, Dave Beins
and musical director Doug Anderson playing piano.
to
Ssndh&s, Nebraska
March, 1976
ss of everyday things
iwmor enM of the ohotos in this croup.
But well-done as these pictures are, they
struck me as being just that -well -done
newspaper photos. There is not enough
background information for the viewer to
put himself into the situations Boerner was
' recording; to share the experience.
The other group of photographs,
though, needs nothing but what's there.
This shorter-section of the exhibit contains
not one living being. The subjects are skies,
buildings, rocks, water, graveyards-and
much as I usually hate photos of dumb
objects, just standing there, these were
actually pretty good.
Boerner is an expert printer, and this
section shows his abilities in working with
delidate " gradations of light and dark.
' ' Ever see a sunset photo that really looks
great in black and white? There's one in
the exhibit.
. More than that though, Boerner
captures the weirdness you find in every
day things when you behold them in one
sudden instant, instead of the rambling,
half-interested look you really give them.
I must admit, Boerner is a friend of
mine, although not so good I can not say
there are some pretty boring photos in his
Show. But on the whole, I like them. . If you
like landscape art or good newspaper
photography, you probably will toa
In fact, if Boerner were Hungarian, he
would probably have it made.
Photo courtesy of Steve Boerner
M
a
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By Carta Engstrom
Music is just as necessary to survival as food, according
to Stanley Capps, who has lived by his motto for most of
his life.
v Capp, a composer and musician, has been teaching jazz
in Lincoln since 192. He teaches piano lessons and in
1924 copyrighted a progressive chord system for playing.
The system is called Capps System ot Modern nano
r
yramid
pon
AssW-..-,...- -
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9
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Photo-by Kevin Higiey
"We are dl csesst to be musicians, for we are all
born with a built h mused instrument in cur
bodks-a voice." :
Stanley Capps, composer and musician.
Concert combines biofeedback, Moog
The Lincoln Improvisation Ensemble, directed by
Randall Snyder, will present a concert of new music and
two premieres of multi-media works at Kimball Recital
Hall at 8 tonight.
An original play. The Grand Admiral by Robert
Eeadell, will be directed by Jay Perry. It will attempt to
expose the myth of Christopher Columbus with historical
feet, showing that the real Columbus was a greedy,
religious fanatic and his exploits in the New World were
those of a pirate, Bead? II said.
Mike Bergstraesser's You've Got a Lot of Nerve uses
biofeedback instruments that present five different life
situations, ranging from meditative to the sexual by way
of program tape and slides. The performer's response to
these situations will be monitored through various com
binations of four different biofeedback instruments
attached to a studio Moog synthesizer.
"You Ve Got a Lot of Nerve is the first known piece of
its genre to be performed in Nebraska," Snyder said.
Harmony. Students learn to play chords in every key with
his system, Capps said? - 4
The 80-year-old musician said he can teach a student
to play in every key during the first lesson. His system
uses a chord chart that is put on the pianokeys.
"It's like a slide rulS and it analyzes the chords," he
said.
For Capps, there are two kinds of music, classical and
jazz. Jazz or folk music is the true American music, it
encompasses ragtime dixie-land, blues and rock 'n roll,
- Capps said.
Objected to jazz
Capps was raised in a musical family since his mother
owned a studio and taught piano lessons. But she did not
believe a mother should teach her own child, Capps said.
So after taking music lessons elsewhere and learning to
play popular music, Capps said he ran into some trouble
because his mother played classical music and objected to
his playing jazz.
But that did not stop Capps. He 'played vaudeville,
performed professionally and kept composing- music and
experimenting with other facets of life.
The composer started doing research work in what has
been commonly labeled pyramid power. He makes and
tests different sizes of pyramids. He said he can make the
finest wine overnight, preserved fruit, recharge batteries,
sharpen razor blades and. purify tap water by placing the
objects under a pyramid.
. "Nobody -knows how it really works, but they have to
be made according to the measurements of the pyramids
in Egypt, " he said.
Capps said he and his wife sleep with a pyramid under
their bed and he has one hanging over his piano. "I think
I've been able to stimulate my brain power to arrange
rr.usic." - ' ,
Pyramid perer is nothing like a pet rock, it's not an
overnight sensation and it doesn't have anything to do
with faith," he said.
Humans have a force field around them just as
the pyramids that produce some kind of force or power,
Capps said.
Fine, smooth wine
To experiment, Capps said he got a bottle of Thunder
bird wine from a friend who had to quit drinking. The
wine was the cheapest his friend could buy so Capps put
a glass of it under a pyramid overnight and said it
produced a fine, smooth wine that tasted like it was aged.
He also said plants watered with tap water that has
been put under a pyramid develop almost twice as fast
as plants watered with plain, tap water.
Possibly the Egyptian mummies were preserved for so
long because they were buried in pyramids, Capps said.
Supposedly, as in King Tutankhamen's tomb, a third of
the way up is the most powerful spot, so to sharpen a
razor blade, one should place" it a third of the way under
the apex of the pyramid, according to Capps.
like the pyramid, music is age old. "The human voice
is the most beautiful musical sound of all. Musical
instruments are merely imitations," Capps said.
"The first musical lesson was a mother singing a lullaby
to her baby," he added.
Music is part of the vibrations and very energy that
surround humans just like pyramid powers, Capps S3 id.
