tuexJay, novcmber 6 1079
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Local
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By Bill Graf
Once again it's time for the Traditional Jazz night at
O.G.Kelly's.
Jeffery Johnson, drummer for the Traditional Jazz
Band, said they will be playing the blues', dixieland, bebop
and ragtime.
We really dont know what will happen Wednesday
night, he added. It all depends on who comes down to sit
in.'
He explained that the basic band, Mac McCune on
trumpet, Randy Snyder on bass, Del Whitcombe on
guitar, and Johnson on drums, will be responsible for the
basic format. But, he said, the bi-weekly jazz nights are
meant to be a "sounding board" for other area jazz
musicians.
In the past, clarinetist Charlie Phillips, vocalist Kathy
Marrow or Chancey Blakely and a host of other local
.talent have sat in with the Traditional Jazz Band, giving
each gig a flavor of its own.
"We try to know a wide variety of tunes, so we can
play what the guest musicians know, so everyone can per
form to their potential, Johnson said.
"One night we had a tap dancer come down, so we did
4Me And My Shadow."
Johnson went on to say that "not only do we follow
the loose format to suit the guest musicians, but we also
do it for ourselves."
He explained that many times musicians get stuck with
. a format that isn't flexible
'The jazz night gives the band a chance to stretch out,
not just do the job. We've got all kinds of tricks, and you
never know what's going to happen until the night is
over."
Traditional Jazz night got started when Jek Kelly,
owner of O.G. Kelly's, wanted a night made up of popular
jazz to which people would respond. .
Johnson explained that much of today's modern jazz
has evolved to a point that it has begun to leave the
audience bahind.
"There is a fine line between jazz as an art form and
jazz as a commercial commodity," he said. "Sometimes
you've got to sacrifice the pure forms to get a more
economically successful sound"
However, he said, "I think our format is working. The
first night we only had 15 people in the audience but
since then it's grown considerably ." .
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Waiting in white
Rose Pickering, as Kate, anxiously awaits the arrival '
of her tardy fiance hoping to make it to the church .
on time, Even though he is late, he does arrive, The .
wedding that does Insure is a wedding like no
wedding youVe ever seen before, in the Milwaukee
Repertory Theater's production of The Taming of
the Shrew, , ' '
Photo courtey of Kimball Recital Hall
v9 Kate captmiFes audience attention at Kimball
By Penelope Smith
"There must be a trust in the text. The beauty of the
text must be preserved," said Robert Knoll, UNL English
'professor, of the Milwaukee Repertory Theater's Version
of the Taming of the Shrew.
Thursday and Friday night at Kimball the Milwaukee
Repertory Theater performed Shakespeare's Taming of
the Shrew, set during World War II in Italy. The audience
obviously loved the play. They were thoroughly amused
and an atmosphere of delight pervaded the theater-yet
there was something missing. That the Milwaukee Rep's
production was a work of Shakespeare's Seemed inci
dental. The text was often lost in a barrage of screaming that
was interspersed with Italian, Because of the action, the
audience could follow the plot, but the play as Shake
speare lost a vital element.
The beauty of the text," for all its ribald innuendo
softens the physical violence,' of the play, without it the
play is rough in the extreme. It Is as if Dillon, the director,
liked the charming story but did not care for the rest. Be
cause he cut the induction from the beginning of the play
we are drawn more deeply in and the text is needed more
than ever to lessen the effect of the obvious abuse of Kate
on the audience.
Characterization, the subtle shading of a string of
words to create humanity, was often lacking. In their one
dimensionality, the characters could evoke amusement
but not emotion. The audience was entertained, but
Shakespeare should also touch the heart. One could laugh
at the gestures and at the old man, Gremio, as he drank
the water from a flower vase, but no deeper feeling was
attained, ; ;
Kate is a virago; she is violent and she does scream, buf
there is another softer Kate,: a Kate ignored and a Kate
trembling for recognition, and approval. Rose Pickering's
Kate was capable of true verbal abuse in the sense of
Gram my-winning chorus to visit Lincoln
The Gregg Smith Singers touring professional chorus,
will perform at 7:30 p.m. Sunday at First-Plymouth Con-'
gregational Church at 20th and D streets. Their visit,
sponsored by the Abendmusik Lincoln community con
cert series, is a project of Mid-America Arts Alliance and
the Nebraska Arts Council.
- The group will perform a varied program including
standard choral literature, multi-media, theater, love
songs, ragtime tunes and marches of Charles Ives, and
songs of. Stephen Foster.
The group has toured Europe five times and appeared
hi thexUnited States iri concerts with musicians Igor Stra
vinskyand Leopold Stokowski.
The group has recently completed a collection of 20,
albums of historical and contemporary American vocal
music. This collection, called Amerca Sings was produced
for Vox Records. Three of the chorus' records on the
Columbia label have won Grammy awards: 'Charles Ives;
Music for Chorus," "New Music of Charles Ives" and "The
Glory of Gabrieli," The Singers also collaborated with
Igor Stravinsky in the 1960s to produce over a dozen al
bums of his music. Smith was asked to prepare the chorus
and orchestra for the composer's funeral in Venice in
1971.
Smith will lead workshops in choral techniques and
choral music problems with the Lincoln Public Schools
and at Nebraska Wesleyan University,
Advance tickets are on sale at Kimball Hall Box Office,
Hospe's Music Co., both locations, and at First-Plymouth
Church. Advance tickets are $3,75 for adults arid $2.75
for students. At the door, tickets will be $4.75 for adults
and $3.75 for students.
lung power, but the softer Kate, the one that bruv the
audience a sympathetic comprehension of her. be! jor,
was not in evidence, , , , .
Kate's complexity is a key to the meaning of the play,
Lacking it the play has no realization, It ends but Kate s
final speech is really not relevant,' She has not visibly be
- come a secure loved woman but merely a woman who has
ceased to scream, , . " ,-.,
The treatment of such characters as' Ho'rtensio and
Bianca was distressing. Hortensio became a hairnetted fop
of questionable masculinity- whose accent bore an unsett
ling similarity to a Steve Martin impersonation, Shake
speare's Hortensio is excusably young; Dillon's has a taint
. of degeneracy, ' '
. , ... Bianca, the gentle, dutiful daughter was not present,
Dillon's Bianca possessed no discernable fascination or
attractiveness, Shakespeare's Bianca. was shallow but she
. ,was an expert at'concealing it,' Dillon's Bianca was up-
attractively absurd. With her harlequin glasses, bouffant
.hairstyle, chewing gum and fan magazines she was la
gauche young girl not convincingly capable of controlling
men however doubtful their intelligence, v-
The production wcs enjoyable and professional but t
could have been much more, The Taming of the Shrew s
a farce but a farce with a heart. There is nothing wrong
with a change in time or place; tfie danger lies in a loss of
meaning and a loss of respect for what a plan consists
words. .. .
AtwoocTs talk cancelled
Canadian poet and novelist Margaret Atwood, schedul
ed to speak at UNL Tuesday and Wednesdayhas can.
Department U acc0rdln8 t0 Linda Pratt mi
r53i!fmM Atwdrha(! canceed the appearance be
cause of illness in her family,
meSM!1hareeTSch5du,ed t0, Spcak at lhe Enlsh Depart-
r.5ifw. V?y ? 3 P-"1' d at Sheldon Art
Gallery at 8 p.m, Wednesday, .