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David TroutaDs!! tittrttten
Dave L&ndis and llerl Weiss, the only two
characters la the play "Landscape Willi Wai
tress," receive direction from off camera
during rehearsal.
By Sarah Sieler
All good, hardworking burnt-out columnists de
serve a vacation. This is my vacation, so instead of
garnishing this column with a lot of in-depth details,
I'm just going to present the facts stark naked and
let you figure out cn your own how to entertain
yourself this week.
The musical "Cameiot" will be staged at 8 p.m.
Thursday through Sunday in the Pinewood Bowl
open-air amphitheater in Pioneers Park.
If you're in the mood for outdoor entertainment
this week, here's what's happening:
Wednesday, Dennis Taylor is clavin2 at Founda
tion Garden from noon to 1 p.m. A Midsummer's
Night's Talent Show will be held in Antelope Park
that evening.
Thursday, the Bluegrass Crusade will play at
Foundation Garden from noon to 1 p.m. The Youth
Indian Dancers will perform at Antelope Park that
evening.
The Dance Institute will be featured in Antelope
Park Friday and a Municipal Band Concert will be
held in the park Sunday. All events at Antelope Park
will be held from 7:30 p.m. to 8:30 p.m.
Latin American Political Posters will be on display
through Sunday at the Eleventh Street Gallery, 305
S. 11th St.
, Aileen and Elkin Thomas will be performing folk
music at a house concert at 8 p.m. Friday at Curley
Ennis' house, 602 S. 7th St. in Ashland.
The Sheldon Film Theater will present "Eclipse,"
directed by Michelangelo Antonioni today at 3 p.m.,
7 p.m. and 9 p.m. and "Le Petit Theatre De Jean
Renoir" Wednesday at 1 p.m., 7 p.m. and 9 p.m.
"Touch of Evil," directed by Orson Welles, will be
shown Thursday to Sunday at 7 and 9 p.m. with
Saturday and Sunday matinees at 3 p.m.
The art work of Linda Benton will be featured at
the Governor's Mansion during July. The paintings
maybe viewed on Thursdays from 9 a.rn. to 4 p.m. or
by appointment.
A Czech Heritage Benefit will be held from 1 0 a.m.
to midnight Saturday at Pershing Municipal Audit
orium. , . tt
The International Folk Dancers of Lincoln are
now meeting at 7:30 p.m. on the west side of Sheldon
Art Gallery for their Friday-night dancing.
Neal Hellman, nominated for a Grammy Award
and best folk album of the year in 1982, will present
two dulcimer workshops and a concert Saturday in
Omaha.
By llsxk Holt
A half hour screen adaptation of Robert Pine's
short play, "Landscape With Waitress" Is in the mak
ing for possible1 use by the Nebraska Educational
Television Network.
The person responsible for the entire project,
Todd Neison, a combined broadcasting and theater
major at UNL, came across the play two and a half
, years ago and recently decided to make a full scale
production of it. This took the form of a three day
lunch theater in the Atrium last fall, which had a
good response.
But to fulfill the requirements of a class, Nelson
needed to take it a step further. With partial backing
by NETV he set out to produce a version of the play
that would be suitable for television.
For the cast of the two-character play, Nelson
chose the same people he used for the lunch theater.
Mari Weiss, a UNL graduate student in theater,
plays the waitress, and Senator David Land is plays
Arthur.
"Most people use other students in their projects,"
Nelson said during a private screening. "But I
wanted to go all out. I had admired David Landis'
work for a long time, and I thought he would be
perfect for the role. 1 wrote him a letter requesting
him to audition and he called me right back to say
that he would."
Shooting took place during the evenings of June
10 to 15 at Johnson's Cafe, an eating establishment
in south Lincoln. , , tIT
A volunteer crew of fifteen people from the UNL
theater and broadcasting departments assisted
with the taping.
"Not only did I get experience as a director and all
the job3 associated with that, but I gave others a
first taste of what it's like to work on a crew," Nelson
said.
The plot involves a man going to an empty restau
rant at night and meeting the waitress who's on
duty. He begins to fantasize about what it would be
like to ask her out and have a relationship with her.
The waitress joins in with the man' fantasies and
they act out various romantic senarios.
"There's a little bit of the main character in all of
us. We're all chickens. We fantasize about what it
would be like to ask this person out or do something
daring but we never do it. The Walter Mitty-like lives
of our minds make our everyday live3 look very dull,"
Nelson said.
The playwright, Robert Pine, was in Lincoln prior
to the shooting to confer with Nelson on the produc
tion. Neison commented on how the meeting with
the writer affected his conception of what the play
ought to be.
"Actually, I found more similarities than differen
ces. Some of the things we did, things you have to
intuit from the script, were done exactly the same
way for the origianl shows in New York," he said.
The project, which Nelson is currently editing, will
be considered for airing by NETV sometime this fall.
w
inter's Tale': detailed to a fau
It
Book Review by Kevin Ourslaad -
"Winter's Tale" by Mark Ilelprin, H&rcomt Brace
Jovanovich.
Apocalyptic tales involving allegorical figures en
gaged in end-of-the-world struggles of good and evil
have a long, important history in literature, predat
ing even John's terrifying vision that completes the
New Testament.
As we edge our way toward the close of the second .
millenium a psychologically unsettling event in
itself in possession of cold technical knowledge
which demands secular answers to even the most
intimate and inexplicable of questions, such tales
calling for faith in an increasingly skeptical age, are
likely to assume greater importance until we are
safely over the period of difficulty. Mark Helprin's
latest novel, "Winter's Tale," is such a book.
"Winter's Tale," is the epic fantasy of the transfigu
ration of Peter Lake from common criminal to near
deity. t
Everything about Peter Lake has a mythical qual
ity, and the things that happen to him, from his
arrival in America during one of the immigration
waves of the late 19th century, to the knife wound
he receives in his abdomen, evoke religious compar
isons. In this way, "Winter's Tale" becomes at once
contemporary and universal
Hidden away in a miniature ship by parents for
bidden entry into the country because of poor
i health, the infant Peter drifts to the Bayonne
"Marsh, a "mysterious place of unchartered tangled
channels and capacious bays" populated by a strange
Oriental-like people called Baymen. Peter is raised
by the Baymen, who instruct him in the use of the
sword and the mind. Because he was not born a
Bayman, Peter is packed off at the age of 12 to the
"high narrow kingdom" of Manhattan which lies, as
upon clouds, across the bay. The city, at once deca
dent and sublime, earthy and ethereal, provides the
setting against which the moral struggles of the
novel are played out.
In the city, P.eter is taken to the Rev. Overweary's
Home for Lunatic Boys. Here he learns the trade of
mechanics and "though a slave, he was in paradke."
When he unwittingly aids the genius of tools, the
Rev. Mootfowl, in committing suicide by driving an
iron stake through his heart, Peter must leave the
home. He seeks refuge with the Short Tails, one of
the many ga:gs roaming the streets of the city,
where he learns a number of "unorthodox trades."
The leader of the Short Tails is the ruthless, if bum
bling, Pearly Soames.
Peter remains with the Short Tails until Pearly,
seeldng to sate his insane craving for pure color, gets
it into his head to capture a certain shade of gold
in itself a rather charming idea and imprison it
for eternity. The thought appeals to Peter until he
realizes that it can only be achieved at the expense
of the entire Bayman population. When it is disco
vered that Peter tipped off his spiritual mentors,
thus allowing them to prepare for and repel the
attack of the Short Tails, Pearly vows to kill Peter for
his betrayal
Much of the remainder of "Winter Tale" concen
trates on the pursuit of Peter Lake by Pearly and the
Short Tails. With the appearance of Athansor, who
spirits Peter away from almost certain death at the
hands of the Short Tails, the tale assumes mythical
dimensions. As Athansor easily escapes, with strides
stretching whole city blocks, we are immediately
made to understand that this is no ordinary story of
betrayal and revenge. The battles to be waged are
for higher stakes, and before the story is told, they
will have transcended the limits of time and space.
Continued en Page 7
TONIGHT!
Fromtlw
Blues Brothers
Movie
MATT
"GUIT
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UML Hiii
And his ois-piece
blues zad coul band
July 10th 9-1:00 $3 cover
" ....
. 'As Ji i
THE
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138 N. 14th'
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Daily Nebraskan
Tuesday. July 10, 1984