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By C2irl3 Etirbach
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Editor's note: Thto story contains opinions of
the author.
u' 3 ?lwys 9:23 in the General Store in the
Nebraska State Historical Museum. It's always 1910
in the doctor's office. It's always cool, and it's always
free.
I know what you're thinking - "Museum. Ugh.
Boring. Well, according to Wendell Frantz, if that's
what you think, you haven't been to a museum
lately.
Frantz, Curator of Lincoln Museums for the
Nebraska State Historical Society, believes muse
ums have changed.
"Most museums today aren't boring. Instead of
lining up a thousand of the same thing, we try to
design different exhibits so people will be able to
find something they're interested in," he said.
"A historical museum Is an educational place, but
it's different from education with a teacher. We have
to get people interested...we're having to sell our
selves all the time."
A large exhibit on the first floor is one of the
museum's major selling points. Frantz said it's
designed as an attention-getter, a lure to attract
people into the rest of the museum.
That exhibit forms a semi-circle, beginning with a
stoneware jar, displaying other traditional artifacts
like a buckskin coat and a Czechoslavakian-made
Bohemian bagpipe, and ending with a hot pink neon
Drive-In sign.
The second floor exhibits are more straight for
ward education; they're more "wordy," as Frantz
puts it. You can traipse though Nebraska's history,
from prehistoric times through Native American
artifacts through the advent of the white man. The
highlights of this floor maybe a reconstruction of a
Pawnee earth lodge and a genuine looking settlers'
soddie.
The third floor features a Nebraska art exhibit
and the General Store, which Frantz said may be the
museum's best exhibit.
"People can walk through and get a feeling of the
past," he said.
Much of the third floor is like that. With a little
imagination, you can imagine yourself walking
through time through the streets of a Nebraska
town, past a dentist's office complete with some
sinister-looking tools, past a carpenter's shop and a
barber shop and a hand drawn fire engine parked in
a brick alley. You become a sort of time lord;
although unlike Doctor Who, youll neither encoun
ter aliens nor save planets. But you may learn
something.
"If you're at all even casually interested in history,
it's a good way to learn. We. present our story
through artifacts...if history's important at all, if we
feel we can learn from the past, we can learn as
much from the objects as we can from the (written)
records," Frantz said.
Although the museum's exhibits are designed so
adults can learn from them, Frantz said most of the ,
visitors to the museum are families and elementary
school tour groups. Frantz believes another group of
people may be entertained and enlightened there.
orrection
The Kampuchean Community Organization food
sale will be Sunday at the Church of the Brethren,
3845 S. Sumner St., not 364 S. Sumner St. as incor
rectly reported in Tuesday's Daily Nebraskan. We
regret the error.
'Purple R
By Scott Hm&h
This summer's biggest cinematic disappointment
has to be "Purple Rain." Prince's early-released
soundtrack LP and MTV have hyped this film for
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The gsneral store wasn't in the same league as Miller and Paine but it served the pioneers well.
Performances sizzle in summer play
By Scott Ilarrah
UNL Repertory Theatre's last play of the 1984
summer season is Alan Ayckbourn's "How the Other
Half Loves." This comedy is like one of those 1700s
bedroom farces about adultery and domestic deca
dence, but it's set in the 80s and done like, a witty
Theater
eview
television sit-com. What makes the play innovative
is its use of a conceptual set design that is a jumbled
composite of two couples' living rooms.
The play opens up with a newscast about Mondale
and Ferraro, indicating that the time is the present.
Then we see the Phillips and the Fosters enter their
.amalgamated living rooms after a night's sleep to
jog, drink coffee, brush their teeth and bicker.
Charlie Bachmann plays Frank Foster, the
paunchy, cuckolded husband of Fiona (Mari Weiss),
who is being told by Frank that she forgot their
wedding anniversary the previous evening. She
makes up an excuse to conceal the fact that she was
really out with Frank's well-muscled co-worker, Bob
Phillips, (played by David Boughn).
Meanwhile, across the stage at the Phillips', Bob's
sloppy wife Teresa (Carolyn Hood) does her morn
ing exercises and tends to baby Benjamin's needs.
Bob wo ild rather complain about the empty box ot
cereal on the table than help Teresa out with their
son. This sets up the idea that there is discontentln
both marriages and some infidelity is imminent.
The conceptual set design ties in to the plot as
both the Phillips and the Fosters invite their co
worker William Detweiler (Mike Hofacre) and his
wife Mary (Lindsay Reading North) to their homes
for dinner on two different nights.
Since the play is live, the dinners are performed in
synthesis and the Detweilers divide their attention
between the Phillips' at one side of the table and the
Fosters at the other.
This play is a complete farce and it's not supposed
to be the least bit realistic so some synchronicity
is perpetrated. For example, when Teresa accuses
Bob of havihsj an affair, she attempts to throw soup
on him, but c accidentally lands on William; then,
Fiona, who is supposed to be having dinner with him
on a different night, said "Oh, you're all wet!"
The rest of the play is more of the same absurdity
centered on adultery and visual puns that are
related to the unusual set design.
As a whole "How the Other Half Loves' is enter
taining, but it's not hilarious. Sure, there are enough
gut-wrenching jokes to make the audience explode
with guffaws, but most of the time the play's only
amusing enough to make you smile.
The cast's performances, however, are consum
mate. Bachmann's portrayal of the stuffy, slob
Fr ank is very convincing and it transcends the stage.
Weiss' performance is outrageous, for she plays the
haughty, elegant Fiona with the same bitchy verve
that Joan Collins uses in her Alexis role on televi
sion's prime time soap, "Dynasty." Carolyn Hood's
performances is well-done but she could have played
her character a bit more like the slovenly proletar
ian Teresa is supposed to be. Boughn is a riot as the
beefy Bob, and his romp across the stage in a towel
with an "S" written across his chest with shaving
cream is one of the play's best moments. Hofacre's
portrayal of William is good, but Reading North, who
plays his wife, is much more engaging as the meek
Mary.
Sizzling performances and a fairly humorous plot
makes "How the Other Half Loves" a play that closes
UNL Repertory Theatre's 1984 summer season with
auspicious skill
ain is summer s b
Mgest -was
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months, and now that it's in theaters, many are going
to feel that they've been cheated out of what was
supposed to be a blockbuster.
This musical drama is set in an avant-garde
nightclub called the Seventh Avenue. Prince stars as
the Kid, the lead vocalist in a band called "The Revo
lution." The Kid feels tfcrat nobody understands his
unusual style of music or the pain his unhappy
Friday, August 10. 19S4
home life causes him. He endures the teases and
taunts of the crass plebians in a rival band as well as
the fighting and bickering in his own group. So along
comes a buxom beauty named Appollonia Kotero
(who plays herself) who ignites his libido and seems
to take away some of his discontent.
Appollonia is an aspiring singer who tries to get
into the Kid's band, but he tells her she must try to
make in on her own. They fall in love, but the Kid
seems to turn his sweetie black and blue a bit too
often, so she leaves him and seeks out the rival
band's vocalist. He promises the distraught sex' kit
ten that hell find her a group to sing with. Mean
while, the Kid must face problems at home. His black
father has a. penchant for slapping his Italian
mother around. The Kid tries his best to break up '
these domestic altercations, but his efforts are
futile.
The luscious Appollonia does an act with two
Dolly Nebraskan
other girls at the club and it is well received by the
club patrons. This forces the club's proprietor to tell
the Kid that he has one band too many, so the least
popular band must go. So, The Revolution," the rival
band and Appolionia's trio wrap up the movie with a
contest to see which group is the best.
That about sums up the plot of the film, and as
you've probably figured out, this movie has a lot to
be desired. The worst scenes in the film are the ones
involving the Kid's parents. These sequences come
off so melodramatic that they are almost campy.
And the mawkish dialogue in these scenes is remin
iscent of "Mommie Dearest," for when the Kid's mom
screams "You never let me have any fun," to her
brutal hubby, one remembers Faye Dunaways "No
more wire hangers, Tina!" line from the classically
bad Joan Crawford bio-drama that raised the
screen to high levels of camp. This scene in "Purple
Rain" gets that same effect.
Continued on Page 6
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