Arts & Entertainment
Theatrix show ‘Jebbwods’ combines
prepared and spontaneous movements
By Jim Hanna
Staff Rcportei
Theatrix will continue in its quest
for new and innovative theatrical
experiences this weekend when it
presents “Jcbbwods,” an tmprovisa
uonal piece in five movements.
“Jebbwods” will showcase the
cockeyed creative talents of the Intuit
Improv Company, said the
company’s director, D. Layne Ehlcrs.
“It will certainly be different than
most theatre and different than any
thing seen at Theatrix this year,”
Ehlcrs said.
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the-spot improvisation and prepared
movements that were derived from
improvisations during rehearsals.
The company has been rehearsing
since January, so company members
have had time to bond with one an
other and create a variety of interest
ing pieces Ehlers said.
“Jebbwods” is Ehlcrs’ third expe
rience with developing a production
based on improvisation. From her two
previous productions, Ehlers has
worked out a system for developing
an improvisational production.
“The first two-thirds of the re
hearsal tinu arc spent developing a
company,’ Ehlers said. “Through
improvs, the members learn to trust
one another and learn one another’s
strengths. From there, we build a
production ’’
Although Ehlers has helped to
create three different companies, she
said all three of the final productions
have been completely different.
“I go in with no preconceived
notions,’* Ehlcrs said. “I have a gen
cral plan that I follow, a progression
of exercises. Wc just start with very
simple self-discovery, discovery of
the space, and work with imagina
tion.”
The company members are Sheila
Brooks, Octavia Coon, Randon Eli
ason, Barb Frank, Jill Judl, Wendy
Sanden, Debbie Sklcnar and Brian
Van Dyke. Timothy Lee is the assis
tant to the director, Lana Hollibaugh
is the stage manager and Dave Blen
derman is the lighting designer.
Blendcrman’s lighting is marvel
ous, Ehlers said.
“My view of lighting is that it’s
another character. It really contrib
utes to the story and the mood,”
Ehlers said.
“Jebbwods” will run Thursday
through Sunday at 8:15 p.m. in the
Studio Theatre on the third floor of the
Temple Building, 12th and R streets.
Tickets arc SI for students and $2
for the public. For reservations, call
472-2073. Tickets may be purchased
at the door.
Experimental theater produces
UNL freshman s play, ‘Echoes'
By Jim Hanna
Staff Reporter
Experimental theater is alive and
kicking at UNL. This weekend,
“Echoes” will be presented at the
Temple Building’s Studio Theater.
“Echoes” is a play written by UNL
freshman Heather Flock. Flock wrote
the play based on her own ideas and
the ideasof theactors in the show. The
play is an independent production
coordinated by Flock.
Flock, w ho has already had one of
her plays staged at UNL this year,
describes the play as “events as seen
in the fevered mind of Emily,” the
main character.
Flock started writing the play with
an outline of a play and the characters
in that play. She then assembled a cast
of actors based on the outline. Then,
through character conferences be
tween herself and each actor and
through improvisations, she wrote the
play.
Flock said she isenth usiaslic about
the production and hopes audiences
will enjoy it, although she admits it
may be a confusing play and some
what bleak.
“Well, it’s not a dark play, but
there are a lot of dark moments,”
Flock said.
The cast of “Echoes” is Angela
High, Christina Bost, Joel Olson,
Wendy Sanden, Sarah Knight, Dana
Schweiger, Jill Judl and John Huertz.
Scene design is by Judd Caraker, the
stage manager is Donna Thompson,
stage combat was choreographed by
Jon Meyer, light design is by Dave
Blenderman, and makeup is by
Christina Bost. In addition to writing
the play, Flock is also the director.
‘Well, it’s not a
dark play, but
there are a lot of
dark moments. ’
—Flock
The play runs Thursday through
Sunday at 7:30 p.m. at the Studio
Theater on the third floor of the
Temple Building, 12th and R streets.
Admission is free.
The real Vietnam
Documentary gives accurate war story
Analysis by John P. Coffey
Staff Reviewer_
News reels, film footage, music
and letters from the Vietnam War
lend to the realism in “Dear Amer
ica: Letters Home from Vietnam,”a
documentary by HBO Pictures.
If you’ve seen the Vietnam
movies purporting to have some
realism (in other words, not
“Rambo”) and are acquainted with
the basic history of the war, nothing
new is presented. Much of the visual
and script looks as if it could come
straight out of “Platoon.”
One of the biggest criticisms of
“Platoon” was that many vets said
their Vietnam experience wasn’t
the way it was portrayed on the
screen; it wasn’t the Vietnam they
knew. “Letters” is a film that was
“somebody’s” Vietnam, as these
letters bring to light.
The letters are read by some of
Hollywood’s biggest names from
previous Vietnam movies — like
Robin Williams, Martin Sheen,
Robert DcNiro, Tom Bcrenger and
Willem Dafoe. In addition, such
stars as Michael J. Fox, Kathleen
Turner, Randy Quaid and Brian
Dcnnehy lend their voices.
Letters covering the gamut of
war are featured. A soldier shows
his disdain at war protesters in the
homeland. One reports to his par
ents that the bullet shot in his butt
came a little too close to his
“pecker” than he’d like, but that
he’s all right
But mostly they conveyed the
gritty emotion felt by the soldiers
and nurses fighting the battles: their
hopes of making it home alive and
their feelings for those who didn’t
One soldier wrote to his girl
friend: “In the original squad I’m
the only one left In my platoon
there’s only 13 of us.. .[I]t’s God’s
will. I have to make it out of Viet
nam, though, because I’m lucky. I
hope. Ha, Ha.
Love, Ray.”
Ray was killed a few weeks later
on the Fourth of July. He was 19.
One soldier commiserates over
the loss of his platoon leader, Lt.
Scott, and his frustrations of the war
effort.
“He could not understand the
whys of this conflict that killed him.
They will say he died for his coun
try, keeping it free. Negative.
We’re fighting, dying for a people
who resent our being over here. Oh,
I’ll probably get a bronze star... Lt.
Scott will get a silver star. That will
help me get a job someday, and it is
supposed to suffice for Lt. Scott’s
life.
i ms war is an wrong.
Your loving son, Phil.”
One man at Khc Sanh, during
what is perceived as the turning
point of the conflict, is asked by a
reporter the question of the war:
‘‘Do you think it’s worth it?”
The soldier’s immediate, almost
knee-jerk response is, ‘‘Yeah.” He
only needs a second in the trenches
to reconsider: “I don’t know. They
say we’re fighting for something. I
don’t know.”
The flow of the documentary
reflects the flow of the war. The
beginning features letters about the
Vietnam landscape and few words
critical of the policy that sent them
there, letters with some strong no
tions of what the war is about. As the
documentary progresses, this clar
ity fades.
Interwoven with the letters, the
documentary traces the basic flow
of the war. It starts with the Tonkin
See VIETNAM on 7
‘Beetlejuice is a funny,
refreshing and corny movie
By Michael Deeds
Staff Reviewer _
Lately, it seems like all the
movies that have come out are ei
ther stupid teen-age joke films or
cliche-ridden “super-thrillers.”
Movies just aren’t original unless
you go to the theater after the bars or
something. Well, Geffen Produc
tions has just found a cure for this
annoying problem.
Beetlejuice. Beetlejuice. Bee
tlejuice. Say his name three times in
a tow and he will appear. But, after
seeing this movie, I doubt anyone
will do that. “Beetlejuice” is a new
release starring Michael Keaton as a
hilariously outrageous ghost who
“helps” dead people with their
problems with the living. However,
he usually docs more harm than
good.
The movie has a fairly basic plot:
A happily married couple, Adam
and Barbara Maitland, who live in a
very old and nice house, drive their
car off a bridge and die. They dis
cover they are dead when they try to
leave their house and sec nothing
but desert and massive “sand-worm
creatures” outside. They spend the
rest of the movie unsuccessfully
trying to scare out the new tenants,
who are trying to remodel and ruin
their house.
The movie’s big plus is the
simple fact that you feel like you’ve
gone off the deep end while you
watch The plot takes the couple to
a counseling service for the dead
complete with terribly gross but
funny dead people who have been
killed in various ways.
The couple gets fed up with all
this and calls Bcctlcjuicc, the out
law ghost who left the counseling
service because of aclash of person
alities. Keaton portrays a maniacal,
funny, egotistical, pompous jerk.
But he is funny.
The producers of the film have
helped Keaton with tremendous
special effects. All the ghosts in the
movie are capable of stretching
their faces into hideous contortions,
beheading themselves and per
forming all kinds of hilariously
horrifying stunts. However, Bcc
tlejuice is definitely the boss.
He turns himself into a snakelikc
creature and practically kills the
tenants. He throws metal mouth
covers to shut people up. He
changes into different creatures
constantly. He changes clothes
constantly. And all while he blurts
out outrageously corny one-liners.
It’s impossible to know what to
expect from this movie, because
everything happens at light-speed
pace. The scenes change almost
confusingly quickly, and the spe
cial effects just spring out at you
constantly. However, these two
elements are exactly what make the
movie enjoyable.
The only way to describe the
feeling after watching “Bee
tlejuice” is “freaked out. It feels
like you’ve been slapped in the face
about 90 times or forced to ski
Mount Everest. It’s a great rush
after the poor quality of movies
inflicting themselves on people
these days.
“Beetlejuicc’’ is being shown at
the State Theater, 14th and O
streets.
f
John Bruce/Daily Nebraskan
Twisters and Pickle’s not a cool combo
Lincoln record store names *secure no-mind status1
Lincoln is a city with a complex.
With a population at just under
200,000, it’s bigger than say, Fremont
or Broken Bow, but it’s not nearly big
enough to be a real cool metropolis
like say, Oslo or New York.
I think this really bums out most
Lincolnites. They know in their
hearts the same cruel jokes they make
about the backward no-minds in
Osceola are being told by people in
New York about the backward no
minds in Lincoln.
Lincoln went a long way toward
securing its backward no-mind status
when Twisters record store opened a
couple of weeks ago. Twisters is re
ally the old Dirt Cheap at a new
location (14th and O streets).
■---r -1
You sec, I think Dirt Cheap is
(was) a cool name. It was the kind of
name we would be proud to say in
front of hip people from the coasts.
Even when coupled with the rather
ninnyish name of Lincoln’s other
major record store, Pickle’s, it was
pretty cool. When talking to a person
from New York, any Lincolnitc could
be proud to say that the two record
stores in our town were called Dirt
Cheap and Pickle’s. It might even
prompt the New Yorker to be jealous
of such cool names.
But now we arc forced to meekly
admit that the two stores in town are
called Twisters and Pickle’s.
Twister’s and Pickle’s? Thai’s just
plain embarrassing. We’ll be lucky if
the New Yorker doesn’t laugh heart
See TWISTERS on 7