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Monday, November 20,1989 Arts & Entertainment 9
r Orphans ’ directed, acted extremely well
■tv Iiilii' Nanphton anwlhinn «I ■ l .
If Reporter_
“Orphans,” presented by the
iversityof Ncbraska-Lincoln the
r department, is an excellent ren
on of a contemporary play. The
fL production of ‘‘Orphans,” per
med Nov. 10 through 18, is acted
I directed extremely well; it is
nparable to most professional
ductions. Scenes flowed easily,
i into another, with no visible
ms. The pacing was right on the
ney and the actors breathed life
) their characters.
II During the course of the play, the
Iharactcrs metamorphosed from
tankly unlikablc people to more
nature, sympathetic personalities.
“Orphans” is the story of two
>rphancd brothers sharing a shabby
ow house in Philadelphia. The story
overs three weeks in the lives of the
wo brothers. During this time, they
;idnap a man, steal things and learn
iboul themselves.
The brothers have not changed
J.6 IIUUSC SI I ICC uicir
mother’s death many years before,
and they arc more than a little bizarre.
John Lepard played Treat, a petty
criminal who supports his younger
brother by robbing people. Treat is an
abrasive, abusive and often violent
character, but dfcep down inside he is
a scared child. Lepard was able to
reach the scared child that is Treat
and communicate that scared child to
the audience. Lepard, a first-year
Master of Fine Arts candidate from
Lansing, Mich., was excellent as the
violent Treat. Lepard was extremely
believable and excellent at creating
sympathy for a potentially unlikablc
character. His Treat was touching as
his character changed throughout the
play.
Tom Crew, a junior theater major
from Lincoln, played the introverted
Phillip. Phillip is a backward and
lonely man, an overgrown wild child.
He has learned what he knows of the
world through his brother’s exag
gerations and television shows. Phil
lip can recite every prize on the
“Price is Right,’’ but has only ven
tured outside his house once. Crew
projected wide-eyed wonder as the
scared Phillip; his portrayal of a po
David Hansen/Daily Nebraskan
John Lepard (front) and Devon Schumacher, cast members of “Orphans,” prepare to go on
stage.
tcntially onc-dimcnsional character
was superb. His Phillip had a simple,
touching faith.
Devon Schumacher, a senior thea
ter major from Lincoln, played the
kidnapped Harold. Harold was an
older orphan from Chicago, and re
lated to the boys in ways that they had
never known. He became the father
figure that they had been deprived of
during their childhood. Schumacher,
as the older Harold, was believable
and tender. He is gentle with the two
boys, trying to lead Treat away from
his life of petty thievery. Harold
seemed to want to provide the boys
with the love and caring that he never
experienced himself.
Phillip begins to mature during the
course of the play, thanks to Harold,
the man that Treat kidnaps. Harold
gives Phillip the encouragement that
his brother Treat has never had the
courage to give him.
/ ■'
Attitude, simple daily experiences \
can determine the quality of life
By Mick Dyer
Staff Reporter
It seems like a long time ago...
Russ and I were standing out on
the dock after our shift was over,
talking and feeling the sense of
accomplishment that goes along
with working hard and doing a
good job. But mostly we were just
quiet, caught up in our own
thoughts.
opinion
Thanksgiving, 1983.
The sky was reticent and gray.
The only sounds were the wind’s
incessant blowing blowing blow
ing, as clouds as heavy as iron
marched imperiously overhead,
and a couple of crows nagging at
each other about the bitter cold off
in the distance.
Russ was a rugged guy in his
mid-40s from Minnesota, who
looked and behaved more like a
lumberjack than a chef, with his
salt and pepper beard and red-plaid
flannel shirts. He smoked Lucky
Strikes and drank tonic water (no
boo/.e) with a twist. He spoke
softly, with a slight Dylancsquc
northern-Minnesota twang in his
voice, and he laughed often and
heartily. Only occasionally did his
eyes give away the pain caused by
years of hard living that makes a
man older than he really is.
Russ was my boss and my
mentor, who ignited my passion
for cooking as a profession and
who took an interest in answering
my endless stream of questions.
Above all, he was one of the
many people in my life who have
taught me important lessons that
have shaped who I am.
Russ taught me how to lead by
example and to enjoy being a good
team player. Most importantly,
Russ taught me to accept life one
day at a lime.
He also taught me how to say,
“son-of-a-bitch” a lot.
Ahem.
Anyway, at the lime, I was 19
and full of enthusiasm for life. The
whole world beckoned to me and
anything and everything seemed
possible, if I only knew which
w
course to chart. All my experi
cnees seemed terribly beautiful
and poetic -- whether it was shar
ing a cold dral'ly apartment with
two of my closest friends or going
for long walks in the middle of the
night.
I may have even been a little
uptight. I studied psychology in
hopes of solving the mind-body
problem. I wanted to discover
some kind of physiological proc
ess that would explain - and per
haps alleviate some of the symp
toms of - the deeply moving spiri
tual experiences that often dis
tracted me while I was trying to get
ahead in the world.
Now, at 25, I’m still full of
enthusiasm for life and the whole
myriad of possibilities still beck
ons and confuses me. I’ve grown
accustomed to living in a cold,
drafly apartment and I still go for
long walks in the middle of the
night.
So what has changed?
Not much. I’m a little older and
have a few more distinguishing,
See THANKS on 10
I Jim's Journal’ is slice of life, creator says
Iy (iretchen Boehr
nior Reporter
Jim.of “Jim’s Journal,” isaquiet
>rt of guy who doesn’t lead a par
:ularly interesting life - but he
rites about it anyway.
Every day, students can read about
m’s mundane little life in a comic
rip, which runs in 20 college news*
ipers across the nation. And many
udents might wonder: “Who is
Meet Scott Dikkers, 24, a college
udent in Madison, Wis., known by
is fans as “Jim.”
“Jim is me, basically,” Dikkers
lid.
The character of Jim is a college
udent and introvert, which also is
)c way Dikkers describes himself.
The cartoonist has attended four
Alleges: the University of Wisconsin
River Falls, the University of Br
Igeport in Connecticut, the Univer
ly of Southern California and, cur
mtly, the University of Wisconsin in
pdison.
And Dikkcrs still doesn’t have a
major.
“I’m kind of disenchanted with
college,” he said.
“Jim’s Journal” began at the
University of Wisconsin in Madi
son’s campus newspaper in fall 1987.
“It started because I wanted to do
a strip for the student newspaper and
I thought it would be kind of funny if
I had a guy who wrote what he did
that day, even if it wasn’t funny,” he
said.
At first the editors at the “Daily
Cardinal” didn’t like the strip.
“They said the art was bad and
they didn’t want to run it,” Dikkcrs
said.
But he said he was very deter
mined and eventually the editors
agreed to run the strip every other
day.
As the story goes, the strip became
an immediate success and after a
month the Cardinal began printing
“Jim’s Journal” every day.
“It began to catch on with some
people and started to become really
popular as they got to know what the
characters were like and what they
were doing,” Dikkcrs said.
The strip has become so popular in
Madison that Dikkcrs said he is a
local celebrity.
“I don’t really get that much fan
mail,’ ’ he said, ‘ but the paper gets a
lot of calls asking: ‘Is Jim there?’”
‘‘There’s a lot of people who want
to meet me and that’s kind of
creepy,” he said.
But Dikkcrs is aware that his strip
is unpopular, even hated, by some
people in Madison as well as across
the country.
‘‘Some people just hate it because
it’s so meaningless,” he said. ‘‘It’s
easy to make fun of because Jim is so
simple and innocent.”
Dikkers said a few people have
mailed him copies of the journal with
violent or sexual innuendoes added.
‘‘I’ve seen them all,” he said.
But Dikkcrs maintains ‘‘Jim’s
Journal” is funny because it isn’t
See JIM on 10
‘Kill Jimf shirts for sale I
By Gretchen Boehr
Senior Reporter
Students at the University of
Ncbraska-Lincoln who hate
“Jim’s Journal” now can buy aT
shirt advertising ihctr cause.
The shirts read “Kill Jim and
bum his #@ ?” * Journal ’ ’ and fea
ture a stick figure, resembling Jim,
with a bullet hole through his head.
Tom O’Hara, Pal Erb and Ken
Frank, electrical engineering stu
dents at UNL, created the shirts as
a business venture.
Since they didn’t like “Jim’s
Journal,” Frank said, he and his
two friends decided a “Kill Jim”
shirt would be a hot-selling item
“We didn’t like the cartoon be
cause we thought it gave a bad
name to all the hardworking artists
out there, said Frank, a junior
from Norfolk.
“Jim just isn’lfunny,” he said.
According to Frank, the three
had been thinking about printing
T-shirts for a long time.
“We wanted to make a shirt to
sell around campus,” Frank said.
“But until now, we didn’t have a
gimmick.”
‘“Jim’s Journal’ seems to be
sparking a lot of controversy on
campus and people either hate it or
love it,” he said.
“It’s not that we’re mad about
‘Jim’s Journal ’ or anything against
the artist,” Frank said. 4,We just
wanted to make a fun shirt that
would raise a little controversy.”
Frank said he’s received a lot of
See SHIRT on 11