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About The daily Nebraskan. ([Lincoln, Neb.) 1901-current | View Entire Issue (Oct. 29, 1991)
Arts & Entertainment Ill ill. I Courtesy of Orion Pictures Lincoln native Harley Jane Kozak (left) co-stars with Elizabeth McGovern in the motion picture “The Favor,” due out this winter. Lincoln native landing top roles by Anne steyer Staff Reporter “All I Want for Christmas” opens Nov. 8 at movie theaters across~the country with a cast that includes Leslie Nielsen and screen legend Lauren Bacall. Neither of these fine actors headlines the film though — top billing goes'to Lincoln native Harley Jane Kozak. Kozak’s theatrical career began early. At age 5 she performed on stage with her mother. A year later, she moved to Lincoln with her family, continuing her career with bit parts in various productions. Kozak attended Lincoln East High School and while there was cast by the Nebraska Repertory Theatre as a lap dancer. Following her graduation in 1975, she enrolled at the University of Ncbraska-Lincoln, majoring in the theater arts. By that time, she had joined the Nebraska Repertory Theatre as a full company member. After three semesters at UNL, Kozak, then 19, decided to move to New York City. Her decision to leave was not completely arbitrary. During that year and a half, she performed in 10 different shows for the Nebraska theater de partment and the Nebraska Repertory Theatre. I realized thal 1 was in danger ot being a big fish in a little pond and really getting used to it,” Kozak said in a phone interview from her home in Hollywood, California. “I knew that I would be a very little fish in a very big pond eventually, and I decided to just go to New York before I got too comfortable in Lincoln.” Kozak moved to New York with a friend and immediately hit the newspapers and the pavement looking for work. She held various odd jobs until she auditioned for The New York University School of the Arts. She was accepted and for the next three years attended classes and did stage work. From there, it was searching through the trade papers, going to auditions and looking for that one big break. “It’s hard, but there’s no other way to do it,” Kozak said. “But it’s the only thing I ever wanted to do.” The hard work paid off in 1982 when she was cast in a suspense/horror film called “The House on Sorority Row.” Although not a block buster, it opened doors for Kozak, who later joined the cast of daytime dramas “Texas” and “Guiding Light.” Big roles on noth shows lea lo a move to California in 1985 and a starring role on an other daytime serial, “Santa Barbara.” “It was very good experience for learning I how to develop a discipline, being in front of a camera five days a week, 12 hours a day,” Kozak said. Daytime programming led to guest roles on “Highway to Heaven” and “L.A. Law.” Kozak was definitely on her way up, landing parts in two highly touted motion pictures in 1989. She played the small but pivotal role of Helen, Billy Crystal’s ex-wife, in “When Harry Met Sally.. ,”and starred in “Parenthood” with an all-star cast that included Steve Marlin, Rick Moranis and Jason Robards. Two movies currently featuring Kozak are “Necessary Roughness,” a football comedy showing at Edgewood, and “The Taking of Beverly Hills,” an action film with Ken Wahl yet to open in Lincoln. In addition to headlining “All I Want for Christmas,” Kozak is starring in “The Favor,” a romantic comedy due ou t ncx t spring. Though she’s been very busy this year, Kozak isn’t taking a vacation. “Now I’m just working on finding my next job,” she said. U.S. education needs MTV They say that American children are undereducated. I heard on CNN this sum mer jhat the majority of our school age kids are below average in math. Statistics like those used to make me laugh. I thought “average” meant something like “the middle.” How could “most” kids score less than the middle? I though it was TV talk; just so much hype. If you would have guessed the same, guess again. f Mark ‘ x*# Baldridge (W’ Say you have only three kids in the whole country. We’d have plenty of parking space then, I bet. Say one of these punks scores a hundred points on his P.S.A.T. The other two score 50 points each. The average then would be some thing like 67 points. The majority of students would be below average. Go to the head of the class if you got that one right. If not, well, you never were loo good at word prob lems, were you? But really, American kids know more than their mommies and daddies did at their age. They just know different stuff. Today’s kid may not know who the origi nal Michaclangelo was, but he’ll be sure to know the Teenage Mutant N inja Turtlc of the same name. They ’ II even be able to tell you which one of the little bcaslies that is — the one that scarfcs up pizza, or me one witn me swora. i aon i Know, ask a 9-year-old. And who programs the VCR at your folk’s house? Dad? Don’t make me laugh. Dad can’t set his digital watch. Not if hc’sovcr 50anyway. No, it’s Juniorwho docs that household chore. No one needs this knowledge to sur vive. It won’t get you a good job or help you solve the problems of life. Remem ber all the sentences you diagramed in junior high? When was the last time your boss called on you to pull off that old trick? When I was in high school, 1 had to memorize the prologue to the “Cantabury Talcs” in Middle English. That comes in real handy at job interviews, let me tell you. If you want kids to Icam how to divide fractions, make it part of the set-up pro cedure for the Nintendo system. In order to advance levels of Super Mario Broth ers, make them answer a simple random algebra question. You can make it more demanding at each level. I guarantee, See BALDRIDGE on 10 Director to hold discussion tonight From Staff Reports John Singleton, the 23-year-old writer/director of “Boyz N The Hood,” will hold a discussion tonight in the Centennial Ballroom of the Student Union. Beginningat8p.m., Singleton will address questions concerning his 1991 critically acclaimed movie “Boyz N The Hood,” which depicts the pre cariousness of surviving a single day in gang-ridden south-central Los Angeles. “Boyz N The Hood,” Singleton has said, was inspired in part by the gangster epic “Once Upon A Time In America” and Francis Ford Coppola’s “American Graffiti.” However, Sin gleton’s experiences in Los Angeles were his primary inspiration for the semi-autobiographical project. Singleton, an outspoken advocate of realistic depiction of black youth in films, will address the urgency of young African-Americans to over come their surroundings. “Boyz N The Hood” won wide spread praise for its honest handling of this issue. Admission is SI for UNL students with student ID, $2 for non-students. ‘A Chorus Line visiting Orpheum By Andrea Christensen Staff Reporter_ Like old generals, old musicals never die. Some, like “A Chorus Line,” don’t fade away cither. “A Chorus Line,” the longest run ning musical in Broadway history, closed April 28,1990, at the Schubert til Ck fpREVtEW] Theatre in New York after a 15-ycar engagement. Since then it has been on a continuous American lour. The show has become almost an annual event in Nebraska. In 1989 it was produced at the Orphcum The atre in Omaha and last spring it came to the Pershing Auditorium. The show is returning to the Orphcum for per formances tonight, Wednesday and Thursday. The musical is about the lives of 17 dancers who audition for eight parts in a Broadway chorus line. Since each chorus member will have to do some acting in the show, the producer tries to select dancers whose person See CHORUS on 10
