T Arts & Entertainment Nebraskan
^ ^ ^ ^ Tuesday, February 4,1992
Erik Unger/DN
Alex Gelman, assistant professor of theatre, arts and dance, follows along in the script while his graduate acting class rehearses.
Explorations in direction
Desire for theatrical freedom guides professor to UNL
By Gretchen McCulley
Staff Reporter
Alex Gclman said he disagrees
with a long-standing belief that di
recting can’t be taught.
An assistantprofessor of theatre,
arts and dance, Gelman has taught at
the University of Nebraska-Lincoln
for one year. He said he has “pul my
money where my mouth is” with a
new program to teach graduate stu
dents how to direct theatrical produc
tions.
“I saw an incredibly unique oppor
tunity to pul together and train direc
tors,” he said. “I’m just glad they
(fellow co-workers) thought well
enough of me to make it happen.”
Along with recruiting and inter
viewing students for the new three
year directing program, Gclman is
also producing TT>catrix. Thcalrix gives
studcnLs a chance to direct, which
Gclman said he considers one of the
least explored crafts.
Before Gclman started his career
in educational theater, he worked for
six years in professional theater in
New York.
“I did legitimate theater, musicals,
operas, even directed films,”Gclman
said. “I made a point to jump at every
opportunity that was different from
the one just completed.”
Gclman said he switched from
professional theater to educational
theater because he wanted to be more
involved in dictating what types of
plays would be done.
“I’m now in the position to pick
the types of plays I want to do,”
Gclman said. “I have the firslchoicc.”
There also arc other benefits to
leaching theater, Gclman said.
“Being in educational theater tends
to bring more money,” he said. “In
professional theater, the biggest ex
pense is the people. With educational
(theater), the people don’t cost any
thing. On the other hand, money spent
on scenery is far greater. It’s sort of a
trade-off/’
Another difference between edu
cational theater and professional thca
ter, Geiman said, is that educational
theater allows for riskier material and
larger cast plays.
Geiman, who lived in Russia until
he was age 13, said he was brought up
around the theater in which hisgrand
parents participated. Gclman’s grand
mother worked as a costume designer
in an opera theater studio.
“I think my first steps were taken
in the theater in that studio,” Geiman
said. "Ever since then, it has been like
a disease.”
The theater atmosphere influenced
him greatly, he said. Gclman’s par
ents, though not involved profession
ally, were avid theater-goers, he said.
In 1973, Geiman and his family
moved to Israel for two years before
coming to the United Slates in 1976.
Exiting the Soviet Union wasn’t
easy, Geiman said, but from 1971 on,
a certain percentage of people were
allowed to leave. Growing up in
Russia gave Geiman some insight
about the differences between Ameri
can theater and Russian theater.
“There is such a rich, theatrical
tradition in Russia,” he said. “Artists,
such as directors, actors, actresses,
etc., were held in high esteem. There
were some theaters in Moscow and
Leningrad that you could never gel
tickets for because everybody else
had them. Theater was the place to
be.”
This rich, theatrical tradition is
something Gclman said he wants to
bring to the university. He said his
goal is to do more than train those
who will work in theater. It also is
important to train those who will go
to the theater to see the performances.
Training students to come to the
theater when they arc young will help
keep theater alive, Gclman said.
“People have been predicting the
end of theater for a long time,” he
said. “Film hasn’t killed it, television
hasn’t killed iland radio hasn’t killed
it. I think it will be around forawhilc.”
‘Love Crimes’ steals from viewers’
“Love Crimes”
By Gerry Bettz
Staff Reporter_
Poor Patrick Bcrgin.
He’s fresh out of the exceptional
thriller, “Sleeping with the Enemy,’’
and already has been typecast as the
“good-looking psychotic next door.”
This time, he does it for the excep
tionally tod film titled “Love Crimes”
(Plaza 4,12th and P streets).
Bergin plays a man who assumes
Lack of suspense, wooden acting kills movie
the name of a famous photographer
and entices women to let him photo
graph them, eventually leading to
pictures in degrading and compro
mising positions. He then rapes them,
but they will not press charges be
cause of the impending humiliation.
Scan Young (“Blade Runner” and
“A Kiss Before Dying”) plays Dana
Greenway, a district attorney who
puts the conviction above all else,
and eventually becomes obsessed with
catching Bcrgin.
Young’s acting in this movie is
wooden at best, and she delivers her
lines like she’s still miffed about not
getting to play Calwoman in the
upcoming “Batman” sequel
Bergin’s portrayal of the “shutter
bug psychotic” was just as bad. He
tries to be hypnotic, suave and en
trancing, but he fails miserably on all
counts.
With the exception of Greenway,
very little character development
occurs for anyone in the movie. Green
way’s flashbacks to a childhood trauma
give some insight into her character,
but not enough to evoke sympathy.
These flashbacks eventually become
annoying.
The best performance from this
film comes from Amelia Walker as
Detective Johnson, Greenway’s “only
friend.” Unfortunately, her screen lime
is extremely limited. Also, if you’re
interested in cameos from former
television stars, look for Sonny
Shroyncr (Enos from “The Dukes Of
Hazzard”) as a plainclothes cop.
Produced and directed by Lizzie
Borden, this movie has very little
action and no real suspense of which
to speak. The music and lighting arc
adequate, and the plot moves along at
a sadly predictable and plodding pace.
Possibly the only other redeeming
quality of this film is that it (briefly)
addresses real-life problems. There is
a short discussion about the hard-to
define line between date rape and
sexual assault, and male chauvinism
abounds from start to finish.
If you want to see “Love Crimes,”
wait for it to come out on video, and
use a free rental coupon if you’ve got
one.
‘Love Crimes* steals from viewers’
pockets.
Short story
book shows
surreal land
of the future
“In The Air”
Robert Nichols
The Johns Hopkins University Press
By Mark Baldridge
Senior Reporter
Robert Nichols lives in an Amer
ica populated by monsters, creatures
of the American dream. He writes
about it in “In The Air,” his first
collection of short stories.
His is an America where every
thing has already happened; the pres
ent slips into the past tense. Every
thing is viewed from a safe distance
and puzzled over.
His Americans arc thoughtful and
naive, Utopians and farmers. Yet
somehow all this evil ex ists. So much
evil, in fact, that it pools in places,
creating anomalies.
In one of the stories, “Reading the
Meter,” an old man discovers on his
electric bill: “Eight people killed in
the village of Jinotcca, Nicaragua.
Externalities $31." He wonders how
the cost can be so low.
In “The Changing Beast,” a strange
creature, half bear, half goat, terror
izes a local food co-op. Shotgun blasts
don’t affect it and one of the co
operators claims the beast is only a
metaphor for capitalism.
Nichols obviously feels strongly
about ecological and human rights
issues, but his writing lacks the flat
ness and hysterical urgency of propa
ganda.
In his stories, the sense of lime
running out conflicts with the feeling
of having plenty of time to think.
It’s like being at the scene of a
terrible accident. Things slip into slow
motion. One watches and feels noth
ing.
These are talcs of the imagination,
visionary glimpses recognizable as
the backside of American life.
It’s as if Nichols has detected the
secret world that always exists within
and behind our perceptions of the
world. Image becomes reality; to think
on a thing may make it so. And the
unknown breaks into our every-day
existence in startling ways.
Danger and death always arc pres
ent, but death has lost its horror. It has
become a thing that sometimes hap
See BOOK on 10
pockets
I-1
Scott Maur»r/DN