The daily Nebraskan. ([Lincoln, Neb.) 1901-current, November 18, 1993, Page 9, Image 9

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    -aSaf- arts^Entertainment ?
‘Up With People’ cast leams around the globe
By Paula Lavigne
Staff Reporter
ForChristine Polig, the decision to postpone
college made way for a different type of learn
ing experience.
Polig, a graduate of Alexandria High School
in Alexandria, Minn., plans eventually to at
tend Hamline University in St. Paul.
Until then, she has been touring the United
States as part of the “Up W ith People” program.
The group will perform at Lincoln Northeast
High School Thursday night.
“Up With People” is an international educa
i
tion program with a mission to promote under
standing between different cultures, Polig said.
She said international development of lead
ership skills and awareness of national issues
was the goal of the program.
“Up With People” represents about 700
people from 30 countries, Polij* said. She said
the individual shows were presented by casts of
150 students each.
“It’s two hours of singing and dancing,” she
said. “We use different songs for a variety of
current issues such as the family, education,
environment, refugees and other world events.”
The theme of this year’s tour is “World of
Motion,” she said. Different programs from
various cultures will be presented.
“It will be like a big news broadcast where
the audience is the studio audience,” she said.
“The actors will be news reporters covering the
issues of today.”
Polig said that besides performing at North
east High School, the cast will travel to local
elementary schools to present its program. She
said every trip was coordinated with a commu
nity service project with similar goals.
“The show is for all ages—everybody from
young kids to older,” she said.
Polig said she enjoyed her involvement in
the show because she was exposed to so many
different cultures. *
“I really like the traveling,” she said. “The
big part is staying with the host families in
different parts of the world. You really learn
about their cultures.”
Polig said her trip to Denver was the most
exciting so far.
“We went to some of the worst high schools
in Denver,” she said. Several of the students
were dropouts and had joined local gangs.
Following their tour of the United States,
Polig and the rest of the cast are off to Europe
after Christmas.
- II
You get to meet so many
new people and hear many
different perspectives.
—Polig
cast member, "Up With People"
-- 99 -
Polig said she encouraged anyone interested
in becoming a member of the cast, ages 18-26,
to talk to performers after the show.
“It is such a great opportunity,” she said.
“You get to meet so many new people and hear
many different perspectives.”
The “Up With People” program, sponsored
by the Lincoln Community Concert Associa
tion, will be held in the Northeast High School
gym Thursday at 7:30 p.m.
Tickets are $9 for adults and $7 for students
and seniors. They are available at Maranatha
Book Store, Havelock Bank and Union Bank.
Comedy
explores
problems
of politics
theater
preview
By Anne Steyer
Senior Reporter
America is always in a constant
state of pol itical turmoil. That’s noth
ing new.
But Maxwell Anderson’s play
“Both Your Houses” makes that tur
moil funny. The comedy opens Thurs
day at 8 p.m. in Temple’s third-floor
Studio Theatre, 12th and R streets.
When young Congressman Alan
McClean heads to Washington, D.C.,
he finds himself in for a little bit more
than he bargained for in his move.
The play follows the freshman
congressman as he wades his way
through the House of Representatives
and attempts to battle the fiscally
irresponsible habits of his colleagues.
Director Michael Solomonson said
he thought the play was a mixture of
both dramatic and comedic elements.
“Anderson, I think, when he wrote
it, had an clement of bitter sarcasm in
it,” Solomonson said.
He said the play didn’t have the
impact Anderson had hoped for when
it was written, but it might have more
validity today.
McClean is politically inexperi
enced and a complete idealist,
C~1_• j
“He’s seen the suffering of the
people in his district in Nevada, and
he wants to do something about it.’’
McClcan deals with many of the
same issues people are struggling with
today, Solomonson said, including
excessive Congressional spending and
the federal deficit.
Solomonson, a UNL theater arts
Ph.D. student, cast both University of
Nebraska-Lincoln students and local
community members in this produc
tion of the 1933 Pulitzer-Prize win
ning play.
UNL student actors include Jere
my Blomstedt, Sara Bucy, Colby
Coash, Jeff Knoedler, John O’Hara,
Lamont Pfaff and Megan Salyards.
Community members contributing
their talents to the production include
long-time local actor John Burkhart,
Bruce Bums, Les Edwards, David
Koch, Don O’Neill, Paul Pearson,
Peg Shcldrick and Bob Tallon.
Shows are Thursday, Friday and
Saturday at 8 p.m., with an additional
2 p.m. performance Saturday.
Tickets arc $2 and available only
at the door.
Courtesy of Columbia/RuffHouse
The rap group Cypress Hill will perform at Omaha’s Mancuso Convention Hall, in the Civic Auditorium, Thursday night.
Bandmembers, from left, DJ Muggs, Sen Dog and B-Real.
Omaha to take a hit from Cypress Hill
By Glenn Antonucci
Staff Reporter__
Psychedelic rap kings Cypress
Hill will swing through Omaha
Thursday night, bringing with them
a potpourri of supporting acts.
The show will be at the Mancuso
Convention Hall in the Civic Audi
torium and will include techno
funk Lollapalooza-ites Rage
Against the Machine, girl rockers
Seven Year Bitch and Los Angeles
rappers Funkdoobiest.
Kevin Dochtermann, concert
division vice president for Con
temporary Presentations, said the
combination was odd but promis
ing.
“(Cypress Hill’s) agency said,
‘We know we’ve got the buzz of
Cypress Hill, they’re selling out
nationwide, now lct’sput these oth
ers together,”’ Dochtermann said.
“It’s going to be a killer show.”
The tour, which kicked off
Wednesday in Denver, supports
Cypress Hill’s latest Ruffhousc/
Columbia release “Black Sunday.”
The album follows the band’s
self-titled debut, still treading wa
ter on Billboard magazine’s Hot
200 chart after a year and a half.
“Black Sunday” debuted at No. 1
on Billboard’s Top 200, selling a
250,000 copies in its first week.
Cypress Hill’s popularity has
spread almost as fast as the band’s
marijuana-loving reputation. The
group’s sedate-yet-powerful lyrics,
delivered on top of a scatter of
sampl ings, often speak of the band’s
open association with pot.
Members B-Real, Muggs and
Sen Dog advocate the legalization
oi the drug, both on and off stage.
The band’s stance has helped pro
pel them to near-icon status among
young music fans.
Dochtermannsaid he didn’t ex
pect the band’s reputation, or the
diverse fan bases among the four
acts, to cause problems at venues
on the tour.
“I don’t think they’re any differ
ent than any other acts,” he said.
“They’re not just acts to get high
to.”
Tickets for the show, which be
gins at 7:30 p.m., are $22. The
Mancuso Convention Hall is locat
ed in the southeast comer of the
Civic Auditorium.
Bedroom comedy begins at Howell Theatre
theater
preview V®
By Anne Steyer
Senior Rtporttr____
Deception and infidelity rule the
roost at “13 Rue dc 1’Amour,” a (lal
filled with lovelife troubles.
Georges Feydeau’s fun-filled farce
adapted and translated by Mawb>
3recn and Ed Feilbcrt, opens Thurs
iay night in Howell Theatre, 12th and
R streets.
Paul Steger, UNL assistant profes
»or of theatre arts, directs “13 Rue de
’Amour,” a play that relies on quick
racing and perfect timing.
“It’s pretty wacky,” Steger said.
He said the play was a broad, phys
ical comedy, a wacky combinatioi
that incorporated styles from W.C.
Fields and Danny Kaye to Charlie
I Chaplin and Buster Keaton.
I Part of the fun, Steger said, is
H catching all the characters in the act,
J in their underwear, with their pants
down.
“It’s a bedroom farce, it plays a lot
of havoc with sex and running around,”
he said. “It’s sheer entertainment and
sometimes we just need two hours of
laughter.”
The story involves an intriguing
manage a trois, or perhaps, menage a
quatre.
Dr. Moricet (Dean Houser) tries
his hand at charming the lovely Ma
dame Duchotel (Amy Gaithcr-Hayes),
the wife of his best friend (Patrick
Tuttle), who is away on another of his
frequent hunting trips.
Duchotel is tempted, but refuses,
saying she cannot be unfaithful to her
husband, at least not as long as he
remains faithful to her.
- (4
It’s sheer entertainment and sometimes we just
need two hours of laughter.
— Steger
assistant professor of theatre arts
_ ** _
What she doesn’t know, of course,
is that her husband’s hunting trips arc
nothing more than an excuse, decoys
for his own affair with the wife of yet
another friend.
Complicated? It gets more so.
When Duchotel discovers
Duchotel’s deceptions and infideli
ties, she decides to take Moricet up on
his scandalous offer, so she visits him
at his flat. The flat, obviously, is
located at 13 Rue de l’Amour — the
same address where her husband rents
his rooms for illicit love.
Other cast members include David
Azizinamini (Jean Pierre), Troy Mar
tin (Birabcau), Michelle Bcamcr
¥ ¥
(Countess Von Spritzer), Shannon
Marple (Marie) and Steven Shields,
Mark Dickenson and Laurence Mota
as the befuddled policemen seeking
to sort things out.
Tum-of-the-century Parisian cos
tumes were designed by student Eric
Abbott. Sets were designed by Harry
Traum V and lighting by Tom
Watson.
Shows begin at 8 p.m. Thursday,
Friday and Saturday. Productions re
sume after the Thanksgiving holiday
on Nov. 30, continuing daily through
Dec. 4.
Theatre box office.