Brian Priesman
Serial tale
reinstated
. by King
Stephen King, the world’s leading
horror-mcistcr, is back! Praiscthc lord!
Hallowed be King’s name!
As you might have guessed, I kind
of like Stephen King.
King’s works might not rank up
there with the worksof Shakespeare or
Hemingway, but they’re the closest
thing we’ve got right now.
Don't bclieveme? Look at the facts.
When Shakespeare wrote “A Midsum
mer Night’s Dream,” he wasn’t trying
to write a classic. He was trying to
write a comedy that would keep the
audience from stoning him and the
other actors during the show. So he
wrote bawdy, risque and cheap humor.
But now we think of it as a classic.
Well, that and the fact that it’s better
than most things being written even
today.
Same with King. He’s just writing
to tell his gruesome little talcs of evil
and horror and has no idea that in 200
or 300 years, he’ll be considered a
classic late 20th-century author. Ei
ther that, or the literary critics of the
future will think his stories are nonfic
tion and that the world of today was
filled with demonic clowns and Sa
tanic Saint Bernards named Cujo.
King’s latest work is the first part of
a story entitled “The Green Mile.”
With it, King is trying to revive the
semi-lost monthly serial. Part one was
shipped a few weeks ago, and part two
is due out in late April.
Now for all of you people who
don’t think it’s fair to compare King to
Charles Dickens, here you go...
When Dickens was writing, the se
rial was the only way to obtain the
most popular stories. Think of it as the
father of the soap opera. Some serials
were so published that riots would
break out if the local newsstands ran
out of copies.
In lact, rumor has it that when the
final part of Dickens’ “Great Expecta
tions” was due to arrive, so many
people crowded the streets and docks
that several people fell into the ocean
and drowned as the boat carrying the
installment was docking.
I don’t think people are going to die
trying to get a copy of “The Green
Mile,” but I could be wrong. After all,
people do die all of the time. Who’s to
say they won’t die on their way to the
bookstore?
“The Green Mile” deals with a sub
ject King has always wanted to delve
into—death by electric chair. Part one
is barely enough to introduce the reader
to the characters that King hopes we’ 11
make part of our family, at least until
the story is done.
The beauty of the story is that King
himself doesn’t even know how it’s
going to end. He hasn’t finished it yet!
He’s still working on sections due to
be published later this year, and it’s
not supposed to be finished for at least
a year.
So King, who knows that he’s this
century’s Charles Dickens, is trying to
legitimize his claim to that title by
doing a Dickens-style serial. Either
that or he just wanted to capture the
feelings of youth when he’d wait pa
tiently outside the movie theater to see
the latest episode of “The Shadow
Movie Serial.” Or maybe it’s both.
Prlesmaa Is a freshmaa aews-edltorlal
aad theater major aad a Dally Nehraskaa
staff reporter.
Matt Miller/DN
Graduate students Eric Harrell and Lisa Mercer rehearse “The Importance of Being Earnest”
at the Temple building Tuesday night.
False identities rule ‘Earnest’
By Brian Priesman
Staff Reporter
Style, image and mistaken iden
tities will take the Howell Theatre
stage this weekend when Oscar
Theater
Preview
Wilde’s “The
Importance of
Being Earnest”
concludes the
UNL Theatre
Department’s
mainstage sea
son.
“Earnest,”
Wilde’s classic
comedy, com
bines elements
of both a comedy of manners and a
farce, said Paul Stcger, the play’s
Rancid
to play
in Omaha
i- r
By Jeff Randall
Music Critic
If anyone still needed to be in
formed of punk rock’s massive mar
kctingpolcntial,tonight’sconcertat
IConcert
Preview
the Omaha Civic
Auditorium Mu
sic Hall should
be proof posi
tive.
The show,
which features
California punk
rockers Rancid
and Rocket From
the Crypt, has
been moved
twice in the last month to make room
for more ticket sales.
The concert’s first location was
Omaha’s Ranch Bowl, a venue that
holds about 600 people. But when
tickets for the show sold out in a
matter of hours, it was bumped over
to Lincoln’s Royal Grove, a slightly
larger venue. It took a few days for
the show to hit the road again for its
final location, the Music Hall in
Omaha. Tickets for the show are
$10 and are still available.
So, now that punk rock has proved
to be worthy enough to fill one of
Omaha’s largest indoor concert ven
ues, the only question is whether the
show will be worth the price of ad
mission.
And if the latest albums from
tonight’s bands are any indication,
everyone should go home satisfied.
director.
The story concerns two well-to
do friends in London who, to relieve
t he boredom of their 1 i ves, masquer
ade as other people in other parts of
England.
“It’s a comedy about people who
arc posing as other people to get
what they want,” Steger said.
Jack, a wealthy orphan,callshim
self Earnest in the city. But his young
ward, Cecily, knows him only as
Uncle Jack because Jack has told
her that Earnest is his “wicked
brother.”
Algernon is a bored city bachelor
of good breeding who mistakenly
discovers Jack’s deception. To have
some fun, he goes to Jack’s country
estate and pretends to be Earnest,
Jack’s “wicked brother.”
Once this happens, pandemonium
breaks loose as the comedy of mis
taken identity picks up steam.
Wilde wrote the play to make fun
of the prevalent literary styles of the
late 1800s, Steger said.
Works in these styles included
“Frankenstein,”“Dracula”and “The
Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr.
Hyde.”
Steger said many of the works
from that time concerned the masks
and double personalit ics we all have
had at various times. He said Wilde
illustrated this idea with his play.
Much of the humor of the piece
See EARNEST on 13
Photo courtesy of Epitaph Records
Rancid will perform with fellow California rockers Rocket
From the Crypt at Omaha’s Civic Auditorium Music Hall
tonight. The concert had formerly been scheduled at Omaha’s
Ranch Bowl and Lincoln’s Royal Grove.
The latest ottering from Rancid
is And Out Come the Wolves,” a
19-song scattershot album that takes
the ’70s English Punk/Ska sound
and transplants it to the American
West Coast of the ’90s.
These guys have a serious talent
for producing the two-or-thrcc
minute, hard-rocking pop tune and
they put it to good use on this album.
Gritty songs about drugs, pov
erty and social leprosy are laid over
upbeat instrumental tracks that, al
though not always wholly original,
are sure to provide for an unending
flow of energetic youth angst. In
other words, it’s everything punk
rock is supposed to be.
But while Rancid wallows in the
underbelly of society. Rocket From
the Crypt sets out toexploit and beef
up any dwindling standards now held
by America’s counterculture youth.
From the slightly in-joke of its
latest album’s ti tle, “Scream Dracula
Scream” (which is taken from
“Scream Blacula Scream,” a ’70s
See RANCID on 13
Mobility
examined
in play
By Cherie Krueger
Staff Reporter
Why arc we constantly on the
movd?
Why do we have a different
checker every time we go to the
- grocery
Theater store?
4 Preview . These are
jum a uuupit
of the ques
tions posed in
“Star Path
Moon Stop,”
the new pro
duction by
downtown
--- Omaha s
Magic Theater.
“Star Path Moon Stop” takes
a kx)k at people’s increased mo
bility in the 1990s. This bustling
seems to have crossed all cul
tural, generational and economic
boundaries, said Jo Ann
Schmidman, director of the
Omaha Magic Theater.
“We change addresses, jobs,
life partners and our views on
political issues much more fre
quently than ever before,” she
said.
The members of the 28-year
old experimental theater take
these themes of movement and
change and interweave them with
personal stories to come up with
the performance that makes up
“Star Path Moon Stop.”
“The theater we make comes
from the things that we (the the
ater staff) and the/people in the
community happen to be think
ing about at the time,”
Schmidman said.
The production is a multi-lev
eled, multimedia experience that
has something for everyone,
Schmidman said.
“I would hope that the audi
ence who wants to put two and
two together and doesn’t want to
be led along by the hand will
enjoy thisplay,” Schmidman said.
She said the hasty changes in
people's lives also paralleled the
changes in theater style.
“Our lives arc different than
they were in the '80s. Fashion is
different than it was in the '80s.
Why shouldn’t plays be differ
ent?” she asked. “We use musi
cians and painters wi th no theater
background.
“We take the best in the com
munity and work to make a the
ater piece.”
She said audiences could ex
pect something unlike the more
conventional plays they had seen
in the past.
“Star Path Moon Stop” will
open Friday and will run through
Sunday at the Omaha Magic The
ater, 325 S. 16th St.
It will continue its run April
19-21 and 26-28. Performances
on Fridays and Saturdays are at
7:30 pm. Sunday matinees begin
at 3 pm. Tickets are $12 and $7
for students. Call (402) 346-1227
for reservations and more infor
mation.