Image provided by: University of Nebraska-Lincoln Libraries, Lincoln, NE
About The daily Nebraskan. ([Lincoln, Neb.) 1901-current | View Entire Issue (Jan. 21, 1999)
|hntertainment equal parts . Playhouse taps multicultural pool of talent By Liza Holtmeier Senior staff writer Forget white men in tights performing “Hamlet.” At the Lincoln Community Playhouse, you’re more likely to see a Caribbean musical like “Once On This Island” with a multiracial cast. In an art form where the meatiest roles have traditionally called for white men, the Playhouse is smashing racial barriers and presenting theater diverse in its approach and its content. Through nontraditional casting and the selection of more contemporary plays, the Playhouse has tried to get artists from more diverse backgrounds on its stage. “We wanted to let people know that this was n’t a closed shop for upper-middle-class white people,” said Robin McKercher, LCP’s artistic director. Realizing the acting pool m Lincoln consists of blacks, Asians. Hispanics and a variety of other ethnic backgrounds, McKercher has reached out into the community to tap into this pool of talent. He used nontraditional casting as his first tool of exploration. Nontraditional casting involves ignoring the playwright’s descriptions of the characters and breaking away from con ventional casting decisions. Not only does nontraditional casting get eth nic actors on stage, it also can revitalize a pro duction, and Marthaelien Florence, a longtime performer at the Playhouse, said it gives the viewing audience a different perspective. “You can only have so many cute little blondes or redheads. Other people have different experiences and different cultures, and they bring that to the stage,” Florence said. However, the world of Broadway theater is currently enveloped in a debate concerning the ... _ . vsimmm _v_._ ] Photo Courtesy of Lincoln Community Playhouse IN LAST FALL’S production of “One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest,” the Lincoln Community Playhouse cast black actress Marthaellen Florence in the typically white role of Nurse Ratched. To complete the ethnic reversal, white actors played the orderlies, here trying to restrain the vio* lent McMurphy from strangling Ratched. An ongoing took at ethnic contributions to Nebraska state efficacy of nontradition al casting, McKercher said. One school of thought wants to remain true to the ethnicity of me piaywrignt s charac ters. Followers of this school believe keeping with the original intent avoids assimilating the work into a mainstream culture. The other school of thought promotes color blindness in casting. This school says a director has every right to cast an all-black “Macbeth” McKercher said bending the rules is legiti mate, as long as the play achieves its primary themes. “From my perspective, I just want to have my arms open out here,” McKercher said. “I'm of the ‘Who cares?’ school. As directors, we’re allowed the prerogative to experiment with the text on the page. That is merely the catalyst towards achieving great art.” However, nontraditional casting can present challenges for both the actors and the audience. Florence has first-hand experience with non traditional casting at the LCP. In “One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest,” Florence played Nurse Ratched, a character described by the playwright as blond and blue-eyed. Florence said she enjoyed the chance to play this challenging and multidimensional part, but she worried about people attaching the wicked ness of her character to her race. “People would come up to me and say, ‘We really hated you on stage.’ One of my con cerns was that people wouldn t be able to sepa rate the character from the person. It became an issue with some of the older patrons and with some of the cast members,” Florence said. In response, Florence said she was very direct with people who were politically incorrect when discussing her character. But the end results, Florence said, were worth the struggle. Audiences saw a play refreshing in its new direction and exploration. “My hope and my dream is that people are going to be colorblind when they come out here,” McKercher said. But while nontraditional casting succeeds in getting ethnic actors on the stage, McKercher also wants to present the stories of other cultures as well. For the past few years, the Playhouse season has included plays such as the black drama “A Raisin in the Sun” and the multiracial musical “Once On This Island.” The Playhouse has not disclosed the titles for next year’s season, but McKercher said they include a multiracial musical and a play about blacks settling a town in Kansas in the 1880s. The Playhouse also has formed a Diversity Committee. This committee collaborates with different community centers, such as the F Street Recreation Center and the Asian Center, in an effort to find more ethnic talent. This summer, the committee will offer schol arships to ethnic youths to attend the Theater Arts Academy. The Academy is a two-week-long camp at the Playhouse that teaches kids about theater. The Playhouse’s efforts, though extensive, are a relatively new phenomenon. The move ment’s beginnings can be traced to McKercher’s arrival at LCP 2Vi years ago. “There didn’t used to be this effort,” said Brian Taylor, another regular performer at LCP. “As soon as Rob came on the scene, he had this whole idea of incorporating everyone.” However, changing the theater’s image took time.“When he first came here, he had a sort of pie-in-the-sky attitude,” Florence said. “He found out that not all kinds of people wanted to come to the Playhouse because it had an elitist sort of environment. He’s worked really hard to circumvent that attitude.” And with the avant-garde theater The Futz closed since last spring, McKercher is the only director in Lincoln making an effort to do things like nontraditional casting, Florence said. McKercher said he’s just helping the Playhouse fulfill its purpose. “We are a community playhouse,” McKercher said. “And community means every body.” Waters’ ‘Pecker’ pokes fun at fame, snobby NY art world By Jeff Randall Senior staff writer For 30 or so years, John Waters has made a career for himself as a sleaze ethnographer of sorts. He has put a camera up to the extreme, the profane and the outra geous. And he’s never really blinked, either. But in “Pecker,” Waters' latest film, the equally acclaimed and reviled director turns the camera on himself sort of. Edward Furlong stars as the title character, a bom-and-bred Baltimore youth who spends most of his time tak ing pictures of everyone he sees around his hometowm - including his klepto maniac best friend, his sugar-addled lit tle sister and his grandmother's talking statue of the Virgin Mary. When a New York art dealer (Lili Taylor) sees his work, she brings him to the big city and turns him into an overnight art-world sensa. on. But when Pecker’s family, friends Film Review Ml The Facts Title: “Pecker” Stars: Edward Furlong, Christina Ricci, Lili Taylor Director: John Waters Rating: R (language, nudity) Grade: 6 Five Words: Art imitating life imitating art and photography subjects start feeling the brunt of his fame, they turn on him, and he is forced to decide between art world notoriety and small-time sim plicity. It’s difficult to tell where fact and fiction meet in this quasi-autobiograph ical tale, but Waters seems to revel in that mixture. He and Pecker are both from Baltimore, and they both hit the big time by chronicling the admittedly offbeat people around them. Beyond that, Waters’ screenplay takes a serious - if slightly skewed - “teabagging” (don’t ask, just see the movie), but this film works best when Waters simply lets the story ride along. Furlong is ultimately likable in the starring role. He plays the innocent artist with little effort, and he bounces off Waters' oddball cast of characters without ever missing a beat. Christina Ricci plays Pecker’s working-class girlfriend with an equal mix of charm and bile. And Martha Plimpton makes excellent use of her limited screen time as Pecker’s sister, who works at the gay strip club where many of his more innovative pho tographs are taken. The only moments in which “Pecker” truly suffers take place when Waters resorts to the typical fame-isn’t all-it’s-cracked-up-to-be commentary and half-hearted love scenes. But those moments are thankfully scarce, and “Pecker” emerges as an enjoyable film. “Pecker” opens at the Mary Riepma Ross Film Theater tonight. Its nm con tinues through Sunday and Jan. 28-30. For screening times, call the Ross Theater box office at (402) 472-5353. Courtesy Photo ROREY (LIU TAYLOR) takes Pecker (Edward Furlong) out of his hometown of Baltimore and brings him to New York where his photographs earn him instant fame. look at the content and motivation behind true art. He takes a few digs at the New York art scene while he’s at it, and he manages to wrap it all up with a feel-good ending that only John Waters could muster. “Pecker” is still filled with occa sionally over-the-top imagery, includ ing a pair of rats fornicating in a trash can and a strip club rite known as