10
Masquers’ plays
focus on lives of
20-somethings
ByLizaHoltmeeer
Senior staff writer
Write about what you know.
The four playwrights chosen for this year’s
Masquers’ One Acts adhere to this age-old advice.
Each one of the plays, to be performed next
week, takes a different look at the lives of 20-some
things, exploring how their generation feels about
love, death, family and success.
“They’re not about something distant from our
experience,” said Greg Peters, the event’s producer.
The evening begins with “9 Characters In
Search of an Opera.” Written by sophomore the
ater major John Elsener, the play satirizes middle
class suburban life.
The crazy cast of characters includes a house
wife whose husband is a cat and an incompetent
amateur director. In the play, all nine of the charac
ters meet for an evening at the opera.
The play’s director, Sherry Dill, said Elsener
based the show’s characters on easily identifiable
stereotypes.
“People in the audience will go, ‘A-ha! That’s
my girlfriend!’ Or, ‘A-ha! That’s Someone else I
know!’’’Dill said.
But despite their quirky, overplayed qualities,
Dill said, the characters seem very real.
Contrasting the zany comedy of Elsener’s
script is “Dark Rooms.” The play, written by
sophomore theater major Jody Christopherson,
follows a couple on a pivotal evening in their lives.
The story centers on people’s inability to trust each
other in love, director Emily Williams said.
“A lot of people these days have a miscon
strued idea of love,” Williams said. “I think that’s
why so many marriages end up in divorce.”
The play exposes love’s misconceptions and
how our pasts often interfere with our ability to
reach others.
Williams said the play attracted her because of
its realistic dialogue.
“A lot of times, I read a play and think,
‘Nobody would ever say that in real life,”’ she said.
And although the play deals with some
weighty ideas, Williams said, its characters are able
to find humor in even the most serious situations.
Following Christopherson’s play is “Gods on
the Level,” written by Jay Gish, a senior in the jour
RickTownley/DN
EMILY WILLIAMS (left), DARYN WARNER AND SHERRY DILI are directing three different plays for the UNL Department of Theatre Arts’ production
Masquers’ One-Acts. There are a total of four short plays. The fourth is directed by Jacob Crabb. Masquers’One-Acts opens April 8 with additional
shows April 9 and 10.
nalism college.
In the play, the now-forgotten gods Zeus and
Athena take a look at the Slacker Generation. They
watch as three friends drift apart when one of them
enters a relationship.
“It deals with people who are young enough to
have hope for the future, but who are too young to
make their dreams happen,” Peters said.
The evening ends with “Lonely Hearts Diner,”
a poignant play written by Justin Bottsford, a senior
in arts and sciences.
In die play, the success of a 20-something is cut
short when she is beaten to death by transients. She
and God watch as the people she left behind remi
nisce about her life.
Daryn Warner, the director, said the play chal
lenges the audience in a variety of ways.
“The play is realty religiously ambiguous,”
Warner said. “It questions family ties, the meaning
of success and what happens after life.”
Like the other three plays, “Lonely Hearts
Diner” approaches these subjects from a distinctly
youthful point of view.
Given the four plays’ common perspective, this
year’s Masquers’ One Acts may be the most uni
fied in form and content
“I think, by the end of the evening, the overall
atmosphere will be stronger than in years past,”
Warner said. “This year, there’s an actual progres
sion from one play to the next”
Theater Preview,
The Facts *
What: Masquers’ One-Acts
Where: Howell Theatre
When: April 8-10 at 7:30 p.m.
Cost: $3
The Skinny: The UNL Masquers present four
plays about our generation
Courtesy Photo
Claire Danes, Giovanni Ribisi and Omar Epps star in the totally
stylish but utterly empty “Mod Squad,” directed by Scott Silver.
‘Mod Squad’ needs a death squad
Modem stylistic features can’t save 70s TV offshoot film
By Sam McKewon
Senior editor
“The Mod Squad” started a trend of
so many bad television shows, the worst
being “David Cassidy - Man
Undercover,” starring David Cassidy. Let
us all hope that the new movie, which is a
pretty uninspired piece of “ultramod”
filmmaking, doesn’t resurrect Donny
Osmond’s career.
It’s hard to say what inspired the mak
ing of the “Mod Squad.” Maybe it was the
relative success of other films bom from
TV success such as “Mission
Impossible” and “The Fugitive.” Maybe
it was the young cast of Giovanni Ribisi,
Omar Epps and Claire Danes. Maybe it
was ... oh, God, it doesn’t even matter
what it was because “The Mod Squad” is
a mindless film.
It creates no new insights. Its subject
matter is hardly exciting. It’s a boring
mess of a film, which is a shame, because
the film looks quite fresh. “Mod,” if you
will.
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The Facts
Title: “The Mod Squad”
Stars: Claire Danes, Omar Epps, Giovanni
Ribisi
Director: Scott Silver
Rating: R
Grade: D+
Five Words: “Mod” not cool, just there
That’s true to some extern, as director
Scott Silver creates a film that, more than
anything, exudes the idea of style more
than anything else. The script doesn’t
matter as much as how the movie looks.'
Everything about it and everything that
surrounds it: the trailer, the jeans com
mercial, the poster - it all gives into style.
“Mod Squad” is just thin, that’s all. It
follows the three aforementioned stars as
former miscreants turned undercover
cops. Julie (Danes) would be basically
r t't » r'r k
die leader, as dictated by the fact that nei
ther Ribisi nor Epps have been near the
screen’s presence.
Run by the tough-love cop Adam
Greer (Dennis Farina) the squad, as they
were, is asked to infiltrate a club where
it’s thought a big prostitution ring is locat
ed.
Greer gets killed. The squad gets wor
ried. We wonder what it could be. Police
corruption? It’s “Serpico” all over again.
The film does look slick, and every
thing is a near re-creation of the 1970s,
when die show hit its peak popularity.
But this movie, by its end, still begs the
question: Why now? Why ever?
“The Mod Squad” simply is not one
of the films that lends itself to being
remade. Too many teen films, coupled
with too many dark-cop films lately,
make this a movie without a clear audi
ence.
The script’s bad, the action’s tired and
hopeless, and the “The Mod Squad,” for
as cool as it wants to be, is a tedious 90
minutes to sit through.