The Rice Thresher (Houston, Tex.), Vol. 87, No. 4, Ed. 1 Friday, September 24, 1999 Page: 11 of 28
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THE RICE THRESHER ARTS & ENTERTAINMENT FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER
24, 1999
11
t
THE THRESHER'S
RECOMMENDATIONS
FOR EVENTS AROUND
HOUSTON THROUGH
SEPT. 30, 1999.
*1 m B # % m m m w
EDITORS'
picks
4
]
thursday
TEXAS
FILMMAKERS
SHOWCASE
I Created by the Houston Film
Commission, this annual
event seeks to gain
recognition exclusively for
filmmakers from the Lone Star
state. Check out five of the
competition's finalists'
short films.
7:30 p.m. Rice Media Center.
For more info, call
(713) 527-4853.
weekend
\ FACES OF WOMEN
"( ON FILM
t Sponsored by the Museum of
1 Fine Arts, Houston and
I Ancestral Fims, this three-
day event offers a festival
of critically acclaimed
female films and a panel
v discussion with a list of
| distinguished female
I directors.
k
I $5 with student ID. All
} screenings and the
| panel discussion will be
i held at the MFAH.
f 1001 Bissonnet.
jf For more info, call
(713) 527-9548.
tuesday
WIDESPREAD
PANIC
In s.upport of their new
album, Till the Medicine
Takes, the band has hit
the road and is coming to
a venue near you.
8 p.m. Aerial Theater.
$20. For tickets, call
(713) 230-1600.
touch MY mo\ki-:y
Will Rice dares to be
different in new play
Marisa Levy
THRESHER EDITORIAL STAFF
After seasons of formulaic col-
lege plays," it's refreshing to see
something a little daring. With the
production of Cosmopolitan Greet-
ings, Will Rice College embarks on
its second year of reinvigorated the-
ater production under the rein of
producers junior Elizabeth Jardina
and sophomore Phil Mayor.
10
'cosmopolitan
greetings'
Will Rice College
Rating: ***(out of five)
Thursday through Saturday at
8 p.m. $2 students, $3
non-students.
Cosmopolitan Greetings is a
minimalist performance of 14 po-
ems cushioning a one-act play. TTie
production's title derives its name
from the show's introductory poem,
an ensemble piece by Allen
Ginsberg. This poem primes the
audience for a solid hour of poetry
interpretation and an interesting
contemplation of life through the
eyes of various renowned authors
and poets.
Dressed completely in black and
encircling a barren stage, the
production's entire cast takes turns
offering proverbs. Then, without
warning, the cast breaks its circle of
WHIP ME, BEAT ME
performance to leave a single actor,
Jones College sophomore Corey
Cogswell, on the darkened stage.
Cogswell's poem, "A Feather for
Voltaire" by Jorie Graham, is one of
the production's more pretentious
pieces, but don't let this one piece
daunt you — throughout the hour of
performance that follows, there is
plenty of opportunity for emotional
fireworks and vulnerable simplicity.
In the production's fifth poem,
"Where We Belong, a Duet" by Maya
Angelou, Lovett junior Reena
Chokshi's portrayal of a woman en-
grossed in the emotion of a relation-
ship is breathtaking. She seems to
fully understand the meaning of each
word she utters and the reasoning
behind it. Similarly, in the 11th poem,
"Spain 1937" by W.H. Auden,
Chokshi does not merely recite her
lines but transmits the powerful feel-
ing behind them with shining eyes
and contagious optimism.
In the production's sixth poem,
Ginsburg's "Song," Wiess College
sophomore Megan Smith does what
few of her co-actors are able to do:
She gets truly angry. In a fine exhibi-
tion of raw emotion and unbridled
passion, Smith is able to get to the
meat of a great American classic and
entrance her audience. Rivaling her
initial performance, Smith unleashes
an emotional powerhouse on her
audience in the poem "For J^mes
Dean" by Frank O'Hara. Perfectly
placed after the rather somber one-
act play and a flawless transition by
See MINIMALIST, Page 13
VIANNA DA VI LA/THRESHER
'Hoss' comes to town
Graffiti artist extraordinaire Barry McGee takes a second out o(
celebrating his recent exhibit opening at the Rice Gallery in Sewal!
Hall last Thursday to sign autographs. A graduate of the San
Fransisco Art Institute. McGee's art, consisting of stylized cartoonish
heads and colorful street "tags," Is a powerful fusion of contemporary,
underground and street styles.
His exhibit, Hoss, is on display through Oct. 24. The Rice Gallery is
always free to the public.
Wiess begins new season with promise
Mariel Tam
THRESHER EDITORIAL STAFF
"I have come to earn my big brass
balls," Student 315046 (Ben
Johnson) announces loudly in this
year's Wiess College Freshman One
Acts.
W
'wiess one-acts'
" Wiess College
Rating: it-kit 1/2 (out of five)
Thursday through Saturday at
8 p.m. $2 students, $3
non-students.
In this particular one-act, "A Ring-
ing in My Ears," "big brass balls" is
somehow a metaphor for a college
diploma. Why? Maybe attending
college symbolizes proving his man-
hood. Or maybe it just sounds really
funny. In this play it simply doesn't
matter.
But what is important in the One
Acts, produced this year by sopho-
more Elizabeth Fisher and junior
Ben Graf, is that the audience and
the performers have fun. Wiess' new
students do an impressive job, espe-
cially considering they've been at
Rice for only a little more than a
month.
In the set's opener, "Duet for Bear
and Dog," directed by juniors Josh
Katz and Dave Zardkoohi, a harm-
less bear (transfer Ali-
cia Giuffrida) awaits des-
tiny up a tree in
someone's yard. The
bear debates, domestic
life vs. life in the wild
with an annoying lap dog
(lanky, shaggy-haired
Jeff Roberts).
Sybil Rosen's script
is intended to be humor-
ous but is fairly tame;
it's the over-the-top per-
formances that make this perfor-
mance.
Most of the laughs in this play
come from the dog's owner, a skanky
Russian prostitute played by Teresa
Kubos, who pursues one of the two
hick animal- control officers (Robby
Morgan and Kirsten Schatz). But
the play ends abruptly with a seriou s
monologue by the bear, which
Giuffrida handles well but which
seems out of place amidst the com-
edy.
Next up on the bill is "The Mad
Show," a series of sketches by the
writers of Mad magazine, directed
by senior Emily Kennedy and junior
Do ward Hudlow.
These sketches are a kind of low-
grade "Saturday Night Live" —
they're more like a more mature,
screwed-up "You Can't Do That on
Television." Some are far too cutesy
— the rhyme-laden opening poem
and the cheesy "Misery is..." sketch.
Most are spoofs of parent-child in-
teractions.
But there's some genuinely funny
material — for instance, when one
kid (Tim Lott) wheedles his way out
of his parents' (Matt Castro and April
Stevens) attempts to discipline him.
Physical punishment won't work (he
feigns a taste for sadism); keeping
him indoors would make him want
to emulate Mommy, he says; and
sending him to bed early would just
give him time to "discover his body,"
to phrase it delicately.
The middle play, "A Ringing in
My Ears" by Debra Bruch, directed
by junior Amy Rees and sophomore
Elisa Silva, is perhaps the most fit-
ting choice for a couple of college
students to perform. To earn his
degree in theater, Johnson's
Student 315046 must undergo trials
and humiliation inflicted by two ever-
stoic educators Oessica Pena ana
Grant Belton).
The whole play is an absurd meta-
phor for the college experience —
befuddling, but laugh-inducing, as
illustrated by the "big brass balls"
comment.
But what is
important in the
One Acts ... is
that the audience
and the
performers have
fun.
The last two plays, both directed
by juniors Sarah Pitre and Lizzie
Taishoff, exhibit the tightest direc-
tion of the five plays. In Chris
Durang's "Canker Sores and Other
Distractions," cliche-spouting Mar-
tin (Andrew Swick) tries to reunite
with his ex-wife of 10 years, ditzy
Prunella (Holly Freedman). Their
attempts to reconcile are thwarted,
amusingly, by his canker sore, a
speck in her eye and an impatient,
clueless waitress (Karla Sussman).
"Funeral Parlor," also by Durang,
has a sitcom-worthy premise — a
wacky, overbearing guy shows up at
a funeral and tries to comfort the
widow! Hijinks ensue! But the hilari-
ous Tate Ragland and transfer Bria
LaSalle make it truly funny with on-
key timing. The ending also man-
ages to be sincerely touching with-
out being too cheesy — Marcus
(Ragland) teaches Susan (LaSalle)
to keen (in Irish tradition, to waii
mournfully for the dead^,,
Wiess' team of able directors and
new actors have shown that with
only a couple of weeks and a sparse
set but a lot of budding talent, they
can put together a good evening of
light entertainment. And Wiess' first
effort is just a warm-up for the the-
ater season to come.
BOFF/TMRESHER
A wacky stranger (Tate Ragland) tries to comfort a grieving widow (Bria
LaSalle) in "Funeral Parlor," one of Wiess College's five one-act comedies.
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McAlister, Jett & Tam, Mariel. The Rice Thresher (Houston, Tex.), Vol. 87, No. 4, Ed. 1 Friday, September 24, 1999, newspaper, September 24, 1999; Houston, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth246655/m1/11/: accessed June 23, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu.; crediting Rice University Woodson Research Center.