The Sacramento Bee from Sacramento, California • 13

the sacramento bee Music Art And Theater By Ronald Scofield SATURDAY JUNE 27 1942 Pa IS They Will Tenili How To lloliavc On Or About A Stage Summer School Vi Of The Theater Lists Its Courses Volunteer Art For Army Posts Is On Display Local And Lodi Artists Are Generous In Their Contributions Acting Makeup Movement Singing Diction Scenery Units Are Offered Intermission With the Civic Repertory Theater officially launched and no other immediate signs of life along the local culture front it seems as good a time as any to Indulge in a bit of day dreaming about the possibilities of this new venture Into community enterprise And the possibilities seem very encouraging Anyone who has followed the fluctuating fortunes of local ama tour and semiprofessional dramatic' choral orchestral and dance groups will have been impressed time and again wdth the wealth of half realized talent In all lines of art and enlertainment to be found in Sacramento and in the neighboring communities Every once in a while as in rare symphony concert or a particularly fortunate light opera per-formance an occasional compelling play production or a well planned ballet evening this fact of notable local artistic talent is brought vividly to the attention of a few hundred spectators and great en Ihusiasm results People speak of doing something about it of repeat performances of canvassing financial support to permit an en largement of activities Then the reality of things as they me settles down like a blanket of fog and the enthusiasm the creative energy and inspiration are dissipated For too much hard work is required to enlist adequate fi nanciai hacking for any one of these individual activities A short spurt can be supported and often has resulted in surprisingly success ful artistically But there is not enough reserve energy en thusiasm or capital to absorb the recoil and start the ball rolling again taking advantage of the cumulative public interest and sup port With the Incorporation of the San ramento Civic Repertory Theater organization and the announce ment of Its complete faculty Hit for the Summer School Of The Theater which It wdll sponsor the outlook for community drama be came definitely brighter this week And the revelation that the pro duction cf Naughty Naught by local performers and directors brought in a fund of $526964 for the benefit of army post theatrical and entertainment facilities further added to the roseate tinge on the horizon The first Item of business In the repertory theater field has to do with the Instruction to be offered In the eight weeks Summer school the catalogues for which are now in the mails Giving courses In acting and dl recting and makeup will be De-Marcus Brown professor and little theater director from the College Of The Pacific In Stockton Professor Brown has won notable recognition in recent years for his achievement In developing the little theater to a unique place as a self supporting amateur college playhouse He received his A and A degrees at the College Of The Pacific In his courses Professor Brown will devote attention to the principals of discovering and conveying the meaning of plays through the techniques of the theater and will offer Instruction In the principles and practices of theatrical makeup through lectures demonstrations and practical application in mentors urge him when perplexed weaned or harassed to center his attention on something outside of trees stars landscapes It is good advice hut lor most people these things are a little too impersonal and remote lor reassurance and comfort Here Is where the artist contributes lie does the looking the centering of attention and transmutes eeitain aspects of vast impersonal arena onto hits of paper and canvas These become a legal tender for the esthetic experience Good had or indifferent each interpretation finds its appreciative audience A man may retire from the world to his cave or room castle or barracks Rut in each before long is a picture or two-gouged out of the stone scrawled With charcoal clipped out of the current papers and magazines or purchased with discriminating care After that those places become a little more like home In previous wais a soldier took care of his own artistic needs Efforts along this line ranged from snaps of the folks at home in the little pocket folder to pictures and scrawls on the dugout walls by the of the unit However changing times changing ways This craving for reducing the vast impersonality of Nature to colored counters or a pattern of black and white is now being rerogmzed Much of the ugliness resulting from mass shelter durable rots metal lockers bare floors can be alleviated by a paint Ing or two on the walls It is not as was mentioned a new thought hut now Hie difference is that it Is an official one To fill this need has sprung the Volunteer Artists Kor Victory not Just to create posters and other artistic propaganda but to contribute each in his own medium a mass of art that may be distributed throughout the camps About 215 pieces were submitted from Sacramento and Lodi artists etchings litnogiaphs watercolors and oils And just as there aie a variety of tastes and temperaments among the hoys at the fields so is Ihore a wide anety in these artists' contributions They have been on exhibit during the last week at Crocker Art Gallery and will con-t tinue through tomorrow Adequate coverage of this show ls made difficult owing to the lack oil either titles names or numbers affixed to the entries There are a half dozen or more paintings of barns but the one which seems outstanding would take more words to identify by description than space permits Of course if you know your local individual techniques there is good sport to be had in guessing For the most part our local artists have responded generously yet many of the'e contributions are not tip to the individual best This is not to imply a casual or indifferent attitude on their part but rather that an artist's inspired moments are seldom achieved to order and that superior canvases which he may have done in other times are in another's possession Among the prints we enjoyed Ozark Valley by Lloyd Galtz and three of Bertha Robinson's In The Meadow Panama and Creek Bank This same artist entered a most pleasing small canvas Maumee River Among the watercolors was a colorful impression of lighthearted aqualor a shanty complete with outbuildings Us obese owner asleep It has been an age up to now of rugged Individualism in the arts which is well enough in principle But Individualism ceases to be rugged when it suffers too long from malnutrition Music has been competing with other music drama with other drama: dance with rival dance And each branch of art has gone its own way with little in terest or concern in the others Now comes a period when all public spirited citizens are giving their spare time energy thought and money to some phase of the war effort Musicians are turning into welders Actors into fliers Dancers into airplane mechanics and stenographers And patrons of these activities are buying W'ar bonds and stamps contributing to the Red Cross and the USO and paving heavier income taxes What is the inevitable effect upon community efforts in art and en terlamment? The answer is too obvious to need emphasizing And yet this is the time when a vital and vigorous program stage plays musical shows con certs and dance events could be of tremendous value in stimulating neighborly eortimunity spirit providing congenial relaxation for hard wmiked civilians in contribut ing to the entertainment of men the services either at the camps or in the USO centers in encourag ing the people to seek entertain men! and inspiration in their home community as the automobile sit uation becomes more and more stringent singing upper right Raymond Rhodes lighting and stagecraft lower left EmUy Sweasey voice and diction lower right Helen Clark costume making and designing The invisible seventh is Larry Robertson radio drama Photos of Rhodes Callery Mrs Sweasey and Mrs Clark by The Bee Here are six of the seven faculty members for the Summer School of the Theater to be conducted by the Civic Repertory Theater Inc beginning July 6th Upper left DeMarcus Brown acting and makeup center Catherine Austin rhythmic movement right center Bernard Callcry musical comedy In Bay Area Claudia the Rose Franken comedy which ran for sixty one weeks in New York will open August 3rd in the Curran Theater Frances Starr Donald Book Dorothy McGuire and Olga Baclanova who had the principal roles with the New York company will appear in the Curran presentation could well become the Instrument for an impressive task of civic promotion A play festival a music festival a dance festival with or wilhout guest stars of note could attract hordes of tourists and spread the fame of capital far and wide With the resumption of the State Fair the repertory company could offer novel and impressive entertainment to the exposition visitors Sacramento is ideally situated to become a center for the growth of a native Western theater one freed from the dictates of Broadway audiences and free from opportunistic subservience to Hollywood Such a theater is an inevitable development some time in the future The civic repertory oiganization may become the instrument for its realization The news of its forming should sound a tocsin for the scores of talented players musicians dancers singers and writers who left Sacramento for Broadway Hollywood Pasadena or other "greener and say to them in effect: "Come home all is forgiven Something is cooking in the old home town" Coming Events August 31st Claudia road show Sacramento High School auditorium September 28th Arsenic and Old Lace road show Sacramento High School auditorium October 10th San Francisco Grand Opera Company Music Series memorial auditorium October 24th San Francisco Grand Opera Company Music Series memorial auditorium November 3rd John Coppin violinist and Marie Coppin pianist Saturday Club November Paul Draper dancer and Larry Adler harmonica virtuoso Music Series memorial auditorium December Rth Candle In The Wind with Helen Hayes road show Sacramento High School auditorium January 17th Joseph Szigetl violinist Music Series memorial auditorium Piano Recital Miss Hazel Pritchard presented her piano students In a musical evening Tuesday In her studio at 727 Twenty Second Street Those who took part were: Lynn Wallerius Harriet Finney Evelyn Wadsworth Betty Grosch Betty Wilson Nancy Maloney Verna Wilson Rita Smith Joan Wallerius Betty Lombardi Ann Ryan Patricia Corea Albert Westlake Carolyn PanattonI Ada Ann Panat-tonl Zandria Higgins Pauline Silva John Castello Lenora Gebbett and Marjorie Brown Trio In Piano Recital Three junior pupils of Ida Hjerleid-Sheiley were presented in a recital at her studio Thursday evening The trio taking part were Dorothy Taylor Marilyn Short and Carol Jean Gibson The program included piano solos duos (two pianos) and trios Local Exhibits CROCKER GALLERY Second and Streets open 10 A -M to 4 daily Oils by Ethel King Bolinger of Lodi closing Tuesday Water colors and drawings by Vernon Howe Bailey illustrating work ddne in eastern navy yards sponsored bv navy department closing Tuesday Airplane paintings by Alfred Owles closing Tuesday Volunteer Artists For Victory exhibit of work for army posts closing Monday Water colors and at awing by Madge Harding opening Wednesday Paintings ny Warren Goodrich: opening July 7th TRIMS ROOM CALIFORNIA STATE LIBRARY Tenth and Streets open week days 9 A to 1 2 to 5 Saturday 9 A to 12 Noon Water colors prints and small sculptures by Elizabeth Norton of Palo Alto Tonight Life With Father will have its last performance in the Geary Theater after a run of twelve solid weeks Percy Waram and Margalo Giilmore aie the featured players The Ice Follies of 1942 a skating revue are now in thp fourth week in the Winterland Rink The Civic Repertory Theater has no intention or wish to supplant any present functioning group or organization Yet it does not take a rrvstal gazer to see that if an existing group should cease to function in its field the interested and determined members of such a group would hunt around for some other means of continuing their activity If they found a well organized smoothly functioning civic theater in operation a place where all forms of theater arts from play writing to vaudeville to heavy drama to light opera were centered they might decide to add their talents and supports to the project A movement which combines all branches of art has a much better chance of survival than any of the sepaiate groups And in war time it on his modest doorstep This bote! has a much hotter chance to con- The Budapest String Quartet will open its Summer series tomorrow afternoon at Mills College In addition to this series six Wednesday afternoon concerts will he given in the Womens Athletic Club Oh well you can't blame a fellow for day dreaming on a balmy June afternoon Book News And Reviews Balancing the straight dramatic approach of Professor Brown will be a course In rhythmic movement by Catherine Austin of San Fran- cisco formerly of the University of Nevada faculty Miss Austin studied for two years at Mary Wigman's -i school of the modern dance in Dres- den She also attended a Summer session of the Kurt Jooss Ballet School In England and studied Cambodian dancing in French Indo -China and Siamese in Bangkok In her course which will not begin until August Miss Austin will present some of the principles of dancing which apply to all stage performance the technique of walking pantomime projection of emotion by use of body tensions eyes and facial expressions entrances and exits interplay in group movement posture and transition Raymond Rhodes will offer practical Instruction as well as lectures in designing building painting and handling of scenery and properties the functions of stage lighting fundamentals of electric circuits the psychology and uses of color in light demonstrations of modern equipment and methods of control and the construction of Inexpensive equipment for special effects Rhodes who is the technical director of the drama department at the Sacramento Junior College and the director of the Capital Players has an A from San Jose State College and an A from Stanford Bernard Callery In his musical course will teach singing of the choruses of light operas including Gilbert and Sullivan and modern works with special emphasis on training for musical productions Callery formerly was the assistant director of the Carmel Bach Festival He came to Sacramento as the director of the Federal Music Project Orchestra and he organized and directed the Sacramento Light Opera Gu'ld in a series of Gilbert and Sullivan productions Mrs Sweasey who has had years of experience on the London concert stage as well as training in the s-Robertson-Beerbohm Tree Academy in London will teach the fundamentals of clear everyday speech practice In voice building exercises production of the speaking voice articulate diction and enunciation: practice in oral interpretive reading dramatis reading and poetry Helen Clark home economies instructor at the junior college and a former student of the Academy of Modern Design will give a course in theory and practice of designing and making theatrical costumes Larry Robertson program director for Radio Station KFBK a former student of radio and drama at Fresno State College will offer a course In study and practice of the fundamentals of proper radio drama beginning in September In a foreword of the school catalogue it is stated: "As a result of these courses the Civic Repertory Theater hopes to enlarge the local group of trained theater workers It is our belief that an amateur theater can be made as fine as the training and experience of its workers Furthermore it is planned to develop greater appreciation and enjoyment of the techniques of the Places and schedules of the classes will be announced later but in general they will be held for two hours in the evenings The registration fee is $3 and tuition fees range from $2 to $10 per unit One of the directors of the school Donald Seldon or Peter Knoles will be available for interviews with prospective students Tuesday Wednesday and Thursday evenings next week from 7 to 9 at the Stanford Lathrop Home on Eighth and Streets phone 2-4939 to civilian and tribute worthily military morale Finht Against Girl Flier From Africa Writes Of Her Life And Her Homeland Student Musicale The pupils of Miss Pauline Ireland were presented in a recital Thursday night in the Westminster Presbyterian Church The following took part in the program: Lynn Ann Marshall Minagrace Ambrose Carol Ellsworth Ruth Beard Tanna Mae Thomas Dorothy Noyes Dolores Giles Georgene Wat-rous Margaret Wilson Geraldine Meehler Beth Gleason and George Giles Non Fiction At City Library TEW FLRY FIRES IN THE EARTH by James A popular account of the history of diamonds their modern extraction cutting designing distribution with instructions on buying JEWELRY AND ENAMELLING by Greta Pack -A description of the After the anyone's guess is as good as another about what so rial and economic conditions will prevail But it is reasonable to assume there again will be symphonies chorals operettas plays dancing and variely shows If even a moderate boom should develop a civic repertory theater Tropical Death Is Recounted AMBASSADORS IN WHITE The Story Of American Tropical Medicine By Charles Morrow Wilson Henry Holt Co New York $350 Ambassadors In While is the epic Coarse Gold story of the war which men have processes in the construction casting finishing and decorating for the invisible death no reronizahle signature John Matthew rontiibuted a very interesting romposition of old boats heached and a solitary drowsy boy fishing off a dork the color is mellow and the handling interest-' Ing Lawrence Hahn as usual lias an entry worth possessing a picture of docks and a warehouse a little blue some white and a touch of scarlet Among the nils the subject mailer is for the most part landscapes the quiet mellow scene of a white house set among trees a barn in a meadow by Mrs Kleinsorge Kemper the loneliness and strength of a landscape of sagohtush dislant blue buttes and piling clouds one of Lawrence Ilosmer's canvasses There are many and various hams and fields and notable in this category are several canvasses big and little of Dorothy Stark Archer These entries alone are of especial interest They are strong and vigorous The general style is reminiscent of Vlaminck but it is not his palette These rolling California hills their barns and fields are tawny and mellow They need to be viewed a pace or two away but how they carry! WEST WITH THE NIGHT By Beryl Markham Houghton Mifflin Co Boston Mass $3 West With The Night is an autobiography of an English girl which avoids with subtle discrimination all the pitfalls of character revelation in the fust person singular The author's temperament character and background are sensitively and ait Lilly poi traced but not by intimate confidences As a fine portrait painter will reveal his sitter's character by such devices as the grouping of background objects the droop of a wrist or the detail of costume so has Beryl Markham fashioned her self portrait The background is Africa where she went as a child of 4 to live on her father's faim near Ilairobi in the Rongai Valley During those early years she was as free as the first Eve playing with the native children and learning the wajs and secrets of Afro a As she grew' older her fearlessness and her sensitive understanding and love for the horses in her father's racing stables made her his imaiuahle assistant One of the finest bits of writing in the entire book is in the chapters which deal with the birth of the colt Pegasus and his Gaining At 17 the doors of Paradise closed A great drought and her father's integrity in fulfilling his contracts resulted in the loss of the farm As a capable and well poised young woman of 17 she set out on Pegasus to seek her fortune While training race horses at Molo in exchange for lodging for herself and stable spare for Pegasus a young man named Tom Blaik tinkering with a bogged engine on a lonely mountain road iossed her the to a new uotld" the world of the air All the courage the cool fearless ness a gift of almost native intuition born of her early associations and experiences came to full fruition in her mastery of flight Then followed years of flying mall serums and an occasional over the forests and valleys of an Africa whose landing fields and beacons were few and far between Later against Tom advice she pursued the exciting pro- There are a few figures among the oils but these are not Ihe best feature of the collection There does seem to be a great dearth of humor Some of the strong vital gaiety of the recent Russian show at the De Young Museum in San Francisco would not be amiss In such a collection BERYL MARKHAM the internationally known hunter Baron Von Blix to England the African background gave place to a world of clouds mists and an uncharted expanse of blue ether The closing chapters describe her solo flight from England to America in 1936 both amateur and professional jewelry icpatiers rsteme wives ORACLE bv Claude Bragrion A new edition of the Delphic communications received by the wife during the seven years of their life together THE ROD I KNOW by Stewart Edward A personal biography of a woman with psychic powers started heiself finished by her husband the author of this book SELF IMPROVEMENT YOUR PERSONALITY INTRO' VERT OR EXTROVERT? by Virginia Case a explanation of Carl Tung's two bRsle psychological tprs of personality how to recognize and deal with them NEW STRENGTH FOR NEW LEADERSHIP by Erwin These rsn on living give practical and inspirational advice end suggestions on achieving satisfac-torv woDhwbi'e living SOUTH AMERICA OUTLINE HISTORY OF SPANISH AMERICAN LITERATURE by Ernest II Ilespelt editor Arranged by periods for easier use bv students with extensive lists of siRzeeslive leadings INDIANS OF SOUTH AMERICA by Paul Radin-A nontechnical survey of the main aboriginal cultures in South America end their relationship with those of Central and Not li nieiita DEVELOPMENT OF HISPANIC AMERICA by Alvin Curtis Wilgus A magnificent scholarly history of Ihe countries of Hispanic America from the end cf the Fifteenth Centurv to the present MODELS MODEL AIRCRAFT HANDBOOK by William A complete modem manual on every aspect-working plans materials airframe waged against and disease in the tropies to the south of us Such names as William Gorgas Carlos Finlay and Jesse Lazear are not unfamiliar to the American public But Charles Morrow Wilson's story of medicine in the tropics includes others equally heroic This struggle to Improve the health and sanitary conditions in the tropics to work toward the maintenance of adequate supplies of milk food and water and to strive for the control of insects and communicable disease was a major undertaking of utmost importance in peace time Under the present conditions of worldwide conflict when our own soldiers are traveling through or fighting in the tropics this maintenance is most vital Already with the story of the heroic defense which our soldiers made in Bataan and Corregidor fresh In our minds the part which the lack of quinine placed in their defeat is obvious to everyone Just so can disease unchecked poor sanitation and inadequate food weaken the thousands who labor in the tropics which offers one of the greatest potential sources of food supply and materlnl rehabilitation for a stricken world The results of these men whose work has automatically made them ambassadors of good will to the countries south of us cannot possibly be over estimated in the pattern for the when war is over Although this Is first of all a story of the brave men who have fought and are today battling with the prohlems of disease and death in the tropies it also has a place in the list of books which deal pertinently with ihe problems of a future peace time: the patt the two Americas must play in a future world economy The book is generously Illustrated with photographs There slill is one of the State Library Prints Room's best exhibits of the year to be seen throughout July the prints watercolors and sculpture of Miss Elizabeth Norton of Palo Alto Here are watercolors of woods mountains trails flower carpeted meadows pels a dimpled child sculptured in bronze studies of animals none of which is self consciously modern or ariy These woodblocks watercolors and hits of sculpture are the work of an artist who has sound knowledge and technique in her medium and sensitive pererption of her subjects With the exception of three scenes of a great city the watercolors tend toward the English walercolor school and away from the im-pressionislic clean rlear color-never bold for effort yet always definite There are no murky mysterious corners in this nrtlst's work Whatever she sets her tools to record she does with understanding and directness It is a rather unusual show for the Prints Room for not all print makers ran offer surh varied and excellent work in other mediums West With The Night is one of the most beautiful and exciting books 1o appear in many seasons It is the portrait of a limeless and mysterious continent and of its natives as well as the autohiography of a sensitive and courageous young woman There is a melodic quality in the prose that is reminiscent of Isak Dinesen's Out Of another autobiographical story laid in this same valley It is a hook so packed with adventure hairbreadth escapes color and full living that in the hands of anyone less artistic than its author it might easily be just another hightened tale of travel and adventure However as in the phil osophy the spirit and the flesh are bound so in Beryl story of her life in Africa the factual forever permeated with a rich awareness of the underlying quality of the Violin Recital A concert and recital will be given Tuesday ai 8 In the First Baptist Church by the pupils of Emily Rulison Smith Violinists appealing on the program will he: Margaret Ann Boyer Betty Brown Peter Caitli Jessie Cavitt John Fiddyment Virginia Hartong Louie Jones Vivian Linde-smith Ellen Lathiop Marian Mo Grane Lawrence Mullinix Bill Noves Delores Stanley Schmidt Lillian Stull Janet Tulley Paul Turner and the violin trio Betty McBain Gloria Nassl and Betty Schwing This will be the last appearance of the trio as a college group before a Sacramento audienre as the three girls have completed their Junior college course Assisting will be Elise Chisholm rellist and Margaret Suber pianist Mrs Smith will tne accompanist i1 iJw M'' construct ion covering flying and 'fossion of flying" sight- A water color by Elizabeth Norton of Palo Alto who is showing also prints and small sculptures in the current exhibit in the prints room of the California State Library Bee Photo ing a herd from a low flying plane and returning to the camp with directions for Its location and the distance to be traversed through the jungle paths I When the author agreed to fly spirit inextricably is deep adiusting MODEL GASOLINE ENGINES by Raymond Yales-The operation rare repair of miniature gasoline motors for hobbyists with model boats cars or planes.