Corpus Christi Caller-Times from Corpus Christi, Texas • 57

Melodrama before the curtain 4 Vs By WILLIAM GLOVER MINNEAPOLIS Minn HI The melo-drama at the Guthrie Theater this season was real were on the verge of says Donald Schoenbaum business boss of the noted repertory ensemble stuck out our necks a mfle" Just how Well the gamble succeeded Is attested by major statistics and miner omens Box-office revenue has soared from last year's nedir of 45 to a jubilant 85 per cent of potential Last-minute hopefuls lined up regularly at 34 sold-out performance (hiring the total of 87 seeking returns the freebies are swarming observes Schoenbaum of the nightly busload of 40 senior citizens and Inner city guests who attend on passes year when business was lousy the bus was empty A combination of on-stage achievement and front office daring accomplished the amazing turnabout In fortune for an organization that was launched in 1963 as a bellwether of the boom hi regional professional theater Although there were supetb produc tions amid fee up-and-down pattern of succeeding seasons attendance dropped and subscription support steadily deteriorated from 23000 to 9600 The 1970 season closed with a whopping $809000 deficit against an anticipated fall-short of 398000 no question we would have been out of business if plans for 1971 Schoenbaum de-dares Every rescue needs hero By community consensus the nick-of-tlme Prince Charming to the tattered Cinderella image la Michael Langham Appointed by the trustees during that crisis summer of 1970 to take over as the 1971 artistic director the soft-speaking hut dynamic Langham is one erf toe most eminent members of that platoon of British stagers who have beat ubiquitous recently in America The 50-year-old director decided that an urgent task was smash the community Image of the theater that had somehow developed of catering to an elite So before we opened this season we breathed different To broaden appeal Langham decided to stress entertainment values The 35-member ensemble opened in July with a vivid new adaptation of de Bergerac" that sweeps away some over-romantic cobwebs and a bouyantly bright of the The second sequence of presentations has now Touch of the directed tar David Wheeler staged by Edward Gilbert third stint Diary of a by Alexander Ostrovsky joins the lineup Nov 9 In another move toward community involvement the director abandoned a nearby small auditorium called The Other Place where more experimental shows were done previously was a dreadful Langham scolds the facilities more importantly instead of asking the public to come to us we are taking an ensemble out of a five-state tour from' October through The exhibit is "Fables Then and Now" a Chaucerian romp devised and directed by David Fekbhuh an actor who is a Phi Beta Kappa There may be a sixth major production still got a few cards up my Langham and if ft materializes a lot of supporters will be happily surprised For the biggest risk the business department took this season was In pushing a subscription sate based on the dubious appeal of Shows for the Price of was an unprecedented thing" Schoenbaum says Also subscription no longer offer and reduction on the posted box-office scale we were asking" the administrator declares for people to Invest from $475 to $125 in our Half of the 5800 buyers of season tickets accepted the antibonus the others paid for just the five announced productions Schools and large groups still come in at reduced rates a result' our base of support was broadened and an extra $25000 was raised toward the Schoenbaum says Major contributions from individuals and corporations are reported to have eradicated the carryover deficit and cleared this anticipated deficit of 1473000 Langham accepted a three-year contract after making dear would want an awful lot of money support from foe 1 community for two after that we should start getting dividends Among foe credits are critically acclaimed productions at Stratford-Upon-Avon and 12 years In charge of foe highly lauded festival at Stratford Ont where he succeeded the late Sir Tyrone Guthrie When a venture planned at La Jolla Calif collapsed Langham responded to urging to come here An unabashed admirer of the ebullient Irishman Langham promptly changed the name of the Minnesota Theater Company Enniteiritfflniminnieimtt DONALD SCHOENBAUM (L) MICHAEL LANGHAM Wf to Guthrie In honor of foe man who founded it (Guthrie left for other challenges in 1966) The Guthrie however taking its sudden good fortune kfiy are still a lot of things to be cautions Schoenbaum have to be sun that the surge In a period of erratic countrywide theaters however lays claim to special attention stirring example of what resourceful and artistic bravura can temporary" instability for the Guthrie as a daring accomplish concert is tomorrow LTCCplay Cast is announced a prize movie which was adapted American motion picture starring Paul Newman is foe next offering of Little Theatre Corpus ChrlstL Quenten Cook has been cast in the role of the bandit Gary Ballman and Loucy Gomez play the husband and wife so costed by the bandit Jerry Ash will be foe Buddhist priest Paul A Cook will play foe woodcutter and Judy Winslow foe wigmaker Joan Allison is cast as the mother and Durene Henderson as a medium The play will be directed by Neil music lives on today SUNDAY OCTOBER 10 1971 Two works by Stravinsky and the Brahms Symphony No 1 in minor Opus 68 will be presented at 8:15 pm tomorrow by the Corpus Chrlstl Symphony Orchestra The concert under the direction of Maurice Peress will be In Del Mar Auditorium The Suite from and Capricdo for Plano and Orchestra are the two by Stravinsky Guest pianist William Doppmann will be featured on the latter Igor impact was such as to reshape 20th-century music His three famous worts "Firebird and Rite of were written STREET SCENE PASSION man performance along with previously released versions of Ragtime for 11 Instruments and The Octet By now the documentation id Strsvln- sky as composer and conductor can only be a moppuig-up operation so thoroughly has Columbia done its historic fob But even so who knows Stravinsky foe pianist? Seraphim in its great recordings of the century fills in that gap with four pieces Stravinsky recorded in the 1930s Once available on Columbia In 78 rpm they have never before been released on long-play in this country Included are the Capricdo for Piano and Orchestra done in 1930 with Ernest An-sermet conducting The Duo Concertant with Samuel Dushldn as violinist in 1933 last a dream SECTION musical authority of foe 17th century He regarded it aa a synonym of the fantasia which was a free form made up of fugato Instrumental passages This form enabled me to develop my music by the juxtaposition of episodes of various kinds which follow one another and by their very nature give foe piece that asped of caprice from which it takes its The work is divided into three movements but foe last two are played without pause In addition to using a rather large orchestra Stravinsky employed a principle of contrasting unequal bodes of sound In foe strong sections Johannes Brahms (1833-1897) complet EUREKA SPRINGS ARK (AT WlnpMe! was born as foe statue was nearing completion in 1966 was talking with Adrian Fourette one of foe artists and I told him like to see a passion play performed on foe slopes of one or these Smith sail He said Fourette replied best friend Robert Hyde is one of foe greatest directors of outdoor Smith contacted Hyde and Hyde came to Eureka Springs and surveyed foe natural amphitheater in which foe passion 500-foot set eventually was built Hyde was interested in foe project Smith said but there were questions about financing and no decision was reached months later Mr Hyde came to me with a scenario a complete design for the amphitheater and a breakdown of projected Smith said Still no deal was made In another three months Smith said Hyde was back again fob time with the scenario recorded on tape by friends who were professional actors were Smith said told him that we know how it was going to be paid for but that we would commission him to do The play opened on a rainy July night In 1968 During foe first two years Smith his family and friends continued to subsidize the operation This year it got into the black and the foundation immediately announced a new project construction of a with full scale reproductions of sites and buildings' which figured in Christ's life Hyde who also is designing fob proj before he was 30 years old And he composed with vigor until his death this year St 89 Is based on foe Russian fairy tale of the maidens held captive by the evil Kashchei who transforms all res-currers Into stone A young prince finds the magic firebird and learns how to destroy the evil power by smashing foe egg which holds soul Many tunes of Russian character are beard in this ballet Stravinsky wrote foe Capricdo' for Plano and Orchestra in 1929 He wrote: had in mind the definition of a capric-do given by Praetorius the celebrated PLAY AT MI OBERAMMERGAU don Kennett a motel operator and president of the chamber of commerce The play is one of four established in Eureka Springs by the nonprofit Elna Smith Foundation limed after wife Smth who calls himself right wing no make that propagandist Uvea in Eureka Springs in a restored 19th century house called Penn Castle The rest of the year he spends in California where he publishes the Cron and the Flag a monthly magazine criticized for anti-Semitism and other forms of racism The first Smith project was a gigantic statue of Christ erected on Magnetic Mountain overlooking Eureka Springs The statue 79 feet tau and measuring 85 feet from fingertip to fingertip of outstretched arms is visible from the passion (day amphitheater Smith said the idea of a passion play have them even If she must die to do so For her no commitment la forever and only death is final Joyously realized and vitally acted by Moreau Werner and Serre this film established Truffaut as the leader of French New Wave directors Admission free and attendance Is limited to museum members but membership is open to foe public For further information contact foe Art Museum of South Texas 902 Park ed his First Symphony at age 43 The Work was Introduced in 1878 under foe direction but was poorly received Although the music of Brahms is romantic in temperament it is in classical form He wrote music as music and not as a branch of literary or pictorial art The symphony is composed of four movements Un poco sostennto Allegro Andante sostenuto Un poco allegretto grazioso and Adagio Allegro non troppo ma con brio Tickets and information are available at the Symphony box office in Del Mar Auditorium Stravinsky By DONAL nENAHAN Mw Ywk THimi MM Sarvte NEW YORK Stravinsky is gone but bo great composer of history remains more eerily with us thanks to that most mixed of blessings 20th century technology Under his hand or under his supervision virtually everything he considered worthwhile was set down mostly on Columbia recordings and can be consulted by anyone curious as to how foe artist himself thought his work should be pep formed Columbia still has a few pieces to release before the complete jigsaw puzzle of Stravinsky Is complete and three such documentary items appear along with more familiar ones of "Stravinsky Conducts Music fin: Chamber and Jazz It is as entertaining a discful as its title suggests The most substantial new entry Is the Concertino for 12 Instruments which the composer arranged In 1952 from the 1920 Concertino for String Quartet which he wrote for the Flonzaley Quartet The arrangement in fact is so extensive that this sounds almost like a new piece and one possibly worth more frequent performance than the Older string version Less significant but valuable in filling out the picture are The Pastorate in a foreshortened version for violin and woodwind quartet of foe 1907 piece for soprano and piano Which Stravinsky reworded several times the Tango of 1940 in his 1953 orchestration of the piano piece that was foe first work Stravinsky composed in America and the peculiar little preludium of 1937 a cheeky little study for dance band that lasts 86 seconds Interest In such a musical snapshot as foe preludium lies mostly in its relationship to later major works such as the Ebony Concerto which also appears on this disc in the familiar Benny Good ect said it could take 10 to 20 yean to complete and could cost mare than $100 million Hyde directs the passion play trains the amateurs mostly focal residents who act in it and plays the role of Christ The acting for practical purposes pantomine Although actors actually speak their parts they cannot be heard Voices like background music and sound effects are on tape which played through a $50000 stereo system which takes foe sound wherever the action may he on the gigantic set Hyde said he helped pioneer fob technique which now widely used in television and on the Broadway stage as wen as in outdoor drams we used microphones on stage we'd lose the ability to Hyde said mikes would dick up the wind and shuffling of feet Whispers would have to be shouted Voices could never be reproduced it the same quality they are on the tape" The voice of Jesus on foe sound track but most of foe other voices are those of professional actors many of whom have never seen the play Actors share 20 per cent of the gate money Hyde gets a percentage but neither he nor Smith would say how much ft have a contract Smith said told me that accept whatever figure I found to be The main set of foe passion play a street in with Pilate's porch Herod's Court the Upper Room the Court of the Sanhedrin the Temple and foe House of foe Ascension Sliding Whiting director-manager of LTCC The story is based on 13th century Japanese tales by Ryunosuke Akutagsws The story examines the nature of truth as foe husband wife and bandit all de-' scribe their encounter in the forest The husband is kilted and the wife raped but even the participants cannot agree how foe blame must be shared was chosen because it Is such an excel-lent evening of theater and so different from most plays usually done by coot munity said Whiting The show will open Oct 29 for a three week tun and The Serenade in A and Plano-Rag -Music in 1934 Except for the Capricdor In which the orchestra sounds stibaquat lc the reproduction (mono of course) Is remarkable and Stravinsky's keyboard command and style are fully evident There is a clipped preciseness but also a jauntiness to Us playing that keep light- ness and seriousness neatly balanced iq the Bag Music" And there skillfully puanced work In the collaboration with Dushkin The only other piano record of his mu- sic that Stravinsky ever made apparent- ly was of the Concerto for Two Pianos with his son Soulima in Paris in 1938 It should be made available by someone ornate and as immediately meaningful as the movb on which ft bestowed its -prize Last aa extravagant mess described by its publicity material as allegory concerning the destruo- tion of in which naive dreams involved are the agents of death when sophisticated games become more absurd than foe mind can tolerate I dont know about anyone else but my mind had a good deal of trouble tolerat- lng the inflated pretensions iff Homer who now apparent gifted with all of foe insights of weekend mystic who drives to and from hb retreat in a Jaguar Specifically Last has to do with foe effect that a Hollywood movie company has on the Indian inhabitants of a small Pentvbn village high in the Andes during and after the production of potboiler uout Billy the Kid It's also about a mythic movie cowboy named Kansas (Hopper) alio stays on after the filming and like the Indians so loses sight of reality that he finds himself believing foe situation as the Indiana set about pretending to film a sort of Western movie pby with Hopper is you-know-who The film jumps forwards and back- wards and in and out of fantasies as well as the surface movie the movie- -wifoln-the-movb and the pretend movie with such nervous desperation that it makes Norman which also has reality hang up look is classically structured as Burners "Tris- When occasionally coherence threatens Last becomes bearable There are some fenny scenes of foe Billy foe Kid production with Sam Fuller the legendary but real movie director playing the director Within the film Thaw also somewhere around the middle of Last a beautifully satiric and sad sequence involving Kansas with an American businessman who manufactures brooms in Paw and foe nasty wife (very nicely played by JuUe Adams who is in real me an artifact of foe old Hollywood to which Hopper keeps referring) To make hb Hopper seems to have had the resources necessary to transport to Peru i huge Hollywood company that Included in unrecognizable bit roles people like Peter Fonda John Phillip Law Seven Darden Jim Mitchum and Dean StckweO They must have had ball photographing each other and foe local odor and I have no doubt that fantasy and reality did become confused at least to foe extent that "The Last Movie" Itself comes to look every bit as indulgent creel and thoughtless as the dream factory films ft makes such ponderous fen of A little bit of Germanic Jerusalem in Arkansas By VINCENT CANBY Mw Ywk TIMM Mm SwvM NEW YORK Dennis Independently made first film was the definitive road picture of the 1960s beautiful cool and numbingly inarticulate a myth on a motorcycle looking for an America that was not there It also was so financially successful that its director won what is often though loosely called the artistic freedom with which to make his second Last Movie" with the backing of a major studio The new film was judged the best feature at foe 1971 Venice Film Festival tar the International Committee for foe Diffusion of the Arts and Letters of Cinemi and I can only think that someone must be kidding I know nothing about the committee or Its perhaps awesome mission but Its name is certainly as fronts open when the action moves inside The Garden of Gethsemane House Golgotha and tomb are on a hill to foe left and above foe main set Camels flocks of sheep donkeys and doves add hi realism of street scenes Bright colorful costumes designed by Hyde and sewn by area women make such scenes a great spectacle with 100 to 125 actors taking part Hyde who worked on a Crazy Horse show in South Dakota was living in Tucson Ariz where he had staged of foe Desert" and "Ghost of Ft when Smith contacted him He said he never doubted that he wanted to make the passion play hb work no story that can equal fob me In importance he said you've produced the life of Christ you go back and produce foe life of Chief Sitting BulL" The oldest passkm pby at Oberam-mergau Germany It has been performed race each 10 years for centuries The other major production the Black Hills Passion nay which performed at Spearffoh SD in summer and at Lake Wales Fla in winter The Eureka pby runs from the last Friday in May through foe fourth Saturday in October Smith said that the pby is presented here varies eight or nine from Hyde's original scenario Hyde said no major change planned In the script probably be making small he said can never be a point when we esu say that we're producing it By JOHN STARR EUREKA SPRINGS Ark HI -Gerald Smith had foe idea and raised the money Robert Hyde supplied talent and initiative Together Smith the preacher turned SI activist and Hyde the artist foe Great Passion Play to this nountain village The play In turn brought a rebirth of tourism to a locality once natlonaly acclaimed as a mineral springs resort One of three major proauctions based on the last week In the life of Jesus Christ the Eureka Springs play Is performed five nights a week (Mondays Thursdays excepted) on the western slope of Mt Oberammergau This year almost 100000 will see it had people come through here whoVe also seen the original passion play in Oberammergau Germany and1 tiny think this one is said Gor and Tuesday '1 The Art Museum of South Tens will present for their October Film Classic Series and it 8 pm Tuesday at foe Driscoll Foundation Children's Hospital Auditorium The film starring Jeanne Moreau Oskar Werner and Henri Serre evokes the romantic nostalgia before World War Directed by Francois Truffaut and exquisitely Illuminates a modern woman It tells foe story of a woman amoral and classically beautiful who fovea two fraternal friends and must.