The Times from Shreveport, Louisiana • Page 21

The Timet shrfvfpoht-iiossifr 196 3-R Best betSPORTS Best bctMUSIC THE NEW EDITION will perform here Saturday night. For details, check Tage 7. weekly column is found inside on Pace 5. 'ILL McINTYRE'S 'it's about wrestling. KILL McINTYRE'S hit IFfPfl fop Yf STA teat iMqm 0 Event to bring out Italian flavor opeimg wi(Die tints weekend.

For competition: By MARY SHARON THOMAS The Times Italian flavor will be high today and tomorrow in downtown Shreveport. As part of Festa Italiana Shreveport-Bossier City Italian restaurants will serve their best during the festival's run from 11 a.m. to 10 p.m. each day in the 500 block of, Milam Street. Good things to eat will range from finger foods to entrees and desserts.

Beverages will also be sold. And for those who would rather do something besides eating, the festival offers other activities, including music to dance to by Italian band LaBan-da Paisana. The band features D.J. Fontana, who was drummer for the late Elvis Presley. and Mazzio's Pizza.

Forms also can be picked up at the Downtown Shreveport Unlimited offices. Children may find something of interest at the festival, including live Pinocchio stage plays both days and Chuckino, the "Italian" duck puppet with voice supplied by David Morganini. Free street dances featuring the Red Hots will cap each day of activity. Festivalgoers can even purchase a variety of souvenirs from the event, including Festa T-shirts, posters, cups and balloons. Festa Italiana is sponsored by the Sons of Italy Heritage Club, Downtown Shreveport Unlimited, Shreveport Parks and Recreation and Budweiscr.

One of the event's best-known offerings, the grandoise nose contest to measure the biggest nose, will feature two competitions. The media division will begin today at 5 p.m. with last year's winner, Ed Duranczyk as one of the judges. The nose competition for the general public will be Saturday starting at 2:30 p.m. The festival also will feature an amateur talent contest with finals Saturday at 4 p.m.

Grand prize is a round-trip for two to any destination of Royale Airlines. Cash prizes also will be awarded. Entry forms for the nose and talent contests are available at these restaurants: Mama Mia's, Donna Mia's, Italian Garden, Seven Sisters, Notini's Cruise sails in 6 Top Gun' role McGillis turns in solid work, takes on new look By LANE CROCKETT Times Entertainment Editor Tom Cruise is making up for his silly heroic hermit in Legend with his portrayal of an ambitious jet pilot in the exciting Top Gun opening today. mm REVIEW Lver since his smash Risky Business comedy, Cruise has been tapped as onej of Hollywood's hottest young stars. Ex-' tut- l.

he Tinman comes to Shreveport this weekend, and In each, the participant who best combines speed in swimming, bicycling and running will be the winner. Central YMCA is a sponsor of both events and is accepting entries and fees, S7 for the youngsters' and $30 for the adults. Ruben Chappins of Honolulu won the Tinman last year, swimming the 910th of a mile, bicycling the 25 miles and running the 6.2 miles in one hour, 55 minutes and 58 seconds. Those same distances will be used when the Tinman shifts locations from Caddo-Black Bayou recreational area to Cross Lake off the Municipal Pier this season. The bicycle course will run from the pier along South Lakeshore Drive to Greenwood Road, along Greenwood Road to near the intersection with Blanchard-Furrh Road and then back along the same course to Ford Park.

The run course winds through Yarbrough subdivision. pectations were high. After Risky Business, he made All the Right Moves, a soft hit at the box office. Then came the dumb Legend. Top Gun puts him back on track.

It is, for all purposes, his first grown-up role and, as such, serves him well as an entree to a wider audience. The Top Gun program is at the Navy's Fighter Weapons School at Miramar Naval Air Station near San Diego. The program is confined only to the brightest pilots and sharpest shooters. It keeps alive the tradition of fighter pilots. Cruise is a good and developing actor.

The role of Lt Pete Mitchell suits him. Opportunistic, foolish, daring, overbearing, sensitive.Mitchell goes by his nickname "Maverick," also the moniker on his F-14 Tomcat Cruise is an antsy actor, always seeming about to break wide open. He brings energy to his characters. His smooth, WASPish handsomeness somehow complements the strutting bantam-rooster approach he takes. Top Gun doesn't ask him to stretch much, but it does push him into a more rounded characterization.

The script by Jim Cash and Jack Epps Jr. is about Maverick and his radar intercept sidekick, Lt Nick "Goose" Bradshaw (Anthony Edwards), and their attempt to make it in the Top Gun program. They are in by default when an ace pilot freezes in the air after being buzzed by a Russian jet. Maverick's father was a jet pilot but earned a bad reputation as too daring and dangerous. He simply disappeared while flying a mission.

His son, attempting to prove himself, has adopted the father's attitude. Basically an instinctive pilot, he too has been called foolhardy. Mostly Top Gun is about the maturation of Maverick. A paean to the Top Gun project, it is an often exciting picture with stunning aerial sequences choreographed by director Tony Scott, aerial coordinator Dick Stevens and Top Gun Commander Bob Willard. The high-octane aerial scenes are simply dazzling.

They are the set pieces of the film. At the school, they are staged for training. Near the film's finale, the dogfighting turns real when Russian jets show up again during maneuvers in the Indian Ocean. The action is somewhat undercut by an obligatory love story, but Scott and the writers have at least made it a he'll bring some of his kids along with him. The annual Tinman Triathlon, which is the state championship for the three-event test, will be Sunday from Ford Park on Cross Lake.

It will begin at 8 a.m. And the youngsters will be involved in their own triathlon, the Tinkids, Saturday at 9 a.m. at the LSUS health and physical education building. For fun: McGillis, Cruise star in "Top Gun" palatable one. Credit that to Kelly McGillis' portrayal of Charlotte Blackwood, an astrophysicist and Top Gun instructor who knows more about the jets than the pilots flying them.

McGillis, coming off her performance in the Witness hit, is not only a good xtress, she's also one of the most striking looking. Like actress Kathleen Turner, she seems to melt into her roles, taking on a new look each time. Although the role is not flashy, she turns in solid work as a strong woman and a match for the upstart Maverick. She creates a nice, subdued sexual tension. The supporting cast is fine, especially the work of Edwards as Maverick's premiere admirer and best friend and Val Kilmer as the pilot Maverick would most like to top in the class.

The Kilmer character's nickname is Iceman and his performance is cold. Tom Skerritt works well as the Top Gun boss, soft and hard when necessary. Scott, brother of director Ridley Scott (Alien, The Duellists), fashions a slick picture. It threatens to slow a bit on the ground, but then he pops in another aerial sequence and it flies. The balance is fairly good; the sense of time and place better than that.

Harold Faltermeyer's musical score is a plus, lyrically underscoring the romance and providing the picture with a memorable instrumental theme. Fortunately, there's only one song and not a chain of potential rock hits. Top Gun doesn't always hold up under close scrutiny, but with its high-octane aerial acrobatics that isn't so important. It's slick. Top Gun Is rated PG for some language and is at Bossier 6 and St.

Vincent 6 theaters. Choir combination said to be first their own for three or four months and will do three practices as a group before the shows," he said. The other choir directors are William C. Teague, St. Mark's; Dennis Jewett, First Baptist; and Norman Fisher, First Presbyterian.

The Creation's libretto, artistic directorconductor Peter Leonard said, has "a checkered history." The text, he said, appears to have been originally written in English, then translated into German by Gottfried Freiherr van Swieten for Haydn's benefit. Then the work was re-translated for performances in English-speaking countries. But Haydn's composition is structured for Germanic phrasing, with the result that the prevailing English translation is, to quote Leonard, "stilted English and that's the nicest word I can use." Leonard has revised a considerable portion of the libretto from last summer to mid-season, to better fit the music. "For the most part, my translation is not original," he said. "It is based on a new translation by Robert Shaw and Alice Parker, based on a libretto by van Swieten, adapted by me." The original German-to-English translation has been retained in some Please see PERFORMANCE, 8-B Tenor Karl Dent, singing as Uriel, has performed with symphonies in Dallas, Cedar Rapids, Iowa, and Shreveport, as well as with operas in Fort Worth and Beaumont, Texas, Albuquerque, N.M., and Shreveport.

His operatic repertory includes Thomas Pasatieri's The Goose Girl, for which he created the role of Conrad. That piece was commissioned by the Fort Worth Opera. The performance will combine the personnel of the Chancel Choir of First United Methodist Church, the Great Masterpiece Chorus of St. Mark's Episcopal Church, the Sanctuary Choir of the First Baptist Church and the Sanctuary Choir of First Presbyterian Church. Combined, these will total close to 250 singers, according to a roster of the choirs listed in the symphony's most recent program booklet.

"To the best of my knowledge, this combination of four choirs has never been together before," said Dr. Will K. Andress, minister of music and the arts at First Methodist and director of its choir. He said he knows of occasions where the choirs from two and three of the churches have performed together, but not a foursome. "The choirs have been rehearsing on By JOHN ANDREW PRIME The Times Shreveport Symphony closes its current performance season this weekend with what could be a stunning concert pair Franz Joseph Haydn's The Creation, featuring noted local and imported talent and a teaming of four of Shreveport's top church choirs.

Gale Odom, assistant professor of voice at Centenary College and recently named regional winner of the National Association of Teachers of Singing Artist Award, will sing the roles of Gabriel and Eve. She has performed with Shreveport Opera, the Lyric Opera of Dallas, the New Orleans Opera and the Longview and Monroe symphonies. She has received favorable reviews from a number of periodicals, including The Times and London Opera Magazine. Bass Kevin Maynor, playing Raphael and Adam, has performed with the New York City Opera, the Chicago Opera Theater and the Long Beach Opera. He is also the first artist from the West to have studied as an apprentice at the Bolshoi Theater in Moscow.

He is now working on his doctoral dissertation at Indiana University at Bloomington. A Road, then turn west and follow the signs. Things begin at 10 a.m. with a freestyle solo canoeing exhibition and continue until 5 p.m. with various participatory or spectator events.

Operating all day will be food booths, informational exhibits, a tent display and a chance to fish (bring your own equipment), play horseshoes, canoe or walk the "discovery trail." Exhibitors will include Red River Outfitters, Into Outdoors, Outdoor Adventure Expeditions, Hampers Korner, the Louisiana Department of Wildlife and Fisheries, the U.S. Forest Service, the Ozark Society and the Caddo Parish Commission. Bluegrass music will be provided by the Red River String Band. Food booths will remain open throughout the day. backpacking demonstration, JLJLbike ride, bird walk and blue-grass music.

All that and much more is planned when the Kisatchie Group of the Sierra Club holds its first "Playday" on Saturday. It will be at Oakhill Farm on Jefferson-Paige Road in Shreveport, To reach the site, take Interstate 20 to the Pines Road exit. Go north on Pines to the Jefferson-Paige.