Daily Press from Newport News, Virginia • Page 95

BaUjgJJress eisure Inside the Arts Arts 16th-century romp opening in Williamburg osie Rumpe's Regal Dumpe" is coming to Williamsburg. For the past four years, She's the female counterpart of Huck Finn a category-four tornado trapped in the body of a cute little tomboy. rvv George Hasenstab has operated his irreverent dinner theater in the Sandcastle Motel in Virginia Beach. When Hasenstab lost his lease there, he decided to move the operation to Williamsburg, an idea that had already been under consideration. Plans call for "Rosie Rumpe's Regal Dumpe" to open April 4 at the Ramada Inn Central Williamsburg, 5351 Richmond Road.

"Our goal is to provide three hours of hilarious entertainment," says Hasenstab about his show. The setting is a bawdy 16th-century London pub frequented by King Henry Vm. In addition to the king and Rosie the proprietor, he says, you'll find "lusty serving wenches, wandering minstrels and fools." Bawdy means raucous, not dirty, says Hasenstab, and the evening features lots of audience participation. "It's a scripted show, but highly impro-visational," he says. "The audience bangs on the table with wooden spoons.

One guy gets thrown in the stocks, and people stale bread at him." Revelers also are treated to a meal of soup, salad, choice of three entrees and dessert. "Rosie Rumpe's Regal Dumpe" will be presented at 7:30 p.m. Fridays and Saturdays beginning April 4. Once the tourist season gets under way, Hasenstab plans to expand the number of performance's each week. Cost is $32.95 per person, with group rates available.

Until Hasenstab sets up his Williamsburg office, you can make reservations by calling 428-3884. New cartoon the creation of Newport News native By David Nicholson Daily Press in his freshmen year to pursue cartooning. He found work in a bank and developed a cartoon called "Figleaves" that was based on the Adam-and-Eve story. He managed to sell it to weekly newspapers in Maryland and Texas, but his efforts were ham- overalls, Ashley, her first-grade buddy, wears frilly dresses and dreams about boys. And Meg's dad, who works in front of a computer screen, sounds a bit like the strip's creator.

When he's not drawing, Curfman writes computer software for IBM. But Curfman has always tapped into his creative side irrepressible tomboy on the Daily Press comic pages beginning Monday. "Meg doesn't intellectualize a lot," says Curfman, who now lives in Raleigh, N.C. "She acts before she thinks." She's the type who will push the shopping cart through the supermarket at 90 mph. Or use her parent's hair dryer to toast marsh- She terrorizes her little brother, hates to clean her room, and dreams of becoming a soccer star.

Six-year-old Meg is the creation of cartoonist and Newport News native Greg Curfman. Readers will find this through painting and drawing, says his mother. Growing up, "when we'd get the paper in the morning, he would read the comic strips," says Mrs. Curfman. "He loved the cartoons on television, and still does." As a young entrepreneur, Curfman painted rocks and sold them at Hampton Colise 1k mallows.

Curfman drew the inspiration for his pint-sized tornado from two of his four children. Meg gets her in-your-face attitude from his daughter, Katie, who's 12. Steven, his 10-year-old son, is a state soccer champ. The rest of the Curfman clan includes his wife, Diane, also from Newport News, and sons Chris, 6, and Jason, 2. "His kids are all really smart and outgoing," says proud grandmother Sheila Curfman of Newport News.

Meg's family includes her parents; her brother, Mike, H. a kindergartner who likes chemistry and CURFMAN. Warwick High graduate now a syndicated cartoonist. um shows. He began drawing cartoons while a senior at Warwick High.

The hobby grew after he graduated in 1974 and enrolled in the College of William and Mary. "I started paying more attention to the comics," Curfman remembers. "My first year at William and Mary, I spent a lot of time goofing off in the library reading old comic strips." Though his parents weren't happy about it, Curfman left pered by not being connected to a newspaper feature syndicate. He also began to realize that he needed more life experiences in order to develop a good story line. "The drawing part is not that hard, but the writing is difficult," he says.

At his parents' urging, he Please see PBS; and her dog, Van Gogh. While Meg favors faded BALLET GALA. Dancers from several major American ballet companies will perform in "Encore '97" on March 15 in Williamsburg. The event is a fund-raising performance sponsored by Contemporary Ballet Theatre. The performers include Irina Dvorovenko and Maxim Beloterkosky of Ballet Theatre; Maribel Madrono and Yanis Pikieris of Miami City Ballet; and Christina Johnson and Antonio Carlos Scott of the newly formed Complexions dance company, Also appearing that evening will be Michele Wiles, 16, who earned a gold medal at the Varna International Ballet Competition, and Oscar C.

Hawkins recently joined the Dance Theatre of Harlem. Both have studied with Roudolf Kharatian of the Kirov Academy in Washington, D.C. Kharatian is CBT's resident choreographer. The 8 p.m. performance will take place in the College of William and Mary's Phi Beta Kappa Memorial Hall.

Tickets are $50 for performance and reception, for performance only. Call 229-8535 for reservations. SUMMER ACTORS. Hampton Roads Academy's Summer Acting Conservatory, open to adults and students in grades 5 through college, will be held June 16 through July 1 1 this summer. The morning theater program offers training in voice, mime, movement, technical theater and scene study, says director Michael Oehmann.

Joining Oehmann on this summer's faculty will be acting teacher Scott Organ and technical director W. Andrew Bauserman III. Oehmann also plans another production this summer by the White Raven Actors Theatre he founded. In past seasons, the company has presented "The Foreigner" and "The Dining Room." 1 Tuition for the four-week conservatory is $380. Call 884-9105 or 850-2889 for more information.

OPERA 97-98. Virginia Opera's 1997-98 lineup blends three familiar titles with Please see Arts12 "Megl," a new cartoon strip by Newport News native Greg Curfman, debuts Monday in the Daily Press. It will run weekdays and Sunday and replaces "Mixed Media," which will no longer be carried in the paper. Readers who wish to comment on these changes can call Reader Editor Felicia Mason at 247-4776 or Opportunities Editor Robin McCormick at 247-4735. PrequeLs Lucas holds 'Star Wars' future in his head By Sam McDonald Daily Press Lots of fun "Star Wars" knockoffs litter video bins.

12. is i if LORD OF MUSICALS. There have been some jolly bad shows for Andrew Lloyd Webber. 12. SKYLIGHTS.

Cosmic changes arrive with spring. 13. CHARMING CHARLESTON. City's offspring find old customs still thriving. Travel, 16.

The opening of the "Return of the Jedl Special Edition," has been delayed from March 7 to March 14, area theater managers reported Thursday. "Star Wars Special Edition." Rated PG for sci-fi violence and brief mild Ian- guage. Cinemark Movies 10, Newmarket 4, Regal's Kiln Creek Cinema, Williamsburg Crossing. "The Empire Strikes Back Special Edition." Rated PG for sci-fi action violence. Cinemark Movies 10, Commodore Theater, Hillside Cinema, Patrick Henry 7, Williamsburg Crossing.

The "Star Wars" re-release looks more and more like a smashing success. But here's the $100 million question. What is George Lucas thinking right now? The brain behind the science fantasy trilogy has been hard at work recently, reports say, polishing a script for the first of three "prequels" to the three original blockbusters: "Star Wars," "The Empire Strikes Back," and "Return of the Jedi." Lucas will return to the director's chair to create the first pre-quel, his first directing effort since "Star Wars" back in 1977. And even though the Internet hums with speculation about the first new movie set to begin shooting in the fall with eventual release as early as 1999 hard place years earlier than "Star Wars" in the grand time line will be darker, more serious in tone. "Lucas says he's aiming for a more epic, David Lean-like look in the new movies," Time magazine reported.

Lean directed classics "Lawrence of Arabia" and "A Passage To India." The first image to emerge from the new movie is a drawing, published in Time, showing a spacecraft docked at the fiction- al, over-populated planet of Coruscant, renamed Imperial Center by an oppressive Emperor. The hub of the galaxy's government in Lucas' lore, this world will likely be the backdrop for several Please see Prequel12 This production drawing by Doug Chiang published in Time magazine offers a glimpse of the first "Star Wars" prequel, which crews will begin shooting this fall. The drawing is a view of the planet Coruscant, seat of the Imperial government. nil 'i iwn ol I 928-1111 L. leaks misleading tidbits about prequel plots just to throw off rabid fans.

But here's what we do know. Lucas has said repeatedly that the new movies which all take facts about the film are hard to come by. That's by design. A World Wide Web site devoted to the new "Star Wars" movies reported the rumor that the highly secretive Lucas organization From Smithfield, call 357-6594. Entertainment news4111..