The Morning Call du lieu suivant : Allentown, Pennsylvania • 59

THE MORNING CALL THURSDAY MAY 30, 1991 Lifestyle It I 1 Television D4 Advice D3 aim IV Dave Barry D7 Comics tage screen -j? With 'Miss Daisy9, PSC pays social call "Did you see the movie?" "Yes, I did." More likely than not, based on the above exchange by theater-goers at a recent performance of "Driving Miss Daisy" at Pennsylvania Stage Company (PSC), Allentown, 1 Paul Willistein FEATURES EDITOR i-r fx t1! through June 16, many of those seeing the play have seen the hit Academy Award-winning movie. It used to be that, as the Beatles sang in "A Day In The Life," you saw a movie "having read the book." But now, with so many books ending up disaster films by the time they reach the big screen of the Vanities" comes to mind), audiences might not see the movie having read the book. If you're looking for a more familiar and satisfying entertainment experience, and enjoyed the movie (either in movie theaters or on videocassette at home), the thinking goes that you might also want to see the play. For regional theater companies such as PSC, a show like "Driving Miss Daisy" has name recognition and a potential- ly built-in audience of those who liked the movie which won for Jessica Tandy a best-actress Oscar. Recently, the leading actors in PSC's "Daisy," including Frances Helm, who plays the prim Southern widow whose social conscience is a late bloomer; Nick Smith, who plays Hoke, her proud but accommodating black chauffeur and Peter Wrenn-Me-leck, PSC's producing director, talked about the theatermovie connection of Alfred Uhry's 1988 Pulitzer Prize-winning play.

"A movie helps people come to the Please See STAGE Page D2 CHUCK ZOVKO The Morning Call Georgia Engel is currently touring as Sister Mary Amnesia in I fl i Georgette through June 9 and at Pocono Playhouse June 12-30, "is bringing back so many memories. I haven't had as silly a role since I did 'Nurse Jane Goes to Hawaii at the Pennsylvania Stage Company in what was it 1982? This is as silly, if not sillier than 'Nurse Jane'," Engel laughs and then, remembering, laughs some more. "Nurse Jane" had its world premiere at the J.L Rodale Theatre in Allentown, and Engel remembers that time fondly. "Good old Allentown. I loved it there.

That was such a magic time for me. It was so much fun to see people falling off their seats. I can't remember ever people laughing as much as in that tiny little theater With the lovable former "Mary Tyler Moore Show" co-star heading the cast, "Nurse Jane" was deemed ready for a bigger arena and was pointed toward New York when the laughter abruptly ended. The show's discoverer Si-- A Work on the stage keeps Georgia Engel happy and director, Sue nside television 1 1, nsit Lawless, Engel's first friend in professional theater, planned to take it off-Broadway 1 if XJ -f -I Jj On a brilliant spring day along the banks of the Delaware River outside the Bucks County Playhouse, Georgia Engel sits on a makeshift chair during rehearsal break, her perfectly heart-shaped face lighting up in glowing welcome; It's a face that exudes nothing but felicity toward her fellow man, and wrapped around that forever-Georgette voice of wispy cotton candy well, whoever thought to cast the actress-dancer as a nun even a nun as feistily foot-stomping as Sister Mary Amnesia in the summer stock version of "Nunsense" has a true calling. The campy musical about nuns and parochial school, which is at Bucks Playhouse Sylvia Lawler TELEVISION EDITOR and into a theater in Queens.

But the production was totaled, Engel said, when "all that crazy scandal about the Queens borough president Donald Manes, who later shot and killed himself happened. It was all over the news, the corruption was everywhere, even the theater was closed down, and that was the end of that." By the time the smoke had cleared and other auspices for the production might have been found, Engel said in her hush-a-bye voice, she was committed elsewhere, stepping into Ann Julian's 1983 TV series Please See INSIDE TV Page D2 GREGORY M. FOTA The Morning Call Frances Helm and Nick Smith star in PSC production at the J.I. Rodale Theatre. Fight on for peace, modern wars in classroom 1 ByJODI DUCKETT Of The Morning Call the classrooms of America.

So is Jerry Starr, director of the Center for Social Studies Education in Pittsburgh, whose frustration is evident in an old joke he tells about secondary school history teachers. "What's the last thing they tell their students before they leave for si. olman McCarthy, a syndicated columnist for The Washington Post and a pacifist who teaches about alternatives to violence, gives his students a quiz dur I I Whitehall Township resident and Vietnam veteran Michael Matsko has developed a program to introduce the Vietnam War to high school students. aging the use of contemporary events like the Vietnam War to promote critical thinking about conflict resolution and to teach social responsibility. They all believe the current system offers little opportunity for students to analyze events and challenge established historical conclusions, both necessary ingredients in building a better world.

History at the secondary school level, for example, is taught mostly in broad survey courses, courses in which eras from the Civil War to the Industrial Revolution are covered quickly and superficially. Critics believe much of this is candy-coated and clings to consensus and avoids controversy. And post-World War II history, which students can relate most closely too, is almost non-existent. "It's boring," said Starr. "That's why students don't develop active citizenship and don't vote.

It's a tragic failure of social studies edu- Please See WAR Page D2 ing the first few minutes of class. He asks them to identify 10 American leaders, half of them wartime leaders and half of them peacetime leaders. Most students can easily identify the wartime ones, such as Robert E. Lee and Dwight Eisenhower. But few know that Jane Ad-dams received the Nobel Peace Prize in 1931 or Dorothy Day was the co-founder of the Catholic Workers movement.

"We have 25,000 high schools in America and kids learn about all those generals and are exposed almost zero to any of the great peacemakers," laments McCarthy. McCarthy is distressed about how war and peace are taught in Slowly, scfwoh have begun changing or introducing new courses to reflect contemporary tlwugitf. their summer vacation? 'By the way, we won World War IL' McCarthy and Starr are among dozens of individuals and organizations working to make changes in how the nation's young people learn about the nation and the world. Some, like McCarthy want to promote peace as an alternative to war. Others, like Starr, are encour CHUCK ZOVKO The Morning Call t-f Iff v.

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