Chicago Tribune from Chicago, Illinois • 65

Chicago Tribune, Monday, December 22. 1986 Section 3 Twipo To play Bigger, Love belies his name An early appraisal of Jahn TV, By Larry Kail Entertainment writer ryhen Victor Love was called upon to rj audition for the role of Bigger I Thomas in the film version of Rich- ard Wright's famous protest novel "Native Son," he was in Cleveland. Performing the title role in "Othello," Love was discovering that, despite years of classical training, he was a bit too young to portray Shakespeare's tragic hero convincingly. "Yes," Love says, "that's what the critics told me 'Good actor, great voice, wonderful mind, but at age 28 he's too young for the And they were right, even though I believe I could play a Romeo right now that would get a lot of critical attention," But Love's age, not to mention his well-honed acting skills and his striking physical grace and good looks, almost denied him the chance to play Bigger Thomas the near-inarticulate, murderously enraged young man Wright cd to symbolize what is now called "the underclass." "You see," Love explains, "black people are expected to look a certain kind of way to play certain kinds of rotes. So aside from the fact.

Helmut Jahn Tribune books Helmut Jahn Text by Nory Miller pages, $45 Reviewed by Paul Gapp Tribune architecture critic Arts at large film's director, Jerrold Frcedman, were often at odds Silver wanting to portray Bigger Thomas in relatively sympathetic terms, while Frcedman hoped to retain the brutality of Wright's original vision. If those rumors are true, Silver must have won the battle because even though Bigger kills two people in the book his girlfriend Bessie, and Mr. Dalton's daughter, Bessie's murder is eliminated from the film, and the most grisly aspect of Mary Dalton's death Bigger decapitates her corpse also is not depicted. "We never did consider cutting off Mary's head," says Love. "And while Bessie's death was in the script and we did film it, that scene was removed I think because Diane wanted to make the movie more palatable, to convey the basic idea of the book without being sick.

"After all, if the film as a whole is unsympathetic, you lose your audience. But being that I'm just the actor, I wasn't really involved in those decisions." One wishes that Love had been involved in those decisions, though, because what we see on the screen suggests that he has a very shrewd sense of who Bigger Thomas is and how his world should be portrayed. "1 know that Richard Wright said that he wanted Bigger to be unsympathetic," Love says, "that he wanted to write a book that 'no one would weep But I question his sincerity in saying that. I think he probably was afraid that he wouldn't be able to make people care about Bigger's fate and chose to deny that that was his aim hoping that if people did care about Bigger, which they ultimately do, they would feel that the author had done something brilliant and unanticipated. "I know that fear, because all my life I've been fighting with the expectations I have of myself and the expectations other people have of me the latter, until recently, being far below the former." Born at Camp Lejune, North Carolina, where his father was a sergeant in the Marine Corps, and raised in Los Angeles, Love says that he "got a lot of support from my parents, even though they didn't want me to become an actor.

If they had had their way, I would have gone into political science or become a doctor something that offered security and continued the progress they had both made. "But my dad and my mom also said, 'No matter what you do, you've got to be the best at So even though 1 could have zoomed through life using only 30 per cent of what I know I have, I decided to go into the theater studying at Los Angeles City College and the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee because I think there are things I can do as an actor where I could be the absolute best. "Believe me, having had classical training, I know what great acting is all about And while I know how far I have to go to get there, I have a very clear image of where 'there' is." ft" The first book devoted solely to Chicago architect Helmut Jahn illustrates the full range of work by a designer who in little more than a decade has risen from obscurity to international prominence. It also underscores how quickly American architecture has changed during the same period. When Jahn joined C.F.

Murphy Associates, it was to assist Eugene Summers in the design of a new McCormick Place to replace the one destroyed by a fire in 1967. The building was as Miesian as they come a crisp exercise in right angles and black steel, straight by the Bauhaus numbers. Some of the structures Jahn did on his own a little later were almost equally adherent to less-is-more principles. Among these were the Fourth District Court Building in Maywood and the John Marshall Courts Building in Richmond, Va. Today, Jahn is president of MurphyJahn, having taken over the firm by force of talent, aggressiveness and an immense appetite for work.

By designing such buildings as State of Illinois Center and other spectacular structures around the U.S. and abroad, he has' broken away from Miesian dogma and created a frequently controversial body of architecture. This is primarily a picture book that illustrates more than 70 Jahn projects built, unbuilt and in progress by means of some 500 photographs; renderings, drawings and rough sketches from Jahn's pen. Accompanying text blocks are brief but adequate. Browsing through the more-or-less chronologically ordered illustrations, one realizes that only in a period of architectural churning as turbulent as the 1970s and 1980s could Jahn have metamorphosed so rapidly from the old ways into the kind of architect he is today: A designer who weaves historicism, high tech schtick, abstraction and idiosyncratic manipulation of shapes, materials and colors into buildings about which it is impossible to feel neutral.

Chicagoans saw Jahn's approach to design change with -the handsome, white-skinned Xerox Centre building that turns the corner so gracefully at Dearborn and Monroe Streets Jahn wanted to make it blue, but the developer talked him out of it. The architect's downtown presence was soon strengthened with the One South Wacker Building and an addition to the Board of Trade. Readers who are familiar only with the architect's Chicago work may be startled by the stylistic sweep of his buildings in other cities and in projects that were designed but never built There are recurrent themes in Jahn's architecture, but there is no Jahn "look" nor is it possible to neatly categorize his progression of ideas. An introductory essay in the Jahn book by critic Nory Miller tells how the architect built his career and developed his highly personal sets of design philosophies. If Miller fails to fit Jahn snugly into the broader context of contemporary architectural events, no wonder.

At 46, his career has barely begun and one suspects it will be at least another decade before anyone can begin to think about a definitive appraisal of his oeuvre. that Bigger was supposed to be 20 years old and not as tall as 1 am Love stands 6 feet 5 inches, I don't think 1 was considered initially because well, as I've often been told, I don't look 'street' and I don't talk "I remember when I came in for my first fitting, the wardrobe mistress said, 'On, no, he's too elegant he's never going to work as 1 thought, 'Hey, don't say because I hadn't signed anything yet and was afraid they might not hire me, and then I told her, 'I'm an actor I don't have to walk around like my character in order to play the Love certainly proves his case in "Native Son" which opens Thursday in Chicago, for even though the film is an imperfect realization of Wright's novel, one has no doubts that Love is Bigger Thomas bewildered to the point of terror by the world in which he lives and pre-, pared at any moment to lash out violently. It's a performance that suggests Love has a big future not only because it's as good as it is but also because, as Love explains, it is a genuine performance. "Bigger," says Love, "is very different from the way I am. This is basically the same face you see on the screen, because I didn't wear makeup in the film.

But if you walked out of the theater and saw me on the street, you wouldn't know me, would you? Well, that's because I believe that we are what we think, and as Bigger I really tried to change my thoughts. "For instance, I'm of many thoughts right now aware that a photographer is taking pictures of me, aware that you're drinking coffee, aware that the publicist is sitting over there and aware as well that I'm thinking all of these things. But as Bigger Thomas I'd be aware of just one thing at a time, whatever that might Tribune photo by BIN Hogan "I decided to go Into the theater because I think 'here are things I' can do as an actor where I could be the absolute best," says "Native Son" actor Victor Love. be. And that's the way 1 chose to play him.

"When Bigger goes to the door of the Dalton house where he is applying for a job as a chauffeur, he's thinking: 'This is the woman who works here. What do I say? I've never thought of how you talk to white people before. I'm in the house now. Oh, it's so "But if I were in that situation, I'd be thinking: 'I'm going for a job interview. Hey, this is a really great house.

No, I'm not going to show that, because they have to think that I've been in great houses before'-. and so on. "I'd be way ahead of them, anticipating the next couple of questions. But Bigger is so scared that he can barely take in what these people are saying to him. "That's what I mean by Bigger being of one thought.

I remember one day, on the set it occurred to me Bigger has no music in him, while I have music on my mind all the time. His thoughts are dry, like sandpaper, there was always friction up there." Speaking of friction, rumor has it that' Diane Silver, the producer of "Native Son," and the Opening tonight i.m.; Holstetns, 2464 N. Lincoln MUSIC: Frank Tedesso, 8:30 I. 327-3331. Ave.

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He received the special humanitarian award at the party on Thursday, Washington explained that his office takes the opportunity of the holiday season to recognize the work of people who try to do something about hunger. This year, 12 local businesses and organizations also received the awards. "When wc read about Otis in The Tribune, wc were moved to tears," said Lois Wcisbcrg, director of the Mayor's Office of Special F.vcnts, in introducing Woodard to Mayor Washington. "So wc thought that bringing him to Chicago would be a terrific inspiration to us here to try and emulate his heroic efforts to feed and clothe the hungry." Woodard knows the problem of poverty at first hand. Eighteen years ago, he had to beg and pick through restaurant garbage cans to feed his wife and children.

"Dear Lord," he recalls praying, "just let me get to the point where I can take care of my own family, and I promise I'll help other hungry folks eat, too." To redeem that pledge, Woodard makes three and four appearances a week at St. Louis area churches and synagogues soliciting the donations that sustain his efforts. He sings spirituals to the accompaniment of a ukclcle and preaches the Gospel message that it is better to give than receive. 'Woodard'i front door is open 24 hours a day to homeless mothers-to-be, families without a place to spend the night, runaway teenagers, and all the other victims of a big city's never-ending tragedies. "If I've discovered anything," Woodard said to Washington upon receiving his award, "it's that there are lots of folks out there who hunger to be able to reach out and help those less fortunate than themselves." -1 10 0 We'd like to join you for breakfast.

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