The Robesonian from Lumberton, North Carolina • Page 5

's Newest Theatrical Sensations Express Their Views Pages--The Robesonian, Lumber tun, N.C., Monday, August 23,1976 By WILLIAM GLOVER AP Drama Writer NEW YORK (AP) The two could hardly be more unlike in background or more similar in creative urge. 3illy Williams is a black, ex- dancer. Austin Pendleton is a white actor who cheerily calls himself "a Wasp." By different, sometimes oddly parallel paths, each arrived back on Broadway this summer in his first big directing assignment. Their shows generated wide attention, one a snappy musical, the other a serious drama. Here is how, in separated chats, each looks at where he has been and where he hopes to go.

"It was like handling the Holy Graii;" says Williams of the challenge he got turning "Guys and -Dolls," the peppy Frank Loesser tuner about Damon night people, into a show for an all-black cast. decided early that the key task was to adjust speech patterns to the rhythm he felt "would take iis in the direction we wanted to the switch wasn't easy." The ultimate result, however, was enthusiastic praise from most reviewers and solid box-office lines at Broadway's theater named the Broadway. The wiry, calm-mannered man, who was born in Philadelphia 40 years ago, took on the dual task of directing and choreographing the saga of tinhorn gamblers and salvation lasses after doing the dances for another current SRO show, "Bubbling Brown The sudden rush of demand for Williams's entry on the Broadway staging scene, after years of multiple activities elsewhere, began with "Odyssey." Before that lamented dis-- aster reached Gotham, retitled "Home Sweet Homer," Williams withdrew'as choreographer amid complex artistic disagreements. He was also asked to direct "1600 Pennsylvania Avenue," another musical turkey, which he adroitly avoided. Williams learned the terpsichorean craft in the chorus of several Broadway musicials following his timid arrival in New York at age 19.

Along the way he has had an imposing array of men- tors, including Anthony Tudor, Jerome Robbins, Bob Fosse and Jack Cole, his most intimidating experience. "They would cut you down to build uou up," he says of those teachers. "That's what I do with my own students who come with self-indulgence, often bad training, in love with the rewards before the work." During seven years abroad with the Holland ballet and in London, he remembered Tudor's advice: "Do the work and the rewards take care of themselves." For Pendleton, the other new BILLY WILLIAMS, seen here at home in New York City, has drawn attention with his first big directing assignment on Broadway this summer. "It was tike handling the Holy Grail," says Williams, an ex-dancer, of the challenge he got turning the peppy director on Broadway, employment has been more erratic, a factor which quite possibly affects his present heavy agenda. "There have been periods when it was hard to get work," he says, "so when some offer, you want to get them all." The drama providing initial directing opportunity on the Great White Way is "The Runner Stumbles." The script by Milan Stitt, a new writer, concerns the 1903 murder of a nun in a north Michigan parish.

The solemn whodunit is a fictional adaptation. After a limping start at the LittleTheater, it has settled down to steady trade, the only successful noncomedy of the season by an American writer. "I.took it.all the way," says Pendleton, "from workshop through a lot of rewriting in various incarnations." When he first got the script, though, he didn't read it for six months. Last winter he staged it for the resident Hartman Theater Company'in Stamford, from which, with minor revisions, it moved here. During part of the run, Pendleton took over for an actor who Had a movie commitment.

Simultaneously he commuted to the Williamstown, Theater for a lead role in "The Three Sisters." Just before bringing in "The Runner Stumbles," he staged "Benito Cereno" for the American Place Theater, then went up to Williamstown where his directing career began to direct "Orpheus Descending." He's winding up August activities as director of Irene Worth and Lynn Redgrave in "Misalliance" at Lake Forrest, HI. Telling famous stars what to do is no problem: "I've worked with a lot of them." Nearer home, he has frequently had his wife, a cast. "He's very understanding," she says. Like Williams, Pendleton has been fortunate in being able to absorb directorial knowhow from such eminents as the aforementioned Jerome Robbins, Mike Nichols, Alan Arkin and filmland's Billy Wilder. He always remembers, too, what Elia Kazan said: "Eighty per cent of directing is casting." Pendleton, 36, grew up in Warren, Ohio, where his father heads a tool company and his mother, a former professional actress, founded the Trumbull New Theater (TNT), a community group.

During his first year in New York, he luckily landed in Arthur Kopit's bizarre "Oh Dad, Poor Dad, Mamma's Hung You in the Closet and I'm Feelin' So Sad." Later he was in the original company of "Fiddler on the Roof," and spent a year and a half in "The Last Sweet Days of Isaac." Monday TV Schedule Channel 3 5:00 WiidW. West 7:00 Races 7:30 Lucy Show 8:00 Viva Valdez 8:30 Baseball 11:00 TV SNcwswatch 11:30 Monday Special 1:00 Final Edition Channel 6 7:00 Andy Griffith 7:30 Hillbillies 8:00 Local 306 9:00 Joe Forrester 10:00 Jigsaw John 11:00 News 11:30 Johnny Carson 1:15 Sip Off Channel 4 .3:30 World Press Mister Roger 5:30 Electric Co. 6: 00 Zoom 7:00 Boating Safety 8:00 Tennis Channel 1' 6:30 News 7:00 Family Affair 8: 30 Phyllis In Family 9:30 Maude 11:00 Eyewitness News 11:30 CBS Late Movie Channel 5 5:00 Andy Griffith 5:30 Adam 12 News 7: 00 Ironside 8:00 Viva Valdez 8:30 Baseball 11:00 Action News 1:00 Mission Impossible Channel. 6:30 7:00 CBS News 7:30 Let's Go Race 8:30 Phyllis 9:00 All In Family 9:30 Maude 10:00 Medical Center 11:30 Late Show FILM RATING GUIDE For Parents and Their Children PG GENERAL AUDIENCES All PARINTAL GUIDANCE SUCGtSTED Somt Material Nat or NO ONI UNDIi 17 ADMITTED (Agt limit ma jiarj MPAA SMA SIWIIAC WE ACCEPT FOOD STAMPS MILK Gal. Jug.

1.60 CIGARETTES On. BRITTS 7 2020 W. 5th Street HUNTING LICENSES FOR SALE BfiEAB- BRITT'S LAUNDRANIAT 2105 W. 5th Street WE WASH ft OUT 1 Tuesday TV Schedule 4 Channels 6:30 News 7:00 Bin Valley ttiys tUOAHCSpcdnl 11:30 Mystery Movie 1:00 Final Edition 6:30 CUb Scouting Book Beat 8:00 Music Project 8:30 Indian Artists 9:00 Evening a I Pops 10:00 Mclc Hawaii 10:30 Woman Channel Channel 00 News 6:30 Nightly News 7:00 Andy Griffith' 9:00 Movie 11:00 News 11:30 Johnny Cnrson 1:00 News 1:15 Sign Off 6:00 News 6:30 News 7:00 Family Affair 7:30 25,000 Pyramid 8:00 Popi 8:30 Good Times 0:00 Maureen 11:00 Eyewitness News 11:30 CBS Laic Show 6:00 News 6:30 ABC News 7:00 Captain 4 8:00 Happy Dnys 0:00 Flatbush-Ave. J.

10:00 Ironside 11:00 News 11:30 Mystery Movie 1:00 Mission Impossible Channel 13 6:30 News 7:00 News 7:30 Tell The Truth Pop! 8:30 GoodTimes 9:30 Maureen le News BARGAIN MAT. $1.25 TILL 3 MONDAY THRU FRIDAY SECOND HIT At: THE10STYLESOF SHAO-UNMMT1ALAIITS musical, "Guys and Dolls," into a show for ah all- black cast. His direction and choreography were equal.to it, the result: good reviews and solid box office lines. (APN Photo) AUSTIN PENDLETON, stage and screen actor, plays a new role on Broadway this summer director. His first show, "The Runner Stumbles," by Milan Stitt, is the only successful non-comedy of the season by an American writer.

Pendleton is also director of "Orpheus Descending" at the Williamstown, Summer Theater, where this photograph was made recently. (APN Photo) CHROLinn 739-5304 Adults $2.00 Children under 15, $1.00 With Parents NOW A I DRAGON 7:30 SHOWTIMES: DRAGONS RON VAN CLIEF gree BUCK BELT 4 times WORLD CHAMPION 5BIACK DrkM A ice. CHARLES BONE RON VAN CLIEF THELATINPANTHE Vannelli Draws Musicians By MARY CAMPBELL AP Newsfeatures Gino Vannelli dresses in a sexy way and says he's just interested in the music. He has made four albums and the newest, "The Gist of Gemini," is rising on the best- selling charts. He says his greatest problem in his rise to stardom is credibility, "There is none yet," he says.

Then he adds, "I think with some people it came with Stevie Wonder." He's referring to five concerts on the. 1974 Stevie Wonder tour on which he was the well-received opening act. "I think a lot of people shrug me off as a contrived sex symbol. I don't blame That is the way the world is. I think there's a time and space for what I do." What he does is perform, singing the songs he has written, many of them long songs in a flowing jazz-rock style.

The five-piece band behind him has two keyboardists, and three percussionists, no guitars. He wears tight pants, shirt open to show a hairy chest and he throws out glances meant to be burning from dark eyes. Vannelli's background is Ifal- ian. Half his grandparents were born in Canada, he says he was born in Montreal and the rest of his grandparents were born in Italy. Back to credibility.

"Credibility is when the finally decides you are an important talent and you have something to say. You feel credibility beginning to happen. "Only I know what I have to give, what I will do. I'm not going to tell you what it is. I have a pretty good idea." At present, Vannelli says, he has a very mixed audience.

"I'll come to a city and play the first night and there'll be musicians and hard-core music freaks listening to the band and all the sounds from the synthesizer, all the electronic things we've developed and the songs I've written. "Some people say, 'What is this: Rudolph Valentino with and think I'm nothing." In Buffalo, Vannelli says, opening for Liza Minnelli, he was hissed and booed by people impatient to hear her. In San Antonio, at a big record store to sign autographs, 3,000 girls got hysterical over him and it was ail 28 policemen could do to handle the situation. The hysteria has been going on about a year, he says. His biggest single, "People Gotta Move," on A was about two years ago.

Albums on A are "Crazy Life," "Powerful People," "Storm at Sunup" and the new one. The second and third, he says, sold about 200,000 copies each. "People who have the albums are very devoted to the music," Vannelli says. "It's important 211 DRIVE-IN Phone 739-5209, 738-7198 Day 7 BIG NIGHTS AUGUST 19-25 HE WIPES THEM OFF THE ROADS! PETER FONDA IS. Fighting MAD ALSO WiTHTHE.

DEVIL GINO VANNELLI to me to have someone come a show and be into the music." The age and makeup of his shows is influenced a lot, he by which radio stations play his records and that varies from one town to-another. The first radio stations to play his music, though, were black star tions. He theorizes they may have liked the percussion and the fact that his rhythms are more complex than 'rock's simple four-four. Rock, he thinks, will someday be as outmoded as bebop. Vannelli got the.

idea that he wanted to be in show business when he was three and his mother took him arid his two brothers to hear his father, a former boxer, sing in a nightclub. For the first years, he wanted to be a drummer. Even after he lost his great en-' thusiasm for drumming, his teacher encouraged him to keep studying. At 15, he says, he was playing drums in a band. "I woke up one day and said to myself I wondered if I could write a song.

It had been on my mind because I admired the Beatles for writing their own I tried my first song with the band the next day. It was terrible. It made me feel like I had a challenge. "The next song I wrote was much better. I remember feeling a new testament in my life.

There was a way to channel out the innermost anxieties and frustrations." When he was 16 he moved to New York, to live with cousins. "I spent about six months look. ing. for the right record contract. Everybody thought I was going to be the young torn Jones.

They thought I'd sing contrived, formulated songs and toss my torso. "I toss my torso to my-own songs." He can't be compared with Tom Jones, Vannelli says. "I can write and create. And there is a different kind of sexuality to it." HELD OVER a hilarious outrageous road race. 4:45 6:45 8:45 Adults Under 15, $1.00 COMING "SHADOW OF THE HAWK" NOW "HAWMPSisa dazzling, whimsical, slapstick funny comedy!" UZ SMITH-COSMOPOLITAN cinEmnn 1:00 3:40 6:20 9:00 Adults $2.00 Under'15, $1.00 family nim ty Jo.

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