The Daily Register from Red Bank, New Jersey • 7

A 3 I nqu iLii 3uJ LaLsU THE REGISTER SECTION There is a nan1 Uskscb TTJ7 Robert Harper Tn on Wl By HILDYWILS FONTAINE THE REGISTER MIDDLETOWN Alumni of Mater Dei High School who thought they saw a familiar face on television while flicking the channel selector at prime time Monday night probably did. They probably caught classmate Robert Harper in his role as Bubba Weisberger on the new CBS comedy Franks Place. And theyll continue to catch glimpses of the young man who they may remem-ler playing the roles of kings in their high school productions of Camelot in 1968, and The King and I in 1969. Harper, in the role of lawyer Weisberger, stars with Tim Reid in the half-hour comedy series. If critical acceptance of the series is any indication, the show should span the entire TV season.

We are cautiously optimistic, Harper said in a telephone interview from his home in California. The pilot was well received. Critics called it the best new show of the year. He is assured of 13 episodes. In November we should hear if the network is interested in the final nine, Harper said.

Then we will see. If we get through a whole year it will be fun, and it will probably be re-run during the summer. Harper joked about starting out at the top in the role of a king. After playing a king, its all down hill, he said. But if anything, its been up hill for Harper since he was introduced to acting in the late 1960s.

He credits Ted Kurdyla of Shrewsbury and Peter Runfolo of Irvington with introducing him to the theater his last two years in high school. He had no aspirations for the theater before working with them on the two musicals. Kurdyla was the dramatic director, Runfolo the musical director. For two years, they were outside directors who assisted the school in staging annual musicals. In a sense, they discovered Harper.

They got me in touch with that part of myself that was ready to be tapped, Harper said. Kurdyla, now a film production manager in New York, has followed Harpers career closely. Hes not surprised that Harper has reached the heights of success that he now can claim. When we saw the students for the first Films (Creepshow, Once Upon a Time in America with Robert DeNiro, Amazing Grace and Chuck with GregO-ry Peck, Wanted Dead or Alive) and television (Newhart, Matlock Re-' mington Steele, Dallas, Knots Landing and the CBS mini-series Murder Ordained) forced him to begin living bi- coastally in 1983. He returns to visit his parents, Eugene and Muriel Harper of New Monmouth, when he can.

He was' here for his high school reunion in 1985 and in June, a month after filming the Franks Place pilot He has returned to Rutgers as a guest artist, and hopes to do that again. But he looks to his junior and senior years at Mater Dei as pivotal in his life, with fond memories of Kurdyla and Runfolo. John Bettenbender is very much my mentor. He made me a professional, but Ted and Peter got me into the theater. It has been an interesting time since Mater Dei, Harper said.

Kurdyla said he, Runfolo and Harper' have left education and gone on to major careers. Kurdyla was production manager for the film Once Upon a Time in America, and just finished working on Bright Lights, Big City with Michael J. Runfolo, he said, is the production manager for the television series The Equalizer. And he delights in Harpers success. I am so happy that he has gotten into a show like Franks Place.

Kurdyla said. The episodes I have viewed have been one step above what you usually see on TV today. WHAT'S GOING ON IN THE AREA Hugh Wolff SYMPHONY SEASON OPENS Hugh Wolff, New Jersey Symphony Orchestra music director, leads the orchestra in the opening concert of its 65th season at 8 p.m. next Friday in the Count Basie Theater of the Monmouth Arts Center, Red Bank. The Cuban-born pianist Horacio Gutierrez joins the orchestra in Brahms First Piano Concerto.

Also on the program are works by Barber and Beethoven. John Eddie JAMMING FOR THE HUNGRY John Eddie entertains at a benefit concert tomorrow at the Stone Pony, Asbury Park. This is his only performance until the release of his new album in the spring. Also entertaining are recording artists Smash Palace and the Rivals. Proceeds benefit the Trenton-based Family Food Fund.

Doors open at 8 p.m. The concert is sponsored by Jersey Artists for Mankind. CAi riii Bill Bruford QUARTET STAR The David Torn Quartet, featuring Bill Bruford, presents a concert at 9 p.m. tomorrow at the Club Bene Dinner Theater, Sayreville. Dinner, optional, is at 7 p.m.

ENSIDE 7 7 Ann landers 7 3 Religion. ..2 Your 8 FRIDAY, OCT. 9, 1987 time it was really a cold reading, Kurdyla recalls. We were looking for someone to play the king in Camelot. He had to be a special person.

(Richard) Burton is difficult to top. He knew it would be a difficult role to cast, considering the age of the students. Maturity and sensitivity were required for the role. Some people have that as part of their character, but it is a difficult thing to project across the footlights. The first time he read, we knew he was the king, because of his voice, Kurdyla continued.

His voice had a quality, maturity and resonance beyond his years. The following year, Harpers senior year, there was no question about who would be cast as the King in The King and I. Furthermore, in 1969, a bit of history was made by the Mater Dei theater department. The King and I was staged at the Garden State Arts Center, Holmdel. We played before 3,000 or 4,000 people, Harper recalls.

Without Ted Kurdyla and Peter Runfolo, I dont know where the next 15 years would have led me, he said. The acting bug, however, had bitten: just how hard, Harper didnt know. I dont think I went into college charged with thinking about the theater. I went to be well-rounded, he said. So to become well-rounded he became a liberal arts student at Rutgers University, New Brunswick, on a New Jersey state scholarship.

He made the deans list four years in a row, and graduated with a bachelors degree with high distinction in English literature. But the theater gnawed at him, so much so that he was the leading actor in 10 major productions at Rutgers. He would study Ibsen, Miller and Shakespeare during the day, then act in their plays at night. From 9 to 5 I was an English major. At night I was at the theater department.

Kurdyla, watching the young actor blossom, said Harpers performances were above the norm for college productions. He was just wonderful in each part he played. He covered all aspects of drama and comedy. John Bettenbender of Rutgers Mason Gross School of the Arts Theater Department played an important part in this part of Harpers development. Harper said he became his mentor in college.

FUNCTIONAL ART Former Rumson functional tableware and accessories. cations. After three years of rejections, he was finally accepted last year, and again this year. Applicants number in the thousands. There are so many more craft people today that there is a much smaller piece of the pie available, he said.

Thus, the quality of works is high, and the show is a very good show, with quite a good following, he added. Durants specialty is functional tableware and accessories. I use a lot of color and patterns. My work is sort of whimsical, she said. She, like Wenz, will be on hand for the three-day event to sell and talk about my work.

Durant, 32, credits a strong art program at her high school with developing her talent. When she was a senior at Rumson-Fair Haven Regional, she took ceramics courses at Brookdale Community College, T3A A FI 13 uZl It Ltil f-cll I staI i2 3 it a nt 6 Morristown CraftMarket showcases nation's finest Harpers senior year in college was a turning point. At Rutgers he originated a role in the award-winning production of The Soft Touch, which went on to the Kennedy Center, Washington, as part of the American College Theater Festival. Out of that experience I was seen by people at the Arena Stage, Washingtons leading resident theater, Harper said. But his acting abilities were gaining wider notice.

He was offered a regents fellowship to the University of California at Davis. He was also offered a job at Arena Stage. From thousands of applicants, only two are chosen annually by Arena. Harper opted for the Arena. In terms of starting a career, that was big, he said.

If I went to Davis, I would have stayed in the academic world. At the Arena I would make a go for it. Harper got what he went for. At Arena he made his professional debut as a member of the repertory company performing in plays by Shakespeare, Ibsen, Hecht and MacArthur, Miller and Wilder. He appeared in the American premieres of The Ascent of Mt.

Fuji and The Tot Family. The years since Arena Stage have seen him at the Long Wharf Theatre in New Haven, and in New York. He made his Broadway debut in 1978 appearing in revivals of the 1920s play Once in a Lifetime and The Inspector General, both at Circle in the Square, and last appeared on Broadway in 1980 in Arthur Millers The American Clock in a role he originated during the plays premiere at the Spoleto Festival USA in Charleston, S.C. resident Nancy Durant's specialty is Lincroft, as part of an independent study project. That is how I got started in ceramics, although in high school I took lots of art courses, she said.

Durant was so successful in her pursuit of art that at her graduation she was awarded a $300 art scholarship, which helped her continue her studies at Philadelphia College of Art Four years later, she left with a bachelor of fine arts degree in crafts with a major in ceramics and an entry to such major shows as the American Crafts Council craft shows in Rhinebeck, N.Y., Baltimore and West Springfield, Mass. Part of my business is to travel, she said. She participates in two major wholesale trade shows a year, then fills in the rest of the year with retail trade shows, such as this and the Philadelphia Craft Show in November. The 30-year-old Wenz, a graduate of1 New England College, where he received a bachelors degree in fine arts, has been" Xirt working in clay for 1 1 years and is in his sixth year as a craft artist He, too, exhib- its in American Crafts Council shows in Baltimore next February, and in West Springfield, next June and in the 4 nations large trade shows. Then what is the attraction of this show? People like to buy nice homemade crafts, and this is a high quality show, Durant said.

The market is unbelievable, Wenz said. There are so many people collecting better crafts. There is definitely a market here. James Corbett, president of the Kiwanis Club of Randolph, and a Morristown CraftMarket board member, said, Theres milch more of an appreciation of fine crafts now than when we started the CraftMarket. He attributes this new awareness of the inherent value and allure of contemporary crafts to the success of the CraftMarket, which this year, as in the past, will showcase one-of-a-kind American crafts in such diverse media as ceramics, wood, glass, leather, metal, fiber and mixed media.

The array of utilitarian ob- jects ranges from handbags and toys to musical instruments, hand-woven wear- ables and wall hangings. To familiarize crafts enthusiasts in the New York-New Jersey area with the work of Native American craft artists, two full booths will be devoted to crafts from the Southwest. Also planned is a lecture, The Roots of Contemporary Crafts, by Kathleen McFadden-Guzman, a vice president of Christies, the London-based auction house. Ours is a comfortable, casual show, Gene Stracco, a past CraftMarket treasurer and a member of the 1987 CraftMarket board, said. "The craftspeople have a unique vision, a creative vision, and people are looking for that creativity and uniqueness today.

SA -ll tj2 sjr 71 tft nt. By HILDYWILS FONTAINE THE REGISTER Crafts show aficionados need travel only to Morristown this weekend to feed their appetite for some of the nations best crafts. One of the nations most prestigious show, the Morristown CraftMarket, opens today and continues through Sunday at the National Guard Armory, Western' Avenue, Morristown. Hours are 6 to 10 p.m. today, and 10 a.m.

to 6 p.m. tomorrow and Sunday. Monmouth County market-goers may recognize at least one of the exhibitors, and may renew an old friendship with a former county resident. Greg Wenz of Fair Haven is returning to the show after participating last year. Nancy Durant, now of Kingston, N.Y., who might be remembered by her classmates at Rumson-Fair Haven Regional High School, is returing to the Morristown show after a one-year absence.

Wenz and Durant are among 150 artisans showcasing fine craftwork at the 1 1th annual CraftMarket, which is sponsored by the Kiwanis Club of Randolph. Proceeds go to arts-oriented and community service projects and organizations. Wenz and Durant work in clay. Durant, a former 1 Rumson resident, wont mind the two-hour commute to Morristown to participate in the show. This juried show, which draws about 15,000 visitors annually, is hard to get into, she said, and being accepted is quite an honor.

Jurors for the CraftMarket are different each year, Wenz said. You never know. The only thing you can do is keep applying and hope for the best, he said. Wenz, whose fine crafted pottery bowls; vases, covered jars, floor vases as high as 3 feet is distinguished by its unique glazes, persevered with his appli-.