The South Bend Tribune from South Bend, Indiana • 49

ELWEE 1 V( Section South Bend Tribune Sunday, April 8, 2001 ON TV ALESIA I. REDDING At Louisvilles Humana Festival, new plays seem drawn to Hollywood i Stay tuned for this story, after this Actora Theatre of touwnlle PhotoWRICHARD TRIGG Jane Martin's Flaming Guns of the Purple Sage," according to the reviewer, ambled from curtain to curtain with all the flash, XpJBut the plays guilty pleasures wore thin long before the smoke cleared and the McNulty and Monica Koskey perform In die Actors Theatre of Louisville production directed by Jon Jory. (The bloody hand belongs to actor Mark Mlneart) state of mind When the Sea Drowns in Sand is a timely and powerful play, with frequent, unexpected injections of humor. Coming up: An all-new column filled with the latest commentary on television! But first: a recent Thursday, I spent a couple of hours planted In front of the television set, checking in with Must-See TV and the nights other offerings. It was a different experience, because I usually tape Thursday night shows, including Will Grace and, OK, the last 10 minutes of Survivor and view them later, fast-forwarding through the commercials.

I didnt have high expectations it wasnt a sweeps week, so there was sure to be plenty of pesky reruns. What I experienced, however, was a nuisance of another sort Stay tuned to find out what I What I got during those three hours of prime-time programming in addition to all-new episodes of certain shows was, well, teased. Unmercifully Relentlessly Read the next amazing sentence to see just how bad it got! Like an athlete decked out in sponsor Nike apparel, the screen was cluttered with breathless ads for upcoming shows. And this is in addition to the expected word from our sponsor breaks. Especially mind-numbing were the countless references to all-Hew episodes of regular series.

Just ahead: More of my astonish-ing findings. Its understandable that networks would make a fliss over all new programming, given the (well-de-rved) criticism of the pitiful of original episodes (typically 22 series) produced each season. And with the fierce competition for viewers, its not surprising that fretworks are going all-out in making you aware of their product. A Story in Variety noted that TV execs frelieve that the need for effective promos has never been greater. But how effective are these relentless blurbs, these constant references to nonrepeat programming? Its as if viewers are expected to get excited about a new episode of anything even The Weber Show.

On this particular night, the announcers voices vibrated with energy as they dropped reminders of upcoming all new editions of NBCs Will Grace and most significantly an ER that would escalate to one devastating conclusion. And thats not Even promos for The Lone Gun-dien, a series thats less than two months old, bragged about offering i fresh episode. Flipping to a different channel brought more of the same. Over at CBS, the biggest challenge during Survivor had nothing to do with die competition for immunity: It was enduring a barrage of ads for CSI and The Big Apple. Did I mention that both shows bad all new episodes? (Apparently, ads can do only so much: A few days after that much-hyped Big Apple episode, CBS pulled the plug on the show due to iisappointing ratings.) After hitting viewers repeatedly with that all-new stick, CBS bund another blunt instrument to wield: Live! Promos for the upcoming David Hopperfield special explained that the nagician would try to survive a fire so hot it could melt steel! And the intire proceeding would be Live! Imagine standing inside a toma-lo of fire! the announcer chal- Actors -Theatre of Louisville The 2001 Humana Festival of New American Plays is history, but Actors Theatre of Louisville continues its spring season with Paula Vogels How I Learned to Drive, Thursday through May 6.

ATL is at 316 W. Main St. in downtown Louisville. For ticket information, call (800) 4ATL-TIX or visit the Web site www.actors theatre.org. In the months leading up to Humana (named for its longtime corporate sponsor), regular attendees wondered how Masterson could possibly fill Jorys shoes.

That speculation buzzed even louder last weekend, when dozens of critics, agents, producers and other industry types descended on Louisville to see all the plays performed in repertory in ATLs three theaters and to talk shop in the downstairs bar. Given the inevitable scrutiny its unfortunate that Masterson chose to direct Dressers play the one indisputable flop of the bunch himself Thanks to the playwrights track record (Dresser wrote the wacky corporate satire Below the Belt, the quirky car play What Are You Afraid Of? and other past Humana hits), expectations for WonderM World, scheduled for prime time in the large Pamela Brown Auditorium, were high. But after a promising first scene, in which an engaged couple veered unexpectedly from romantic bliss to the verge of separation, it became clear that Dressers singular knack for making an audience care about shallow, unreasonable people had finally exhausted itself. A more subtle approach by Masterson and the actors (who performed most scenes with a vein-popping, Seinfeld-ian vigor) might have helped, but not much. By contrast, there was a relaxed confidence to Jorys own directorial (and, in all likelihood, dramaturgical) contribution, Flaming Guns of the Purple Sage, by the pseudonymous Jane Martin.

(Martin, author of such Louisville-launched award-winners as Keeley See HUMANAPg 4 By JULIE YORK COPPENS Tribune Staff Writer LOUISVILLE, Ky. ver the years, critics have come to rely on the Humana Festival of New American Plays as a glimpse into the mind of the American playwright After the 2001 installment, concluding to day at Actors Theatre of Louisville, we might not know what playwrights are thinking these are some complex people, after all but we can safely determine where theyve been spending their time: at the movies. The Hollywood influence, while always visible in recent festivals (William Mastrosi-mones LA hostage thriller Like Totally Weird from 1998 and last years Orson Welles homage War of the Worlds spring immediately to mind), was a veritable epidemic fliis year, with symptoms ranging from occasional cinematic asides to full-out genre lampoons. A variant television strain showed up in one entry, Richard Dressers relationship comedy "Wonderful World, which played like four painfully unfunny episodes of Mad About You run back to back. Aside from all the media convergence, its hard to trace a clear pattern or to draw any single conclusion from the diverse lineup of world premieres although observers certainly will try, since the 2001 festival represents two significant milestones: Its not only As unlikely traveling companions In Eduardo Machados play When the Sea Drowns In Sand, actors, from left, Ed Vassallo, Felix Solis and Joseph Urta savor their Cubans.

the events 25th anniversary year, but also the debut of ATL artistic director Marc Master-son. Masterson, formerly of Pittsburghs City Theatre, replaced Jon Jory, the Humana Festivals legendary founder, at the beginning of the 2000-01 season. Hard rock stays simple for Godsmack By ALAN SCULLEY Tribune Correspondent Area festival guide Plans are under way for the annual publication of the Festival Guide, a listing of festivals throughout Indiana and Michigan. The deadline is Friday. Anyone wishing to submit information should include the name of the event a brief description, dates, times, location, admission charge (if applicable) and a daytime phone number for The Tribunes use.

Mail to: Festival Guide, Features Department South Bend Tribune, 225 W. Colfax South Bend, IN 46626; e-mail: KRallosbtinfb.com.; or fax: (219) 236-1765. In concert Godsmack performs at 7 p.m. EDT Monday at Wings Stadium, Kalamazoo. For ticket information, call Ticketmaster at (219) 272-7979.

Godsmack fan is expecting to hear. It would be easy to consider Gods-macks approach simply an attempt to play it safe in following up a hit debut But to Ema, the similarities mainly reflect his own approach to songwriting. Fm not into complicated writing," Er-na said. Im into putting together a good song, and to me a good song is built off of an awesome drum groove, a very simple, See GODSMACKPage E2 The 3 million fans who bought Gods-macks first CD and made that group one of the most popular new arrivals on the heavy metal scene wont have any problem recognizing the group on their second CD, Awake. And according to Godsmack frontman Sully Ema, its no mistake that the band stuck to familiar musical territory I think honestly that it (Awake) isnt much different," he said.

I think that in my ears, I feel like its matured a bit I think its really just an extension of the first record, and I think its what every Tribune File Photo Lead singer Sully Ema, second from right keeps Godsmacks sound uncomplicated, building off an awesome drum groove. See REDDINGPage E2 Plus: Better than vu Just Visiting," an American remake of a French blockbuster, outshines the original. Page E4 Inside: True blue Blue Man Group keeps its integrity in the face of popularity. Page E3.