The Times-Tribune from Scranton, Pennsylvania • 21

V' t' I i i TNT Artistic Directors Play Opens Feb. 3 BY QINA THACKARA THE SCRANTON TIMES The limousines may not be pulling up to the curb at the Scranton Cultural Center. Tuxedo-clad actors and elegantly be-gowned starlets may not be alighting to walk the red carpet into the theater. Thats not quite in our budget, said producer Alicia Grega-Pikul. But we are having a world premiere.

The very first professional performance of Joan, written by Donna Kaz, artistic director of The Northeast Theater Ensemble, will be staged Feb. 3. in Shopland Hall in the Scranton Cultural Center. The show will continue its run Thursdays, Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays until Feb. 13.

Rehearsals are set to begin on Jan. 16, but there is a lot of work that must go on before the first actor walks on the minimalist set, Ms. Grega-Pikul said. The show got its start as a student workshop project at Ursinus College, said author and director Kaz. I was an artist in residence at Ursinus and had agreed to direct The Lark, by Jean Anouilh, his version of the Joan of Arc story.

That show calls for about 30 actors, but only eight students auditioned, she said. "I knew I had to change something fast. She seized the opportunity to tell the same story in her own way. She decided to develop the play with the students who had auditioned and found ways to use fewer actors, a minimum of set construction and few props. Because the show started as a student workshop, the author used modern language in an effort to transcend the ages and show Joan as a young person thrust into a world-changing situation.

And rising to the occasion, Ms. Kaz said. The author said much of Joans life is documented, including complete transcripts of her heresy trial, and through Alicia Grega-Pikul takqs a moment to relax in her office in the Scranton Cultural Center during the first hectic weeks preceding the world premiere of 'Joan," an original production authored by Donna Kaz to be staged by The Northeast Theater Ensemble. IF YOU GO: RICH MATES WYOU Keeps Its Offices In Scranton Dont look for WYOU-TV (Ch. 22) in the former Kresge store at 415 Lackawanna its home for the last 15 years.

It moved. It didnt move far though, just to 409 Lackawanna which is next door. WYOU now occupies the comer suite of offices on the third floor of the Oppenheim Building over- looking Lackawanna and Wyoming avenues. Its smaller than 415 Lackawanna. But since WYODs engineering, news and production are being handled by WBRE-TV (Ch.

28), which uses a Wilkes-Barre studio, under a shared services agreement, WYOU doesnt need as much space. Early last year, it looked like WYOU-TV would also move its sales, programming, financial and management operations into Wilkes-Barre as part of a joint sales agreement with WBRE. The antitrust division of the U.S. Department of Justice opposed that plan and the stations dropped it. Its not going to be revisited anytime in the foreseeable future.

STAYING IN SCRANTON WYOU has a five-year lease for its new offices and it wants people to know its staying in Scranton, All the stations decision makers will stay here. What we wanted to achieve is creation of a new introduction to WYOU, vice president and general manager John Dittmeier said. Not only will we establish the fact that we are uj) here, but also, when people come up to see us, they are going to be impressed by the fact that we have put a lot of stock into our presence up here. Across the hall from WYOUs offices, a Scranton newsroom has been put into operation. The facility will be shared with WBRE.

It has- several videotape editing booths, microwave equipment to connect it to the newsroom in Wilkes-Barre and office space for reporters. Mr. Dittmeier said lighting and an Action News news set will be installed. A less-elaborate news set for 28 Eyewitness will also be installed, but he pointed out that WBRE rarely uses an indoor set when it is in Scranton. COMMITTED TO NEWS Mr.

Dittmeier said the station continues to have a strong commitment to news. A new 6 and 11 p.m. co-anchor is still being sought. News Director A1 Zobel said the selection process is continuing, but he could not say when the job will be filled. Mr.

Dittmeier hopes to fill the position before the February ratings period starts. STATION BREAKS I miscopied WNEP's noon news ratings in last week's chart. For November 1999, it had 28 percent share vs. a 35 percent share the prev ious November John Campbell, WVIA-TVFM (Ch. 44) vice president for development, has left to take a similar job at Mountain Lake PBS in Plattsburgh, N.Y.

It serves upstate New York, Vermont and Montreal, Quebec, Canada. He said he did not seek the job, but could not refuse the offer. The new job ill give Mr. Campbell a chance to produce programs for national distribution. He will continue to consult for WVIAforawhile.

(E WNEP-TV meteorologist Joe Snedeker and his ife. Dawn, are the new parents of a daughter. She was born Wednesday afternoon and joins tw older brothers in the family's Scott Township home es of those around her with a great deal of physical action, Ms. Kaz said. And the Shopland Hall setting is ideal for the production, Ms.

Grega-Pikul said. Its a room that looks like a place where Joan herself may have Walked, she said. The production gets its first professional staging in Scranton, partly because Ms. Kaz is currently the artistic director of TNT and partly because the people there provide a wonderful theater audi research she was able to develop the character of a very human teen-ager who achieved sainthood. "The play itself is about that human ness, she said.

"All too often we think of saints as people who were somehow better or more special or different from the rest of the population. But in reality, they were just like everyone else. They just dealt with circumstances differently. Joan of Arcs life in this production is told through the voic ence, Ms. Kaz said.

Its a first for Ms. Grega-Pikul as well. I just moved back to the area last summer, she said. "I began working with TNT, and then this opportunity came up to produce the show. I had always wanted to be the producer for a stage show.

And now, I have an opportunity to produce a world premiere. Its pretty exciting. With or without the limousines, tuxedos and red carpet. WHAT: "Joan world premiere performances of a new play by Donna Kaz WHEN: Feb. 3 and 10 at 7 p.m., Feb.

4, 5, 11 and 12 at 8 p.m. and matinees, Feb. 6 and 13 at 2 p.m. WHERE: Shopland Hall, Scranton Cultural Center SPONSORED BY: The Northeast Theatre Ensemble DETAILS: Call TNT, 969-1770 He Touched Me: The Gospel Music Of Elvis Presley Airs Tonight He admired Sumners uncle, J.D. Sumner, who sang bass for the Blackwood Brothers and J.D.

Sumner and the Stamps. The latter group toured with Presley for Five years. J.D. Sumner died in 1998. "Some of his stage movements were copied from Big Chief Wether-ington (of the Statesman), Sumner said.

He liked Jake Hess and James Blackwood, and his favorite black gospel quartet was the Golden Gate Quartet out of San Francisco. He used to carry a briefcase of their records wherever he went, and thats what he would listen to." IF YOU WATCH BY JIM PATTERSON ASSOCIATED PRESS Theres one dream the king of rock roll never realized. "His dream from childhood until I last saw him 11 months before he died was to be a gospel singer, said Donnie Sumner, who toured with Elvis Presley during the 1970s. He never felt like he got to fulfill his mission in life because he got caught up in secular music otherwise known as rock roll. "He Touched Me: The Gospel Music of Elvis Presley on RCA Records features the best of Presleys gospel recordings on a new double CD, and a two-video collection with the same title is being sold by mail order.

The Nashville Network will air an edited version of the video tonight at 9, the anniversary of Presley's 65th birthday. The documentary spans Presley's career, which began in 1954 when he recorded for the Sun label in Memphis and ended with his death at his Graceland mansion in 1977. Presley was raised a Pentecostal in the Assemblies of God. As a youth, he was a regular at EUis Auditorium in Memphis during rousing, intense and harmony-filled gospel music performances gospel music into his shows. In an essay Presley and the Gospel Tradition, published in The Elvis Reader (1992), music historian Charles Wolfe wrote that In the 1950s, Presley considered leaving rock 'n' roll to join a gospel quartet: The fact that Presley, while starting to change the face of American popular music with his new rock music, would even seriously consider an invitation to join a major gospel group suggests how much gospel music counted in his musical values at the time." The documentary shows how gospel music remained a constant in Presleys life.

Especially compelling is footage of the late-night gospel sing alongs that followed his live performances. Tony Brown, who now runs MCA Records in.Nashville, was a member of Donnie Sumner's group Voice and was present at many of those informal get togethers. He said Presley had a different demeanor when he sang gospel. SHININQ STARS "It shown in his face," Brown says in the documentary. "You could tell it was a deeper love for that music than secular main- lease see ELVIS f'age C4 WHAT: "He Touched Me The Gospel Music of Elvis Presley" WHEN: Tonight at 9 WHERE: The Nashville Network DETAILS: An edited version of RCA Records twavideo collection running on the the anniversary of Presley's 65th birthday.

ROCK 'N ROOTS Although Presley rocked the world, he never let go of his gospel roots. Starting with The Jor-danaires, he usually worked ith a gospel quartet and incorporated Elvi? Presley changed the face of American popular music but he always felt strongly connected to his gospel music roots. I RICH MATES a stiff writer for The Lmes Tribune newspapers.