El Paso Herald-Post from El Paso, Texas • 28

ate 6 SHOWTIME EL PASO HERALD-POST, Saturday, December 4, 1976 Living with Rev. DENVER (UPI) Ann B. Davis, best known for her role as housekeeper in television's "'The Brady Bunch," is part of a new, large household that of Colorado's Episcopal bishop. A veteran of 25 years in show business, Ms. Davis, 50, moved to Denver last January and took up residence with 18 others in the Rt.

Rev. William C. Frey's home. She said she has almost retired from acting. "I WAS tired of show business tired of running around like a chicken with my head chopped off," THE MOST SHOCKING EPISODE IN THE HISTORY OF HUMAN SURVIVAL! -CAUTIONon the Jr hook THE THE CREATION OF SURVIVAL THE PLANE SCENES CRASH AND SURVIVE' by Based Clay Blau TOO INTENSE FOR YOUNG TEENAGERS: at Pictures Presents A Robert Stigweed Allan Carr Presentation "SURVIV Produced by Conscine and I Rene Cardona, Jr.

Directed by Rene Cardona I RESTRICTED In Color A Paramount Release SHOW TIMES 7:00 10:10 pm ALSO: "HUSSLE "'Starring Burt Reynolds Show Times 5:30 8:40 PM Rated SPECIAL DOUBLE FEATURE ADULTS 1.50 KIDS 1.00 Rushfair RUSHFAIR TREATER RUSHING AT CENTER 751-4236 FAIRBANKS MONTWOOD THEATRES MONTWOOD AT YARBROUGH 592 8105 A TALL TALE ABOUT LITTLE Adults $2.00 PEOPLE! $1.00 200 BIG WEEK 00 2 WALT DISNEY SCREENS presents 4113 I GNOME Re released by BUENA VISTA DISTRIBUTING INC. DISNEY PRODUCTIONS 2ND FINAL WEEK ROBERT SHAW IN "SWASHBUCKLER" PO Frey is 'fun' she said. "'The way we live at the bishop's house is economical and it's fun. The last part is as important as the first." According to Ms. Davis, she underwent a renewal of faith three years ago and met Bishop Frey about the same time while appearing at the Colorado Music Hall.

She said she met many other church leaders while on the road. ter. The pair earned $2 for a puppet show. Her first major role came 20 years ago as Schultzy on the "Bob Cummings Show." "I'M NOT bitter, I just wanted to change my life. I still have friends in the show business community, but I had my fill of the other life and now I feel much closer to God," she said.

Capricorn One production set "Capricorn One," an ITC Entertainment film, will begin production on Jan. 3 in Hollywood and Red Rock Canyon, it was announced by president Abe Mandell. Starring Elliott Gould, Hal Holbrook, James Brolin, Sam Waterson and Brenda Vaccaro, with special appearances by Candice Bergen and Telly Savalas, "Capricorn One" is being presented by Sir Lew Grade for Associated General Films. Paul Lazarus is the producer and Peter Hyams is directing his original screenplay. "Capricorn One," which deals with a gigantic hoax perpetrated by the United States space program, will be one of the most provocative and controversial motion pictures in 1977.

"THERE WERE several other areas I considered, but I enjoy the Frey family," she said. "Maybe God has a good reason for me to be here. God couldn't have picked a better place for men, could He?" A native of Schenectady, N.Y., Ms. Davis first appeared on stage at the age of six with her twin sis- GENERAL CINEMA THEATRES LAST 6 DAYS! "It's a ball of a -Judith Crist THE RiTZ key to hilarity. CIELO VISTA MALL CINEMA 1-10 at HAWKINS 779-0181 GRIPPING "One of the WEEK! Year's Best" Judith Crist SATURDAY REVIEW WOODY ALLEN "THE FRONT" ZERO MOSTEL MERSCHEL BERNARDI MANAGEMENT DOES NOT RECOMMEND ALL PG FILMS FOR YOUNGER CHILDREN CINEMAS PG EVERY DAY 'TIL 2:00 P.M.

$1.50 MARATHON DUSTIN HOFFMAN MAN Joan Quarm 'Nutcracker' In December we all become children again, and press our noses against windows of the past, where lollipops and toys tempt us into a world of make-believe. We grow hungry for what is gone, or never was and might have been equally hungry, whether our Christmases were beautiful times of wich fulfillment, or sad hungry yearnings for a Santa Claus who forgot to call. In either case, this is the season for dreaming and remembering and yearning to go home again, to such a degree that many of us become sad when we should be happy. We want to lose ourselves in life before the fall from grace. We want to attend a real Christmas party, full of magic.

And we can. Every year the University-Civic Ballet has pledged itself to give us that party in Magoffin Auditorium. Every year, a little girl called Clara has the Christmas all little girls should be given, and we are privileged to lose our troubles with her, in a world of fantasy called "'The Nutcracker." FORTUNATELY FOR El Paso, the artistic director of our ballet company is German. Ingeborg Heuser makes a wonderful combination of her own choreography with that of the best of Lev Ivanov, George Balanchine, Ruth Petronovic and John McFall. Together, they invite us to a party we cannot resist.

It has everything Charles Dickens ever wrote into a Victorian Christmas, much of which came from Germany, by courtesy of the Queen's husband, Prince Albert. And each year it is a different party, better than that of the year before. It has authenticity, and I defy any professional company. in America to make Act One of "The Nutcracker" more vitally alive than we see it here. Frequently, choreographers listen to Tchaikowsky's heart-warming music, mutter "Crowd scene," and fill in the measures with vague romps.

I saw such an interpretation in Houston last year, and was not impressed, despite adult dancers and expensive settings. Ingeborg Heuser remembers. That is the difference. What she remembers comes from her heritage. It includes a Christmas card pastiche of top-hatted gentlemen and cloaked ladies walking ahead of their prim children, gifts in hand, on their way to a party.

It includes a door and a keyhole and children peeping into a forbidden room where the Christmas tree is waiting. This year, the children light candles and march in, reminding us that once the lights were not electric. The soft glow becomes rich and warm, and the party begins. There is gift-giving, with hugs and kisses each child on tiptoe with excitement, each parent gentle with love. There is playing and romping, and crying and being kissed and made well, when a fall brings bruises.

Little girls dance their "party as little girls used to do. Little boys simply cannot behave. When could they? The grownups dance, the children play, and the best of all magicians arrives in little Clara's godfather, old Dr. Drosselmeyer. This year Brian Swingle plays him, with a special magic born out of his own years in theater and opera.

Dance is much a matter of mime, and this actor makes us believe that he is really winding up mechanical dolls and making them perform. TWO PAIRS, life-size, arrive in boxes. Pierrot and Pierette turn and posture, followed by a military couple, played very well by Kendall Cherry and Ernest Tolentino, who are so angular, so stiff-jointed, so inclined to run down just when the music tells them, that it is hard to believe that they are not toys. Tanya Barrientos is a Clara full of the charm of childhood, dancing on thistledown. Mark Loomis and Andree Harper are the gentlest of parents.

The parade into supper and the grand processional are as real as the boys' teasing, the girls' sentimental play, and Clara's sleepiness at the end of the party. The mouse-eye view of the room, which occurs at midnight, is technical magic. When a tree grows before our eyes and we shrink until the wainscot is enormous, we believe that there is a Santa Claus, indeed. When little tin soldiers fight enormous mice, and have a hard time winning, we become very small indeed. When Clara and a magic escort fly high above us in a walnut shell to the Kingdom of Sweets, we fly with them, drooling at the thought of ice cream and cake, even if we gave up such fattening follies years ago.

Act Two of "The Nutcracker" is a series of divertissements, or entertainments, arranged to please little Clara. The Sugar Plum Fairy is in charge, and last night at Maggofin Auditorium she was a girl with a future in ballet: Leticia Hernandez, Miss Hernandez is a natural, built to dance, with timing and grace inherent rather than absorbed. When she dances professionally, I hope that she will not change her name, for nothing Russian could be more pure in line than this border girl. Ballet Master John Gardner, partnering her, worked with self-denying care for her, so that she should always appear to her best. Both were rightly well-received.

OF THE divertissements, "Hot Chocolate" was lively, with Kathy Henderson, Myrth Lotspeich and Patsy Johnson: the last a beautiful black dancer who bears watching, for she, too, is a natural talent. Andree Harper was fascinating in "Coffee from Arabia," well-partnered by oomis in a fine duet. Gregory Rodge and Ernest Tolentino were popular as energetic Russians, while Kathi Henderson and Roxan Lotspeich were, as they have always been, among the best dancers onstage. When they SOloed, applause was spontaneous. Without an orchestra there would be no ballet, and Maestro Laurence Gibson trained his university orchestra to full efficiency.

Violins were delicate, woodwinds were magic, and the temp never failed. Lighting by Robin Quarm and costumes by Ingeborg Heuser and Rosa Barrientos gave visual color to the dance. This is the best "Nutcracker" party I have yet attended and I look forward to many more. Tonight, next Friday and Saturday, at 8, and both Sundays at 2:30 p.m. veil.