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Show - THE MOUNTAIN MAY FLOWER ONSTAGE ' . s t 1 25, 1973 J 3 PAGE By AMANDA Ken Jenks: Better A Playwright Than Poet Ken Jenks started out as a very bad poet and has wound up a very good playwright. I started writing poetry when I was about 11 years old. They were patriotic and dreadful. Then I went to writing for my high school and college newspapers, but wasnt very successful until I started writing plays when I was about 21. PLAYS ARE definitely the best medium for me. But 1 would like to write films sometime. But right now there is more of a market for plays, so I write plays. The major market for Dr. Jenks plays is The Human Ensemble (THE) Repertory Company, The Glass Factory, Arrow Press Square. The group has presented me original play and (me adaptation by Dr. Jenks. The Gift of Utherina Finchum, and Dracula are the two works and they will present another, The Man in The Meadow, May 31. The Man in The Meadow is a day based around the authors life between the ages of 3 ami 15. It was inspired when he was working with Beata Jencks, psychologist, in a series of mind excursions by using a form of self hypnosis. IT IS A play of how I grew up in a femine Mormon society, and how I grew out of that environment It centers around die people in my family and my lationships with diem. And also my relationship with my dog,' who was a very dose companion of and have become more interest- Mor-monis-m He-cam- Larry "Man Roupe is lead In The Meadow" sadness, etc. But everything is entered around the way I see life. I am basically an optimist since I see everything in life as valuable. Even the sad parts are treated lightly. Although Kens plays are in the comedy vain, he became a comedy playwright by accident. WHEN I FIRST wrote 1116 Girl Who Went To San franc isco I was really sympathetic and serious about die romantic creep who was die lead. I was looking at him serindne.ously and it really surprised The play is not really very me when the audience laughed. I had to take a look at my realistic and is written with almost all the aspects of humor. writing and myself after that - ed in comedy since then. Ken takes most of his ideas from local happenings and personal experiences. But he still finds that they have universal appeal. If a play is good it can be successful anywhere. The good plays are those with universal themes of human things. is well known all over and incidents which happen in it correlate with any other established religion which perse ribes a certain lifestyle for its congregation. WHEN WE presented it (The Man In The Meadow) die first time at The Cosmic Aeroplane this black guy came in and he was drunk out of his mind but die play sobered him up. up to me afterward and said: Man, howd you do that? The woman was just like my grandmother, just like her, man! I really felt good about that. It showed that it really did have universal appeal. I've had some Mormons think its funny and others have it just dewalked out on it the on pends person. He is still rewriting and re- working die play which won die Utah State Fine Arts Play Com- petition in 1971 at Babcock Theater. This year it has been translated into German and produced by the Salt Lake City Duetches Theater. The translation was done by Lottie Geurt-le- r. Larry talks with sparrow, Sunny Madsen during scene of Ken Jenks' production . has it worked through his mind. Then it takes about another two months to get it to a stage where it would be marketable. He still rewrites and reworks after that. He has been averaging about two plays a year. Ken is also a teacher of the humanities series' at the University of Utah, Intellectual Traditions of the West, and has found that teaching and writing gp well together. I FIND that doing both is die best combination for me. I wouldnt like to do either Writing a play is a long profull time. A lot of people find cess for Ken. The first draft stuff strange and I would doesnt even make it to paper my hate to have to write it to sell for about two months after he to people. I find that my teaching also contributes to my writing. It keeps my mind open and shows me new ways to look at the world. Ken has found the Salt Lake Valley in a Renaissance of play production and writing. With the Glass Factory Theater, Theater 138, Rocky Mountain Regional Theater, The Shakespeare Company and, of course, the University of Utah there are more theaters doing quality work then in cities three times its size. Dr. Jenks first became involved with the Hm Ensemble when a personal friend and di- rector of the present Shakespeare Company, Joe Kase, suggested that he do a monologue for Juda Members of The Human Ensemble during a rehearsal of "Man In The. Meadow. Youngstrom, managing director of the Glass Factory. She then asked him to write a play for THE, and that started him with the company. IN THE past five years he has written seven plays which have been produced. We produced at Weber State College in 1970; The Oepedius Piece produced at The Cosmic Aeroplane in 1970; Who Shot Tiny Alice also produced at WSC Dracula done by in 1968; THE in 1971; The Gift of Utherina Finchum produced in 1972 by THE, The Girl Who Went To San Francisco produced in 1972 at die Cosmic Aeroplane and Man In The Meadow. Wilderness Continued ly by noticing the direction of the wind, the shape of the clouds, the feel of die soil beneath ones feet. . By looking into anothers eyes, touching a loved one, spending a night on your own or even an afternoon by yourself alongside the river, by exploring- all the opportunities that we have 'at hand, we can regain that which has been lost. The mountains are a good place to commence the journey,' but I maintain that a man in tune might be able to explore more wilderness in a day sitting on his porch than another less in tune could by walking from Utah to Baja, California. What is happening? Where is the sun at now? How higji is Venus when night drops? Which way does the Big Dipper spiral at night? 'What new flowers came out this morning in your front yard? And where are you? (Reprinted Liferaft) from Snake River GLASS FURNITURE MADE TO ORDER tables , glass cube tables, Spool aquariums terrariums Larry as Kenneth has a very close infriend play. in Nolan Palmer as his dog, Jack CALL DENNIS 364-50- 48 GEORGE |