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Show l II - - - ! - .-. J:X-V'' r V ', - ' I, L u V ' 1 On his way to present a reckoning of his life before God and Death. I vervman finds the sins of his lite are weighing him down in The Guthrie Theater's ' production of Everyman. coming to Moab on May 2c for a performance at Star Hall. For ticket information call The limes-Independent. Tne actors, left to right: James L. Sandiford musician). Gary Martinez. Terrence O'Hcrn. Valery Daemke. Wilberto Kosario. John l v Martin, Michael Boyle. Sheriden Thomas. "Everyman" Production Monday hrings Real Talent to Moab Stage I A pile of bodies lies fe unmoving on the stage floor. Out of the darkness a weary f.cure appears Everyman. The figure calls: "Good Deeds. I stand in fear. I pray ptha' .ve S w''h nie." and (J 'bom the very bottom of the I mass a hand moves feebly in I response. The moment is a gripping one. The piled bodies represent the useless material possessions, the sins and the II .unkind acts weighing Every-I Every-I mm down as he pursues his journey to meet God and Death to present a reckoning U of his life. The director of The Guthrie Theater's production of Everyman, Every-man, coming to Moab next Monday. May 2o. is a tall, dynamic man, Robert Bene-detti. Bene-detti. Taking the original J; words of the medieval play, he has created a unique produc- tion. a joyful, contemporary exploration of a universal th erne. Man's reckoning with Death. In the play. Everyman, summoned by Death and informed that he has only 24 hours to live, hastily and desperately tries to find someone to go with him on his journey. He goes first to his friends, family and material wealth. All these reject him. Afterwards he seeks help from more abstract qualities such as Beauty, Strength and Discretion, Discre-tion, but jhese too desert him. Only his Good Deeds, that which l(e has given of himself, accompanies him. Appealing to All Ages Robert Benedetti's staging of Every man is theatrical and acrobatic, appealing on a visual and emotional level to people of all ages. The son of Italian parents who emigrated to Chicago, Benedetii spoke no I nghsh until he was six years old. He first became interested in the theater through the influence of a high school teacher, but initially thought he would like to be a painter or scenic designer. It was while he was in college at Northwestern that he began acting and has since earned his living as an actor, set designer, and technical director. l;or the niosi part, however. Benedetii has worked work-ed as a director and teacher with leading scIum'Is of theater such as the Vale School of Drama, the Carnegie Mellon University and the National Theatre School of Canada. While directing King fear. The Taming of the Shrew and Henry VI. Part I for the Colorado Shakespeare Fcsti-IContinucd Fcsti-IContinucd on Page H2 llalent Comes to Moab Stage Continued from Page Bl val, Benedetti lectured as a guest professor at the University Univers-ity of Colorado. He has written one of the leading American textbooks on acting, The Actor at Work. Currently Dean of the School of theatre, California Institute of the Arts, he took a leave of absence from the school to direct Everymen for the Guthrie. Penetrate to the Center In talking about his staging of Everymen (a play which dates about 1495), so that it can be understood and appreciated apprec-iated by modern audiences, Benedetti said, "What I try to do is to penetrate to what I would call the vision or vital center of the play, the basic expedrience that it contains, and then to work back from that in making whatever adaptations I need to bring that essential experience to the sensibility of the contemporary contem-porary audience. I chose Everyman because there's only a basic scenario, so there's a lot of room for improvisation and for creativity creativ-ity on the part of the director and the actors. In the way we're doing Everyman, the play essentially takes the form of a ritual, which is different from a play. The usual play proceeds on the basis of a central conflict, a plot which develops that conflict and which finally resolves it. Evervman does have that kind of a plot and we do utilize it. But a ritual moves more like the way dreams move, very viscerally and acting very much through the body, so we premise our work in the physical experience -- the visual, the auditory and the emotional level of experience rather than in the intellectual. intellec-tual. We hope our audiences will come to us with a very open kind of accepting feeling to join with us as real partners in the play." The Chance is Coming The audience and the actors will really come face to face at Moab. Following the performance, perform-ance, there'll be an informal opportunity for the actors to mingle with those members of the audience who would like to stay and talk to them. According to Benedetti. "As the audience comes in they 11 meet the actors who will be moving among them, welcoming welcom-ing them like a host greeting his guests. This is partially to help make the discussion after the production a little easier. It won't be a grAup kind of thing and I hope the audience won't feel obligated to stay. It'll be a one-on-one thing where each cast member has been assigned assign-ed an area of the auditorium and will meet the people on a personal basis in that area, to share the experiences that we have had in preparing the show and that the audience has had in seeing it." A Human Approach Benedetti's approach to Everyman is a very human one. "We're not terribly interested in the moral aspects of the play, the sense of what is right and wrong," he says. "What we're more interested in is the living of life with a sense of openness of the flow of life, the acceptance of death as part of life. Essentially the transition that everyone seems to go through, if they're lucky, is out of a social phase, through a materialistic phase, into, finally, a spiritual phase - of their existence. That change seems to be going on in our own culture in the United States. We see a revival of interest in religion, of charismatic charis-matic religion, of the speaking of tongues even among the older, established denomina tions that are returning to very active forms of worship. The removal of Latin in the Catholic Church, the establishment establish-ment of lay preachers, the use of song and dance in all kinds of religious worship, all for me represent a return to a kind of spiritual root in our culture. We know that as a culture we'll survive only when we renew ourselves spiritually. So that's really what the play is all about and the kind of experience that I'm hoping the actors and the audience will have." All of this promises an entertaining, exciting and stimulating sti-mulating evening in the theater when the Guthrie comes to tow n. Tickets are on sale at The Times-Independent and at KL'RA Radio. V'-' . ." J " - ' V". - ; ,- ' . . . f .1 h : , ; ( '7 - " h.f : i - V.A ' . . - Mr. and Mrs. Charles Jr. Nordfelt of Moab would like to fk announce the engagement of their daughter, SuEllen, to Richard Denison, son of Mr. and Mrs. Amel Denison of Price. The couple plans a July wedding in the Provo LDS Temple. SuEllen, a 1973 honor graduate of Grand County High School, will complete the CEU Licensed Practical Nursing Program in August. Richard, a 1973 Carbon High honor graduate, will receive his Associate of Science degree from CEU in June. They plan on making their ,' home in Provo where Richard will attend BYU in the fill. - |