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Show r" L SOUTHERN UTAH STATE COLLEGE, CEDAR CITY THE THUNDERBIRD MONDAY, OCTOBER 30, 1989 PAGE 8 Zahner shines in Stage II 89 opener THEATRE REVIEW BY LISA KEENE The theatre departments Stage season opened Thursday to house with an impressive performance by Matthew C. Zahner as older brother Lee in Sam Shepards True West. The play is set in a typical American kitchen. The word typical is an understatement of the set. Every detail of a home kitchen is attended to., .right down to the medicine bottles above the sink and the grandchildrens artwork on the refrigerator. The home is located about 40 miles east of Los Angeles. The play begins with Austin (Bud Metters) who is house sitting for his mother who is vacationing in Alaska. Austin had just finished writing a screenplay that he would be making a deal on hours from now. His older brother Lee (Zahner), who has spent three months in the desert, comes to the house. Lee immediately raids the beer and proceeds to get drunk and violent. Austin, embarrassed at his brothers behavior, tries to get rid of him before a movie producer comes to the house. Before Austin can get Lee out of the house, Saul (Joe Martinez), the producer, comes and encounters Lee. Instead of being turned off by his behavior, Saul is rather intrigued by Lee. They go so far as to set a tee time for golf the next morning. The story continues with Lee wowing Saul with a story idea of his own. Saul finds the story that Austin found dull very innovative and exciting. To pay off a gambling debt over the golf game, Saul puts Austins screenplay on hold to concentrate on Lees modern western. When Austin finds out, he is dumbfounded that his love story is scrapped for his uneducated brothers western. Theres no such thing as the West anymore. Its a dead issue, What makes Austin even more irate is that Saul wants him to write the II a full Organist Michael Ohman made a grand entrance into Fridays showing of the silent movie Phantom of the Opera. Ohman, an accomplished organist, performed to embellish the show with emotion. Phantom comes to Thorley BY KIMBERLY DRIGGS Friday night at the Thorley Recital Hall, a coffin was carried in by seven pallbearers and placed quietly down before faculty member James W. Harrison opened it, freeing Michael Ohman, organist, who played an accompaniment to the 1925 silent movie version of Phantom of the Opera. The black and white movie, starring Lon Chaney as the phantom, was subtitled in English and augmented with Ohmans improvisational music. As musicians in a performance we hope you lose sight of us, said Ohman, who wants the music to fit so perfectly into the storyline that the audience doesnt realize its there but rather, thinks it is their own emotions. He says the music is simply to underscore feelings. The subtitles didnt seem the important source for the storyline when compared to the music The audience seemed to rely on it to tell whether the ballerinas below the opera hall in the ancient dungeons where the phantom lives were running from him or just lost in the maze of passages and corridors. The music helped to keep the mystery when a man always appeared just as the phantom was seen or heard but never spoke or harmed anyone. The audience was confident of him because of the change in the organs tone when he disclosed his identity as an honest man. Its mostly finding themes for fitting the characters and ideas that underscore love, scary parts, or the villains, said Ohman. Most of the music he uses is taken from classical songs. Ohman has been playing for several silent movies for 20 years, including the Little Rascals and Laurel & Hardy films. Symphony to perform Thursday The Utah Symphony Orchestra will stir the human spiiit Nov. 2 in the Centrum when it performs works by Tchaikovsky, R. Strauss and Edward Elgar for the Cedar City Music Arts audience. Maestro Joseph Silverstein will conduct the 8 1989-9- 0 p.m. concert, is the first program in the by the Music Arts series. It is being Iron County School District. The Utah Symphony has long been favorite of the Music Arts audience, and we are delighted to welcome the renowned orchestra here for our season premier, said Music Arts Carmen Hepworth. Richard Strauss Don Juan, Op. 20, is the first program selection. The tone poem for large orchestra will be performed in Cedar City almost 100 years to the day after its Nov. 11, 1889, world premiere. The inspiration for the Co-preside- nt symphonic work came from Strauss 1887 meeting with Pauline de Ahna, the woman he would soon marry. The impassioned love themes of Don Juan were written under the spell of this romance. Next on the program is Edward Elgars Introduction and Allegro for String Quartet and String Orchestra, Op. 47. Written for the London Symphony Orchestras 1905 inaugural season, the work is among the greatest works for string orchestra in the concert repertory and is one of the masterpieces of British music. The English composer is best known for his Pomp and Circumstances marches. The orchestra will perform Piotr Ilyich Tchaikovskys Symphony No. 4 in F Minor, Op. 36 following intermission. The Fourth Symphony was composed in 1877 and 1878 and is a product of the most crucial and turbulent time in the young composers life. There is not a single line in the Symphony, Tchaikovsky wrote to a friend, that I have not felt my whole being and that has not been a true echo of the soul. Concert tickets, $10, will be available at the door as will season passes, $20, which cover admission to the entire Music Arts series. Iron County School District students are admitted free when accompanied by an adult ticket holder, and SUSC students will be admitted at no charge by show of their activity cards. five-proga- m screenplay. The premise then turns. Lee is now an educated writer at the typewriter and Austin turns to booze and, he thinks, crime, stealing several toasters from neighborhood. This creates the funniest scene in the play. There will be a general lack of toast in the town today. The story continues with Austin and Lee bitterly engaging in bitter sibling rivalry, meanwhile letting the house turn into shambles and letting Mothers plants die. The play climactically ends with Austin and Lee finally getting their real frustrations out, and a dramatic, excellent performance by Zahner. He and Metters worked well together, creating, by far, the best scene of the play. The small space in which the play was portrayed helped the emotion more than hindered. The intimacy provided for such coffee advantages as the audience smelling beer, and smoke from matches and a fire Lee starts in an aluminum fresh-groun- d bowl. Zahner, who has studied at the Wesigen Center for Creative Youth and the Boston University for Creative Arts, used his knowledge to its fullest potential. His strength in loud scenes conveyed true emotion to the audience. Zahners overall performance was striking, but the final scene really showed the actors true ability. Metters performance was good as well, although somewhat overshadowed by Zahners. He wasnt able to impart a sense of passion in the argument scenes and his best performance was also reserved for the final scene in which the characters emotion came through and seemed to shake up the audience. Although Jensens role was short, she held her own. Her performance was convincing as she portrayed the naive mother who had no idea of the bitter battle being fought in her sons hearts and fists. The mother who misread that the dead artist Picasso was going to be in town, told her youngest, Austin, stop killing your brother. Dont miss this play that will continue Nov. 2, 3 and 4, in the Auditorium Theatre at 8 p.m. Director R. Scott Phillips says, Just relax and let yourself be carried away. |