arts&entertainraent THREAD Sometimes going home for the weekend to visit the folks is a little tense, but you can bet that it’s not as intense as Clyde Owens’ trip home to rural North Carolina in Jonathan Bolt's Threads. Threads, the‘first of two plays this quarter presented by the Dramatic Arts Department, is a family drama about the homecoming of a less-than- successful Hollywood actor to the mill town he grew up in. As with most contemporary dramas, the famlily reunion develops into a series of con­ frontations and introspection. Director William Glover calls it an old-fashioned, simple play that is as warm and humorous as it is dramatic. Glover, a guest lecturer in the department of Dramatic Art, comes to UCSB as a professional, having directed at the Mark Taper Forum and played the voice of Winston in Disney’s Oliver and Company. His best summation of Threads was, "it’s en­ tertaining.” "When you go to the theater you go to be en­ tertained,” said Glover. “Its the opposite of television. TV says ‘don’t get involved’ ... theater says 'please come, please think.’ When you leave, the experience has made you richer.” Threads may not be a great piece of art, but it’s not TV. The play rises from the depths of mere en­ tertainment by tapping into a raw nerve of human experience: family. The Owens family draws the personal life of playwright Bolt, who knew fir­ sthand the hardship of working in a textile mill and interacting in a rural family. Few of the mostly ur­ ban-bred UCSB audience could claim that kind of background, but almost all of us know what it is to try to come to terms with our own identity and discover what our family means to us. Director Glover used that common experience to bring out quality performances from the student I cast, which he calls young but "very mature. ...Directing is drawing from, it’s not dictating.” he J said. "All good acting originates in the gut of the actor.” Arts talked with Christopher Emerson, who plays Clyde Owens, after the final dress rehearsal. It took several minutes for him to break out of the North Carolinan accent that he and the cast have spent many hours working on. "The language of the play helps you get right into it,” he said with a drawl. Carolyn McLaughlin plays Sally Owens, the mother whose imminent death from cancer has drawn her family together. McLaughlin calls her character "a classic Southern mom. I’m basing her on my great-grandmother, a proper Texas mother and a friend of the family who passed away recently.” _ The threads of the title are at once too deep at workTiere, though; just the the threads of the characters’ lives and common experience of living, those of the mill. Both function in the Threads plays Feb. 23 through 25 and dual role of binding and causing cuts, Feb. 28 through March 4 at the Studio We’ve Got Movies 3A reminiscent of the cuts loom-workers Theater. For ticket information, contact We've Got Talk 4^, 5A receive after years in the mill. Nothing Arts and Lectures. We’ve Got Music 6A, 7A 2A Thursday, February 23,1989 For their UCSB show on Thursday, March 2 (you guessed it: 8 PM in Campbell Hall), the Boys will be graced with the presence of the beloved Scottish folksinger, Jean Redpath. But "to call Jean Redpath a Scottish folksinger is a bit like calling Michalangelo an Italian interior designer, " according to the Edinburgh Evening News. She is most commonly Jcnown to u£ as Garrison Keillor's endearing frequent guest on public radio's, "A Prairie Home Companion." outhful irtuosity sonatas in Campbell Hall with Y V Schumann's Sonata in A minor, Op. At a mere 21 years of age, violinist 105; Franck's Sonata in A Major for Joshua Bell regularly incites critical Violin and Piano; and Beethoven's raves like this: "Bell's tone is suave, Sonata No. 9 in A Major, Op. 47 richly varied and never yields to stress ("Kreutzer"). Tickets are on sale now or strain. His intonation is uncannily at the A&L Ticket Office. pure, his technique virtually infallible, 9 his taste impeccable...a top flight violinist, with no reservations." There's Nothing (Los Angeles Times) Folk Music to Sigh Like Jubilation! From the 14-year-old prodigy who Over The 10 exuberant and highly-skilled shocked the music world (and stole a For over 10 years, the Boys of the dancers of Jubilation! Dance Company few hearts) as the youngest ever soloist Lough (sounds like "lock") have exude reverence for their culture and to play with the Philadelphia brought the music of Ireland, Scotland, refuse to confine themselves within Orchestra, Bell has successfully made the Shetlands and England's the norms of any previous dance the leap where many young artists Northumberland region, with all the traditions. On the penultimate (it stumble and fall. He now enjoys a intensity and emotion found in those means "second to last") day of Black brilliant adult performing and cultural traditions, to the rest of the History Month, Monday, February 27, recording career. world. Jubilation! will present a free lecture- demonstration at 4 PM in Campbell On a very special tour, as well as on a Their impeccable musicianship is Hall. The group, whose very purpose new recording, Joshua Bell is joined by matched only by the awe-inspiring is to make an artistic statement about the young French pianist Jean-Yves number of instruments the Boys play: and for Black America, will dance and Thibaudet, who soars to equal heights from flute, guitar, mandolin and discuss their work. on his instrument. Next month, he fiddle to penny whistle, uillean pipes, will perform at Lincoln Center in New cittern and concertina. (Don't know This lecture-demonstration is your York in the Great Performers series. what they are? Look it up!) Their only chance to see Jubilation! unless concerts feature lively jigs, toe-tapping you bought a ticket to their February 28 On Thursday, February 23 at 8 PM, the reels, marches, polkas, aires and performance before it sold out weeks duo will present an evening of lilting hornpipes. ago. Don't miss it!. M o n d a y Tuesday Wednesday Thursday F rid ay S aturday Sunday UCSB 23 24 25 26 Joshua Bell it Jean-Yves Thibaudet 8 PM/Campbcll Hall 27 28 l 2 3 4 5 Barbara Ehrenreich Jubilation! Dance Co. 4 PM/Girvetz 1004 Boys o f the Lough P ek ing O p era B lu e s A&L Demonstration with Jean Redpath 8 PM/Campbell Hall 8 PM/Campbcll Hall ARTS & LECTURES 4 PM/Campbell Hall Jubilation! Dance Co. 8 PM/Campbell Hall Charge tickets by phone: 961-3535. 0 2 • 2 3 • 8 9 SA THE OLE SWITCHEROO Review of'Cousins' Leave it to the French friend." Sure enough, wife. Providing another to originally produce a they begin to fall in love stereotypical character is film about crisscrossing with one another, evoking Sean Young, playing marriage partners. Joel an extremely jealous Patricia, who’s in stark Schumacher takes the reaction from Tom contrast to Maria. idea and improves upon it (William Peterson) and Patricia, “Tish,” is im­ with his own version of Patricia (Sean Young), pulsive, fashion-conscio­ “Cousin-Cousine." The the two who started an us and heavily reliant on American movie, affair originally. her physical beauty to Cousins, presents an Almost immediately the affirm her existence. instance of mate­ viewer begins to question These stereotypical swapping through which which affair is really more characters are, to some the nature of marriage innocent, the purely degree, unsatisfying. and the all-too-common sexual fling between Tom They seem to imply that one another when falling difficulty of sexual in­ and Tish, or the deeper where there is im­ in love will not last. Tom fidelity are explored. platonic relationship pulsiveness or spon­ spells out this In a sense, Cousins is a between Larry and taneity and vanity, there phenomenon when he film about good guys and Maria? is infidelity; that where says to his wife of 12 THE bad guys: the former are Conflicting feelings there is reservation and years, "We were in love 26 So. Chestnut D ow ntow n Ventura 648-1888 faithful to their spouses, abound, especially in the modesty, there is loyalty once; we got over it." while the latter act out character of Maria. — a rather simplistic It is always a shame Feb 23 LEGENDS OF their lustful fantasies and Rossellini convincingly assertion about human when the wonderful CHICAGO BLUES seek sex outside the plays a Catholic schoolgirl personality. elements of film are not J Feb 24 PO NCHO SANCHEZ marriage. Yet the story all grown up into a The partners in the employed to at least some The Estrada Brothers deepens considerably Catholic wife and mother midst of the switch degree of the potential. beyond this simple with a terribly mismat­ themselves articulate With regard to Feb 25 KMGQ FUSION MAGIC w/ construction. The two ched marriage. She many of the ambiguities cinematography and THE BRANDON FIELDS faithful spouses, Larry manages to justify surrounding the topic, soundtrack, Cousins is BAN DfRippingtons) (Ted Danson) and Maria denying her own hap­ often suggesting the very mainstream, nothing UNCLE FESTIVE w /guest Luis Conte (Isabella Rossellini) begin piness because her naivete of assuming that new or exciting. Still, the DOUG CAMERON an “ innocent” husband and daughter love and marriage narrative element is 1 M arl LIVE BOXING relationship of their own “ need her." Her husband necessarily go hand-in- thoughtful and sub­ with the excuse of trying Tom is an obnoxious, hand.