Enter tainmen t - Joni Mitchell · 2018. 9. 6. · forced to hear 'Rosalita' one more time." He...

Hayenga sparkles in "Elephant - Man."by Jerry Szypaniak

The life of John Merrick (a.k.a.the elephant man ) has received aresurgence of attention in the pastfew years with several plays and,most recently, a movie focusing onit. Probably the most well-knownof these is Bernard Pomerance'shighly acclaimed dramatic play"THE ELEPHANT MAN."

The play "THE ELEPHANTMAN" deals with John Merrick(played by Jeff Hayenga) in hislater years, spent as a sideshowfreak in England until he was be-friended by the young Dr. Fred-erick Treves (Ken Ruta) who thencared for him for 4 years untilMerrick' s bizarre death in 1890(He died as an indirect result ofhis str ange disorder , neuro-fibr omatosis, which produced dis-figuring and crippling growths allover his body).

In the American NationalTheater and Academy's pro-duction, the elephant man is por-trayed without any real costumeor make-up. Instead, in the begin-ning of the play , the audience isshown slides of the real John Mer-rick (taken while he was at theLondon Hospital , Whitechapel)and then forced to rely upon mem-ory and the contortions ofHayenga. This approach is quiteeffective in its uses in the play.While providing the observer withan actual representation of Mer-

rick's affliction, it allows the audi-ence an opportunity to warm up tothe intriguing personality of JohnMerrick, as it is unfolded on stage,without completely turning themoff with his physical aberration. Arealistic representation might justevoke a response of pure pity forthe cripple which would interferewith the understanding of the ad-vanced development of John Mer-rick, the person. The only problemis that any true appreciation of thereal Merrick's abnormalitiesbeing the same as the play's Mer-rick may be forgotten. The audi-ence doesn't see the character thesame way that everyone that ac-tually met him did. However , theaudience doesn't have the sameamount of time to become ac-customed to his physical ap-pearance, so this compromise iswell taken.

The overall presentation isquite effective . The acting in theplay is generally rather good withHayenga (replaced on Broadwayby the highly celebrated DavidBowie) putting in a more than con-vincing job with his physical con-tortions and his quavering, high-pitched voice. Although somelesser , supporting roles were filledby players who seemed a little dis-interested in acting, the per-formances by the main characters(esp. Hayenga ) pretty much allowsone to forget any less than satis-

factory performances.From the mood setting, somber

opening notes of the lone cello tothe final curtain, "THE ELE-PHANT MAN" offers a pityingyet understanding and even ap-preciative look at a man who suf-fered at the hands of nature and at

the hands of his fellowman, butwas not mentally maimed throughbitterness or self-pity. It also pro-vides, without losing the overall

serious tone of the play, a tongue-in-cheek look at contemporary andVictorian thought. But most im-

portantly, it is a good play.

('THE ELEPHANT MAN" jscurrently playing at the ForrestTheater in Philadelphia for a onemonth run. It is also enjoying con-tinued success at the BoothTheater on Broadway.)

T and C defend station formatby Timmy and the Colonel

Last Friday, The Hawk ran thearticle One Man's View: DJ at-tacks new wave, and since this wasa criticism of both our article(Food for thought for the radiolistener) and our work as ProgramDirector and Music Director ofWSJR, we felt we should answerhis article in order to set therecord straight .

Firstly, Jack Myers (the writerof the article) tells us he is goingto provide the readers with somefood for thought to counter thefourteen questions we posed in theprevious week. Well , Jack almostanswered one of them, but he hadhis facts all mixed up. It was agood try , thou gh.

He tells us that listeners tuneinto popular stations because theycater to what is most popular .True enough. Unfortunately, it isthe thinking off these stations thatkeeps things stagnant in music.Everybody's scared to playsomething that is new or differentfor f ear of losing closed-mindedlisteners. (Hasn't rock musicalways strived on growth andnewness? ) Catering to the mostpopular (or average) tastes is thesame argument ABC-TV uses forkeeping Three's Company andCharlie s Angels on the air , isn tit?

We can 't figure out exactlywhere he got the idea that we wantyou to accept, "the scenario of afrustrated college student chainedto an unfriendly radio, beingforced to hear 'Rosalita ' one moretime." He docs make a good point ,though. While it may be far from amajority , there are plenty of peo-ple who are tired of Philadelphiaradio being consistently behindthe times.

No, Jack , there are not a lot ofpeople clamoring to hear the DeadBoys nnd XTC, but eight years agothere were less than fifty people inPhiladelphia who would pay to seeBruce Springsteen at the MainPoint, yet at that time the then-progressive WMMR took a chanceand played his records, and

featured him live from the MainPoint. Places like the Main Pointand Electric Factory Club ofyesteryear have been replaced bythe Starlight Ballroom andEmerald City today when it comesto showcasing unknown artists.

Last week's article tells us thatmusic becomes popular when ithas the quality to be accepted by aplurality of people. Wrongo. Asong becomes popular when itreceives so much airplay that itsticks in the public's minds. Wehave all had the experience offinding ourselves humming orknowing the words to a song wehated. The music that becomespopular is the music the radioprogrammers decide should bepopular. Music is not to be judgedbad or good simply because it getsa lot of airp lay; and conversely, itisn't necessarily good or bad onlybecause it doesn't receive it.

Supply and demand ere nextbrought up by Jack. Thisargument would be appropriate ifwe were discussing bars of soap orlight bulbs; but instead of talkingabout a product , we are speakingof music, which is an art form.

From this point on, last week'sarticle might have been entitled ,"DJ attacks Timmy and theColonel", inasmuch as it is acriticism of our work as officers ofWSJR rather than any type ofmusic. Whether or not the schoolnewspaper is the proper place formembers of organizations to airtheir grievances with the leader-ship of that club is a question wewill not go into here.

Jack makes the argument thatour programming is repetitive. Hewould not think so if he hadstudied the policies of the majorradio stations as we have. At mostof the other stations in town, DJ'sare lucky if they can choose one ortwo songs per hour for themselves..Our staff members can pick morethan half of their program content.

He states that we do not classifyBlondie as new wave at thestation. This is just not true. Wecan't figure out exactly why Jack

would make this up.The question is then brought up

as to why the policies of a majororganization that receives fundingdependent on "the whims of ahandful of people." If WSJR is tobe programmed by that which isthe most popular among thestudent body, then so should otherclubs, like the Caps and Bells, theHawk, the Greatonian and theCrimson and Gray. Each of theseorganizations (all of which, in oneway or another , receives moneyfrom the pockets of all students)has an editor-in-chief or director.The decisions of these clubs,therefore, come down to a fewpeople. The fact remains, though,that this is a college, and for mostof us it is the last chance to becreative, without having the worryof turning a profit.

No one ever said that collegestudents should like only musicthat is new and different , but weare asking everyone to open theirminds a little. It has been saidthat a lack of openness to newthings is a sure sign of lost youth.It's easy to make fun and laugh atthe Cramps, the Silicon Teens andDow Jones and the Industrial swhen you've never heard them, butyour talking about something youdon't know about. Give them alisten before you ridicule them —your arguments will havecredence.

WSJR will continue to programfor those with open enough mindsto accept music that is new and inmany cases different. This musicwill make up about 40% .of our air-time. The rest of the time will con-sist of conventional rock and roll,and our specialty programs —jazz, oldies, folk and classical. Asyou can see, we are attempting tocater to those who Philadelphiacommercial radio largely choosesto ignore. The last thing this cityneeds is another radio station thatsounds like the ones we alreadyhave. In this area of conformity,1we will proudly be " non-conformists.

(Continued on po se 6)

Main Point: end of an era ?by Mark Reilly

Since its opening in 1964 theMain Point, located on LancasterAvenue in Bryn Mawr, has provid-ed the Philadelphia area with anoutstanding array of jazz, folk,blues, and rock. Many of music'sbiggest names started-at the>~MainPoint. Stars like Bruce Spring-steen, James Taylor , Joni Mitchel,George Thorogood, and JacksonBrowne have all made numerousappearances at the Point.

With such outstanding talenthaunting the Main Point, it seemshard to believe that the club is infinancial straits and under thethreat of closing. The loss of theMain Poirit, Philadelphia Maga-zine's number one suburban club,would be a blow to the area as awhole. Today, as in the past, theMain Point maintains high stan-dards, offering the best in newtalent as well as many old favor-ites. It is a mystery to me how,even with the club's excellentreputation , people can be oblivi-

ous to the value of the Main Point.. All tickets at the club are gener-

al admission, but the club is smalland even in the last row you areliterally right next to the stage.Tickets are easy to get throughTicketron or at the Main Point it-self. You don't even have to campout; there are two shows a night.Many of the finest local bands fre-quent the Main Point, and appear-ances by legends like Don McLean

and Tom Rush are not out of theordinary. The kitchen facilitiesare modest, but the brownies arefirst rate and the service is goodIn general,' the atmosphere is aj.ways energetic but much morepersonal than the Spectrum oiother arenas. If you're over 21,B.Y.O.B., and if you're not, just gofor the music. In any case, do itsoon or you may be too late.

David Lindley, Bruce Springsteen, and Jackson Browne in Main Poinldressing room.

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