goslings humorous but predictable

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Goslings - Humorous But Predictable By DEVIN BROWN CHARLESTON - "Goslings" is a musical about the images some people have of college life - complete with football players, a bookworm, two black students from "the South Side," a socialite glamour-girl, a fat girl, two incompetent professors, and many other oft-used stereotypes. The Eastern IllinoiS University Theatre production is a rock-musical with script, music and lyrics by Asa Baber, who recently joined the university's English Department. The play made its debut in the Fine Arts .Playroom Friday night and will be per- formed again at 8 p.m. tonight, Thursday, Friday and Saturday. Friday and Satur- day's performances are sold out and tickets were going fast for tonight's and Thursday's, Jay Sain of the Theatre Arts Department said Monday. ' The play's opening song, "High Hopes" expresses the characters' desires that their endeavors will be successful. The endeavors of those involved wilh the production, like lhose of the characters portrayed, are usually successful, bul not always. The play has no single plot line, just many one-dimensional characters in a series of predictable situation$. Jack, the slick campus politician, comes apart after losing his t!leclion . Orville, a farm boy, dons a wig and beads to acquire a "cool" image. Abduhl, a black student, lacks discipline but blames the "honkey" university for his troubles. And so on. The actors and actresses do a fantastic job almost without exception, but the material they have to worl{ with, while sometimes humorous, is less than profound. Although written recently , the play seems trapped in out-dated issues from the sixties and eiirly seventies - like long hair, Watergate, and the atomic bomb, rather than current college life. Three unanswered-questions arise as the action unfolds: Why another over-done Nixon parody (this time as a narcotics agent)? Why the repetition of the worn-out theme that nuclear weapons in the control of the immature are dangerous? And, why the extraordinary abundance of passe cliches ("Keep on keeping on") and trite or forced rhymes (rules/schools, Spanish Moss/tempest tossed) throughout the lyrics? Some lines, not worth repeating, came back, unfortunately, two or three times - the worst being "Macho Man, where'd you get your tan?" Although the material is sometimes weak, there are many very good spots in the play. A scene called "The Jocks" is the best satire I have ever seen on the college football player as very masculine but very dumb. A freshman footballer has a nightmare in which his coach and team- .mates dress in drag and act like "faggots" while discussing contemporary philosophy and political theory. The first act reaches another high point in the final scene, "Letter Home," in which an aspiring student dancer, prac- ticing at the dance bar, recites a letter to her mother on the differences between their generations . The student expresses regrets about her mother's mistakes, but also laments lhe loss of the simpler time jn which her mother attended the same school. Having come across a yearbook photo of her mother at an old May Day celebration, she says, "I wish we still had Mqypoles." At another point, students walk hurriedly across stage, on their way to class, spouting one-liners so perfect that one wishes the walking-to-class transition had been used more often. Golden the hippy, popping off her ear- phones every now and then and rambling on about anything that has nothing to do with the topic at hand, provides other high spots amidst the play's weaknesses. Notably lacking is a "real" professor. The two portrayed are unable to face real life situations. One crumbles when he is propositioned by an attractive, and very fresh, freshman hoping to gain admission to his graduate course; the other is unable to do anything to help a student about to commit suicide because the professor is unable to monitor the student's kidney functions . A third teacher, this one a student teacher at "Coolidge High," cracks-up in front of a class of urban ghetto sweath?gs who intimidate her and are supposedly interested only in sex, drugs and violence. The portrayal of the three teachers is good, but lop-sided. Technical aspects of the play, often unnoticed unless something goes wrong, are praiseworthy in "Goslings." The back- up band is good, and is balanced throughout although the bass should have been louder. Sound effects and lighting are flawless . .-/ The costumes are well done. Not only are the college characters dressed realistically (not a difficult ac- complishment), but so are the farmer, the nursery children, the coach, the robots, and the narcotics agent. The play is laden with dancing and movement, and the more people on stage, the better the choreography is. The dance often regresses to uninspired "bumping" and unpatterned "disco" when fewer characters are involved. In spite of its several faults, "Goslings" got to me a few times. I was saddened by "Letter Home" and was glad Orville went back to being his farmer self and was able to change Jack's mind about suicide. And, I really liked the football coach (I'm sure he likes me too) . I heard three appropriate comments from other theatre-goers as I left Friday night. One said the play was enjoyaQle; another said it was entertaining; a third , said "Well, it was different." All three were right. Theresa Spar/in's dancing was a high point of 'Goslings'

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Page 1: Goslings Humorous But Predictable

Goslings - Humorous But Predictable By DEVIN BROWN

CHARLESTON - "Goslings" is a musical about the images some people have of college life - complete with football players, a bookworm, two black students from "the South Side," a socialite glamour-girl, a fat girl, two incompetent professors, and many other oft-used stereotypes.

The Eastern IllinoiS University Theatre production is a rock-musical with script, music and lyrics by Asa Baber, who recently joined the university's English Department.

The play made its debut in the Fine Arts .Playroom Friday night and will be per­formed again at 8 p.m. tonight, Thursday, Friday and Saturday. Friday and Satur­day's performances are sold out and tickets were going fast for tonight's and Thursday's, Jay Sain of the Theatre Arts Department said Monday.'

The play's opening song, "High Hopes" expresses the characters' desires that their endeavors will be successful. The endeavors of those involved wilh the production, like lhose of the characters portrayed, are usually successful, bul not always.

The play has no single plot line, just many one-dimensional characters in a series of predictable situation$. Jack, the slick campus politician, comes apart after losing his t!leclion. Orville, a farm boy, dons a wig and beads to acquire a "cool" image. Abduhl, a black student, lacks

discipline but blames the "honkey" university for his troubles. And so on.

The actors and actresses do a fantastic job almost without exception, but the material they have to worl{ with, while sometimes humorous, is less than profound.

Although written recently, the play seems trapped in out-dated issues from the sixties and eiirly seventies - like long hair, Watergate, and the atomic bomb, rather than current college life.

Three unanswered-questions arise as the action unfolds: Why another over-done Nixon parody (this time as a narcotics agent)? Why the repetition of the worn-out theme that nuclear weapons in the control of the immature are dangerous? And, why the extraordinary abundance of passe cliches ("Keep on keeping on") and trite or forced rhymes (rules/schools, Spanish Moss/tempest tossed) throughout the lyrics? Some lines, not worth repeating, came back, unfortunately, two or three times - the worst being "Macho Man, where'd you get your tan?"

Although the material is sometimes weak, there are many very good spots in the play. A scene called "The Jocks" is the best satire I have ever seen on the college football player as very masculine but very dumb. A freshman footballer has a nightmare in which his coach and team­.mates dress in drag and act like "faggots" while discussing contemporary philosophy and political theory.

The first act reaches another high point in the final scene, "Letter Home," in which an aspiring student dancer, prac­ticing at the dance bar, recites a letter to her mother on the differences between their generations. The student expresses regrets about her mother's mistakes, but also laments lhe loss of the simpler time jn which her mother attended the same school. Having come across a yearbook photo of her mother at an old May Day celebration, she says, "I wish we still had Mqypoles."

At another point, students walk hurriedly across stage, on their way to class, spouting one-liners so perfect that one wishes the walking-to-class transition had been used more often.

Golden the hippy, popping off her ear­phones every now and then and rambling on about anything that has nothing to do with the topic at hand, provides other high spots amidst the play's weaknesses.

Notably lacking is a "real" professor. The two portrayed are unable to face real life situations. One crumbles when he is propositioned by an attractive, and very fresh, freshman hoping to gain admission to his graduate course; the other is unable to do anything to help a student about to commit suicide because the professor is unable to monitor the student's kidney functions .

A third teacher, this one a student teacher at "Coolidge High," cracks-up in front of a class of urban ghetto sweath?gs

who intimidate her and are supposedly interested only in sex, drugs and violence.

The portrayal of the three teachers is good, but lop-sided.

Technical aspects of the play, often unnoticed unless something goes wrong, are praiseworthy in "Goslings." The back­up band is good, and is balanced throughout although the bass should have been louder. Sound effects and lighting are flawless . .-/

The costumes are well done. Not only are the college characters dressed realistically (not a difficult ac­complishment), but so are the farmer, the nursery children, the coach, the robots, and the narcotics agent.

The play is laden with dancing and movement, and the more people on stage, the better the choreography is. The dance often regresses to uninspired "bumping" and unpatterned "disco" when fewer characters are involved.

In spite of its several faults, "Goslings" got to me a few times. I was saddened by "Letter Home" and was glad Orville went back to being his farmer self and was able to change Jack's mind about suicide. And, I really liked the football coach (I'm sure he likes me too) .

I heard three appropriate comments from other theatre-goers as I left Friday night. One said the play was enjoyaQle; another said it was entertaining; a third , said "Well, it was different." All three were right.

Theresa Spar/in's dancing was a high point of 'Goslings'