Page 6 - TheGoldBug1970-71

PAGE 6 THE GOLD BUG SEPTEMBER 17, J 970 The Measures Taken: A World Undone The Baltimore Theatre Ensemble's production of that were lying motion1ess among the grey cubes. These while the voices all sounded the same and the actor's Bertholt Brecht's play The Measures Taken created an strange looking creatures in cruddy tan uniforms with bodies were completely disassociated from their voices, exciting theater environment where. the actors performed masks looked like they walked right off the pages of some even to those in the audience who knew the actors. sense memory pantomine in time to the sound track of comic book about Mars people. And they. stayed lying The storyline began to unfold in pantomine as four their voices. The overall effect was to totally immerse the there motionless in a way that made me feel if t left my agitators appear before the control chorus to describe audience in the world of Brecht's play without causing the seat I would be missing part of the play. their campaigns and the tragic death of a comrade in the audience to forget that it was the audience. The totality of Needless to say I settled myself very quickly because I City of Mukden. If you get a chance to go, and I hope you the environment was established as soon as the smaUlOO was anxious to "get into character" for the play was about do, notice the special lighting effects used to describe the seat theater was entered. A vivid continuous sound track to start. The lights went down and came up and the god-like qualities of the control chorus. A good communist creatures on the floor began very mechanically moving agitator has to learn to alienate himself from the suffering ~~~~~ ~~!:~:~i~~l~t~~~~:en~h~~':.!!~~~e:~o~:s ~: ~~: about. They were arranging the boxes and playing curious of man all around him. He must learn when to lie and dank dripping sewers of Paris. The voices were games with each other that were fascinating to watch if when not to lie, when to fight and when not to fight, when modulated and reverberated with chilling and untiring for no other reason than because it was like watching a to perform services and when not to perform services, effectiveness that created a mood of dampness and dance done to the rhythm of strangely inhuman voices. when to keep promises and when not to keep promises. He hostility toward human warmth. But there was also a This prologue of movement and the completeness of the must keep his goal supreme. The tragic young comrade' subtley that had me anticipating the mystery of the play I environmental effects helped establish a point of view in was a communist in spirit to the core but he had a com- had come to see. the audience from which they could watch a fairly ob- passionate heart that was to interfere with the plan of the The sights were as immediately apparent as the sounds. jective study of world communism. Brecht was a com- party. As the agitators prepare for their mission they The stage was nearly devoid of any set. There were some munistartist who had to wind up in the good old U.S. of A. must loose all that identifies them as individuals. They grey cubes and flats and around the walls of the theater because the party people didn't like his style of drama. must become Chinese in speech and actions. They must were greyed newspaper sections that added to the Paris Mr. DeFrank's dramatic world so totally involved itself surrender their identitiesto the cause of world revolution sewer effect. But the striking visual effect was the figures with the concept of a revolutionary communist that after a which some day is going to destroy all oppression of the masses of proletariat. If ever one of their members is WMC History identified, he must be destroyed so completely that no trace of him remains. Only then will the security of the Gazebo was once icehouse others and the-success of the mission to free the masses into be pours his energy The young comrade accomplished. the cause but he forgets his prime mission because as Facing the sunrise, the gazebo, meaning beautiful view, each episode unfolds, he is unable to refrain from directly is the feature point of Robinson Garden. The open sided continued on pl1ge ; white summerhouse has the words "Carpe Diem" cast in Sound Happening magic its cement floor. "Seize the day", Carpe Diem's literal meaning, denotes an appropriate outlook for the start of casts spell over campus the school year. Gazebos flourished during the Victorian Era. "Live life Baker Chapel: Sept. 13 to the fullest" was the favorite perspective at that time. Walking up from the grille with Coke in hand, it sounded From the gazebo. developed the summerhouse. The like a regular old Sound Happening, (which isn't bad to teahouse followed, and now outdoor grills are popular. begin with), but once off the sidewalk and standing in the The garden house, also a type of gazebo, has become the midst of 150 upturned freshmen faces, it wasn't the same focal point of many gardens. old Sound Happening at all. The Music was the same, WMC's gazebo originated as Professor Benson's Ice- echoing strains from last year's best (and happiness runs House Scheme on December 15, 1883. J. T. Ward, WMC's in a circular motion) and the fingers on the guitar necks first president referred to it in his daily diary: had basically the same prints, and the dress was still the "Prof. Benson is having an ice house constructed for the same, but something was radically different. preservation of provision); for the boarding department. Then, ears opening to more than just the words and eyes His purpose is to purchase meat from a large establish- spreading wider than similarities: the People were one ment iu Baltimore, and thinks it will be a saving to the voice, Singing the same song and All mouths were College, the dealers in Westminster charging such high pronouncing the words together. Participation was the prices. He is acting under the sanction of the Local Board key, (there were no shy). That was the factor which made of Trustees, and I trust his plan will prove satisfactory, the affair more than a regular old Sound Happening: the but for the present he is greatly increasing expenses and effect was symphonic. Aloha '70 money is scarce not withstanding our receipts have been It was a fresh breeze to see people contributing them- more than they were last year." selves so readily, while remembering the timid sing along What Was What According to Dr. Schofield, retired Chemistry voices of previous years, and to hear clapping hands professor, and College activist, ice was harvested and which didn't diminish after four bars of a song. The air Each year people look forward to the release of the' stored during the winter. Ice was scraped off the pond, was fresh, the spirit was alive and willing. college yearbook with anxious anticipation, wondering placed in a hole within the ice house, and covered with This mood held all through the Happening, through how a selected few have interpreted the preceding year's straw to preserve it. To save money, the college began ever-so-sprttely Donovan on to always-so- raw back activities and actions. Uusually the. people are·disap- buying ice from New Manchester. The ice house was torn woods, through the professional picking of Bean and the pointed by collection of pictures with witty sayings and down at the beginning of the new century. Using the same full face strums of amateurs - a constant high- and kept on the gung-hn alma mater sentimentality, meaningful to roof, a gazebo was builtin the ice house's place. holding after people went back to their dorms. only those who have graduated, disregarding the fact that The only recorded mention of the gazebo is in the Oc- (but as Mrs. Fry locked in her charge of reluctant non-graduates have made purchases and would like to be tober 1907 edition of the WMC College Monthly: creatures, Sloan played desolate strains of smack music, able to find some point of identification. "The improvemeuts about the College this year are casting a somber hue over the campus, mourning the The 1970 Aloha, spurred by editor Tom Van Sickle, many and varied. whne the girls make merry over their confinement of the breeze, and calling attention to the seems to have been successful in discarding the Alma new cement pavement and summer house, the boys confinements yet to come in the year ahead. Fresh Mater format and become a book of relevance to all rejoice about their beautifully furnished rooms." breeze ...... blcw.) people: sophomores, juniors, freshmen and even people that have never attended, or even heard of, Western Maryland College. Van Sickle has elevated the yearbook from its sentimental past and made it serve as a relevant Volunteers for mental health needed mouthpiece of the year 1970. The yearbook, rather than concentrating on Who's Who, concentrated with What's What. Van Sickle stated that the purpose of the book was to One night about a month ago I was hitch·hicki ng to the volunteer offices 50 yards away. Some of the create an awareness of the individual to his environment: somewhere and I was riding with this man who happened patients at Rosewood can roam around the grounds. I the earth to the solar system, man to the earth, man to to be listning to Charlie Stupeck, a Baltimore talk show talked to 4. One fellow seemes very interested in my nature, an American to America and a co-ed to Western host. Generally I don't like talk show hosts so r tried hard family background. He' was very concerned about my Maryland. The purpose was achieved. The book opens not to listen to what he was saying. But when the con-. parents and where they had been this summer. He asked with a shot of the earth from the moon and digresses versation started into mental retardation I became through pictures and quotations through various levels of casually interested. What I heard upset me a little bit :~;~~~ 10!~~~S!O~Sy~~~tF~~:~~ ~~ ::;~o1n~t t~'~efl~~: of our for the condition it put a lot of blame environmental awareness to the end with a picture of two because hospitals on me, a student and self-appointed me what was really on his mind. He had just retqrned mental together, enjoying. from a week in Rehoboth with his family. He hadn't seen As well as working along the lines of this major theme, critic of our culture's many institutions. Mr. Stupeck them in three years. It didn't take an expert to see that he Van Sickle also managed to throw in barbs at established had visited Rosewood ·St. Hospital in nearby Owings was extremly happy about the whole trip. Once I got in- campus organizations in a fantastically subtle manner. Mills, Md. and he discovered that, at Rosewood, the side, I found out that his visit was the result of a volunteer The sacred Omicron Delta Kappa section is a splattering mentally retarded suffered most not from a lack of fine campaign to get parents to visit their children. When of un-sacred pictures: Hopples head in the Hopper and institutions and expensive programs but from a lack of asked, I explained that I wanted to become a volunteer Wiles throwing out a prolific finger. The ROTC page, love. The mentally retarded lack'people around them that and come in when ever I could. They were very happy. to titled "A Year of Change", shows six pictures of the old- will love and do some of the things to them that we like accommodate me and sent me a card saying that I was in boys in Rosewood guard exchanging salutes. Yes, subtle but acidic. done to us. There are cases of teen-aged for years or even dependent #1404. With this card I can come in when I want. them whose parents that I call to let them know I was coming. They suggested haven't visited Aloha '70 was also fairly successful in capturing the made any attempt to keep in touch. How many of you I guess I would really like to see some WMC students mood at WMC last year: the hectic football season and the have felt that at times there wasn't much love for you here become involved with the mentally retarded. It isn't hard solemn moratorium of November 15, the biting cold of a at WMC and that you wanted to be somewhere or with to do. CaU locally to 363·0300, ext. 250 and ask for Mrs. WMCwinter and the warmth of a WMC party, the beauty someone who would show you some love. Now, if you can, Irene Blackburn of special services. She or a member of 0{ a campus spring and the despair of May. This was done imagine that as a way of life and then add that everyone her stalf will be glad to help out. Of course this in- through a well-planned swlection of pictures and an often else around you is a genius, someone you can never volvement doesn't have to be done on an individual basis. intriguing layout. quite keep up with. . Frat.erniti~, sororities and other college groups could For these reasons Aloha '70 and its dedicated staff, Then Mr. Stupeek pointed out to me that all anyone had very easily make arangements to have people visit the deserve a great deal of praise for turning something to do was to volunteer to share some affection with a hospital. As much as I hope some students will volunteer, which used to be somewhat of a drag into an entertaining retarded human being. So I went out to Rosewood to there are a lot of lonely patients that hope it much more and meaningful medium. become a volunteer. I spent an hour getting from my car so.