Page 37 - TheGoldBug1972-73

Fear, shock, guilt, wonder, and a profound sadness-these were some of the sentiments people came photos bv Sue Stalker out with after seeing "Third Worlds: A Liberation Piece." The latest production to come are molded and their chests cracked out like a rut of the WMC drama department, the play was bird's breast. They are symbolically reborn as they put together by the cast themselves, using material cut down their Chicano schoolmate with tommy- come up through the hole in the ground, then are fed from books and magazines and their own ideas. gun laughter. A black man pleads to his minister to with the substance with which they were painted. In this way they receive the substance of the totem The production begins with a prologue consisting be made white, only to be assured that "the meek animal, the beautifully-adorned Phoenix. They ·of songs and bits of monologue talking about shall inherit the earth." The cross of Christianity Freedom and its price, "good words, broken drives the Indian to the ground, to later find him receive wings, a breast adornment, and a mask, promises," and a lot of good intentions toward selling his green, yellow, and yes, even red plastic learning how to use all three correctly. The first feeling of joy appears in the playas representatives liberation that are never realized. Their appetites Indians to the souvenir-hungry tourist. As the thus whetted for solutions to these social in- climax of this segment is reached, the actors come of each minority group celebrate a rebirth. Now consistencies, the audience move on to different down fom their platforms and creep through the they are real people in this third world. a third rooms within Alumni to see what the various audience, brandishing their weapons to warn of the world which is a ritual. no curtain call, no en- There was no applause, minority groupe-gay, female, brown, black, red, inevitable revolution yet to come. cores. The audience seemed to leave of their own and deaf-have to say. . The calmer deaf follows the tumultous brown, A dimly-lighted bar sets the scene for the gay black, and red segment. The actors move accord, intuitively sensing that the world created segment of the play. The audience intersperse mechanically through their motions, reinforcing the on that small stage was a world alien to them, a by the average person. world not easily attained themselves at various tables at which the actors image of sign language in the deaf world. Emphasis are sitting, face down. Gradually they come to life is put on the ridicule and alienation of the deaf in They may have left in various moods, but everyone and begin to move among the audience filling the today's society. Parents blame each other as the was made to think, and this is the first step towards becoming a more liberated person. room with a horrible groaning. Men' embrace, hereditary cause of their child's being deaf. Parody The cast themselves agreed that their main women embrace, various short skits take place is played on the hearing aid as another mechanical purpose was to make their audience think about themselves device helping the deaf to assimilate aroun? the room .:As the actors move by, feelings of what they saw. "That's what drama's for," Tom uneasiness and distaste engulf the audience. They into today's society. But are they really accepted? Yingling, a member of the gay cast, declares. "We involuntarily draw back as the "fags and For when the deaf child finally reaches a stage feminists" brush past them. A Shakespearean- when he is able to communicate with others, he is portray one of the most ostracized groups in "Jonathan, Jonathan, whither art thou laughed at, discouraged, hurt. He tearfully and society." In preparation for their segment, the cast Jonatha~?" 'echoes throughout the room as a fag desperately searches for someone to listen to him. went to gay bars, did their own improvisations in paradoxically looks for his Romeo. Humor shines "I want to talk with you!" he begs. Even the people groups sessions, and then used materials from through the serious, too: "Man who marries man in the soundless films seem to ignore him. books and magazines. "We wanted to bring out the of gayness," Tom emphasizes. - "We 'creepiness with no breasts has a right to feel low down!" But Finally the audience reaches the last minority the audience doesn't know whether they should group, the primitives, who resolve the liberation built it up into a monstrous thing." He expected to laugh or cry-. the cause of the gay has been laid on problem. The cast of this segment had researched get an uneasy reaction from the audience as he the line before them. the true-to-life ritual of the Adaman slanders and moved about the set in the play, trying to brush someone's shoulder. "For me, " he says, "these Next the audience moves on to the female then added some ideas taken from their own segm~nt, with its bright lights and heavy makeup, a periods of adolescence to come up with the ritual past four weeks have been an awakening. The first drastic change from the spooky gay bar. Woman is that ends and ties together the play. It shows us the time around, when the cast viewed the play themselves, they were shocked. Now we're all more por.trayed in all her roles, from an object, sym- pain and suffering one must go through to become boh~ed by the cow auction, to the subservient, to the truly liberated. The girl and boy, Ayna and Dak, open-minded." Patti Taylor and Carol Sandhofer, two members hen Image, to the dominant. Cliches fly through the are first stripped of their identity in order to of the female cast, agree. "I've gained an awareness air: "It's a man's world."--"A woman's work is become better individuals. This is symbolized by of all of women's problems in today's world," Carol never done." "A man's home is his castle!"--"A jhe removal of their identity necklaces. After being woman's home is her domain!" Woman begins as cleansed, they enjoy a period of euphoria, and then says. "The molds we've been put into are hard to the scum of the earth and finishes by putting man in are struck down. This initial blow is perhaps the break,' , Patti adds. "I'm angry with myself for getting into them in the first place." This group her ~lace. She is portrayed in her most catty image, worst blow of the ritual, for it is a blow against turrung man into a veritable baby from fear, to themselves. Both Ayna and Oak are tied by means started out using Life With Father to get some leave a heartless, cruel impression in the minds of of bonds into a shape from which they can be ideas-thus, the breakfast-table scene-and then improved on it. "But actually we defeat our pur- the audience. "Women, my sisters, where are you molded easily. They struggle with these ties, going?" a plaintive voice suddenly asks amid the collagpse, then are scarred with poles. They are pose," Carol points out. "We wear all tho make-up. C disgusting action on the stage. painted and unbound, their legs molded into what a Offstage we go back to our stereotypeu image." The entire cast feels as if the play has affected their bl~C~~e;~:;:d t~ee;ms:n~s.t~eoi~~f~:J~:;~~0:~7;h specifically the outlook on life. "I feel as if I've been cleansed," bird'a legs should be. A bird, Phoenix, which is born again and again, was the platforms, the actors, talk satirically about their symbol unanimously decided upon by the cast as Patti says. The red, black, and brown g!OUPS are a very stereotyped social images and then emphatically best representing the freedom of liberation. The ~ spell out zherr cause. Aqdy Anglo' ana wendy Wasp"" . girl and boy then learrrtrruse these legs. Their arms -r.: , r. • continued on page 4