Artsnotes '88

[MALE STUDENT]: Still pond, no ripples. Only a turtle's head out. An island is formed. [FEMALE STUDENT]: Today we run to watch the dry, brittle leaves drop from the gingko tree. [MALE STUDENT]: A doe stands cautious, alert to every motion, a fawn at her side. [MIRIAM GRAHAM]: These short, evocative sentences, written by Kansas school kids are haiku, an ancient form of Japanese poetry. The students recently won mentions or prizes for their haiku in the 1987 "Aussie E Trenbarger?" haiku contest. The contest solicits entries from elementary and high schools all over the state. "Aussie Trenbarger?" Who teaches and writes poetry poetry in Independence, started the contest in 1980, inspired by her two young grandsons who seemed to have no trouble writing haiku. [OSSIE TRANBARGER]: When they would come here, I did not say that now we are going to write poetry. They were into it! They would type up their own. From the time they were [Trenbarger] eight years old. As long as they came here as children they were writing poetry. If I I had not

not dealt with those grandsons like that, I probably would not believe that these youngsters could come up with some of the things that they do. [MIRIAM GRAHAM]: It seems strange to me in a way that a kid who probably hasn't read much haiku would be able to to get into this type of writing that's, as you say, centuries old without any problem. [OSSIE TRANBARGER]: Their minds are fresh as far as poetry is concerned. It intrigued me that youngsters could grasp it so readily, when I had been writing other poetry for a long time, and I struggled with it so. [MIRIAM GRAHAM]: The traditional haiku form has three lines -- five syllables in the first, seven in the second, and five in the last line. "Trenbarger?"encourages her students to capture the essence of haiku. [Trenbarger] It is written that the best haiku is written in understatement. It is supposed to have some reference to a season, and then it is written on a particular event. [MALE STUDENT]: Ice formed in silence. It

melts one sound at a time. Plop, plop, plop, plop, splash! [FEMALE STUDENT]: A rose opening is such a wonderful sight right before my eyes. [OSSIE TRANBARGER]: You do not have a syllable to waste, much less a word. [MIRIAM GRAHAM]: Up until this year "Aussie Trenbarger?" did all the work for the statewide contest. Each year she mailed out rule sheets to every school in Kansas. This year, she says she's happy to have the help of the Independence Arts Council, which now sponsors the contest. Tranbarger still reads every entry -- this year there are over 1500 -- and she still does the final judging. Though centuries old, haiku seems to fit well into our fast moving culture. Most of the young poets we talked to said it took them around 10 minutes to write their winning entries. But "Trenbarger?" says that the delight in a good haiku lingers long after the poem is over [OSSIE TRANBARGER]: And it leaves you with, I would say, [inaudible] you know... It just doesn't stop stop there. It leaves you with something. [MIRIAM GRAHAM]: Would you be able to read any of your own haiku? If you

have any from the winter, it would be nice. [OSSIE TRANBARGER]: Even as I watch, design of the snowflake vanishes. [MIRIAM GRAHAM]: We heard haiku from Kerry Duncan, Stanton County High School in Johnson; Lori Ainsworth, St. Mary's Catholic School in Newton; Jason Bell, Kelly Jacobs, and Mitch Harris -- all from Hays High School; and Ossie Tranbarger. I'm Miriam Graham. ***** [BIG BAND MUSIC] [BIG BAND MUSIC] [BIG BAND MUSIC] [JAY L. MILLER]: The Big Band era is supposed to be over. Somewhere around 1950, large jazz groups stopped being economically viable. In fact, the current nickname for the Big Bands is, "dinosaurs," referring not only to their size, but to their extinction. Then why are there so

many Big Bands still around, new ones being formed, and older bands, like the Artie Shaw Orchestra, being reformed? And why does this band, Rob "Mcconnell's?" Boss Brass, a real dinosaur of 22 members, sound so happy and alive alive in the 1980s? [ROB MCCONNELL]: You get both impressions, you know, that the climate seems to be better, and then you have two or three months of bad news, and then you say, "Well, gee, I guess we're finished." So it's been going along like that for almost 20 years for with my own band. So I'm sure it's been going along about the same for "Mel?", [inaudible], "Louis Belson?", "Don [inaudible]?", "Bob Florence?", everybody! everybody. But we're going to carry on regardless, and there's lots of youngsters coming up that are doing the same thing, and they're going to do it regardless of what the climate is. So it will continue. [JAY L. MILLER]: McConnell's band got its start in the mid

60's. It started like a great many others. A young Canadian, arranger, composer, musician musician heard a particular collection of sounds that inspired him. [ROB MCCONNELL]: The best band that I ever head was the original ?? Fats ?? Band. And I thought, "Gee, that's great." And I heard them, I think among the first two or three jobs that they had. And I just thought, "Well, gee, I want to do that in Toronto." And I was a great admirer of Fats and his writing and the band -- all the people in the band. And I've just I kind of done.. Ya know.. A similar thing my way. [JAY L. MILLER]: Twenty years later, the band has made numerous well-received recordings. McConnell has had nine Grammy nominations, winning once for Best Big Band Album of the Year in 1984, and has received two Juno awards, the Canadian equivalent of the Grammy. But that hasn't meant financial success or even a lot of bookings. [ROB MCCONNELL] The busiest year so far, I think we had over 50

jobs one year. So counting a job as as [inaudible]. I think that was in 84'.. 85' a little less... A 86' less than that. So it just it just depends. We're trying to get to Japan this year, so that'll be maybe 15 days that'll up our total. [LAUGHTER] [JAY L. MILLER]: On those other 300 days of the year, McConnell and his musicians work at whatever the studios or clubs have to offer, jazz or pop, in order to continue making Big Band music when they can. [ROB MCCONNELL]: I've never been able to make a living out of jazz, doing that. And I've been a freelancer [inaudble] from time to time...Do club dates.. I'm currently playing in a hotel in Toronto and you know I try do... What I have to to make a living. [JAY L. MILLER]: But McConnell's huge band stays together, with very little turnover in personnel.

The Big Bands may not be thriving in terms of financial rewards, but there are a lot of them. And then there are all those young musicians also determined to keep the tradition going. [ROB MCCONNELL]: I think recently in a Downbeat magazine, I was just amazed, I think there was a review of something like 20 Big Band records. I mean there's bands in Cincinnati, and Texas, and L.A., and Seattle, and New York -- there's a dozen in New York. There's half a dozen in Toronto -- I went up to see one the other night. There were some kids that I had taught at one course I gave at the local university, and I thought they were all the worst. And they were all playing in this band, and they sounded terrific! I said, "How can these kids be so good? I thought they were awful when I taught them!" [LAUGHTER] You know, I think it'll continue, this music. I don't think anything's dead, you know. It'll be carried on. [BIG BAND MUSIC] [BIG BAND MUSIC]

[BIG BAND MUSIC] [BIG BAND MUSIC] [JAY L. MILLER]: Casting my vote for the dinosaurs, I'm Jay L. Miller. ***** [JAY L. MILLER]: One of Robert Frost's best known poems, "The Road Not Taken," actually concerns itself with a road that is taken and with how decisions, made with no real knowledge of the consequences can affect one's entire future. When "Arthur Peterson" decided to study oral interpretation in college rather than concentrate on acting or singing, it lead him to a very special career in acting; to his current one-man show, "Fire and Ice," and a lifelong involvement with the works of Robert Frost. [ARTHUR PETERSON]: When I was a sophomore at the University of Minnesota in oral interp, he was assigned to me as an author and I was to read read the biography of... I was

to read his poems when my turn came along, and talk about Frost at certain intervals. and also the University wide poetry contest they had every spring. spring, I did, "Mending Wall," one of his most famous, and I won first prize. [JAY L. MILLER]: That, says Peterson, was the beginning of a lifelong interest and a career. After graduation, he journeyed to Chicago and a job in 1936 with the Federal Theater, where he was often cast in roles that required a special ability to recite poetry. But the skills he had learned in oral interpretation also led him to radio, a fairly new acting medium that required an ability to act with just the voice. Chicago was one of the major centers for national radio programs. [ARTHUR PETERSON]: The soap operas began there, and children's shows. And so I had started on Tom Mix and Jack Armstrong and things like that.

November of 1936, I had done maybe 6 months of radio, and they announced that there was auditions for a new show called, "The Guiding Light." And they wanted- they had a lead which the story evolved called Doctor "John Rutledge?" who was about a 65 year old minister and and I was auditioning at 24 24 years of age as a 65 year old man. And I got the role and I played it for 10 years on NBC NBC. What was interesting in the audition was they had a four line poem which he introduced, either at the beginning or the end of the show, and this is the way the poem was. [Peterson] There is a destiny that makes us brothers brothers. None goes his way alone.

All that we send into the lives of others, comes back into our own." [JAY L. MILLER]: From performing in one of radio's best known and most enduring soap operas, Peterson went on to other acting and directing roles in radio, television, movies, and the stage -- and, fittingly enough, to a role on one of TV's most popular series, "Soap," an offbeat satire of soap operas. With money earned from that role, Peterson decided to co-write and develop a one person stage vehicle for himself. This collaborator, "June August?" kept kept insisting that the project should concern Robert Frost. Peterson could still recite recite much of Frost's poetry by heart, but when he began to research the play, even he was surprised to find out how consistent his interest in Frost had been over the years. [ARTHUR PETERSON]: When I looked in my files, I found that I had collected for 40 years or more... Background things on Frost... [inaudible] something And I found interview after

interview, and material that was fantastic -- a lot of it not in books. [JAY L. MILLER]: Peterson also drew on a personal meeting with Frost, an incident that provides one of the dramatic highlights of his play. As Peterson puts it, he feels as if he has spent his entire life following Frost around -- and now his performance puts him in Frost's shoes. Reenacting his life in examining the way specific poems came to be written. The play, Peterson explains, is a continuing exploration of the creative writing process of a great writer. [ARTHUR PETERSON]: Each time I do it in front of an audience, something new comes, and I realize, "Oh, my word! I didn't get that! I didn't know... Of course that's what had happened... That happens to me all the time and now it's been since 81'. I've been been doing this. [JAY L. MILLER]: And so Arthur Peterson is still following Frost around. I'm Jay L. Miller. ***** [MIRIAM GRAHAM]: The Garden City High School Art

Opening at the Finney County Museum had some things in common with an adult art opening -- punch and cocktail nuts, and people eyeballing each other more than the pictures on the walls. There wasn't much highfalutin' talk about art though at this opening. The students seemed to have a great modesty about their efforts. In fact art instructor "Phil bunton?" and "Joy Lared?" said a number of fine works that might have been in the show are probably in closets and under beds only to be viewed by the passing insect. Joy Lared [Lared] [Lared] I don't know if it's so much they don't want it out in public... as they're not...they're not sure the quality of their own work until they even see a show like this, and see that theirs really do compare very admirably with the rest of the work. But so much of what we do is done as an exercise, and then they don't see the finished work as a quality piece of art apart from being an exercise -- and sometimes those are the nicest things. [MIRIAM GRAHAM]: The art teachers feel a public exhibition helps the students gain confidence in their work. [JOY LAIRD]: I think one of the interesting things about art is it's sort of

acceptable cheating. They can feed off each other, and see how other people approach the same project, and they can get ideas from it. And so it's nice to see this kind of exhibit. [MIRIAM GRAHAM]: The students are in the process of experimenting with many different techniques, including oils, ink washes, pencil, and a technique called acid edging, which is done on mirrors. Phil Buntin. [PHIL BUNTIN]: And that's almost a craft-like form, but it's truly exciting for them, because it's one of those things that you do and now you've cut out... And we teach positive and negative through that that, and they can do cutting away the areas they want to etch. And they remove a vinyl plastic off of that and then apply an acid to it, and it etches into the mirror. Well, you never see the results until you take the plastic off. And then once you take the plastic off, it's immediate results, and so there's always this big spontaneity build-up of excitement when they finally get a chance to see their whole project. When they're working on a pencil drawing, you know, it's progressive, it builds. You never have one moment of exhilaration I don't think... Total exhilaration, and then like "Mrs. Lared?" said

says, so much of the time they go, "Well, yes, it was wonderful, but I did it, so it can't possibly be real great, you know?" [MIRIAM GRAHAM]: The students are not only experimenting with technique. some are reaching into real expression of feelings "[inaudible] Ramirez?" strikingly colorful oils of Indians reminiscent of some contemporary Native American American paintings. [ROGELIO RAMIREZ]: I can express how I feel with my paintings. And I feel that.. Ya know... since Indians are a minority people... Since I'm a minority minority like.. I can deal... Ya know we have a lot in common common. I picked this one in particular because, you know, way he's looking and his looks and ya know... You can express a lot by the way we look I guess... The way your facial- [JERRY SENSO]: This is one of the ink works that I did. It's a combination of pointillism and plain ink. [MIRIAM GRAHAM]: Jerry Senso is describing his portrait of Sting. He used a technique called pointillism, which

involves carefully placing tiny dots of ink on paper to create the image. [Man 1] No water no nothing added to it so.. it take a lot of awful.. A lot of time points up to make those picture pop out. It seems like it's better than the picture... ya know... The one that I copy off of from but.. um.. The one I copied off from [inaudible] photograph. [MIRIAM GRAHAM]: Like most of the students, Jerry combines his imagination with photos and pictures in books. [JERRY SENSO]: This is an oil painting of a lion. This attract me, this picture attracted me. It shows some.. like lights... and I mean, clouds and some strong feelings of this face.. line right here.. Is what I like about it. strong emotions... I'd change some color though. Right here here is supposed to be kind of reddish, purple, and white white, but I put it blue...purple... I don't think, ya know

as an artist you know you can do whatever you want and change things around see how it turns out, right? [MIRIAM GRAHAM]: Jill Davis, a senior who's looking forward to a career in law enforcement, has her very first oil in the show, a beach scene bordered by a painted-on frame and paintbrushes encroaching on the edges of the picture. [JILL DAVIS]: Well, I wanted to emphasize the color and kind of show that it was a painting and not a picture... Not a... Not a photograph... I don't know I wanted it to be loose. I wanted you to see that it was really loose, because I didn't really, you know, put the frame on real tight it's kind of... The strokes come out into it. I just wanted to do something something really simple, something really colorful with big strokes, you know? Just nothing real definite. [MIRIAM GRAHAM]: The show's title is Plain Brown Wrapper, but you may find something exciting within. I'm Miriam Graham. ***** [GOOD DOCTOR]: What force is it that compels me to write day after day? [BYRON CALOZ]: The Good Doctor of the

play, interpreted by Nick Harper, gets the audience into each of the sketches based on on short stories of old Russia by Anton Chekhov. But director Greg White says the adaptation is by one of the world's leading contemporary playwrights Neil Simon, author of The Odd Couple, Barefoot in the Park, The Goodbye Girl to name a few. [GREG WHITE]: Well there is several hundred years between our lifespans and several thousand miles you think about it. I think Neil Simon was so interested in it because his nickname is, "Doc." And People refer to him as a doctor or as "the Doc" all the time. And so, of course, Anton Chekhov in real life was a physician... Was a real doctor so we have two doctors who are collaborating on this operation. And Neil Simon does take some liberties with Anton Chekhov's stories, but he really doesn't take that many liberties with them. Their styles mesh well I think. [BYRON CALOZ]: What makes a Neil Simon play a Neil Simon play, and how does that fit into this particular play? [GREG WHITE]: Well, Neil Simon has a real style all that's all on his own. He typically.. He used to write

write about what life was like for him and his brother growing up -- I mean, that's what he's writing about right now. And then he wrote about divorce and what divorce was like for people... And he'd gone through divorce, so the Good Doctor, you know, Neil Simon has a Jewish background, and there's a real Jewish feeling to this play, but there's nothing overtly Jewish about it all. It's just the line delivery, the mothers for example in, Come Blow Your Horn, there are several women in this play that are reminiscent of that Jewish mother. [BYRON CALOZ]: Some of the actors in The Good Doctor serve in different roles throughout the play, but because there are ten different stories, this is accomplished without too much confusion. Nine of the stories were Chekhov short stories as seen on Broadway, and a tenth was included for this production, as originally scripted by Simon. [GREG WHITE]: So it's five and five, and some of them are long, and some of them are short, so it's really an interesting hodgepodge of different scenes. You'll watch one scene and get interested in it, and it has its own beginning, middle, and end. It's like a little playlet for each one. [BYRON CALOZ]: One of the playlets features T.V. Hagenah as a priest who has to have his tooth pulled by an inexperienced

doctor's assistant, played by Don Hufford. [DOCTOR'S ASSISTANT]: Alright -- are you ready? [PRIEST YELLS IN PAIN] [DOCTOR'S ASSISTANT]: Oh, I have some news for you. The nerves -- are exposed. [PRIEST]: That's how far science has come?! Blowing on a tooth?! [DOCTOR'S ASSISTANT]: Oh, it's still inconclusive! There's much work to be done- [GREG WHITE]: And then the other one I like is The Seduction. It's where a young man actually seduces another man's wife through the husband. He tells the husband all these things, and the husband goes back and seduces the wife for him and it's just really really funny. [BYRON CALOZ]: "Hagenoff?" plays the husband, Harper plays the seducer and "Chris Kalger?" plays the Wife and seducee. [Actor recites lines] [inaudible] There's no room for mercy in the seducing business... What the final stroke is finally administered. For the feint hearted...I urge you... Look away! [Woman Actor] No Nikki! I don't want to hear, not another word, nothing! [Male Actor] Exactly! That's what he says! He begs me to tell you nothing! He says with your sympathetic nature... You would worry to hear of someone else's distress. [Woman Actor] He's in distress?

[HUSBAND]: Was! He's morbid, gloomy, morose, in the depths of- [BYRON CALOZ]: In a lot of community colleges or high schools or whatever they'll do plays, not necessarily that are current. And that sort of thing... And you seem to be putting a premium on it on that. Why is that? [GREG WHITE]: Well I think that, especially in this area, it seems like we're not -- except for the exception of Boot Hill Repertory Company -- we're not doing current plays for people. We tend to be doing plays that are from the 1940s or 1950s. And we need to do something that's current to keep people coming to the theater, because there's a lot of really funny new theater, that's maybe 10 years old, but we haven't seen it here. And I think for students in particular, they need to be able to get something to draw them into the theater. And if you keep doing the same old thing year after year after year, it's going to create a problem. So what I might do [inaudible] very contemporary [inaudible] next year and then the year after that try and get the kids to do a... Shakespeare, and get people people to come and see Shakespeare. Well, that would be contemporary, because it hasn't been done around here in quite awhile. So something that's new

and interesting and different from what the other theaters are doing. [BYRON CALOZ]: Director Greg White, looking at his first year at Dodge City Community College and beyond. He promises that the college's production of Neil Simon's and Anton Chekhov's The Good Doctor will have something for everyone. Humor, drama, and yes! Even music. music. I'm Byron Caloz. [MALE SINGER]: Take one more chance at life. She reminds me of that sweet lady, whom I lovingly called [music continues] [FEMALE SINGER]: I had my tenderhearted gentleman- ***** [Miller] Pat and Carolyn McMann of Goodland Kansas say their collection of clown art and artifacts, which has now reached a total of two thousand items, is not really their doing they haven't been so much collectors as a repository of gifts. [Carolyn] It just happened, yeah know, it wasn't planned. We never decided that we were going to collect clowns. We

We were clowns and people gave us medium little clowns, figurine or something, when we would finish a performance performance just as an extra thing and we'd would bring it home, increasing. We started having them sit around and got very fond of them, and I didn't...They just.. Started collecting! [laughs] It was quite by accident. It wasn't a planned collection. and people will watch for them. They say when they see a clown they think of us, and they... So you should bring bring us back something if they've been somewhere, and it's just grown out of that. and we have them everywhere. People think 'well where do you put them?' but they're apart of our everyday life. They're everywhere throughout our house. The collection may have just grew, but the clowning started with a purpose. That and Carolyn McMann and others in their clown club use their talents for charity. They appear free at hospitals and rest homes and all the money money they raised from paid bookings goes to helping the mentally retarded through the Knights of

Columbus that's how the idea for their club began [Pat] we actually started the club as an outgrowth of the tootsie roll drive which is held throughout Kansas. I had Columbus pass out the tootsie rolls... this and that. My daughter and I and another fellow fellow knight Knight of Columbus here in Goodland, 12 years ago, decided we'd to put clown stuff on and see if we couldn't attract more attention, and it worked! worked [laughs]. So out of that way it's growing and growing and we approximately have 30 members in North West Kansas now that are clowns and then it went state wide about 8 eight years ago and Knights have, I know well over 300 clowns now across the state so so it's just a fun, happy thing thing to do and feels good inside. [Miller] if club growth has been phenomenal spread of clowning in the McMann family was also spectacular. At the beginning of all

all this only Pat had had a little clown experience as a teenager, but as Carolyn points points out it soon became a family project, beginning with her daughter's decision to tag along along with dad. [Carolyn] She was just at a good age at that time, and she was in grade school and she and her dad went together and she'd dress somewhat like him and walked with him and did things with him and kind of mimicked her father and she was called "Casey 2?" like number two, ya know, and he was Casey and she was Casey number two and then when it was after that that I became involved. I guess I just watched Pat go out as Casey at first and hadn't thought too much about, that I was too interested, but every time he came home he was so excited and then I began to get a little jealous *nervous laugh* and I saw what a good time he was having so within probably a year Year that I began to join him, ya know, and started putting on make up and things. I'd never dreamed it would grow into something like this though. Its become a big part of our lives, it's a happy part of our lives. [Miller] Both

[Miller] Both the McMann's sons have also been involved in one way or another with the family clowning and when Casey 2 grew up and married, her husband and now her young son, joined in the clowning as well. As their involvement in performing grew and their collection of clown art grew so did so did their interest in the art of being a clown. Part of that art lies in developing the makeup, character, and clothing of ones clown persona and that isn't always something as easily or quickly done. you know tried different things, tried green hair, tried brown hair with different faces different costumes. Had some cute things that people said, oh that's really cute, but you didn't feel comfortable in it. once I had a -inaudible- suit and it was too clean, too white, too you know, just didn't allow me to do the things I wanted to do and I just think over a period of time you find the things that you're comfortable with, and it probably took several years before I ever REALLY found what I wanted.

[Miller] while the art of clowning can be can become rather complex Pat McMann says it all begins with a very simple principle [Pat McMann] if a person smiles, why it feels a lot better better if you give a smile back to them and that's always been a model that we go by [Miller] Candy and Casey maybe just a couple of clowns, but they and the other members of the Northwest Kansas Knights of Columbus Clown Club are pursuing a very serious mission with smiles. I'm Jay L. Miller. ***** [MIRIAM GRAHAM]: The storeroom of the Thomas County Museum in Colby, Kansas is crowded with treasures. An antique figurine of a gesture peers out from behind a glass case case slanting between an oil lamp and a porcelain plate. Stacks of handmade quilts lie folded in a cabinet. A peek into a cardboard box labeled "Woman's Dress, Purple Velvet," reveals a plush, beaded gown, probably worn by Mrs. Ulysses S. Grant.

all these items were collected by "Nilly McFay Cooska?" born in Hill Hill City, she moved to Colby where she taught school, married, raised three sons, and collected antiques, going to auctions wherever possible, and corresponding with antique dealers dealers. Thomas County Museum Director, Miriam Beck. [MIRIAM BECK]: Mrs. Kuska was a very intelligent woman. She was interested in educating the public. So she held all kinds of... Welcomed everybody to her home home -- organizations, Girl Scouts, anybody that wanted to come and learn. And she had many, many people that walked through her door in Colby, Kansas, as well as, I'm sure, in Lomita, California. [MIRIAM GRAHAM]: When Mrs. Kuska and her husband Joe moved to California, they took the collection with them. It returned to Colby after "Mrs Skew Skew?" death in 1973 1973, a gift of the "Skew Skew?" foundation. [Miriam Beck] and a lot of people from the community came came and unpacked the boxes. And they wrote what it was, and gave it a number, and put it in what we call a logbook. Then we went back

again and made an *accession* sheet and we described the article and what condition it was in. And then if we packed it away in a box, we put where it was packed, and in what box it was placed. So it took about five years or so to go back over the entire collection. As I said, she didn't have anything catalogued. They brought back quite a volume of her correspondence and clippings were she had clipped about her collection and various things like this, but nothing was written down to where, unless you were just able to find it through some correspondence that she had, uh- Many times, she sent out Christmas letters, and she would tell of the time when what she acquired that year, so that was a good way to find something new that she had gotten. [MIRIAM GRAHAM]: Mrs. Kuska liked to call her museum the "Little Smithsonian of the West." She collected everything: antique dolls, furniture, paintings, manuscripts, photos, artifacts of every description. And she hardly ever made a mistake when it came to choosing an authentic item. [MIRIAM BECK]: Her three sons went to the University of Nebraska,

and she went with them, and we think at that time she did a lot of work in the library and did a lot of studying. [MIRIAM GRAHAM]: Of the 32,000 items in the Kuska Collection, only about 10 percent are on display at the Thomas County Museum. [MIRIAM BECK]: When you're given a million dollar collection, the first thing you do is to look for a building to put it in, and they bought an old grocery store and adapted it, and started, of course, putting out some of the exhibits. It opened in April 1976. Since that time we have just been changing the exhibits, and we're to the place now where we don't have any more room. [MIRIAM GRAHAM]: A good reason, according to Miriam Beck, to build a new museum. [MIRIAM BECK]: George Kuska, the son of Nellie and Joe, designed the museum. He designed it in mind- he thought it would fit well into this part of the country. It has a berm around the museum. Energy-wise, it will not take a lot of heat and cooling because of the berm. We have 22,500 square feet in the new building, and we are getting ready to move into it, we hope, by this summer. It's a building about three times the

size we're in now, but we will have offices for our historical society there. We will have storage, and we will have exhibit space. It will take a while to fill it up, and we will move the existing exhibits that we have now in the present museum there, but it'll take a little patience because that's going to take a little bit of time. We will dismantle these and then put some of them back up again. [MIRIAM GRAHAM]: Ms. Beck says she believes the uniqueness of the Kuska Collection will draw visitors from Thomas County and beyond, once it moves into its new home, which is already being constructed on South Franklin in Colby. I'm Miriam Graham. [MIRIAM BECK]: These are cast iron banks. And this is a tomb horse from the Chinese dynasty that ran 600 to 900 A.D., the Tang Dynasty. ***** [VOICEOVER FROM "THE FOREIGNER"] Charlie, take me with you, please! Please, try to understand! I can't talk to anyone now, please! [BYRON CALOZ]: "The Foreigner" is a two-act comedy by Larry Shue that takes

place at a close-to-being-condemned resort in Georgia. It begins when English proofreader Charlie Baker, arrives there with his friend, “Froggy” LeSueur, and has to -- yes -- face up to two days of conversation [VOICEOVER FROM "THE FOREIGNER"]: I'll fix it for you. I've brought you 'ere, I'll make it work for you. If it's no conversation you want, it's no conversation you shall 'ave. Eh? Royal treatment -- day and night. [BYRON CALOZ]: Froggy figures that Charlie won't have to talk, or be talked to, if others at the lodge are told he's a foreigner. The results weren't quite what either expected. Instead of ignoring the foreigner, the owner of the lodge and the guests freely talk to, about, and around Charlie, thinking he didn't understand. Director Don Steel says the play is a balance for the repertory season, which began with the musical firmly set in reality. [DON STEEL]: Way back when we picked the season, I knew "Baby" would be a difficult play, and a difficult one for the public, too. And I chose this play because I knew the set was easy -- it's one set -- it's a small cast -- there are only seven people -- and I knew we could

cast it any number of ways from amongst our company. The thing you hope is that when you do a play that is kind of simple like that, and doesn't require as many difficult resources, that it's still enjoyable for the audience. [BYRON CALOZ]: Despite the straightforwardness of the situations, Steel says the playwright manages to use good writing, easy wit, and Southern humor to make the play one of the most popular modern plays -- one which has enjoyed a successful run on Broadway and finds enthusiastic audiences everywhere. [DON STEEL]: A study of interpersonal relationships and how people -- it really is the sense of being foreign doesn't always mean being from another country, it can mean feeling not at home within yourself and not being comfortable, and the playwright has notes in the script where he talks about people that you think are heroes at the beginning turn out to be the bad guys, and vice versa, and you have to set that up very carefully so the audience perceives the screaming Catherine and dumb Ellard at the beginning and poor, shy Charlie as really ineffectual. And by -- without any kind of

unity on their part, they just -- they help each other, and through Charlie's eyes, they see each other in a new light. [VOICEOVER FROM "THE FOREIGNER"]: I think I'm acquiring a personality! "Oh?" Yes! People here just seem to hand it to me piece by piece each time they walk into the room! You see? You just did it too! I -- suddenly I'm... a raconteur! And suddenly, I'm Catherine's confessor, and I'm Ellard's prized pupil, and I'm Betty's...pet skunk [laughter]." [BYRON CALOZ]: Unlike last year's play, which was a laugh-a-second farce, this one deals with some serious subjects: self discovery, esteem, personality, prejudice, and the Ku Klux Klan. [DON STEEL]: We try to avoid the trap of playing just the funny parts, and we try to put the serious parts out there as seriously as we can and let the audience enjoy those for their -- so it's not just a funny, three act comedy, you know, where everybody is giggling over little one liners, so that there's some substance to it. And that's, I think, what makes the script entertaining, as well as

provocative in a sense. [VOICEOVER FROM "THE FOREIGNER"]: Yeah, we gonna take care of you for a while! Yes ma'am - we gonna take Charlie off you're hands! And we gonna be *real* nice to him, on account of he's gonna be our hostage! And you know what's the rest of yous gonna do? Disappear! That's right! You're gonna make yourselves go right down there over that highway, you're gonna get on that first Trailways bus outta here, and nobody's gonna hear from you again! Cause iffin' we do, then Charlie here's gonna get to see what his innards look like! This here's the KLAN, y'all. Y'all don't fool -- with the KLAN! [BYRON CALOZ]: A good part of the play is completely visual -- when Charlie mirrors the eating habits of Ellard, or when the audience sees the expressions of Froggy LeSueur, played by Jim Johnson. [DON STEEL]: The playwright carefully spells out what happens. It's like a narrative in a book, he says -- and then Ellard puts his glass on his fork and twirls it around and Charlie copies him. And it's interesting, you get generally in any play, though the stage directions, you get a real sense of the flavor of what the playwright's talking

about, because the playwright actually speaks to you in the stage directions. In the dialogue it's the other characters speaking. But some playwrights write almost no stage directions. Larry Shue couldn't avoid writing some comical stage directions. He wrote, Owen -- the bad guy? -- uh, he wrote: "Owen Musser is a two tattoo man. One tattoo he might have been drunk or foolish. The second one, he went back." [VOICEOVER FROM "THE FOREIGNER"]: You don't understand me, huh? "No." "Nary a word?" "No." "Hell, is that right? A foreigner -- eh, Charrrrlie?" "We don't get so many of your kind in these parts. Why..." "One time, I saw a foreigner. He was a-wrigglin' on the end of my bayonet!" [LAUGHTER] [BYRON CALOZ]: However, Steel says that the Boot Hill Company goes beyond the script in filling out the characters. Charlie, played by Kelly (?Carow?) for instance, has to communicate on stage often just by a change in posture or the intensity of his stare. [DON STEEL]: Kelly is a very strong actor -- you've seen him in other things -- and

he plays -- he's got the British accent down because he watches PBS and all those things -- and he plays...he likes to play strong men and people who are aggressive and assertive and nice guys, and he always likes to find the soft side, and play the... he likes to have that touch of just a, you know, the little tear-in-the-eye kinda thing. But it was hard to get Kelly to play the wimp in the beginning -- because Charlie really isn't a wimp, but the audience has to perceive him as a kind of nerdy little, wimpy little guy; otherwise his transition is not as effective. So Kelly and I worked a lot on how Charlie is perceived at the beginning, and how he works from a base of begging and asking and pleading rather than forcefully stating things. [BYRON CALOZ]: Steel says he's just pleased as punch with how The Foreigner worked out, and says it's due to the strength of Larry Shue's script and to the dedication of the cast and crew. When others in the company were asked, however, they say the production's quality comes from the

work of its director, Don Steel. I'm Byron (?Kaylows?). [VOICEOVER OF A COMEDIC PERFORMANCE] [VOICEOVER OF A COMEDIC PERFORMANCE] [LAUGHTER] ***** [MIRIAM GRAHAM]: Art imitates life, as Mary Lou Fallis enters the stage from the audience, dressed in a trench coat and lugging the groceries she had to buy on the way over. She proceeds with the onstage warm up. [MARY LOU FALLIS VOICEOVER]: Let's start with high notes -- well, there's [sings high note]. Some high fast ones [sings staccato high note]. And this is my favorite high note...[sings sustained high note accompanied by orchestra]

[continues singing high note]. [MIRIAM GRAHAM]: The coloratura soprano reveals the seamy side of the opera singer's life. [MARY LOU FALLIS]: Halfway through the first aria, which I start at the beginning of the show, I can't go through with it because it's been too bad a day. And I break down and tell the audience what it's really like. It's quite true, most of it, and people have been generous enough to say it's amusing. [MARY LOU FALLIS VOICEOVER] To tell you the truth, it was difficult getting here tonight. My husband asked me to pick up his jacket at the dry cleaners. And then I had to stop at the grocery store, we're having some people back after the performance...and then my babysitter cancelled. And my curling iron didn't work! [LAUGHTER] Well you might think that being a prima donna's easy [MIRIAM GRAHAM]: In her one-woman show, Primadonna, Fallis retells in song and story -- with a little bit of vocal technique thrown in -- the trials and tribulations of an upcoming opera star,

from the excruciating first recital to her triumphant role as Queen of the Night in the Magic Flute. She's accompanied by the Toronto Symphony, in this CBC broadcast. [MARY LOU FALLIS VOICEOVER]: Herzen's aria is the most difficult in all opera. It's the one where everyone always listens for the high F. Feel free to listen for those and disregard the rest -- I'll even start halfway through, right before the Fs come in. So bist du mein...meine Tochter nimmermehr! nimmermehr!..meine Tochter nimmermehr!... So bist du meine Tochter nimmermehr! [MIRIAM GRAHAM]: When she's not on the road with Primadonna,

Fallis performs serious opera in Canada, the United States, and Europe. She says she can usually avoid thinking about the funny side of opera, but she does feel better in the lighter roles. [MARY LOU FALLIS]: I've been fortunate, so far, being able to separate the straight classical performances from my comic performances. But as someone has said, the difference between comedy and tears is a very fine line. And so therefore I -- some of the characters in opera that are a bit mad or wonky, like Lucia for example -- they also appeal to me. [MIRIAM GRAHAM]: Primadonna can be even more demanding for Fallis than some of her serious opera roles. [MARY LOU FALLIS]: Because if I were to like a part like (?Zelda?) or Despina in Così fan tutte by Mozart, I would be on the stage for probably a total, all told, with all exits and entrances, for about 40 minutes, whereas this is a full-length evening show -- it's a one person show.

The only person who really (unclear?) me off is my accompaniest. But it's really me for a full...full evening. And there's no place to hide. So in some ways, it's like running a marathon, this show. And I have to pace myself really carefully. [FEMALE ANNOUNCER]: Is it hard for you to sing out of tune? [MARY LOU FALLIS]: It's not now. When I first started, it was almost as if I shifted my center of gravity a little bit to the right, and focused on that, and sang on that plane and it seemed to come out a little bit sharp. I don't find it difficult now, but I certainly didn't want to start it. [VOICEOVER OF FALLIS SINGING] [VOICEOVER OF FALLIS SINGING] [LAUGHTER] [MIRIAM GRAHAM]: Fallis doesn't mind being called the PDQ Bach of the opera world. In fact, she's at work on a new show about the life of Bach's wife.

[MARY LOU FALLIS]: It's like an "Opera Winfrey" talk show, but set in 1747, and I play the wife of Johann Sebastien Bach -- Anna Magdalena Bach, who had all those children and managed to copy a lot of his music. So I, I am compared in that genre, yes, not only because I take off the music of classical composers, but also because of my connections, having played the wife of Bach. I guess that would make me PDQ Bach's mother. [VOICEOVER OF FALLIS SINGING] [MIRIAM GRAHAM]: You don't have to be an opera lover to enjoy Primadonna, and according to Fallis, even some opera haters get a new lease on opera after hearing the show. [VOICEOVER OF FALLIS SINGING] [MIRIAM GRAHAM]: La prima donna herself, Mary Lou Fallis, proving she can make it through a difficult aria.

I'm Miriam Graham. [VOICEOVER OF FALLIS SINGING] [VOICEOVER OF FALLIS SINGING] [VOICEOVER OF FALLIS SINGING] [VOICEOVER OF FALLIS SINGING] [APPLAUSE] [JAY CHILDS]: Passion plays presented during the Christian season of Lent are nothing new. American audiences are

mostly familiar with those versions of the life of Christ traditionally offered on television and the stage. A one-man interpretation of the story would certainly be different, but how can one actor adequate tell the life of Jesus? Actor Norman Dietz says he believes he's found a way. [NORMAN DIETZ]: I'm that anomaly in the American theater -- a writer who performs his own work. And Wednesday I'm doing a piece -- Testament -- which is a retelling of the life of Jesus in conjunction, uh, also with another piece at the end of the program, a kind of fable that's called Old Emir. [JAY CHILDS]: What would you say is the primary difficulty in portraying Jesus Christ? [NORMAN DIETZ]: I do portray Jesus, but I also portray a lot of other characters in the story, you know, so -- I don't really regard there being any difference in difficulty in presenting *Him,* than any of the other characters. What I'm trying to do is put together the story as called from the four Gospel narratives -- Matthew,

Mark, Luke, and John -- in a way, that in the 20th century, is, perhaps, for most people a little more understandable than it is when they read the four Gospels. Unlike the writers of the four Gospels, I live in the 20th century, and I think I have a kinship with my readers that Matthew, Mark -- and listeners -- that Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John don't enjoy. I happen to be alive in the same century with them. I, uh, suffer from the same delusions and have the same joys and fears and sorrows. So I've tried to put together an understandable story of human conflict, that perhaps mirrors the contemporary person's expectations of a story more closely than, uh, than do the retellings of Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John. [JAY CHILDS]: Now in telling the story, actually in writing the story, who did you choose as

the important figures in Christ's life? [NORMAN DIETZ]: Since it's a story of conflict, of course -- it's primarily a story of Jesus and his encounters with the religious and political establishment of His time. In fact, what I've tried to do is put it together in a way... that it could -- and I fully feel -- that it would happen the same way today. And in fact, I feel it does happen, in some instances, exactly the same way today, when people try to be true to their own understanding of justice and mercy and concepts of that sort. [JAY CHILDS]: Now for most people, viewing the play, viewing the program, they have a preconceived idea for themself of who Jesus Christ is. [NORMAN DIETZ]: Right. [JAY CHILDS]: I wonder if the Method acting put

forth by Stanislavski helps you at all in forming your own concept of Jesus Christ. [NORMAN DIETZ]: There are so many different understandings of Stanislavski's work in America today, that I hesitate to answer that with a, you know, categorical yes or no. Certainly every actor has to put together his own way, his own method, of stimulating his imagination. And I expect there are -- there have got to be elements of, uh, of Stanislavski's work, you know, in what I do. Uh, his, his method has been abused, I think, in the contemporary theater, or people have tried to pass off...not exactly counterfeits, but pass off things that I feel aren't, you know, really genuine Stanislavski, as, as the, the core of his method. But I'm a man. Jesus, whether you

think He was just a man, or whether you think He was Jesus Christ, the Son of God, *was* a man -- and so from that point of view, taking the the doctrine of the Incarnation very seriously, I believe that, as a man, I can understand how he felt. [JAY CHILDS]: Dietz composed the work in 1973, but claims he only drew stylistic elements from the 60s. While the religious and social problems of that time had their urgency, Dietz maintains that the conflicts in Jesus' life are universal, and that his production brings those conflicts into human life today. I'm Jay Childs. ***** [BIG BAND MUSIC] [J.L. MILLER]: Remember the old days

when big band music was the craze -- when ballrooms were popular, and big bands did live radio broadcasts? It was the time of the "territory bands" -- bands that were little known nationally, but very popularly in their own 5 or 6 state area, where they toured regularly by bus. Well those days are not gone, at least not for Bobby Lane of Lincoln, Nebraska. His big band is still playing the music of those years, and still living all those traditions. Lane started his band shortly after he left high school, in the late 1950s. The Big Band era was already over, and Bobby really didn't expect his band to last very long. But he loved the music, and learned to play it for as long as he could. That was thirty years ago. He and his band are still playing it. [BOBBY LANE]: Glenn Miller music is such a favorite with everyone, and the Tommy Dorsey music. And then, you know, we'll do Guy Lombardo, Jan Garber, Ted Weems -- and it's kind of fun to do a little of all of their styles and some of our own. [J.L. MILLER]: One other tradition Lane has worked hard to keep alive is that of the elegant ballroom with a resident big band, occasionally serving as a site for live

radio broadcasts. His ownership of Lincoln's Pla Mor Ballroom came about some years ago. [BOBBY LANE]: If I get the year right here, I believe it was about 1973 that it was closed, and the place had grown up in weeds -- it was really run down -- and that's when we bought it. And I suppose one of the reasons was that, at one time, Lincoln, Nebraska had five ballrooms, all going strong. The others had all burned or been turned to some other use, and this was the last remaining ballroom -- and I didn't really want to see that go away. So we bought it at that time...spent almost a year in renovation...and we opened probably in '74 -- we reopened the Pla Mor Ballroom. And I've had that ever since. [J.L. MILLER]: The trick to 14 years of successful ballroom management, Lane says, is variety. [BOBBY LANE]: Now every Wednesday, we have what is

basically a singles' dance, or a get-acquainted night, where people don't really need a dancing partner. They just come out, and we do mixer dances and things where they can meet people. Fridays we usually have rentals, like a wedding anniversary, a wedding, a company party. Saturdays, we'll have big band music, and that's usually a couples' night. And then Sunday afternoon, they have polka dancing there, and one radio station in town is currently having teenage dances -- not exactly the same kind of music as we played. [LAUGHTER] But they are coming out and dancing in the ballroom. [J.L. MILLER]: Keeping a big band together also means a lot of touring. Lane's band tours throughout the Midwest, spending more time on the road these days than they spend at home. They recently returned from a tour that included (?unclear?) Kansas; Oklahoma City; Tulsa; Dallas; and Wichita. [BOBBY LANE]: Another typical tour would be the Peabody Hotel in

Memphis, and Bella Vista, Arkansas, Hot Springs, and Cherokee Village -- some of those. I would guess that we'll do, probably do, about 200 nights on the road. [J.L. MILLER]: During his thirty years with the band, Lane has also provided the music for shows by Bob Hope, Gordon MacRae, Anita Bryant, and others -- and for the last three Nebraska governors' inaugural balls. It's a success he never expected. [BOBBY LANE]: I would have never dreamed that, you know, we would be touring in a Greyhound bus and playing some of the places that we are now. I didn't think it would work out that well, but it's been great, you know, and it's not really letting up yet, so I'm still in there. [J.L. MILLER]: Bobby Lane admits that the audience for his music is growing older, and that he's only attracting a few younger listeners. But he says the audience should be there for another ten or twenty years, much longer than he expected to be in the business when he first started. In the meantime, he's

also involved with a new group, one that plays the same big band dance music. His sons play in that band, carrying on a tradition in American music. I'm J.L. Miller. [BIG BAND MUSIC]: The night is like a lovely tune, beware my foolish heart, how white the ever-constant moon, take care... ***** [JAY CHILDS]: A healthy combination of fable, fantasy, and comedy make up the current touring program of the Seem-To-Be Players based in Lawrence. The company, led by Rick Averill, are presenting his stage adaptation of three of Rudyard Kipling's Just So Stories. [RICK AVERILL]: The stories we're using are How the Camel Got His Hump, which is done kind of story-theater style, and The Elephant's Child, which is almost a puppet show, the way that it's presented, and the third story is The Cat Who Walks By Himself, which is performed by a troupe of theater alley cats who are telling their own story.

[JAY CHILDS]: Did you get the idea for these from the recordings that are coming out these days, or did you think of it first? [RICK AVERILL]: It was kind of coincidental -- actually, I wrote these in 1980, the spring of '80, and we even toured The Elephant's Child around Kansas at that time. But it's kind of funny, because we've had a lot of success with our Elephant's Child, and we just found out that Jack Nicholson is coming out with several of these on a record, that one won an award -- it was the Grammy, I think. [SINGING IN FOREIGN LANGUAGE] [SINGING IN FOREIGN LANGUAGE] [SINGING IN FOREIGN LANGUAGE] [JAY CHILDS]: Although the storytelling style forms the background of the Seem-To-Be Players' program, one of the stories throws in an added twist. [RICK AVERILL]: Almost like a puppet presentation -- that the concept is sort of a story-within-a-story. We start out with a little girl who's sent to her room by her father while he's trying to have a party. She's been kicked out of this adult party, because she's asking everybody lots of questions. And she's sent to the room in which, if you remember your own experience of going to, you know, parties at friends' houses and things -- there's usually a room where all the coats get thrown on the

bed. So she's sent to her room, in which the bed is covered with all these different adults' coats. And her father scolds her and leaves her in her room, and the coats sort of come to life and become -- *she* becomes the elephant's child by playing with this coat she puts on and acts like she's got a short little stubby trunk instead of a full-length one. And then the coats come to life and become the baboon, a hat becomes the Kola Kola bird, a hat perched on an umbrella, and another very, kind of a slithery raincoat becomes the crocodile, and so all these different animals are represented. And the players, you never actually see the faces of any of the Seem-To-Be Players during that one, except for the girl, because...they just kind of rise up out of the bed in these coats, and form kind of representative shapes of these different animals. It's a real fanciful telling. [JAY CHILDS]: Does the bi-colored python rock snake come from- ? [RICK AVERILL]: Oh yeah, the bi-colored python rock snake is a pair of gloves, and a scarf connecting the gloves. All the animals that are in the original story make their their appearance. [JAY CHILDS]: Do you

imagine that kids will go home with their parents and want their parents to tell them these stories again? [RICK AVERILL]: Well we've heard some reports that kids have asked their parents to read them the other ones, you know -- "Read the other stories to me" -- because we indicate that there are more Just So Stories than the three. I think there are 10 or 11, I don't remember right off the top of my head -- but it's a full little volume of stories. [JAY CHILDS]: There's all sorts of conflict these days about folklore stories, about how things came to be, and that includes Biblical stories versus the scientific, evolution viewpoint. Have you really thought about that at all in your presentation? [RICK AVERILL]: Actually, the Kipling stories -- he's such a master of imagination and fantasy, that, it just fits right in with the style of the Seem-To-Be Players, of our performance, to do these shows, because they're filled with imagination and fantasy. And I think it's quite easy for anyone to accept his version of the origins of things, because they're *not* threatening -- the particular ones we're doing anyway are not threatening

in any religious sort of way. I mean, the elephant gets his trunk by asking too many questions, and getting the crocodile bites his trunk, which is a tiny nose at the time, and stretches it as he tries to pull him into the water. Cats got the way they are by making bets with people and proving that they have some value -- to keep babies quiet and to entertain children -- but absolutely *no* function in the normal realm of things. They don't provide food, they don't provide protection, they don't provide labor for mankind -- the cat is nothing but a little accessory and still totally independent, and Kipling's story just kind of illustrates that. And How the Camel Got His Hump is just a diatribe against laziness. So I think that what they say about these animals, and people who are like these animals, is more important to Kipling than the actual origin of how the animals came to be that way. [JAY CHILDS]: Rick Averill, founder and director of Lawrence's Seem-To-Be

Players. I'm Jay Childs.