Image provided by: Texas A&M University
About The Battalion. (College Station, Tex.) 1893-current | View Entire Issue (Feb. 26, 1981)
jdimuns siyt HP&JO JOJL l&ABJ± pueiei.bbv o; sauioo 1104 pue >|oo4 ■.saoej ‘The Children’s Hour’ not for kids By Kate McElroy Battalion Staff The text of Lillian Hell- man's "The Children's Hour" is well-written literature, but the actual production of her work is superior entertain ment. But the play can be diffi- cult to perform for two reasons — it has basically an all-female cast and the play's power lies in its themes, not necessarily its dialogue. Those are two reasons Roy O'Valle decided to direct The Children's Hour for the Texas A&M University theater arts section, which presents the play tonight at 8 p.m. in Rud der Forum. "I don't like to do plays that don't have any type of subst ance," O'Valle said. "The Children's Hour" is definitely not a lighthearted farce; though the name is suit able for a juvenile show, this drama presents serious sub jects like mistrust, human strength and lesbianism. And because of predomin ately female cast — only two of the 14 characters are male — O'Valle can work with many of the women studying theater at Texas A&M. Of 51 theater arts majors, about three-fourths are women. "I picked "The Children's Hour' because our depart ment has too many girls," O'Valle said. "They get to be sophomores or juniors and they never get a lead." O' Valle has shown this con cern for the theater arts females before — the last reg ular season show he directed (Fall 1977) was "The House of Bemada Alba," a Spanish dra ma about women. "The Chil dren's Hour" is every bit as serious as his last production. but is a more well-known play, which is another reason he selected. "I picked this particular play because there has been a sort of a renaissance of Lillian Heilman," he said. "The Children's Hour" has an extremely simple premise. "The play is alxmt a simple lie, a very simple, innocent lie and the repurcussions it has on all the adult world," he ex plains. "It's this lie a young girl says and tells her aunt. And how this simple lie just ruins all these people." Even though the show was first produced in 1934, it's pre mise is still valid. "Even today we have peo ple who exagerrate the truth and it might be something very innocent," he said. "But the outcome of that exagerra- tion can be very devastating. It doesn't have to be about two women living together — it can be about anything." But suggestion of lesbian ism, a contemporary controv ersial topic, is important be cause of the seriousness of its implications. "I think Lillian Heilman picked that (subject) because at that time, she was even ac cused of this type of be havior," he said. "And it was quite a challenge to write this type of play because it was un heard of. "It was a period when all they did, on Broadway espe cially, was little comedies. And she comes about the re lationship of two women and then having all this little girls — they came out with things that were unheard of at that time." Because much of the emo tional impact of Heilman's play isn't in the dialogue or plot but in the subtle character portrayal, the acting often is more important than the lines themselves. "It's a very difficult play because the actors are going to have to play a very honest type of emotion," O'Valle said. He said the play is also hard to produce because he only has four weeks instead of the normal five weeks given to University productions. Many of his students were in Fort Worth for the Southwest Journalism Theater Confer ence, which was held the first week of school, when tryouts for the play were scheduled. "The whole play was block ed in six days and then I had to start rehearsing," he said. "And we're still working on the sublety of the lines. "The actors have to build on levels, so the climatic part of the play has a point and we can sympathize with the char acters. "But if you start with no direction and just saying lines," he continued, "it be comes a very boring play be cause they talk about the most trivial things." O'Valle is presenting the young students as 15-year- olds, instead of 12- or 13-year- olds as done in most produc tions. The Texas A&M Uni versity students find that age easier to portray, and the Forum's stage is so close to the seats, audiences could tell the real age of the performers. The opening scene. O'Valle believes, is important to set the play's mood. The girls, students of a boarding school, are sewing or practicing Latin. The director says this scene is important for exposing each personality from which the characters will development. "We get a picture mat this little girl likes to play base ball," he said, "this little girl wants to be veterinarian, this little girl is a teacher's pet... and then comes Mary.” She's so different — the first thing she does is give what you could call the housemother a bunch of flowers she found in the garbage can. That tells you the type of girl she is. "And the first thing that comes out of her mouth is 'You're picking on me again.'" Junior Melissa Bradley plays Mary. Laura Bellamy is Karen, who runs the school with her friend Martha, play ed by Miki Bone. Tim Stimson is Karen's boyfriend, and Cin dy Glenndinning plays Mrs. Mortar, Martha's relative. Sharon Barrow is Mrs. Tilford, who is Mary's grandmother. The show first runs Thurs day through Saturday, Feb. 26 -Feb. 28. The play will be per formed again Thursday, March 5 through Saturday, March 7. Tickets are $2.50 for Texas A&M students, and $3.50 for the public, and are available at the door. Johnson appears in Basement show The MSC Basement Committee will present the Eric Johnson Band this Friday and Saturday night. Johnson, a guitarist, has performed on albums by Cat Stevens, Carole King and Christopher Cross. His music is a blend of jazz, pop and rock. The band will perform in 201 MSC. Friday admission, which includes admission to the All Night Fair, is $3.50, and Saturday is $3. bunch-a-b’loons Send balloons instead of flowers! Special Party Rates Call Weekdays 1-5 p.m. 696-4179