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About The Battalion. (College Station, Tex.) 1893-current | View Entire Issue (July 22, 1982)
features Battalion/Page II July 22,1982 Thursday '' 0 >C Summer Dinner 1'heater:Tickets are on sale at the MSC r .. a Monday "'inner Theater: Meetixig at 8:30 p.m. to - final preparation of “The Odd Couple” pro- students are welcome. v . ' : ' ■ ■ - ‘Shadows’ interpret dialogue Deaf can enjoy the theater United Press International HOUSTON — A man dres sed in black stands behind an actor on stage during a play. He doesn’t say a word, but wildly moves his hands and arms, his face reflecting the emotions of what the actor is saying. The man is “shadow play ing,” or telling the deaf and other hearing-impaired people in the audience what the actors are saying. Shadowing is being intro duced in Houston this month at the Alley Theatre during two performances of Agatha Christ ie’s mystery, “The Unexpected Guest.” The shadows are inter preters for the deaf, and they repeat in sign language the lines of the actors. Each major actor has a sha dow, who will parallel the actor’s performance. When the actor is not in a conversation, the shadow leaves the stage. No more than two sha dows appear on stage at the Actors at the Alley ha ve welcomed the shadows overwhelmingly, and are working with them to make the perform ance an enjoyable ex perience for both the hearing-impaired and the listening audience. same time, said Suzi Cravens, di rector of special events for the Alley. “This concept will open up Reporters, police reverse roles in special workshop theater to an entire new audi ence, to a group of people that has never been able to enjoy a play before,” said Cravens. “Acting and shadowing work together so well because they are both art forms.” The shadowed performances are scheduled for July 30 and Aug. 1. People without hearing disabilities also are buying tick ets for the shadowed shows. Shadowing was first tried in Atlanta in 1976 by a group cal led Stage Hands Inc. Debra Brenner, president and founder of the group, is planning to come to Houston to train inter preters. The project is costing about $8,500, which will be paid by the Pennzoil Co., based in Houston, Cravens said. Actors at the Alley have wel comed the shadows overwhelm ingly, and are working with them to make the performance an enjoyable experience for both the hearing-impaired and the listening audience. “I would be deeply honored to have my performance sha dowed in the way that has been illustrated and discussed today,” said actor Jim McQueen, after an improvised performance by a shadow and an actor. “I am very Shadowing is being in troduced in Houston this month at the Alley Theatre during two performances of Agatha Christie’s mys tery, “The Unexpected Guest. ” The shadows are interpreters for the deaf, and diey repeat in sign language the lines of the actors. v ASH agan 1 “Pinocchio: Evviva! the show will be perform theater-in-the-round, cannot be used. Butinterp! will stand in front of a section of 64 deaf chil( they can “hear” it. Cindy Koch, who is is the mother of two said shadowing enablestliil actually to follow the jf anexis rather than suffer theW v ' el ^ 1 pong effect of side-of-tbif 16 " ' on interpreting. sc “You need six pairs of?*^ ts ^ go back and forth towatejP 1 mac “ interpreters on the side p' sa '^ stage),” Koch said. Shei jp use in amazement at the * and said, for the first tinie® e 'y? ar life, she understands Anna much moved by this experi ence.” The Alley also plans to cater to deaf children this summer with two performances of pie consider the theatei citing. The Alley has an ai board of 11 hearing-imi.; deaf people or interpreteii advise on matters of k handicaps. “We don’t do anything I out first discussing it wii board,” Cravens said. “Afu they know what they wam Id in lii United Press Internationa] KANSAS CITY, Mo. — It was a reporter’s dream come true: a police public information offic er breaking with tradition, hold ing nothing back, telling all he knew about a crime. But the lucky “reporters” scribbling down the information were actually law enforcement officials, who on this day found themselves interviewing repor ters acting out the roles of law officers. The police and the reporters were all participating in what may be the largest role-reversal situation ever set up in the Mid west for the benefit of the media and law enforcement officials. On a cool Saturday morning in late spring, the Kansas City Broadcast News Alliance staged four scenes on the grounds of KSHB-TV for “reporters” to cover: •The crash of a single-engine plane apparently piloted by a famous country-western singer; •A meeting between police and citizens angry about rapes in their area; •A robbery in which a police officer apparently killed a sus pect; •And an apparent arson- murder. Officials from police and fire departments from across metro- ilit politan Kansas City joined in the event, called the “On The Spot — Off the Record” workshop. They were assigned as reporters to either the mythical “Kansas City Rag” newspaper, two radio stations or a television station. Their job was to cover one of the The police and the re porters were all partici pating in what may be the largest role-reversal situation ever set up in the Midwest for the be nefit of the media and law enforcement offi cials. four events and have their stor ies ready by a 1 p.m. deadline. Reporters were then assigned duties as police and fire officials. “I did notice, even though we assumed roles (that) in many cases we slipped into our old roles,” said Sgt. Jim Treece, the public information officer for the Kansas City police depart ment, and a member of Kansas City Broadcast News Alliance. Treece said he saw one inves tigator who played a reporter at the arson-murder scene go from interviewing a witness to inter rogating him. And the “public information officer” at the shooting scene poured out all the information she knew to the gathered “re porters.” During the critique period af ter the deadline passed, Jim Pritchett, Kansas City Broadcast News Alliance president and news director of WHB Radio, admitted the real reporters probably talked too much as “officers.” He explained to the police that reporters naturally want to keep people informed and so lapsed into roles they wished real police information officers would enact. The pretend “reporters” also found that when given the opportunity, they fell into many of the same traps that they claim reporters often fall into. Take, for instance, the easy and sensa tional quote. During the “homeowners” meeting, erzatz Chief of Police Jim Overbay (KCMO-TV news director) calmly gave out crime prevention tips, including a sug gestion that residents should keep on a porch light. Treece, who had taken the role of an irate citizen, said: “I do not believe that a 75-watt bulb will keep a rapist from my house, but my .357 magnum would.” And the “reporters,” of course, latched on to that angle for their stories. Treece admitted that in their stories, the “reporters” did have misquotes. And that was odd, he added, because nothing upsets the police more than being mis quoted. STARSHIP 1 When You Care Enough Candle Special: Buy $3.00 or more of can dies and receive a cand holder or ring free! “We short-change the media people,” Treece said in his assessment of what officers learned, which also included making stories fit the style of the medium and feeling the press ure under which the media work. Capt. Clark Sheckles, with the Crimes Against Persons Division of the Kansas City police depart ment, said as a television repor ter he gained an appreciation of the cameraman’s job. “I could identify with the re porter, but I saw that the camer aman was the nuts and bolts,” he said. Frame Special: Sale on Brass and w< Frames 7.50-10.00 1983 Calendars are in. (Get them while they last! Humorous, Nature, Animals 10-9 Mon.-Sat. 9-7 Mon.-Sat. Manor East Mall Culpepper Plaza 822-2092 693-3002 Weather varies in small areas United Press International Climatologists have found astonishing variations in wind speed, temperature and humid ity can exist in areas a few miles, a few yards, even a few feet apart. In New York City, according to Science Digest, the wind velocity on one street corner was 25 mph, while a block away it was only 5 mph. In an Ohio val ley less than a mile long, scien tists set up 109 microclimate sta tions. The highest annual tem perature recorded at each varied widely: one registered a high of 75 degrees Fahrenheit and another of 113 degrees. In autumn, they found that below- freezing temperatures occurred more than a month later at some locations than at others. McGill University resear chers criss-crossed Toronto to record the drops in temperature between early afternoon and late evening. At the lakefront, the drop was 3.1 degrees; in a low-lying section of the city, it was 20.2. Humidity can vary by as much as 8 percent between a city and its surrounding rural areas. In general, urban air is drier in the daytime and more humid at night. AGGADILLO T-Shirts Sweatshirts 13 oz. Tumblers Maroon or White $1075 $ 12 75 $ 5 00 each All Sizes Call: Carolyn White 846-8788 Office 693-0506 (The Real Estate Mart) Home 201 College Main 840-8721 Sale Price July 19-31 Only the pi a c >ent. Th. ■high sc :Plete o ^ end Purcell [ he mo % fin said, bi ar eas. A