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About The Battalion. (College Station, Tex.) 1893-current | View Entire Issue (Sept. 21, 1984)
..L.lUJlH.U.IipilWIIWm..„ .^.LU^UUII .. M J, .1, LUpilJlllJllllllMIIMlIllllJlIMIIUliliJIllJ.ia.jl. U.ljl.ll!IJipi||p At Ease, The Battalion Friday. Sept. 21, 1984 7 Theater arts now By LEIGH-ELLEN CLARK Senior Staff Writer If you're looking for a way to stretch and strengthen your cre ative muscles, look to the the ater arts program at Texas A&M. "There's more money and tradition behind the football and OPAS, but we want to build a tradition of excellence here in theater arts," the new director of the theater arts sec tion Dr. Roger Schultz said. "We're bringing quality the atrical work here — not nec essarily the box office hits," Shultz said. "We want to please the audience, but also to chal lenge them." He said he plans to use public service announcements on ra dio and television to get the word out to the community. He also wants more students to know about the program. The Aggie Players, production company for Texas A&M the ater arts, he said, is the way onto the stage for any student at the University. "Theater is open to any stu dent here," Schultz said. On stage or behind stage, there is a need for well-delivered lines and helping hands. "You can call me personally at 845-2526 or just drop by," he said. There are a lot of jobs available besides acting on the stage. There are opportunities in lighting, set and costume de sign, set construction, and other areas. It's hands-on, on- the-job training and no experi ence is needed to apply. "We'll put you to work," Schultz smiled. The benefits of working on a theater arts' production include making the most of those study breaks, and getting into a pro gram which allows you to ex pand your creative abilities while working in the rarified at mosphere of live theater. If theater was your niche in your high school or in your hometown there's no need to become a closet thespian. You don't have to substitute the textbook for the script and there is life outside of the chemistry lab — life on the stage. "We have students from all kinds of majors that come in to work," Schultz said. "As a mat ter of fact, right now there's a chemistry major, a civil engi neer, and an aerospace engi neer on the cast of 'Liliom.'" So it's obvious that there are crea tive people on this campus — even in tne practical majors. "We encourage our drama students to take on a second major or use theater as their minor," Schultz said. "I've never known a community the ater that didn't welcome with open arms someone with train ing. "One in a hundred, literally, makes a living with theater. The idea that everyone makes it as a star just ain't true. "The university has become a place of occupational training — that may well be the case in engineering or agriculture — but we train for life." This training is available in several courses offered by the English department. The Tech nique of Acting and Technical Production are popular courses with non-majors. "Many education majors take Children's Creative Drama and for English majors, the History of Theater is big," Schultz said. "The 290 class is a practicum class geared to non-majors. We have every level of experience come into that class. In there, they assist with the production of the plays." But for the serious dramatist Schultz has some advice. "The good student should go on and get a MFA (Master of Fine Arts degree) from some place like Stanford, Yale, Michi gan or Ohio — get an inter nship and leave with an Equity Cara," he said. "It's best to stick with it," Schultz said, "if an actor can look intelligently at art he can sustain a character. "A lot of times, a person will head for one coast or the other without the right kind of educa tion and be woefully lacking in background — well, you've seen the air heads on tele vision." Currently, there are 30 the ater majors in the theater arts program. A full-time faculty of four teaches the classes and di rects the Aggie Players' produc tions. Scholarships are available through the Stokes Foundation in Fort Worth. The foundation gives money to numerous causes and six scholarships come to the A&M theater arts program. The productions are funded by the Memorial Student Cen ter Book Store Funds, legis lative funds, box office pro ceeds and sponsors and contributors. "It's still a shoestring bud get," Schultz said. "Before one actor ever steps on stage, even before one stick of lumber is up, about $10,000 goes out," he said. "There're storage costs, complex fees, and vehicle rental and royalty costs — but most of the money goes back to the University to pay for the theater." The 1984 theater season brings romance, revolution, morality and madness to the stage. The Aggie Players will open with "Liliom" by Ferenc Mol- nar. This romance was the inspiration to the American mu sical "Carousell." Liliom, is a young man from Budapest who Dr. Roger Schultz charms the hearts of many ser vant girls. Finally, he falls for Julie, who will become his wife. When he learns that fatherhood is in the future, he participates in a robbery to gain more money. He dies and is sen tenced to years in the purifying fires with the promise that he can return to earth to do one good deed. "Tango" by Slawomir Mrozek is the metapKorical story of rev olution in Poland. A Bohemian family represents the state in the metaphor. Eddie, a young man that has been accepted by the family, represents an in vader and Arthur, the son, plans to purge the family of Ed die. His coup d'etat ends in his own downfall. "Some people may not like this play — but as children we don't always like our medici ne," Schultz said. An adaptation of the Greek play, "Antigone" by Jean Ano uilh is next to bring thought to the stage. The two sons of Oe dipus are killed in a civil war that they began in Thebes. The adaptation of the tale parallels occupied Paris in World War II. "It's a successful retelling of the Greek myth," Schultz said. Finally, Moss Hart and George S. Kaufman's "You Can't Take it With You," ends the season with laughter. It's the Sycamore family, a little bit mad in a delightful way. And the Kirby family, a little bit sus picious of the Sycamores. It's a romance between Tony Kirby and Alice Sycamore that brings all kinds of chaos to the Kirby parents and draws Tony into the Sycamore madness. All of this, plus a printing press set up in the parlor and the manufac turing of firecrackers on the side just to keep things exciting. Schultz had been at the Uni versity of Houston at Clear Lake City since 1982 as an asso ciate professor and chairman of the theater program. He was as sistant professor of theater with tenure at the University of Min nesota in Duluth from 1970- 1982. During that time, he was a graduate teaching assistant from 1977-1980 at the Univer sity of California in Santa Bar bara.