Monday, April 17,1989 The Battalion Page 11
ring
, using
nents
t for a symphon-
band...and canon-
h bells.” Since
i iuni had no sym-
ms iliat night, the
; made up for that
hose parts,
eproduced the vi-
y waggling their
(I down between
“swished” to cre-
cymbals. The bell
isher a chance to
gh from the audi
ted like the Hun-
■ Dame while ere-
unds.
;e unusual musical
ombined it really
ive symphony was
of eight vocalists,
vas on its feet be-
e was finished,
ute or two, the
ers reappeared
encore, which was
icrican folk songs
■ groups founder,
i included a vari-
;>m all times and
u half of the fea-
lassical and folk
>t song was Mo-
o “The Marriage
ew minutes later
entry Carol,” an
g that allowed the
ff their talents for
ogressed to some
nporary compos-
Berlin’s “Putting
id "It’s a Lovely
n which finger
the sounds of a
e.
ission they sang
I" and “Lady Ma
ttie Beatles. The
>up then gave a
nice of “Natural-
wis that was ar-
gle member Ben
le Singers mem-
rvatory training.
and Jonathan
ged most of the
nip.
was a perfect fi-
18-89 OPAS sea-
)y Mozart to Ber-
ities, there was
eryone to enjoy.
; at war
ipective
•ring at the sightol
ich is on tire after
rman bomb.
the Germans bomb
' the child’s eyerie#
ic dark background
vrapped in flames,
der sister, calls for
the fireworks.”
showing the war
Ts eye, Boorman
ir’s truly tragic na
mes destroyed and
Overall, however,
y" is a lighthearted
ng the war. There
>mic moments that
yable experience,
-lory” will be pre-
it 7:30 p.m. in Rud-
Admission is $2.50.
ASE
IATE
AM
D WESTERN
JIRED
»E
BON RD.,
E RD.
- 7:00pm
Successful inventor says corporations lack vision
WESTON, Conn. (AP) — Inven
tor Stanley Mason, who lays claim to
the world’s first microwave cook
ware, the squeezable ketchup bottle
and the granola bar, among other
things, says he’s seen a lot of million-
dollar ideas get lost because of a lack
of vision in corporate America.
Like the disposable diaper he de
signed.
Mason, who’s been called “the
Wizard of Weston,” hopes to do his
part to remedy that shortsightedness
with a course on creativity he’s teach
ing to graduate business students at
the University of Connecticut’s
Stamford campus.
The inventor has a laboratory on
a two-story barn where elaborate —
and secret — experiments are in
progress.
Mason isn’t trying to turn his stu
dents into Thomas Edisons, but he
does think he can impart some of his
curiosity and ability to think crea
tively, which he credits for the 30
patents he holds.
“In large companies, people are
divided up into departments that are
so insular, they don’t understand
what goes on in the next office,” Ma
son said at Simco Inc., the product
development company he founded
in 1973 after a corporate career.
“They don’t understand the total
ity, the continuum, the interaction
between products and consumer,”
he said.
"It’s possible, with patience, to
teachpeople how to think in a crea
tive way, how to take a tentative
point of view about everything, how
not to be so damn sure about every
thing.”
Norman C. Parrish of Moraga,
Calif., president of the National
Congress of Inventor Organizations,
calls Mason “one of the most widely
respected inventors” in America.
Mason’s work, he says, is “valuable
enough that Johnson & Johnson and
companies of that caliber give him
essentially open contracts to come
up with new products for them.”
Most people make the mistake of
thinking that being an inventor sim
ply means dreaming up a great idea.
Mason says, but the successful inven
tor is someone who recognizes the
market for a product that doesn’t yet
exist, and figures out how to provide
it.
They returned to the classroom,
divided up into three companies,
and spent the rest of the night play
ing ideas off each other.
“It sort of frees one’s way of think
ing,” says David Chang, a research
chemist at Clairol Inc. who is work
ing toward his master’s in business
administration.
“It will be very, very helpful to
people in technical management.”
Mason has experienced the frus-
Cdison’s greatest invention was not the electric
light or the phonograph. His greatest invention was
the product development laboratory. Edison was a real
psychologist. He knew what could sell. He didn’t invent
things that couldn’t sell. He didn’t waste his time.”
Stanley Mason,
inventor
“Edison’s greatest invention was
not the electric light or the phono
graph,” he says. “His greatest inven
tion was the product development
laboratory.
“Edison was a real psychologist.
He knew what could sell. He didn’t
invent things that couldn’t sell. He
didn’t waste his time.”
Mason’s 15-week course consists
of a series of three-hour seminars
that include lectures by successful
entrepreneurs and exercises de
signed to stretch the students’
minds.
For one recent assignment, he
sent students into a Norwalk store
and told them to pick out a product
that they as consumers thought
needed improvement.
Steps
(Continued from page 9)
eye, which he liked.”
On some shows, the costumes start
from scratch, and on others cos
tumes are built on foundations built
for other shows.
“The students who help build the
costumes are theater majors and
those students who are taking Intro
to Theater or a costunie lab,” Kelly
says.
“They put from four to eight
hours a week building costumes, and
some work more hours.
“On really big shows we bring in
two seamstresses who act as stitchers
and work on more complex costume
parts.”
Technical crews are staffed by
theater arts majors.
“Some students are not interested
in acting and work on crews,” Porno
says. “Others do crew for one show
and act in the next show.
“We have different crews for dif
ferent callings such as sound, props,
jilting, costumes and for striking
ismantling) the set.
“People do dif ferent tasks to make
the show run smoothly.”
The budget for each show dif f ers
depending on the type of play.
“Period pieces would naturally
cost more,” Porno says.
If five weeks to produce a show
sounds like a rush, it can be, but the
direcor, cast and crew often work
overtime to get the show just right.
“Five weeks is pushing it,” Porno
says. “But we are fortunate to have
some very dedicated people who are
willing to put in the extra hours on a
show.
“If you are a theater major, you
are completely dedicated to the the
ater.
“The theater is an art. It takes
D
MSC
Political
Forum
SOVIET DISSIDENT:
TESTING GLASNOST
DR. ALEXANDER GOLDFARB
APRIL 18,1989
601 RUDDER
8:30 PM
This program is presented for educational purposes,
and does not constitute an endorsement for any speaker.
trations of corporate life firsthand.
In the 1970s, when he developed
Masonware, which he says was the
first cookware for microwaves, Ma
son was told by a major American
corporation there was no market for
it.
Today, such cookware is a $350
million-a-year business, he says.
When he developed the granola
bar as an alternative snack product
for Nestle S A in the 1970s, the com
pany decided it wasn’t interested.
Quaker Oats Co. and others even
tually came out with their own.
Then there was the disposable di
aper debacle. Mason was exasper
ated trying to put a square diaper on
his son’s round bottom — not to
mention the drudgery of laundry
and those painful pricks from safety
pins.
So when he was working for a ma
jor paper-products company, he de
signed a disposable diaper lined with
soft, absorbent paper, shaped like an
hourglass to fit a baby’s bottom, and
substituted sticky tape for pins.
The company patented the inven
tion and Mason got $100 for his ef
forts. The company, which he didn’t
want to be identified, sold the patent
rights to another corporation, which
also failed to act on the idea.
Since then, shaped disposable dia
pers have become a billion-dollar
product line.
Such lack of vision helps explain
why half the patents issued in Amer
ica last year went to inventors out
side the country, Mason says.
“Product development is a risky
business,” he says.
“There’s no security in working in
product development in any U.S.
company because if the product
doesn’t work, they kill the messen
ger.”
According to one survey, the aver
age tenure for research directors at
American corporations is only 13 or
14 months, Mason says.
“I’ve worked for lots of companies
— I’ve been fired from lots of com
panies,” he says.
Today, Simco’s clients include 40
Fortune 500 companies, such as
Johnson & Johnson, Kimberly-Clark
Corp., Proctor & Gamble Co., Hunt-
Wesson Foods Inc. and Primerica
Corp.
It has a full-time staff of about
eight employees, plus about 125 as
sociates, mostly academics, who pro
vide creative input on various pro
jects, such as Mason’s latest venture:
how to get petroleum substitutes, in
cluding fuel, from Chinese tallow
trees.
That project has been funded in
part by the National Science Foun
dation, the U.S. Department of Ag
riculture and the state of Hawaii.
Among his other inventions: the
first plastic underwire bra for Play-
tex, a super-strong Velcro for Velcro
Fastening Systems, a burglar alarm
that hangs on a doorknob and
square milk jugs that save shipping
space.
Mason dates his first invention to
his youth, when he sold a slingshot
like weapon to scores of friends.
As a youth, his first real job was at
the Trenton Free Public Library,
which also served as one of 12 re
gional depositories for patents is
sued by the U.S. Patent Office.
He’d spend hours poring over
other people’s inventions, and real
ized that’s what he wanted to do with
his life.
“Part of what I do is feed my
unconscious and conscious brain
with lots of things,” he says.
“It’s furniture you move around
in your head and the more that you
have there, the more connections
take place.”
many hours of rehearsal, polish and
concentration so that you mayu be
come a good performer. Most of our
students go to classes and then all
they do is theater.”
One of the most important parts
of an Aggie Players productions is
drawing the crowd to the theater.
“Publicity for shows is handled
through posters, radio and newspa
per advertisements and a direct mail
campaign,” Dr. Roger Schultz, direc
tor of theater arts, says.
“Posters are notoriously ignored
by the public, and word of mouth is
the best form of advertising. People
see the show and tell others about
it.”
Once the preparation is complete,
the show opens. If the show is a main
stage production it will run for two
weekends. In the studio produc
tions, the show is performed during
one weekend.
The main stage season is one in
which the shows are directed and de
signed by faculty with the public in
mind, Porno says.
The studio season is more experi
mental, and on some productions,
students are given the opportunity
to design and direct.
After the production doses, the
department often has “post-mor
tems.”
“We have outside experts brought
in to evaluate the production,” Porno
says.
“They evaluate the director, the
designers and the students. We fully
realize that putting the show on and
striking the set is not enough. We
still need to learn from the process
after the process is over.”
Theater arts majors at A &M
get good education, chance
to try everything, graduate says
By Thomas Boylan
ENTERTAINMENT WRITER
Texas A&M, a bastion of tech
nical education, isn’t all technical.
It has its share of liberal arts, and
one of those arts is theater. Many
have heard of the Aggie Players,
but not so many know that A&M
has a theater arts major.
Matt Hunt graduated with a
theater degree last December. He
said the running gag in the de
partment was about interaction
with fellow Aggies who were not
theater majors.
“You tell someone on campus
you’re a theater major and the re
ply is, ‘Oh, I didn’t know we had a
theater degree here,’ ” he said.
Hunt, a past president of the
Aggie Players, recommends get
ting into Texas A&M’s theater
arts program.
“The department is small
enough and the people are good
enough that you can get a good
education here,” he said. “It’s not
a fine arts programs, not just for
actors.”
Hunt gave advice for people
new to the theater arts depart
ment: “Do it all,” he said. “1 he
best part about A&M is that if
you’re willing to work, you can do
just about anything. I’ve pro
duced a play that T wrote and as
sociate-directed it.”
He says his favorite kind of
drama is experimental, which he
defines as “not held by the laws of
straight continuity — very
movement and music oriented.”
Even more challenging, how
ever, he says, is multicultural the
ater.
Dr. Robert Tomo created The
Elenco Experimental, a multicul
tural experimental theater group
that meets for two hours every
day, all year long. Hunt says
working in that group is more in
tensive than any class.
Mark Hadley has been at A&M
long enough to earn a bachelor’s
degree in psychology and a mas
ter’s of business administration.
He now works for the theater un
der an assistantship from the the
ater department.
“While I was getting my
M.B.A. I took an acting class
from Charles Gordone,” he said.
“I guess his attitude and the
whole thing of theater struck a
nerve with me.
“I was trying to decide what to
do with my M.B.A., and the
longer I stayed and the more pro
ductions I was in, the more my
love for theater grew.”
With his assistantship he hopes
to stay with the department until
next May. But he is not planning
on staying forever, and he has be
gun applying around the state for
a job as a theater 'business man
ager.
Behind
(Continued from page 9)
are designed by the faculty, but the
student technical crew is in charge of
the building of the costume and
sets.”
During the season, all the shows
overlap, and this year Rabensburg
has rushed from one project to an
other with break-neck speed.
“There are some days when I
could scream because I have so
much to do and don’t think I’ll be
able to finish everything,” she says.
“But that feeling doesn’t last long.”
•If you saw the Aggie Players’ show
“Another Antigone,” you may have
noted the crumbled neo-classical
Greek set. The designer of that set
was sophomore theater arts major
Rick Boultinghouse.
Boultinghouse readily says he
would rather be behind the scenes
than on stage.
“I like set design better than ac
ting,” he says. “I guess I feel more in
control as a designer. Actors have to
work around my designs.”
He done set and lighting design
for one show and properties design
for several other shows while at
A&M.
For the student production “A-
nother Antigone,” Boultinghouse
was able to design alone. He says he
enjoyed working in conjunction with
the play’s student director, Troy
Herbert.
“For “Another Antigone,” Troy
gave me an idea of what sort of set
he wanted,” he says. “Troy said he
wanted a set that was many-leveled
and Greek. The director works hand
in hand with the designer.”
Boultinghouse drew rough
sketches and built a model of his
“F<
or now, I will do
whatever I’m needed for. If
they want me to sew
costumes, I’ll sew
costumes and if they need
me to paint, I’ll paint. It’s all
theater.”
— Rick Boultinghouse,
set designer
conception of the “Antigone” set,
and Herbert approved the design
after a few minor changes. Boulting
house got the opportunity to design
the set and lights for Herbert by
asking for the chance.
Boultinghouse also has an
assistantship for his technical work
that pays about $400 a semester. He
says an important part of his
assistantship is that it helps him to
build a resume and portfolio of his
work.
Boultinghouse says he plans to go
to graduate school for scene design.
“When I apply to graduate school, I
can show what I have designed and
worked on,” he says.
“That is the important part. I feel
like I’m ahead of the ball game bu-
cause I’ve done more as a sopho
more than some graduates in other
college programs. I would then like
to work in the professional or educa
tional theater.”
He says he believes he will even
tually get out from behind the stage,
but it isn’t an event whose arrival he
worries over.
“It’s something that will happen
and I look forward to it,” he says.
“For now, I will do whatever I’m
needed for. If they want me to sew
costumes. I’ll sew costumes and if
they need me to paint, I’ll paint. It’s
all theater.”
•Billy Griffin decided to take the
year off from acting in productions
to concentrate on working behind
the scenes.
Griffin, a sophomore theater arts
major, has been a technical director,
assistant director or has worked on
building the set for every Aggie
Players show this year.
“I’m in my second year as a stu-
Ji
Texas ASM
Flying Club
backing tfie (Best to iffy the (Best
Interested people are urged to attend our meeting
Tuesday, April 18 at the Airport Clubhouse
For information
Call President Bodie Kirby 822-3788
7:00 p.m.
dent assistant in the scene shop,” he
says. “Jimmy Humphries, faculty
scene designer and technical direc
tor for Theater Arts Department, is
my boss. As a technical assistant it is
my job to get whatever it is he tells
me to build.”
Griffin says he gets a crew togther
and people who want to help. He
then goes around and monitors each
group as it works the set.
“I really love working behind the
scenes as well as on the stage,” Grif
fin says. “My technical resume lists
welding, mixing paints, and crew su
pervision. The surface of scene de
sign is much deeper than just build
ing. It really is a lot of fun.”
Griffin admits that it is difficult
for him to decide if acting or being
offstage is more exciting.
“I’m the type of guy who likes at
tention and I came to A&M on an
acting scholarship as well as an assis
tantship,” he says. “I’ve acted in at
least one production every semester
that I’ve been at A&M, except this
“I
I think it is more
satisfying to work behind
the scenes because you
get to sit back and see
what you have done.
Acting is inspirational or
on-the-spot, and after
you’re through with the
play, it’s over.”
— Billy Griffin,
technical assistant
semester.”
He says he wanted to get more ex
perience with technical work and try
his hand at stage managing.
“I think it is more satisfying to
work behind the scenes because you
get to sit back and see what you have
done,” Griffin says. “Acting is inspi
rational or on-the-spot, and after
you’re through with the play, it’s
over. As opposed to working on the
set, you still have the renderings, the
model of the set to look back on.
There are also the memories of the
good times during the actual build
ing of the set.”
Griffin says he enjoys his work
even though it often involves a lot of
time. He says he thrives on the work
and being on projects with other the
ater majors.
“Technical work is sometimes
hard to get people to work on be
cause they are not on the stage get
ting the attention,” he says. “But
there are not really any personal
drawbacks to being behind the
scenes. If there were I wouldn’t be
here.”