culture
Page 6 / Tuesday, October 12, 2010
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CAMPUS EVENTS
Consider skipping ‘I considered smiling’ by Graham Gentz
www.ahlgrows.com
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Column
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Dear cast and crew of “I Considered Smiling,” The Desert Rose Playhouse and everyone: There is nowhere to begin. “I Considered Smiling” fails on every level. It suffers from all weakness and no strength. There is no volume, no energy, no enunciation and absolutely no direction. It has all the life of a firstweek high school drama rehearsal and numerous other problems (see “Why it was so bad”). This is not a euphemism or metaphor. That’s what I honestly thought I was seeing. A very wise man, George Cooper, once said, “If you can’t hear it and can’t understand it, it’s not theater.” This was in no way a bad play. It wasn’t a play at all. To make people pay for this, in my case $12, was an absolute travesty. How did it ever get this far? Did truly no one realize what they were doing? Did no one have the balls to say that something wasn’t right? Did everyone involved in the project really not know any better? The show failed to go up last year, so maybe that was a sign. There is no excuse for this. This is not a stage reading. And even if it was, you don’t charge people to watch it. To the playwright, Theodore Jackson: If you’ve written eight 10-minute one acts, do you really have to use all eight? Some of these pieces are so unedited — conflict resolution and basic character motivations are so mangled — that I would hate to see what you’ve decided is not good enough for the stage. Where was the oversight? At least a few of the actors should have known
Al-Anon Peer Support Group Starts at: 4:00pm Location: Women’s Resource Center Friends and family members of those struggling with someone else’s drinking can find support in a safe and confidential environment.
better. Some are members or even graduates from the UNM theater department. What is going on?
Was it just the fault of an inexperienced director? I honestly thought the cast was in high school, but upon reading the program was horrified to realize many were actually older than me. There was one 13-year-old actor, (Parker Sage Smith), but he was one of the better parts of the cast. This certainly wasn’t his fault. Is there not a Board of Directors for the “Desert Rose”? Is there not a single person who thought what was happening was wrong — that this was an incoherent, ugly mess that wasn’t just missing something; it was missing everything. So please, take Cooper’s words to heart. As an actor, be aware at all times of how you move, look and sound. If you’re going to move onstage, know where you’re moving, how you’re moving and why you’re moving. If you want to say or do something, let the audience know that you want and mean to do it. It’s the audience you’re performing to, so perform to them. If your audience can’t see you, we don’t care. If the audience can’t hear you, we don’t care. And when the audience doesn’t care, you’ve lost them. Then you’re not creating anything. The audience isn’t captivated. They’re just being polite. I respectfully ask that you take the hint from a year ago and stop this production immediately. Or, barring that, you stop charging a fixed dollar amount and change it strictly to a “pay what you will” affair. I sincerely hope you will learn from this experience so that your future performances can be at a professional level. Best, Graham
Why it was so bad, according to theater columnist Graham Gentz: Acting:
• Mumbling and stumbling
around stage stiffly without purpose • No energy • Failure to face the audience Writing: • Uninvolving and drab • Grating dialogue resembles bad improv • Empty of basics of conflict resolution Directing • Nonexistent I hold UNM to a high, professional standard. I honestly believe there is talent, intellect and power in our little desert town. With 35 theater companies and performance spaces, at least ambition seems to agree with me. We get talented people stuck here in the basin of Route 66 from the East Coast or West lured in by cheap school and living, making a phenomenal amount of theater in Albuquerque possible. With brilliance like Blackout Theatre or Paul Ford or the experience of Henry Avery or David Richard Jones, the caliber of theater that has been performed in Albuquerque is positively breathtaking. So why is it that this was allowed to happen?
Collectors capture history in square inches by Alexandra Swanberg aswanny@unm.edu
It might have started in Great Britain, but it’s become a stamp of Americana. Stamp collecting is practiced across the nation, and the Albuquerque Philatelist Society is the epicenter for local collectors. The organization has begun prepping for NewMexPex2010, a twoday event geared for those going postal for the square-sized postmarks. Thomas Clinkenbeard, the society’s president, said collectors are captivated by the historical significance a stamp represents at the time it’s issued. “For me personally, and other folks who collect, we gain knowledge of the printing process, when stamps were issued, but also what is behind that stamp — what that represents,” he said. “You know why they were issued, why this particular person or event, why they picked the pictures, why they chose it for that time.” John DeBoo, the society’s librarian, said the exhibition will present collections categorized according to the chosen theme. “There are certain rules to follow as far as how the material is presented and organized, and that gets to be quite anal,
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New Mexico Daily Lobo
to me,” he said. “It’s like the whole world is there, from left to right. That’s how stamp exhibiting tends to be, as far as what people exhibit.” Don Swartz, a member who collects stamps from across the world, said stamps reflect countries’ values and interests. “The subjects do cross boundaries, but at the same time, it’s what’s interesting to that country,” he said. “Those based out of Russia had a lot more of the Warsaw Pact stuff during that time, so you could see the Cold War even in the stamps — the inflation rate periods. It’s just a microcosm of the world.” For those composing thematic collections for the exhibition, stamp arrangement is a vital aspect. Clinkenbeard said his composition mirrors the passing of time. “The postal history would tell me more about what’s on the covers, where a thematic (arrangement) is going to give me a storyline of whomever I’m showing or whatever I’m showing on that stamp,” he said. “I’m using the stamps in telling that story.” Swartz said stamp collecting helps him escape from stress. “For me, it’s seeing the filled page. It gives you a sense of accomplishment,” he
said. “It’s a chance to get away when stress starts eating at you. The stamps are going to take you where they’re going to take you. Franklin Delano Roosevelt during World War II was working on his stamps to keep from becoming overworked.” Printing methods have changed over time to produce stamps at a much higher rate. Nowadays, stamp collectors prefer engraved stamps. DeBoo said older stamps are more valuable. “The beauty of the engraving is just fascinating,” he said. “These people actually sat with tiny, intricate tools and were able to hand-engrave these things. Now most of these are done by a computer, and they look OK, but there’s something in the old ones that become, to me, pieces of art.”
NewMexPex2010
Saturday 9 a.m.-5 p.m. Sunday 9 a.m.-4 p.m. Italian-American Association Hall 1565 Stephanie Road S.E. Rio Rancho madjac.com/APS/index.htm
Event Calendar
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CAMPUS EVENTS
Native American Voting Rights Documentary Starts at: 5:30pm Location: KiMo Theatre 423 Central Peter Coyote narrates new documentary RECLAIMING Their VOICE by Oscar-nominated Producer.
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