1987_04 The Daily Collegian April 1987

              Page 4
Friday, Apri3,1987-
Table set
for ETC
Show teaches
drama manners
By Paul Worthlngton
Staff Writer
The timing required for the comedy
Table Settings'' has had the cast admit¬
tedly, struggling, but the final rehearsal
had the small audience laughing.
The performances this weekend should
promise many more chuckles for theater¬
goers.
The CSUF all-student Experimental
Theatre Company will provide the laughs
in the Lab School Theatre Thursday.
Friday, and Saturday.
Vandalism and theft in the second week
of rehearsal was not quite so funny.
"Someone that night watched my TV by
my candle light and ate my Froot Loops,"
said Stage-Manager Nicki Tempests of the
stolen props.
The play, written by James Lapine, is
broken into segments, and titles like The
Granddaughter Breaks Out, Tahitian Para¬
dise, and Thinking Out Loud imply the
show's concerns. The play is about fa¬
mily and die inter-relationships that make
us all do crazy things," Director Elizabeth
Hester said
Fiester said she chose the play because
it fits within die limitations of the set and
costume budget of the ETC and the char¬
acters were within the range capabilities of
die actors. "We don't have a mass of 80-
year-olds on stage
"I like it more and more as we keep
doing it," she said. There are elements
that make us laugh, at ourselves."
That was not the case at first After the
first week of rehearsals, she said to the
cast "We've been very intense and inward,
and that's great But let's make this big —
make it funny."
She later said, "Comedy has a certain
size. Table. Settings' is a piece that talks
directly to the audience. For a couple of
them it was difficult"
"It's a tough show," Theatre Arts major
Joel, Dyer said. This comedy is tougher
than I thought it would be."
The timing is the particular problem, he
said. Til do it just right one day. and get
the laugh And the next day Til just miss
it completely."
"It's very different,"  agreed Lisa Lam-
GlennUoore/ TheDmtyCoteyijn
Kathleen Jackson, as the wife (left), and Lisa Lambright as the mother, discuss their lives during the Experimental Theatre
Company's production of Table Settings."
bright, who received from the cast this
week a gag "Birthday Card From Hell" for
her 21st birthday. "I find comedy much
more difficult three times as hard as
drama. If you're really bombing in a com¬
edy, you find out right away."
1Ay character, though seen as funny, is
pathetic. He's a drug addict," Paul Mavro-
george said. While lighting a cigarette he
One particular line, 1 love You," gave
Christine Berry a hard time. She said, "I
have a block about it. I guess." She tried
to get over her trouble by saying "I love
you" to a stranger in a hallway which she
said helped. *
The most fun part for her is when she
briefly plays a fantasy female in the grand¬
son's   dream   and   wears   a   negligee   and
Fiester said. "It allows them to practice
everything they've learned in the das*,
room"
Berry said the ETC production is her
first show at CSUF, "My foot' in the ol"
door." She has performed in comedies at
the Second Space Theatre in the Tower
District. Site said the ETC "gives a lot of
different people a chance to do some good
said,   "It's  hard  making  him   funny  when    blonde wig. 'It's a diff&ent person when I     work." More actors  are used  than  in  the
he's' supposed to be a drug addict" As he
took a drag he added, "I really want to quit
smoking."
Mavrogeorge said he is "never happier
than when I'm in a play. For the last two
years, I was an accounting major. That was
acting."
Also addicted is Dyers' character, con¬
stantly drinking martinis. While it's really
only water, the pimento olive is still there
and flavors the water. "It's one of the
worst tastes in the world," he sai<L "Now I
know why they put the alcohol in a
martini — to kill the taste of the olive
"It's a costume nightmare," he added. "I
have at least eight costume changes. There
are props up the wazzoo. I keep bringing
them on and forgetting to take them back
off with me."
look in the mirror.'
Fiester, 29, is now after her masters in
Theatre Arts having already received her
bachelors here She then wants to teach
theater at a junior college.
"I don't think of myself as a teacher
when I direct" she said. "My job is to sit
there as a very educated audience member
and—say what works. I'm not ytrying to
teach them. We don't have the time to
pick it apart. If-1 was in a classroom, it
would be very different. I've directed a lot
of shows.. (13 at Good Company Players
downtown). This is my fourteenth"
The basis of all ETC productions is
having students handle all the aspects of
putting on a show. "I think it's very im¬
portant that the students get to do it all —
the lights  and the costumes,  everything."
majority of the main stage drama depart¬
ment shows, she said, and there is also a
more relaxed atmosphere. "But you really
feel how you have to tow your own line.
No one can let go of his or her re¬
sponsibility."
"It's a good place to start as far as
Fresno State theatre goes," Steve Macias
said, also performing for the first time at
CSUF. "People are a little more patient.
I've learned a lot of technical aspects.
There's not always time for that in a main
stage production I didn't think the ETC
was going to be such a good learning ex¬
perience until I did it. Elizabeth brings
professionalism to the ETC, and yet
there's a lot more relaxed atmosphere.
"More personable. We all have a lot of
fun working together."
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