1980_03 The Daily Collegian March 1980

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DON HAYES
Photo by Greg Trott
Theatre holding auditions
for Wilder comedy
The Fresno Community Theatre is
holding auditions for Thornton Wilder's
comedy, "The Skin of Our Teeth" on
March 1 and 2, from I p.m. to 4 p.m.
Guest director Michael Robertson will
maintain the non-traditional style of this
claasic, where the actors occasionally
break character to talk directly to the
The main characters of the play are
George AntTobus, his wife and two
children, and their maid Sabtea. George
rspusauls th* average man who en¬
dures fire, flood, pestilence, the seven-
year locusts, the ice age, the black pox
and double feature, a dozen ware
and as many depression* all during the
6,000 years depicted fa the show.
The original Broadway cast starred
Tallulah Bankhead, Frederic Much,
Florence EMrige and Montgomery
Clift. Other major characters include
a delightful cameo role of the fortune
teller, orignially played by Florence
Reed; and the stage manager (who will
portray the role and actually be stage
manager) originally portrayed by a
young E.G. Marshall. The cast is roun¬
ded out by 10 extras (five men and five
women) who play multiple roles, ranging
from prehistoric animals to ushere to
a telegraph messenger.
Try-outs are open to anyone who
would like to perform, help prepare
sets or cast—nes or work stage crew
for the show.
UCLA to offer summer program
on applications of nuclear science
A summer program for undergradu¬
ate* on environmental health, energy
production and other applications of
nuclear science will be offered by the
UCLA laboratory of Nuclear Medicine
arid Biology.
The ten-week' program, funded by
the Association of Western Universities,
begins June 23. It will emphasize
individual student research projects,
supervised by UCLA scientists.
Undergraduates who completed their
freshman year of college by June,. 1979,
and who are U.S. citizens 'may apply.
Each   student   will   receive   a   $1200
stipend.
The program will include seminars
and lectures on nuclear physics and the
problems associated with the develop¬
ment of energy sources. Research pro¬
jects can be chosen from such fields ss
biochemistry, economics, immunology,
medical physics or radiation biology.
Applications must be received by
March 21. For further information and
applications, write to Dr. O. R. Lunt,
Laboratory of Nuclear Medicine and
Biology, 900 Veteran Ave., Los Angeles,
CA 90024, or call (213) 825-9431.
by Doug Bunnell
Don Hayes spent four years »*—*——a)
—   .. I . ...   .        *     ' .., al...
unxtea castes tot ana—roes
tat hi* customers.  He is still fa the
. business of supplying quality, but now
he stay* In one place and serves food and
low-key hospitality.
Hay** fa the owner and bartender of
Our Town, a isstsursnt and bar located
behind the Tower TTveetre off Olive
Street teo^wr—own Freeno..
Our Town was originally supposed to
be an antique store, but Hsyes tired of
the antique business and decided to
open a restaurant.
Hayes, a bearded, robust man who
looksseifhewasborowithsdgsrettein
one hand aad a wine glass te th* other,
waa an antique dealer for four year*
before ha took a job in the marketing
division of I. Magnin in Sen Francisco.
After a five-year stint fa the Bey Area.
Hsyes returned to Fresno snd decided to
open up an antique store and call it
Our Town. He planned to decorate the
store fa the abnosphere of Thcrton
Wilder's play about life fa a small town,
and even fayed out the store using the
street* from "Our Town.*
He spent six months laying the adobe
Boor, using a window frame as the mold.
Then Hayes decided that the "antique
business was suddenly much leas
appealing. Now everybody'a an antique
dealer," Hsyes said.
So he changed his mind and decided to
make Our Town something the "local
populace could identify with." He
decided that since the building had
originally been a restaurant, that's what
it would be again.
The decor could be described as Old
Fresno. Hayes said he lived there day
and night for more than two years, build¬
ing the restaurant by himself.
At one end of the bar ia a jail built
bom stones he fished from the Sen
Joaquin River. The bar stools are the
casings of old brass fire exttegufabars.
Our Town look* and feels like it is a
comtortable place to spend time te and
 j	
something the
'local populace could
identify with'
that is exactly how Hayes wants it.
'People who come here don't expect
the same things to always be going on,"
Hayes said. 'All I've tried to do fa make
the food consistently good and th*
stnwephere mellow.'
'People from the very beginning have
asked me why 1 chose such sn out of th*
way location-they all aay it will never
work. 1 chose it on purpose. I wanted to
be off the beaten track, Also, the Tower
District was the first shopping district in
Fresno."
Hayes is big on Fresno snd think* it
has the potential to be as good a place to
live as any city on the West Coast.
'People say Fresno is ready to hap¬
pen. Well, I've been saying that for the
last four'years," Hayes said. "I started
out alone with that idea, but now it's
getting to the point where we can call the
Tower District the 'little Carmel' of
Fresno. '
'We now have the Roger Rock*
Dinner Theatre down here, which ia as
fine as one anywhere. The Wild Blue
trallslor
■ _i«r'
. tsd£a yal
Vender is bringing in all sorts of c
act*. That light there say* ,
about how the Yonder operates,
they are not afraid of good cc_pe———.
Phis, with the Tower Theatre changing
hands, this small are* is coming •_*•,'
hasaid.
Our Town also has live s——rtate—**•>>—
with local guitarist and vocalist Dean
__-»___ playing every Friday night
But Hayes also encourages anyone who
likes to perform to cam* to Our Town.      ■•■
"Nobody who has walked into Our
Town who said be could play anything
has even been denied the opportunity,
whether it be reading poetry or playing
' the spoons," Hsyes said.     i/aitaBtaeM c
•We've had juggler, in here that bed
trouble because the ceiling wa* too low.
We had a flute player who was sleo a
snake dancer who walked through the
' audience playing the flute and doing hi.
dance. People don't expect the esme
thing going on here every night,-
Hayes said that has has been at Our
Town every day for the fast four ami a
half years and that the roatniiianl
business is appealing to him more all the
time.
"The business is now more exciting to
me than it ever ha* been. Now we hav*
the opportunity to stay open later and
serve food later," Have* said.
"1 probably enjoy Our Town more than
anyone that comes te. But I also hope
anyone that comes te enjoys them¬
selves," he said.
Hayes says he does no advertising, I
but since he knows almost all the people
who come there, a sort of 'advertising by
osmosis' occurs.
"I feel very gratified that on any given
night or day 1 will know many of the
people te here," Hayes said.
Hayes said that by making people feel
comfortable and by having -—^asAlng to:
offer to everyone that he can compete
with the "cold, stark businesses on Shaw
Avenue.*
Hayes say* that he is not worried
about th* changes Fresno fa going
through because 'whan a community
begins to take pride te it* past, than
that's a ec_j_unity that won't dfa.*
Hayes said that it fa important that, as
life becomes more *—jl—' snd fast-
paced, people continue to leak oat th*
place* that ara truing to keep quality
from becoming a thing of the past.
1 do hop* that Fresno _____*, to
ferret out the unusual places."
And if a person is looking for some¬
thing e little unusual, ha add, amy
other Saturday night the Celtic Society, a
five-member group that perfornui
authentic Irish musk, is st Our Town.
Then h* stopped for a second, laughed
and said: 'Wait a minute. They (the
Celtic band) an pissed off at me right
now, I don't know if they '11 be back.*
Looking out into the quiet dining area,
Hayes aaid that there were times when
he would have dozens of people waiting
outside w get.tega^foi-a—  ..„d.-
Hayes said that running Our Town is a
different kind of success than he achiev¬
ed buying and selling antiques or
working te the marketing division for
I. Msgnin.
Hayes said that ha haa seen it all at
Our Town. 'I've seen marriages fa here
and divorces, too. But that's what it ia ali
about, the eternal struggle between life
.•nddeath.*.',    ,  ,,.,