1978_12 The Daily Collegian December 1978

              The Daily Collegian
The TMily Collegian
Politics and religion
A Biblical approach to world problems
By MARGUERITE LUMLEY
'Politics and religion can mix if
people believe that governments are
instruments ol Cod," says Kathv
Vaquilar student member of the
University Religious Center Board of
r bring  'social  attention
Elbert Hoffman
sitv  Religious  C
group at CSUF
-The  purpose
serve   people     r
r the s
x of the Univei
active Christia
Oppression of t
Africa, Iran and tl
of Vaquilar's soci-
of Fresno, Vaquilar has relatives in
the Philippines and so the poor living
conditions there are especially 'close to
'The reason for apathy is ignor
ance.' Vaquilar says Therefore the
first goal of the new organization would
be to educate its members and. later,
others about social problems Films.
Bible studies and workshops would be
the group' s educational tools
second goal of the group Two other
goals would be addressing issues of
interest toother groups of similar inter
ests and addressing issues to other
Fresno campuses and churches, and
undertaking 'action projects" Finally,
the group would cooperate with and
encourage  other   groups   to   take   an
Vaquilar has contacted students at
f-resno City College and Pacific College
as well as at CSUF who are interested
in organizing such a group, she said
There has never been a politically
active   Christian   group   on   campus.
according to Vaquilar, but such groups
do exist At Pacific College the Peace
Fellowship 'is working on the nuclear
issue," she said Sojurners, a Washing¬
ton DC based organization, is another
Christian group active with social con
cerns, according to Vaquilar
Sojurners, a community of 50
Christians, started in Chicago and
moved to Washington DC in order to
work directly with political leaders
according to Vaquilar Soiurners is
interested in the nuclear issue and the
effects of the economy upon U S
citizens, especially the poor, Vaquilar
said They live in low income areas, she
continued, and everywhere they ve
settled Soiurners have raised the
standard of living Soiurners feel thev
are   living   the   gospel   and   Vaquilar
Her belief that 'people have a
responsibility to what they know" has
lead Vaquilar to address certain social
concerns on her own She is a member
ol People For Sale Energy and Stu
dents For Energy Alternatives Last
year Vaquilar worked on a boycott
against Nestles
'I worked on the boycott against
Nestles because ol an ad campaign
they had in the third world c
Weight room in public light
Letter of complaint sent to AS Senate
Bv TOM MAURER
Citing examples of people passing
out from heat and lack of proper air cir
<ulation, CSUF student Carl Schmitt
has brought the various problems of
the university s weight room into
public light
Armed with a petition with some 400
signatures, Schmitt addressed the pro¬
blem in a letter to the Associated Stu
n.    enateonNov   8   Ihe  etter ha
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In  an   interview,   Sc
Daily  Collegian  he   ha
seen   people
working in the room this summer pass
out and sometimes gel
violently sick
because there is poor air
air conditioning and no v.
ater fountain
In addition, he said that those people
wishing to get a drink
must interrupt
classes in nearby rooms
and forfeit use
ol the limited equipmen
to those wait-
ing in lone to do so
Schmitt said that when an athletic
team   arrives   in   the
weight   room
whether they are sched
jled to use the
equipment or not. the students must
surrender the use of the
equipment
-Students should be
considered as
much ai the  sports  t
college," Schmitt said
Schmitt  is   looking
or  the  weight
ded After using the facilities lor two
and a hall years, Schmitt feels that he
knows what he' s talking about
"The equipment at this university is
not as good as a lot of high school' s
equipment is," he said
Schmitt told the Senate in the letter
that 'there are approximately 20,000
persons using the facility every semes¬
ter through the Intramural-Recreation
program.' In addition to those, he said,
are the Physical Education classes and
the athletic teams
'The facility doesn't come up to the
standards ol many high schools and
certainly not to the standards of a ma|or
university," he said in the letter
Saying that he has found the existing
building too small to accomodate add¬
itional equipment, Schmitt ollered the
Senate three alternatives to the pro
First, he said, 'buy more equipment
and move it to another building '
Second, 'more gymnastic equip
ment to another building,' he said
and finally, "expand the existing fac
ility so that it extends to the outer pen
meter of the Men s Locker Room " he
He asked in the letter that perhaps
the AS could help with funding for add
itions to the prosent building
Schmitt told the Senate that he talk
ed to President Norman Baxter about
the problem on Nov 7, and found him
in favor of improving the facility
He said Baxter told him that the
weight room has been inadequate for a
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Two perspectives
David of Sassoun: Struggling to fly
Earth-shattering-not yet But Earl
Robinson's (oik opera "David of
Sassoun," which made its world pre¬
mier Wednesday, Nov 29 in CSUF's
John Wright Theatre to an audience of
international experts and local Fres-
nans (who weren't getting their culture
at RatclrHe Stadium), has a wealth of
under-developed potential that surely
nine more performances will bring
forth in Its most powerful deliverance
And certainly the power is there
The story of David is the Armenian
national (oik epic and, although only
recently discovered as such, David is
coming Into his own with the grace ol a
sef-conscious genius
Robinson is the writer/composer of
the fold opera and unreputedly created
something lar different from what is
now on stage. He says Director Ed
EmanuEl did miracles I'd say Robin¬
son started them.
But there were problems
The musk, when rt was allowed lull
development, was* ^enveloping and
beautiful. Howeve«l ,t was wasted in
the cacophanous sounds that disrupted
the first act of 'David.* Strong, rich
voices not (reed 'til after intermission
only gave hints of their magic before
But the words were (un and wonder¬
ful as they transposed the 10th century
into modern day vocabulary: "Melik
will be upset,' the chorus chants in one
scene 'Melik will raise the roof.'
Somewhere in the beginning,
though, Robinson's known respect and
admiration for the unusual society of
Sassoun-folk in David's time got
shoved off-stage in a Hurry of talking
animals, baggy-bloomered idiot-men
and sashaying, luzzy-haired women
who acted like animals in the early
moments of 'David " And these are
Armenians?
Post-intermission, however, por¬
trayed a people closer to real, and folk¬
tale or not, the latter was highly
appreciated and superbly executed.
As expected, there was the EmanuEl
event, the mirror, amazingly exploited
here to depict background settings ol
palaces, landscapes, and leading char¬
acters. In one scene, when Dayid falls
into a river after battling his enemy,
brother Melik's men, the mirrors are
used to reflect sheets of cheese cloth as
the shimmering, tumultuous water.
And as the actor David writhes dry on a
darkened stage, the audience sees only
a tossed and turned young hero being
drowned and brought bade and drag¬
ged under again as waves envelope him
and threated to end him forever.
Plastic, doll-like faces created an
unreal chorus of townspeople. Mat¬
tresses became stone archways, marble
platforms, and the surrounding coun¬
tryside overwhich Malik travels in his
.utile attempts to be rid ol the all-good
brother who has so won the hearts of
And the curtains-not
ie curtains-not your he
drapes,  but light and
heavily
l*Wu *?
CSUF's Theatre Arts « .
has surpassed itself and created i
beautiful work of art with their .world
premier of David of Sassoun-but they
cant hold it together at it's best yet.
The folk-opera, currently playing at
the John Wright theatre, is a dramati¬
zation of the Armenian Epic conlronU-
tion between David of Sassoun and his
brother Melik, the butcher king
The set is a brilliant conception, a
real gasper, featuring a giant, 16-sec-
Uon mirror suspended over the rear of
the stage at a 45 decree angle.
This mirror creates a multitude of
creative possibilities for staging,
blocking, choreography and the use of
Think of it the floor is turned into a
second stage since the image of a per¬
son laying is reflected to the audience
fullyfrontal.asif it were standing The
cast can play to the audience by turning
its back to it!
Throughout the play large protected
pictures cover the floor which the char¬
acters, offer laying, relate to as if these
pictures were fliree-dimens/onaf-grab-
bing the tail of a protected bird as if it
were Hying through the air, laying in a
grave as if it had depth, sitting on steps
as if they had height-all of this brought
to you by that scene-stealing mirror
which even breaks free of its moorings
at the climax of the (irst act and swings
The at
e of university theatre. But at
ally, and done so subtlety that the aud-
only suddenly that it had.
The show could have gripped the
audience in its daws of excellence. It
could have kept a stranglehold on an
audience powerless in the opera's own
strength But it didn't
The main flaw, the one that glares
the brightest but so ruinously dims the
entire performance, is the ending.
Alter David has completed his last her¬
oic deed by killing Melik, he moves
sadly away from the scene and In an
emotion-packed message, backed by a
welt-harmon-ed chorus, tells the aud¬
ience that killing is not for him and to
'keep on learning to love "
Granted. It's a
a world of lust And he made him a v
ner despite it all. For David to
Melik was as it should have been.
But the dramatic impact of good over
evil was tost in David's last comments,
Robinson's personal prayer to man¬
kind The blatant expression ol David's
obvious distast for such murder is a
contradiction in itself.
•David of Sassoun* is a folk-story,
not a morality play, and both composer
and director would do well to consider
by the times that it dkfn 't. But first the
times It tfid.
Robert Beltran as David of Sassoun
scintillated in the opening stretches of
the play. Acting done this will is an
inspiration, justification for the whole¬
hearted support of CSUF theatre and
this play in particular   When Beltran
is incandescent. Such vitality
See Page*
jected slides to match the action and to
enhance the scenery. There was a large
sculptured head, magnified and repeat¬
ed on each of the overtapplng pieces of
burlap And then the head would be
dripping in blood as Melik speaks of
David's death-not literally, but pfctor-
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