Low attendance plagues an enjoyable 'Romeo and Juliet'
The Exies show off their star power at The Warehouse

By Stephanie Orr - Assistant Editor

Guest artists made the Springfield Ballet Company's spring performance of “Romeo and Juliet” watchable. Unfortunately, there were very few people there to enjoy the show at the Saturday, April 9 performance.

The classic story of Shakespeare's “Romeo and Juliet” was told, not through the immortal words of the Bard, but through ballet. The Capulets and Montagues are mortal enemies. Despite that fact Romeo, a Montague, and Juliet, a Capulet promised to the suitor Paris, fall in love. They marry in secret but their young lives end tragically.

Samuel Chester, a guest artist from the Carolina Ballet Theatre, played Romeo and was markedly better then his fellow dancers. Juliet was performed by Erica Wesselman, a freshman at Lincoln Land .

The pairing of Chester and Wesselman as Romeo and Juliet was very well done. His skill and her young sweetness made a good combination overall. Romeo was graceful without being overly effeminate so the passion between the two characters was believable. Juliet was graceful and light on her feet.

However, in their second pas de deux, I thought Romeo and Juliet were less graceful and more awkward with one another then in Act I. If anything their final dance together should have been more romantic and natural because they are married and have just spent (what I can only assume was) a passionate wedding night getting to know one another in the carnal sense.

Lance Hardin performed the role of Paris , very well. I think he was talented enough to have had a bigger, more active part in the ballet. While a principal part, Paris is not as large a role as Mercutio or Tybalt. I don't think Hardin was used to proper advantage by the SBC.

The dancers in the corps de ballet were not always synchronized in their movements. Their choreography did not always convey the proper mood. At times, their movements did not seem to serve a purpose except to kill time until the principle dancers came back to do their thing.

There were also instances throughout the ballet that I became concerned the corps dancers might run into one another, their spacing was so uneven.

The combat choreography in the fight scene between Tybalt and Mercutio was pitifully predictable and anticlimactic. First of all, I thought Mercutio fought like a little girl and then he took what seemed like a good 45 minutes to finally die.

In general, ballet is not about the dance alone- it is a marriage of music and movement. Without the music the dance seems incomplete. I found it disappointing that the wonderfully talented Illinois Symphony Orchestra did not collaborate with the SBC on “Romeo and Juliet” as they did on “The Nutcracker.” Instead there was a recorded soundtrack for the dancers to dance to.

The costuming was very nice. The audience could subtly detect which side of the feud a performer was on just by what they were wearing. The set was simple as to not overpower the dancers.

However, I feel more could have been done with the lighting to accentuate the dancers' movements, the emotions ravaging the characters, and the powerful themes that are the foundation of the story of Romeo and Juliet. This was done somewhat in the end of the ballet, but the lighting could have been manipulated more to the benefit of the performance.

David Sedaris comes to Sangamon

By Gabrielle Wiegand - Feature Writer

The popular comic author and playwright David Sedaris will be regaling audiences at the Sangamon Auditorium April 17 at 7 p.m. 

Sedaris' mixture of sarcastic humor and lack of political correctness in his social critique should make him performance highly entertaining and enjoyable for the entire Sangamon Auditorium audience. 

Sedaris' original pieces are distributed nationally by the National Public Radio on the hit radio show “This American Life” which is produced by WBEZ in Chicago . 

Sedaris has written several books including the bestsellers “Barrel Fever,” a collection of stories and essays about Anytown, USA, and “Holidays on Ice,” a collection of six Christmas themed stories. 

Another of his bestsellers is “Me Talk Pretty One Day,” an autobiographical collection of essays that mix poignant comedy with hilarious stories of his growing up in North Carolina . 

Sedaris has also written several plays, some of which have been a collaboration with his sister, Amy Sedaris, under the name “The Talent Family.”  Some of Sedaris' plays include “Stump the Host,” “Stitches,” “One Woman Shoe,” “Incident at Cobbler's Knob” and “The Book of Liz.”

“One Woman Shoe” received an Obie Award and “The Book of Liz” was published in book form by Dramatist's Play Service.  Some of these plays have been produced at La Mama, Lincoln Center and the Drama Department in New York City . 

In addition to his Obie Award, Sedaris won the Thurber Prize for American Humor.  In the same year, 2001, “Time” magazine named him “Humorist of the Year.” 

In 2005, Sedaris was nominated for two Grammy Awards for Best Spoken Word Album ("Dress Your Family in Corduroy & Denim") and Best Comedy Album ("David Sedaris: Live at Carnegie Hall").

Sedaris' essays also appear in “Esquire” and “The New Yorker.”

David Sedaris will be at Sangamon Auditorium April 17 at 7 p.m.  Tickets range from $27 to $35 for adults.  For more information or to purchase tickets, contact the Sangamon Auditorium Box Office at 217.206.6160 or www.sangamonauditorium.org .  

Comic series accurately portrayed in blockbuster 'Sin City'

By Jason Satek - General Assignment/SGA Reporter

A problem common to many comic book-to-movie adaptations is that somewhere in the retelling, they lose sight of the nuances and main core of what made them a success in the first place, attempting instead to broaden possible appeal by dummying down, flattening out and reverting to well-trod caricatures with familiar names. This is not a problem “ Sin City ” has.

In fact, with the inclusion of author/creator Frank Miller as co-director, it might be said that “ Sin City ” is too successful at recreating the pulp world of the graphic novel series. Dialogue that is at home on the written page becomes awkward when spoken aloud, and scenarios limited to the scope of their particular tale become less taut when packaged together as a medley. Also, there is a wee bit of violence.

I myself had no problem with the latter, but then I knew what I was in for. A tale where an argument can be made that a main character is the town itself, Basin City (re: Sin City ), a mean collection of buildings and streets, with vicious personalities to match. Shot in black and white, with coloration of certain objects (eyes, hair, skin, a car) meant to enhance their importance to specific characters, it is an overlapping ensemble piece linking individual stories by common locations and even interaction with central characters, reminiscent of Robert Altman joining works of Raymond Carver in the film “Short Cuts.”

Fellow co-director and former indie film poster child Robert Rodriguez, who quit the Director's Guild when they protested his inclusion of Miller to maintain artistic vision, has compiled a large and talented cast for the task. An almost-unrecognizable Mickey Rourke stars as “ Sin City ” icon Marv, a hulking engine of destruction bent on revenge. Academy Award-snub Clive Owen mans the intermediate tale, trying to avert a savage turf war between prostitutes and corrupt police and the entirety is bookended by Bruce Willis as a cop willing to lose everything in protecting a kidnapped girl in a performance that reminded me more than a little of the last few minutes of “Armageddon.”

Rosario Dawson, Jessica Alba and Benicio Del Toro all have meaty parts. HBO alums Powers Boothe and Nick Stahl appear as father and son of the reigning criminal family. Attentive viewers will recognize many other familiar faces. Meriting particular mention are Elijah Wood and “Gilmore Girls” Alexis Bledel attempting to break typecast by playing unaccustomed roles (He more successfully than she, but then he is given much more deviance with which to operate as a bespectacled and ghoulishly silent pious cannibal).

“Clockwork Orange ” popularized the term “ultra-violence” to the common lexicon, and upon leaving the theater, I felt I had witnessed a form of the “ultra-noir,” with guns, dames, hard drinking and car chases all dialed up to the nth degree. See what you started, “Kill Bill”?

“ Sin City ” delivers on what it sets out to, and that is a good thing. The final product is a faithful depiction, chock full of humor, nudity, and violence sometimes bordering on cartoonish. I liked it, but fear that crossover appeal will not be one of its strengths.

‘Spring, Summer, Fall, Winter ... and Spring'

By Brian Mackey - Feature Writer

“Spring, Summer, Fall, Winter ... and Spring” (2003) is a Buddhist morality play in five compact acts.

A monk and his pupil live in a floating monastery on a remote mountain lake in the Korean wilderness. It is not until well into the film that the audience can figure out just when this film is taking place. For the monk, it could just as easily be 1505 or 2005.

As the seasons change, so does the boy, spanning 5, 15 and even 20 years between seasons.

The pair lives a life of quiet routine. In “Spring,” the student is a young boy. Though he lives in a floating monastery on a remote lake with an old man, he appears to live a fairly normal boy's life.

He chases moths, climbs a nearby giant Buddha statue and torments animals. One day, in a most un-Buddhist act, he ties small rocks to a fish, a frog and a snake. His master silently observes this behavior, and – true to genre – sets out to teach the boy a lesson.

In the middle of the night, he ties a large stone – a small boulder, really – to the boy's back. In the morning, he instructs the boy to find the animals and release them, cautioning that if any have died, the boy will carry the stone in his heart for the rest of his life.

In “Summer,” a sick young woman is brought to the monastery by her mother. She and the boy, now a teenager, are soon doing what comes naturally to young people still learning to control the feelings and urges awakening in their bodies.

This is just what she needed to cure what ailed her, so the master declares her ready to leave the lake. The boy does not take this well and is cautioned by the master:

“Lust awakens the desire to possess, and that awakens the intent to murder.”

There are surprises in this film, most having to do with what happens to the young boy as he grows older and the master is proved more prophetic than even he could have realized. Suffice to say, the boy's stunning lack of emotional development through adulthood is enough to make one question whether being raised in an isolated, two-man monastery is such a good idea. (It always seemed pretty cool on channel 26's Kung-Fu Theater when I was growing up, but now – not so much.)

“Spring, Summer, Fall, Winter ... and Spring” is replete with symbolism. It is one of those films that should be watched on two levels, like Hitchcock or Mamet: there is the action, and then there is everything else.

Look at the animal present in each act. Applying Chinese zodiacal traits is instructive about the boy's personal development.

In “Fall,” the dog represents loyalty, honesty, trustworthiness and selfishness. The boy is cruel to animals he burdens with the stone, but honest about it when confronted by his master.

“Spring's” rooster aptly portrays the boy as cocksure and boastful.

In “Fall,” the master has a cat, which can perhaps be approximated by the tiger: aggressive and prone to emotional outbursts.

By “Winter,” the snake, which has been a minor presence in each of the previous acts, is ascendant: Calm, gentle, romantic and perceptive.

The monastery is full of doors without walls. Bedrooms in the one-room temple and the doors on the edge of the lake are respected by all comers.

Using the doors is a matter of choice, like walking a path of righteousness through life.

It is only when the boy begins sneaking out of the bedroom at night – avoiding the doors – that his troubles begin in earnest. Soon he is breaking rules by which he has abided his entire life.

In the hands of a less talented filmmaker, the film's symbolism could have been a cold fish slapped across the face. But Kim's restraint and subtle storytelling style imbue each scene with layers of meaning and earn our patient attention.

“Spring, Summer, Fall, Winter...and Spring” was shown last Friday as part of the Division of Student Life's Independent & Foreign Film Series. It is also available on DVD. In Korean with English subtitles. Running time: 103 minutes. The film is rated R for “some strong sexuality.”

Low attendance plagues an enjoyable 'Romeo and Juliet'

David Sedaris comes to Sangamon

Comic series accurately portrayed in blockbuster 'Sin City'

‘Spring, Summer, Fall, Winter ... and Spring'