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PAGE 10 â€" WATERLOO CHRONICLE, Story and photo by Karla Wheeler When the curtains open on stage at Waterloo Collegiate Inâ€" stitute (WCI) one week from tonight, members of the audience will be treated to two hours of life in Dogpatch, U.S.A. Dogpatch â€" the mountain vilâ€" lage where a character like Mammy YÂ¥okum yells and screams in between puffs on a corncob pipe. Dogpatch â€" the hometown of colorful country folk such as Li‘l Abner, Daisy Mae, Moonbeam McSwine, Marâ€" ryin‘ Sam and Earthquake McGoon. For adults in the audience, the WCI performance "will be a touch of nostalgia," according to Walt Brooker, who along with fellow physics teacher Rick Bond, is directing the school‘s play Li‘l Abner. â€" "It will bring back the comic strip they haven‘t seen for ten years," Bond added. WCIS MUSICAL And every effort has been made to have the play look like the authentic comic strip, the directors explained. Set director Jim Millar, who teaches art at the secondary school, has deâ€" signed all sets in black and white. consistent with the original Li‘l Abner comics. Costumes will be in vibrant hues, contrasting col orless batkdrops. Li‘l Abner‘s high on energy and nostalgia But for those in the audience who have never heard of Al Capp‘s crazy comic strip Li‘l Abner. the WCl production will still be appealing, according to Bond. ~ The musical comedy is a fast moving production containing "political satire, good dancing, nice songs in a variety of styles," he noted. So everyone is bound to be entertained. Students involved in the proâ€" duction agree. ‘"The characters are so farâ€"fetched, their thinking is so ridiculous. You can‘t help but laugh," said Tracy Stalkie, a Grade 13 student who plays Dr. Finsdale, the character in charge of transforming listless Dogpatch husbands into romantic, aggres sive men. P "There‘s lots of cynical sar casm about the governfnent in sharpâ€"cutting humor," added Heather McLean, who plays Mammy Yokum,. the crazy mother of Li‘l Abner who makes weaklings info muscle men with her potion called Yokumberry Another appealing aspect of the show ‘"is the energy," cited Heather, which "hopefully will have the audience up dancing too." And Tracy chimed in: "If you are up there looking Tike you‘re having a good time, they (the audience) will have a good time, too." The end result in these stu dents‘ minds is: We want every one to leave smiling, and we think they will," Heather enth Stage will look like comic strip wEDNESDAY. FEBRUARY 17, 1982 help it." But before WCI students expeâ€" rience the satisfaction of seeing people in the audience smile, they have many more hours of work ahead of them. According to Brooker, the 160 students and 25 teachers who are actively involved in either the cast, orchestra, or behind the scenes, have already put in over 100 hours of work. And during the next week, these show people will be practising after school every day and throughout the weekâ€" end. The Li‘l Abner production was chosen as the school‘s major musical this year "so lots of kids could get involved" since it has such a large cast, Brooker said. But because of the show‘s scale it requires "a really big time comâ€" mitment for the kids," he added, noting that auditions began back in October and rehearsals started in November. But WCI students don‘«seem to mind the long, hard hours. _ For Grade 13 student Aubrey Walters who plays Daisy Mae, part of the reward of being involved in major productions is "watching it grow and getting to be really good friends" with other students in the play. As well. it‘s a learning experience, she said. * I‘ve learned that no matter how good you are, you are no better than the next person. There‘s no room for prima donnas here."‘ Mike Pearse, who plays Li‘l Abner. admitted that by devoting all his spare time to the musical he‘s had to cut out other extraâ€" curricular â€" activities, â€" such â€" as crossâ€"country skiing and hockey. "But it‘s worth it," he claimed. "I want to do this. It‘s my first choice." This Grade 12 student echoed Aubrey‘s comments about friendships. **You spend hundreds of hours with the same people,"" he explained. "You deâ€" velop a special feeling with the cast (that) doesn‘t end with the play. And in Tracy‘s words. "By the time the final curtain comes down, you are exhausted. you have given your all. And people have responded to what you are doing by laughing or crying. That‘s what makes all there hearsals and everything worth 1." Waterloo collegiate‘s plays are considered to be ~quite profes sional," the young actor noted with pride. "M‘s a great in troduction" to show business. Li‘l Abner will be performed Wednesday. Feb. 24 through to Saturday, Feb. 27 at 8 p.m. Tickets are $3.75 for adults. $3 for students, and $2.25 for children. Senior citizens will be admitted free of charge Wednesday eve ning. Response makes it all worthwhile . ‘"Don‘t think they could Mammy Yokum (Heather McLean) gives Li‘l Abner (Mike Pearse) and Daisy Mae (Aubrey Walters) a piece of her mind during a rehearsal Sunday at Waterioo collegiate. Students at the school will present the musical comedy Li‘l Abner starting next Wednesday evening. MOVIE REVIEW Would On Golden Pond be so popular and honored a movie if unknowns had been cast in the leading roles? Nostalgia and sentimentality surrounding its stars have, in my opinion, made this the most overâ€"rated picture of 1981. Adapted from a stage play, in content and particularly performance style it remains a stagey entertainment, with the main members of the cast seeming to project their lines and characterizations as if they were in fact perform ing within a liveâ€"theatre environment. Already the recipient of three Golden Globe Awards, including one for best picture, and nominated for 10 Academy Awards, again including one for best picture,. On Golden Pond much of the time substitutes oneâ€"liners for substance and the personalities of its leading players for characters. The firsttime ever screen teaming of veteran stars Katharine Hepburn and Henry Fonda, along with the bonus feature of actress Jane Fonda also appearing for the first time in a movie with ber father, has generated volumes of publicity almost totally unrelated, it seems to me, to the merits of the vehicle itself. For instance, after hearing so much about the playing out of a practically realâ€"life retationship between the Fondas. in the context of what actually happens in the movie I found myself asking, is that all there is? Certainly, screen writer Ernest Thompson, working from: his own stage creation, and director Mark Rydell seems to have avoided any real dramatic conflict and settled for glib and maudlin resolutions in the issue of strained relationships within the family unit. A lot of what effectiveness the fiim apparently has â€" and I have to acknowledge that my dissatisfaction with it seems to pl_a('e me within a rath:'r:mall minority would appear to be achieved more through audience familiarity with and admiration for the performers themselves I suspect not On Golden Pond highly overâ€"rated N. mooie l in tds h By Victor Stanton whoh than through any character insight or emotional potency contai_ned \gvithin the story proper. _ As far as the plot goes, there‘s this retired professor and his wife returning for another summer to their lakeside cottage. A visit from the couple‘s divorced daughter and her latest boyâ€" friend leaves the elderly couple babysitting the boyfriend‘s 13â€"yearâ€"old son. The main body of the film centres around the devéeloping relationship between the crotchety old man and the equally sharpâ€"tongued youth Side issues dealt with, include the old man‘s fear of approaching senility and death, and the longâ€" standing failure of father and daughter to reach a meaningful relationship. As the crusty turningâ€"80â€"yearâ€"old with a serious heart condition, Fonda, himself 76 and with a serious heart condition, most of the time gives an overstated and what is essentially a hackneyed portrayal. Only a single scene, in which the character confesses his terror upon getting lost in familiar woods, really has the emotional quality and forcefuiness of delivery that on a more sustained level would truly merit a bestâ€"actor noâ€" mination. Hepburn, 74 and also an Oscar nominee for her performance, likewise seems to be projecting merely a largerâ€"thanâ€"dife characterization that comfortably fits in with her own longâ€"standing screen image. Jane Fonda‘s Academy Award nomination in the supportingâ€"actress category is even more of a puzzle, especially since it‘s been so widely publicized that in On Golden Pond she‘s merely acting out a situation that‘s pretty much equivalent to her realâ€"life relationship with her father. In my view, the picture‘s best performance, although still along some fairly stereotyped lines, comes from young Doug McKeon. while Dabney Coléeman as the boy‘s father is also quite effective in some brief scenes. Although visually attractive in its outdoors New Hampshire setting. the movie consistently _reâ€" veals its stage roots, curiously enough more so than. for instance. the much more *confined" hospital drama Whose Life Is It Anyway? 1 1 w nrtazesiine L obidibt. siabdasdatinadfiratic ib it it h ie i ol +i on â€"ainniry 1 For many people, however. the movie ob viously provides satisfying entertainment ie s tm en Pn ‘"”*}‘x&;’ *qu,fi o n _ yY . i Te i t % P : v