THE UPEI SIN,’IYmrsday,Dec.l,1977,page ll

MUSIC & DRAMA NIGHT

On anday evening, the U.P.E.I. Drama Society presented an entertaining ‘ two hours of music and drama to about 85 students, staff and family of the , university.

For their first present- ation of the year, the Society decided to depart from the usual two hour ~ play format, and performed a series of short, one act plays, together with a

number of musical features. ‘

The program was hosted by Joan MacFarlane and ' -. Dhurice Rodgerson.

Although each individ- ual act went well, the blending of the various acts, or the continuity, was, at times, weak, despite Joan and Maurice's best efforts. The result was reminiscent of a well done high school produc— tion. ,

Four of the six one-act plays presented were writ- ten and directed by Rabbin Ward, and he is to be congratulated, as each were well "written, and well performed-

Of course, the actors and actresses should be' the ones accepting congrat— ulations for their own perfonmnces. All of the

performers in R.W. Ward's plays, in fact, in all the dramatic productions of '-‘ 7 the evening, "lived it up", enjoyed themselves, and as a result, each play was thoroughly enjoyable“

'lhe four works written and directed by Robbin I were: Breathless, a short comedy, The QEeement and Pass, mo 5 rt

dramatic pieces, and

of the Gull, anofler drama- tic play written, directed and performed with excell- ence by Robbin Ward. Green also deserves men- tion for his role as a corpse in this play, as T he didn't smile once.... The twodance numbers, the Can—Can and the Charle— ton, added sate liveliness to the program, not to mention the talent and beauty of the three

dancers . _ Joan MacFarlane directed

a number of "budding per— formers" from the Education Society in a short comedy entitled The Wise file of Gotham. Mike MacKinnon

and Wayne Ramsay played their parts especially

. well, but even they could

not steal the show away from our educators of tomorrow, members of the Education Society, who Played the role of fools with an amazing natural— ness. , The final short piece of drama of the evening was Overtones, written by Alice Gerstenberg', dir- ected by Jennifer meddle. This was, perhaps, the most difficult play to perform, due to the number of lines, and the need for correct timing. The four girls played their parts almost flawlessly, .and as a result, Overtones was a fitting end to the show. The three musical performers, although they all displayed a large amount of talent, each Were very nervous. . .Ideed, they were overly nervous, considering the

size of the audience, and

Larry V

the relaxed atmosphere of the occasion.

Another problem was, although each of the acts were well rehearsed, the transition between the plays was poor, especially towards the end of the show. Tables, microphones, and other props were, at first, handled quickly

and unobtrusively by a

number of stagehands.

But, after the inter- mission, most of the stagehands had disap— peared, and, by the end of the evening, Maurice had begun to help move pianos

and tables himself, announcing at the same This lack of continuity lowered the overall quality of the show, although not to any great extent.

They say the best ad— vertisement for an organ- fization's future play is the success of their past performances. ‘If this is the case, anday night's performance should attract _a large crowd to the Drama Society's next endeavor, as it really was a fine evenings entertainment.