Death to Bobo: Theater
students protest the offense on good art
Curtain Call
Geronimo Rodriguez
Hoang Nguyen/The Daily Cougar
The entrance to the Lyndall
Finley Wortham Theatre became a scene of "crime" as a display was set up
to express theater students' desire for
good art.
Students of UH's theater department have
bombarded the serene atmosphere of theater by blasting its practices of
performing outdated
material, its dependence on one-minute
monologues to determine if an actor is worthy of a role and even the work
of William Shakespeare.
From listening to a cassette that accommodates
a display of a cut-out named Bobo, it seems the students intend to bring
to light the ways in
which local theaters have not provided
material that would better reflect both aspiring actors and artistic themes
in society — thus committing
the crime of not accurately portraying
art.
On Tuesday, Bobo, who serves as a symbol
of the theater students' perception of art, was murdered. The mock crime
scene, which is on
display in front of the theater department,
included a chalk outline of Bobo, a few Polaroids and a crime report.
"It seems like whoever perpetrated this
crime was out to get art and anybody who looks to do anything different,"
said one theater student at the
scene, acting the part of the disappointed
artist.
Wanting to voice the reasons for these
actions and thoughts on the crime that took place, students — members of
the Bobo revolution — spoke
about the lack of creativity in local
theaters.
"I am sick of performing in a space that
cuts me off from the world in which I was born and learned to love this
thing we call theater," another
student said. "I am sick of doing two
one-minute monologues ... and being obliged to trust that whomever casts
the show that in two minutes, he
or she was able to recognize ... the 10
people that would best prove worthy.
"Where are those people who simply want
to practice theater, to express themselves as clearly or as abstractly
as they desire, without feeling as
though you must prove yourself within
a minute's time? But instead, are given the freedom of discovering all
that you hold within you over a much
more lucid frame."
Students who wish to follow the "death
of art" presentation may want to be at the theater department at 1 p.m.
Wednesday and 12 p.m. Friday.
Last call
Amid the rehearsals, auditions, exams and
work, most theater graduate students can't spare time to get to know one
another. Most haven't even
the time to get involved with other facets
that would benefit them and show appreciation for what their department
has offered through the years.
To address this problem, the UH School
of Theatre's newly formed Graduate Student Association presents the Graduate
Student Showcase,
which will be held at 7:30 p.m. Monday,
May 6 at the Jose Quintero Theatre Lab.
"We are inviting family, friends, people
from around town and around the country," theater graduate and president
of the Graduate Student
Association Elizabeth Elliott said. "It's
all prepared work; everyone has been working on their pieces for about
a month now.
"We'll be putting up scenes, performing
a few monologues and even a couple of songs just to showcase the graduates'
work," she said
Theater students formed the Graduate Student
Association just this February. "(They) just decided that they wanted to
be more active within the
department," Elliott said. "This way,
we can have kind of a last hurrah before we leave the school."
