Newspaper Page Text
The Bed and Black. Thursday, March II, 1976
Page 3
As papers
Georgia General Assembly closes shop
B> KOIIKltT ALEXANDER
Stale editor
The Georgia General Assem
bly adjourned Saturday morn
ing around 1 a m. amid a
flurry of legislative papers
traditionally tossed into the
air.
Thursday the legislature pas
sed the budget for fiscal 1977
.vhich will amount to $1,922
billion In past sessions the last
few days resembled a cat fight
as legislators scramble for
their pel projects This year
the operation was a lot less
noisy due to the lack of dollars
to go around
Drivers won't have to fear
for their lives on Georgia roads
as expected because the bill to
allow 14-fool mobile homes on
Georgia highways was easily
defeated 35-144. The vote was
interesting because ol its prin
ciple supporter. House Speaker
Tom Murphy (D-Bremen). The
speaker could not muster e-
nnugh votes for passage, which
may indicate a change in the
persuasive power of the speak
er.
A Kll.l. which probably held
the most interest for students
at the Unviersity was the
intamous "marijuana decrimi
nalization'' bill. The bill as
originally introduced in com
mittee by Kep Jack King (D-
(ilium bus i would’ve removed
possession of an ounce or less
of marijuana from the crimi
nal code and reclassified it as
a civil offense similar to a
traffic violation.
The bill which finally made
it to the floor of the House was
a committee substitute author
ed by the chairman of the
Health and Kcology Commit
tee, Rep Sidney Marcus (D-At-
lanta I.
Under the substitute, posses
sion would be a criminal mis
demeanor punishable on a first
offense by a fine not to exceed
$100 and on subsequent of
fenses by a fine nol to exceed
$300 and-or a prison term not
to exceed six months.
Legislators were wary of
passing any legislation which
would liberalize marijuana
laws and that bill was de
feated.
Forty-five legislators voted
for it, however, and the bill
will probably be introduced
again next year.
WIIAT SAVED the session
from complete boredom was
the censure of Sen. Roscoe
Dean (D-Jesupl.
The “Jesuit Roadrunner.” as
he came to be known, was
surprised on the first day of
the session when a first time
legislator from Griffin. Sen
Virginia Shepard, introduced a
resolution calling for the cen
sure of Dean
The “Dean hearings” took
up a lot of the Senate's first
few weeks while the resolution
was battered around in the
Judiciary Committee It was
not until Sen Beverly Lang
ford (D-Calhouni found a "doc
tored" travel voucher in the
legislature's Fiscal Office that
the meetings got up a full head
of steam
After an extended debate the
Senate voted to censure one of
its own members for the first
time in its history.
A move for expulsion never
really gathered enough votes
and Dean received a verbal
handslap instead.
Some of the major bills
which did pass succeeded be
cause of heavy lobbying by
special interests. One of these
was the bank holding bill.
Atlanta banks wanted to ex
pand their money base and
now they can buy banks out
side their own county.
IN ATLANTA Sunday, peo
ple gathered in their favorite
restaurants and lounges to
toast the new Sunday liquor
law which allows restaurants
that derive over 50 per cent of
their income from food sales to
sell mixed drinks.
The law went into effect
early enough to catch the
expected influx of convention
eers in April and May and the
opening of the state's World
Congress Center in September
Georgia and Atlanta hope to
receive an additional $23 mill
ion in revenue because of the
law
Voters in DeKalb County will
have a chance to vote for a
similar law in their county in
November when a referendum
will be on the ballot.
ONLY ONE of a host of gun
control bills passed the legis
lature The bill, however, is not
expected to control guns at all
because for the first time it
will make it legal to carry a
concealed weapon, and gun
owners only need one permit
for all the guns they own.
There were a number of
important bills which never
made it out of committee
Among them was the Equal
Rights Amendment iERAi Af
ter a much heralded fanfare
and rally before the session,
ERA supporters believed it
would be useless to bring the
measure up for a vote because
this session of the General
Assembly was the same one
which defeated if last year.
Other bills which are lan
guishing in committee include a
proposal to allow pari-mutual
betting in the state The ques
tion of expanding Atlanta's city
limits will also remain unre
solved until next year.
News analysis
Theater group electrifies audience
By JACKIK ('LARK
Associate feature editor
The campus' newest theatre
group opened its first pre
sentation Monday night in the
Chapel with an electrifying
entrance. After the usual "La
dies and Gentlemen” intro
duction. as the audience sat
waiting for the act to begin
black unity were skits, poetry,
and other short movements
that flowed together smoothly
to form a unified whole.
One of the show’s best fea
tures were the numbers like
”It’s Nation-Time” and "We
Are Black Magicians" that
were not really songs (there
was no musical accompani
ment during the presentation),
Theater review
onstage, a great wave of ear-
splitting shrieks burst from the
rear, swooping down on the
stage to materialize as the
Black Theatrical Knsemble.
The audience of nearly 300
was mesmerized.
The program, entitled "Our
Darkness is Our Light," was
carried out without a flaw’.
Centered around a theme of
yet were somehow more than
chants. These were performed
by all 15 members of the
acting troupe and were inter
spersed with the other move
ments in such a way as to add
rhythm to the program and
keep it moving along.
Props and costumes were
almost nonexistent, drawing
Scouting today’s
a lot more than you think.
the audience's attention even
more to what was being said.
Not that this was really neces
sary. The whole program was
a sort of theatrical black con
sciousness-raising session.
Although none of the troupe
except the director, Larry
("Touche") Calhoun have any
kind of theatrical background,
the performance was very
professional, with no inhibi
tions showing in even the most
sensitive numbers. Although
there were a few embarrassed
twitters around me at the
beginning of one highly emo
tional number depicting slave
ry, by the time it had ended
the twitterers were won over
and joined the rest of the
audience in a standing ovation.
The program's only flaw was
in its material, much of which
was original Several skits
were clearly racist and in
flammatory, such as the por
trayal of a 1960 s incident in
which Puerto Rican baseball
star Rico Carty received a
beating at the hands of Atlanta
police who thought he was
black. Although this number
could have been worked better
to convey a message, as it was
presented—showing only the
beating—it had no real dra
matic value and was used only
to stir up the audience. Ano
ther more obvious incident was
during the final number when
the audience—nearly all-black
—was urged not to fight among
themselves "when you’ve got
over twenty thousands white
people to hate." These and
other instances were blots on a
otherwise spectacular show.
Professor in Spain
planning convention
Dr. Manuel D Ramirez will
he in Madrid, Spain until
March 17 to help plan a
national nvention of the
American Association of Tea
chers of Spanish and Portu
guese (AATSPl.
Ramirez, professor of Spa
nish and Portuguese and direc
tor of the University's Latin
American Studies program, is
an executive council member
of AATSP.
AIR FORCE ROTC
IS HOW BEING
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UNIVERSITY
OF GEORGIA.
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No service obligation now.
Full scholarship available during the last two years of the program;
tuition, all fees, plus a $100 a month tax-free allowance.
An Air Forceofficercommissionwhenyoureceiveyour baccalaureate.
And, you don't necessarily have to be enrolled at the University of
Georgia to attend.
Talk with the Air Force ROTC counselor. For more information, call
or write to:
For further information contact
Major Robertson AFROTC
University of Georgia Ph. 542-1751
Athens, Georgia 30602
Put it all together in Air Force ROTC.
MARTIN ESSLIN
Calls the arts a frontier
By KORKKT ALEXANDER
Stale editor
When a scholar quotes someone he considers an authority
on a subject, he generally assumes that author has an
extensive grasp on his particular area of knowledge When
a scholar quotes Martin Esslin. he uses more than an
authority, he uses the man who first linked a group of olays
together and labeled them the Theatre of the Absurd "
Esslin is the author of 10 books on drama and the arts
He has written countless articles for magazines as well
His best known hooks are Brecht the Man and His Work.
The Theatre of the Misurd and Reflections, Essays on the
Modern Theatre.
Monday night Esslin lectured in the Visual Arts
auditorium on "After the Absurd."
He began his speech by attacking its title, "because it
implies a way of thinking in fhe development of the arts
that seems very tempting and an oversimplification You
assume the arts move from one thing to another." he said
"THE ARTS are not like fhe linear track of a train.
Rather they are more like a country in which the avant
garde is a frontier The idea fhaf we had naturalism in the
fheafre. then fhe theafre of the absurd is a tremendous
mistake
"They are still there The fact that we have advanced the
frontier this way and that doesn't mean fhe metropolises
are gone," he said.
"Don't think in terms of what comes next because that is
a way of thinking that betrays you as a victim of passing
fashion." he added
Unlike naturalism, realism and other movements and
concepts in theatre history, absurdism was “never a
conscious movement." according to Esslin He coined the
term, "theatre of the absurd ' after some British critics
were particularly severe in their reviews of a group of
plays that Esslin fell used conventions which the critics did
not understand Since then the term has become fairly
common even (hough most people outside of dramatic
circles do nol know what it means
"Waiting For Godot" by Samuel Beckett, "Inadmissable
Evidence” by John Osborne and The American Dream by
Edward Albee are some of the more widely known
examples of absurdist drama, according to Esslin
THE MAIN thing the absurdists added to modern theatre
was that they "enlarged the area of things which could
actually be portrayed on stage." Esslin said
The absurdist presented a deliberate fusion of reality and
non-reality in which the presentation of a character's
personality included "outward and inward reality.” he
said
Esslin used Edward Bond's Lear as an example of how
absurdist conventions are integrated into plays by
contemporary playwrights. In Bond's adaptation of
Shakespeare's King Lear the fool in the original play
becomes an "inward element" in Lear's personality. He is
also accompanied by the ghost of a gravedigger's son who
was killed because he offered Lear shelter The ghost is
killed again and again and each time he becomes more
transparent Esslin said Lear ranks as one of the great
plays of our century
"The continuing avant-garde has seized on other aspects
of the absurdist creed—the role and use of language in
absurdist drama." he said
Esslin refered to an Austrian playwright, Peter Handke,
who has written a group of plays translated loosely as
"pieces of speaking "
The plays "make the language itself a drama," Esslin
said One of the plays. Insulting the Audience, is just that
and in Self-Accusation two characters spend the entire play
reciting all the ways people can commit a sin.
"We are surrounded by tens of thousands of prohibi
tions." Esslin said, adding that the play presents, "a
powerful image of the limits of human freedom "
He also commented on the style of acting that the
avant-garde is experimenting with, citing that of Peter
Brook whose experiments in theatre dispense with
"conceptual language' altogether
"Brook maintains that for too long the use of language
has atrophied the art of the human body. Actors are not
really expressing it. they only have the words, not the
emotion." he said.
Brook has tried to evolve a method of having actors
make full use of their bodies." he said
ESSLIN EXPLAINED the new inroads the avant-garde is
making in what is known as "environmental theatre." R
abandons the conventional theatre space and uses
imaginative and psychological control techniques
An example of good environmental theatre, according to
Esslin. is the work of Luca Ronconi In his adaptation of
the epic poem Orlando Euriosao the audience is in the
middle of a battle between paper mache knights sitting
atop wagon stages The action of the play is carried on all
around the audience.
In 17X9. directed by Adriane Mnouchkine, the audience
becomes the people of Paris during a reenactment of the
French Revolution The play opens with the audience
wandering among stages set up as booths resembling a
Paris fair
Gradually some actors kneel down in the crowd and
begin very softly to teil a story As the story continues the
actors speak louder and louder until the audience realizes
that the actors are all saying the same thing. The story
becomes a chant
Then there is an explosion and the audience realizes they
are witnessing the storming of the Bastille as active
participants
"It is a stroke of genius to enmesh the audience in the
action." Esslin said
In closing Esslin reiterated his metaphor of the
avant-garde as the brave frontier for the arts
"One should always be aware that it is not just a matter
of fashion Novelty, surprise and originality are great
values in art," he added.
Ga. Assembly ends defensive year
By ROBERT ALEXANDER
Slate editor
The 1976 session of the
Georgia General Assembly
proved to be a "defensive
year” according to Atlanta's
legislative liason William Alex
ander.
Some of the bills introduced
at this year's session were
detrimental. according to
Alexander.
"Because of the time spent
on defensive measures we did
n't gel many ot our proposals
passed," he said
Two important hills for the
city that did pass were the
Sunday drinking law which
allows restaurants that derive
over 50 per cent of their
revenue from food sales to sell
mixed drinks on Sunday The
law includes Atlanta Stadium
Another bill would allow Ihe
city to serve its ordinances
oulside the city limits The law
is primarily directed at slum
lords who violate city housing
codes but who live outside of
the city.
The city's legislative staff
spent most of their time fight
ing moves to create state
authorities which would super
cede Ihe city's power.
The Fulton County Commis
sion wauled to establish a
county water authority. Atlan
ta has invested money in a
plant and equipment outside of
the city. By selling water to
more customers the city can
sell its water more cheaply due
to the larger facilities The bill
was defeated in the local
delegation committee
The city also stopped, early
in Ihe session, a move lo
create a State Airport Authori
ty. A bill to create the Harts-
field Airport Advisory Commit
tee also failed in the House
Legislation which would re
quire a county referendum (or
the construction ol an airport
serving another county was
also defeated This legislation
was directed towards the city's
efforts to build a second air
port on land it bought in
Paulding County.
Atlanta's Mayor Maynard
Jackson's policy of joint ven
ture with minority firms came
under attack by a bill which
would require cities throughout
Ihe state to accept the lowest
bids on city contracts Alexan
der said Ihe idea was faulty
because the lowest bid is not
always the best bid.
A major item for the city
and its surrounding communi
ties is Atlanta's desire to
expand its tax base through
annexation. Several plans for
the city to accomplish this
were bantered around before
the session However, the re
sults of a straw poll in the
Senate early in the session
revealed that annexation had
few supporters
Bills were introduced, never
theless. which would have
made annexation more diffi
cult if not impossible
One of these was the bill to
establish the city of Sandy
Springs An interesting action
of parliamentary trickery oc-
cured when the bill was passed
out of sub-committee of the
Fulton County House-
Delegation and directly to the
House floor
The House has a tradition
called “local courtesy" which
allows legislation which only
affects local communities to be
decided in the local delegation
committee. However, support
ers of the bill, who knew it
would be defeated in the dele
gation committee, sent the bill
directly to the House
House Speaker Tom Murphy
(D-Bremen) recognized the vi
olation and sent the bill back to
committee where it was de
feated.
The legislature also defeated
bills which would require a
local referendum on annexa
tion and a proposal to desig
nate the Fulton County Indus
trial District as a seperate tax
district.
A taste of Carlo Rossi Chablis
is like kissing someone you love
Salute:
I am Carlo Rossi. Yes, I am a real person.
There is something special about Carlo Rossi California
Chablis you should know. The grapes used are like
people you care a lot about. They can cause you a lot
of trouble — believe me, there are many varieties that
are much easier to grow than those in the Carlo Rossi
wines — but then comes that moment when it's all
worth it.
For me, that time is tasting the wine. The
Chablis is so clean and pure, right away you get the
aroma of those grapes in the glass, a promise of what
is to come. Then when you taste it . . . it's like
a kiss from someone you love.
Carlo Rossi Chablis is made for you to enjoy as
much as I do. Try it, and let me know —- if you're
willing to kiss and tell.
Ciao,
Carlo Rossi Vineyards. Modesto. Stanislaus County, California