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Spelman Spotlight October 17, 1979 Page 14
Art Dept. Has Great Plans
By Gayl Phillips
Spelman’s Art Department has
an exciting schedule of activities
planned for the school year. The
first of these activities will be an
exhibit of works by the new
faculty. The date for this showing-
is October 5-30 from 5:00pm-7:00
pm in Spelman’s Fine Arts
Building.
Art majors graduating in
December will exhibit their
works in the latter part of this
semester. Presently, there are
works on display in the Fine Arts
Building from the College collec
tion.
Next semester’s activities in
clude a special exhibit in tribute
to Hale Woodruff, a famous
Black artist. Mrs. Jenelsie
Holloway, chairperson of the Art
Department, describes Mr.
Woodruff as “a pioneer of art in
the Southern area.” This showing
is important because Hale
Woodruff was a former art in
structor at the Atlanta University
Center (AUC) and the originator
of the Art Program in the AUC.
While at the AUC, Mr. Woodruff
established a National Com
petition for Black artists allowing
them an opportunity to display
their works. Mrs. Holloway hopes
the Art Department will be able
to secure some of Mr. Woodruffs
works from a recent showing in
New York. She also stated that
Mr. Woodruff was supposed to
come to AUC this semester,
however his health prevented his
visit.
Also planned for next semester
is an exhibition of works by Black
artists obtained from Atlanta’s
High Museum of Art. The High
Museum houses a large number
of works by Black artists. The
showing will be held in the Fine
Arts Building, however a date
and time have not been set.
The Art Department has added
several new members to its
faculty. Evelyn Mitchell teaches
a class on the Survey of Visual
Arts and African Art. Ms. Mit
chell is also teaching special
courses at Morehouse College
concentrating on African Art.
She is working with the High
Museum in the Afro-American
Art division.
Lev Mills, an internationally
known printmaker, teaches cour
ses in Basic Design and Portfolio
Critism. He has worked in the
British Museum, Museum of
Modern Art in New York and the
Library of Congress. In addition
to being an instructor at
Spelman, Mr. Mills is working
with the MARTA Arts Program
creating a mosaic mural for the
MARTA station at Ashby Street
and Martin Luther King Drive.
This mural will reflect the people
and events of the AUC.
John Riddle, sculptor and pain
ter, is teaching a painting course.
Some of Mr. Riddle’s work in-
(See ART, p. 15)
A1 Cooper and Bill Nunn: The Playground Players
Who Are The Playground Players?
By Claire Henry
If any ot you Spelmanites have
been wondering who were those
transient conductors of the
dramatic arts who've graced our
stage more than a few times this
semester. The folks who’ve
brought you “A Day of Absence,”
“Macbeth,” “Rapid Transit,”
“God is a...(guess what?”. “Black
bird Droppings of 1979,” and
others, tired of guessing? They
call themselves the Playground
Players, alias. Bill Nunn and A1
Cooper. Cooper and Nunn
descended upon our campus in
October 1978 as the Ceta artists
in residence and since then they
have been active in 13-15 produc
tion in and around the Atlanta
University Center.
Cooper and Nunn met in 1972.
when they were Morehouse-
Spelman players and they’ve
been a team since then. Their
teaching philosophy is, “learning
while doing” and their acting
philosophy is, “growing, ex
panding and working hard.” In
the 13-15 shows in which they’ve
been a part, 6 were performed at
Spelman including one children’s
production. Some of these plays
were written and produced by the
two.
The Playground Players have
kept an ongoing artists workshop
during their stay at Spelman
where students and professionals
come together working and lear
ning from each other. They’ve
helped to bring former students
back to the center, persons who
have taken time out to become
part of a show-usually operating
with no budget but as Cooper
says, "the love of the art and the
need to grow keeps them going."
They’ve brought back actors:
Sam Jackson, LaTanya Richar
dson. Russell Hamilton. Edward
Billups, and Georgia Allen
Playwrights: Ray Mclvar, Carol
Mitchell, Tony Riddle, Atlanta
Dance Theater Dancers:
Michelle Benjamin, Byron Love
and Thomas Byrd, each ac
complished and respected artists
in their field. They have acted,
written, directed, given
workshops and/or provided
technical assistance in the shows
done at Spelman this year. Others
include: Iris Little. Kenneth
Leon, Jules Lassiter, Joan Lewis.
Jonathan Peck Dennis Shortt and
John Coleman.
Nunn and Cooper are currently
shifting to a career in stand-up
comedy. with proposed
engagements at the Royal
Peacock and Morris Brown
College. We know these brothers
have the potential and shall suc
ceed if they keep “growing, ex
panding and working hard."
Eartha Kitt Stars in Timbuktu
TIMBUKTU!, the extravagant
and opulent Broadway musical
hit, starring MISS EARTHA
KITT, opens a three week
engagement, October 16 through
the 27th at the Atlanta Civic Cen
ter. Directed, choregraphed and
costumed by GEOFFREY
HOLDER (THE WIZ), TIM
BUKTU! is based on “Kismet”,
whose original music was drawn
from the themes of Alexander
Borodin and further com
plemented by African Folk
Music. Set in the 14th century
West Africa in the capital city of
Mali, her exotic role as Sahleem-
La-Lume, the scheming wife of
wives of the Wazir, offers Miss
Kitt the ultimate opportunity to
display her electric style in the
cat-like communication for
which she ha s become famous.
For Miss Kitt. her return to
Broadway heralded several
decades of visibility as one of the
entertainment world’s most ex
citing personalities. An
astonishing hit when she first ap
peared in Leonard Sillman’s
“New Faces of 1952,” her
specialty numbers, which in
cluded “Monotonous” sung while
lolling on a couch gave her
literally overnight celebrity fame.
The darling of the international
set, Kitt went on to make several
chapters of show business history
including her sensational recor
ding hits, “C’Est Si Bon,” “Uska
Dara” and “I Want to Be Evil,”.
Films, additional Broadway ap
pearances and performances in
the world’s most prestigious sup
per clubs peaked a career which
came to a blinding halt when at a
White House tea in 1968 she ad
dressed herself to the Viet Nam
War and emerged persona non
grata to both the J ohnson regime
as well as to the theatrical agents
politically fearful of booking her
giant talent. Diminutive as she is
extraordinary exciting, Kitt’s out
spoken qualities were rarely
taboo where honesty was
welcome. A great moment of
truth arrived almost ten years
later to the day, when appearing
with “TIMBUKTU” in
Washington. D.C., she was war
mly welcomed back to the White
House by President and Mrs. Car
ter. The meeting was particularly
a significant happening as it did
so soon after her new found suc
cess on Broadway from which she
had been absent since 1965 when
she last appeared in The Owl and
the Pussycat.”
“TIMBUKTU!” promises to be a
dazzling and memorable array of
theatrical talent pleasing for
every theater goer. Such popular
songs like “Baubles, Bangles and
Beads”, “This is My Beloved” and
“Stranger in Paradise” add a new
and extravagant dimenstion
rarely seen on today’s stages.
ALL TICKETS ARE NOW
AVAILABLE THROUGH
S.E.A.T.S. OUTLETS OR BY
CALLING 252-8960. TIM
BUKTU! OPENS TUESDAY
OCTOBER 16TH AND CLOSES
SATURDAY OCTOVER 27TH
WITH MATINEE PER
FORMANCES ON THE
WEEKENDS. FOR MORE IN
FORMATION CALL 252-8960.
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