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fffoRTissiMO "Voice Of The Arts' Editor’s Note: Eric Cushman Moore is a new writer for the BARB. He is a distinguished actor, writer and sin ger, and has worked with Newspapers, Television and Radio Stations across the country. He has also handled press relations for many theatre groups, including the PLAYHOUSE in Roswell, New Theatre Productions, and the Emory University Summer Theatre. We welcome him to our staff, and hope that you will enjoy reading his col umn, which will expand BARB coverage of local and nat ional cultural affairs. by Eric Cushman Moore Theatre Stuart Culpepper is to be admired for attempting to bring a-typical dinner theatre fare to the Druid Cellar Dinner Theatre; the current offering “Story Theatre,” is just that. His two previous productions there, “The Lion in Win ter” and “Everything In The Garden” were not seen by this critic, so I have nothing with which to com pare “Story Theatre.” However, I cannot agree with Mr. Culpepper taking a delightful, beautiful show like “Story Theatre” and adding enough tasteless sexual schtick to fill up two Burlesqe evenings at the Empire, thereby reduc ing the show to typical din ner theatre garbage. “Story Theatre” is a collection of loosely adapt ed fables and fairy tales, originally put together by Paul Sills and a company of extremely talented per formers. I have seen the' Sills company, and am per haps prejudiced, but the Druid Cellar production just doesn’t make it. One of the main stumbling blocks in this production is the use of dialect, and the company can’t seem to de cide which dialect, they are using when. Ellen Heard has a “jewish mother” se quence where she slips in and out of southern and semi-bronxese that doesn’t work. Patty Shaw and Kath ryn Thompson turn out two of the most amazing Fran co-German accents in the history of live theatre, and Patrick Cuccaro’s italian (and he is Italian) is no better. The production is poorly paced. “Story Theatre” is presentational t h e a t e; there isn’t a great deal of “acting” involved in it. The show is a performer’s show as opposed to being an actor’s show. It has to be crisp, move rapidly and be very audience involving, or the audience begins to squirm in their seats be fore the first act is over. I did. I found one sketch very insulting. It is the familiar tale of the fisherman (“fisherperson” in this production) who catches a flounder that is really an enchanted prince(ss) and throws him(her) back into the sea. The “fisherper son” ’s wife then orders the man to go back and get the flounder to grant some wishes. The flounder in this case is an overly stereo typic faggot. This kind of garbage went out with vaudeville. The flounder flits on and offstage to strains of “The Dance of the Sugar Plum Fairy” (I’m NOT kidding!) and slips in and out of a Paul Lynde voice. I don’t like the con nection between ballet and this disgusting faggot, or the cheap, tasteless direc tion. Delightful, perhaps, for an overly stereotypic heterosexual dinner thea tre audience, but hardly a- musing to yours truly. There are some good performances and some lovely moments. Astrid Jackson is hysterically funny as Henny Penny and The Princess Who Would Not Laugh. Her comedic timing is great, and she was one of the few performers in the show who seemed to be enjoying herself. She al so showed great versatili ty as a goat, a cow and an owl. Terry Beaver is also quite good, particularly as the Master Theif. Most of the evening PatrickCucca- ro is very good, very ver satile and simply delight ful, especially as the Par son in the Master Theif sketch. “Story Theatre” is worth seeing: The folk tales involved will surely bring back fond memories. I sug gest closing your eyes to all of the breast and bottom tweaking and sitting back for some good laughs. “Story Theatre” runs at the Druid Cellar Wednes day through Saturday eve nings at 8:30, with Cock tails at 6:00 and dinner at 7:00. The show is sched uled to run through October 19. Books “Hollywood,” by Gar son Kanin (Viking Press, $8.95 is an affectionate, if some times caustic, memoir of the people and institutions that were (are?) Hollywood. The book does not attempt a definitive history of the film capital, nor even a definitive account of Mr. Kanin’s years in the Tinsel Town as a screenwriter, director and production as sistant; rather, it is a se ries of vignettes. As with Mr. Kanin’s other books (“Tracy and Hepburn, ” “A Thousand Summers,” etc.), this one is uneven. At points the narratives are very boring and poorly written. This is possibly why Garson Kanin is remembered most for his work as a dramatist and screenwriter. His play, “Born Yesterday” is a marvelous one. Yet plays are a question of conver sation, and in “Hollywood” the recounting of conver sations is magnificent. It is in the areas of descrip tion and narrative that the boeks falls short. Just when you are about ready to put the book away, though, Kanin comes up with a fas cinating character study and you read on. Perhaps the most in teresting portrait in the book is that of Mr. Samuel Goldwyn, of whom Lillian Heilman is quoted as say ing: “In order to under stand Sam, you have to realize that he thinks of himself as a NATION!” Kanin traces Goldwyn’s be ginning in the movie indus try (co-incidentally the be ginning of the movie indus try), and continues through to his death. There is a great deal of humaness in Kanin’s work on Goldwyn. He comes across as more than just a sonofabitch movie mogul, the usual way men of his power are hand led, Ona very interesting sequence concerns the making of a film that was apparently one of Gold- wyn’s pet projects,- “The Goldwyn Follies.” It seems that Sam Goldwyn thought of himself as the movies’ answer to Florenz Zieg- feld. That name, ’ ’ Goldwyn says at one point, “Ziegfeld --is like Tiffany stamped on a--you know--on any thing! It’s like Goldwyn on a picture.” He wanted to make a picture of the size and extravagance of Mr. Zeigfeld’s famous “Fol lies.” Countless writers, actors, singers, variety acts, artists, were hired, including George Balanch ine and the American Bal let: “George Balanchine and his troupe, The Ameri- can Ballet of the Metro politan Opera, arrived and made Hollywood his tory. The requirements and demands of his com pany were unheard of. Balanchine...had deter mined that the sound- stage floors were not suitable for dance re hearsals. Goldwyn cheerfully ordered a new building--a dance studio --to be constructed on the lot... Goldwyn seemed to revel in the prolifera ting difficulties. The more unreasonable the request, the more gold wyn respected it. No one except members of Ba lanchine’s company were allowed inside the (spe cial) studio at any time, including Samuel Gold wyn. “A month went by...Ru mors abounded. Gold wyn’ s well -planted spies r e p o r ted eve ryt h i ng. Goldwyn received them impassively. He admired Balanchine. Never had he signed anyone who made a greater impression on the press. The publicity that the company was generating was price less. “Free publicity!” Gold wyn exulted, looking through the press book ...“Look at this...Any body f’ Chrissake can BU Y publicity - - but to get it for nothing...” Any body at the meeting could have pointed out that the free publicity was cost ing him about $15,000 a day...” Mr. Kanin seems to ad mire Samuel Goldwyn. Even thougn much of the writing about Goldwyn could be classified as catty could be classified as cat ty, there is throughout the book, a great deal of sen sitivity and love shown for the man. Another absorbing chap ter of the book deals with John Barrymore, “The Great Profile.” Kanin met Barrymore early in his ca reer and late in Barry more’s. They worked to gether on the film “The Great Man. Votes,” Barry more doing the lead over the protests of Pandro S. Berman, then headofRKO- Radio Pictures. Barry more was a “hands-off” property by this time. His drinking was legendary, his tantrums expensive and de bilitating. But, Kanin want ed him for the film and no other. He took final respon sibility for any disasters. There weren’t any. “His (Barrymore’s) acting tech nique was flawless,” re calls Kanin. Many colorful incidents follow, and par ticularly one where Barry more cries, on cue, four different ways for four dif ferent takes. “Hollwood” also con tains some interesting pas sages about the “nitty- gritty” of filmmaking. I quote Mr. Kanin, describ ing the work of Ginger Rog ers: “Making a film is hard work. For a leading act ress it involves rising at 6:00 A M. or 5:30 A.M. Studio. Makeup. Hair dressing. Wardrobe Lines. Rehearsals Changes. Hit those marks. Watch those lights. Act, feel, be charming but don’t move your chin. Hold it! she’s sweating again,. Makeup! Quiet, please! Quiet, Please! Hold it down! Roll ‘em! And so on. A full day of tense, exacting work seldom nets more than three or four min utes of screen time... In a lifetime of work, of stri ving for excellence, of seeking ephemera, of striving for excellence, pondering impondera - bles--only the result counts.” (continued page 9) Patrick Cuccaro in "Story Theatre” Photos this page by Zoe Bradford