{"id":256,"date":"2008-05-09T13:50:17","date_gmt":"2008-05-09T21:50:17","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.oregonstate.edu\/spotlight\/?p=256"},"modified":"2010-03-22T10:48:39","modified_gmt":"2010-03-22T18:48:39","slug":"a-comedy-of-extremes","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dev.blogs.oregonstate.edu\/spotlight\/2008\/05\/09\/a-comedy-of-extremes\/","title":{"rendered":"A Comedy of Extremes"},"content":{"rendered":"

John Frohnmayer’s musical SPIN shows what can happen when personalities clash \u2014 over art.<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"spin_p2\"Put a controversial performance artist, a conservative U.S. Senator, the chair of the National Endowment of the Arts<\/a> and a preacher named JoeBob into a room together to discuss art and politics, and the resulting personality clashes are sure to generate comedy. That\u2019s what John Frohnmayer had in mind when he wrote SPIN<\/a>, a musical that depicts the early \u201890s \u201cculture wars\u201d that pitted artists seeking complete freedom of expression against those who demanded stricter rules for federally funded art.<\/p>\n

Frohnmayer, an affiliate professor in OSU\u2019s College of Liberal Arts<\/a>, knows all about the subject matter. SPIN is loosely based on his years as the chair of the NEA and his 1993 book that chronicles that turbulent experience, \u201cLeaving Town Alive: Confessions of an Arts Warrior.\u201d<\/p>\n

SPIN made its first run at Oregon State University on May 8, and its debut was the product of collaborations throughout OSU and beyond. Director Marion Rossi Jr. has helmed more than 30 OSU productions as an associate professor of speech communication<\/a>. Music<\/a> instructor Sila Cevikce Shaman wrote SPIN\u2019s compositions, and David Ogden Stiers<\/a>, best known as Major Winchester on the television series M*A*S*H*, joins a cast of student and community actors.<\/p>\n

\u201cTo see a director like Marion Rossi, a veteran performer like David Ogden Stiers and some wonderful student actors bring SPIN to life and give it their interpretation is incredibly exciting,\u201d says Frohnmayer.<\/p>\n

Rossi, who began workshopping the musical with his students in theater classes more than a year ago, says he\u2019s loved witnessing SPIN develop. \u201cIt\u2019s a great experience for the students \u2014 working on an original production, seeing how it grows, evolves and changes over time,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n

For University Honors College<\/a> senior Maarika Teose, who plays the outrageous and provocative performance artist Polly, that experience has been even more enhanced by Frohnmayer\u2019s continuing input and presence at rehearsal. \u201cThis is the first play I\u2019ve done that hasn\u2019t been performed before, so having the playwright there is fantastic. If we have any questions about the script, or if something isn’t working, he can guide us or make changes,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n

Teose says that Stiers, who joined the cast about a week after they began rehearsing winter term, is also a resource. \u201cHe\u2019s fun. It\u2019s really nice to have someone there who has a lot of real-world acting experience. He can give some really deep advice,\u201d says Teose, who has been involved in OSU theater for the past five years.<\/p>\n

Stiers wanted to join SPIN\u2019s cast because he feels strongly in freedom of expression. Likewise, Rossi hopes audiences leave SPIN with a deeper understanding of art\u2019s importance in their lives.<\/p>\n

Although Frohnmayer\u2019s primary motivation for writing SPIN was to entertain his audience, he still believes the issues of free speech and politics that electrified the early \u201890s are relevant today and that people \u2014 no matter how extreme their viewpoints \u2014 ultimately need to communicate with each other. \u201cWe need to learn to deal with differences in the context of a community,\u201d he says. \u201cIf a community is going to succeed, then we all have to succeed together. Free speech is an enabler, but we have to listen as well.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

John Frohnmayer’s musical SPIN shows what can happen when personalities clash \u2014 over art. Put a controversial performance artist, a conservative U.S. Senator, the chair of the National Endowment of the Arts and a preacher named JoeBob into a room together to discuss art and politics, and the resulting personality clashes are sure to generate… Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":189,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[952],"tags":[1782,1754],"class_list":["post-256","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-the-arts","tag-honors-college","tag-liberal-arts"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dev.blogs.oregonstate.edu\/spotlight\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/256","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dev.blogs.oregonstate.edu\/spotlight\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dev.blogs.oregonstate.edu\/spotlight\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dev.blogs.oregonstate.edu\/spotlight\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/189"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dev.blogs.oregonstate.edu\/spotlight\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=256"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/dev.blogs.oregonstate.edu\/spotlight\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/256\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":695,"href":"https:\/\/dev.blogs.oregonstate.edu\/spotlight\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/256\/revisions\/695"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dev.blogs.oregonstate.edu\/spotlight\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=256"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dev.blogs.oregonstate.edu\/spotlight\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=256"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dev.blogs.oregonstate.edu\/spotlight\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=256"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}