Too Many Peanuts

"You're a Good Man, Charlie Brown," Clark Gesner's musical revue based on the "Peanuts" comic strip, has certain wispy charms. But as performed yesterday by the University of Maryland, Baltimore County, as the 6th entry in the American College Theater Festival, those charms were all but annihilated.

Here is a show that depends on decidedly miniature effects; a single leaf floating down from the skies, after all, signals the first-act curtain. But the little effects were blown out of all proportion in this noisy, over-populated production, directed with a kind of playground frenzy by Craig Montgomery.

For some inexplicable reason, the original cast of six was expanded to include such supporting Peanuts as Freida, Pigpen, Sherman and Woodstock, although the additional characters were given exactly nothing to do and merely cluttered the stage. Neither the principal actors nor the director, one sensed, really trusted the script and felt compelled to underscore, elaborate and drive home its quiet joys.

Except for Susan Duvall Steinwedel who played Patty with a child's singlemindedness of purpose, the student cast displayed no remarkable acting, singing or dancing skills.

Today at 7:30 p.m. in the Eisenhower Theater: The University of Oregon's production of "Our Town."

--David Richards

Good grief, 'Charlie Brown'

By J. Wynn Rousuck

It was a dark and stormy night. At the University of Maryland Baltimore County Charlie Brown and Lucy hung their hears. Those other kids at that other school, Towson State, were selected for the regional American College Theatre Festival over the Peanuts gang. Good grief.

Linus went to the pumpkin patch hoping to confer with the Great Pumpkin. It was a matter of urgency, so Linus thought the Great Pumpkin would finally consent to confer, even out of season. What was the meaning of "As You Like It," such an old play, being chosen over "You're A Good Man, Charlie Brown"?

The sky seemed to light up with an all-knowing jack-o-lantern smile. A voice said, "It was chance. There was a tie and Towson was chosen." Linus was resigned to the situation.

Linus knew the Great Pumpkin was sincere. So, when Towson State found its elaborate set was too big to move to the George Washington University stage for the competition, leaving alternate UMBC to take its

place, Linus's faith was restored. And, when UMBC was selected to participate in the national festival, the first time the fledgling theater department had achieved such status, it was better that getting a fistful of Valentines for Charlie Brown.

Only East Coast school

As a national finalist, "You're A Good Man, Charlie Brown," Clark Gesner's adaptation of Charles M. Schulz's comic strip, is one of 10 plays selected from a nationwide entry of over 330 productions. UMBC is the only school on the East Coast invited to participate in the two-week Washington festival. Having achieved the regional competition the past three years, it is the only school in the country selected on the regional level four years in a row.

William T. Brown, chairman of the Middle Atlantic festival region and chairman of the UMBC theater department, explained, "There are 13 regions throughout the United States. The regional festival selects five or six shows to participate on the regional level. Then a board of judges comprised of regional chairmen and members of the central committee, which is the executive committee of the festival, selects 10 schools most representative of college theater as it's being done throughout the country." Three years ago Mr. Brown received the Amoco Gold Medallion from Amoco Oil Company, the festival sponsor, for an outstanding contribution by an individual to theater and the arts.

Lucy (Patricia Barranger) threatens Linus (John O'Laughlen) in the UMBC production of "You're a Good Man, Charlie Brown," the only play from a school on the East Coast to be included in the National American College Theater Festival.

Four years ago UMBC's production of Jean Anouilh's "The Lark" was selected to participate in the regional festival; in 1972 Jules Feiffer's "The White House Murder Case" was nominated and last year T. S. Eliot's "Murder in the Cathedral" also reached the regional level. Mr. Brown says, "This year we thought we would not be involved because of the strain on schedule. You do not know whether the play has been selected until December. You have to store scenery until that time. Then once you get to the regional level you have another two months to keep the scenery intact. This plays havoc with your schedule, so the faculty decided not to enter.

"At the last minute, just before the judging period was to start, in September, some students asked why we couldn't enter. It was hectic then trying to get three judges in to see it, but they managed to get there. It was the first show they saw. There were 11 or 12 productions in the region."

Just waiting for a push

Patricia A. Baranger, who plays Lucy in the show, was on of the students, along with D. Lynn Hyman, stage manager, who pressed to enter the festival. Miss Barranger says, "I don't think really that Mr. Brown needed much talking. He came back from the initial meeting of the regional festival lamenting the fact we weren't going to be in the festival and said that the one show he would enter would be 'Charlie Brown.' Lynn Hyman and I were just sitting there, and we went up to Bill and said, "Why not?", and I think he was just waiting for a push."

Meanwhile, guest director Craig D. Montgomery, director of performing arts at Dunbar Community High School, had no idea the festival was even being considered. He says, "When I learned we were going to enter the festival, it was a complete surprise. In terms of directing the play, I'm glad I didn't know. There are some things you do for professionals. Some things you might do for an Arbutus audience the professionals would see as a cheap trick."

Although "Charlie Brown" is a frequently done play, the UMBC production has several special features. Most notable is the addition of six minor Peanuts characters: Freda, Marcie, Pigpen, Linus's little sister Sally, Sherman and Woodstock. played by a girl dressed in yellow leotards and a ruff. Mr. Montgomery remembers, "The chorus was originally put into the show by virtue of the fact it was a summer company, and we wanted to include as many people as possible. I was not in favor of the idea to begin with."

Miss Barranger says the chorus works because, "The chorus is on stage to react to what people say, to add an expression, a gesture to what the other character have to say."

Woodstock is must

Demitri J. Hondroulis, who plays Snoopy, is especially glad to have Woodstock on board. He says, "Snoopy cannot talk to anyone on stage, only to the audience. By incorporating Woodstock. he can relate Woodstock on stage." Woodstock, however, except for

an occasional peep, is mute.

"You're A Good Man, Charlie Brown" is traditionally presented with big wood boxes serving as multi-purpose props. However, A UMBC innovation is the use of what Mr. Hondroulis describes as a crayon-colored jungle gym, including swings, slide and teeter-totter. Multi-colored cubes augment this and a rectangular box serves as Snoopy's doghouse. The set is extremely versatile. For example, in a scene in which the characters are writing book reports about "Peter Rabbit," the teeter- totter is propped up on two cubes and becomes a writing desk. Since there was no original intention to enter the festival, the set was firmly nailed together. Disassembling it to make it screw together was a job, but now the playground equipment can be thrown together in half an hour.

Mr. Montgomery says after the initial judging, he sat down with the cast in December and they made changes in the original production. Most of the changes were in characterizations. For example, Lucy's interrelationships with other members of the company, "We changed Lucy's crabbiness to a kind of naivete, less intentional crabbiness. She didn't come into a scene angry. She was just Lucy first and always. you could almost find here cute, rather than obnoxious," Mr. Montgomery says. "We took every line in that show and tried to make it to the best advantage, either as a singular line or as something that supported something else. There's one little line in the show where Charlie Brown is having lunch, talking about peanut butter sandwiches, and all of a sudden he says, 'Boy, the P.T.A. sure did a good job pointing these benches,' then he sees the red-headed girl and goes into a thing about that. We figured if Schulz put it in, he must have had a reason for it, but we worked on this line and it just didn't work, so we cut it."

Audience was different

In the regional competition at George Washington University, Mr. Montgomery discovered he was working with a different audience than he had faced at UMBC. "You have to consider the audience that is going to see it, and what will work for them," he says. "Different people got different highlights all of a sudden. A more sophisticated audience could appreciate the absurdity of a full-grown man playing Linus and doing a dance with a blanket and going into a Fred Astaire routine." Or, there is the Schulz subtlety that comes through differently depending on the viewer. "Patty has been jumping rope and Schroeder says, "What's the matter?" She says "I don't know. I was jumping rope, and suddenly it all seemed so futile," This went over with an audience of theater people at the regional festival," Mr. Montgomery explains.

Mr. Hondroulis, 24, a senior theater major at UMBC, plays Snoopy dressed in a white turtleneck, Levis and sneakers. "He comes out as neuter," he says. "What's really weird is that then we first started doing it I thought, 'Oh, how nice, a dog.' I didn't realize how the audience was going to be able to accept a person as a dog. When you're doing 'Suppertime' in that show, people are accepting a dog singing, that's why they're laughing." In this scene, always a show stopper, Mr. Montgomery added a short bit where Snoopy puts a dog food dish on his head, produces a collapsible cane and does a dance sequence.

Mr. Hondroulis was particularly suited to this since for a few years he did an amateur tap dancing act with his sister. At the end of the number he throws candy to the audience. The cast has tried to use what Mr. Montgomery calls significant candy--at George Washington on Valentine's Day, Snoopy threw out little hearts. "Once at UMBC," Mr. Montgomery recalls, "we had to stop the show because kids were crawling all over the stage to get the candy. I know we could probably be criticized for things like that, but in my mind that's what makes the evening memorable."

Charlie Brown (Dave Sansonetti) gets a ride on Sherman (Chip Graham) while Schroeder (Michael Coleman) Cheers in "You're a Good Man, Charlie Brown."

Mr. Montgomery also has the cast take its exits through the audience and assemble in the lobby. Mr. Hondroulis admits, "I had kids who would come up to me after the show and they would pet me. They would scratch my head." He confesses, "I keep a little candy on me."

For Susan Duvall Steinwedel, 21, also a UMBC. senior theater major and Peppermint Patty in "Charlie Brown," this year's festival, was especially significant. She was chosen Mid-Atlantic regional alternate for the festival's Irene Ryan Scholarship. To enter, a student must be a cast member of the participating play. However, any two scenes totaling less than 10 minutes in length may be presented. Miss Steinwedel's memorable scene from "A Midsummer Night's Dream," which she interpreted from a feminist point of view as a football sequence, dresses in jeans and a T-shirt.

"You're A Good Man, Charlie Brown" will have performances at 7:30 P.M. Monday and Tuesday, as well as a Tuesday matinee at 2 P.M. in George Washington University's Marvin Theater. Eight of the other festival winners are being presented at Kennedy Center's Eisenhower Theater. Although the cast was initially disappointed at not performing at Kennedy,

they quickly realized the advantage the more intimate setting will give their revue-type show, as well as their advantage in knowing the stage since the regional competition was held there.

After entering the regional competition thanks to the withdrawal of Towson, winning was a pleasant surprise. Mr. Brown says, "When you are competing with other schools from all across the country, you're up against quite a bit of competition. We have very limited facilities, yet with those facilities we have managed to create a kind of consistency no other school in this region has done."

Monday night at Kennedy Center cast and crew members will each receive the Bronze Medallion representing the Amoco Oil Company Award of Excellence. Mr. Montgomery and accompanist Glenette Rohner, who are neither faculty nor students but contemporaries of the company, will also receive medals. The festival is presented by the Kennedy Center, the Alliance for Arts Education and the Smithsonian Institution, produced by the American Theater Association and sponsored by Amoco.

Next year the Middle Atlantic region hopes to reorganize the festival so that groups compete on educational levels -junior colleges, colleges and universities. Another specialty of the region, begun last year, is a gala revue featuring a cast of 40 regional students and hiring a union orchestra. The gala will be presented tonight at the announcement of the Irene Ryan Awards and this year will feature songs from "The Rothschilds," "Funny Girl" and "Fiddler on the Roof.

Charlie Brown Goes To Washington: Theater Group Rises To Cloud Nine

Charlie Brown is going to Washington. And happiness is the college cast that was selected to perform in the capital April 14 & 15.

The University of Maryland Baltimore County's production of "You're a Good Man Charlie Brown," by Charles Schulz and Clark Gesner, is 1 of the ten plays chosen to be performed in the Seventh Annual American College Theater Festival.

The UMBC musical comedy will be presented at 7:30 P.M. April 15 and at 2:00 and 7:30 P.M. April 15 at George Washington University's Marvin Theater.

"The one reason we are so excited over this opportunity is that we are one of 10 chosen over 330 entrants, and the only college on the East Coast that was selected. I feel that it is the biggest thing in my life," says vivacious Pat Barranger, who is Lucy in the play.

Pat, a graduate assistant working in the drama department at UMBC, has been in quite a few school productions, but this is her first musical.

"I think the reason we were selected is that we have here a tight professional production," Pat said." We have an ensemble feeling. There are just six main characters in the play, but the director added six others to strengthen the vocal quality of the performance.

"And what's more, I think we deserved to be picked."

Dave Sansonetti, who plays Charlie, is a political science-sociology major who got bitten by the theater bug last year. He hopes to be a lawyer. Barbara A. Barth is pretty excited too. She plays Woodstock, the bird. "I'm not scared yet, because we have practiced this play so often," she says.

Handsome John O'Laughlen, who plays Linus, wants to go on acting when he graduates in drama from UMBC, "I've wanted to be an actor for a long time. This thing in Washington may be our big chance. I want to see how far I can get with acting as a career."

William A. Brown, chairman of the theater department of UMBC, is as thrilled as the students.

"It's a great honor. There are 13 regions in the U.S.A. that make up the ACT. This is the fourth consecutive year UMBC has been invited to participate in the festival's regional competition. Three out of four of those plays have come from our summer repertoire," Mr. Brown said.

The chairman feels that both students and faculty perhaps have more time to devote to a play's success in the summer, as they can't carry as big a scholastic load. "Although I must say for this cast, most of them have had summer jobs and we've had to rehearse at night and on weekends. They are a very dedicated bunch.

"I selected Charlie Brown as this year's entry because it is widely known, thus the quality of the production can be easily judged."

Mr. brown is nationally known for this work in set designing, directing and drama in general. He did his undergraduate work at Howard University and graduate work at Cleveland's Case Western Reserve University.

Bill Brown also think that UMBC's facilities for drama are not the most adequate: "I hope the Maryland legislators will take note of our winning this honor, so they will see the merits of this department's work. We are especially delighted that during the two-week festival, we will play in the Marvin Theater, as it has a more intimate stage for our production."

Craig D. Montgomery, a teacher at Dunbar high School, was hired last summer to assist Mr. Brown with summer repertoire. He is the director of Charlie.

Other members of the cast are Susan Duvall Steinwedel, Michael W. Coleman, Demitri J. Hondroulis, Angela E. Burned, Ruth Williamson, Alan Goldberg, Patty Wood, and Chip Graham.

Sunpapers photo-Richard Childress

Cast Members -- John O'Laughlen, Barbara Barth and Pat Barranger: in competition for honors--and careers?