Arts College May Become Reality Because A Lady Cares

Arts College May Become Reality Because A Lady Cares

Judy Riecker might have directed Ann Arbor Civic Theatre’s production of “Once Upon a Mattress,” the musical Carol Burnett launched, to be presented May 17-21 in Lydia Mendelssohn Theatre.

It would have been the locally well-known actress’ debut in the director’s chair.

However, John Reid Klein, whose directorial touch on musicals always is superb, became available after getting out of the hospital and Mrs. Riecker asked that he be given the assignment. Then she tried out against the competition for a role and Klein cast her as Queen Agrivain.

“There are many lines to the queen role,” she said. “She talks all the time she is on stage and never is done. The hardest part has been memorizing all the lines. In one part, the queen talks for five minutes and never stops.”

Mrs. Riecker has been conducting a talk show for the past six years on WAAM radio, where she is women’s interest director. A diversity of persons are interviewed about all facets of life in Ann Arbor, and a goodly number are from the world of theatre.

Eighty-five per cent of the interviews are live, she says, “because people have to think then. They get too relaxed on tape.” At times she turns the program over to Annecka Overseth and to Carren Thomas. And in the summer, Gwen Baker takes over the interviewing for a week.

“I think it’s good to bring in a fresh personality every so often,” she says. “You can get into a rut looking at things from the same viewpoint.”

Also, every two weeks or so, she makes a trip to New York, where she has sessions with Broadway vocal coach Ron Clairmon, who has developed the singing voices of Ruth Ford and other stars.

One day while waiting for her appointment with Clairmon, Mrs, Riecker noticed a familar face entering the studio. She couldn’t place it right off. The urbane man spoke. Only afterwards did she find out it was George Hamilton.

Her involvement and fascination with theatre began when she was 11 and, as Judy Towsley, she made her theatrical debut as Yum-Yum in a production of “The Mikado” at University Elementary School. She has been active with the Gilbert and Sullivan Society as choreographer and actress, her last appearance being in the “Mikado.”

Off stage, there are many contributions this dedicated person has made to theatre. She was in charge of the Christmas Pageant and Sing for six years and reluctantly announced last year that she could not head it. There was no Sing last year, but Mrs. Riecker says there are hopes it will be revived. Many persons would like to see the Sings revived, hopefully with backing from the Ann Arbor Exchange Club, which aided the project for several years.

As well as being a leader in the First Nighter Club for the Power Center for the Performing Arts, Mrs. Riecker contributed the magnificent computer controlled lighting system which permits the setting of all light cues in advance by use of a pre-set tape. Automatically the stage is lighted properly no matter how many scenes are involved. In older theatres, the lights must be turned on and off in the proper combinations by hand.

A further valuable and more recent gift of the center is a sound enhancer, which will improve what is heard by the audience. At present, the sound goes off the vast stage and falls into the orchestra pit. Unless the thrust stage is opened, many actors and singers are in danger of not being heard unless they use microphones. It will be a year before the system is completely installed, but once it is, and heavy drapes have been hung on the walls, it will be a tremendous improvement. The system also will have the capability for tape recording all performances.

Ann Arbor got its first ticket office for all performances, except those by University organizations at Stanger’s, through efforts of the Ann Arbor Council for the Performing Arts, which Mrs. Riecker also was instrumental in establishing. The council not only acts as a clearing house for information vital to performing groups but will operate again this year the performing stage at the Ann Arbor Street Art Fair, where young entertainers will offer a nightclub performance.

As much as she has been responsible for successful theatre in Ann Arbor, Mrs. Riecker always is looking ahead. There is Phase II for the Power Center, which will complete furnishing of the new building, including the equipping of dressing rooms.

University of Michigan is one of the few Big Ten universities which does not have an Arts College. The dance department, she notes, puts on superb performances but is stuck in the Physical Education Department.

The opera department has no one to build sets for it and it must rent all its costumes.

It would be nice if the radio, television, theatre, dance and all visual and performing arts were combined into a coordinated whole, and she already has spoken informally with personnel at the University.

“Of course it means a new building, because the Frieze Building couldn’t handle all this,” she says, her voice trailing off. But you get the impression it will happen one day — if only because the lady who cares so much about theatre in Ann Arbor is going to see that it happens . . . some day ... in some way.

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Konrad Mathaei, Ann Arbor High and University graduate, who gave up a career in his father’s business to become an actor, has a leading role in British playwright Tom Stoppard’s new play, “The Real Inspector Hound,” at Theater Four in New York.

Mathaei is being praised above all others in the cast by Big Town critics who viewed the effort on opening night.

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Universal Studios has picked Ann Arbor as a test center to determine how the new motion picture, “Slaughterhouse-Five,” based on the novel by Kurt Vonnegut Jr., should be promoted in the rest of the country.

The film will be given an experimental run beginning May 17 at the Wayside Theatre, which usually does not show R rated pictures. At the same time, East Lansing, home of Michigan State University, will be used as a test market, the results determining whether two approaches should be used in publicizing the picture.

Most of the cast — Michael Sacks, Ron Leibman, Eugene Roche, Sharon Gans, Perry King — are unknown names, but Universal Studios sees a star in Valerie Perrine, who doesn’t even appear until late in the picture.

Sacks plays Billy Pilgrim, who lives in the past, present and future, with war, love, American values see-sawing through his mind. Vonnegut is pre-occupied with the fire bombing of Dresden and the metaphysics of war.

Stephen Geller has written the screen play which was directed by George Roy Hill.

Viewers at the experimental run will be asked to fill out a questionnaire on their opinions of the film.

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Mrs. Kathryn Becker of Thorold, Ont., walked into the Gull Galleries here the other day and paid $600 for a painting which gallery operator John Moore had bought with 149 others at an European antique painting auction in Detroit.

While the painting was being framed at the Anderson Paint Shop, a University history of art professor, who prefers his identity be withheld, looked at the painting.

He said it was an Eastern Greek Orthodox icon on hand-woven linen and would be extremely valuable if the proper research is completed.

The icon shows the Father, the Son and the Holy Ghost with bearded men holding Christ to the cross.

Moore says that of the 400 to 500 antique paintings he has sold, this is the first icon he has come across. Previous icons have been sold for $60,000 to $70,000.

Mr. Becker has returned to Canada without disclosing what she plans to do with the icon.

JUDY RIECKER

At This Stage 

By Norman Gibson