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<FONT FACE="Verdana"><B>This week at the Kenworthy Performing Arts Centre...<BR>
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<FONT COLOR="#000080"><FONT SIZE="5"><B>Wordplay</B></FONT></FONT> (Not Rated)<BR>
<B>Friday & Saturday, September 15 & 16<BR>
7:00 PM<BR>
Sunday, September 17<BR>
4:45 & 7:00 PM<BR>
</B>$5/adult, $3/child 12 or younger<BR>
KFS pass accepted for Sunday movies<BR>
<B>(See movie review below)<BR>
</B>* * *<BR>
<B><BR>
Next week at the Kenworthy Performing Arts Centre...<BR>
</B><BR>
<I>Sirius Idaho Theatre</I> presents the<BR>
<B>World Première</B> of<BR>
<FONT COLOR="#800080"><H2><I>Cow-Tipping and Other Signs of Stress<BR>
</I></H2></FONT><B>by Gregory Fletcher<BR>
<BR>
</B>Directed by Stan Brown<BR>
<B><BR>
Thursday, Friday & Saturday, September 21, 22 & 23<BR>
7:30 PM<BR>
<BR>
Also showing-<BR>
Thursday, Friday & Saturday, September 28, 29 & 30<BR>
7:30 PM<BR>
</B><BR>
$15/adult, $10/senior, $6/student<BR>
Tickets and season passes available at:<BR>
BookPeople, Farmers’ Market and KPAC box office<BR>
<BR>
After years of perseverance and rejection letters, undiscovered playwright Christopher Post asks for a sign from the universe confirming that he’s on the right path. The signs flood in, each contradicting the next. When Christopher runs into an old college buddy who works for role model and star playwright Ward Edington, Christopher begins sneaking, stealing, hiding, conniving, teasing, fighting, and his life continues to snowball from there. Saving his marriage and career will be the hardest rewrite of his life. A romantic dramedy laced with farce and cows. (Adult themes/ brief nudity)<BR>
<BR>
<I>Cow-Tipping and Other Signs of Stress</I> won the 2005 American College Theatre Festival Mark Twain Prize for Comic Playwriting.<BR>
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<FONT SIZE="5"><B>Volunteer to usher and see the show for free!</B></FONT> <BR>
Contact House Manager Cindylou Ament at 883-1012 or <cindylouament@moscow.com><BR>
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<FONT COLOR="#800000"><FONT SIZE="5"><B><I>Sirius Idaho Theatre</I></B> 2006-2007 season passes<BR>
</FONT></FONT><BR>
<I>Sirius Idaho Theatre</I> (SIT) announces their third season of plays, with three productions scheduled at the Kenworthy Performing Arts Centre in Moscow. <I>Cow-Tipping and Other Signs of Stress</I>, the world premiere of a new comedy by Gregory Fletcher, opens September 21. <I>Touch</I>, by Toni-Press Coffman, opens January 25, 2007, and <I>Breaking the Code</I>, by Hugh Whitemore, opens April 12, 2007. In addition, SIT presents a staged reading of <I>The Oldest Profession</I>, by Paula Vogel, as a special fundraising event on November 10 & 11.<BR>
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<I>Sirius Idaho Theatre</I> is offering a significant savings to patrons who purchase a 2006 – 2007 season pass. Passes are now available at the Moscow Farmers’ Market, BookPeople of Moscow, the Kenworthy Performing Arts Centre box office, or by contacting a SIT board member (John Dickinson, Pam Palmer, Andriette Pieron) www.SiriusIdahoTheatre.com<BR>
<BR>
Adults - $15 per show or <B>$40</B> pass<BR>
Seniors - $10 per show or <B>$25</B> pass<BR>
Students - $6 per show or <B>$15</B> pass<BR>
<BR>
For more information, visit www.SiriusIdahoTheatre.com <<FONT COLOR="#0000FF"><U>http://www.siriusidahotheatre.com/</U></FONT>> or call Pam Palmer, Managing Artistic Director at 208-596-2270.<BR>
<B>* * *<BR>
</B><BR>
<B>Also next week at the Kenworthy-<BR>
</B><BR>
<FONT COLOR="#000080"><FONT SIZE="5"><B>Sopie Scholl: The Final Days</B></FONT></FONT><FONT SIZE="5"> (not rated)<BR>
</FONT><B>Sunday, September 24<BR>
4:15 & 7:00 PM<BR>
</B>$5/adult, $3/child 12 or younger<BR>
KFS pass accepted for Sunday movies<BR>
<B>* * *<BR>
</B><BR>
<B>October at the Kenworthy-<BR>
</B><BR>
Back by popular demand:<BR>
<B>An Inconvenient Truth (PG)<BR>
</B>October 1<BR>
2:30, 4:45 & 7:00 PM<BR>
<BR>
<B>Coming in October:</B> Who Killed the Electric Car?; Little Miss Sunshine<BR>
<BR>
Regular movie prices: $5/adult, $3/child 12 or younger<BR>
KFS series pass prices: $30/10 films, $75/30 films. KFS pass good only for Sunday movies.<BR>
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For more information on movies, events, rental rates, and/or to download a schedule, visit our website at www.kenworthy.org<BR>
<B>* * *<BR>
<BR>
This week’s movie review-<BR>
</B><BR>
<FONT COLOR="#000080"><H2>Wordplay<BR>
</H2></FONT><BR>
Documentary Film<BR>
Directed by Patrick Creadon<BR>
Rated PG (Parental guidance suggested) for some language and mild thematic elements.<BR>
Running time: 1 hour, 30 minutes<BR>
<BR>
<B><I><U>As reviewed by Phillip Lopate writing for the New York Times<BR>
</U></I></B><BR>
The idea of a documentary about crossword puzzle fanciers may not immediately cause everyone's pulse to race. Those of us addicted to doing the crossword puzzles should find the spectacle of similar fetishists compulsively watchable. Nonaddicts may need more convincing. <BR>
<BR>
In "Wordplay" the director, Patrick Creadon, a veteran cameraman, employs playful strategies to keep both sets of viewers engrossed. With rapid editing style, he shuffles between crossword composers and solvers, feeding in a steady stream of entertaining cameos by notables like the comedian Jon Stewart, the New York Yankees pitcher Mike Mussina, and the ever-charismatic Bill Clinton, all confessing to an inner nerd.<BR>
<BR>
In one enlightening episode the crossword composer Merl Reagle shares his thought processes while putting together a new puzzle, affording an insight into the deep linguistic structures that inform this seemingly trivial hobby. Mathematicians and musicians, we are told, are best at solving crosswords quickly, being able to glimpse the underlying orthographic patterns and puns like a system of numbers or notes.<BR>
<BR>
"Wordplay" is built around the 28th annual American Crossword Puzzle Tournament, which attracts the top competitors. The movie presents them with affection as a proudly geeky tribe of isolates, coming together each year to revel in family feeling and competitiveness. Many of the players emerge as colorfully rabid characters; others seem robotic and washed-out, obsession having the curious property of heightening some personalities, flattening others.<BR>
<BR>
Will Shortz, crossword editor of The New York Times and a National Public Radio host, who has organized the tournament from its inception, comes off as a genial ringmaster. The failure to bring us closer to this ostensible anchoring figure. leaves a gray hole at the film's center. Whatever the documentary's flaws, the filmmakers should be saluted for giving us a rare glimpse of life in these trenches.<BR>
<BR>
<BR>
<B><I><U>As reviewed by Ruthe Stein writing for the San Francisco Chronicle<BR>
</U></I></B><BR>
If "Wordplay" were a crossword puzzle instead of a revealing documentary about an addictive hobby, its theme would be everything related to the American Crossword Puzzle Tournament, the Super Bowl for game fanatics. Almost 500 competitors from around the world are shown gathering in a ballroom at the Marriott in Stamford, Conn., in 2005 to do battle with their pens and wits. Players cross words as if they were swords.<BR>
<BR>
Although rather obviously patterned after "Spellbound," "Wordplay" isn't as immediately endearing, but it does eventually win you over. Opponents are too old and smug to capture hearts the way wannabe national spelling bee champions did. Still there's something appealing about puzzle players who fess up to being nerds. In onscreen interviews, they admit to spending enormous chunks of time coming up with answers based on arcane clues and then furiously scribbling the right word in white boxes. Like runners, they time themselves and attempt to beat their fastest speed in preparation for the annual meet.<BR>
<BR>
"Wordplay's" most imaginative scene is of Clinton and Stewart along with tournament champions each working the same puzzle at different locations. Sooner or later, they all arrive at ICBM as the answer to a clue. Clinton, who's had to make decisions related to intercontinental ballistic missiles, is slow to get it.<BR>
<BR>
The documentary shifts back and forth between celebrity players -- New York Yankees starting pitcher Mike Mussina, filmmaker Ken Burns, former Sen. Bob Dole and the singing duo the Indigo Girls also are interviewed -- and preparations for the tournament. The drama heightens as the crossword meet gets down to three finalists.<BR>
<BR>
Creadon provides enough background on these men to make you root for a favorite. (Although men most often take the top prizes, there appear to be almost as many female as male competitors.) The trio is on a stage writing answers on a huge board in front of everyone. Their concentration is impressive. Meanwhile Shortz and fellow crossword constructor Merl Reagle give a play-by-play account as if announcing a ballgame. A winner emerges. Make that two, counting this engaging documentary that opens up a world of words.<BR>
<BR>
<BR>
<B><I><U>As reviewed by Roger Ebert writing for the Chicago Sun-Times<BR>
</U></I></B><BR>
There are certain things in life you instinctively hold at arm's length, or they will move in with you and put their feet on the furniture. I've spent enough time working crossword puzzles to know I could become addicted. In the documentary "Wordplay," we observe that to be a crossword champion, you have to be incredibly intelligent; be capable of intuitive, lateral thinking; know everything, and focus your knowledge into a narrow and ultimately meaningless pursuit. Yes, that makes you an obsessive eccentric, but they're really the only interesting people left, don't you sometimes think?<BR>
<BR>
The film is made with a lot of style and visual ingenuity. Patrick Creadon, the director, uses graphics to show us crossword grids with the problem areas highlighted, and then we see the letters being written in. In one especially ingenious montage, he has all of his celebrities working on the same puzzle in interlocking shots. During the final championship round, with three contenders working on giant crosswords on a stage, he makes their progress easy to follow; I can imagine another film in which it would have been incomprehensible.<BR>
<BR>
Will Shortz has been the god of this world since he founded the tournament, shortly after taking over as editor of the Times puzzles. How do you prepare for such a career? He went to Indiana University, which permits students to design their own majors, and got a degree in "enigmatology." He created the rules for the annual tournament.<BR>
<BR>
The final championship round is incredibly intense. Not only do the finalists stand onstage in front of big boards that everyone can see, but they wear headphones that pump music at them, so they can't hear clues or comments from the audience. There is a finalist this time who rips off his headphones, throws them to the ground and uses a banished word involving a bodily function, and believe me, he has his reasons.<BR>
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<I>Film reviews researched and edited by Peter Haggart<BR>
</I><B>* * *<BR>
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<I>Kenworthy Performing Arts Centre<BR>
</I>508 S. Main Street, Moscow, Idaho<BR>
</B>208-882-4127<BR>
Sign up for this weekly email on events and movies at the Kenworthy by logging onto our website <BR>
<FONT COLOR="#0000FF"><U>http://www.kenworthy.org<BR>
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</U></FONT>~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~<BR>
PAMELA PALMER, <B>Volunteer<BR>
</B>Mailto:ppalmer@moscow.com<BR>
Film and Events Committee <BR>
Kenworthy Performing Arts Centre<BR>
<BR>
http://www.kenworthy.org<BR>
To speak with a KPAC staff member, <BR>
call (208) 882-4127<BR>
Mailto:kpac@moscow.com<BR>
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