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<TITLE>Bougainville Sky, Cow-Tipping and Other Signs of Stress, and Sophie Scholl: The Final Days at the Kenworthy Performing Arts Centre</TITLE>
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<FONT FACE="Verdana"><B>This week at the Kenworthy Performing Arts Centre...<BR>
<BR>
The Martin Forum presents<BR>
</B><FONT COLOR="#800000"><H2>Bougainville Sky: Portrait of a Peacekeeping Operation<BR>
</H2></FONT>Documentary Screening, Music, and Brief Talk featuring Iain Campbell Smith<BR>
<B>Monday, September 18<BR>
7:00 PM<BR>
</B>Free Admission<BR>
<BR>
Iain Campbell Smith, Australian diplomat and musician, participated in a “small footprint” peacekeeping mission to Bougainville Island in Papua New Guinea. The mission sought to empower local and regional entities and bring the former combatants together in culturally appropriate ways— music was one of these ways. The documentary film Bougainville Sky traces the evolution of the mission and its impact by focusing on the work of Smith and local musicians in the aftermath of a bitter civil war. The free documentary screening will be followed by a short talk, a question-and-answer session, and performances of some songs from the mission.<BR>
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<BR>
<B><I>Sirius Idaho Theatre</I></B> presents<BR>
<FONT SIZE="5"><B>World Première</B> of<BR>
</FONT><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>
<BR>
<FONT SIZE="5">Join us on opening night! 7:30 pm, Thursday, September 21st<BR>
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Performances this week:<BR>
<B>Thursday, September 21<BR>
7:30 PM<BR>
<BR>
Friday, September 22<BR>
7:30 PM<BR>
<BR>
Saturday, September 23<BR>
7:30 PM<BR>
</B><FONT COLOR="#800000">Talkback featuring playwright Gregory Fletcher after the performance on Saturday, September 23.<BR>
</FONT><B><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 Kenworthy box office an hour before each performance<BR>
<BR>
Undiscovered playwright Christopher Post has persevered through years of rejection letters. Supported by Hilary Post, his pediatrician wife and biggest fan, Christopher has nothing to show for his efforts except a drawer crammed full of rejection letters from theaters around the country. After asking the universe for a sign that he’s on the right path, and while attempting to sell his latest play to Tina Boyette, a struggling off-Broadway producer, Christopher runs into Gareth Webster, an old college buddy who works for Christopher’s playwriting idol Ward Edington. Christopher begins sneaking, stealing, hiding, conniving, teasing, and 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, <B>this play includes adult situations and brief nudity.<BR>
</B><BR>
Christopher Post is played by <B>James (JJ) Johnston</B>, a University of Idaho MFA candidate. Last year JJ acted in the University of Idaho productions <I>A Flea in Her Ear</I> and <I>Boy Gets Girl</I>. Hilary Post is played by <B>Chris Stordahl</B>, a second year University of Idaho MFA candidate in Costume Design and Technology. Some of her past productions include <I>Wit, Stop Kiss</I> and <I>Ghosts.</I> Tina Boyette is played by <B>Andriette Pieron</B>, founding board member of <I>Sirius Idaho Theatre</I> and Director of Neill Public Library, previously seen in <I>Steel Magnolias</I>. Gareth Webster is played by <B>Luke Daigle</B>, who graduated this past May with a BFA in performance from the University of Idaho Department of Theatre and Film. This summer Daigle performed in IRT’s <I>Schoolhouse Rock</I> and <I>Comedy of Errors</I>. Directed by WSU theatre professor <B>Stan Brown</B>, <I>Cow-Tipping and Other Signs of Stress</I> portrays life issues and alternate lifestyles in positive ways.<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>
<BR>
<FONT SIZE="5"><B>Usher and see the show for free!</B></FONT> <BR>
(Ushers still needed during the second week of performances.)<BR>
<BR>
Contact House Manager Cindylou Ament at 883-1012 or <cindylouament@moscow.com> to volunteer.<BR>
<BR>
<BR>
<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>
<BR>
<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>
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<BR>
<B>Also this week at the Kenworthy-<BR>
</B><BR>
<FONT COLOR="#000080"><FONT SIZE="5"><B>Sophie 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>
Panel discussion following 7:00 PM show<BR>
</B>$5/adult, $3/children 12 and younger<BR>
KFS pass accepted for Sunday movies<BR>
<B>(See movie review below)<BR>
</B>* * *<BR>
<BR>
<B>Next week at the Kenworthy-<BR>
<BR>
</B><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 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>
<B>* * *<BR>
</B><BR>
Back by popular demand:<BR>
<FONT COLOR="#000080"><H2>An Inconvenient Truth (PG)<BR>
</H2></FONT><B>Sunday, October 1<BR>
2:30, 4:45 & 7:00 PM<BR>
</B><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>
<BR>
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>
<BR>
<FONT COLOR="#800000"><FONT SIZE="5">‘Sopie Scholl: The Final Days</FONT></FONT></B> <BR>
<BR>
(<I>Sophie Scholl - Die letzten Tage</I>)<BR>
<BR>
Director Marc Rothemund<BR>
Screenplay Fred Breinersdorfer<BR>
Running Time: 1 hour, 57 minutes. <BR>
<U>Presented n German with English subtitles.<BR>
</U>MPAA rating: Unrated<BR>
<BR>
<BR>
<B><I><U>As reviewed by Kenneth Turan writing for the Los Angles Times<BR>
</U></I></B><BR>
The very qualities we value most in life — decency, morality, heroism — are the hardest to convincingly put on screen. The more idealistic the actions, the less capable most films are of persuading us that flesh-and-blood human beings actually carried them out. Most films, however, do not have the great advantage of "Sophie Scholl — The Final Days."<BR>
<BR>
The story of Scholl, executed by the German government in 1943 when she was but 21 years old for being a member of that country's anti-Nazi White Rose student movement, is well known enough to have inspired at least two previous motion pictures. And it is to Scholl that Traudl Junge, the protagonist of "Blind Spot: Hitler's Secretary," refers at the close of that moving documentary when she says that if this young woman knew the truth about Hitler, she should have as well.<BR>
<BR>
The current "Sophie Scholl" focuses on the last six days of the character's life, from the night before her arrest to the moment of her execution. Director Marc Rothemund and screenwriter Fred Breinersdorfer based this film on new interviews with friends and relatives and the never-before-released records of her Gestapo interrogation. That has helped, but it's nothing compared to the charge "Sophie Scholl" gets from Julia Jentsch in the title role.<BR>
<BR>
Jentsch, last seen in the U.S. in "The Edukators," has won at least three major best actress prizes for her performance (the European Film Award, the Berlin Film Festival Silver Bear, the Lola or German version of the Oscar) and is a key reason why "Sophie Scholl" is one of this year's five foreign language film Oscar nominees. Her strong and graceful, quiet knockout of a performance is the film's most potent weapon, and, yes, it is just as persuasive as all those awards would indicate.<BR>
<BR>
"Sophie Scholl" begins with its heroine at her most typically young adult, having fun singing American songs with a friend and sharing confidences about young men. But once the two women part company, Sophie joins her brother Hans (Fabian Hinrichs) and some other members of the White Rose, University of Munich students who are printing and mailing clandestine leaflets calling for resistance against the Nazi regime.<BR>
<BR>
In a society so highly regimented that civilians could get into trouble for greeting each other with a "good day" instead of "Heil Hitler," the idealistic White Rose members were taking incredible risks by disseminating the leaflets and writing words such as "freedom" on local walls.<BR>
<BR>
But, convinced that "the campus will ignite," Hans and Sophie take the even greater chance of personally placing the leaflets around the atrium of a university building. They are caught, and Sophie is handed over to veteran Gestapo interrogator Robert Mohr.<BR>
<BR>
The resulting multilevel psychological duel between captor and captive is the heart of "Sophie Scholl," and it develops in surprising ways. For at first, unlike the cardboard heroes and heroines of fiction, Scholl declares that she is apolitical and resolutely denies she has anything to do with the leaflets.<BR>
<BR>
Yet even in these early stages, we get glimpses of what makes Jentsch's performance so strong. Both fear and defiant bravery live simultaneously on Scholl's face; we can see her strength as well as her terror, her resolve as well as her qualms.<BR>
<BR>
When circumstances make it impossible for her to continue to deny that she and the pamphlets are linked, Scholl makes a strategic but fiercely idealistic retreat. Despite ferocious questioning by Mohr (an excellent performance by Alexander Held), she refuses to name any further names, insisting that she and her brother were the only members of the White Rose.<BR>
<BR>
As the two antagonists spar over questions of ideology, conscience, law and social privilege, it is Mohr rather than Scholl who finds himself overmatched by the strength of will and integrity of his antagonist.<BR>
<BR>
Director Rothemund does a strong job of keeping this film, his third feature, on an even keel. Though the Nazis are sometimes too evil-looking and the film's Johnny Klimek-Reinhold Heil score is occasionally too emphatic, "Sophie Scholl" by and large does not overdo the emotion.<BR>
<BR>
And Rothemund had the very good idea of, in his own words, "showing as few uniforms and swastikas as possible," the better to indicate the contemporary relevance of the issues involved.<BR>
<BR>
It is, however, a measure of how much "Sophie Scholl" centers on Jentsch that finally all we can see on screen is her. As befits a film about a woman who took much of her strength from religious conviction, Jentsch's performance seems to be lit from within. This role has so taken hold of the actress that we feel we're seeing Scholl's spirit come to life again. To take a character that idealistic and make us believe she unquestionably existed is acting the way you want it to be.<BR>
<BR>
<BR>
<B><I><U>As reviewed by Leslie Camhi writing for the Village Voice<BR>
</U></I></B><BR>
Making a film about Sophie Scholl, the 21-year-old Munich University student who, together with her 24-year-old brother Hans, mounted the most famous underground resistance network in Nazi Germany, is a challenging proposition. First there's the difficulty of humanizing a figure whose heroism, in contemporary Germany at least, is legendary. Then there's the problem of her character's evolution, when her commitment to her ideals appears never to have wavered, even for an instant. Finally, most viewers going into the film will know that Hans and Sophie Scholl, together with other members of their group, the White Rose, were imprisoned by the Gestapo and executed. A life so tragically and quickly extinguished presents maudlin temptations, but director Marc Rothemund ably resists them. His gripping, moving film focuses on a breathtakingly brief five-day period: the Scholls' arrest for distributing anti-Nazi leaflets on university grounds, their interrogation, their show trial before an infamous Nazi "blood judge," and their murder by state authorities. Percy Adlon's 1982 feature Five Last Days explored similar territory, but Rothemund's film benefits from historical material that's since come to light, in particular the transcript of Sophie's grueling Gestapo examination.<BR>
<BR>
Julia Jentsch gives a brilliantly nuanced performance as Sophie, a fun-loving girl who likes marmalade and Schubert but also happens to be a rare beacon of conscience in totalitarianism's dark night. Rothemund and screenwriter Fred Breinersdorfer suggest the possible sources of her moral strength, in the example of her father, a conscientious objector, and in her searching intellect and profound love for Hans (Fabian Hinrichs), which bears the seeds of her broader empathy for others.<BR>
<BR>
But don't expect dramatic transformations: Her character's consistency, some 60 years later, is still unnerving. Flawlessly composed under scrutiny, she even convinces her Gestapo interrogator, Robert Mohr (Alexander Held), of her innocence. Confronted with her brother's signed confession, she relents, but still hammers away at Mohr—she and Hans were the only members of the White Rose, she insists, and Mohr has the wrong worldview, not them. (Is it too perverse to hear, in her insistence on receiving "the same punishment as my brother," a touch of sibling rivalry?) This was a woman who, just before her sentencing, rose in the dock and fearlessly told her Nazi judges, "You'll soon be standing where I am now."<BR>
<BR>
<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>
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<FONT COLOR="#0000FF"><U>http://www.kenworthy.org<BR>
<BR>
</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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