As I get older, my life in the library is becoming more complicated. I have a special pair of glasses that I only need to be able to see books on high shelves. (Seriously.) I also find myself less and less inclined to look around on the bottom shelf because my knees complain. Today, though, I decided to throw caution to the wind and just get down on the floor and see what I’ve neglected. I hit pay dirt on the very first box, which was full of photographs of the Rice Players.
These I found in an envelope labeled “European Trip, 1974.” It’s a bit difficult to interpret them, as many simply depict groups of people sitting in rooms, perhaps taking classes. Except for Paris I can’t tell precisely where they went–both planes and trains were involved.
It all looks pretty sophisticated.
Except for these guys who seem baffled by their loaves of bread. (I worked very hard to suppress a filthy joke here.)
Any information about this trip would be much appreciated!
Bonus: If you don’t happen to live in Houston you probably don’t know about the acorn crop this year. It’s completely put of control—something to do with the drought the summer before last, I think. My back yard is full, so imagine what it’s like on campus. It’s epic. I swear to you, over by the Cohen House parking lot they are beginning to form into drifts.
Um, OK, Sandy. I’m sure there’s a story about that jacket and that hair. It was the 70’s after all. Or is that a wig someone forgot to pack? 😉 Loftleidir is a small Icelandic (!) airline which apparently built their jet access stairways on the back of Dodge pickup trucks.
I’m pretty sure this was the Rice Players trip to study at L’École Internationale de Théâtre Jacques Lecoq. It far predates my time, but Players of the late 80s and early 90s sometimes still heard tales about it. Apparently Lecoq visited Rice in the 70s, and then several students paid a return visit and studied mime, masks, and movement at his school in Paris.
In 1974, at the instigation of Frank Lloyd Dent, then Ex. Dir. of the Rice Alumni Association, Rice Players did a brief performance tour of the Elaine May one-act play “Adaptation.” We performed in Paris and Friebourg, Germany. We expected to perform a few other places but wound up with a very confused schedule. Perhaps I will write up my memories of it for the Cornerstone–it was all wonderfully chaotic. I think the two guys holding the bread are me and Bill Horowitz. The long-haired girl with her back to the camera is Elaine Bonilla, The other cast members were Donna Yeager, John Merkling and Michael Ytterberg.
We did visit the Lecoq School. Lecoq had been at Rice two years before doing a week-long workshop. Two Rice Players did attend Ecole Lecoq after they graduated from Rice. Ytterberg and Bob Anderson.
You should definitely write it up! We already have the pictures to illustrate it.
Loftleidir for a while had really good deals to Europe. The only problem was you did have to go through Iceland. There were several oddball airlines that had good deals like that at the time, and if I recall correctly on through the late 70s. Interflot also offered really cheap flights, but you had to go through Cuba.
Are there any recipes out there for making some kind of dish out of acorns? How about acorn pie instead of pecan pie, or roasted acorns instead of peanuts. I wish our pecan tree was as productive of as the acorn trees.
Do a google search for “cooking with acorns”. The preparation is tedious, as you have to soften the shells, shell the nuts, then leach out the tannins with repeated stages of boiling in water.
Regarding the Hyperacorn crop and preceeding draughts, I have always analogized* it to our male experience at the Institute.
Dungeonized** for months, the testosterone suddenly erupted in the form of Bums’ Rush!
* ?such a word
** Refer to *
… droughts …
Sorry about that.
🙁
You didn’t need to make the correction,Gene.Nobody learns to spell anymore since their computers note a correction is needed.We “pre-computer” folks had to do it in ourselves in 1956.Hugh Welsh
I can spell, but occasionally I make a typo in one of these entries. Unfortunately, this blog doesn’t have an “edit” feature where I can fix it, nor a “preview” mode where I can proofread before I push the “post comment” button.