2008 Woodie Awards
Letters to the Editor
Some praise and some scorn from our readers
Issue date: 4/25/05 Section: Opinions
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Dear Editor,
Congratulations on your recent success at the Illinois College Press Association convention. As a former Editor-In-Chief of The Flyer, and the Vice President of the Lewis University National Alumni Association, I am proud that the newspaper has continued it's rapid improvement over the years. I wish you continued success throughout the spring.
Best wishes,
Tim Pajak
Lewis '00
Vice President, Lewis University National Alumni Association
Dear Editor,
After reading Jen Vazquez's "Equus Challenges Comfort Zone of the Audience" in the Flyer Tempo (2/25/05), I bristled over a central paragraph in the review which prodded this reader and theater patron with a most irritating spur. My annoyance at the reviewer's position that being uncomfortable in a serious play was somehow not quite acceptable has continued, intermittently and with varied intensity, since my first reading of it. Adding to my intellectual exasperation with naïveté was the reviewer's further 'dissertation,' brief but ill-informed, on what was seen as an inappropriate and awkward choice of a play to be presented at Lewis university-a play with ideas not suited to the university's mission. Perhaps the theater department needs to present a stage version of the film "Dumb and Dumber" as an act of contrition. If one eliminates plays that cause viewer discomfort, most of the world's great dramas would be lost but to the very few who are not afraid of challenging and confrontational ideas. Does any, even a Christian Brothers University, silence Euripides' "Medea," Sophocles' "Elektra," at least half of William Shakespeare's work, Albee's "The Zoo Story" or "Who's Afraid of Virginia Wolff," every play by Tennessee Williams except for the high school safe "The Glass Menagerie?" We all know that Williams' "Cat on a Hot Tin Roof" would cause the theater to burst into flames of damnation. I'm positive Eugene O'Neill's "Long Day's Journey Into Night" couldn't possibly be acceptable with its dysfunctional family and drug addiction nor Arthur Miller's "Death of a Salesman" complete with Willy Loman's suicide. Strindberg's "Miss Julie" and Ibsen's "Hedda Gabler" tread on dangerous ground too. James Baldwin's "Blues for Mr. Charlie" would leave some audiences in shock as would David Rabe's "Streamers." What should one do with August Wilson's "Hot l Baltimore" or Andrew Gide's "Saul in My Theatre" or perhaps another play by Peter Shaffer, "White Liars?" Lewis' mission can't be to excommunicate important drama or create an Inquisition on thought can it? Of course not.
Congratulations on your recent success at the Illinois College Press Association convention. As a former Editor-In-Chief of The Flyer, and the Vice President of the Lewis University National Alumni Association, I am proud that the newspaper has continued it's rapid improvement over the years. I wish you continued success throughout the spring.
Best wishes,
Tim Pajak
Lewis '00
Vice President, Lewis University National Alumni Association
Dear Editor,
After reading Jen Vazquez's "Equus Challenges Comfort Zone of the Audience" in the Flyer Tempo (2/25/05), I bristled over a central paragraph in the review which prodded this reader and theater patron with a most irritating spur. My annoyance at the reviewer's position that being uncomfortable in a serious play was somehow not quite acceptable has continued, intermittently and with varied intensity, since my first reading of it. Adding to my intellectual exasperation with naïveté was the reviewer's further 'dissertation,' brief but ill-informed, on what was seen as an inappropriate and awkward choice of a play to be presented at Lewis university-a play with ideas not suited to the university's mission. Perhaps the theater department needs to present a stage version of the film "Dumb and Dumber" as an act of contrition. If one eliminates plays that cause viewer discomfort, most of the world's great dramas would be lost but to the very few who are not afraid of challenging and confrontational ideas. Does any, even a Christian Brothers University, silence Euripides' "Medea," Sophocles' "Elektra," at least half of William Shakespeare's work, Albee's "The Zoo Story" or "Who's Afraid of Virginia Wolff," every play by Tennessee Williams except for the high school safe "The Glass Menagerie?" We all know that Williams' "Cat on a Hot Tin Roof" would cause the theater to burst into flames of damnation. I'm positive Eugene O'Neill's "Long Day's Journey Into Night" couldn't possibly be acceptable with its dysfunctional family and drug addiction nor Arthur Miller's "Death of a Salesman" complete with Willy Loman's suicide. Strindberg's "Miss Julie" and Ibsen's "Hedda Gabler" tread on dangerous ground too. James Baldwin's "Blues for Mr. Charlie" would leave some audiences in shock as would David Rabe's "Streamers." What should one do with August Wilson's "Hot l Baltimore" or Andrew Gide's "Saul in My Theatre" or perhaps another play by Peter Shaffer, "White Liars?" Lewis' mission can't be to excommunicate important drama or create an Inquisition on thought can it? Of course not.
