Brown and White Vol. 105 no. 35

              the brown and white lehigh university's student newspaper founded m 1894 vol 105 no 35 tuesday march 10 1998 ah the lehigh news first by chris litman news writer ' fences explores a family's tribulations a student and faculty produced rendition of august wilson's fences a play about the strug gles of an african american fami ly m the late 19505 premiered friday and saturday night m the diamond theater of the zoellner arts center the play will run through march 12 it is directed by augustine ripa jr professor of theater ripa who teaches acting directing and drama theory said the play was very large m that it contained many themes this is a big play not m terms of length but it is big emotionally and psychologically he said it has all sorts of big ideas parent ing self-improvement race sports you name it it's there the first character the audience sees is troy maxson played by egan davson 98 maxson works as a garbage collector for the city of pittsburgh having had a short career playing baseball m the negro leagues maxson settles for rais ing a family and making an hon est living however he cannot shake the idea that he was kept out of the professional leagues because of his skin color rather than his advanced age now all maxson can do is pro vide for his family and spitefully listen to the exploits of baseball stars jackie robinson and roberto clemente two athletes credited with introducing racial diversity into professional sports much of the play has to do with maxson's inability to let go of past experiences injustices suf fered from racial oppression these feelings cause him to pro hibit his son cory played by scan henry 00 from playing football despite his talent maxson believes his son would learn more about life by working m the local supermarket after school instead of practicing for the football team he believes his son wouldn't get a chance to play because he's black he doesn't want the same experience he had to befall his son brinton miller 01 was a member of the audience saturday night he enjoyed davson's per formance as maxson i was really impressed miller said it surprised me how emotional and dramatic all the performances were but i enjoyed his especially there are a host of other sub plots m the play most of which revolve around family members relationships to maxson rayland van blake 98 played jim bono a long-time friend of maxson's van blake's character gave advice to maxson providing comedic elements as the two walked home every day from work before maxson married his wife rose played by kairis cox 99 he had fathered a child with another woman the child lyons is now 34 years old and has ambitions to be a jazz musician played by ah richardson 98 lyons pays his father a visit every friday after noon knowing full well that it was payday and intending to borrow ten dollars for the weekend maxson refuses to learn about the world that his older son occu pies lyons has a free and laid-back lifestyle similar to the jazz tunes that he plays richardson said he had to learn certain things to play such a lack adaisical character as far as challenges i just had to loosen up richardson said this character is very cool at first i wasn't getting it from the script but it was just something that i had to look into myself and find just kind of laying back with the words b&w photo by cori zacharius kairis cox 99 comforts egan davson 98 m august wilson's fences presented m the diamond theater lyceum celebrates world cultures by patrick doherty managing editor the third annual lehigh international lyceum held friday m the university center gave the lehigh community a chance to pre sent their ideas on international issues the lyceum was held from 1 to 5:30 p.m on the third and fourth floors of the university center with presentations describing research travel experiences and other topics related to international affairs thirty-one presentations were given m all many of them going on simul taneously m separate rooms in a presentation entitled kenya corruption alleviation peter sayer 98 gave a summary of his political science hon ors thesis sayer said the thesis grew out of the experiences he had while spending a semester m kenya where he enjoyed the wilderness but also saw the more dismal side of african life i had a great time over there and i had expected to he said but one of the things i didn't expect was the vast poverty sayer kept a journal while m kenya and read an excerpt describing his first impres sion of nairobi the capital the british colonists left this place a shambles he said nairobi is dirty depressed and m need of repairs not m my wildest dreams had i ever expected to see 45 to 55 percent unemployment or underem ployment it means nothing on paper but m person it's devastating sayer found kenya to be a country of extreme inequauty with a very small popu lation with great wealth a huge population uving m terrible poverty and nearly no one m between sayer described some stark ironies which arose from the economic situ ation m kenya there are no jobs m east nairobi no money to be had yet billboards selling western products line the streets he said kenya is a nation rich m natural resources and sayer believes the vast poverty is a result of political rather than primarily economic problems he focused on the administration of president daniel moi and on a constitutional system that overwhelmingly favors the party m power sayer concluded that foreign aid from wealthy nations the world bank and the b w photo by danielle frikker jason benkoski 98 discusses his trip to germany at the international lyceum see fences page 8 see lyceum page 5 raoj j1 the wrestling team sketch comedians new treatments for places second m the entertain at the ulrich male-pattern baldness yj mm eiwa tournament student center have become women blink nearly see page 20 see page 7 available see page 9 twice as often as men x el k mmmmm sports 14-20 news 1-8 science 9-11 fcjpvtw rmma trigo feature 16 russian studies 3 science briefs 11 klvlil golf preview 17 cognitive science 4 p _ m ii ____ i i _.• *_ _» source deb and jen's land o m • v men s lacrosse 20 writing series 6 useless facts webpage