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Thursday, Feb. 9, 2012 Volume 1, Issue 4

874 The Color Purple Musical: Timeless in message, timely arrival in Oxford

Photo Essay: The “other” Oxford

UM film makers featured in Oxford Film Festival

Making Movies

the Ole Miss

way

Taking‘oFF’

wiTH

Ole MissFiLMs

JARED BURLESON | The Daily Mississippian

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I hate myself.Not always, mind you. But

most certainly right now. I just returned from an establishment, which, for the owners’ and my well being, will remain anony-mous. There I ate a dozen hot wings, downed a substantial amount of beer and then fin-ished with some barbecue na-chos. I am a junk food junkie. I am a strumpet of strudel. A

vamp for Velveeta. Hello, my name is Andy Paul and I am a food floozy.

I didn’t intend for this to hap-pen. I come from a well-adjust-ed, fairly healthy family. But I have strayed from the path. I’ve tried over the past year to eat better, exercise more; the whole shebang. I often think my repre-hensible past is behind me.

But then my dark moments resurface once again. My re-lapses, if you will. Suddenly, out of nowhere, after days of eat-ing correctly, my body demands a Whopper. And fries. And a large Coke. And more fries. And probably a Dr. Pepper to wash the whole thing down (I don’t want to get indigestion,

after all). After that, I spend hours groaning in my bed with the lights off, wondering how I allow myself to be debased so thoroughly. Then I go out and do it again for dessert.

Why am I doomed to so low and depraved a state? Somehow through all this, my metabo-lism is about as fast as Michael Phelps riding a very svelte, well-trained cheetah. My eating habits are not discernible just by looking at me. If one were to guess my actual background based on body type, I’m pretty sure the most popular response would be “Chimney Sweep.” But I will not be blessed for long, I know. Sooner or later, my body will pay for its sins. Its

fatty, fatty sins. And I’ll have no one to blame but myself.

But wait! This is America. Land of choice, of freedom, of opportunity! Land of guilt-less living! Surely I can pass my responsibilities on to a vaguely convincing and easily manipu-lated scapegoat!

So, my readers, it is not my fault for my wicked, finger-lick-ing ways. It’s the American life-style that is to blame! Yes, you heard right. I was just minding my own business in my living room, eating a healthy, deli-cious carrot when the epilepsy-inducing McDonald’s ads burst onto my television screen. They suggested — nay, they demand-ed — I throw that carrot in the

trash and drive the two blocks down my street to buy a Big Mac. They made sure I used the gas-guzzling SUV, too. And when I got there, oh, the horror! They forced me to take eight of their Happy Meal toys out into the parking lot and set fire to the lot of them, ensuring the CFCs were properly absorbed into the atmosphere.

You see?! It’s not my fault! The American fast food way of liv-ing is to blame, with its flashing lights and cheap plastic toys and pink goo, which congeals into double quarter pounders. How can one resist such tempting im-ages? Now, if you’ll excuse me, I need to take a shower. All this typing has made me sweat.

BY ANDY PAULdocgillis@gmail.com

The Weekly Top Zen: Food Floozy

“Going green” is a trend that is quickly gaining popularity. But what does “going green” mean?

Well, it includes life practices and actions that are sustainable and earth friendly. For example, instead of throwing away that plastic water bottle every day, you buy and reuse a sustainable water bottle.

When most of us enter college, we either have no knowledge of sustainable, green practices or we lose the care and discipline it takes. Sometimes students living in a residence hall find it more difficult to go green. However, I’m here to tell you that no mat-ter where you’re living in Oxford, there are sustainable practices you can use in your daily life.

Recycling is one of the easi-est things we can do to go green. Now, I’m not saying that you should recycle everything; that gets a little complicated and dif-ficult. Start out by separating your paper, aluminum cans and plastic. If you’re like me, news-

papers and graded papers (that I really don’t care to keep) start adding up. Most residence halls on this campus have recycling bins in the garbage areas. If you don’t live in a residence hall, save up your papers, plastic and alu-minum cans, and drive over to the recycling headquarters right off Molly Barr. I tend to save mine up and deliver them once a month. Oftentimes, I recycle with my friends, which makes it a little more fun.

Now, my next suggestion isn’t necessarily the easiest for some: try to eat meals without meat at least once a week. Some meat-lovers may be asking, “What

does that have to do with going green?” Yes, abstaining from meat for a day has nothing to do with recycling, but it has ev-erything to do with conservation. Meat processing involves the use of thousands of gallons of water. Abstaining from meat is a prac-tice to conserve water; the world’s population is wastefully using wa-ter, and every action must be put in place to conserve what water we can.

Lastly, as I mentioned earlier, consider buying a reusable water bottle. Stainless steel is one of the best products to buy, as it degrades very slowly. If you do buy plastic, make sure it’s BPA-free. In case

you don’t know, plastics, when heated, tend to emit chemicals, or BPAs, but if it’s BPA-free, you don’t have to worry about this.

In America, and in this part of Mississippi, we are blessed with clean, pure tap water. Why not reuse a water bottle every day? Instead of paying $1.25 for water every day, buy a $10 bottle and refill it at your house or in the hydration station in the Student Union. You’ll see your money back in less than a month!

These are just a few sugges-tions that will make our lives more earth-friendly and sustain-able and also save us some mon-ey. Of course, there are many other things that we can do, but start out slowly and gradually in-corporate more sustainable prac-tices. Remember, it is possible to be sustainable, no matter where you are in life.

Ole Miss, let’s go green

BY ADAM BLACKWELLablackwe@olemiss.edu

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Soon after the alternates have been named, one con-testant gets a faint smile from over the shoulder of one of her friends also participating in the Miss University pageant.

She knows she has done pretty well because she already has two preliminaries, Best Interview and Best Evening Gown, but at this point, any of the remaining girls on stage could win.

The announcer’s voice comes out of the speakers in the Ford Center, and Kayla Snow’s life changes forever.

But at the moment, she thinks she has lost her hear-ing. The crowd is standing and clapping their hands.

There is an uproar of voices cheering for the newly crowned Miss University, but Snow is at a loss.

“People ask me how it felt, and I just tell them, ‘I didn’t know how to feel,’” she said. “I just felt shocked, really, I just felt so shocked. Every-thing happened so quickly that I wish I could go back to that moment and watch it replay

over and over.”The 21-year-old biochem-

istry major is applying to pharmacy school and plans to further her education after graduation in May, but she’s had her eye on the Miss Mis-sissippi title since her first pag-eant when she was 15 years old. After competing in the Miss Mississippi Outstanding Teen program, Snow learned about the Miss Mississippi Pageant and set her sights on the prize.

“One of the questions that they asked me was, ‘What would I tell somebody about the America program?’ and I told them that it’s the best thing that has ever happened to me,” Snow said. “I mean, it helped me realize that I can be this young woman with dreams and aspirations, but I can also earn scholarship money for school as well.”

Growing up in Okolona, Snow said she saw firsthand the effects of volunteering and that is why she chose “Kids Can, Too!” as her platform to promote. The organiza-tion teaches children how to get started volunteering at an early age.

Snow wrote a book called “Karli Can, Too!” and reads it in schools to relate better to children concerning her plat-form.

The story is about a young girl, Karli, who figures out that she can help others even when everyone else tells her she is too little.

“Before I read my book, I ask them, ‘Has anyone ever told them that they are too small to do something?’ and of course they all raise their hands,” Snow said. “So they can relate with the character,

Karli, in that aspect and hope-fully realize that they can be helpful to others.”

Not only does Snow have the opportunity to make children aware of volunteering, but she also intends to emphasize it on the University of Mississippi campus.

She hopes to have a part in The Big Event and other vol-unteer opportunities for stu-dents.

This year was Snow’s second time to hit the Miss University stage, and it will also be her second attempt at the Miss

Mississippi title. Last year, as Miss Mid-South, she went to Vicksburg and was able to gain experience, which Snow said she believes only made her a better contestant.

Snow said she feels honored to be chosen to represent the student body at the Miss Mis-sissippi competition in July and looks forward to the process.

“It’s just self-improvement, wanting to represent your state, but at the same time becom-ing a better person all while earning scholarship money for school,” she said.

Get to know this year’s Miss University, Kayla Snow

BY ELLIE TURNEReeturne1@olemiss.edu

Last song played on your ipod? “We Found” Love by Rihanna

Favorite Exercise Routine? Any ab workouts. They make me feel

strong. Celebrity role model?

Bethany Hamilton from Soul Surfer Dream guy?

Will Smith Last risk you took?

Leaving late to go to class. Parking is always risky.

Most embarrassing moment? During my high school band camp, my director called me out at rehearsal for

being late. Favorite sport?

Basketball, but just to watch, not play. Make-up or all-natural to class? Always wear a little make-up. You never

know who you are going to see. Favorite guilty pleasure?

Kazoozles candy

Fun Facts About Kayla Snow

PHILLIP WALLER | The Daily Mississippian

Kayla Snow wearing her evening gown at the Miss University pageant.

MALLORY SIMERVILLElifestyles editor

CAIN MADDENeditor-in-chief

EMILY ROLAND copy chief

If you would like to submit work or inform us of upcoming events, contact us at thedmfeatures@gmail.com

KELSEY DOCKERYdesign editor

LAUREN SMITHmanaging editor

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In Fall 2010, theater majors Jordan Berger and Houston Settle co-wrote and submitted the winning script in the first annual UM Cinema Compe-tition.

That winning script, a 23-minute short film titled “The Ninth Floor,” was subsequently shot in Spring 2011.

The film will be featured this Satur-day as part of the 2012 Oxford Film Festival.

Together, Berger and Settle co-wrote the “Ninth Floor” script and as-sembled the cast. Additionally, Berger directed the film and Settle played the role of Alex Embers.

Embers, the film’s protagonist, is a young man who struggles to find a purpose in his reality, which he per-ceives as largely meaningless. He is particularly unsettled with the lifestyle he feels is being pressed on him, espe-cially by his overbearing girlfriend.

But Embers finds solace, temporary as it may be, in his dreams. In a recur-ring vision, he finds himself roman-tically entangled with an imaginary

figure named Goldaline, a Jewish girl living in Holland during World War II and German occupation in the year 1945.

“Goldaline symbolizes freedom,” Berger elaborated. “For Alex, she is freedom from his meaningless, shelled life, and he is able to experience emo-tional freedom with her. And because he is trying to save her from the tor-ment of her situation, there is a mean-ing and purpose to his dreams — something not found in his reality.”

Ember’s character is “loosely based off Neutral Milk Hotel front-man Jeff Mangum and dreams he had of a girl in the 1940s,” according to Settle.

For Mangum, those dreams would eventually be translated into his re-nowned 1998 album “In the Aero-plane Over the Sea,” a work cited heavily by Berger and Settle as a large influence for “The Ninth Floor.”

The music from (‘In the Aeroplane Over the Sea’) is so personal to both of us,” Berger said. “It created an emotion that we wanted to translate into film. ‘The Ninth Floor’ is defi-nitely a narrative, but we wanted it

Ole Miss professor and students contestants in OFF 2012

Oxford Film Festival

BY ANDREW DICKSONaddickso@olemiss.edu

In the background, the sound of chil-dren playing drowns out director Alan Arriveé’s voice.

“My daughter’s friends are over, and we just got a new puppy,” he said. “I guess now is as good of time as any to talk.”

Arriveé is a straight shooter. His words come out crisp and clear. He speaks with no accent and fills a conversation on film with all the technical jargon that comes with being in the filmmaking industry for years. One gets the feeling that he was worked for those words.

Arriveé is relatively new to Oxford. He started teaching at the University of Mis-sissippi in the fall of 2010 as the assistant professor of cinema in the theater depart-ment, as well as cinema director for the university.

He has played a hand in kickstarting the film program in the theater depart-ment. Just last year, Arriveé started the now-annual Evening of Cinema, which features work made entirely by students to be shown on the screen. Coincidently, the film minor was approved in the fall of 2010, the same semester Arriveé arrived at Ole Miss.

The short film he directed, “Man at the Door,” is entered in the narrative short category at this year’s Oxford Film Festival. The story is set in Chicago and is an allegory for immigration between Mexico and the United States. “Man at the Door” may be fiction, but the subject matter is all too real to Arriveé.

“I was drawing from experience in the construction industry in Los Angeles and Chicago while supporting my art,” he said. “The film is based on autobiograph-ical experience with Hispanic workers who were illegal immigrants in the con-struction and meat packing industry.”

Arriveé has been working on the proj-ect for years with the help of a grant from Northwestern University, his alma mater, and now at Ole Miss, Arriveé’s project is complete.

For him, that means not going back to the editing room after the festival circuit.

“All films, if you allow yourself, are potentially never finished,” Arriveé said. “Some directors, they tweak their films in every festival. Considering (the) amount of time it took to complete, it’s done and I am moving on.”

He said this 30-minute short will be dif-

“The Ninth Floor,” which is to be presented at 2012 Oxford Film Festival, was created by Ole Miss students

PHOTOS BY JARED BURLESON | The Daily Mississippian

TOP: Jordan Berger BOTTOM: Houston Settle

Ole Miss professor aids students in film making as well as creating his own film, “Man at the Door”

BY ROSS CABELLrsscabell@gmail.com

JARED BURLESON | The Daily MississippianAlan Arriveé

See STUDENTS, PAGE 6 See PROFESSOR, PAGE 6

This weekend kicks off the annual Oxford Film Festival.

“After the success of last year’s first community film (‘The Hanging of Big Todd Wade’), we are opening this year’s festival with our own film, which no other festival does,” Molly Fergusson, executive director, said.

On Thursday night at The Lyric, “The Show Must Go On” will begin the festival. The film will play

four more times throughout the weekend.“We are excited about the films that will pre-

miere with us, including the feature ‘Perfection,’ which will make its world premiere here,” Fergus-son said.

The films are placed in seven different categories: Narrative Feature, Documentary Feature, Animat-ed Short, Documentary Short, Experimental Short, Mississippi Music Videos and Narrative Short.

Each category receives a “Spirit of the Hoka” award, named for Ron Shapiro’s legendary inde-

pendent movie theater that ran in Oxford from the late 1970s until the late 1990s. The theater was named for the Chickasaw princess whose name appeared on the deed for the original city of Ox-ford, Fergusson said.

This year the film festival will join forces with the Oxford Music Festival, with films at Malco and lo-cal music on the Square until closing.

For a full schedule, ticket information and an interview series with this year’s filmmakers, visit oxfordfilmfest.com.

Film Festival Details:

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Oxford Music Festival

Hometown heroes Young Buf-falo are set to serve double duty as part of the Oxford Musical Festival tonight, taking the stage as part of a special edition of the Thacker Mountain Radio Show.

The band should be famil-iar with patrons of the festival from performing in it in previous years, though this is the group’s first time headlining.

“We did it the first time they

did it in 2008 with our high school band,” guitarist, bassist and vocalist Jim Barrett said. “It was pretty bad, but it was fun.”

The band plans on doing a rare acoustic performance for the Thacker Mountain Radio Show and doing a full electric show later for their headlining spot.

They actually kicked off the festival in its first iteration and have been playing at various times ever since.

“It’s a fun thing,” guitarist,

bassist and vocalist Ben Yar-brough said. “They just kind of asked us to do it this year. It’s been fun the past few times we’ve done it, and it’s always neat (to play at The Lyric).”

The band will bring its full four-piece band, featuring Will Eubanks on keyboards and per-cussion and Len Clark on drums, a change from the three-piece with which the band had been working.

“I think for the first two years we were very poppy, but it’s hard to sound really hard when you don’t have a bassist or when the bassist is playing keys,” Barrett said.

The band’s nontraditional, multi-instrumentalist lineup reflects its untraditional rock sound, as poppy, hooky vocals

and big, reverbed guitars meet odd rhythms and, in Yarbrough’s words, “lots of drums.”

“We didn’t want to (have a straight 4/4 beat),” Barrett said. “F--- that. It’s done. It’s what we want to hear and what we’d want to listen to.”

Yarbrough and Barrett switch off on instruments and vocals depending on the song, resulting in two distinct, yet similar, sets of songs. The band sings songs about the banality of city life, driving to nowhere out of sheer boredom and having a voice in the world.

“When we started, we didn’t necessarily want to have one lead singer,” Yarbrough said. “We all got together, and everyone al-ready had their own songs writ-ten, and we were each other’s

backing band. We’re starting to write together and become more cohesive with our songs. Plus, it’s just fun to switch instruments in the show.”

Yarbrough cites bands as di-verse as Pavement, Born Ruffi-ans, M83 and Neutral Milk Ho-tel as influences, and the band fits in well with bands like Ani-mal Collective and Deerhunter. Life experience and films have also impacted the band.

“Living out in the country has been a big influence to me,” he said. “I’ve been in Oxford for 20 years, but I’ve only lived here for one year. Being a country boy has been a big influence.”

The band was recently named a Showcasing Artist at SXSW 2012, though Barrett still re-mains humble.

“Hype is such a weird term,” he said. “We’re definitely out there and doing these sessions, but you never see where they go until a year later when you realize there’s a video and thousands of people have watched it. If people like it, they like it; if people ig-nore it, they’ll ignore it.”

The Oxford Music Festival kicks off at 6 p.m. with Thacker Mountain Radio, and Young Buffalo plays again that night at 11:45 p.m. Both events are covered under the one-day pass, which costs $10 or the three-day pass, which costs $25.

Thacker Mountain Radio ft. Young Buffalo,

Affrissippi, The Yalobushwackers

@ The Lyric, 6 p.m.

Oxford Film Festival Community Film @ The Lyric 7 p.m.

Effie Burt @ The Lyric 8:30 p.m.

Jimmy Phillips and the Ruminators

@ The Lyric 9:30 p.m.

The Eric Deaton Trio@ The Lyric 10:30 p.m.

Young Buffalo @ The Lyric11:45 p.m.

10 11Music FestivalWeekend Bound in Oxford Town

THURSDAY FRIDAY SATURDAY9

If you would like to inform us of upcoming events. Contact us at thedmfeatures@gmail.com

12SUNDAY

Spears Brothers @ Malco VIP Tent,

2 p.m.

David Shirley @ Malco VIP Tent

3 p.m.

Child Star @ The Lyric 8:30 p.m.

Machine Gun Kelley and the G-Men @ Proud Larry’s

8:30 p.m.

Silas Reed and Da’ Books

@ The Lyric 9:30 p.m.

The Minor Adjustments @ Proud Larry’s 9:30 p.m.

DJ D-Wade @The Lyric 10:30 p.m.

The Congress @ Proud Larry’s 10:30

p.m.

Break-Beat Pre Show @ The Lyric 11:00 p.m.

Break-Beat ft. DJ Brendan Rich and

Tim Burkhead@ The Lyric 11:45 p.m.

Shooting Out The Lights

@ Proud Larry’s 11:45 p.m.

Gin Gin and Eric Carlton@ Malco VIP Tent, 2 p.m.

Love Cannon @ Malco VIP Tent 3 p.m.

The Bill Perry Trio@ Proud Larry’s 8 p.m.

Tate Moore and the Cosmic Door

@ The Lyric 8:30 p.m.

Rocket 88@ Proud Larry’s 8:45 p.m.

Jay Lang and the Devil’s Due

@ The Lyric 9:45 p.m.

Tyler Keith and the Apostles

@ Proud Larry’s 9:45 p.m.

Jimbo Mathus and the Tri-State Coalition@ The Lyric 11 p.m.

Dead Gaze@ Proud Larry’s 11 p.m.

Chauncey and the Beast @ Malco VIP Tent 2 p.m.

Moon Pie Curtis@ Malco VIP Tent 3 p.m.

Young Buffalo to headline first night of Oxford Music Festival

BY ZACH MITCHELLzdmitchell93@yahoo.com

PHOTO COURTESY YOUNG BUFFALO

PHOTOS COURTESY YOUNG BUFFALO

LEFT: Jim Barrett RIGHT: Ben Yarbrough

LEFT: Jim Barrett RIGHT:Ben Yarbrough

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to be completed and returned (with a transcript)before the deadline of FEBRUARY 16, 2012

Spring 2012

Applications for 2012-2013 Editor in Chief of The Daily Mississippian AvailablePick up an application at the Student Media Center, 201 Bishop Hall. Previous DM

experience required.

Completed applications are due February 22, 2012

to be about the images and let people form their own idea of this emotion we get from the music.”

Though they have known each other since high school, the two had, until 2010, worked together creatively only in a limited capacity.

“That changed when (Alan) Ariveé took over as a cinema teacher and cinema director,” the duo said of their start in writing screenplays.

Ariveé has helped orches-trate the first two UM Cinema Competitions, had a hand in starting the cinema minor on campus and remains very pro-active.

“He initiated all of this,” Settle said.

“He’s extremely ambitious with getting things done — get-ting students making films.”

While the cash prize for win-ning the UM Cinema Compe-tition helped Berger and Settle shoot “The Ninth Floor,” the two also give credit to the the-atre department.

“They are especially recep-tive to student filmmakers,” they said.

“Without the help of the people in the department and the equipment available to us, we couldn’t have done it.”

“The Ninth Floor” will be played at Malco Studio Cin-ema at 2 p.m. on Saturday.

The pair also has a docu-mentary in the festival explor-ing the underground rap cul-ture in Oxford titled “Back in Oxford,” which is scheduled to air at 10 a.m. on Saturday, also on Screen 1 at Malco.

STUDENT, continued from page 4

ferent than the last one he worked on, “Silent Radio,” which won several awards, including Best Foreign Film and Best Cinema-tography at the 2007 European Independent Film Festival.

Arriveé, who shot “Man at the Door” with a Super 16 camera and no tripod at the behest of his cinematographer and collabora-tor Thomas Castillo, said he took a different approach to filming this time around.

“‘Silent Radio’ was about changing the form of what peo-ple expect,” her said. “‘Man at the Door’ is more about socio-political content. In this film, I am drawing from the style of (the) 1970s, which had more of a raw look that was more objective. It feels more like a document but not like a docu-drama.”

To put the differences into perspective, there were about 15 crew members on the set daily for “Silent Radio.” “Man at the Door” had only two to five crew members per day.

Arriveé is no stranger to film festivals, so when he said the Ox-ford Film Festival has something

to offer, he meant it. Arriveé, who has served on the jury of many European festivals, in most cases as the only American, was on the small jury for Mississippi films at 2011’s festival.

He said this year, the direc-tors took an unorthodox way of choosing the films to feature in the festival

“In contrast with many other festivals, the films submitted have been watched by the directors in charge,” Arriveé said. “With only one year’s experience with the festival, I was surprised to see how large and diverse it was. It was extremely well attended.”

In this past year’s Oxford Film Festival, like most other festivals, the films were screened by in-terns, who then made decisions about which films were entered. The directors of the festival then looked at the films that were left.

This year’s festival experience will be a bit different for Arriveé. Not only will he be absent from the jury this year, but he also will be competing in the same cat-egory as student filmmakers Jor-dan Berger and Houston Settle, to whom he gave some hands-off advising about their film “The Ninth Floor.”

“I do consider Houston and

Jordan as filmmakers, not just students,” Arriveé said. “They have a willingness to go out on a limb, not only with their equip-ment, but also their willingness to take trips to scout locations. They are acting like filmmakers outside of academia.”

Arriveé said he was impressed with the work the students ac-complished.

“The cinematography has a far higher quality than the ma-jority of independent European films entered in festivals,” he said. “There is reason it is in the film fest.”

Arriveé stressed the impor-tance of understanding that film-making is a collaborative project, even on student films.

“Britt Allen was the cinema-tographer, and the amount of planning Britt put in the film de-serves a huge amount of credit,” he said. “And there are others too.”

Arriveé, who will continue to have his work cut out for him with the new film minor program at the university, already has plans for his next short to be set in the Texas hill country.

He said it will be his last short before starting on a feature-length project.

PROFESSOR, continued from page 4

JARED BURLESON | The Daily Mississippian

Student Jordan Berger, professor Alan Arriveé and student Houston Settle

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Photo Essay by Peyton Thigpen

Photo Essay: The “other” Oxford When Oxford is mentioned in conver-sations, the first thoughts are often of crowds of people, dressed to the nines, in the Grove on a Saturday in the fall or of the nightlife on the Square. While these are great things Oxford offers, they are not the only aspects of the small town that make it what we love. These photographs illustrate neither of these facets of our little town. They portray a group that is altogether countercultural in its own sense. These black and white film photographs taken at the Oxford Skate Park aim to showcase a part of the community that would otherwise go unnoticed and would be fine with leav-ing it that way.

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Phi Mu Congratulates our sister, Kimbrely Dandridge,

on being selected to represent Ole Miss and the entire Greek Community this April in Washington, D.C. Kim was 1 of 2 students in the entire state

to be selected to attend the Annual Greek Congressional Visit! Congrats Kim! We Love You!

In the present age of shorthand-ed email and can’t-get-there-fast-enough text messages, personal letters can be true treasures of genuinely thoughtful expression. They can connect us with our past by reminding us that essential human communication survives all time as the common thread of our unique existence.

Set in rural Georgia in the early 20th century, Alice Walker’s Pu-litzer Prize-winning 1982 novel, “The Color Purple,” does just that, as it consists entirely of hon-est, dialect-enriched letters to and from the main character Celie and her sister Nettie. In this epis-tolary form, the reader experi-ences firsthand Celie’s learning, in the face of great hardship, to piece together the elements of her life with something that she dis-covers is extraordinarily powerful: her voice.

As a Broadway production that debuted in 2005, the musical “The Color Purple” allows Celie to sing her already-lyrical expres-sions that resound in the hearts of readers and now in those of audi-ence members too. Produced by Scott Sanders, with stage writing by Pulitzer Prize winner Marsha Norman and under the direction of Garry Griffin, the show itself

earned several Tony Award nom-inations in 2006 — its first year of eligibility.

As a part of the Ford Center’s Ford Series, which brings Broad-way production to Oxford annu-ally, and the celebration of Black History Month, “The Color Pur-ple” will be performed Sunday, Feb. 12 at 3 p.m.

“The fact that it’s Black History Month puts a spot on this particu-lar African American-based show, giving it more poignancy, even in the sense that people may not have decided to go out and see a show that weekend, but it’s Black History Month, (so) then they see the show and they hear the mes-sage,” Edward Smith, who plays “Mister,” said.

The communication of this message is important to the Ford Center, Kate Meacham, assistant director of marketing, said.

“We try to (offer performances) that hopefully allow our audiences to get a somewhat deeper experi-ence out of them,” she said.

“The Color Purple” actors con-firm that the show is set to deliver that “deeper experience.”

“You go to this show, and you are thrilled, just like all the other shows, and you are entertained, and you laugh, and you cry, but more than any other show, the message sticks with you,” Smith said.

In describing how Griffin sought to create this experience specifically for “The Color Pur-ple,” Ware said he initially “takes away the spectacle of it all and really focuses on bringing it down and making it real — it’s about the basic human interaction.”

Ware said she believes the show holds the message that “love is an all-encompassing thing; we can project love on other people and they can project love on us, but it has to start from within you, and you have to love yourself first be-fore any of that.”

Smith, who plays the man to

whom Celie is forced to be mar-ried to, said, “Celie is the vehicle; it uses the male figures to be the oppressors. Maybe that’s how it was at the time.”

The cast members haven’t just perceived these messages them-selves, they’ve successfully com-municated them to audiences nationwide.

“A lot of people have experi-enced (oppression),” Smith said. “We get audience members who lived through that period. But then the healing (of the show) comes in when they realize: We overcame it. I would hope that

when they see this play, they will see how — even if this is to them a ‘period piece’ — the main story still is a story that’s universal: the power of the human spirit to overcome all forms of oppression and rise above them and be vic-torious.”

From its setting in the early 20th century to its release as a novel in the 1980s and its debut on Broad-way in the dawn of this millen-nium, the play’s unique magic of communication with its audience survives as a timeless gift that Ox-ford will receive at the Ford Cen-ter this month.

The Color Purple Musical: Timeless in message, timely arrival in Oxford

BY TERESA HENDRIXtehendri@olemiss.edu

PHOTO COURTESY THE COLOR PURPLE