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. .3, 'u-' 'r,v, f“ . "C" u 2: _ . ', ls' _ /"rliv'4'"'j"C'1"" v; " 'rir C ,. '.. ', l 3; _ , . g '* ve', V 'i' tl, rite rt 'lllt 'lllll fl m 'ttlb' In "tti- V, t . v a); C - .v T ", f ,", , ' ,us, T <1 " ti ." _ . A criiirc).'pr', 'fp'"' T .. PAGE Jo __, WATERLOO CHRONICLE. WEDNESDAY, APRIL t, UN" Amateur and profes- sional Canadian per- formers. 18 years of age and over. are invited to participate in the 1981 national ”du Maurier Search for Stars". The du Mauier Council for the Performing Arts has announced that audi- tions will be conducted this fall in seven Cana- dian cities in the fifth annual nationwide talent hunt. All performing artists. in either the classical or contemporary fields of dance, music. and thea- tre, are encouraged to write for full details to: "du Maurier Search for Stars," Post Office Box 27, 180 Dundas Street. The makers of The Omen trilogy. now complete with the recent re- lease of The Final Conflict, have found in Scripture a source for hor- ror and violence, The original 1976 picture offered a skillfully fashioned and unnerv- ing tale about the birth of the Anti- Christ. the son of Satan delivered by a Jackal and raised by an Améri- can diplomat's family. Despite a certain inevitable predictability in plot development and some hack- neyed scene-setting. The Omen was a well-acted and suspenseful shocker. A tin of movie-makers have looked to the Bible for stories of inspiration and sextqcle H Damien-Omen II. which e out in 1978. suffered the {21ml most sequels. Relying on the re- turn trade of Omen Viewers. it pro- vided little more than a succession of brutal deaths engineering in the aid of. or by, the now-adolescent Satan Junior, Totally predictable and routinely performed, it didn't augur well for continuing the saga, The Final Conflict. while lacking anything like the dramatic for, cefulness and suspenseful origina- lity of The Omen. at least is a more interesting movie than its 1978 pre- decessor. In part, this is probably due to the characterization of the adult Anti-Christ - known by his adopted name of Damien Thorne - provided by New Zealand actor Sam Neill. Damien. at this stage in his early 30s, is both a demonic and charis- matic figure, a duality that Neill projects with both assurance and effective subtlety. The story concept. of Safe?“ sway on Earth being threaten by the Second Coming, could have been developed along more comp- elling lines than has been done for this picture. and it then might have Horror found in Scriptures ay VI_CTOR STANTON STARS WANTED A Each performer ac- cepted for live audition will be given a fixed ap- pointment date and time in the audition city of his or her choice Par- ticipants will be allotted up to ten minutes to per- form for the adjudicat- ing panel. Completed application forms must be received by not later than Sep- tember ll, 1981. Live au- ditions will be conducted from September let through October 23rd in Toronto. Halifax, Van- couver. Calgary. Regina. Winnipeg. and Montreal. West, Toronto. Ontario MM; 126. From the many stood up much better In com- parisons with The Omy: _ .. . By putting the son-of-the-devil in constant peril of assassination. while he himself is plotting the death of the infant Saviour. script writer Andrew Birkin set up a si. tuation that, as well. might have been better exploited for much more terror and suspense than director Graham Baker has sue ceeded in achieving. The Final Conflict also pits Da- mien against a couple of foils __ the head of a monastery who has the wherewithall to bring about Da- mien's demise and a female jour- nalist with whom Damien has a ro- mantic relationship __ with the po- tential for stronger character eonfliet and development than is ever actually realized within the film. Rossano Brazzi as the avenging monk, Lisa Harrow as the jouma- list, Don Gordon as Damien's num- ber-one disciple and Mason Adams briefly seen as a U.S. president contribute convincing charac- terizations. But, due to the writing and directorial shortcomings, they are substantially one-dimensional ones. Apart from an initial gory sui- cutie. which enables Damien to be- come the American ambassador to Britain. the violence in the movie is relatively subdued. There is also little suspense leading up to the acts of violence, and the acts them- selves provide little in the way of shocks. One can't help wondering if a sin- gle tightly scripted picture span- ning the entire Armageddon pro- phecy contained in the New Tes- tament's Book of Revelations might not have provided a much more gripping and exciting movie- going experience than the piece- meal approach of this trilogy. hundreds of performers to be auditioned across Canada. eighteen semi- finalists will be chosen to be awarded $2,000 cash bursaries from The du Maurier Council for the Performing Arts. In addition. each will be featured in one of three one-hour prime-time CBC network television specials to be aired early in l982. From the semi- finalists. six winners will be chosen to receive further du Maurier Council bursaries of 85.000 each, and addi- tional television ex- posure on a fourth CBC TV network "Search for Stars" special. In the final chapter of the terrifying "Omen" trilogy Sam Neill stars as Damien Thorn. the Antichrist, grown to adulthood to become adviser to the President of the United States. The newer of evil is no longer in the hands of a child. Cathy Williams. president of the local arts coun- cil. said in an interview Thursday that she is excited about upcoming hearings where those concerned about fundamental problems within Canada's arts industry will submit their concerns and suggestions to the Federal Culture Policy Review Committee. Public hearings for Ontario are slated to run June 1-5 at Trinity College in Toronto, and Williams be- lieves there should be a substantial turnout because of a growing sense of urgency among both public and private interests in the arts in Canada. The Waterloo Regional Arts Council has released a brief which lists its concerns to be submitted to the policy review committee. While it urges the govern- ment to initiate certain action in new directions. Williams insists that "the submission is not a poli- tical statement, but only suggestions the govern- ment could be interested in." by Dwight Harp The present stateol the arts i ustry in Canada is prompting cultural groups across the country to bring their concerns before the federal government. And the Waterloo Regional Arts Council is no excep- tion. "rm really curious to see what will precipitate in the hearings and to see how the review committee will react, but I believe certain urgent aspects will come up again and again." Williams said. Williams said the council will stress funding of arts groups and activities. She said she appreciates that amateur arts are supported and thinks this should be continued, but through provincial resour- Arts council Will present brief to feds It suggests one method of encouraging producers could be in the form of a starter loan to enable a production to be initiated, since a major problem for producers lies in lack of capital. Above all, the Waterloo Regional Arts Council be- lieves that Canada has talent, and that its arts in- dustry should not be suffering with some of its cur- rent difficulties. And Cathy Williams will be looking forward to seeing that belief supported at the hear- ings in June. “I feel that federal funding should be for profes- sional arts organizations and activities only." Wil- liams explains. "and that the provinces should be en- couraged to develop and expand access to funding for amateur arts activities. Otherwise, too much support is spread out among amateur groups and there is no real strengthening of the arts industry. If the provinces handled the amateur end of it, federal funding would be allowed to concentrate on major, professional arts activities with more impact, thus eliminating the dissipation of funds." A lack of" steady employment for artists due to the lack of producers willing to invest money and time in employing artists is another major concern of the council. Of course. the government would have to decide which projects would qualify for starter loans. "rm not quite sure how the government will conduct its evaluation. but I imagine the determining factor in the favor of a worthy project would be the degree of its national impact." Williams said. the public hearings begin in the Maritimes in April and are expected to end in Vancouver some time in July.