To the Editor:
One thing made painfully clear by Sen. John Kerry’s rally this past weekend is that the UM College Democrats have thoroughly outworked and outdone their Republican counterparts. Not only did the Dems score a major coup by getting Kerry to come to campus, but they have also landed other influential speakers over the past year, including Janet Reno.
Also, they have done an excellent job of broadcasting their message. One can barely walk 100 feet on this campus without encountering some type of sign or banner sponsored by the UM Dems. Repugnant as those views may be to some, you can’t help but admire the group’s organization and effort.
The College Republicans, on the other hand, have been all but invisible. They have done a terrible job of disseminating the President and party’s agenda and have failed to land any speakers of consequence. So far, their biggest accomplishment has been to sponsor a student body straw poll where they did such a poor job of mobilizing their base that their candidate actually lost – by 20 percent!
In short, they are failing the President’s cause. As a Republican and a strong supporter of President Bush, I find this quite disheartening and can only hope that the utter inefficiency and ineptitude of the UM College Republicans is not indicative of the Bush campaign and RNC come November.
Sincerely,
Craig M. Perrotta
To the Editor:
Ms. Acosta’s review of QuantUM’s West Side Story does the show and its cast a disservice. It passes itself off as a critique of the show, when what she saw on Wednesday, April 14, was anything but the finished product.
Due to Passover, the cast was not able to use the Hillel facility until two days before opening night. We had been rehearsing in the Hecht theatre department, not the stage built by our amazing crew. On Tuesday, we arrived for the first time to see a beautifully built stage and were excited to finally be able to put the show together. Unfortunately, much of our orchestra was missing due to a concert.
On Wednesday, our last dress rehearsal, we were finally able to rehearse with the full orchestra for the first time. Unfortunately, due to the shortcomings of the facility, we weren’t able to have the orchestra within hearing distance; they were playing upstairs through monitors on stage. That first night – remember, that dress rehearsal night – the cast was still getting used to hearing a somewhat canned orchestra. It wasn’t until opening night – Thursday – that we could even hear all of our music cues. If Ms. Acosta had been a dancer or sane or both, she would have recognized this hardship.
The rest of the invitees in the audience Wednesday night recognized it for what it was billed as: a preview. We didn’t sell tickets for a reason. It was to show a selected audience what we were working on, not the finished product. Too bad Deb decided to rip us a new one.
Sincerely,
A West Side Story cast member
Editor’s note: The Hurricane had received four complimentary passes from QuantUM to attend the aforementioned performance.