Word: helens
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...college-level writing, co-sponsored by Mobil Corp., top honors belong to Kelly Sissom of Jones County Junior College in Ellisville, Mississippi. The first-prize winner in TIME cover design was Helen Evans of C.W. Baker High, Baldwinsville, New York, and in political cartooning, Gregory Shewchuk of Centennial High, Ellicott City, Maryland...
Unlike many of Fugard's other works, in which more prominent racial themes articulate the concerns of a generation of South Africans, The Road To Mecca revolves primarily around the friendship between Helen, an older Afrikaaner woman, and Elsa, a young English-speaking white South African. While there is a subtext of racial awareness in the form of Elsa's activism, this play is really the story of a special friendship between women as they discover the importance of living their lives as they will them to be, and learn how to take on the courage and responsibility...
...Helen (Sun) and Elsa (Poreba) have known each other for fifteen years, since Elsa was a teenager. Helen is an artist who creates animals and fantastical creatures from scraps and junk in her front yard, which have earned her the distrust and animosity of her neighbors, in addition to the love and respect of a few good friends like Elsa and the toleration of her minister, Marius Byleveld (Artie Wu). Now a schoolteacher in Capetown, Elsa has driven for ten hours in response to a desperate letter from Helen, who is trying to stop the church council from putting...
Shaky South African accents aside (they might better have been left out altogether), both Poreba and Sun give inspired performances. As Elsa, Poreba sharply vents her anger and frustration with the world with convincing exhaustion, while Helen's quiet, troubled presence spreads gradually around them in slow, careful gestures. While Poreba's strength lies in her moving, often powerful, expression, Sun's lies in her understated charm and ability to command the scene when necessary. Artie Wu, the third and final member of the cast, does a very good job with a much smaller role as the local minister, successfully...
...Helen's spiritual crisis is, in fact, the focus of the drama, although it is not the kind of spiritualism that Marius can understand. Since she was a child she has been obsessed with candles and their warm, protective light. This evocative symbol guides her eventually to her philosophy that you "should never light a candle carelessly and always make sure that you know what you are doing when you blow it out." These are not words to be taken lightly when you are unsure of or unable to do what you wish to with you own life or when...