NEWSPAPER OF THE UNIVERSITY OF SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA
USC fab short The USC women’s basketball kept it close, but Washington used several runs to take a 79-71 win at the Lyon Center. _m
The Southern California Earthquake Center, based at USC, waa established by the federal government in 1991 to coordinate geological research relating to earthquakes.
Lights, camera, food. Tinseltown Studios' is the new entertainment-themed restaurant.
Fohnwry 1,1M4
Vol. CXXXV1, No. 11
African writer substitutes for Nobel winner
Improv comedy troupe uses professional techniques to create humorous scenes
Speech: Novelist Debo Kotun discusses literature, censorship in place of snowbound Laureate
By KIMBERLY TABA
Staff Writer
By CHRISTI SCHULER
Staff Writer
The Oxi Deprivation. A student dunks his head into a bucket of water for as long as he can hold his breath. Two other students talk about being at a Star Wars convention. The student in the water waves his hand frantically.
"I see Mark Hamill!” cries one of the Star Wars fans, then tags the student in the water, dunking his own head. The dripping wet student runs up to tbe other Star Wars fan. “Man, some guy dressed up as Chewbacca just urinated on me!" he complains. What crazy students would attempt this dangerous trick, all for laughs?
It’s Commedus Interrupt us, USCs own improvisational comedy troupe. This decade-old group currently performs at 1 p.m. Fridays in Alumni Park and has a performance scheduled for 8 p.m today in GroundZero Coffeehouse.
The troupe attracts about 100 students per show and hopes to move to a larger location.
‘We’re looking to be something huge, a staple of USC,’ said Todd Waldman, a sophomore majoring in broadcast journalism.
The troupe took a hiatus in the fall to train the five new members. The majority of the group are freshmen and sophomores who have had previous experience in acting or comedy. Most of the 40 games that the troupe performs are taken from the LA.-based comedy group Groundlings or from Comedy Sportz.
“A lot of our humor actually comes from ‘Bride of Chucky,” said Andrew Hanson, a senior majoring in theater.
One of the most popular games is
I	see Tkoator, page 13 I
Literature should always cross borders and countries, bringing lan-guages and cultures together through K - nHj art, said poet James Ragan, director BNC* JIB of the Master of Professional Writing Program, at the fifth annual William Inge Residency lecture Saturday night in Bovard Auditorium.
“Each day...we lose another	Kotun
thought,” he said, adding that most people did not acknowledge literature for its worth Writers work together to address the regression of language, the power of the artist to speak on any portion of society and the view that reading encourages the mind to reach a destination — even without intent, Ragan said.	vc* +m"> '■*
Hosted by the Master of Professional Writing Program, tbe event featured both the debut of African novelist Debo Kotun's first novel, “abflcu.’and a discussion on censorship and the role of literature in society.
Author-pJaywright Wole Soyinka, the first black writer to receive the Nobel Prize in literature, was scheduled to speak at the event However, he cancelled his appearance at the last minute because he was snowbound in Zurich, Switzerland, where he was attending the World Economic Forum Poet and playwright Paul Zindel, who won the Pulitzer Prize for drama in 1971, filled in for Soyinka after Kotun’s speech.
Named after the founding faculty member of the graduate writing program, the lecture opened with a brief speech by Ragan.
Soyinka, Nigeria’s well-known political dissident now in exile from his home country for opposing the current dictatorship there, based much of his writing on the mythology of his tribe, the Yoruba.
Kotun, who was born in Lagos, Nigeria, in 1948 and immigrated to the United States in 1971, drew from his knowledge and experience in the same beliefs of African spiritualism that appeared in Soyinka’s work.
He opened with a reading from his book, a suspense novel, during which he used intense sounds and emotions to animate his phrases — so much that a child squealed upon his last word.
When faced with a problem, most look up for a solution; some look down inside, Kotun said. Society masked the beautiful, divine children known as the
I	see Sfoahor. page 131
«-----1	Tmu
Joanna rates 1 uatiy irojan
Imaginary Mand. Marjorie Baker, an undeclared freshman, and Kirstin Q. Eggers, a sophomore majoring in theater, discuss their invisible turtle.
Professors teach course on health and communication
for only a couple of months.
‘We had no idea that the show was to become a hit,” Baer said, ‘and when it was a hit I stayed.”
Besides working on ER, Baer received his medical degree from Harvard in 1996 and is currently completing his residency in pediatrics at LA Children’s Hospital.
Peter Clarke and Susan Evans have backgrounds in social science.
“We will be studying how to persuade, how to inform, how to draw people into taking action by use of communication,’ Clarke said.
The class will also examine the appropriateness and effectiveness of health campaigns, or ‘fear appeals,' and why they work and when it is appropriate to invoke fear and when it is just a
a very popular television series,’ said Peter Clarke, professor/director of USCs Center for Health and Medical Communication. There are not that many people with that kind of background.” ‘
Baer, who has master’s degrees in sociology and education from Harvard, studied at the American Film Institute from a year before returning to Harvard in 1991 as a medical student. John Wells, executive producer of ER, sent Baer a script based on creator Michael Crichton's experience as a Harvard University medical student.
*1 could relate to a lot of what the script was about because I had just been through it,” Baer said. “I thought, ‘Gosh, it’s like my life.’”
He came back to California for the project he initially planned to work on
like ER impact the health care industry.
‘All of us get to share what our passions are,” said Susan Evans, a research scientist at USCs Institute for Health Promotion and Disease Prevention.
“The course is to talk about ways that one can learn about and actively pMinate health ta the Media,* said Neal Baer, who has been a writer and supervising producer on the NBC show ER for the past five years. 'I’m hoping that I can talk about ER and use it as an example on how health messages have been portrayed and presented, and whether or not they’ve been successful.”
Class assignments include comparing how episodes of ER, Chicago Hope and LA Doctors vary in content and accuracy.
‘Neal is a very rare blend in that he is both a physician and a writer/producer on
CtaSS: Faculty members address role of TV and advertising in perception of medical industry
>» ■* * 1 I	Jf I I 1 1 I "*d4 >» I '• I •» * 1 * •< • 1 ■>; i
scientist Institute for Health Promotion and Disease Prevention
By PENNY YU Staff Writer
Four faculty members will bring their individual areas of expertise this semester to a new course on health communication, also known as the ER class.
As part of the curriculum for the course, entitled Health Communication: Strategies and Evaluation, students will examine how media and television shows