Daily Bulletin

Campus communications melt down

While neither the weather nor the season can be blamed for the communications chaos that struck Toronto and beyond on Friday, the incident -- caused by a fire at the Bell Canada Simcoe Street central office in Toronto -- just seemed part of the over-heated system plaguing the province this month.

At UW, notices went out via email, newsgroups and news flash on UWinfo at 11:30 Friday morning that the UW network had lost most external connectivity due to the fire. That included UW's connection to the ONet network and to the rest of the Internet beyond, including browsers, off-campus newsgroups and off-campus email. Connections were maintained with organizations serviced by ONet Networking's KW node, such as Wilfrid Laurier University.

Campus connections to the outside world were restored by 3:40 Friday afternoon. The fire at the Bell office seriously injured an electrician, and the system failure also knocked out phone service and bank machines in Toronto, and as far away as Ottawa, Montreal, Halifax and Vancouver, as well as the Toronto Stock Exchange.

'Demon Barber' opens Wednesday

He is Benjamin Barker, a barber on Fleet Street who loses his family and his freedom to a lecherous judge upon being unjustly convicted of murder. When he returns, his sentence served, he assumes a new name and a new mission. As Sweeney Todd, he would have his revenge on the class of people who framed him. He would give these people, his clients, their last shave.

Sweeney's efforts are soon aided by his upstairs neighbour, the lovelorn Mrs. Lovett. As the owner of the "worst meat pie shop" in London, Mrs. Lovett was eager to get her hands on fresh meat. Sweeney's victims provided a tasty alternative.

On the occasion of the 20th anniversary of the production of Stephen Sondheim's musical adaptation of the play, Second Company serves up the Demon Barberwith a twist.

The Victorian thriller is being set in the 1940s during the London Blitz. Instead of the physical and moral decay evoked by the rise of the Industrial Revolution, a "city on fire, rats in the streets... desperate times where desperate measure must be taken," director Brent Krysa has made the musical his own with what he describes as "a setting of urgency, a setting that would match the volatility of the characters and the plot.

"The Biltz of 1940 provided us with the instability we were looking for. There are many good parallels," he adds. "During the Blitz, meat rationing caused many to seek alternatives in their culinary practices. The street urchin Toby could have easily been lost in the shuffle of hasty mothers sending their children off into the countryside for shelter. Textural images of a city on fire, burnt chapels and sailors returning and departing.

"In addition to these elements," says Krysa, "we also decided that the musical should take on a more stylized interpretation. A war time genre seemed fitting. We decided to incorporate Brechtian conventions. Our goal was to tell the story, and draw attention to the act of story telling; therefore, the audience is always aware of the presentational aspects of the story."

Sweeney Todd runs from July 21 through August 7, Wednesdays through Saturdays at 8 p.m. A special midnight performance is scheduled for July 29.

"Because this show is so rarely mounted, we have invited staff and cast from neighboring festivals to come and see our production," explains Krysa. "Midnight will facilitate their travel time here after their performances are finished. Also, we want the midnight show to have something of a Rocky Horror Picture Show appeal to it. What could be more exciting than a thriller at midnight?"

Earlier this summer, Second Company staged The Secret Garden, a musical that garnered rave reviews in the local media. This season's playbill includes Candide: In Concert (August 18 to 22), and Mozart's opera The Magic Flute, scheduled to coincide with Oktoberfest festivities.

UW is co-sponsoring the productions for the troupe, made up of twenty young actors from graduate and undergraduate programs at several universities. Among the Waterloo students are Brad Goddard, project coordinator; Chris Goddard, head carpenter; Michael Haltrecht, assistant technical director; and Trevor Martin, carpenter.

A grant of $201,000 for wages has been provided by Youth Service Canada, a Human Resources Development Canada program, and support from local sponsors helps fund other expenses.

Tickets -- $16 general, $12 students and seniors -- are available from The Centre in the Square box office at 578-1570.

Co-op employment stats for fall

Of the 3,180 co-op students scheduled to be on the fall work term, 2,081 took part in the initial round of employer interviews in June. The overall co-op employment rate for the fall work term, including students returning to previous employers and those who arranged their own jobs, is 72 per cent.

As of last week, 748 students (excluding those in architecture) still required fall work term positions. Continuous phase interviews -- which will continue through exams -- are underway for those students.

"The co-op employment situation is fairly similar to that at the same time last year," said Naese.

In architecture, 48 out of the 87 students scheduled to be on a fall 1999 work term received employment through the initial set of interviews.

"On the surface this looks like an employment rate of 55%," he said. "However, most of the remaining students did not take part in employer interviews and will not require assistance from CECS." Currently, ten architecture students still require employment for the fall 1999 work term and nine students on the Finland exchange will require employment when they return to Waterloo in mid-September.

Third Tim's in Modern Languages

Tim's new full-service kiosk, staffed by UW food services employees, will displace 16 seats in the dining room, but manager Mark Murdoch says there has been a demand for the service, and "it's rare for the dining room to be full."

Earlier this summer, food services opened an outlet for Starbucks coffee in the Bookstore at South Campus Hall. Other Tims are located in the Davis Centre and Optometry. Second Cup coffee is available at St. Jerome's University.

Barbara Elve
bmelve@uwaterloo.ca

Editor of the Daily Bulletin: Chris Redmond
Information and Public Affairs, University of Waterloo
credmond@uwaterloo.ca | (519) 888-4567 ext. 3004
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