New Century

Try to imagine Shakespeare's "Macbeth" as a cartoony soap opera staged by Monty Python on a low budget, and you'll have a pretty good idea of New Century Theater's production of Eugene Ionesco's "Macbett."This may sound like peculiar praise, but it's intended as a compliment. A parody of the great tragedy, "Macbett" plays fast and loose with Shakespeare's characters, setting, themes and particularly, tone. Mark Redfield, who produced, directed and designed this inaugural New Century production, is merely accentuating the script's absurdist humor.

The greatest commencement address ever is now more than three decades old. And it's safe to say it will never be surpassed or even equaled. It belongs to the ages. In 1979, its author summed up the condition of modern man by noting that, quote, more than at any other time in history, humanity is at the crossroads: One path leads to despair and utter hopelessness; the other, to total extinction. Let us pray we have the wisdom to choose correctly. Unquote. Bang. That's all she wrote.

New Century Financial Corp., once the largest independent maker of mortgages to high-risk borrowers, sank into bankruptcy proceedings yesterday, swamped by demands that it buy back defaulted loans. The Irvine, Calif., company said it would eliminate 3,200 jobs, or about half its work force. Its fall epitomizes the collapse of the subprime lending business, which made $1.3 trillion in higher-cost mortgages over the past two years to shaky borrowers. In recent months, forced sales and outright shutdowns of lenders have beset the industry - woes that threaten to depress the entire housing market.

PHOENIX — And now for that eagerly awaited Lakers-Celtics series? I know I started talking about it a week ago, but who didn't? But a funny thing happened on the way to that matchup. The semifinal opponents didn't play along. With the Magic slicing their 3-0 lead to 3-2, the Celtics were one home loss and one in Orlando from the NBA gag job of the new century. Not that their fans ever stopped believing but there was concern as the Bruins had just blown a 3-0 lead over the Flyers for the NHL gag job of the century, starting with a Game 4 overtime loss to the Flyers … like the Celtics' Game 4 overtime loss to the Magic.

A splendid version of the ultimate psychological thriller "Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde" is on stage at the Spotlighters Theatre through Oct. 27.This excellent new adaptation by the show's producer, director and star, Mark Redfield, in collaboration with actor Stuart Voytilla, is faithful to the original Robert Louis Stevenson novel. The very sophisticated, intellectual work presents, as Stevenson intended, the fascinating tale of the good and evil warring within us in the form of a good, old-fashioned mystery.

A sweeping five-month investigation into the collapse of one of the nation's largest subprime lenders points a finger at a possible new culprit in the mortgage mess: the accountants. New Century Financial Corp., whose failure just a year ago was the start of the crisis, engaged in "significant improper and imprudent practices" that were condoned and enabled by auditors at the accounting firm KPMG, according to an independent report commissioned by the Justice Department. In its scope and detail, the 580-page report is the most comprehensive document yet made public about the failings of a mortgage business.

In the classic newspaper comedy, "The Front Page," the disgruntled fiancee of a star reporter complains, "It's always a big story -- the biggest story in the world, and the next day everybody's forgotten it."Ben Hecht and Charles MacArthur wrote that line more than six decades ago, but unlike yesterday's newspaper, "The Front Page" has endured, not only in various film versions, but also in countless stage revivals.TTC The latest local stab at it comes from New Century Theater, launching the company's summer residency at Goucher College.

"Golden Boy" by Clifford Odets, being admirably staged by the New Century Theater at St. John's Church, may seem a little melodramatic by today's standards, but time has not diminished the power and poignancy of this 1930s work.Incisively directed by Mark Redfield, the play is packed with philosophical and sociological ideas on the perplexing state of humanity. It features an impressive three-level set and mostly fine performances by a very talented cast.It is the time of the Great Depression.

BUILDING booms visible to the naked eye in the East Baltimore medical complex and the Homewood arts and science campus attest to the success of the Johns Hopkins University's capital fund-raising campaign, which just concluded. The university's six-year goal of $900 million in pledges may have seemed too ambitious when announced in 1994. At the end of the drive, having raised the goal to $1.2 billion, the university counts pledges of more than $1.5 billion. For this it can thank the bull market of most of the 1990s, the growing economy, new industries, the loyalty of alumni and friends and the importance of the multifaceted work that JHU does.

TWENTY YEARS ago this spring, I returned to Baltimore, drawn by a new professional challenge and the air of possibility that animated the place in those days. There was an esprit that was almost palpable, whether you were dealing with City Hall, the business community, neighborhood groups or your neighbors. There was the sense that though battered by two decades of dramatic economic and social change, Baltimore had righted itself and was moving forward again.The realists knew the glory days of manufacturing and transportation would not return, but civic and political leaders were convinced -- or at least made a good show of it -- that better days were ahead.

A sweeping five-month investigation into the collapse of one of the nation's largest subprime lenders points a finger at a possible new culprit in the mortgage mess: the accountants. New Century Financial Corp., whose failure just a year ago was the start of the crisis, engaged in "significant improper and imprudent practices" that were condoned and enabled by auditors at the accounting firm KPMG, according to an independent report commissioned by the Justice Department. In its scope and detail, the 580-page report is the most comprehensive document yet made public about the failings of a mortgage business.

New Century Financial Corp., once the largest independent maker of mortgages to high-risk borrowers, sank into bankruptcy proceedings yesterday, swamped by demands that it buy back defaulted loans. The Irvine, Calif., company said it would eliminate 3,200 jobs, or about half its work force. Its fall epitomizes the collapse of the subprime lending business, which made $1.3 trillion in higher-cost mortgages over the past two years to shaky borrowers. In recent months, forced sales and outright shutdowns of lenders have beset the industry - woes that threaten to depress the entire housing market.

Accredited Home Lenders Holding Co. may lose its stock listing and other states have moved to bar New Century Financial Corp. from doing business as regulators added to pressure on the two subprime mortgage companies. The Nasdaq stock market might delist Accredited for failing to file an annual report on time, the San Diego-based company said yesterday in a statement. And New Century said in a federal filing that Pennsylvania and Ohio are now among 10 states, including Maryland, that want it to stop taking applications after the California company didn't produce money promised to homebuyers.

ANNAPOLIS - Closing excess military bases is a difficult but necessary step toward modernizing the military, President Bush told graduating midshipmen at the U.S. Naval Academy, as he urged them to be "champions of change" in a rapidly transforming fighting force. Bush used part of his commencement speech - in which he addressed the last Naval Academy class inducted before the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks - to defend the recommendations of a commission that called for closing 33 major bases and restructuring 29 others.

WASHINGTON - Sometimes our efforts to stand up for the less fortunate actually can grease their slide backward into even less fortune. That's what I thought of the verbal sucker punch with which August Wilson, the distinguished black playwright, walloped Bill Cosby, the distinguished black comedian. When Time magazine asked Mr. Wilson what he thought of Mr. Cosby's controversial criticisms of black parenting, the two-time Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright was dismissive. "A billionaire attacking poor people for being poor," he said.

Century's boys soccer team may be young, but it's old in experience. "About 95 percent of our team plays club ball, and some of the guys have played soccer for me since the first grade," said Knights coach Mike March. That experience showed yesterday at Long Reach in Columbia, where the Knights used superior skill to defeat the Lightning, 3-1. This is Century's first varsity season in boys soccer and the Knights (2-0) from Carroll County have no seniors, but the Knights didn't seem intimidated by the bigger, faster and older Lightning.

No matter what your age or health, isn't is wonderful to be alive at the beginning of the year 2000? Doesn't it feel as if we have reached the future? Certainly the technological and medical advances of the last 50 years and those promised in the millennium seem the stuff of science fiction. Life expectancy in 1900 was 49; now it is 70-80. Many are living to 100, and projections push life expectancy to 130. The 20th century saw the birth of organ transplants, advanced heart surgeries, life-saving antibiotics, and medications for everything from mental illness to Parkinson's disease.

The greatest commencement address ever is now more than three decades old. And it's safe to say it will never be surpassed or even equaled. It belongs to the ages. In 1979, its author summed up the condition of modern man by noting that, quote, more than at any other time in history, humanity is at the crossroads: One path leads to despair and utter hopelessness; the other, to total extinction. Let us pray we have the wisdom to choose correctly. Unquote. Bang. That's all she wrote.

JOHANNESBURG, South Africa - At the entrance to the main bar of the Rand Club, a bronze statue of mining magnate and British imperialist Cecil John Rhodes stands with his left arm raised as if to welcome weary guests for a drink or perhaps to call for a toast. Fewer people, however, are heeding the old colonialist's call. Here at South Africa's oldest and most exclusive British-style club, the barstools are empty. At the top of the grand staircase, a portrait of Queen Elizabeth II stares down on the first-floor dining room, where bored-looking waiters roam from vacant table to vacant table polishing silverware and straightening chairs.

THE NEWEST Maryland census figures raise the oldest of American social questions: Can we learn to live with each other as human beings instead of ominous tides of skin colors and cultures? The white exodus that began about 40 years ago in the famous blossoming of For Sale signs on front lawns all over the city continues in the new century - only now the suburban trek has been joined by black families, thus changing the exodus only by degree: Baltimore County's black population has increased 77 percent in the past 10 years, a remarkable growth of 66,000 people.