With September signaling the return of many a comely coed to the campus scene, it's only logical that our lensmen focus their attentions on academe's perennial supply of potential Playmate attractions. The most recent case in point is this month's centerfold miss, Dianne Chandler, a 19-year-old University of Illinois undergraduate currently pursuing a curricular career at the Champaign-Urbana campus. A drama major who readily admits she has "no desire to act," Dianne is content with the vocational view from the wings and plans a post-collegiate career as a set designer. "Like most college drama majors," she told us, "I was bitten by the acting bug in high school. In fact, during my senior year I made a pretty fair Laura in The Glass Menagerie. But by the time I entered my freshman year at Illinois, I was well aware of the fact that I'm basically too shy to ever really go far in acting. On the other hand, technical drama--the sets, costuming, sound effects, lighting and everything else that goes on behind the scenes--absolutely knocks me out."
When she's not hitting the books or handling the lights at a student workshop production, Miss September puts in many an extracurricular hour behind the handle bars of her Yamaha 305 motorcycle. "I used to be secretly fascinated by cycles and people who had the courage to actually drive them," says Dianne. "And since university regulations prohibit me from keeping up with my high school hobby of raising and breeding Siamese cats, I asked my folks for a two-wheeler for graduation so I could try something new and daring." On weekends, however, Dianne prefers to leave the driving to others who share her enthusiasm for off-campus pizza parties, the latest Paul Newman flick or a fraternity-house discothèque party ("For listening I prefer Bach or Mozart, but when it comes to dance music I'm strictly another Beatle nut").
Born and raised near Chicago--in suburban Berwyn, Illinois--Dianne will soon forsake her downstate locale to return to the Windy City and continue her studies at the university's newly constructed Circle Campus. "In Chicago I'll be closer to the theatrical mainstream," she explains, "and I can also pick up some much-needed painting and design courses at the Art Institute." On the basis of her cum laude contribution to the contemporary Playmate scene, we'd say it's Urbana's loss and urbanity's gain.
