Once I sat in the gallery while a great tragedy was being performed. A shabbily dressed man next to me was carried away with the play to such an extent that when the villian raised his dagger, he cried "Look out." That was the triumph of illusion--and the theatre. Perhaps a mortgage hovered over that man's house, but for two hours he laughed and cried. He had touched the grand fact of human life, that at bottom, all men are one.

Suppose Harvard should concede the importance of the drama in the scheme of things. At once we should hear the old one that men are born dramatists and cannot be taught.

True. It is quite impossible to put art up in pills and administer it to eager young pupils. But a school of the drama is concerned with technique. Technique is a means toward expression. Technique is simply how best to do it. If countless ages of men have done a thing before, and if hundreds of those men have done it supremely well, is it not reasonable to suppose that there is a great deal to be learnt from a study of how those men have done it.

Should Have School of Acting

The logic of the cause pleads for the establishment of a comprehensive graduate school of dramatic art.

Which brings me to a suggestion which will be denounced by many as radical simply because it is an innovation. Certainly the suggestion is no more radical than was the founding some years ago of a college course of playwriting.

Why not correlate with the school of playwriting a school of acting?

If Harvard University be willing to fit men for positions as lawyers, doctors, architects, and what not, can it on a basis of equity refuse to prepare men for the stage?

Does not an actor contribute as much to the needs of mankind as the expert manager of a tack factory?

We assume that the drama is recognized as an invaluable adjunct to society and such an assumption is a tacit admission of the importance of the actor. For without the actor there can be no play. And without capable interpretation by the actor the play loses its effect, and, thereby, whatever justification it had for its existence. And capable interpretation, just like playwriting, is partly a matter of genius, and partly a matter of training. The numerous schools of acting now existent in New York are a distinct admission of this fact by a supercilious Broadway which has scoffed at college courses in playwriting.

Would Have Influence on Drama

It would seem that only blue stocking prejudice could turn a deaf ear to the wonderful possibilities of such a step. That same blue stocking prejudice has been responsible for whatever has been bad in the history of the theatre. The bigoted attitude which has looked upon a stage career as the shortest route to the everlasting bonfire has foatered immorality and low standards.

It is time we were getting closer to the stage and making it our own. When we come to see the theatre in the light of an institution of the people, by the people, and for the people, then we may expect the era of the great American drama.

The founding of a Harvard graduate school of actors, as a recognition of the profession, would be the inception of a movement of profound cultural influence on America.

Surely this is not asking too much of a University which has always been known as the cultural leader of the country. It is a cause backed by a host of Harvard graduates, who have many times before offered to endow such a school. A word from the University is sufficient to set in motion a drive which would very quickly give us a fine experimental theatre where student actors should interpret the plays by student authors, an experimental theatre which would be a glorious testimony to the breadth of vision of Harvard University.

"If Harvard University be willing to fit men for positions as lawyers, doctors, architects, and what not, can it on a basis of equity refuse to prepare men for the stage?"

"Does not an actor contribute as much to the needs of mankind as the expert manager of a tack factory?"

"The founding of a Harvard Graduate School of Actors, as a recognition of the profession, would be the inception of a movement of profound cultural influence on America."

These quotations are taken from the essay, printed herewith, submitted in the Crimson prize essay contest for the United States Lines Tour this summer. Other selected essays will be printed from time to time.