In spite of the Naval Science Department's obstinate retention of its rights to the Rogers Building, the Cambridge School of the Drama is to have its experimental theatre. Although the apparatus to be installed will be removable to permit the biweekly marches, the installation is at least a material stimulus towards placing the local school on a par with other institutions.
For the modern theatre is by its very nature experimental, and the staging of plays has become a fine art, an important concomitant to the playwright's technique. The new equipment is as essential an addition to the School as Mallinckrodt Laboratory to a course in Chemistry. Its acquisition is a hopeful sign of the possibility of Harvard again attaining a position as trainer of the leaders of the American theatre, a position impossible to maintain on the basis of purely theoretical courses, such as are now offered in the College.
The Cambridge School of the Drama is still a stepchild; its attachment to the University should attend the proof of its success. If it manages to satisfy the national honor and still find the Naval Science Department another place to drill, it will be still further on the road to permanent achievement.
