The most famous extravaganza of this period came in 1909, with Charles Frohman's presentation in the Stadium of Schiller's Joan of Arc, starring Maude Adams. The production was under the auspices of the German Department and for the benefit of the Germanic Museum. On a balmy June night 15,000 people filled the Classic Horseshoe to watch Miss Adams and a supporting cast of 1,500 calvarymen, soldiers and archers parade across the Battlefield of France, while a hidden orchestra played Beethovan's "Eroica' Symphony.

Other indications of the fascination with the drama during these years were the audience of 1500 persons that crammed Sanders in 1895 to hear a speech by the famous actor Joseph Jefferson, and the great interest in Boston productions which resulted in a series of Harvard nights at downtown theatres. In 1904 the Boston Transcripts could well say, "There is not a University in America in which a numerically appreciable and notably intelligent and finely strung body of students cultivates the arts of the theatre with the eager and usually discriminating zeal of the Harvard students."

In 1907, W. B. Blake went even further when he said in his column, "In perhaps no community of the same size in the whole world is there so close and so intelligent a following of the drama as in and near Harvard Square. There is never an hour of the day or night when plays are not being rehearsed, acted or written." Cataloguing the productions of that year here, Blake counted language plays by the French, German, Spanish and Chinese clubs; an Old English play by the English Club of Radcliffe; an Elizabethan drama by Upsilon, three uncredited productions of modern plays written by Harvard graduates, a group of readings and experimental productions at Radcliffe, in addition to the traditional Hasty Pudding and Pi Eta shows. With this background, Blake strongly denied the need for a Harvard Dramatic Society, the idea for which had been circulating for several years.

Three Major Departures

The next year, in 1908, the Harvard Dramatic Club was formed. The founders felt that among the various University organizations giving theatricals there should be one devoted to the presentation of modern plays by English and American authors. Apparently others agreed with them, since more than 80 men answered the call for an organization meeting. At this meeting three principles were set forth, all of which were significant departures for a theater organization at Harvard: the production of modern, original scripts, the employment of women as actresses (previously female parts had all been played by men), and the use of professional direction.

It is impossible to discuss the origins of the HDC without reference to the activities of George Pierce Baker '87, professor of Dramatic Literature here and unquestionably the most important figure in the history of Harvard theater. The persons who formed the HDC were all students of Baker's; most of them were members of the famed Baker's Dozen which met at his house to discuss the drama over an Edam cheese. It was the need for an organization to produce the plays written for Baker's courses which inspired Edward Sheldon '08 and Edward Eyre Hunt '08 to found the HDC.

But if 1908 was a starting point for the HDC is was just the middle of a long struggle for G. P. Baker. Baker started teaching at Harvard in 1888 as an instructor in elocution, but gradually became interested in the theater. In the 90's he began teaching courses at both Radcliffe and Harvard in the history of English drama from its birth to the present. This in itself was a considerable innovation, since at the turn of the century academic circles did not think of an author still alive as one who could write "literature." English courses of the day ended abruptly with Tennyson. But Baker was concerned with the living theater, not past history; as John Mason Brown says of him, "he kept dramatic literature smudged with greasepaint." Gradually Baker became dissatisfied even with teaching a course about modern dramatists. He was concerned with what could be written and done in the theater, not what had already been done. So in 1902 he asked Harvard to let him teach a course in play-writing. His request was categorically denied.

Radcliffe Says Yes

In desperation Baker then turned to Radcliffe and the Annex said yes. This is not so surprising as it seems, because for a long time Radcliffe had been even more active in the theater than the school across the Common. Formed in 1907, "The Idlers" were by far the most important and active group at Radcliffe, producing a number of highly competent plays each year. In addition there were girls at the 'Cliffe who had considerable dramatic talent and were already doing advanced work in Baker's history courses.

So in 1903 Baker started teaching "English 47" to a selected group of 12 Radcliffe girls. After two years it was obviously a success: and in 1905 Harvard agreed to accept the course, at the same time awarding Baker a professorship in Dramatic Literature. For a number of years both Baker and his students were intrigued by this new experiment, but soon the Radcliffe girls became dissatisfied and petitioned the college for the establishment of an advanced course 47a. Shortly after this was begun, they also formed a 47 Club in which they discussed and read plays on an extracurricular basis. The club in time led to the formation of the famed 47 Workshop whose pin pose was to produce the plays written in 47 and 47a and discussed in the 47 Club. While the 47 Club had been strictly female, the girls invited Harvard men to participate in the new project, and soon the Workshop was the focus of all Harvard theater.

As Baker put it, the Workshop was "not in the usual sense a theater, but rather a working place for the young dramatist, a place in which he has the opportunity to see the play adequately acted before a sympathetic and critical audience." This audience was not the usual crowd which drifts in from the streets. Admission was by in vitiation only and was restricted to "people believed to be deeply interested in such experimentation as the Workshop offers." But more than interest was required of the audience. Within three days after the production the spectator was expected to turn amateur critic and mail in an individual evaluation of the play along with suggestions for its improvement. Lacking University support, except for the provision of space in Massachusetts Hall, the Workshop also depended on the audience for most of its finances. The first season was financed by $500 raised among the members themselves, but from then on all money was raised either through a subscription appeal to the audience or alumni.

While Massachusetts Hall throbbed with activity--like "Berhhardt's heart beating in Priscilla's body" as John Mason Brown described it--people on the outside began to take notice of the productions. Even before the Workshop began Edward Sheldon's play, Salvation Neil, written while Sheldon was still an undergraduate in Baker's course, was discovered by the great American actress Mrs. Minnie Maddern Fiske and with her interpretation enjoyed a considerable run on Broadway. Soon after, with the founding of the HDC and its presentation of several plays written for Baker's courses, a number of Boston producers became seriously interested in the plays being created at Harvard. With the founding of the Workshop, John Craig, producer at the Castle Square Theater in Boston, initiated the Harvard Prize Play Award, open to Harvard and Radcliffe undergraduates, graduates students and alumni of not more than one year. The winner of this annual prize was awarded $250 (with another $250 going to the drama section of the Harvard library) and the promise of production of the prize play for at least a week at the Castle Square. Craig gave the award for six years prior to the war and all six plays proved financially successful. The first, Florence Lincoln's End of the Bridge ran nine weeks, then two weeks in Chicago, and was revived for two weeks in Boston the next year. The third, Frederick Ballard's Believe Me, Xantippo, ran 11 weeks, breaking all previous records for runs at the Castle Square and then moved to New York for 20 weeks in a production starring John Barrymore. After the war Oliver Morosco gave a similar award for two years, following which Richard Herndon established the Belmont Theater Prize on the same terms, from which came Philip Barry's highly successful You and I.

But if the Workshop and its products were acclaimed in Boston and New York, in Cambridge they met with a cold reaction from the University administration. Originally, Baker had hoped that his playwriting courses would prove an opening wedge for allied courses in the dramatic arts. He soon discovered there was no chance of this and concentrated his efforts on persuading the University to build him a theater. Since its inception, the Workshop had used Radcliffe's Agassiz, which was almost totally inadequate for its work. As early as 1914 Baker presented a complete plan for a new theater, urging that the "baffling conditions" under which the Workshop was forced to work be alleviated as quickly as possible. They were not. The University ignored Baker's plea completely. He offered to raise sufficient funds himself, but even this permission was refused. The Corporation was worried that he might approach potential donors it had in mind for other projects.

One of these other projects was the building of the Business School across the Charles. In 1923, when a fire in Massachusetts Hall forced the Workshop out of business temporarily, it at last looked as though the theater might be included in the Business School drive. On sabbatical during that year, Baker waited anxiously for word on this possibility and was finally notified that it had been vetoed. It was reported that one member of the Corporation had said that the inclusion of the theater would "kill the whole project."

Meanwhile, rumors circulated that Baker did not intend to return to Harvard after his sabbatical. Although he denied this, alumni and the CRIMSON began berating the administration for its attitude and warned that if it wanted Baker to remain it would have to do something quickly. "Just why this silent opposition persists is difficult to understand," a CRIMSON editorial said in the fall of 1928. "It may be a native distrust of the strange and the new or it may be an unconscious relic of the conventional point of view toward anything and everything in the slightest way connected with the stage. Both very nearly approach the ridiculous. When the drama has reached a point in its development where its legitimacy as a means of artistic expression has been universally recognized for some hundreds of years, he can be no better than a fool who denies the legitimacy of study of the mechanical details by which expression is achieved." Hermann Hagerdorn '07, New York playwright and former student of Baker's wrote a letter to the CRIMSON calling Baker "a prophet who is without honor in his own country."