Tanglewood, Edinburg, the various Stratfords, and other sites of art festivals throughout the world have nothing on Cambridge this summer. For within the walls of Harvard University, operating "in cooperation with the Summer School," there will presently arise a new festival devoted not to the works of one playwright or composer but to a long neglected style of dramatic production.

The Cambridge Drama Festival, which will present three shows ranging widely over the course of English theatrical history, will be operating in Harvard's Sanders Theatre on a modified Elizabethan stage.

The Festival open this Thursday evening, July 5, with Shakespeare's "Henry V," staged by the Old Vic director Douglas Seale and featuring Douglas Watson, Felicia Montealegre (Mrs. Leonard Bernstein), and Ian Keith. "Henry" runs through July 21, and on July 25 "The Beggar's Opera" opens, starring Shirley Jones of Rodgers & Hammerstein and Cinemascope fame. The final production of the summer will be Shaw's "Saint Joan," starring the Irish actress Siobhan McKenna, who won great acclaim in the role in Dublin and London a few seasons ago, and who made her American debut on Broadway this past season in "The Chalk Garden."

Half-Price for Students

Happily for local students, the Festival's producers are not merely artists, but also men of action in the economic field. A non-profit foundation, the Festival is devoted to the presentation of works of "classic drama," such as the three that are planned for this summer. It feels that this is a whole area of important dramatic literature too often relegated to the classroom, and that these works, which are classics for good reason, will return to the popular repertory if they are properly presented. And to reinforce this conviction, "to implement, in a practical fashion, the notion that today's student can be tomorrow's steady theatregoer," the Festival is offering students a 50 percent reduction in ticket price, and is reserving for them 300 good seats in Sanders theatre for every performance.

Students may take advantage of this price reduction by presenting bursar's cards or other evidence of enrollment in school, college, or summer school when purchasing tickets at the Festival's Sever Hall office, in the Yard.

In regard to the Festival's distinctive stage setup, Robert O'Hearn, a young New York stage designer, has designed an architectural set that takes advantage of the best features of Sanders Theatre and its Elizabethan with a simple, flexible structure of beams and scaffolding rising behind one side of the main platform.

Seats Removed

An important part of the set will be a platform stage extending out into the audience, which will necessitate the removal of most of the seats on the floor of Sanders but will enable the audience in the side seats to see all the action.

This year for the first time Harvard, which has never had a formal theatre program, has made Sanders Theatre available for the whole season to a dramatic group outside the University. Harvard College itself has just experienced an unusually fecund theatrical season among the various undergraduate drama groups, which presented approximately 50 major productions during the 1955-56 academic year.

In addition, there has been increasing interest and pressure directed toward the construction of a modern Harvard theatre, which presumably will be erected as soon as enough money can be raised.

The personnel of the Cambridge Drama Festival, Inc., strangely resembles that of the now defunct Brattle Theatre Group, which produced plays for three years--1949-52--in the Brattle Theater and last summer revived itself to do a Shakespear Festival. But the reason for this connection is not that the Festival is a mere continuation of the Brattle, but rather that the men who operated the old company are the best qualified people to handle the new one.

Art but No Money

The Brattle Theater put on artistically successful shows, but never managed to make money. It did create the proper atmosphere and enthusiasm for the Festival, however, which, hopefully will become a yearly event to give the atrical talent--especially American--an opportunity to direct or appear in plays which would not normally be presented in the commercial theater. The interest of the producers and of the University is focused on the possibilities of making the Festival a really important event, with internationally know theatrical figures coming to Cambridge and not only participating in the productions, but also taking an active part in the life of the Summer School.

Naturally, a full-scale Festival will year's shows. But despite the unfortunate Cambridge experiences of the Brattle group, there are a number of factors which could very well make the coming season successful, both financially and artistically. Some of these are: