A great deal of talk has been going the rounds recently about a "renaissance" of theatre at Harvard. Now that the University has announced the imminent construction of a Loeb Drama Center, it would seem particularly appropriate to indulge in some stock-taking on the subject at this time.
World War II had an enormous impact on the University, of course. It drained off most of the civilian students and forced the suspension or modification of their normal undergraduate activities. The resumption of customary College life after the War seems, then, the logical jumping-off point for this article--especially since the history of Harvard theatre up to the War has been retold many times, while its course from the War to the present has not yet been chronicled.
On this occasion I propose (1) to summarize the post-War theatrical activity of the Harvard community, and call attention to a number of particular features; (2) to proffer comments on the raison d'etre of theatre in the University; (3) to recount the steps that led to the decision to build a Theatre; and (4) to discuss some of the questions raised and answered by the presence of a physical plant for drama.
* * * *
In order to carry out the first resolution, I must have recourse to many facts and statistics. Readers who are repelled by names, dates, places and numbers had better skip this section.
Idler
The only student theatrical organization that remained relatively unaffected by the War was Idler, the Radcliffe dramatic club, formed in 1907. Such civilian students as were here during the War used Idler as an outlet for their endeavors. Even after the War, Idler cast most of its male parts with Harvardians.
Idler's best efforts were its two 1951-52 productions: Ibsen's A Doll's House and Clare Booth Luce's The Women. But Idler was destined to inhabit the level of mediocrity: it rarely produced a poor show, but it never produced a really excellent one.
Finally Idler died in the spring of 1953. Henceforth Radcliffe's main theatrical energies were channeled through Harvard organizations.
HDC, VTW, HTW, HTG
In the first few post-War years, Harvard theatre was monopolized by a batch of initials--HDC, VTW, HTW, and HTG. With the active phase of the War over in 1945, the College began its slow transition to normalcy. That autumn, the student body increased; and some of them decided at once to revive the Harvard Dramatic Club (established in 1908) as an independent group. The HDC put on two plays that first year, but neither fared very well.
The fall of 1946 saw the College inundated with hordes of veterans. It was a great day for Harvard theatre when one of these veterans stepped up to the registration table--Jerome T. Kilty '49. Dissatisfied with the status of the HDC, Kilty lost no time in founding a new group, the Veterans Theatre Workshop, in which he was joined by two dozen other veterans, almost all of whom had, like himself, a considerable amount of theatre experience.
For its inaugural offering, the VTW presented the world premiere of William Gerhardi's first play, I Was a King in Babylon. Observers agreed that it was a good production of a bad work. So the VTW decided to let the student body at large guide its next choice. A poll showed that the students favored modern plays over classical ones by 5 to 1, and harbored a definite antipathy to student scripts. As to specific playwrights, the poll yielded the following, in order of preference: Shaw, Shakespeare, O'Neill, Coward, Ibsen, Wilde, Anderson, Odets, Chekhov, and Wilder.
The VTW willingly complied, and chose Shaw's Saint Joan. On hearing of the choice, Shaw cabled: "Delighted to hear St Joan being done at Harvard stop have always wanted to see Joan played by male." The choice was excellent; and the production, in Sanders Theatre, was magnificent. Typical of Kilty's directive imagination was the decision to perform the coronation scene in the transept of Memorial Hall. The audience moved out of Sanders and became the congregation; the scene was played on a specially constructed altar at the north end, while fire-department searchlights outdoors focussed on the stained-glass windows over-head. The consensus was reflected in the comment of one critic, "From every conceivable standpoint Saint Joan is a high-water mark in Harvard dramatics."
At the start of the academic year 1947-48, the VTW decided to accept non-veterans, and changed its name to the Harvard Theatre Workshop. No lowering of standards was countenanced. And the HTW proceeded to give a remarkable series of productions, including Shakespeare's Henry IV, 1 (with Kilty as Falstaff, a performance that no-one but Kilty himself has since equaled), Richard II (with a wardrobe of costumes costing $1600), Troilus and Cressida, and The Tempest.
The extraordinarily gifted nucleus of the VTW-HTW contained, besides Kilty, Robert Fletcher '45, Michael Wager '45, Thayer David '47, Peter Temple '47, Bryant Haliday '49, Albert Marre (Law '47-48, GSAS '48-50), and Miles Morgan '50.
In the spring of 1948, members of this group purchased the Brattle Theatre from the Cambridge Social Union and staged its subsequent productions there. Upon graduation, they formed the Brattle Theatre Company, a professional repertory group that achieved national renown. Unfortunately, it was forced to disband in 1952 owing to an accumulated $35,000 deficit.
The HTW thus lapsed into inactivity in June of 1949. The following year J. David Bowen '51, unhappy with the HDC, resigned and decided to revive the HTW under the name of the Harvard Theatre Group. The HTG incurred all the outstanding obligations of the HTW, in return for which the Brattle gave it assistance both tangible and otherwise.
The HTG proved a worthy successor to the HTW, and managed to rub out all debts and build up a surplus. The talented pillars of the group, besides Bowen, were John G. Kerr '52, P. Michael Mabry '53, Donald Ogden Stewart '53, and Theodore L. Gershuny '54.
Starting off with a good production of Beaumarchais' Marriage of Figaro, which toured all seven Houses and the Union, the HTG reached its peak in April, 1951, with a compelling production of Kingsley's Darkness at Noon, which had a run in Sanders simultaneously with the play's Broadway run. Resourceful designer David A. Hays '52 coped with the inadequacy of Sanders by constructing his sets on two revolving stages. The show was rightly described as "undoubtedly the finest undergraduate drama presented at Harvard in more than two years."
Having concentrated mainly on modern plays, the HTG performed a noble parting gesture to the cause of new drama just before the founding members' graduation in 1953. As its swan song, the Group decided to give the premiere of The General, written by Robert H. Chapman, associate professor of English. Directed by the author, the performance was excellent. But the play was weak, and the production lost $3000 (though a New York manager picked up the tab). Nevertheless, all agreed that the HTG could take pride in its exit as well as its previous record.
And what of the HDC all this time? Well, it struggled along an uneven course, never managing to put on a really top-notch show. This is not surprising, since the group had only the second-best talent to work with. The HDC also had recurring financial trouble. The 1948 spring show was the first HDC production to have its whole run downtown; the group rented the Plymouth (now the Gary) Theatre for Irwin Shaw's The Survivors, and went $5,000 into the red. The next fall production also lost heavily. In a desperate gamble, the HDC undertook an ambitious $9,000 mounting of Kaufman and Hart's The Man Who Came to Dinner, with Monty Woolley as imported guest star. Thanks largely to Woolley, this was the best show the HDC staged during this period, and it drew huge crowds. The artistic success was forgotten. however, as soon as it was discovered that $4,000 had been embezzled from the receipts.
The HDC does deserve praise, though, for some of its ancillary activities. In 1946-47 it instituted the HDC Reading Theatre for a series of informal shows. After a lapse, the Reading Theatre was revived in the fall of 1949 and remained active through the spring of 1953. In 1949-50 the HDC also sponsored an Acting Class, under the direction of Mrs. Alexander Samoiloff of the Tufts faculty, which met weekly and gave informal performances.
As long as the VTW-HTW-HTG flourished, Harvard was the scene of a great deal of acrimony and bitterness among students. In December, 1946, the HDC even expelled some of its members for working with the VTW. The next fall, just before becoming the HTW, the VTW proposed a merger with the HDC, suggesting that "all resources, financial, technical and artistic, be pooled under a general production scheme." The HDC caustically refused. This proved to be a disastrous decision. Talk of a merger cropped up from time to time there-after; and, in the fall of 1951, the HDC made the proposal. But it was too late then. By this time the HTG had a fine reputation, a monetary surplus, and the backing of the professional Brattle company. Quite understandably the HTG saw no sense in risking these assets by taking on less talented students and their debts. The contrast is epitomized in the efforts of the two groups to stage the same play. In November, 1947, the HDC staged Ibsen's An Enemy of the People in Sanders; the result was a drab, dull show. But when the HTG gave it in the cramped Pi Eta Theatre in the fall of 1951, it enjoyed a dynamic and exciting production.
Interest Surges
The disbanding of Idler and the graduation of the HTG core in the spring of 1953 left the debt-ridden HDC all alone. Since the HDC had been able to squeak out only one major show in each of the previous two years, it looked as though 1953-54 might sink to a theatrical low. But a number of coincidences brought about quite a different result.
The Radcliffe students now turned to the HDC as the major dramatic organization. So did the 15 or 20 non-graduating members of the defunct HTG (there was no formal merger; for, head high to the end, the HTG just quietly disbanded). In addition, there was a large increase that fall in theatrical interest on the part of the general student body. Not only this, but the entering freshman class contained more theatrical talent than any other class in Harvard history--including, as it happened, a notable quartet of students who would soon be generally recognized as a Big Four: Stephen A. Aaron, Colgate Salsbury, Harold R. Scott, and D.J. Sullivan.
When the HDC announced tryouts for its first fall production, no fewer than 150 hopefuls turned up; and the final cast did quite well in The Male Animal, which was soon followed by an even better production of Pirandello's Henry IV. And President Pusey chose this time to announce his approval of an unofficial drive for a Harvard Theatre (but more of this later in its own context).
Much encouraged, the HDC initiated a Harvard Acting Laboratory, which Professor Chapman consented to direct. The Lab was an extra-curricular course for Harvard and Radcliffe freshmen and sophomores in classical acting technique, ballet and fencing. About two dozen students survived the screening of over 100 applicants. The Lab, which took four hours a week, performed an invaluable service. When Professor Chapman was away on leave the following year, Mrs. Mark A. DeWolfe Howe (formerly with the famed Abbey Theatre in Dublin) assumed direction of the Lab; and in 1955-56 the Lab was taught by Harold Scott '57, Colgate Salsbury '57, and Clare Scott '56.
The real start of the current "renaissance" of student theatre here can, I think, be rather exactly pinned down to the last week of February, 1954. It was then that the HDC, having ripped out the floor seats of Sanders Theatre, opened a semi-arena production of T. S. Eliot's Murder in the Cathedral. This was a show of tremendous power, and gave clear notice that, once again, Harvard students were capable of providing a superlative theatrical experience.
The same week, HDC president Peter L. Shoup '55 announced the founding of its New Theatre Workshop, whose main purpose was to present, on a budget of between $10 and $25 each, live productions of plays written by students. For the first time in many years, the student playwright was accorded formal recognition, encouragement, and an outlet through which he could obtain, as Archibald MacLeish has said, the necessary experience of feeling "the blush of shame" that comes when he sees his own work produced. The Workshop has continued right up to the present and has fulfilled its mission admirably; of the 33 student plays produced since the War, 26 were given since the founding of the New Theatre Workshop.
When the HDC founded the Workshop, it also established another ancillary institution called the Children's Theatre. This group presented stage versions of classic children's tales in Radcliffe's Agassiz Theatre. Aimed primarily at young audiences, the Children's Theatre gave, over several years, a series of productions that charmed both the young and old.
The 1954 spring term ended with the HDC's production in Sanders of O'Neill's Marco Millions. This was the largest show ever undertaken at Harvard. It was beautifully acted by a huge cast of 75, and had stunning sets and costumes; but it was not a big popular success--the public was not yet ready for this play, which, although highly unorthodox and exotic, is a masterful work of art.
At any rate, the "renaissance" was well under way. The HDC reached its post-War peak in the spring of 1956 with its Sanders arena production of Miller's Death of a Salesman. This was an absolutely top-notch show of extraordinary depth and polish--fully the equal of any professional production the play has ever had.
The next spring the HDC celebrated the occasion of its 100th major production by impressively staging Hamlet uncut. But, largely owing to an excessive costume budget, the show left the Club about $3000 in debt. Last fall's fine production of Ibsen's The Master Builder made a large profit, however, and the HDC can enjoy the novelty of beginning this academic year in the black.
The new revival of theatre, however, by no means confined itself to the HDC. There was far more energy than the HDC could possibly utilize, and one new group after another added itself to the already existing organizations. By the spring of 1957, every one of the seven Houses, plus the commuters' Dudley Hall, had its own group putting on theatrical productions. The year 1957-58 brought the number of producing organizations to the all-time high of 20. This did not result, however, in the bitter feuding that characterized the first post-War years; the many different groups have operated recently in friendly and healthy competition.
Particularly noteworthy is the Eliot Drama Group, formed in the spring of 1954. From its debut the next fall up to date, the EDG has provided a splendid series of intimate semi-arena productions devoted almost exclusively to the works of Shakespeare.
As the spring of 1957 rolled around, it occurred to someone that the Big Four in the senior class had never all worked together on the same show. To remedy this, John G. Eyre '57 put up the money and secured the rights to stage the American premiere of Jean Genet's terrifying play about prison life, Death-watch. Stephen Aaron directed, and Colgate Salsbury, Harold Scott and D.J. Sullivan took the three major roles. A wonderfully oppressive set was designed by John Ratte '57, one of the three most gifted designers here since the War (the other two being Robert Fletcher '45 and David A. Hays '52). Five newspapers reviewed the production, all very favorably; one critic called it "a crowning achievement for theatre at Harvard." The play then went to the Yale Drama Festival, where it easily led all the other entries.
Last spring Eyre brought Scott back from New York to star in the title role of King Lear, which garnered from its five reviewers such plaudits as "perfect," "brilliant," and "unbeatable."
This fall, Eyre, Aaron, Salsbury and Dean Gitter '56 are currently organizing the Cambridge Repertory Theatre, which will start year-round professional productions early next spring. There is a great need for a good local repertory company, and the prospects for the new CRT seem favorable. I hope the group will be able to equal the artistic successes of the old Brattle company--but with better financial results.
Foreign Language Shows
Most of the post-War theatrical offerings have been in English. But by no means all. The most important efforts have been those of the Harvard-Radcliffe Classical Players, who in the spring of 1949 gave the first play in Latin here since the mid 1930's. Since then the Players have put on six Roman comedies in the original--most of them by Plautus. By far the high point, though, was the group's very moving 1956 production in the Fogg Museum court of Oedipus at Colonus, given in Sophocles' original Greek under the direction of Robert A. Brooks '40.
The only modern language club that has put on shows with any regularity is the French Club, which has staged 13 productions in French since 1946. The Italian Club gave the first play in its history in 1947, and has done four others since. The Slavic Society has presented three
Read more in News
Museums
