To the editors:

In his article "Time to Put Women in Drag, Too" (Opinion, Dec. 10), Matthew E. Johnson makes a series of long-overdue suggestions for the Hasty Pudding Theatricals (HPT). The tremendous success of Guys & Dolls is testament to the fact that other productions should be allowed to grace the historic HPT stage. And perhaps the Woman of the Year event should take top billing every other year so as not to place sole emphasis on the Man of the Year tradition.

I have performed in four shows at Harvard over the past three years, and as a member of the cast of the upcoming HPT 151 show "I Get No Kick From Campaign," I take Johnson's considerations, recommendations and accusations extremely seriously. While I wholeheartedly agree with the statement that there are not enough opportunities for students to work with professional directors and choreographers, I think it unnecessary to call an end to a wonderfully unique tradition at Harvard in order to do so. In no way do I agree with the statement that the script, casting or production of the HPT is "racist" or "homophobic."

Certainly the show, like Guys & Dolls, and like much of theater at Harvard, embodies obvious stereotypes in its characters but the spirit of their presentation is evenhanded, making jokes about males and females, Russians, French, Americans, whites and blacks alike, and it is not intended to convey a pernicious sense of those peoples' proper roles in society.

I can understand Johnson's appeal to the language of "egalitarianism" and the importance of equality of opportunity. But we must remember that there are plenty of single-sex organizations at Harvard which do not exist because of some latent sense of gender superiority. I refer to organizations such as the Din and Tonics or the Radcliffe Pitches which have all male or female membership. In both cases there are artistic values associated with all-male or all-female voices and skits and the reason why we hear no outcry is because these opportunities are balanced for men and women.

Which brings me to my solution. Keep the tradition of the Hasty Pudding show alive but also start a new tradition by forming a female equivalent. None of this is to say that the inclusion of women in the Pudding cast would "lessen the quality" of the HPT but rather that it would cause it to adopt a different quality. There is something about the show in its current form which is a unique brand of entertainment which we at Harvard and many of our theater alumni are willing to stand up for. BRYAN W. LEACH '00   Dec. 10, 1998