SAYS COLLEGE MEN HAVE READY PLACE ON STAGE

"Why don't more college men go on the stage?" questioned Miss Ina Claire, one of the America's foremost comediennes, now starring in "Grounds for Divorce," when interviewed recently by a CRIMSON reporter.

Eagerly she continued: "The lack of actors who can play parts of gentlemen has crippled scores of plays. It is a deplorable fact that managers frequently have to send to England for men who can merely wear clothes and appear like gentlemen. Theatres are simply falling over themselves to get contracts for the two or three men in New York who can take these parts, and yet college men totally overlook the stage as a road to wealth and fame. I imagine they do so because it 'isn't done', but it is done in England and there is no reason why it shouldn't be done here."

Big Salary for Spats

Miss Claire went on to state that an actor in a minor part can earn $500 a week by merely playing up to a leading lady, provided he can wear spats and the a bow tie correctly. She deplored the present interest in expensive scenery and stage machinery, instead of good acting.

"What use is it to spend millions of dollars on scenery and setting," she declared, "when there are no schools of acting?" She cited Yale as an example of such thoughtless prodigality.

"Its directors are spending a million dollars on a building; they expect another million for scenery, and when it's all finished, who in Yale will act for them?"

Miss Claire stated that there exists no school of acting of any great importance outside of the Theatre Guild.

Finally, Miss Claire was prevailed upon to speak of herself. She got her start in vaudeville, and for three years played on Keith's Circuit under the hardest sort of conditions. On several occasions she played to an audience consisting of one individual, and often she was called on to give six performances a day. To such conditions, however, she attributes her condition, however, she attributes her success, saying that she could have had no better training.

Studies Her Audiences

Comedy is her favorite form of drama. "I always feel," she explained, "that in comedy there is no limit to the finish of a performance. Every day I try to enrich my part somehow and in each new city I study my audience to see what jokes will take, and what parts will drag." Apropos of the reputed coldness of Boston audiences Miss Claire had little to say. She believes it is simply up to each actor to win the approval of his audience and that he is entirely responsible for any unresponsiveness on the part of his audience