Strange Interlude

Orphaned by Harvard's 12-year policy of non-cooperation toward the drama, the Dramatic Club twice yearly puts forth its best efforts to bring experimental and unique plays to Cambridge. But without an administrative benediction on the theatre as a whole, these efforts have kept the wolf from the Big Tree door only by the most Bohemian frugality.

The University struck at the drama during the 20,2, when President Lowell proclaimed the policy that. "Drama has no place at Harvard," and since that time it has not changed its strict laissez faire attitude. Long before that time it was obvious that a highly-developed drama-arts school was persona non grata in the college curriculum. Under the late, revered Professor George Baker, the Club, and the drama course that was then an adjunct to it, molded a nation-wide reputation for Harvard theatricals. But in the fall of that year, the Dramatic Society was set on its wanderings, and Professor Baker's activities, including the then-famed course, English 47, abolished. Baker, exiled by the Brahmin purists, found a more appreciative reception at New Haven, settled there, and brought the Yale drama school to the ranking spot in college theatrical circles it now holds. After the hegira the Corporation was content to allow Harvard to lag behind every leading college in the land, completely devoid of University support of play writing and play producing.

The club itself fared better under administrative apathy than has drama as a whole; only occasional resounding flops have marred its record. But the recent success "Mashenka" probably concludes the Club's activity for the duration, and with this suspension the last taste of the theatre at Harvard will be gone.

It was not always this way. With the talent of Eugene O'Neill, Robert Sherwood, S. N. Behrman, Philip Barry, Sidney Howard, Thomas Wolfe, John Mason Brown, and John Dos Passos, Baker was able to blaze a spectacular trail. These names above are no dead listing of the college's contribution to a forgotten art. They signify the great effort that was expended, and then was suddenly curtailed.

Nothing comparable has been achieved since. The University must learn that the theatre cannot "thrive on frustration." It must be nurtured by adequate drama courses, by an endowed college theatre, by an attitude that actively reverses the former Puritan ideas. The first two of these goals can only be realized after the war, but it is not too early to start on the last one now.