Drama Groups Agree on Joint Play

Five years of intermittent warfare seemed close to an end last night when the combined managements of the Dramatic Club and the Theatre Group announced plans for a joint production next fall.

The play may be "Billy Budd," adapted from the Herman Melville novel by Robert Chapman, instructor in English, and Louis Coxe. It was presented on Broadway this past season. The organizations are now dickering for the rights.

The rivalry between the HDC and the HTG began in 1946 when the Theatre Group's predecessor, the Veteran's Theatre Workshop, was organized by a group of veterans headed by Jerome A. Kilty '49.

Membership in VTW was at first limited to veterans, and the HDC, in its 39th year of production, continued to represent the student body as a whole.

Speaking for the HDC last night, President Warren Brody '52 said, "Doing one play together does not mean there will be an official and permanent merger. But if the organizations work smoothly and efficiently on this production, there is no reason why a merger couldn't take place."

Two previous overtures of merger were treated coldly by both organizations. In September of 1947 the VTW proposed a merger and the formation of a new group to produce the VTW project, "Henry IV, Part II." The HDC rejected this offer stating that it wished to preserve its identity and did not wish to work on the proposed play. At that time the HDC stated that an offer of merger the previous spring had been treated "with a cold shoulder" by the VTW.

That previous year, 1946, several members of the HDC were forced to resign from that organization for having participated in the initial VTW play, "I Was a King in Babylon."

VTW Becomes HTW

The veteran's group changed its name to the Harvard Theatre Workshop in 1947 and continued producing until 1949. After it ceased to function as a Harvard group the members formed the Brattle Theatre Company.

As far as the University was concerned the Harvard Theatre Workshop lapsed into inactivity in June of '49. David J. Bowen '51 started the Harvard Theatre Group in 1950, and the new group assumed the debts and obligations of the HTW.

The HTG was supposed to be a training outfit for the parent Brattle Hall people and started operations modestly with performances by stroking players in the Houses.