Cambridge Drama Festival Opens Thursday in Sanders

Tanglewood, Edinburg, the various Stratfords, and other sites of art festivals throughout the world have nothing on Cambridge this summer. For within the walls of Harvard University, operating "in cooperation with the Summer School," there will presently arise a new festival devoted not to the works of one playwright or composer but to a long neglected style of dramatic production.

The Cambridge Drama Festival, which will present three shows ranging widely over the course of English theatrical history, will be operating in Harvard's Sanders Theatre on a modified Elizabethan stage.

The Festival open this Thursday evening, July 5, with Shakespeare's "Henry V," staged by the Old Vic director Douglas Seale and featuring Douglas Watson, Felicia Montealegre (Mrs. Leonard Bernstein), and Ian Keith. "Henry" runs through July 21, and on July 25 "The Beggar's Opera" opens, starring Shirley Jones of Rodgers & Hammerstein and Cinemascope fame. The final production of the summer will be Shaw's "Saint Joan," starring the Irish actress Siobhan McKenna, who won great acclaim in the role in Dublin and London a few seasons ago, and who made her American debut on Broadway this past season in "The Chalk Garden."

Half-Price for Students

Happily for local students, the Festival's producers are not merely artists, but also men of action in the economic field. A non-profit foundation, the Festival is devoted to the presentation of works of "classic drama," such as the three that are planned for this summer. It feels that this is a whole area of important dramatic literature too often relegated to the classroom, and that these works, which are classics for good reason, will return to the popular repertory if they are properly presented. And to reinforce this conviction, "to implement, in a practical fashion, the notion that today's student can be tomorrow's steady theatregoer," the Festival is offering students a 50 percent reduction in ticket price, and is reserving for them 300 good seats in Sanders theatre for every performance.

Students may take advantage of this price reduction by presenting bursar's cards or other evidence of enrollment in school, college, or summer school when purchasing tickets at the Festival's Sever Hall office, in the Yard.

In regard to the Festival's distinctive stage setup, Robert O'Hearn, a young New York stage designer, has designed an architectural set that takes advantage of the best features of Sanders Theatre and its Elizabethan with a simple, flexible structure of beams and scaffolding rising behind one side of the main platform.

Seats Removed

An important part of the set will be a platform stage extending out into the audience, which will necessitate the removal of most of the seats on the floor of Sanders but will enable the audience in the side seats to see all the action.

This year for the first time Harvard, which has never had a formal theatre program, has made Sanders Theatre available for the whole season to a dramatic group outside the University. Harvard College itself has just experienced an unusually fecund theatrical season among the various undergraduate drama groups, which presented approximately 50 major productions during the 1955-56 academic year.

In addition, there has been increasing interest and pressure directed toward the construction of a modern Harvard theatre, which presumably will be erected as soon as enough money can be raised.

The personnel of the Cambridge Drama Festival, Inc., strangely resembles that of the now defunct Brattle Theatre Group, which produced plays for three years--1949-52--in the Brattle Theater and last summer revived itself to do a Shakespear Festival. But the reason for this connection is not that the Festival is a mere continuation of the Brattle, but rather that the men who operated the old company are the best qualified people to handle the new one.

Art but No Money

The Brattle Theater put on artistically successful shows, but never managed to make money. It did create the proper atmosphere and enthusiasm for the Festival, however, which, hopefully will become a yearly event to give the atrical talent--especially American--an opportunity to direct or appear in plays which would not normally be presented in the commercial theater. The interest of the producers and of the University is focused on the possibilities of making the Festival a really important event, with internationally know theatrical figures coming to Cambridge and not only participating in the productions, but also taking an active part in the life of the Summer School.

Naturally, a full-scale Festival will year's shows. But despite the unfortunate Cambridge experiences of the Brattle group, there are a number of factors which could very well make the coming season successful, both financially and artistically. Some of these are:

Staging the productions in Sanders Thetre, with its capacity of 1,100, rather than in the Brattle (capacity: 350).

The very favorable community reaction to last summer's Brattle productions of Othello, Henry IV, Part 1, and Much Ado About Nothing.

The attitude of the Festival's directors, who realize their situation and are planning this summer's productions so they will be--at least could be--both artistic and commercial successes.

The intellectual and dramatic prestige of Harvard, which makes many actors and actresses want to come to Cambridge, even if they will not be making as much money as they would elsewhere.

All of these factors are important, and they all underscore the basic point that Cambridge professional drama has under-gone a fundamental reorientation from previous years. In 1951, at the peak of the Brattle's success, one New York producer said, "There are two kinds of people in the theater today: those who like Mike Todd and those who like the Brattle." At long last, however, the plans for the Festival seem to indicate that the men formerly associated with the Brattle have discovered that maybe they can at least learn something from such men as Todd.

Community Response

There was one big difference between the Shakespeare Festival last summer and the previous regular, year-round production. This was the community response. Whereas the regular Theater group had depended largely on the Harvard community for its audience, the Festival depended on the entire Boston area. The producers even placed one ad in the New York Times because, as they explained, "Many people around here don't read the Boston papers." The response was overwhelming, proving decisively that "people don't necessarily want to see Desert Song in the summer."

And it was this realization which led to the fundamental change in Cambridge professional drama over the past year. Largely through the efforts of William Morris Hunt '36, a Boston architect, the group reorganized on the principle of community responsibility. It decided that many people did in fact want to see classical plays. Moreover, it decided that people wanted to see these productions not just for one summer, but every summer.

The Facts of Life

For the first time, organizers of the group--the same ones who have organized the Festival--have had to face the facts of life. It appears they have done this with a vengenance. First of all, they took a new name, one which was not synonymous with artistic integrity and financial incompetence, as was "Brattle." They also incorporated on a non-profit portantly, they affiliated with Harvard's Summer School, obtaining the use of basis so that contributions to the group would be tax-deductible. And, most im-have to develop over a number of years, depending on the initial success of this Sanders Theatre in return for paying maintenance expenses and obeying the fire regulations. It represents the first time a big eastern university has lent its name and cooperation for a venture of this sort. The prestige value is, of course, great. And the capacity of Sanders will make it possible for the Festival to be financially successful.

Popularity vs. Art

This re-orientation has, of course, brought problems with it. Foremost among these is the type of play which the Festival should produce. How far should the group--or how far will it have to--please popular taste? In other words, will the admirable intent of the Festival be undermined by its sudden new desire for a permanent, sound financial basis? Another closely connected problem concerns casting. Should the Festival seek big-name stars, regardless of their classical acting ability, or should it seek to form a permanent repertory group, which might not have as much popular appeal, albeit considerably more artistic integrity and ability?

Hunt and the other directors of the Festival believe they can both please popular taste and maintain artistic standards which, after all, is the raison d'etre of the group.

They have high hopes for the coming season. They also have high ideals. It remains to be seen whether in the long run the Festival will be able to live up to these ideals and still be financially successful, which it will have to be to survive