New Plan Proposed for Selecting Productions for Loeb Main Stage

Responsibility for suggesting plays for the Loeb will pass from producers to an expanded student-Faculty advisory committee if plans now under consideration are approved, according to Charles W. Hayford '62, president of the Harvard Dramatic Club.

The change is part of a sweeping revision in the operation of the Theatre recommended earlier this month by the present advisory committee.

Robert H. Chapman, Director of the Loeb, has already enlarged the advisory committee from four Faculty members and three students to five Faculty representatives and four students. Three of the undergraduates will be elected by the HDC, and the fourth will be chosen jointly by the Opera Guild and the Gilbert and Sullivan Players. The HDC had only one representative on the old committee.

Meeting in January

Chapman is expected to meet with the new committee in January to consider a new system of selecting productions for the main stage.

Under the new rules the advisory committee would prepare a list of 25 to 30 plays. The list would have some sort of thematic unity and would include only drama. Musicals would be considered separately.

The list would then be sent to "established" producing groups, according to Hayford, which could add or amend the list with the committee's approval. The groups would then nominate the shows they would like to put on from those included in the list.

Directors Guild

Besides preparing a list of plays, the committee would compile a list of "satisfactory" directors. After an undetermined cut-off date, no one would be certified to direct a main stage production who had not proven satisfactory in workshop productions in the experimental theatre.

The producing groups would, under the proposal, match up directors and plays and then present these to the advisory committee for selection of the final productions. No elaborate production plans would be required during the selection process, as is presently the case. The advisory committee also decided to have the workshop program administered completely by the HDC.

Hayford praised the proposals which he said "were to a great degree the result of suggestions by the HDC." Its purpose is to ensure a balanced schedule at the Loeb and a more workable selection system.

The old method, where HDC producers and directors first presented proposals to the club which were then submitted to the advisory committee, led to the Club's sponsoring two Elizabethian plays, one of which was turned down for the Loeb.

Outside Production

At its meeting on Thursday the HDC agreed to consider suggestions for a spring show outside the Loeb in place of the production which was turned down. The proposals will be considered by the HDC executive committee Sunday. One possibility, Hayford said, was an outdoor performance during Commencement Week.

The criteria for selecting musical productions have not been completely worked out, according to one member of the Advisory committee.

Faculty members on the expanded advisory committee will be Chapman, Steve A. Aaron '57, assistant director of the Loeb, Daniel Sekser, instructor in English, Donald Soule, technical director of the Loeb, and Mrs. Olga Liepmann, costume designer