Former Harvard Drama Star Claims Racial Prejudice at Lincoln Center

Charges of racial discrimination, have been leveled against the Repertory Theatre of Lincoln Center by a member of its company who is widely regarded as the finest actor to come out of Harvard since the War.

In a letter in the current Variety, Harold R. Scott '57 points out that "the Negro members of the original company were signed to only one-year contracts by the previous co-directors, Elia Kazan and Robert Whitehead, while the majority of the permanent members were signed to two-year contracts." None of the Negroes' contracts has been renewed.

He adds that "the Negro actors have been given nothing but 'exotic' roles in the period plays, and walk-one or non-performing understudies in the contemporary plays."

Net Optimistic

Scott, who has been a permanent member of the troupe since its inception and is its last remaining Negro player, says in the letter that he recently met with the new directors, Herbert Blau and Jules Irving. Since they claimed they "were unable to locate a Negro of sufficient ability to join their permanent company during the thirteen years they functioned in San Francisco," Scott goes on, "I have no reason to feel particularly optimistic about the immediate future."

Scott says he left the meeting with the impression that, after finishing his current assignment next week, he is to "feel free to look for other employment"--which will leave the company without a single Negro on its roster.

In a recent interview concerning his work at the Center, Scott said, "I am not being used as well as I was used in the commercial theater. I have invested an enormous amount of time, money and energy to become a versatile actor. I can speak the king's English or any dialect. I can sing and dance and move the way an actor ought to move on stage. So why should I play just special types?"

While at Harvard, Scott played nearly twenty roles ranging from a Tennessee Williams teenager to the octogenarian King Lear. He was the first person in America to play Maurice in Genet's Deathwatch, and his recreation of the part in New York won him an Obie award. The New York critics named him Most Promising Actor of the Year for his 1960 Broadway performance in The Cool World.

Scott states he had "hopes of achieving a dream of the Negro performer--to be accepted as an actor, not as an oddity. I can only say that that dream has shown no signs of fulfilment during the past seasons."

He looks forward in the letter to the goal of "an American theatre--and by that I mean a totally integrated theatre. Lincoin Center has not yet demonstraed that it is ready; and since it is the most prominent repertory theatre in the country at the moment, I find this not only unfortunate and shocking, but deeply disappointing."

Shown a copy of Scott's letter, Jules Irving commented, "Herbert Blau and I agree that Harold Scott's feelings are understandable. Our actions will have to speak for themselves.