Festival May 1 to May 14

WOULD you believe an arts festival at Harvard? How about a celebration of spring entitled the Harvard Square Arts Festival, and a two-week-long cultural revolution that bears the name the Harvard Festival of the Arts? Both are happening during the first two weeks in May, when May Day will issue a new style of street action around Harvard Square. Harvard's own castle-keep at the Loeb Drama Center will serve as the middle of a series of concentric circles of creativity, blending to form one glittering puddle of theatre, music, dance and art that will inundate the University community in a wave of cultural events the like of which has never been seen or expected mongst our hallowed halls of knowledge and boredom.

This double-header in entertainment--the overall Harvard Square Arts Festival and the student end of the production, the Harvard Festival of the Arts--is scheduled for May 1 to May 14. Under its auspices, Cambridge citizens and Harvard students, Harvard Square businessmen and University officials will have a chance to realize, perhaps for the first time, that they are all part of one community that can work together to transform their common environment into an arena in which to celebrate the rites of spring. They will meet and mingle throughout the Square and the University in a 14-day orgy of opera and auctions, ballet and children's workshops, drama and kite-flying contests, cabaret and Festival sales at the Coop. The brick walls around Harvard Yard may come tumbling down to the vibrations of a rock concert, and colorful banners may break the drab facades of many a store-front--music and merry-making might even wreak havoc with the traditional apathy and antipathies that threaten to haunt the area....

PLANS for an arts festival were initiated even before school began this year. Instigators extraordinaires were F. Colin Cabot '72, president of the Harvard Dramatic Club, and fellow HDC board members Louise (Weezy) Waldstein '72 and Jon Miller '72. The three foregathered on September 7 at their favorite hangout, the Ha'penny Pub, to pool their ideas. Their motivation then was merely that they didn't want to have "a boring season," but the remedy against such an evil proved far more grandiose than they had at first imagined.

As veterans of many a Loeb season, they realized that it was about time to "open up the Loeb," to bridge the gaps between the Harvard Dramatic Club and the rest of the Harvard arts community--or what they wanted to think of as a community--and encourage as many people as possible to come work and play at the Loeb. Not only was the Loeb being underutilized, they felt, but the arts at Harvard were miserably fragmented. The concept of "Loebies" as an inbred group of theatre maniacs had not done much to make contact easier.

Every semester a whole melange of cultural events goes on at Harvard, but there has never been a sense of cooperation. Smaller groups suffer from lack of publicity; bad scheduling and communications create time conflicts. People were complaining increasingly about a lack of cohesiveness among the arts at Harvard: some were even skeptical that a cultural life existed at all.

The time seemed right to prove the faithless wrong, and a drive to widen the Center's narrow confines took over at the Loeb. A spirit of enthusiasm took hold and began to spread to include not only the rest of the University, but also inspired plans to branch out into the Cambridge community as well.

During September and November these all seemed just ideas and half-realizable fantasies. But soon plans began to take the form of action. The first administrative body to tackle was the Faculty Theatre Committee. "At first they were awfully suspicious," Jon recalls, "but we eventually convinced them that it would be a 'good thing'." Other parties were less trouble to persuade; the Music Department and the VAC were immediately receptive. In February, responses were still rolling in hot and heavy, Weezy delightedly called it a bit "scary."

The emergent schemes were indeed terrifying for anyone who likes to think that the creative and performing arts at Harvard are dead. The Administration could hardly believe its eyes and ears when Colin first approached Dean Epps with his ambitious proposals. In answer to requests for the use of the Yard, Cabot received a flat "no," but since then so many Festival dreams have materialized that the Administration seems to be offering far more cooperation--all to the University's advantage, one would like to hope, and an excellent way to patch up its damaged reputation where the community is concerned.

Meetings between the Festival's original threesome and groups such as the Harvard-Radcliffe Orchestra. The Harvard Advocate and the Leverett House Opera Society produced more and more positive results, and by December, scheduling was definitely coordinating the HDC's usual theatre slots with the performances planned by the other organizations. At the University level the problems remained, but with endless enthusiasm, mysterious energies and cool-headed planning, these obstacles have gradually vanished.

WHEN Colin, Weezy and Jon decided to expand the Festival out into the Cambridge community, they didn't quite know where to start--or even if they should. The question was, as Colin put it, "Do you believe in the Harvard Square environment and is Harvard part of it?" The need has long been felt for a bond between college-based artists and community-oriented groups. Such new and exciting contacts would demand breathing space and room to spread to fabulous extremes if need be--"To use the streets, you have to have the support and interest of the people in them," Colin realized. Wouldn't the merchants and community groups around the Square be more than he and his co-workers could handle? They were up to their ears working on the Harvard Festival of the Arts, and yet feedback on their larger ideas was so strong that they were set on rechristening their unborn brainchild "The Harvard Square Arts Festival."

They first heard from Howard W. Davis of the Harvard Coop, who had been approached by Bruce E.H. Johnson '72, a member of the Festival steering committee. Davis, who calls the whole scheme "wonderful," referred Colin and Bruce to Harvard Square's Planning for People Committee and the Harvard Square Merchants' Association. The University-based program was already definite by that time, and this enabled the Festival organizers to offer a grab-bag of creative drawing power to the Square vicinity. Despite some hassles about the use of Brattle Walk and the ultimate decision not to incorporate it into Festival area (many merchants feel the Walk has been hurting their business), offers of facilities and material support came readily enough. To make prospects even rosier, the idea of the Festival has met with support from Cambridge Mayor Barbara Ackermann and the Cambridge City Council, while the Chamber of Commerce also wants to get in on the act.

As this unprecedented coalition of students, artists, architects, merchants, citizens and cultural groups grew in format, the student steering committee found over the past month that it threatened to spread its energy and attentions too thin. That's when current Harvard Square Arts Festival coordinator Kristen Wainwright appeared on the scene--"a godsend," Bruce calls her--to help organize the community side of the Festival. With the experience of coordinating the 1971 Great Boston Kite Festival and serving as assistant director of the Children's Museum Visitor Center last year, Kristen is cut out for her present crusade.

One of the first things she did was to solicit sponsorship for the Festival from the Committee for the Better Use of Air, thereby ensuring the Festival a tax-exempt status and emphasizing its ecological sympathies. "Through the interaction of the community, artists and students, along with the celebration of spring," she says, "the many disparate elements of the Cambridge community can be brought together to heal the scars left by many unhappy and neglectful years."

The goal of the Festival has now become a manifold effort to improve the cultural climate of the Harvard and Cambridge communities, and to reinforce this by the free and fanciful use of the environment. The spirit pervading the Festival should be, in Weezy's words, "doing as well as seeing."

WHEN ONLY A SHORT TIME left until the Festival opens, the Loeb itself is humming with rehearsal fever. On the mainstage, Liz Coe is directing Moliere's "Imaginary Invalid," the first play she has directed which is not twentieth century. In her production of "The Imaginary Invalid," Coe has fused her directorial and authorial talents by integrating three translations to compose the script, "to depart from the stiff, dull and awkward seventeenth century prosaic speech patterns to which the academic translators feel committed. But this departure from the sacred script," she goes on to explain, "is just an extension of the motif we have followed in every aspect of our production: anachronism." As she firmly guides the rehearsal she interjects suggestions that let her cast experiment with tones ranging from starkly modern to flamboyant seventeenth century.

Directing a cast of serious, capable actors, Coe can allow herself plenty of zany liberties with their creative abilities. "The props include an adding machine and roller skates," she says, "and Moliere's poetic interludes that divide the three acts are set to Golden Oldies. Moliere is one of the most traditional of the French comic dramatists, but by escaping the mannerisms of the day and by capitalizing on his comic strength, impeccable dramatic construction, his remarkable sense of character, we have given ourselves the freedom to enjoy Moliere to its fullest."

She waves eloquent in praise of the Festival: "We have marched in Washington, we have trampled the moon, we have seen the Olympics. The Festival will allow us to make a conscious return to the arts. And I think, as is true in any return following a long absence from home, one forgets how many good things there were in the refrigerator."

Playing the Festival theme of cooperation between the arts to the hilt. "Invalid" will share its set with another mainstage extravaganza, Mozart and DaPonte's "Don Giovanni," performed by the Leverett House Opera Society. Jon Miller designed the set that will be used for both shows. His main concept of the design is that "both works spring from the Renaissance, even though they date from a good deal later, and I wanted to give that feeling. The Moliere has to be something light, with lots of doors and tricks, 'Giovanni' should be something quite different."

Mozart and DaPonte's masterpiece of theatre is considered to be, more than any opera, a fusing of the two forms of drama and opera. The story is based on the legend of Don Juan and the Stone Guest; the production itself, producer Howard Hawkins points out, is bursting with talent. Director David Bartholemew is chairman of the Opera-Theatre Department at the Boston Conservatory; musical director John Miner will be conducting fellow at Tanglewood this summer. To say nothing of the cast. "The production is the result of a strange situation in Boston," Hawkins muses. "There are no decent English-speaking opera companies in the area and only two professional companies, despite the fact that Boston has a concentration of the best music schools in the country. I think that this production exists on a higher level than one would expect at Harvard." Judging from the acclaim Leverett Opera has received in the past, the level, by whatever standards, will be excellent.

Twentieth century drama and small experimental productions have not been neglected, and both the Loeb Ex and various Houses will provide a wide scope of choices for theatre-goers. Describing the Ex's first weekend as "an amusing 'Waiting for Godot'," director Arthur Lasky '72 goes on to clarify his production of "Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead." Written by Tom Stoppard, it is a version of "Hamlet" seen from the perspective of two characters on the periphery of the action, "which gives the whole thing a sense of existential displacement." The following weekend, Arthur Fainsod '73 will be directing Ionesco's "Victims of Duty" in which the master of the ridiculous gets his kicks in depth psychology. It's "very much in the tradition of the absurd," the director says.

Disproving the false barrier between academia and the arts, Winthrop House will be doing Brecht's "The Measures Taken," a production that originated in Martin Andrucki's Humanities 96v seminar on politics and theatre. Heading in an opposite direction from Brecht's political consciousness. Eliot House will be presenting Jean-Louis Barrault's "Rabelais," a modern adaptation of Rabelais's "Gargantua" and termed by one of the production staff "a dramatic obscenity, or to be more subtle about it, a dramatic game in two parts." Dunster House, too, may well create a stir with its production of the success de scandale "Saved" by Edward Bond.

Not to be outdone by theatre, the Harvard-Radcliffe music community has a spectacular number of performances scheduled. The Harvard-Radcliffe Orchestra, conducted by James Yannatos, will be on the Loeb mainstage opening night. Rumor had it that the Orchestra would be doing "Peter and the Wolf" narrated by President Bok, but that tidbit seems to have died a quiet death. Their program fittingly enough includes Stravinsky's "Rite of Spring." The Bach Society Orchestra has promised its full cooperation in a concert in Lowell House Dining Room, ending its season with Bach's "Second Brandenburg Concerto."

Back at the Loeb, the musical menu also lists performances by the Collegium Musicum, the Harvard University Band, and Professor Leon Kirchner's Performance Seminar. The seminar performances are being organized by Currier House music tutor Jay Gottlieb. He sees the Festival as "focusing the spotlight on the arts here." More informally, Mike Luskin is scheduling Chamber Group Concerts by Harvard students in the Loeb West Lobby. These concerts will be held in the afternoons and will provide a lovely accompaniment to a stroll through the Festival's Student Art Show. The exhibit is a collection of everything from photography to painting, puppets to macrame, sculpture to models for stage sets--and entries are still welcome.

The Loeb West Lobby, containing the sedate strains of chamber music in the afternoons, will great the audiences leaving the mainstage performances at night with the more raucous entertainment of the Currier House Cabaret. The Cabaret's first season up at Radcliffe has met with tremendous popularity, and for late-night entertainment it can't be best. Most items on the agenda are definite, and cabaretier Al Franken '72 promises "the best of the Cabaret." But more important, some slots are still open, and people who would like to audition should get in touch with Al. In his words, "the function of the Cabaret is to get Harvard talent that isn't yet structured for things we have here already. We'll take anything."

The Festival is not only expanding beyond all geographical expectations; it is also drawing back talent from the past. The Harvard Gilbert and Sullivan Players will be putting on "Yeomen of the Guard" under the direction of Jim Burt and with conductor Gerald Moshell, both old Harvard and Gilbert and Sullivan grads. And the Byzantium Russian Liturgical Choir, says Weezy, "were all here as students together, and now they're all doctors or something and still singing together."

At the other end of the Harvard family tree, freshman Lindsay Davis is getting ready to launch his production of "The Fantasticks." Down by the river, another form of cabaret will be housed in Mather House Dining Hall, where Guy Rochman '72 has been rehearsing his "Jacques Brel Is Alive and Well and Living in Paris." Rochman is a perfectionist who treated his cast to a vacation of 12-hour rehearsal days. The quality of the production reflects this devotion, and the whole Mather set-up looks and sounds like a lot of fun, with huge baskets of fruit and flowers and all the wine you can drink.

There's also going to be lots of dancing at both Festivals--large open-air square dances, folk-dancing demonstrations and rock concerts, as well as in more formal presentations indoors. The good news about the Harvard-Radcliffe Afro-American Dance Theatre, choreographed by Bill Mackey, has already spread. The group has met with an incredible amount of success over the past year, due in large part to Mackey's guidance. Not the least of his achievements was the choreography for Genet's "The Blacks" at the Loeb in 1970. For his evening on May 14 he plans to do ten different works, in a style he calls "dance-drama." He loves working with his dancers in a class situation and has a great support with them, but "if an artist works at his craft I think it's feasible for him to express this in front of an audience." Festival audiences will no doubt appreciate Mackey's particular brand of participation in the dance program. Rika Burnham's Dance Group, another company that has evolved out of a Radcliffe dance class, promises to be equally first-rate.

Not all outdoor and community events will be as far-fetched as the proposed Grand Balloon Event, yet Kristen Wainwright and her fellow Harvard Square coordinators plan to make as full and original use of the environment as possible. To Jib Lampl, the Festival's "environmental" coordinator, the entire Harvard Square and Harvard Yard terrain can serve as a playground for his creativity. Jib is a junior who has taken a semester off "because I was thoroughly disillusioned with the state of arts at the University and with the role the College plays in relation to the community. The University should do much more to provide better environmental conditions for the surrounding area, especially through the media of arts and design." Hoping, among other things, to put up sculpture in the Yard and organize street and garbage-can paint-ins. Lampl needs all the help and contributions he can get. Working with both children's art classes from Project, Inc., and a group of women who will be quilting one of the Harvard Square street banners, he also welcomes student projects in any form. Get in touch.

The Square area will be utilized to its full capacity, largely through the ready cooperation of so many of the stores and banks throughout the area. Like many other stores, the Coop will have special window displays celebrating the celebration, but Howard Davis has also offered to close off Palmer Street for Festival activities. Along with Forbes Plaza and the courtyard of the Architects' Collaborative, this will be the area devoted to outdoor demonstrations of batikking, macrame and pottery, and the space allotted to events like puppet shows, concerts and the escapades of recycle workshops. The entire Festival will be linked for a day by video monitors which are part of the University's recently rediscovered cable television system. Stepping back in time, a group of jugglers will serve to lead Festival-goers from one event to another.

Art exhibits sponsored by the Cambridge Art Association will provide a feast for the eyes, an Advocate poetry reading by Kenneth Koch spice for the ears--and various restaurants will cater to real appetites with special menus and rates designed for the Festival. One of the Square's major commerical events will be a large auction, the profits of which will go to the Festival fund. The idea for this auction reflects the sense of community already growing so rapidly among merchants, students and community, but every shop seems to be coming up with its own little brainstorm for the Festival.

And so the Harvard Square wonderland continues to blossom under Kristen's resourceful direction. At Festival "headquarters" at the Loeb, activity has reached a feverish pitch on stage, in the shop and in the HDC office. Jon, Weezy and Colin seem to be everywhere at once, followed by an enthusiastic production staff wherever they go. Yet the working group is not yet large enough--the Harvard Festival of the Arts and the Harvard Square Arts Festival want to provide a spring celebration for every interested Harvard student, for every fun loving or energetic member of the Harvard and Cambridge communities. As a spring festival the events that make up the celebration will attempt to convey a sense of creation and creativity as befits this season of the year.. Whether artist or performer, technician or observer, auditor or participant, no one will remain unaware of this new development on the cultural and environmental scene in Cambridge.

Hopefully, the Festival will draw everyone into a whirl of actions and activities. Giant easels listing the Festival schedule will be installed throughout the Harvard Houses and thousands of long green program strips will itemize the events. For those with a more active interest, the number to call is 495-2152. The Festival needs your help--but what is more, you probably need the Festival