Dramatics

THE COMMITTEE on Undergraduate Education (CUE) last week endorsed drama courses for credit, bringing the proposal one step closer to a long-overdue Faculty vote.

The CUE's presentation to the Faculty Council will include necessary stipulations to ensure that all undergraduates have a chance to benefit from the talent and experience of the American Repertory Theater (ART) staff under its director Robert S. Brustein who also directs the Loeb.

Harvard already grants independent study credit for music lessons, and the Visual and Environmental Studies Department offers courses in photography and film.

Dramatics also involves developing a skill; performance is an integral part of studying drama or music. Drama courses would apply dramatic theory to the production of a play in the way applied math courses relate the practical and theoretical in that field.

Students originally voiced concern that ART instructors would seek positions at Harvard only to further their own careers, without a real commitment to teaching.

Under the CUE's proposals, the Faculty Committee on Dramatics would be empowered to hire instructors and would periodically evaluate both the teaching staff and the courses themselves to regulate quality.

The CUE stipulations have made drama for credit palatable to both the Educational Resources Group and the Harvard-Radcliffe Dramatics Club, groups that had opposed the idea, and Brustein himself has called the suggestions "a masterpiece."

Harvard again has a chance to correct a notorious gap in its programs. We urge the Faculty to make Drama courses a part of the Harvard curriculum.