THE STAGE WITHOUT PROPS

Dramatics at Harvard in recent years have been often characterized by an ambitious tinge of the extravaganza. A purely creative side of the theatre has perhaps been overlooked as the undergraduates brought to Cambridge work from afar in which the emphasis was decidedly on the appeal and glitter of exotic pageantry. The Dramatic Club apparently chose to focus its attention on a finished performance with all the attendant splendor of a circus parade, rather than spend the greater part of its efforts on original experimentation. The entertainment offered has been its own reward. The Club's last few performances without question developed a much to be desired technique in the staging of its presentations. Now with the announcement of an original undertaking as the spring production there is evidence of rounding out the field of endeavor.

Creative work in the theatre cannot be forgot by those who would have college dramatics realize their fullest possibilities. The spring program of the Dramatic Club affords an opportunity for this development. That the scheduled musical comedy is the result of student authorship, combined with the fact that it is to be directed within the club, takes the performance out of the class of an amateur company going through the routine mechanics of the professional stage. Further, the absence of semi-professional support in the cast forces the show to stand on its own feet and to make its appeal on its merits as a purely undergraduate endeavor.

If theatrical activity at Harvard is to keep the pace set in other institutions some consistent encouragement must be given to an effort to work in the theatre from the ground up. Smooth renderings of the plays of other men, however much they may foster neglected art, cannot replace one benefits had when students roll us their sleeves and do the entire job themselves. Unless undergraduate drama at Harvard is to prove a sterile toying with colored lights and elaborate stage sets some permanent avenue must be opened for those who would do more than follow through the trappings of the artistic mode.