IT'S AN ILL WIND

The failure of the Cambridge School of the Drama has brought at least one consolation. It has allowed the Harvard Dramatic Club to obtain the advantages of possessing a well-equipped theatre of its own without having to support it on box-office receipts. The Dramatic Club has always been hampered by lack of equipment and its choice of plays and frequency of production have been limited because of the necessity of financial return. Although the offer of the Rogers Building is only a temporary measure it may well lead to a permanent development on the part of the Dramatic Club.

At various times in its history this organization has enjoyed an excellent reputation, recently, however, it has done little to live up to its past standards. College dramatics must inevitably suffer from the obvious amateur diseases and there is no point in attempting to create a professional troupe drawn from the undergraduate body. A college organization of this sort can, however, be of value as an experimental station for plays and for acting technique, stage handling, and for work in play-writing. It can offer expression in dramatic form to many who would otherwise never have any such opportunity.

With a theatre at its disposal the Dramatic Club should play an important part in extra-curricular activities at Harvard. If it can prove that it is worth its salt it is quite possible that the Club might be endowed with a theatre. The Cambridge School failed for many reasons, among which was the fact that it was started full-grown. The Dramatic Club is an old organization and with it as a nucleus a group might be developed which would succeed where the School of the Drama failed.