ON WITH THE SHOW

Some weeks ago the Harvard Dramatic Club announced a play writing contest open to all members of the University. The best play submitted, should it prove satisfactory, is to be rewarded by production. The Dramatic Club hopes that such a contest will not only furnish incentive to talented students to write plays, but will indicate to the English Department, by the response shown the competition, the need for courses in play writing and allied fields.

Unfortunately at present the Harvard curriculum is entirely devoid of courses in the technology of the stage. Since Professor Baker has left Cambridge, and the "47 Workshop" has become a subtitle on book covers rather than a reality on the Charles, dramatic writing at Harvard seems to have given way to the less technical fiction and the more imaginative poetry.

The value of the present competition will be increased if the participants show by their interest that the demand for instruction in dramatic writing is a genuine one. The Dramatic Club is making as great an effort as it can to fill the gap left in the English department by the exodus of Mr. Baker, but it cannot alone complete the task it has set for itself. Dramatic writing is as important a form of expression as is fiction and poetry, and as such should be recognized by the English Department. The present lack of balance in composition courses should be compensated by the inclusion of a play writing course in the curriculum.