Chapman Play Opens Saturday in New York

Robert H. Chapman, instructor in English, leaves for New York this afternoon for the opening of his play. "Billy Budd." Chapman, who now gives English 160, worked three and a half years with co-author Louis Coxe on the adaptation of Herman Melville's novel.

"Billy Budd" opens Saturday at the Biltmore Theatre in New York, after two preview performances. The show played ten days in Philadelphia and New Haven and was revised and re-written on the road.

Chapman began work on the play in 1947. It was produced in that year by the now-defunct Experimental Theatre in New York. Eventually rights to the show were obtained by the present producer, Chandler Cowles. Dennis King is starred.

Chapman is an instructor in English C. He considers the preview performances as a "precautionary measure."