HDC May Disband, Go Bankrupt, Blames Administration 'Hostility'

The Harvard Dramatic Club will probably disband soon, David E. Green'58, Club president, said last evening. A meeting of its Executive Board, scheduled for this afternoon, should decide the Club's fate.

Green cited Dean's office hostility as the major cause of the movement to disband. He stated that this attitude, combined with certain "financial considerations," has made it impossible for the HDC to operate on the large scale proper for a college wide organization.

Green admitted that it would probably be necessary for the Club to go into bankruptcy if it did disband, for its present debts total $2000, including the outlay on the impending production of Shaw's Doctor's Dilemma. He estimated that the receipts from this play, plus a consequent sale on assets, estimated at $700, would remove most of this debt, but not all.

Green and James S. Harrison '57, his predecessor as HDC president, last night called for a new college dramatic organization to be formed next fall, under Administration auspices. Only such a group, they maintained, could efficiently conduct dramatics on a College-wide scale. They suggested that this new group should voluntarily assume any outstanding obligations of the HDC, to "preserve the name of Harvard theater."

The financial difficulties of the Club stem partly from the recent production of Hamlet and from a lack of suitable shop space. Having been evicted from its Dudley Hall shop room, as a result of a recent fire, the Club now has no place in which to prepare sets, lighting, and other necessary stage equipment. Lack of facilities in the past has repeatedly forced the Club to "start from the beginning" in getting together such equipment; and this, according to Club officials, has constituted an unnecessary financial waste.

Loan Turned Down

Green indicated that he had met with Dean Watson in the past few days in an attempt to secure help for the HDC from the Administration. According to Green his requests for a loan and for shop space on University property were both turned down. Furthermore, he reported being told that the Faculty Committee on Student Activities would oppose any attempt by the Club to rent outside facilities.

Green reported that "a member of the Administration told us Monday afternoon that he would just as soon see drama at Harvard discontinued until the new theatre is built." Another member of the HDC Executive Board lamented what he called the University's anti-theatre policy," as manifested in its unwillingness to create a faculty drama department and its refusal actively to support the HDC.

Harrison and Green both agreed in calling the present set-up of the HDC "impossible" and said that "Harvard has led us to believe that a College-wide dramatic organization is not wanted at this time."

Should the Executive Board decide this afternoon in favor of disbanding, it will submit a recommendation to this effect at a meeting of the entire Club membership. Green and Harrison thought it extremely unlikely that the membership would go aaginst such a recommendation.