Loeb Drama Festival Attracts 300

Student response to the Loeb Shakespeare-Marlowe festival has been unprecedented, according to Daniel Seltzer, acting director of the Loeb Drama Center. Over 300 students came to the preliminary interviews for the project, held during the two weeks before vacation.

The most heartening development Seltzer noted, is that many of the students have become interested in Harvard drama for the first time. Every effort will be made to allow all of the students interviewed to work in the productions, he added. Official cast notices, however, will not be announced until Jan. 15.

The repertory project, first proposed by Seltzer early in November, will combine lectures and discussions with normal rehearsals. Stage managers set designers, costume designers, and lighting experts, as well as actors, will discuss acting problems in Elizabethan drama and technical and conceptual problems in all types of theater. The workshops will continue through rehearsals, Seltzer said, to increase the "education note" of productions.

A Fusion

"Seltzer said that he hopes the group can "bring the technical and acting portions of the Loeb closer together." In the past, he observed, technical personnel have been separated from the actual dramatic work.

The festival will culminate in full stage mountings of King Lear and Julius Caesar in early April and May and concert readings of four plays by Christopher Marlowe. The dates for the Marlowe readings have not announced.