With the Players
THE double feature program of Bury the Dead and A Happy Journey to Trenton and Camden will long remain a hectic memory in the minds of the Players. Never before have we run into so many snags on one production. For example, no sooner had Warner cast the shows than grades came out and probation cut deeply into the cast of Bury the Dead. In about a week, the show was recast, and rehearsals continued in full swing until the grippe and severe colds hit Hanover, and the list of patients in Dicks House mounted steadily with a good percentage of the cast as star boarders. To top this off Warner himself caught the epidemic and was confined to his bed for the week of dress rehearsals, and for the opening performance. It was a full-time job for everybody and especially Henry Williams, who had to look to the production end during the day and to rehearsals at night.
PLAY GAINED MOMENTUM
After a slow start on the first night Burythe Dead gathered momentum, and the second and third performances witnessed a well-rounded production, with each of the thirty actors giving everything to his own short scenes. The show switches back and forth over the stage, and offers perfect opportunities to use a set composed of various levels and rolling platforms for the individual scenes. Stan Beskind '38 designed just such a set, with the grave built in front of the apron of the stage. This necessitated quick fire lighting, timed blackouts and the best stage technique for shifting scenes. Those who saw the Players' productions of Yellow Jack and JuliusCaesar will appreciate what the Robinson Hall stage looked like for Bury the Dead.
A Happy Journey was a success at any angle, and as a play was a grand finale for the evening's performances. Martin Howell's set which consisted of nothing but a backdrop painted as a road map of the trip from Newark to Camden belongs to the list of bright ideas. The cast did one °f the neatest jobs seen in Hanover in a long time, and David Todd '37 was perfect as Elmer (Pa) Kirby the father of the two Pesty kids, played by Herbert Landsman 40 and Mrs. Sally Drury, both of whom were excellent in the parts.
With the double feature behind us, we turn to the fraternity play contest which begins on March 15. Seventeen houses are 111 'he running, promising the largest and best contest in many years. However, contest or no contest, the Players are at work on their next production, Bernard Shaw's Heartbreak House, to be presented in Robinson Hall on April 16 and 17.
