With the Players
THE INTERFRATERNITY Play Contest was run off this year from the 21st to 27th of March with the finals, in which four shows placed, on the 28th. It was a banner year from every standpoint, and credit goes to Ted Packard for his direction. There were 17 plays entered, seven of which were originals; and the standard of acting, direction, and production reached a new high. The audiences were large every night and the evening of the finals was one of the most hilarious nights the campus has seen in a long while.
The contest was won by Delta Tau Delta for the second year with their production of the rustic scenes from Shakespeare's AMidsummer Night's Dream. With the difficult material with which they had to deal, they did an amazingly fine job. The comic business and modern dress brought new life into Shakespeare. The Betas, who won from the Delts during the preliminaries, were awarded second place by the judges for their production of Meddlesome'sSpring Song by Ralph Hill and Dick Shaw. It will long be remembered in Hanover as the story of the meddlesome landlord. Dick Shaw sailed along with flying colors in the lead and won for his fraternity the new Taylor Memorial Cup, which has been presented to the contest by Sam Dillon '37 in memory of Bob Taylor '37 who acted in a great many of the Players' shows. This production also won the cup for the best acting.
Sigma Chi, led by Dutch Holland, seems to have a fondness for Madison Morton and for the third successive year presented one of his plays, namely Slasher andCrasher. It was packed with a carload of laughs and Dutch who is a natural for this type of exaggerated comedy seemed to have grown a flock of little' Hollands all acting in the same manner. They will carry on in the true Sigma Chi spirit next year.
The fourth play in the finals was the Phi Kappa Psi's production of The Importance of Being Earnest by Oscar Wilde. In a shortened version it was an amusing and well done comedy, directed by Sandy Mills, and with Gene Waggaman doing a difficult role in a woman's part.
There were several shows of outstanding merit which did not reach the finals and I mention a few. oola, an original satire on skiing at Dartmouth by Dave Bradley, won praise for the Phi Gams, as they took the College over the coals with song and dance. The Phi Delts put a new ending on the old stand-by, The Still Alarm. Wendell Lake of Zeta Psi won honorable mention for the best original with TheMind Master.
