Article

Drama and Music Festival

March 1939
Article
Drama and Music Festival
March 1939

ROBERT E. SHERWOOD, president of the Dramatists' Guild, of New York City, has announced the formation of an advisory committee on the proposed Summer Drama and Music Festival to be held at Dartmouth when funds are secured for construction of the million-dollar theater plant. Even though no date for beginning construction can be set owing to lack of funds for the project, Mr. Sherwood has asked the advisory committee named below to meet and discuss plans for the Drama Festival which is visualized as the first coordinated movement of major importance to benefit the drama in this country.

The members of the Guild's advisory committee are: Brooks Atkinson, Arthur Byron, Harold Clurman, George M. Cohan, Katherine Cornell, Jane Cowl, John Golden, Max Gordon, Sam H. Harris, Theresa Helburn, Arthur Hopkins, Robert Edmund Jones', Lawrence Langner, Guthrie McClintic, Burns Mantle, Raymond Massey, and Donald Oenslager.

In addition Mr. Sherwood has asked the following younger playwrights to serve as members of a committee to plan summer drama activity for the proposed new Little Theater at Dartmouth: George Sklar, Melvin Levy, Philip Lewis, Janet Marshall, Robert Turney, Stanley Young, Leopold Atlas, Alladine Bell, George Corey, Alis De Sola, Ben Simkhovitch, Betty Smith, and Arnold Sundgaard.

In discussing his conception of the Summer Drama and Music Festival proposed for Hanover, Mr. Sherwood recently said:

"The Dartmouth Summer Drama Festival can become an occasion of nationaland international importance—with representation of the best of both music anddrama; it can provide magnificent opportunities for the try-outs of new plays, aswell as of revivals; it can provide occupationduring the lean summer months andinvaluable training for many young peopleof the theatre; it can provide a shiningand much needed example for otherAmerican universities and communities tofollow; it can well mark the beginning ofa summer circuit for plays and concertswhich would make it financially possiblefor units—a symphony orchestra underToscanini—or a repertory company, underKatherine Cornell or Helen Hayes or theLunts—to tour from Hanover, N. H., toPalo Alto, California, with guarantees ofsufficiently large and appreciative audi-ences all along the way."

OLDEST LIVING GRADUATEZeeb Gilman '63 of Redlands, Calif., whowill be 98, May 13. This photograph comesto the MAGAZINE through the courtesy ofFred E. Winn 'B7.