Planning Committee
ANNOUNCEMENT is made by the President's Office of the addition of Professor M. F. Longhurst, chairman of the Department of Music, to membership on the planning committee for the proposed new center for drama, music and radio. President Hopkins first appointed the committee more than a year ago, instructing the members to work in collaboration with the College architect, J. Frederick Larson, in studying the uses of the proposed building and in preparing architects' plans for this much-needed addition to the College plant. In addition to Professor Longhurst and Mr. Larson the personnel of the committee includes Sidney C. Hayward '26, secretary of the College, chairman; E. Bradlee Watson '02, professor of English and the Drama; Halsey C. Edgerton 'O6, treasurer of the College; Warner Bentley, director of Dramatic Production; Lloyd K. Neidlinger '23, dean of the College; Albert I. Dickerson '30, executive assistant to the President; and Benfield Pressey, chairman of the department of English.
The committee is studying the problem of designing a large and small theater, with the large theater capable of being transformed easily into an auditorium seating 2700. In addition to complete facilities for a little theater and for the large theater and auditorium, the planning committee is also working on the problem of providing quarters for the department of Music in the forepart of the center.
Experts in the professional theater have been consulted. These conferences have been arranged largely through the courtesy of the Dramatists' Guild, the powerful organization of American playwrights which has accepted President Hopkins' offer to use the new Dartmouth theater as headquarters for a Summer Drama and Music Festival of national scope and importance.
The planning committee releases the following names of persons whose counsel has already been secured by the architect and Mr. Bentiey and other members of the planning group: Robert E. Sherwood, Maxwell Anderson, Sidney Howard, Elmer Rice, Sam Behrman, Luise Sillcox, and Barrett Clark, officers and members of the Dramatists' Guild; Walter Damrosch, symphony conductor and composer; Jo Mielziner, scene designer; Robert Ritchie, stage carpenter for Sam Harris; Stanley McCandless, Yale School of the Drama, and lighting engineer; Edward C. Cole '26, Yale School of the Drama; Austin C. Keough '11, vice-president of Paramount Pictures; John Knight, engineer in charge of Paramount Theaters; Lee Simonson, scene designer and member of Dramatists' Guild; Gilmore Brown, Pasadena Community Players; Irving Pichel, actor, director, and theater designer; Edith Isaacs, editor of Theater Arts Monthly; Professors Churchill P. Lathrop, Artemas Packard, Hugh S. Morrison, and Paul Sample, all members of the Department of Art at Dartmouth. The architect's plans will be reviewed by other consultants in the next few weeks, including engineers in the field of radio.
In a letter to the editor published in the ALUMNI MAGAZINE last month Charles A. Aaron '36 suggested that consideration be given by the College to inviting architects outside of Hanover to enter a competition for designing the proposed new theater and auditorium. From the beginning of its work the planning committee appointed by President Hopkins and the College architect, Mr. Larson, have taken advantage of every opportunity to check their ideas and plans with workers and authorities in the professional theater. The committee feels that expert advice of this nature, together with its knowledge and experience of the local scene, will result in plans that will make the Dartmouth theater plant the most effective for its several uses of any comparable building in the country.
In any discussion of the new Dartmouth theater the fact should be kept in mind that all plans are contingent upon the success of current efforts of an alumni committee to secure funds for financing the million dollar project. Basil O'Connor 'l2 is chairman of the committee in charge of the Alumni Council's effort to secure funds. Other members of the committee are: James M. Mathes '11, New York; Austin C. Keough '11, New York; Louis W. Munro '19, Boston; Carleton E. Blunt '26, Chicago; Henry E. Atwood '13, Minneapolis; Leon I. Rothschild '24, Los Angeles; Walter F. Wanger '15, Holly- wood; Arthur Hornblow Jr. '15, Holly- wood.
COLLEGE ARCHITECTJens Frederick Larson who is now working with a special faculty and administrative committee on plans for the proposednew Dartmouth center of drama, music,and radio.
