Drama Scholarship

DARTMOUTH WILL offer a $1000 scholarship after the war to a member of the armed forces who is selected as an author of promise in the playwriting contest of the National Theatre Conference.

The contest, which closed on September 1, was sponsored by an organization of nonprofessional theatres, and had the support of the country's military leaders. It was open fso men and women of all ranks and in all branches of the armed services.

Warner Bentley, director of The Players, will serve as contest judge for the First Service Command. Upon his recommendation two or three manuscripts will be submitted from this region to a national committee made up of leading playwrights and critics, including such persons as Maxwell Anderson, Howard Lindsay, Rosamund Gilder, and others.

The Conference will award a total of $lOOO in cash prizes to winners in each of the following classes of competition: (1) long plays, (2) one-act plays, (3) short skits and blackouts, and (4) musical comedies. In addition, thirteen institutions will provide contest winners with post-war scholarships and fellowships. Besides Dartmouth, these include the universities of California, Indiana, lowa, Northwestern, Western Reserve, and Yale, each offering two scholarships; and Carnegie Tech, Cleveland Playhouse, Kansas, Oklahoma, Pasadena Playhouse, and Washington State participating with one grant apiece.

Explaining the underlying purpose of the contest, Mr. Bentley said that the National Theatre Conference and the.universities and colleges are offering aid to promising young dramatists in this fashion in the hope that the great renaissance in the American theatre which followed the last war may be duplicated after the close of the present conflict.