Dramatics

DIRECTOR, THE EXPERIMENTAL THEATER

ANY college or university feels the pressures of the times. Any change in the surrounding outlook or the economic status of the country or the world is reflected in the College. The degree to which the College responds to this outward change is a measure of the College itself. One small segment of the Hopkins Center is the direct result of just such change which comes from the theater world.

Robinson Hall was built in 1914 and, at the time was itself an expression of expansion into a realm which would have been inconceivable even as early as the turn of the century. The announcements of the plans for Robinson Hall which are preserved in the College archives describe the Little Theater as a "duplication of all the facilities which are to be seen in a theater in New York." The realization fell far short, but by far the most important consideration in building the Little Theater was the response to the expansion of drama in the universities and the growing feeling that the American drama was important and "respectable." Where Brander Matthews at Columbia and George Pierce Baker at Harvard had blazed the trail Dartmouth had to follow. And Dartmouth did follow, not in the sense of "keeping up" with Harvard but because the same initiative that had moved Harvard and Columbia was felt here.

Robinson Hall has been in existence for 43 years. It is no exaggeration to say that it is the most used facility in the College. Rehearsals, production work and performances alternate to keep the Little Theater in action six, sometimes seven, days a week. With the exception of a small "wart" added to the rear of the stage and used for scene storage, this building is the same building that was so enthusiastically conceived and erected in 1914.

In its time Robinson has served many purposes. It was planned, after the custom of the 1914 period so that a play could be given followed by a dance. In those days a play was considered a necessary adjunct to an evening of dancing. There may have been serious students of play-writing at Harvard, but elsewhere, Dartmouth included, a play was ranked primarily as "entertainment pure and simple." There is no hint of criticism in this. The dramatic program was the product of its era. Plays were beginning to be thought of as solid literary fare but the idea of dramatics within a college possibly supplementing the curriculum was almost unheard of. What was remarkable at Dartmouth was the fact that Robinson Hall was built as a theater.

In the outside world the dramatic attitude continued apace. The 1920s brought about the most imaginative and creative period the American Theater has ever known and this was reflected at Dartmouth by the creation of the Experimental Theater in 1927, and in the introduction of a course in play-writing. Throughout these years Robinson Hall was used variously by about five different organizations all producing plays and even by other non-dramatic activities. Besides the Dartmouth Players and the Experimental Theater, both organizations whose activity was solely drama, the foreign language clubs, Cercle Francais, Centro Espanol and Germania, all produced plays. Faculty dances and some student dances were given in Robinson Hall, which added to the scheduling problems.

For approximately the last ten or twelve years the Dartmouth Players and the Experimental Theater have had to preempt Robinson Hall almost entirely. The program of plays, many of them reflecting the literary-dramatic aspects of the curriculum, has assumed an importance that does not need the added incentive of a "dance to follow." In Robinson Hall the play is the thing.

The Frost Prize play contest, which is a constant activity of the Experimental Theater and is the only outlet of the creative art of playwriting, has in the last few years been moved up and down on the calendar. This contest, student-directed and student-acted, is one that requires careful production and planning as well as performing. Because it usually involves the production of no less than three one-act plays, the requirements of the casts are usually very demanding. To find a time when many of the good actors of the College are not otherwise engaged has been a definite problem. Even worse is the lack of adequate rehearsal space. Robinson Hall during the day is at the disposal of the production staff, who fabricate and paint the scenery. In the evening Players rehearsals take precedence and the basement of Webster Hall is the only other place. This is shared with Buildings and Grounds, which uses it for the storage of excess furniture.

Of recent years the growth of experimental productions off Broadway has been reflected here in various groups, some from within the Players and some from outside, who feel that certain plays not currently on the schedule of the Players or Experimental Theater schedule are of overwhelming importance and must be produced without delay. Occasionally this urge comes simply from an actor who wants desperately to play a certain role or from the fact that a certain type of play has an overriding interest. Whatever the reason, this intense dramatic activity is somehow important. Important not only to the students who are the moving forces but to the College as a whole. Sometimes these sudden spurts of drama fail. In a number of instances in recent years such groups have not even been able to produce the play,, simply because there was no time in the schedule or no space for rehearsal and performance. They were not allowed even to fail, and failure is important. Through failure they learn.

It is for this reason that the arrangements in the Hopkins Center have provided rooms where several rehearsals can go on simultaneously. Where there is sufficient unrestricted room on the stages of both theaters and the rehearsal room to allow duplicate floor areas for the finished production. The Players and the Experimental Theater will continue with their full and regular programs and there will be extra space for other burgeoning activity in the Drama. It need hardly be said that all of this was planned in view of the present activities and with "lagniappe" for growth. The strait-jacket of Robinson Hall rose as a constant specter throughout the planning and served as a goad to design space as flexibly as possible so that a single period or era of drama would not hedge in future dramatic activity.

Especially important is the freedom that this new plan will allow for the careful prouction of great dramatic masterpieces which are now taught almost entirely as literary works. The drama is a form which should be studied in context. This context is the theater itself. It includes the text of the play, the players, and the audience. To read a play, however much esthetic pleasure that may give, is to omit more than half of the surrounding paraphernalia of the art form. One reads a play alone, but the author of the play wrote it with the notion of a mass audience reacting cooperatively.

The theaters in the Hopkins Center should be able to house these activities with ease. It should do more, for just as Robinson Hall has been stretched to accommodate undreamed-of performances, the more flexible and imaginative form of the new Center should act as a goad to much more imaginative production.

Professor Henry B. Williams