THE UNDERGRADUATE CHAIR
MOST of the fraternity news humming around the campus in the past several years has been concerned with the 1954 Referendum and the problems encountered by the fraternities in their efforts to rid themselves of nationally imposed discrimination.
Much less publicity, so little in fact that a good segment of the student body learns about it after the fact, is accorded the annual Interfraternity Play Contest, which this year celebrated its 26th year, untrammeled now, for the most part, by the discrimination controversy.
But the lack of attention, except in certain circles, is both unfortunate and quite misleading, for the contest so far as we know is unique among American colleges, and succeeds in spurring roughly 24 fraternities and some 200 men into competition.
The kind of theatre which results is at worst characterized by a certain amateurishness and rather hearty spontaneity. At best it is a professional effort prepared for with weeks of rehearsals. But whether of the reckless or professional genre, a surprising talent consistently emerges, whether in acting, producing, writing, or painting the sets.
The whole idea of the Interfraternity Play Contest finds its roots in the early thirties. The Dartmouth of March 15, 1930 tossed a "few well-directed bouquets" to Alpha Delta Phi for its second annual Christmas Play, and then proceeded, on a characteristic negative note, to accuse fraternities of being "in the last analysis, parasites." "Like mistletoe" they contribute nothing to the campus, except perhaps "a little color."
Most of all, The Dartmouth deplored the waste of all the theatrical talent in the College. "There are undoubtedly men ... who worked in dramatic organizations at high school and camp, but who have never done anything toward continuing their activities behind the footlights at college... . They have shown no interest because they feel there is no place for it."
As a suggestion for the conduct of a projected play contest, the editorial continued: "The plays need not be written by members of the house, but they could be chosen from the great variety of non-royalty plays available with an eye toward simplicity of costumery and scenery, and a minimum of female parts, or better still none at all. They could be coached by undergraduates and produced before a faculty board of judges in Robinson Hall, sometime during the winter, with three or four plays given each evening for as long a period as the contest lasted."
In April 1932 The Dartmouth, marking the first year of the contest, noted: "Conceived and worked out by J. D. Shevlin '32, the IFC contest will take place annually under the sponsorship of The Players. . . . Great progress is expected from this already auspicious beginning."
Now under the sponsorship of the Council on Student Organizations and the Interfraternity Council, the contest has had a unifying effect on the fraternities, has become an important part of the dramatic life of the College, has served as a shopping ground for talent for The Players and, with the mustering of real females for the female parts, stimulated enthusiastic participation.
Twenty-one fraternities this year took to the boards in the preliminary rounds in an effort to capture the treasured Mary Gray Gile cup awarded each year since 1932 to that house producing the best play. In the final round four fraternities, selected by the preliminary judges, vie for the top honor.
The Gile Cup has twice been retired over the years by fraternities which have produced a winner three times out of four seasons. In 1940 Sigma Chi (now The Tabard) retired the first cup, and in 1953 Delta Tau Delta (now Bones Gate) retired the second cup. Now the contest is working on its third cup.
The plays produced range from the better known ones like Mr. Roberts and the Caine Mutiny Court Martial to original scripts by students.
This year the plays that made it through the preliminary rounds of the contest included one original, a modern far-out play, a far-out play of the twenties, and a vintage vaudeville skit.
Mr. Joseph's Junkyard, a play given the prize for the best original script, by Ellis J. Adler '61, started as a short story for a creative writing course. Adler rewrote it as a play for his house, Kappa Kappa Kappa. The play demonstrates a fashionable predilection for the far-out with characters with such names as Stove, Sewage Pipe, Nut, and Whitewall Tire.
The modern far-out play - and winner of the Gile Cup for 1961 - was Sigma Nu Delta's The Sandbox by Edward Albee. This play, by the young American playwright who has had such tremendous success in Europe, is a bit of surrealism with a grandma in a sandbox, a muscle-flexer, and other sundry characters.
The far-out play of the twenties was Edna St. Vincent Millay's Aria daCapo presented by the Beta House, while the vaudeville skit was Chi Phi's Why I Am a Bachelor.
The preliminary judges who selected the finalists this year and who chose the winners of the awards for the various "bests" were Miss Janette Hallowell, Raymond J. Buck '52, and George H. Colton '35. The judges selecting the best play from among the finalists were Mrs. Nicholas Riel Jacobson, former off-Broadway actress now residing in Norwich, Dr. Gerald J. Goldberg, instructor in English, and John R. Scotford '38. The student director for this year's contest was Tony Horan '61.
Honors for the best actor went to Tell Schreiber '63 in Aria da Capo, for the best actress to Anne Savage in TheHunted, for the best supporting actor to Ford Daley '61 in Why I Am aBachelor, and for the best supporting actress to Terri Dupuis in the same play. Runners-up to Ellis Adler's Mr.Joseph's Junkyard for best original script were Touch of Brass by Paul Roewade '62, The Lion Trap by Lawrence Lockwood '63 and Bertram Rowley '63, and Winter's End by Carl Maves '63.
A review of the Interfraternity Play Contest winners from 1932 up to the present shows that Delta Tau Delta (now Bones Gate) has carried off top honors six times, most recently in 1960, to lead all the Dartmouth houses in this competition. Sigma Chi (now The Tabard) has won the Gile Cup four times. Double winners are Alpha Theta (formerly Theta Chi), Chi Phi, Phi Delta Theta, and Theta Delta Chi. Single winners are Pi Lambda Phi, Delta Kappa Epsilon, Zeta Psi, Sigma Alpha Epsilon, Psi Upsilon, Phi Kappa Psi, the Beta House, and this year's winner, Sigma Nu Delta.
