Season fat Canada's Stratford:
Audience Enthusiasm, Exciting and Original Productions
The Work of National Student I
By RICHARD BURKE
E SEASONS AGO, the Stratford
Shakespeare Festival was hailed by
some as the symbol of a theatrical ren-
aissance in Canada. Others predicted dis-
aster for what they considered rash pre-
sumption. Neither of the predictions has
been fulfilled.
The theatre is financially stable, and
Stratford has become a national insti-
tution, but the new National theatre
school in Montreal is the only visible
sign of a theatrical rebirth in Canada.
BUT THE SUCCESS or failure of one
theatre is of little concern unless an
ideal or principle is at stake. The signifi-
cance of the Stratford Festival goes
beyond management's balance sheet. It
has represented year by year, the partial
realization of an ideal.
A permanent theatre has been in oper-
ation for five seasons, and a place where
Canadian artistic talent can be developed
and trained is now firmly established.
The presentation of the complete Shake-
speare canon is the next goal of a long
range program, and it is the hope of the
Festival's producers and directors that
other works, especially those of the mod-
ern theatre can be presented on their
stage with excitement and originality.
For any venture in the theatre, it is
the audience which completes the dream.
Unless the audience shares in the desired
ideal, a theatre must wither and pass on.
Fortunately, the Stratford audiences do
care. They want to see the ideal realized,
and they want to be a part of it.
This desire to share has been evidenced
not only in the generous contributions
from thousands of interested people, but
also in the need to expand the schedule
from an initial five weeks to a full summer
and early fall season. The directors of
Stratford have responded to the enthus-
iasm of their patrons, in a way that is
uninue in modern theatre operation. They
care too.
During the final week of the Festival
of 1958. a series of secial matinee per-
formances of Henry IV, Part One. drew
twelve thousand secondary school stu-
dents. In the next two years, this program
of matinee performances was extended,
so that in 1960, eahteen thousand stu-
dents were able to see thmo and Juliet.
This slimmer. H nrv the Fihth was pre-
CONTENTS
THE SEASON AT_
STRATFORD ....... . .Page Two
By Richard Burke,
THE DECLINE AND FALL
OF WOLGOMOT ..........Page Four
By Bernard Waldrop
OXFORD: THE ACADEMIC
SANDCASTLE ... . ..... . . Page Five
By Stephen Beal
PREVIEWS
AND REVIEWS.......Page Seven
SYMPHONY BAND:ev
THE RUSSIAN TOUR .... Page Eight
By Richard Ostling
STUDENT ACTION AND REACTION:
A Daily Special Section
THE STUDENT PEACE
CORPS MOVEMENT. .. Page Ten
By Judith and Alan Guskin
STUDENTS AND HUAC Page Eleven
By Kenneth McEldowney
THE SILENT
GENERATION..........Page Twelve
By Peter Stuart
CAMPUS
CONSERVATIVES......Page Thirteen
By Michael Gillman
THE STUDENT
REVOLUTIONS . ; ....Page Fourteen
By Robert Ross
Editor:-Faith Weinstein
PHOTO CREDITS: Cover: Associated
Press; Pages Two and Three: cour
tesy of the Stratford Festival; Page
Four: Daily; Page Five: top left,
Michael Smyth, top right, Faith
Weinstein; Page Six: top, Weinstein;
Page Seven: James Keson; Pages
Eight and Nine: University News
Service; Page Ten: Associated Press;
Page Eleven: Associated Press; Page
Twelve: Giltrow, Archie Sader Page
Thirteen: Associated Press; Page
Fourteen: Associated Press; Page I
Fifteen: World University Service,
Associated Press.j
other, at least once a year. At these-ses-
sions which last -for about a week, the
intense nationalism of the Algerian stu-
dents is turned into an intense period of
introspection and inspection of the state
of their fight for independence:
The war with France is discussed in an
attempt to bring everyone up to date. The
politics of their own government are dis-
cussed,:to make the present policy under-
stood. Finally, and as an example of their
dedication, these students bring to their
conferences papers on various aspects of
their.-specialties. Students do projects on
public health, sanitary engineering, eco-
nomic problems. The conference will hear
and debate their recommendations. These
people are ndt playing; they are preparing
themselves to govern what they say will
be the best staffed government of the
newly independent nations.,
IN LATIN AMERICA, there is a different
conception of the role of the student in
society: the political university. The poli-
tical university is a phenomenon unique
to Latin America. It is a term that is hard
for a North American to understand. In
a sense the political university connotes
the total involvement of the student in
the problems of his society. As one Latin
American student leader has written:
"Of course a student has to study, but
he must also discuss on the plane of
ideas the solutions to the problems
of which he has been made aware.
. . . They (students) know that if
youth itself does not take an interest
in these problems there can be no
hope that will ever be solved."
The University Reform Movement is
the traditional vehicle of the asoiations
of T.n+.in Amerin students. It was started
in Cordloha. Arpentina. in 1918. Students.
there flnnlly broke "the last chain which
in the 20th Century which still attached
ns to the old monarchial and monastic
clnmination." The Cordoba Manifesto de-
celhrxs:
".. we want to eradicate from the
university orpanization that archaic
and herbs-roes eoncent of authority,
which in the university is a bulwark
of absurd tyranny and which merely
serves crimina11ty to nrotect false
dimnity and false competence.
Sacrifice is our best incentive; this
snirit'al red.motion of Latin Ameri-
can youth is our sole reward because
we know that our cause is-un-
hanoily--common to every country
of our continent."
Thus, the Latin American student acts
with a tradition of vision and revolution
behind him. He is seen as the carrier of
the hopes of -his people; and he plays
this part self-consciously.. In protest and
rebellion,. the Latin American student will
act with a strong feeling for national dig-
nity. What is called, simplistically, na-
tionalism, is really something much more
than that. It is pride and assertion of
nationality, to be sure, but it is also asser-
tion of youth, and vision.
The crowds of students in the streets
of Lima, chanting anti-American slogans,
and raising pictures of Fidel are acting
both in protest and assertion. They pro-
t'est the power and influence of the United
States. But they also assert their desire
for a different kind of world; for a world
in which the "new man"-the recon-
structed man-may walk with dignity,
enjoying that mystical but revolutionary
quality, "social justice."
Social justice in Latin America carries
this revolutionary mystique with it. It
means equality; it means the enjoyment
of a certain minimum of material things;
more often, it is a term hurled at the
privileged to tell them what they are not
giving the people. Fidel, in Latin America,
represents social justice; that is why his
followers are -so numerous. That is why
the imagination of the students has been
captured by the appeal of what they see
as Latin American revolution.
* * *
THERE ARE two main classes of stu-
dent action. One is action that relates
to social reconstruction, and is derived
from the new nationalism of the under-
developed countries. The other seems to
be actually reaction. That js the complex
of activities with which students have
responded to the issues of the Cold War.
These activities have been largely con-
cerned with the arms race, and the grow-
ing fear of thermonuclear war.
In Janan, students of the Zengakuren
act to create a new order, but respond in
the Pecrity Pact riots to the Arms Race.
Besides Japan, English young people
have been among the most active in dem-
onstrating against the arms race. The
Committee for Nuclear Disarmament
(CND) has been able to effectively organ-
ize mass rallies to demonstrate peacefully
aeainst missiles, testing, and bombs in
general. But it is not really a social reform
movement.
In Algeria, West Africa,: and Latin
America. on the other hand, students were
taken un by nationalism and the urge to
reform the structures of their societies.
This distinction is not clear at all. In
TLatin America. for example, the Cold War
response is nart of the drive for social
revolution. Students' resentment against
the United States partly stems from their
feeling that our policy is more anti-Com-
munist than pro-social reform. In their
eyes, and unfortunately, in U.S. actions,
there comes to be an equation between
the demand for "social justice" and anti-
Americanism.,
* * *
SURVEYING STUDENT ACTION and
thought, whatever its aim, one thing
seems dominant. The student activist-
the revolutionary, the radical, or the re-
former-is not content to take the world
as a given quantity and then to accept it.
Wherever students act and react, where-
ever there is afticulation of their opinions,
there is restlessness and rebellion.
In some countries, like the newly inde-
pendent nation of Guinea, students do not
necessarily have a hostile government
with which to deal. Their outlets of action
and protest then spread to larger prob-
lems, larger concerns.
The ills of the Cold War world become
a focus for them. This does not mean that
in a nation in which students disagree
with their government's policies they will
not concern themselves with international
issues; it does mean in certain places
there are reasons for explaining specific
student concerns.
In using Japan, Algeria, West Africa,
and Latin America just as examples of
student thought and action, the unique
features of each educational and political
tradition have shown their influence on
the mode of student expression. On the
other hand, there have been common
factors that permit comparison.
World revolution, at least from the
student viewpoint, is no longer a fruitless
Marxist-Leninist dream; students are act-
ing on the assumption that they can
reach a better order of things, and a
better relationshi'p with men.
Slowly, and with great soul-searching,
American students are becoming aware
of the trends of the international student
community. The very fact that students
in this country are able to cite student
action in Turkey, Korea, Japan and Cuba,
is an indication of a growing sensitivity
to international student action.
WHAT PLACE do American students
° have on this world scene. What rel-
evance do their actions have? What
makes the American student different?
No longer the silent generation, Ameri-
can students have been heard from con-
cerning the rights of the American Ne-
gro, concerning civil liberties, concerning
disarmament, and concerning the plight
of migratory and farm labrers. In sit-ins,
of migratory and farm laborers. In sit-ins,
Freedom Rides, anti-HUAC demonstra-
tions, and direct action projects with
migrants in California, a part of the
student community has begun to develop
a sustained and radical concern with
problems facing our nation.
But there is not a developed perspec-
tive; there is not an ideology; more sig-
nificantly, there is not a great number
Douglas Campbell and Kate Reid played Henry and Katherine in "Henry VIII" with the force and control typical of the
Stratford group's tradition of complex and competent productions.
THE
sented for two full weeks of student mati-
nees.
During the first two seasons, occasion-
al afternoon concerts were presented, and
in 1955, these were expanded to form the
first season of the Stratford Music Fes-
tival. Opera was introduced in 1956,
and that same year, the Film Festival
was inaugurated, to bring to the public a
renresentative cross-section of the world
film industry's achievements. Photo-
graphs, slides, and recorded excerpts of
the plays are available for loan to the
schools, and the annual exhibitions of
books and art, are always available t(V
jn+nrcd visitors.
Their regard for the comfort of visi-
tors is remarkable. People who arrive
without advance reservations, are en-
couraged to wait for cancellations, and
every effort is made by the box-office
people to secure tickets for them. These
theatre people are proud of their ven-
ture, and they are well aware that the
public is pleased and flattered by these
considerations.
* *
ASIDE from these tangible aspects of
the audience - theatre relationship,
there is a mutual desire to share on a
more profound level. It is most evident
in the spirit of expectancy which over-
takes the audience as the house dims, ande
the play is about to begin. The viewers
sense that they are going to be partici-
pants in this ritual, rather than passive
and docile guests. This is theatre of an-
other and better time-a time when the
audience felt itself necessary to the pro-
duction.
It is theatre of grandeur, pomp, and
majesty. The characters are going to be
bigger than life, they are going to do
things of great import, and they are going
to do them with flourish. The players are
unhampered, by the stifling conventions
of 19th century realism. They are going
to treat the audince as collaborators in
the artistic experience.
These are actors who are not afraid
to display their art to its fullest capacity.
Their training in the repertory system
has instilled a confidence in them which
comes only after years of training in the
proper use of the voice and body. They
are constantly in practice from beginning
of the season, to the last performance.
Day after day, there are classes in voice
and diction, stage movement, fencing,
scene study, and interpretation.
The younger members of the company
are required to participate in understudy
rehearsals which not only insures quali-
fied replacement in the case of emergen-
cy, but is even more valuable as a learn-
ing and developing process. Without this
intensive training, the lifeline of fresh
talent would eventually be sapped of its
strength. It has its more immediate mer-
its in, the overall unity which it guar-
antees for each production.
The players with half a dozen lines, or
perhaps none at all, are just as enthus-
iastic over their contribution as the lead-
ing players. There are none of the glar-
ing inadequacies so frequently encount-
ered in productions with large casts.
There are none of the incoherent mum-
blers so often found on the American pro-
fessional stage.
The performers have played and train-
ed together over the years, and they have
come to know their own neculiarities of
style, as well as those of their colleagues.
They can anticipate moods and actions,
which lends a sense of cohesiveness and
mutual understanding to the perform-
ance. This is a system devoted to the
playwright.
There are stars in the company, but
they are not stars in the worst commercial
sense, where the play is tailored to fit
the personality of one or two performers.
An actor may be the star of one produc-
tion, and play a minor role in another.
The artistic goals of the group take
precedence over any selfish desires for
fame and personal recognition.
They attack their work with dedication
and purpose, fully realizing that only
in this way can a level of perfection be
achieved. Some of the actors and actresses
have been with the Festival since its in-
ception in 1953. Many have played three,
four or five seasons, while others have
played intermittently over the years. It
is this devotion to an ideal which has
helped to make Stratford a tradition,
rather than an isolated example of the
successful theatrical enterprise.
. * * *
BUT THEATRICAL TRADITION in
theatre is one thing, and a traditional
approach is something quite different.
-The traditional approach "to the staging
of Shakespeare is often the safest path to
follow, but it is not. always the most
meaningful, or exciting. The season of
1961 is a splendid example of flexibility
in concept.
Michael Langham, who directed Love's
Labour Lost and Coriolanus, approached
the first play from a relatively tradition-
al point of view. His attitude toward
Coriolanus, however, revealed fresh in-
sights into the work, and developed new
meanings and new values. George Mc-
Cowan staged Henry VIII with a subtle
balance of the traditional and the exper-
imental.
LOVE'S LABOUR LOST represents
Shakespeare in a light and playful
-mood. It is the work of a man who was
amused by the foibles of the idle rich,
and the pretenses and indulgences which
they allowed themselves. It was written
to ridicule the exaaaerated attitudes' of
aristocratic society, but the attack is not
bitter or malicious, nor can it be said to
have the same sienifieance now that it
h-e in the slyteenth century.
Surely Shakespeare must have intend-
ed a delicate balance between humor and
romance, but this is a play that is more
likely to suffer from changing attitudes,
than mnny of his other works. The an-
ties of the moonstruck lovers may have
been spicy fare for an audience of an-
other'time, but the concoction now seems
incninld.
A lively young cast gallops through
these interminable love scenes, but only
the humor of Costard the clown, together
with occasional flashes from Holofernes,;
Sir Nathaniel, and Don Armado save the
play from being a very long two hours.
Sincethe play needs its humor so bad-
ly, it seems strange that the director ap-
proached the Don Armado-Moth scenes
as he did. These are the scenes which
depend heavily on the witty exchange of
barbs and repartee. It is the humor of the
comic and his foil, but Paul Scofield'%
characterization of Don Armado made
this approach difficult.
His concept of the Spanish fantastico
may be a perfectly valid one, but it never
seemed to fit the overall pattern of this
particular production. He tended to lean
Armado in the direction of old age and
infirmity, whereas a more lusty ap-
proach would have been more effective.
It might have helped too, if they had
selected an older actor for the part of
Moth, Armado's page. The boy could have
been no more than ten or eleven, and al-
though he already has a good deal of
polish and presence, he simply wasn't able
to attain the rank of full partner in the
scene. Pruning some of the schoolmaster's
pedantic inanities might have helped too,
but Love's Labour's Lost would still have.
been a long two hours.
* * *
HENRY IRVING, the great actor-man-
ager of the late nineteenth century.
dismissed Coriolanus with four short
words: "Not worth a damn." This is a
strange attitude for a man who was con-
stantly in search of starring vehicles.
Few of Shakespeare's plays afford a
better opportunity for the leading char-
acter to thoroughly dominate the action.-
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