THE M1C iI A DAiii
roadway And London Stars High-Light 10th Drama Se.
ason
_ ,
i Arbor Won. Special Rdease
r Carrol's The White Steed5
n local audiences witness "The
Steed" during the 1939 Dra-
Season, they will be unwitting
to one of the most unusual
in the theatre-release of a
ful Broadway hit while it is
inning in New York. It was
'cause of the interest of Eddie
g, the producer, and Paul Vin-
"arroll, the author, in non-
ional University theatres that
cial permissio:i wa-s procured.
ill not be the first, time such
nt has occurred here, how-
Noel Coward twice gave Robert
'son, founder of the Season,'
sion to use his plays while
aere current. Both "Private
and "Design for Living" were
while still running. Deval's
ich" also came here through
White Steed," latest of the
was termed by George Jean
i"the season's best play."
'lls the story of a querulous,
ty paralytic with a sense of
a taste for the foibles of his
oners and a gourmet's appre-
oWar In Troy -'s
Airerican Premiere
Listed For May 15
An outstanding feature of the 1939
Dramatic Season will be the open-
ing presentation-the American pre-
miere of Jean Girdaudoux's "No War
in Troy!"
A stellar cast that includes Philip
Merivale in the starring role of Hec-
tor, Dennis Hoey and Doris Dalton
has been provided for the play,
which previousLy had a successful
debut in Paris and Budapest.
Dealing with the problems of war
and peace, "No'War in Troy!" has
been termed "witty and yet intense.",
Its mythologyical personages are
treated with little reverence but deft
characterization by the playwright
makes them seem typically human.
One unusual thing about the play
will be the settings, which represent
the ramparts of Troy. Fifty color-
ful costumes have been designed for
the presentation. o
Critics applauded "the clever meth-
od in which application to modern
situations is made through the use
of allegory."
The play will open Monday, May
15.
Shows Attract
Wide Interest
Announcement Of Season
Wins Press Notice
In the years since it was established
in 1930, the Ann Arbor Dramatic
season has won national acclaim in
theatrical circles as one of the out-
standing little theatre festivals in
the country.
When announcement of the season
was made this year it won mention
in publications in all parts of the
United States. So important do dra-
matic critics of Detroit papers con-
sider the presentations that they come
here in person to review them.
Audiences for the Season are drawn
from miles around although students,
faculty and townspeople compose by
far the bulk of those in attendance.
One New York critic termed the
local season "one of the most unusual
and praise-worthy of non-metropoli-
tan theatrical institutions." "It bodes
well for the future of a theatre when
such institutions present such a cali-
ber of productions," he said.
WHITFORD KANE
ciation of food rare and excellent.
Critics called it "singularly tren-
chant,", praising Whitford Kane.
f
Counter
Sale
,Stake G reais
Harwse (atut e
Festivals Iere
By STAN M. SWINTON
On Monday, May 15, a first-night
audience will stream down the Lydia
Mendelssohn aisles, the lights will
dim, the curtain will be drawn, and
the latest of 10 Dramatic Seasons
which have brought some of the
brightest stars ofrthe American the-
atre to Ann' Arbor will be underway.
Since the day in 1930 when Robert
Henderson, son of Prof.-Emeritus
William D. Henderson, director-
emeritus of the University Extension
Service and a Michigan graduate
who was active in theatrical affairs,
first conceived the idea of the Sea-
sons their growth has been steady
with progressively more important
celebrities signed to.appear.
Famed Stars Appear
A survey of programs of earlier sea-
sons reveals names which have been
featured on marquees on theatres
throughout the world-Nazimova, the
great actress who returned to the
legitimate stage after an abortive mo-
tion picture career; Violet Kemble
Cooper; Jane Cowl; Pauline Lord;
Blanche Yurka, whose brilliant per-
formance in the movie version of "A
Tale of Two Cities" won her critical
acclaim; Mme. Leontovich; Aline
MacMahon; Margalo Gillmore; Effie
Shannon; Margaret Anglin; Violet
Heming; Helen Chandler and Doris
Dalton.
Famed actors yvho have appeared
on the Season programs are a legion:
Bramwell Fletcher; Romney Brent;
Tom Powers;,Walter Slezak; McKay
Morris; Russell Hardie; Geoffrey
Kerr; Otto Hulett; Whitford Kane;
Carl Benton Reid; William Post, Jr.
and Judson Laire.
Henderson On Broadway
But Robert Henderson, who is now
applying the experience gained in
Ann Arbor as a Broadway producer,
observed the theatrical axiom that
"the play's the thing." That aware-
ness that the vehicle must be of
quality-observed by Miss Helen Ar-
thur when she directed her first sea-
son last year-has brought the works
of such playwrights as Shakespeare,
Euripides, Ibsen, Strindberg, Chekov,
Shaw, Molnar, Wilde, Coward, How-
ard, Philip Barry, Behrman, Keith
Winter, Sherwood, Novello, Van Dru-
ten, Paul Osborn, Ben Levy and Du
Maurier to the Mendelssohn stage.
Through the cooperation of Cow-
ard, Ann Arbor saw his "Private
Lives" and "Tonight at 8:30" while
-they were still Broadway successes.
Other playwrights have also shown
their interest in the season through<
releasing their works especially forI
local audiences.-
So when' the curtain goes up May
15, it won't be just another show-~E
it will be the renewal of one of Michi-t
ga"'s newest traditions.
Vaudeville Troopers
Feature Barry Play
Add one dwarf, one magician, a
ventriloquist complete with dummy,
a hoofer and you've got some of the
elements which go to make Philip
Barry's new play, "Here Come the
Clowns," one of the most unusualI
ever presented on a local stage. The1
drama will show here as the fourtha
production of the Dramatic Season.c
The strange characters make up a
typical vaudville troup. The playj
deals chiefly with the magician (ors
"Illusionist") who goes to work to
discover the material of which the
vaudevillians' dreams are made.
GLADYS COOPER
26,492 Drama Tickets
Worry Publicity Head
From the midst of 26,492 blue, pink,
yellow, white and purple pieces of
paste-board, Mrs. Lucille M. Walz,
publicity director of the 1939 Drama-
tic Season, yesterday announced that
over-the-counter sale of tickets for
the five-week festival will open to-
morrow at the Garden Room of the
League.
Mail order sale has been of un-
precedented volume, Mrs. Walz re-
ports. Within one hour three orders
for a total of 92 season tickets were
received. Orders have come from
Illinois, Indiana, Ohio, Florida and
Hollywood. Single tickets, she said,
go on sale a week from tomorrow.
Rice Revives
'Ghost' Device
DMATIC SEASON TICKETS
Sign Philip Merivale
And Gladys Cooper
Across-Counter Ticket Sale
Will' Open Tomorrow
At League Garden Room
Philip Merivale, Harry Irvine
Gladys Cooper, Whitford Kane, James
Bell, Dorothy Sands and other stars
of Broadway and London stages will
high-light the 10th anniversary pre-
sentations of the Dramatic Season.
Over-the-counter sale of tickets for
the five-week program, which runs
May 15, through June 17, opens. to-
morrow morning at the Garden Room
of the League.
The first presentation is the Ameri-
can debut of is Jean Giraudoux's "No
War in Troy!" starring Philip Meri-
vales Hector. The play, which is re-
ported to "occupy the same position
in the peace drama of our day that
The Trojan Women and Lysistrata
did in the days of Euripides and
4ristophanes, has a supporting cast
which includes Dennis Hoey, Doris
Dalton, Wesley Addy, Dorothy Sands,
Staats Cotsworth, Mary Morris, Har-
ry Irvine, Philip Tonge and Edgar
Kent.
'American Landscape' Coming
Elmer Rice's new play, "American
Landscape" opens Tuesday, May 23.
Harry Irvine, who two years ago
played Thomas a Becket in the New
York production of T. S. Elliott's
"Murder in the Cathedral," has the
starring role with Dorothy Sands
and Doris Dalton featured. The play
was produced last season by a group
of five playwright going under the
name of "The Playwrights' Com-
pany." It deals with the conflibt of
the older and younger generations in
American life. The supporting cast
includes Ethel Morrison, Dennis
Hoey, Wesley Addy, Con Macunday,
Joanna Roos, Esther Mitchell and
James Bell.
Whitford Kane, a familiar figure
to local audiences, returns the third
week of the season to star in "The
White Steed," Paul Vincent Carroll's
current Broadway success. Termed
"the season's best play" by George
Jean Nathan, it will be brought to
Ann Arbor with such featured play-
ers as Philip Tonge, who just finished
a run in "Bachelor Born," Joanna
Roos, Wesley Addy, John Carmody,
Clancy Cooper, Esther Mitchell and
Ethel Morrison.
Bell Will Star
James Bell, who gained acclaim
when he played in "Tobacco Road,"
stars in the fourth production, Philip
Barry's "Here Come the Clowns."
Opening Tuesday, June 6, with a sup-
porting cast that includes Ralph
Bunker, of the original company, Jo-
anna Roos, Hathaway Kale, a dwarf
and'a magician. The play deals with
the folk of vaudville.
The season's climax comes Com-
mencement Week with Gladys Coop-
er, the noted English actress, starring
in the little-known Shavian comedy,
"Captain Brassbound's Conversion."
A veteran of Shaw plays-she made
one of her biggest hits in "Man and
Superman"-Miss Cooper will have' a
supporting cast including ,Dennis
Hoey, Philip Tonge, Edgar Kent,
Emmett Rogers, Cornel Wilde and
Staats Cotsworth.
Agnes Morgan is again stage direc-
tor for the Season with Helen Arthur
re-signed as Executive Director. It is
sponsored by a Civic Committee of
which Daniel L. Quirk, jr., is chair-
man and Dean of Students Joseph A.
Bursley, acting treasurer.
4
O)Pens
Tomorrow at ro a. m.
Garden Room, Michigan League
'American Landscape'
Humorous, Timely
Is
*
5 GREAT PLAYS
"No War in Troy!"
A throw-back to an earlier era of
the theatre is the presence of ghosts
on a stage which is at the same time
peopled by moderns is a high-light
of "American Landscape," second
production of the 1939 Dramatic Sea-
son. Tickets for the series go on sale
tomorrow.
Hariret Beecher Stowe, the Moll
Flanders publicized by Daniel De-
Foe and the astral bodies of three
captains are introduced into the play.
Despite that fact, Elmer Rice's new-
est contribution to the American the-
atre deals with the people of the
United States as they live today.
Describing the conflict of the older
and younger generations in an Ameri-
can family, the play poses the typical
problems of today-the question of
isolation and collective security; of
marriage and divorce, of labor and
capital. Described as a "well-in-
formed study of the maladies and
dangers of the American system"
which allows the ancestors to look
over the shoulders of their descen-
dents, the play is also reported to be
spiced with humor
"American
Landscape"
"The White Steed"
'BROADWAY STARS
"Here Come the Clowns"
"Captain Brassbound's
Conversion"
Philip Merivale
Gladys Cooper
Whitford Kane
James Bell
Doris Dalton
Dorothy Sands
Rich Background Of Players Insures
Another Successful Dramatic Season
and others
Years of theatrical experience, ap-
pearances with the greatest stars of
the legitimate stage, and roles in
plays by famous writers have provid-
ed the actors who appear in the 1939
Dramatic Season with the back-
ground essential to mature perfor-
mances.
The Season, which runs for five-
weeks, opens May 15. Over-the-
counter sale of tickets starts to-
f
MAY15-
JUNE 17
morrow at the Garden Room of the
League.
Philip Merivale has one of the most
remarkable records of those listed to
appear. He has played with Helen
Hayes, Jane Cowl, Gladys Cooper--
who is his wife-and other famed ac-
tresses. His vehicles have included
"Call It A Day," "Macbeth," "Othel-
lo," "Valley Forge," "Mary of Scot-
land," "Cynara," "Road to, Rome,"
"Death Takes a Holiday," "The
Scarlet Pimpernel," "Pygmalion" and
"As You Like It."
Mrs. Merivale-Gladys Cooper-
played with her husband in a num-
ber of plays. Without him, she took
part in "The Shining Hour," which
was seen by Dramatic Season sub-
scribers several years ago with Violet
Heming in a leading role. This sea-
son Gladys Cooper played in "Spring
Meeting." Other vehicles in which
she has appeared are "The Impor-
tance of Being Earnest," "Man and
Superman," "The Pigeon," "Mile-
stnesgt nd "Peter Pan."
have included "Blow Ye Winds,"
"Sweet Aloes," "Tomorrow's A Holi-
day," "Life's Too Short," "Petticoat
Fever," in which she was seen with
Dennis King, and The Curtain Rises."
One of the veterans of the coming
season is Mary Morris. Her vehicles
and the actors with whom she has
appeared read like a who's who of the
theatre. She played with Elissa Lan-
di (an Ann Arbor visitor last year)
and Glenn Hunter in "Empress of
Destiny"; with Walter Huston in "De-
sire Under the Elms," with Katherine
Emery and Russel Hardie (who ap
peared in last year's~ Season) in "Be-
hind the Red Lights"; in "The Great
God Brown," "The Sea Gull," "Lysis-
trata" and "The House of Connelly."
Joanna Roos appeared in "Grand
Street Follies," "Holiday," "Uncle
Vanya," "Elizabeth the Queen,"
"Little Women" and "Daughters of
Atreus," a play which has been seen
here.
Doris Dalton
SEASON TICKETS.
. .. 6.60
4.80
3.60
2.50
A season ticket saves you 20% of the cost.