......: = . t a' Page -Twelve rHE MICHIGA N DAILY Sunday, May 20; 1956 ANN ARBOR THEATRE By MARVIN FELHEDI PROBABLY in no other com- munity of its size in the world today can a theatre-goer find such variety as here in Ann Arbor. Par- ticularly at this time of year, as the annual Drama Festival gets under way, one is more than ever aware of the extent of the surg- ing dramatic activities in this Uni- versity town. To begin with, there is televi- sion; plus the movies, which in- clude not only the commercial houses but also the Cinema Guild and the Gothic Film Society. For live drama, there are, first of all, the academic presentations offered by the Department of Speech; to these add the Civic Theatre and the Dramatic Arts Center and one discovers that drama is, indeed, almost constant- 1y available. (One must not omit pointing .out that in Ypsilanti there is also a civic theatre group and that the high schools in both communities offer dramatic pre- sentations.) The previously-men- tioned Drama Festival, the Sum- mer Session of the University and the Saline Mill Theatre round out the year, SUPERFICIALLY, the s c e n e seems well set; the house lights dim, and it's curtain time again. But now two problems intrude; the productions and the audiences. For one must admit that the programs offered by all these groups fall somewhat short of the ideal. Certainly one gets a va- riety of plays, from English and continental classics to Broadway, but somehow the excitement, the very essence of theatre, seems to be missing. There is no magic. One feels neither the participation in ritual fQr whith Mr. Eliot pleads nor the expectancy of a Broadway audience, even though its members may be witnessing the eight-hundredth performance. Ev- erything seems somehow warmed- over. Perhaps one can suggest at least a few reasons for this appearance and sense of apathy. One expla- nation is, of course, in the selec- tion of the plays themselves. There is, when one gets down to the real .facts, little that is new or stimu- lating being presented in Ann Ar- This is Marvin Felheim's first contribution to the Sunday Magazine. An assistant profes- sor in the English department, he has long be'en interested in theater. bor (or, for that matter, in any community theatre anywhere in America) today. The Broadway climate dominates the theatrical air all over the country. Few original plays, few poetic plays, few if any experimental dramas of a non-Broadway type manage to get on the .boards. Many significant dramatic talents from Aeschylus to Strindberg to W. B. Yeats are constantly ne- glected until a chance Broadway production proves their value; then everyone jumps on the band- wagon. On the other hand, in- ferior plays, with successful com- mercial tags, make the grade ev- erywhere. Perhaps the productions are partially to blame. A fresh ap- proach, done with taste and ima- gination, can make an old familiar piece exciting and new.. Little known works, or new plays, must frequently be treated in new ways. 411 our local theatrical techniques seem tame and ineffective. Inter- mission comments at local theatres are rarely concerned with the plays, the actors, the methods of production; instead, people talk about the weather, politics or sports or deal in local gossip. There is simply not enough stimu- lation in the methods used, not enough dash or daring. THIS DOCILITY is not all the fault of the plays and the pro- ductions, however. Much of the difficulty lies with the audiences. Somehow, the community theatre in America has not created a new audience or a new demand. People are not only willing to accept but they actually require what is safe, tried and true. The spectator at- titude prevails. This passivity is most distressing when the audi- ence happens to be the members of a University community. Ex- perimentation should be the es- sential requirement to please such an audience. After all, television, radio and the movies, plus trips now and then to Detroit, Chicago or New York, plus the fact that some local groups are committed to "popular" theatre should cer- tainly gratify the tastes of most people and at the same time allow for productions, on all schedules, of plays of other sorts. But the demand should come, after all, from the audiences them- selves. An intellectual commu- nity should have intellectual, artistic standards and desires. Theatre-goers should insist that theatres present unusual fare. Audiences must be large-and- broad-minded. Only in such a way can we carry on the tradi- tions to which we are, in theory at least, committed. Bring Back TPicnic'! (Continued from Page 3) row of having Madge leave her, runs along waving, through the middle of the yards on the same street. And Mrs. Potts, who under- stands everything and has engin- eered the entire romance, runs too, slowly, along the alley at the rear of the yards, waving to Madge. SCo the story ends. You've done something exceptional with "Picnic." You've captured some- thing of what I could only vaguely call the "American Dream.' But it's unquestionably there, this something; and it infuses the pic- ture with the quality of greatness. For these reasons.I am asking you, gentlemen, to bring this pic- ture back and show it again to an audience who, given this second chance, will not fail to recognize the stature of "Picnic." What the movie says is expressed in the most common of terms. I'm sure not one of us could find any- thing incomprehensible in the ex- perience of this small group of people, even though the characters are "nobodies." Thank you, gentlemen, for your attention and your patience. I trust we can come to some ar- rangement in the very near future, Respectfully, DONALD A. YATES SUNDAY MAGAZINE S11, AA4v. 1n 20_ 1956 THE MICHIGAN DAILY Sftr~i~un Dat13J ,aurauuy, rviuy Gtl, I zjw ..... .. , . 8 I {{ A 'P. 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