THE MITCHIGAN DAILY
PAGE
Bepertory Players Schedule Eight Dramas For Summer
Seaso
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Mr. Sherman Gives The Inside
Dope On Mr. Sherman's Career
A -
oaCompay Stirts 1t h eason Fri'n.,Thursday August 11-T- ues
ny___day, August 16.
An Actor's Odyssey Which:
Proves The Thespian's
Life No Bed Of Roses
By Hiram Sherman
(EDITOR'S NOTE: Hiram
Sherman, who was with the
Michigan RepertorysPlayers dur-
ing the summer of 1936, isire-
turning for a short engagement
this summer. He will portray
his original role of Firk in the
Players' version of "The Shoe-
makers' Holiday." But no one
can tell Sherman's story but
Sherman).
If all must be told I feel it best
to start with the present. Not that
econsider it the zenith of an incon-
sequenial career, but for the mom-
ent it is much the busiest. With nine
performances -a week, and a few re-
hearsals here and a conference or so
there, I have only time to be thank-
ful I'm working and utter a short
prayer that it, may continue. Play-
ing repertory, such as "Julius Caesar"
and "The Shoemakers' Holiday" with
The Mercury Theatre has a great
advantage besides allowing a diver-
sity of parts . . . it keeps mie from
thinking. That is a major blessing,
for an actor who is given .time to
think of something besides the job at
hand, often ceases to act when it is
most needed.
In my case it all started about a
dozen years ago. I made my debut in
a little theatre in . . . well, Spring-
field, Ill., to be exact . . . playing the
title role in a revival of Henry Irv-
ing's great standby "The Bells." I
sat offstage, my lap a mass of as-
sorted jangles, and shook a baby's
rattle when the bells were far away,
and worked up to a small Liberty Bell
as the drama came nearer.
Somehow I got to Chicago and the
Goodman Theatre Repertory Com-
pany. I cannot truthfully say the
call of the backstage led me there ...
it seemed the easiest thing to do at
the time. Hardy young men who
would stay up all night rehearsing
offstage cries and onstage roisterers
were in demand, and I fitted the
qualifications. I suppose it was at
this time that I decided if I were ever
going to do anything for the rest of
my life it might as well be the stage.
The moment I realized that as a pro-
fessional actor I was expected to give
24 hours out of every day to my job
I gave in. Like the Mercury, the
Goodman Theatre didn't give me
time to. So I went to New York.
The next years embraced a variety
of jobs.r . mostly non-profit mak-
ing enterprises. Finally the Federal
Theatre came into being, and there I
again met Orson Welles, whom I had
known for a good many years . .
and the years in which I'd had far
too much time to think were blotted
out. More work . . . work in "Dr.
Faustus" and on the radio and in
"The Cradle Will Rock." After the
last named we were no longer with
the Federal Theatre, but happily
enough the Mercury had been estab-
lished. There wasn't time to think
much about it. The producers
plunged ahead. and I obediently fol-
lowed. "Caesar" last November and
"The Shoemokers' Holiday" in Jan-
uary, and I'm still working.
Rehearsal tomorrow.
"High Tor" by Maxwell Anderson.
Wednesday, June 29-Thursday,
June 30.
"Arms and the Man" by George
Bernard Shaw. Monday, June 27---
Tuesday, June 28, Friday, July 1-
Saturday, July 2.
"Brother Rat" by John Monks, Jr.:
and Fred Finklehoffe. Wednesday,
July 6-Saturday. July 9.,
"The Shoemakers' Holiday" byI
Thomas Dekker. Wednesday, July
13-Saturday, July 16.
"Idiot's Delight" by Robert Sher-j
\vood. Wednesday. July 20--Satur-
day. July 23.
"Kind Lady" by Edward Chodorov.
Wednesday, July 27-Saturday, July{
30.
"The Whiteheaded Boy" by Len-
nox Robinson. Wednesday, August
3--Saturday, August 6.
TRAIN PASSENGERS INJURED
SEATTLE. June 26,-iP)-One man
was severely cut by broken glass and
half a dozen other passengers were
bruised andi mauled aboard a Great
Northern Special train today 'when
panic followed a vestibule fire that
filled two sleeping cars with dense
smoke,
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CALKINS-FLETCHER DRUG STORES
324 South State Street 818 South State Street
M
-. .,_
MICHIGAN REPERTORY PLAYERS
announce their
Tenth Anniversary Season
JUNE 24 THROUGH AUGUST 16
THE SHOEMAKERS' HOLIDAY
0 Simon Eyre, genial old cobbler, becomes Mayoir of
-:. London, and his mob of apprentices turns the city gov-
ernment into a circus. Bawdy Elizabethan comedy with
; Whitford Kane and Hiram Sherman from the Mercury
:? Theatre production in their original roles.
Everynightthisweek
At 8:30
-From Stage
THE SHOEMAKERS' HOLIDAY with Whitford Kane
and Hiram Sherman. Mercury Theatre production.
HIGH TOR
0 Maxwell Anderson's 1937 Drama Critics' Circle Award
winner in which ghostly Dutch mariners and crooked real
estate agents spend a lively night on the Tor high above
the Hudson. Brooks Atkinson has called it "the gustiest
fantasy of the American theatre."
ARMS AND THE MAN
* In a charming satirical moment, George Bernard Shaw
laughs away the pompous notion that a uniform makes
a hero. Delightfully fresh and buoyant, it is Shaw in his
best humour.
BROTHER RAT
! The Players present the first non-professional per-
formance of George Abbott's comedy success in which
the vagaries of undergraduate life at Virginia Military
Academy are thoroughly investigated.
-From Stage BROTHER RAT, New York Production
Monday, June 27
Tuesday, June 28
Wednesday, June 29
Thursday, June 30
H igh Tor
Friday, July 1
Saturday, July 2
Arm sand the Man
KIND LADY
0 Edward Chodorov has done a keenly penetrating adap-
tion of Hugh Walpole's "The Silver Masque." As sound
dramatically as psychologically, KIND LADY is a dis-
tinguished and exciting mystery play.
THE WH ITEH EADED BOY
. In this typically Irish comedy, Lennox Robinson tells
the beguiling story of a family's sacrifices for its persisa-
ently wayward whiteheaded boy. Pithy, humorous, and
altogether captivating is this exposition of the trusting
and hopeful Irish heart.
THE VAGABOND KING
4 Rudolph Friml's score and J. Huntley McCarthy's book
are happily joined in this .colorful musical telling of an
episode in the life of dashing Francois Villon.. . vagabond
and king. Presented as the Grand Finale to the Tenth
Anniversary Season in association with the School of
Music and the University Symphony Orchestra.
lOT'S DELIGHT
a A Broadway master of ceremonies, his "Les Blondes,"
munitions maker, a fake Russian heiress, and a
French radical come into dramatic conflict when war
ursts about the Swiss chalet in which they are imme-
iately confined. Brilliantly devised, Robert Sher-
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