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Michigan Repertory Players
Four Dramas,
Opewtta Will
Be Presented
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II
Rehearsals for Michigan Repertor
Begin as Summer Guest Directors
Will Open 16th Summer Season
'y Plays FIRST PLAY TO BE JULY 12:
Arrive Comedy Highlights Damask Cheek,' Fresh Fields'
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A series of four outstanding plays
by well known dramatists and an
outstanding operetta will be pre-
sented for the sixteenth summer sea-
son by the Michigan Repertory Play-
ers of the Department of Speech.
Opening the series will be a com-
edy of true love in 1909, "The Dam-
ask Cheek" by John Van Druten and
Lloyd Morris. A recent successful
Broadway production starring Flora
Robson, the play is distinguished for
its charm, literate writing and be-
guiling characterizations.
French Play To Be Given
The second offering by the players
will be Moliere's "The Learned La-
dies." This drama, to be given July
19-22, will show the famed French
playwright's ease, breadth and sure-
ness in character drawing, and in
picturing the manners of his time.
Tryouts for the operetta, "The
Chocolate Soldier," will be held
from 4 to 6 p. m. Thursday at the
Lydia Mendelssohn theatre. All
persons interested in appearing
are invited to attend. They are
asked to bring their own music
and be prepared to sing at the
auditions.
CLARIBEL BAIRD
...to direct plays.
~'Jouirney to
Jerusalem' Is
Biblical Drama
Guest directors and technicians
for the summer dramatic productions
to be offered by the Michigan Reper-
tory Plays arrived in town last week
to begin rehearsals.
Claribel Baird of the faculty at
the Oklahoma State College for
Women has been a favorite actress
with Ann Arbor theatre-goers. Mrs.
Baird will appear in a leading role
in the first play, "Damask Cheek"
and will direct the third play.
Viehman- To Direct
Theodore Viehman is at present
director of The Little Theatre - of
Tulsa, Okla. He has chosen the
Moliere comedy as well as "Fresh
Fields."
The opening and closing plays,
"Damask Cheek" and the operetta,
"The Chocolate Soldier," will be di-
rected by Valentine Windt, head of
dramatics in the speech department.
Phil ippi Will Return
Herbert Philippi, who has been
designer-technician, for Play Pro-
duction for the past year, will re-
turn as scenic designer for the Rep-
ertory Players. He will be assisted
by Robert Burrows, technical director
of the Carolina Play-makers and by
Ernest Asmus, scene designer at
Ann Arbor high school.
Also appearing on the technical
I staff will be Lucy Barton, costumiere
for the Players in 1939 and 1942.
Miss Barton, the author of numer-
ous books on costuming, heads the
dramatic arts department at the
University of Arizona.
Moiere
To Be Given
"The Learned Ladies,' one of Mol-
iere's most noted plays, gives the
playwright one of his best oppor-
tunities to ridicule the foibles and
shams of French life in his time.
One of the main characters is
Chysale, an honest bourgeois, who
has to endure a pretentious wife, a
stup idly romantic sister and his pe-
dantic child. He becomes involved in
manytof their plots and struggles to
help them out.
Scheduled as the second produc-
tion for July 19 to 22, the play will be
directed by Theodore Viehman, who
is well known for his interpretations
of both Moliere's and Shakespeare's
plays.
s
Comedy will highlight two plays{
this summer, with "The DamaskI
Cheek" described as "an amusing
frolic in the family album," and
"Fresh Fields," which will show the
struggle between a pair of impover-
ished noblewomen and a newly rich
family, appearing among the group
of plays offered by the Repertory
Players.
The opening selection, "The Dam-;
One of the highlights of the sea-
son will be the third production,
"Journey to Jerusalem" by Maxwell
Anderson. Scheduled for Aug. 2-5,
this drama is a commentary on the
never-ending tragedy of social op-
pression, and seeks to draw a signifi-
cant parallel between the Caesars
and Hitler.
The "sparkling" comedy, "Fresh
Fields" by Ivor Novello portrays a
group of Australian parvenus and
genteel Londoners. It will be pre-
sented Aug. 9-12.
Operetta To Be Presented
Collaborating for the tenth con-
secutive summer season, the School
of Music, with the Players, will pre-
sent the famous operetta "The Choc-
olate'Soldier." Based on Bernard
Shaw's "Arms and the Man" the
plot has been combined with the
enchanting music of Oscar Straus
and Stanislaus Strange. The oper-
etta will be presented' Aug. 16-19.
Season tickets are now on sale at
the Lydia Mendelssohn box office.
ask Cheek," will be presented Wed-
nesday through Saturday, July 12 to
15. The scene is laid in New York in
1909 and tells of, a plain looking but
lively and interesting English girl
visiting American relatives.
She had always been in love with
her cousin Jimmy, who, however, is
engaged to a pert little actress, but
as the quotation from "Twelfth
Night" would imply, "she never told
her love."
"Fresh Fields" will portray two
ladies who have inherited a mansion
in London but who are without the
necessary income for its upkeep.
Past acquaintances in Australia
are a warm-hearted, inn-keeping
family who descend upon the ladies
as "paying guests."
Maxwell Anderson's play "Journey
to Jerusalem" which the Repertory
Players will present, has a large por-
tion of its text taken from chapters
in the New Testament for its histori-
cal accounts of the early life of Jesus.
The play is the story of a pilgrim-
mage to Jerusalem for observance of
the ritual of the Passover by a Jewish
family from Galilee. A twelve year
old son, Jesus, is one of its members.
Shown throughout the acts is cor-
ruption and greed in high positions
and distress and poverty among the
people. It deals with Roman slavery
imposed by Augustus but carried out
by Herod and the growing need for
spiritual leadership. All this is re-
lated with colorful imagery and the
smoothly flowing lines which are so
typical of Anderson.
Claribel Ba'ird, guest director from
Oklahoma, has chosen "Journey to
Jerusalem" as the vehicle which she
will direct for the summer series. It
will appear Aug. 2 through 5.
INVEST IN VICTORY
-~~ e
HERBERT PHILIPPI
will design sets
Players, Afusic You're always right, and bright as a
School To o . penny in cool cotton. We have just
For O eretta the dresses you want to make this the
One of the favorite light operas ofbev
theatre-goes, "The Chocolate Sol- best summer you ve ever had.
dier," will be presented jointly by the
Michigan Repertory Players and the
School of Music Aug. 16 to 19 as the
finale for the summer play season.P e
Although Bernard Shaw wrote
"Arms and the Man" in 1904, much1I
is made of the fact- that soldiers at .
that time got rations of chocolate $6 5 o
and it is from this that the operetta
ets the name. Oscar Straus set the
play to music.
The plot shows how lovely Raina
Petchoff saves Captain Bluntschi
from the Bulgarians by hiding him in
her boudoir until he can safely es-
cape. His concealment brings about
many amusing situations in which
Raina's father and her fiance are
made to appear very ridiculous.
A well remembered operetta on
Broadway and in many other cities,
"The Chocolate Soldier" was also
made into a movie starring Nelson 217 South Main 9 Nickels Arcade
Eddy and Jeanette MacDonald.
BUY WAR BONDS
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THE
DEPARTMENT
OF SPEECH
PRESENTS
PLAYERS
THE
MICH GAN
REPERTORY
in
5
brilant
Plays
Distinguished
uthors
THE DAMASK CHEEK
. John VanDruten and Lloyd Morris
"The Damask Cheek,"distinguished for its charm, literate writing,
and beguiling characterizations, is a comedy of true love in 1909.
It was a recent successful Broadway production in which the noted
actress, Flora Robson, won great acclaim.
July 12-July 15
July 12 - August 19
FRESH FIELDS ... Ivoroveo
Mr. Ivor Novello is the author of many successful plays but his
high-water mark is reached in the sparkling comedy "Fresh Fields."
This play about Australian parvenus and a group of genteel Lon-
doners has amused packed houses both in England and the United
States.
July 19-July 22
Cevnedq9
aU-,x~fe
JOURNEY TO JERUSALEM
. . . Maxwell Anderson
"Journey to Jerusalem" is a dignified and beautiful commentary on
the never-ending tragedy of social oppression, and seeks to draw a
significant parallel between the yoke of the Caesars and the yoke of
Hitler. It's period is specifically those few days in Jerusalem when
the boy, Jesus, was awakening to a knowledge of His mission and to
the sorrowful realization of the command to becme a sacrifice for
humanity.
August 2-August 5
IC any u4Ic0. n'h
t
THE LEARNED LADIES
*Moliere
In this,i
the next to the last of his plays, Moliere shows an ease,
THE CHOCOLATE SOLDIER
Oscar Straus and Stanislaus Stauge
In Conjunction with the School-of Music
For the tenth consecutive summer season, the School of Music will
collaborate with the Players in the production of a famous operetta.
Based on the story of Bernard Shaw's "Arms and the Man," and com-
bined with the enchanting music of Oscar Straus, this operetta is a
perennial favorite of theatre-goers. "'The Chocolate Soldier" was
recently made into a movie starring Nelson Eddy and Rise Stevens.
August 16-August 19
breadth, and sureness in character drawing and in picturigg the
maners of his time, such as he had hardly attained before. His
humor has grown richer, and his attack upon contemporary foibles
and shams far bolder.
July 12-July 15
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