PAGE FOUR
THE MICHIGAN DAILY
r IDAY, JULY 3, 193
SHORTS OF DISTINCTION:
Actor-Playwright Does Research Here
By GAYLE GREENE
Though he says his only claim
to distinction is a pair of Bermu-
da shorts which attract shocked
stares from local inhabitants, Don
Symington, Spec., is unique among
Summer Session students.
He is a playwright who supports
himself by acting, whose previous
university education consists of
several weeks at Princeton and
whose University courses are cho-
sen to provide background re-
search for his next play.
ACTUALLY it's better not to
talk about a play before you write
it, Symington says. Sometimes you
never do write it or someone else
beats you to it," he explained.
Action of the play will center
around a foreign student in a
large mid-western university, his
acceptance of the university and
it's acceptance of him.
"What could be more logical
than to investigate a mid-west-
ern university, Symington rea-
soned, as he enrolled in classes
in Shakespeare, modern drama
and mythology this summer.
A trip to the Far Eastern stu-
dies department showed him he
could fit Muslim religion and mod-
ern Arabia into his program. This,
coupled with tours to Saudi Ara-
bia, will provide background for
his leading character.
Winning two thousand dollars
in the Irish Sweepstakes when 15
years old, indirectly influenced
Symington in his choice of profes-
sion.
"I used part of the money to go
to New York and saw five plays :n
three days.
It was the first thing that had
ever made any impression on me,"
he said.
He didn't begin writing plays
immediately, however. "It took
a few years before I was far
enough gone to attempt to be-
come a playwright," he ex-
plained.
With only high school dramatic
experience, Symington took a five
hour train ride from Baltimpre
to New York and began to look for
a job as an actor.
IN THREE months he had found
a role in a play which" opened on
the road and closed on the road."
The next few months were spent
in summer stock, in "Pygmalion"
with Gertrude Lawrence and then
in "Big People" which was also a
"fSop," leaving Symington to find
a job. "I sold hair combs all over
New York," he said.
He then went into a Charles
- Laughton play which "lasted for
a brief two weeks," leaving him
Cinema Guild
Adds Showing
Don Hunt, manager of the Stu-
dent Legislature Cinema Guild,
has announced a new policy of
three instead of the ,usual two
show times for summer film pro-
grams.
Three complete films will be
shown each night, Thursday, Fri-
day and Saturday, at 6:30 p.m.,
8 p.m. and 9r30 p.m. and one each
Sunday at 8 p.m. in Architecture
Auditorium.
Today's film program features
James Stewart and Marlene Diet-
rich in "Destry Rides Again," a
satire on Hollywood westerns.
SRA Outing
This Weekend
First of the summer's recreation-
al Intercultural Outings sponsored
by the Student Religious Associa-
tion will be held this weekend at
the Saline Cooperative Farms.
The group plans to spend Sat-
urday night at a Youth Hostel lo-
cated at the farms. They will leave
Lane Hall by car at 2 p.m. Satur-
day.
Anyone interested in joining the
SRA Outing may contact Doris
Harpole, Assistant Activities Direc-
tor at Lane Hall.
X
We feature
I rr.::x: :: a ammametieo-mmaoe anva ceaceeanoa se
Hush Box
LONDON- AP} -A British
jukebox firm announced yes-
terday it is supplying clients
with a model which will deliver
three minutes of dead silence.
Putting a coin in theslot
and pushing the proper button
will turn up a record which just
spins, emitting neither music
nor conversation.
Services Set
For Drowned
Student Today
Funeral services for Rusi Sig-
anporia, a 26-year-old graduate
student from Bombay, will be held
at 4 p.m. today at the Staffan-
Hildinger Funeral Home. 513 E.
Huron St.
Siganporia was found drowned
Sunday at Bishop Lake, four miles
southwest of Brighton. He appar-
ently became separated from the
group while swimming away from
the public beach.
Siganporia's parents are living
in Bombay. They have requested
that the body be laid at rest in
Ann Arbor. The Indian Embassy
and the Tata Foundation also
granted permission that Signa-
poria be buried in the United
States.
Parsi Services will be conducted
for Siganporia, an adherent of the
ancient Persian religion, by Jer D.
Daboo, Grad., also a Parsi.
Siganporia, a chemical engineer-
ing student, came here last Sep-
tember on a J. N. Tata Fellowship.
Interment will take place at the
Forest Hill Cemetery. 1
Astrophysics Talk
"Galaxies: Their Composition
and Structure" will be . discussed
by Walter Baade from the Mount
Wilson and Palomar observatories
at 2 p.m. today in 1400 Chemistry
Bldg.
Writer Calls
Poetry Love
.Poetry is really being in love
with life," Lesley Frost. daughter
of poet Robert Frost told her au-
dience in the closing lecture of
the Symposium on Writing yes-
terday.
Miss Frost, an author herself,
who served on the editorial board
of Doubleday, Doran went on to
say that poetry is also a celebra-
tion, in all the definitions of the
word.
According to her father, "A po-
em begins in delight and ends with
wisdom." She believes that "any
great poem is as much like prayer
as anything."
In regard to grief and tragedy
M'iss Frost remarked that there
are two kinds of people in the
world and they're both pessi-
mists, only one is an optimistic
pessimist and the other is a pes-
simistic pessimist.
'Bell Book a
By FRAN SHELDON
Dramerama, theater tailored to
fit the play and the audience is a
featured convenience of the Sa-
line Mill Theater.
Directed by Warren Pickett,
founder of the Arts Theater herel
at the University, the theater will
offer at 8:30 p.m. today its first
presentation, John Van Druten's
comedy of witchery "Bell, Book
and Candle."
PERFORMED BY a profession-
al acting company, the play deals
with witchery black cats-and re-
luctant telephones.
Located eight miles from Ann
Arbor on Route 112, the theater
is an ex-soybean mill which has
been equipped with a Greek
arena type stage. Completely
surrounding the stage, no seat
in the audience is more than
four rows from the action.
In addition, the theater has
rd Candle'
duled for this summer. The first,
"Bell, Book and Candle" will run
through July 19.
George Bernard Shaw's "Arms
and the Man" is the second
production of the theater, slat-
ed to run from July 21 to Aug.
2. Following this will be "An-
gel Street" by Patrick Hamilton,
Aug. 4 through 16.
As its final offering the Saline
Mill Theater will present the po-
pular Oscar Wilde work, "The Im-
portance of Being Earnest."
After each play arrangements
have been made whereby the com-
pany will discuss its performance
with the audience.
Tickets for the theater are
available at Marshall's bookstore.
X-Ray Diffraction
Meet Continues
The Symposium on X-Ray Dif-
fraction will continue today with a
lecture on "Frontier Transforma-
tion and X-Ray Diffraction of
Crystals" by P. P. Ewald of the
Brooklyn Polytechnic Institute at
9 a.m. in 1400 Chemistry Bldg.
He will be followed by William
N. Lipscomb of the University of
Minnesota who will speak on "Ex-
perimental Studies of Crystal
Structures" at 10 a.m.
Saline Group To Present Speaker Hits
Art Schools
Art departments in universities
lack experienced, developed artists
and the controversy needed for
stimulation, according to Ralston
Crawford.
Speaking in the Rackham Uc-
ture Hall yesterday on "An Art-
ists Notes." Artist Crawford said,
that although the Modern Art
movement developed outside of
European and American universi-
ties it is now accepted by them.
A student, he felt, is unlikely
to be really creative for a long
time but because educators are
anxious to show that they can
develop creativity, many unim-
portant works are exhibited.
The modern artist, particularly
in America, works in an atmos-
phere of indifference or even hos-
tility, and must overlook the finan-
cial shortcomings of his profes-
sion, the artist said,
Speaking of his own work the
artist called it "abstract or non-
representational." He told his aud-
ience that many of them might
find it bothersome because "un-
familiarity is always annoying."
But with pictures, as with people,
he said long contract and thought-
ful observation is important be-
fore a critical judgement can be
given.
;.
Miss Frost explained it is up to been designed with
the readers to seek a poem or a that enables staging;
symphony that lightens our con- arrangements to be
fusion, fit the needs of each
Between the ages of five and FOUR PLAYS have
twenty, she pointed out, something
hnnn t~ g ~thncamar
a flexibility
and seating
changed to
production.
been sche-
Daily-Lon Qui
DON SYMINGTON
. . . "aren't there any male writers in Michigan?''
* * *
hunting for steadier employ ent
again. This time he becaxfie a
room-clerk at the Plaza Hotel.
He toured with the Barter The-
arer of Virginia for a year and
went overseas with the American
production of "Hamlet."
* * * .
AT THAT TIME Symington was
working on a dramatic adaption
of an Evelyn Waugh novel and
decided to stay on in London to
finish it "I went to see Waugh with
the idea of convincing him my
adaption was brilliant, but, un-
fortunately he thought otherwise,"
Symington relates.
He returned to New York and
went into "Caesar and Cleopat-
ra. Then followed over 75
weeks of stock work all over the
eastern seaboard and later a role
in "Dream Girl" with Judy Hol-
liday.
A year in Europe followed and
Ceylon became the background
for his next play which got him an
agent, membership on the New
Dramatists' Committee, but no
money,
Attendance at the luncheon giv-
en in conjunction with the Univer-
sity's writing Symposium has dis-
illusioned him somewhat. "There
were about three men in a crowd
of 140 women," he related. "Aren't
there any male writers in Michi-
gan?" he asked.
happens to our entnusiasm and
we need to regain the excitement
of life. This can best be accom-
plished by teaching children po-
etry.
AFROTC To 1old
Study Coference
The Uni-versity will play host to
military instructors from 20 mid-
western colleges and universities
at a meeting to be held during
the first two weeks in August to
study the new training plan for
Air Force ROTC cadets.
Lt. Col. Samuel R. Beckley of
the air science and tactics pro-
gram will direct the conference.
Councit Postpones
Dairy Rule Action
Proposed new city milk ordi-
nance action has been postponed
until July 20 to allow attorneys to
gather information intended to
show that certain provisions of
the ordinance conflict with State
laws.
The delay was granted Wednes-
day by the City Council after a
hot two hour debate on the pro
and con of the proposed ruling.
The most controversial issue is
the one requiring dairies to put
hooded covers on all milk con-
tainers under the three-gallon
size.
A
EVERYONE WELCOME
to a
BIG PICNIC TOMORROW
at SILVER LAKE 11 A.M. to 5 P.M.
SWIMMING " GAMES s FOOD * FUN
Meet at Lane Hall 11 A.M.
(Sponsored by Michigan Christian Fellowship)
4.
4
ON
SALE
NEXT
WEEK
f
+i
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A
including
names
home
1
,
al
Ann
Arbor
addresses
and
ddresses and
phone numbers
students
of
Summer
Session
y ett pA
you can always match
;For great fashion effect at little
cost, pick your writing paper in
the size, tint and texture you
like best and use it always."
We'll have separatelv nackaned