TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 15, 1959
THE MICHIGAN DAILY
r.
(Speech Department Offers P1
laybill
1-
By KATHLEEN MOORE
An annual tradition on campus
is the speech department's presen-
tation of a playbill.
Traditioially consisting of four'
plays and an opera, the latter pro-
duced jointly with the music
school the playbill is planned by.
the speech department's Theatre
Committee to include as wide a
variety of styles as possible, mix-
ing comedy, farce and drama,
realistic and theatrical teohniques
of production and selecti ns from
the golden age of Greece, Eliza-
bethan drama and modern real-
istic pieces in each year's pro-
grams.r
The productions are directed by
members of the speech depart-
ment faculty with music school
faculty joining them for the opera.
Casts are selected on a tryout
basis in which any University stu-
dent is.eligible to participate, al-
though principle roles usually go
to those concentrating in some
area offered by the speech depart-
ment.
Education Primary
The purpose of the program, as
expressed last fall by Prof. G. E.
Densmore, then department chair-
man, is to present "its plays as
productions of a university theatre
wherein the educational' develop-
ment of the student is our pri-
mary concern."
Such a theatre, he continued,
I "should serve as a laboratory for
classes in dramatics wherein stu-
dent-written plays, experimental
plays and plays representing all
periods in the history of the
drama may be produced."
The "complete cycle of theatre
history" is represented by play
selections, he said, so that stu-
dents, in their four years of resi-
dence, may acquaint themselves
with it.
Schedule Not Out
This year's schedule of four
plays and an opera has not yet
been announced, Prof. William M.
Sattler, speech department acting
chairman, said. The theatre staff
of directors will include profes-
sors Claribel Baird, Jack E. Ben-
der, William P. Halstead and Hugh
Z. Norton.
Scene designer for the year will
be Ralph Duckwall, of the speech
department with Elizabeth Bir-
bari, also of the department, act-
ing as costume designer. Business
manager for the productions will
be Richard Lutz, Grad.
Increased interest and demand
for tickets for the productions has
resulted in the addition of an
extra performance for each of the
year's plays, Lutz said. The per-
formances will be calendared for
Wednesday through Saturday
nights, he added, rather than the
f
I
WILDER FARCE-Thornton Wilder's "The Matchmaker" was
one of the features of last season's speech department playbill.
traditional three-night stands be-
ginning on Thursdays.
Expects Big Sale
Lutz still anticipates heavy ticket
demands, as demonstrated by sell-
out performances of Sandy Wil-
son's "The Boy Friend" which
played in \ Ann Arbor for four
nights this summer. i
Season ticket holders, besides
having- the assurance that a seat
is reserved for them at every play,
receive a bonus of two free plays,
produced solely for them. This
year's offering may be increased to
three presentations in the fall,
Lutz commented. ;(
Last year's bonus presentations
were Mozart's comic opera, "Cosi
Fan Tutte" and the 1958 Hop-
wood award winning play, "Man
on a Tiger," written by Donald
Kaul, Grad.
Holds Diversity
Regular presentations offered
viewers a wide diversity of talent
and theme, opening with Eugene
O'Neill's only comedy, "Ah Wil-
derness" with Thornton Wilder's
fast-moving, farcical comedy "The
Matchmakers" following it.
The playbill continued after the
semester break with Rossini's "The
Barber of Seville," presented in
conjunction with the music school,
Ben Jonson's Elizabethan comedy
on vice, "Volpone" and Sophocles'
"Electra," a representation of
classic Greek drama.
Far from representatives of
O'Neill's works, "Ah Wilderness,"
the November presentation showed
the basi'c tolerance and goodness
in the American way of life. The
author discarded his usual harsh,
almost brutal style of writing in
favor of a more sentimental vein
for the story of the problems of a
typical small town American fam-
ily.
O'Neill Chosen
"Ah Wilderness" was chosen
director Prof. Bender explained,
because of the recent upsurge in
interest in O'Neill's works.
The play's plot deals with a
Connecticut newspaper publisher
who is also father of four chil-
dren, and his problems in dealing
with his rebellious son, Richard.
Richard finally goes on a binge,
getting drunk and pretending to
be worldly but finding himself
frightened by the vulgar com-
ments and crude language of a
"swift babe from New Haven."
At this point, his heretofore
good-for-nothing uncle steps in
and saves the day, his problems
are straightened out by his father
and Richard is forgiven and wel-
comed by his old sweetheart,
Muriel.
Wiles of Women
' The next two productions, "The
Matchmaker" and "Cosi Pan
Tutte," were presented almost
simultaneously in December and
both dealt with the wiles of wom-
en.
Thornton Wilder's farce features
a cast of rather odd characters
and various theatrical devices, in-
cluding the obvious "aside" to
audiences, were used to prompt
a hearty "belly laugh" from view-
ers.
The Matchmaker of the title is
a slightly overstuffed old woman
whose services are requested (by a
rich widower from Yonkers. What
he doesn't know until it's too late
to matter is that she's decided the
matchmaker should become a
bride-his.
Female Fickleness
Mozart's opera, on the other
hand, is bent on revealing the
fickleness of the female. English
translation of the title, "Cosi Fan
Tutte," results in "They All Do
It," and Mozart makes his point
by showing the success two army
officers have when they woo each
other's fiancees to test their loyal-
ty. Loyalty proves lacking and
matters go so far as a mock double
wedding before identities are
straightened out.
See PLAYBILL, Page, 7
ii
f
.2
PINEAPPLE OF PERFECTION - Prof. Claribel Baird of the
speech department gave a memorably amusing portrayal of
Richard Brinsley She'ridan's Mrs. Malaprop in "The Rivals"
during the 1959 Summer Playbill.
USED
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