Word: chapman
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Dates: during 1960-1969
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Seltzer opposed the Loeb's emphasis on professionalism, but not from the same standpoint as most undergraduates. He saw little use in a drama center which made no attempt to educate the students who worked in it. He wanted to dilute the "laissez-faire amateurism" so opposed by Chapman with credit courses and seminars, rather than simply turn over leading roles to more experienced people...
...Seltzer's misfortune to arrive in a climate of widespread hostility toward most of the ideas he advanced. Faculty sentiment was divided between support for Chapman's professionalism, and for the amateurism which had been the mark of Harvard theatre before the Loeb. Most students were committed to the latter, and they were just as hostile to credit courses as to outside people, graduate students and faculty members...
...When Chapman went on sabbatical in the Fall of '63, he was replaced not by George Hamlin, assistant director of the Loeb, but by Seltzer. Seltzer was on the faculty, which probably explains why he got the temporary post and Hamlin didn't. Seltzer's ideas about integrating the Loeb into the educational process -- with credit and non-credit courses for undergraduates -- had slowly gained strong support from several influential Faculty Committee members. Seltzer made it immediately clear that as director of the Loeb he would see some of his plans put into execution, at least in miniature. He said...
During the first few years of the Loeb's existence, Chapman's emphasis on professionalism created a tightly knit clique of older actors (including, it is true, a few precocious undergraduates, who worked often in Loeb productions and quickly became the in group. Other students were just visitors to the Loeb; these people saw themselves as permanent residents...
Political change at the new drama center was slow in coming. Aaron's departure climaxed the major debate (a personal one) of the Loeb's first year. He was replaced in the Fall of '61 by George Hamlin, an old friend and co-worker of Chapman's.5DANIEL SELTZER...