Word: falke
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...clear that you have chosen to act as apologist for Lee Falk's now defunct Boston Summer Theatre, and, more especially, for the Group 20 Players at Wellesley, now in their sixth season. I have no intention of taking one side or another in any conflict between the C.D.F. and Group 20; as a journalistic critic, I have been to see and/or review almost all the summer play productions in the area for a good number of years, and my admiration for the impressive roster of achievements by both these groups is strong. But your letter contains so many errors...
...assert that the C.D.F. is forcing the other local drama groups out of business. And you go on to cite the demise of Lee Falk's Boston Summer Theatre, which until three years ago you co-produced with him in New England Mutual Hall. Now the fact is that Mr. Falk, having lost money in recent summers, had already decided to forego a 1959 season and to sell all his theatrical property before the new MeBAC theatre was given the go-ahead...
...state, further, that Falk presented "the greatest American stars in the greatest plays for many, many years." This speaks very poorly indeed for your judgement and taste. For eleven years, Falk gave us seasons that each contained only one or two plays of stature amid a morass of mediocrity. As a matter of fact, Mr. Capp, it was only after you disassociated yourself from Falk that he offered us in 1957 a season0of nothing but good, plays: Jonson's Volpone, Anouilh's Thieves' Carnival, Fry's Venus Observed, Shaw's Back to Methuselah, Giraudoux's The Madwoman of Chaillot...
Then, Mr. Capp, you failed to mention at all that, although Falk's project has been discontinued, another new group under the aegis of the Boston Summer Playhouse is now offering its first season of shows at the Charles Playhouse in Boston. The Tufts Arena Theatre seems to be getting along as well as ever; and the several local music circuses are reportedly doing unprecedentedly good business...
Besides this, Group 20 has had seasons of high artistic success and still lost money. And Falk's finest season was the one that put him most in the red. So let's not drag in the bogus issue of profit and loss...