Word: hartness
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Dates: during 1950-1959
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...Hart...
...Moss Hart. One of the most entertaining autobiographies of this or any other theatrical generation...
Legendary Lancelot. There are other characters-Augustus Pitou, the "King of the One-Night Stands," for whom Office Boy Hart wrote his first play at the rate of one act a night; legendary, spiteful Producer Jed Harris, who received Hart while standing stark naked in his hotel suite. But the greatest of all is probably Playwright George S. Kaufman, legendary Lancelot of the Algonquin Round Table. When Kaufman agreed to collaborate with the unknown young Hart on Once in a Lifetime, there started a gentle comedy of errors almost as funny as the play itself. If Kaufman hated anything...
While Author Hart guides his characters through their scenes, he also manages some fascinating asides. There is Hart's quick test of tryout success (when a play is doing well, room service is always prompt, but when it is in trouble, the waiters are always late and the sandwiches soggy); there is Hart's law for the aspiring director (the less sure he is of himself, the tougher he must be with the cast). Hart knows how to interpret all the sounds made by an audience: the implications of their coughs, the degrees of their laughter, the intensity...
Kaufman, this time in collaboration with Moss Hart, also wrote The Man Who Came to Dinner, which the Harvard Summer Theatre Group chose to put on in the Union Common Room. Resourcefully directed by Julius L. Novick '60 under difficult conditions, this witty satire about the notorious Alexander Woollcott emerged as a highly entertaining production. Mikel Lambert '59, as Maggie, gave the most consistently fine performance--poised, polished, and sensitive. Other good work came from Earle Edgerton '56 (in the title role), Richard Dozier '60, Marguerite Tarrant '59, John Wolfson '60, and Erich Segal...