Word: hdc
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Dates: during 1950-1959
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Much encouraged, the HDC initiated a Harvard Acting Laboratory, which Professor Chapman consented to direct. The Lab was an extra-curricular course for Harvard and Radcliffe freshmen and sophomores in classical acting technique, ballet and fencing. About two dozen students survived the screening of over 100 applicants. The Lab, which took four hours a week, performed an invaluable service. When Professor Chapman was away on leave the following year, Mrs. Mark A. DeWolfe Howe (formerly with the famed Abbey Theatre in Dublin) assumed direction of the Lab; and in 1955-56 the Lab was taught by Harold Scott '57, Colgate...
...real start of the current "renaissance" of student theatre here can, I think, be rather exactly pinned down to the last week of February, 1954. It was then that the HDC, having ripped out the floor seats of Sanders Theatre, opened a semi-arena production of T. S. Eliot's Murder in the Cathedral. This was a show of tremendous power, and gave clear notice that, once again, Harvard students were capable of providing a superlative theatrical experience...
...same week, HDC president Peter L. Shoup '55 announced the founding of its New Theatre Workshop, whose main purpose was to present, on a budget of between $10 and $25 each, live productions of plays written by students. For the first time in many years, the student playwright was accorded formal recognition, encouragement, and an outlet through which he could obtain, as Archibald MacLeish has said, the necessary experience of feeling "the blush of shame" that comes when he sees his own work produced. The Workshop has continued right up to the present and has fulfilled its mission admirably...
...When the HDC founded the Workshop, it also established another ancillary institution called the Children's Theatre. This group presented stage versions of classic children's tales in Radcliffe's Agassiz Theatre. Aimed primarily at young audiences, the Children's Theatre gave, over several years, a series of productions that charmed both the young...
...spring term ended with the HDC's production in Sanders of O'Neill's Marco Millions. This was the largest show ever undertaken at Harvard. It was beautifully acted by a huge cast of 75, and had stunning sets and costumes; but it was not a big popular success--the public was not yet ready for this play, which, although highly unorthodox and exotic, is a masterful work...