Word: hdc
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Chapman feels responsible for making sure that the Loeb runs, as he puts it, on a "two-party system" -- that is, for both participants and spectators. In advising the HDC, he tries to see that a balance is struck between educating the students and edifying audiences. When he directs Etherege's Man of Mode next month, it will be both "because it's not the sort of play students would ordinarily do," and because it will permit some of the six or seven hundred people in Harvard's English Department to see what a Restoration comedy looks like...
...many HDC members, however, he gives the impression that, as one put it, "he's extremely dissatisfied with everything that's done at the Loeb." Says the same person, "Chapman is caught between being too professional for the amateur Loeb and being fed up with what the professional theatre has to offer...
There are really two sides to the Chapman coin. Heads, he looks down his nose at the Loeb; tails, he's a slightly discriminating perfectionist. "People don't ask him to rehearsals because they are afraid he would sneer," says one HDC member. "If he can't do a show exactly right, he can't bear to do it," says another. "He's kind of a snob. He won't do a show that would be compromised from the beginning...
When he directs, he spends a great deal of time researching the play's record. His production of Love for Love, a brilliant success, was correct down to the Restoration detail of having the gentlemen wear their hats to dinner. He was reluctant to go see the HDC's summer production of The Bacchae, because it was a modern interpretation done in modern dress; it didn't seem to him the real thing...
...they trust his judgement, they are often afraid to hear it handed down. When he dissects a Loeb effort, his charm can give way to an icy directness. Most leads and directors do end up wandering into his office for a post-mortem. Says one HDC executive, "If you ask him, he gives it to you straight -- right between the eyes. He judges everything from a professional standpoint. That's a good influence...