Word: hdc
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...want to direct a play on the Loeb mainstage, you apply to the Harvard Dramatic Club executive committee--a very odd bird indeed. The HDC does not elect the committee--the five-man group nominates its own new members, and only a vote of the club, by mail, against a nominee can defeat him. Before the creation of the Executive Committee last spring, elected officers voted on applications for shows; the club gave up the old structure when it was told (by the students who appointed themselves the executive committee) that the Loeb Faculty advisers would only deal with them...
Another major complaint has been that when the HDC established the committee, it also approved a rule that no undergraduate could direct on the main stage unless he had previously directed two shows elsewhere. With competition for the main stage becoming fiercer, the student with the most successful shows is likely to come out on top--and success in this case usually means good reviews and Loeb word-of-mouth on the worth of a production...
Furthermore all main stage productions would suffer from the HDC plan, not just misplaced House productions, because all plays would have lower budgets. Increasing the number of shows would entail cutting the budget for each from $2500 to $1700. This is supposed to encourage experimentation and improvisation of sets, props, and costumes. But this kind of corner-cutting is more appropriate to House drama than to the main stage...
...HDC Executive Committee will begin meeting next week to choose next year's main stage directors. The HDC's bylaws require main stage directors to have directed two plays already. Many of the applicants will have had experience only in the Houses or the Experimental Theater, and these should be given generous consideration. But the committee should not authorize an increased number of undergraduate-directed plays if it can do so only by lowering the quality of Loeb productions. The Committee should discard its earlier plan: twelve main stage shows could be everybody's loss and nobody's gain...
...Several HDC members also pointed out hat the program is expected to encourage more undergraduates to join the Loeb productions since their participation is necessary if the expanded schedule is to prove workable...