Word: plays
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Dates: during 1950-1959
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...inaugural offering, the VTW presented the world premiere of William Gerhardi's first play, I Was a King in Babylon. Observers agreed that it was a good production of a bad work. So the VTW decided to let the student body at large guide its next choice. A poll showed that the students favored modern plays over classical ones by 5 to 1, and harbored a definite antipathy to student scripts. As to specific playwrights, the poll yielded the following, in order of preference: Shaw, Shakespeare, O'Neill, Coward, Ibsen, Wilde, Anderson, Odets, Chekhov, and Wilder...
Starting off with a good production of Beaumarchais' Marriage of Figaro, which toured all seven Houses and the Union, the HTG reached its peak in April, 1951, with a compelling production of Kingsley's Darkness at Noon, which had a run in Sanders simultaneously with the play's Broadway run. Resourceful designer David A. Hays '52 coped with the inadequacy of Sanders by constructing his sets on two revolving stages. The show was rightly described as "undoubtedly the finest undergraduate drama presented at Harvard in more than two years...
Having concentrated mainly on modern plays, the HTG performed a noble parting gesture to the cause of new drama just before the founding members' graduation in 1953. As its swan song, the Group decided to give the premiere of The General, written by Robert H. Chapman, associate professor of English. Directed by the author, the performance was excellent. But the play was weak, and the production lost $3000 (though a New York manager picked up the tab). Nevertheless, all agreed that the HTG could take pride in its exit as well as its previous record...
...fine reputation, a monetary surplus, and the backing of the professional Brattle company. Quite understandably the HTG saw no sense in risking these assets by taking on less talented students and their debts. The contrast is epitomized in the efforts of the two groups to stage the same play. In November, 1947, the HDC staged Ibsen's An Enemy of the People in Sanders; the result was a drab, dull show. But when the HTG gave it in the cramped Pi Eta Theatre in the fall of 1951, it enjoyed a dynamic and exciting production...
...anew, and Vag began to fear anew that his sadistic dreams of mutilation and riot would go unrealized. His last hope lay in Joni James and Jerri Vale, and they failed him. The crowd watched mutely as Joni and Jerri appeared, sang their songs and left; Lester began to play again...