Word: theater
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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...Agassiz Theater...
...congratulate Abigail McGanney for her eloquent and pithy article of last Saturday. With wit and elegance she champions the "experimental" cause in Harvard Theater, condemning the conservative elite and its oppressive, narrow-minded approach to the creative process. Her careful research helped her understand most of the intricate issues she brings together in her article. Her quotation of me, both accurate and in context, very successfully makes me look the fool...
McGanney first notes that the Experimental Theater should do "experimental" plays; she would settle a complex argument by calling on the power of a name. By her logic, she will be quite content if we change the name to the Elite Theater. But I don't think changing the name would help. The name argument is clever, if specious, window dressing...
McGanney then notes that only the Ex receives money from the University. For this reason, she argues, the Ex should support theater that would not find funding anywhere else. One of several criteria for choosing Ex shows should be consideration of University support. But would McGanney feel her tuition better spent were she able to see six dreadful productions of "experimental" plays...
More important, why does "experimental" theater deserve the University's exclusive support? Each director, actor, designer and producer has his own style of theater. If several name themselves "experimental," do they deserve exclusive claim to one of the finest technical theaters on campus...