Word: working
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Dates: during 1950-1959
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Quincy immediately set to work to "improve" the students. One of his first "reforms" was the establishment of a new marking system, the Scale of Merit. This system sought to place students in their proper academic positions with mathematical certainty: 8 points for attending class, a loss of 16 points for missing Sunday chapel, etc. Quincy himself took Puritanic glee in toting up the figures weekly. The Scale of Merit, however, proved a dismal failure, for it placed a premium upon attendance and not upon learning. Perhaps the system fitted well with Quincy's preconceptions of the ideal college course...
...choosing the first show, the C.D.F. naturally wanted a festive work of acknowledged merit. It settled on Twelfth Night and engaged the imaginative Herbert Berghof as director. Berghof, in keeping with the festive occasion, decided to turn the play into a "music and dance extravaganza." He employed as much music as possible, composed or arranged in neo-Elizabethan style by Andre Singer. He interpreted Malvolio's phrase, "the fool's zanies," as "the Fool's zanies," and created two new characters--a singing zany and a dancing zany--to accompany Feste the Fool. He also did some textual pruning...
...four characters in The Glass Menagerie, the other of Tennessee Williams' two great plays, captured only some of the work's beautiful subtlety and fragility. Once again, the best job was turned in by Frank Langella as the son Tom. The Playhouse then resurrected the famous 1844 play The Drunkard; or, The Fallen Saved, "a moral domestic drama by W. H. Smith and a Gentleman." Marilyn Miller staged the work in period costume and old-school ham acting style; and the result was unflaggingly hilarious. Booing, hissing, and the throwing of peanuts were actively encouraged. A pianist furnished background accompaniment...
...Group 20 Players had a particularly fine season--their seventh--with only one lapse out of a schedule of five plays. By coincidence they opened with the same work as the C.D.F.'s finale: Much Ado. It was directed by Ellis Rabb, who joined the company for the first time. Rabb is one of the finest Shakespearean actors anywhere; though still very young, he is one of a handful who can boast of having acted in all thirty-seven of the Bard's plays. He provided a warm, even-keeled production on William D. Roberts' stunning, three-story set, complete...
...Union Common Room. Resourcefully directed by Julius L. Novick '60 under difficult conditions, this witty satire about the notorious Alexander Woollcott emerged as a highly entertaining production. Mikel Lambert '59, as Maggie, gave the most consistently fine performance--poised, polished, and sensitive. Other good work came from Earle Edgerton '56 (in the title role), Richard Dozier '60, Marguerite Tarrant '59, John Wolfson '60, and Erich Segal...