CO-OPERATION IN DRAMATIC ART

Professor G. P. Baker '87 spoke at the Dramatic Club open meeting yesterday afternoon on the beginnings of the club and its relation to the worker in the drama. Whether professional producing, playwriting, or acting is a man's aim, the Dramatic Club is the training school here that will do the most for him, as has been seen in the past with such men as E. Sheldon '08, Allan Davis '07, and others. It is absolutely necessary for the future critic to know the theatre and its company from behind the scenes, and even the future composer can acquire his mechanics here. It cannot be too forcibly urged on men in the dramatic arts that co-operation is the absolute requisite of success. Personal exhibition can have no place here. That spirit is altogether too prevalent in the candidate for dramatic honors and the production loses thereby the artistic effect of the whole that is accomplished by co-operation.

The relation of the "47 Workshop" to the Dramatic Club should be made clear. Except that they are organizations that exist for dramatic purposes they are not at all alike. The "Workshop" does not aim to produce the finished play of the Dramatic Club, but, if possible, to "finish" the play for the Club. There should be three stages of play-making here: the "Workshop," the Dramatic Club, and the professional stage. Above all things the College dramatic organization should be co-operative, self-supporting, and self-sufficing, meeting all of its own needs such as staging, costuming, lighting, etc., through its own efforts.