Group Readings Vitalize Rugged 'Closet Dramas'

In the interests of research, and purely for the satisfaction of intellectual curiosity, fifteen men in graduate English are unearthing closet dramas of dubious purity, in fortnightly readings in the Widener Poetry Room.

The group, of which Joseph Prescott 4G, an assistant in English, is the chairman, is attempting to "make obscure plays get up and walk around," while making the study of the drama congenial and amusing. Several men who inquired whether the group's study would be a help in passing their PhD's were unceremoniously dismissed.

"Rugged Stuff"

According to one of the group, Arnold Kenseth, assistant in English and Curator of the Poetry Room, the works are "good spicy melodrama with enough 'body' for a masculine audience." Theodore Wood, Jr. 2G, who has been a consistent leading man when parts are drawn from a hat on "production nights" was more explicit. "It's good rugged stuff--all sorts of words are used without a blush." Wood did not explain whether it was the play or the players that did not "blush."

"It adds a gusto," he said.

The Revenger's Tragedy, by Cyril Tourneur, was the first of the plays read. The second was "Gammer Gurton's Needle," written as for a student production by "S", a student at Cambridge in the fifteenth century, whose full name has been lost to posterity.