New Program Averts H.D.C.-Faculty Clash

A possible flare-up of the issue of Faculty control over undergraduate activities was averted, it was learned today, when the Harvard Dramatic Club decided to abandon their fall production of Christopher Morley's "The Trojan Horse" for two shorter plays.

The trouble began last week, when H.D.C. announced, cast, and started rehearsals of "The Trojan Horse" without getting the necessary confirmations form their three Faculty advisors, Professors Theodore Spencer and Robert S. Hillyer of the English Department, and Mr. William B. Van Lennep, Curator of the Widener Theatre Collection.

Notified of their carelessness by the Dean's Office, the officers of the Dramatic Club rushed copies of the play to these three men, and awaited their approval. But instead of approval, they got action from Professor Spencer which virtually blackballed the whole production.

Morley "trash"

Spencer sent a letter to the Dean's Office saying that Morley's, though not pornographic, was such "trash" that he would rather H.D.C. finesse a Fall play altogether than produce this one. He then phoned Hillyer, told him "This must be stopped," and asked whether or not Hillyer agreed.

Hillyer agreed that the play was not good drama, but said he thought that, as an advisor he ought to advise and not definitely determine whether or not H.D.C. do the play, since pornography did not enter into the issue. Van Lennep was of the same mind as Hillyer.

Then Profesor Spencer told the Dean's Office that Hillyer backed his own opinion on the play, though neither of them, he admitted, knew exactly what their powers were. The Dean's Office immediately rubber-stamped Spencer's decision, at the same time informing H.D.C. that final action rested with the Committee on Undergraduate Extracurricular Activity.

Time Against H.D.C.

For the next few days, Dramatic Club officers conferred with both parties, trying to thrash out the jurisdictional powers of their Advisors. The Club Constitution provided merely that "They shall advise in all matters pertaining to the Club." The Dean's Office repeated that H.D.C. could take the case to the Committee on Undergradu- ate Extracurricular Activity. But time was growing short, they had lost a week of rehersal time already, there was no telling when the final committee might meet, and chances were that it would back the standing decision in any case.

So H.D.C. decided to give up Morley for G. B. Shaw's "The Man of Destiny," and Frederico Garcia Lorca's "The Shoemaker's Prodigious Wife." They had just started rehearsals on that, when, last Tuesday, Hillyer phoned the Dean's Office and repeated what he had told Spencer: that, although he did not like "The Trojan Horse," he thought that H.D.C. should be able to put on the play if it really wanted to.

This reversed the whole situation. It meant that two of the Advisors, Hillyer and Van Lennep, were for giving the Dramatic Club a free hand, while Spencer alone held out for administrative, as well as aesthetic disapproval.

But by this time it was too late to shift back to Morley, so the Dramatic Club has decided to go with their two shorter plays, and possibly resurrect "The Trojan Horse" once more for their Spring production