HDC President Attacks Proposed Merger With Rival Drama Group

Harvard Dramatic Club opposition to merger offers extended to it yesterday by the Veterans Theatre Workshop were made public last night by HDC President Ted Allegretti '47.

He said that he and the HDC executive committee object to VTW proposals on two major counts:

1. That the Vets group, in their offer, stipulate that in order for the merger to take place, the HDC must completely dissolve, thus losing both its name and its status as a College "entity";

2. That the proposal further requires that "Henry IV, Part 1," already being prepared by the VTW, would have to be the first production of the new, combined theater group.

Would Create New Group

The proposal, that according to Allegretti would in effect create a new dramatic group with a new name, was decided upon by unanimous vote of 50 members of the VTW at a meeting Thursday evening.

Allegretti revealed last night that the HDC executive committee, which has also registered disapproval of the proposal, attended a previously scheduled joint meeting of the two groups at the HDC workshop this afternoon. He said that the plan was to be discussed at the meeting, but that although the HDC delegation waited, the VTW group did not appear.

He added that his organization had made a merger offer to the VTW "last spring," but that it was received unenthusiastically.

VTW had urged that resources be pooled to establish "a theater group which will truly reflect the best that Harvard has to offer."