Attacks By Boston Critic Fail to Alter Loeb Plans

Proposed plans for the new Loeb Drama Center aroused vigorous criticism yesterday from a Boston critic. "They are inadequate," claimed W. Elliot Norton '26, drama critic for the Boston Record and Advertiser, and lecturer in dramatic literature at Boston University.

"The College desperately needs an adequate building with 1700 to 1800 seats," Norton commented. "It's too bad Harvard can't get an ideal theatre now after 30 years of waiting."

Dean Bundy indicated yesterday that there will be no major alteration of the preliminary plans already made for the Loeb Drama Center. The general achitectural conception of the Theatre has been finished, and the firm of Hugh Stubbins and Associates will proceed at full speed to complete engineering drawings.

Disagreement Expressed

Brooks Atkinson, drama critic for the New York Times, disagreed with Norton's stand and said he felt that a small theatre would be "more practical." "For amateur actors, a 500-seat auditorium can be much more merciful," he commented.

The originator of the drive for contributions to the Drama Center, John Mason Brown '23, agreed that a small theatre would be more practical. However, he warned that the experimental theatre, included along with the large auditorium, "must not be so small as to be useless."

Robert M. Chapman, chairman of the Faculty Committee on the Theatre, also criticized Norton's proposal. "Any auditorium with over 900 seats would not be feasible for the College. A large structure as Norton suggests could not possibly be as flexible as we wish."

Cost Limits Size

Cost limitation played "an important, but not decisive role" in determining the size of the Drama Center, Chapman said. The Corporation has set a ceiling of $1.5 million, which has already been contributed to the Program for Harvard College.

Norton claimed that production costs for shows would be about the same in a 1700-seat theatre as in a 500-seat one.