Drama Company Cancels Plans For Pacific Tour of 'Our Town'

A college theatrical group has cancelled plans for a tour of U.S. Army bases in the Pacific area with its production of Our Town, by Thornton Wilder. The show will still be presented in Cambridge this May, as originally scheduled, Joel F. Henning '61, producer, announced yesterday.

The cast, chosen from more than 100 who auditioned, consists primarily of Harvard and Radcliffe students. However, director Stephen Randall '60 was unable to cast undergraduates in "four very difficult roles written for older people," Henning explained. Because of this problem, the company was unable to quality for the Army college drama program.

All of the actors involved are "as anxious as ever to do the play," Henning asserted. With actors of professional stature in those roles which require it, he added, "the quality of the company equals and probably surpasses that of the off-Broadway production now in its closing weeks in New York."

The addition of the four older actors, Henning emphasized, "may have hurt our chances for a free ride to the South Pacific, but it has infinitely increased the quality of the Cambridge production."

The play will be done, perhaps for the first time, as it was written, he remarked --as a play about people in a small New Hampshire town. In order to give the "non-Yankee" members of the cast an opportunity to see and hear just how New Hampshire natives live and talk, the company will probably spend several weekends in the Peterborough area.