Using the Loeb

Tonight is Saturday night. There will be a queue around the block of the University Theater. The Brattle will have standing room only. But the Loeb Drama Center will be deserted as usual, except for a new technicians and the faithful band of HDC members who come regularly to gossip and just hang around.

One year after its opening, the Loeb suffers from malaise. And the inbred criticism of Harvard drama circles helps little to diagnose the illness. It may be true that the faculty committee has been unwise in selecting productions for the main stage. It may also be true that the HDC has not demonstrated the capacity to provide an effective alternative to faculty leadership. But that is all beside the point.

What has been done at the Loeb has not been done so badly. What has not been done is the real problem: the Loeb has not expanded operations with a view to becoming a "drama center" in the proper sense.

Amidst all the arguments over faculty judgement and student competence it is important to remember that the Loeb was not built merely to furnish Cambridge with a fancy esoteric theatre. It was intended as a center for Harvard dramatic activity. As such, its task is not merely to present two or three polished productions a term, but to stimulate the theatrical arts in the Harvard community. And Harvard can be educated in the theatre in many ways.

The Loeb or the HDC could sponsor informal dramatic readings by professional actors and playwrights. A mateur readings might also be appropriate, perhaps in connection with lower level Humanities courses. The Loeb faculty committee could take the obvious step of sponsoring a playwriting contest or of opening its main stage to short runs of original plays. The HDC might try producing one play that was frankly popular and could take polls in the Houses to survey Harvard tastes. The Loeb management and the Harvard student dramatic groups, in short, could expand activities to make the Loeb an exciting place.

But if the Loeb is to be used in can no longer be worshipped. Harvard drama must lose its awe of the Loeb's physical facilities and its accompanying fear of using them to produce anything amateurish. It costs several hundred dollars a day just to keep the Loeb open. It is about time that Harvard got its money's worth.