Subsidy May Help HDC To Second Summer Run

The Harvard Dramatic Club Summer Players, who three weeks ago were saying that they might quit Cambridge after producing their first show, now plan to return for a second summer. What's more, the Summer School may subsidize their future productions.

Thomas E. Crooks, director of the Summer School, said yesterday that although no commitments have yet been made, he is "quite willing" to discuss the possibility of a financial grant with the HDC.

In fact, Crooks said, had the HDC decided to set up the Summer Players before May of this year, the Summer School might have subsidized its current efforts. "Our budget is submitted in February," Crooks said, "and by the time they came to us, there was nothing we could do."

Even Without Subsidy

Timothy S. Mayer '66 and Thomas J. Babe '63, directors of this summer's productions, maintained yesterday that even without a subsidy the Club will continue its summer work.

"We could probably get along with box office receipts and subscription tickets the way we did this year," Mayer said. Extra funds, he said, would be used to pay the living expenses of the Club members in the show, who pressently have to shift for themselves.

"We've got more than 20 people here this summer," Mayer said, "and nearly all of them have jobs--which means they are not too anxious to rehearse all afternoon and perform at night."

Actors and directors who work at the repertory theatre on the Loeb main stage during the summer are given grants-in-aid by the Summer School for their work. Unlike the people who appear in the HDC productions at Agassiz, mostly students at the College or Harvard graduate schools, performers at the Loeb are recruited from drama schools throughout the country.

A Cheeseburger

Mayer said that the HDC did not expect to receive this kind of support, but "we would like our people to eat." He claimed to have eaten but one meal in the past two days and that a single cheeseburger.

Despite low overhead and good reviews the Club has just squeaked by, Mayer said. Joan Littlewood's Oh What a Lovely War, which Mayer directed, received excellent notices, but Agassiz, which seats some 350, was only 60 per cent full on an average night.

Whatever kept audiences away from Agassiz has been keeping them away from other small theatres in the area: there are reports that theatre groups at Tufts and B.U. are in financial trouble.

"It's tight," Mayer said, "and if The Bacchae doesn't do well, we could be in trouble." Euripides The Bacchae, directed by Babe, opened at Agassiz last night.