Committee on Theater Recommends Against Establishing Drama Department at Harvard

The faculty committee on theater, in a report released this week, has recommended against establishing a department of drama or granting credit for extracurricular theater work.

The report, which was approved by the Faculty Council in June, instead urges that courses involving drama be initiated within existing departments.

The Committee to Review the Loeb Drama Center and Theater at Harvard also recommended that the Agassiz Theater be renovated and that a Harvard-Radcliffe Drama Council, composed of representatives of student theater groups, be formed to broaden student participation at the Loeb.

Robert H. Chapman, professor of English and director of the Loeb, said last night that nothing has been done to implement the report's recommendations, and that the as-yet-unformed Faculty Council on a Drama Center will probably handle implementation.

Franklin L. Ford, McLean Professor of Ancient and Modern History and chairman of the committee, said yesterday that his committee received no testimony, "written or oral," in support of a drama department.

The committee met with about 20 representatives of student theater groups and also solicited written comment from students and from Harvard-Radcliffe graduates, Ford said.

Drama Clique

Evangeline Morphos, a graduate student in English and Leverett House tutor who attended the meeting with the committee said yesterday that she opposed the establishment of a drama department because fewer students would participate in theater productions if a drama department "clique" controlled local theater.

Students can now concentrate in drama through the Special Studies department, Morphos added.

William Alfred, Kenan Professor of English and a member of the committee, said yesterday that one student at the meeting opposed establishing a drama department because "drama departments attract hacks."

Professors should be encouraged to involve theatrical productions in their courses, Alfred said, because "there needn't be a contradiction between the play as literature and the play as theater."

"All one would need," Alfred continued, "is the interest."

The committee recommended establishing a Drama Council to end what it called "the heretofore unrivalled power of the Harvard Dramatic Club in the Loeb," which it said limited student access and initiative.

The Drama Council, according to the report, would act as an intermediary between student organizations and Chapman, and would help decide policy issues "as specific as the choice between competing applicants for time on any of the stages."

Renovation of the Agassiz Theater will depend on the availability of funds and the results of an engineering study commissioned by President Horner last spring, Ford said.