The Curtain Goes Up On the Brustein Show

Robert S. Brustein, former dean of the Yale School of Drama, arrived in Cambridge this spring, bringing four professional productions at his American Repertory Theater (ART) and new hope for undergraduates interested in drama as an academic vocation.

Feared by some students at its announcement as a threat to undergraduate access to the Loeb Drama Center, the arrival of Brustein and his professional troupe seemed to cause no immediate friction with students. The four ART shows--A Midsummer Night's Dream, Terry by Terry(a new play be Mark Leib), Happy End, and The Inspector General (directed by Peter Sellars '80)--fared well both at the box office and with critics.

Brustein's proposal to add drama courses for credit to a Harvard curriculum that has always frowned upon them also fared well this year--at the hands of students and Faculty members.

After wending its way through the educational bureaucracy--where it met with near unanimous approval in the Committee on Undergraduate Education, the Committee on Dramatics and the Faculty Council--the proposal went before the full Faculty.

After about an hour of heated debate, the Faculty overwhelmingly approved the motion, which gives the Committee on Dramatics authority to approve drama courses for credit and recommend non-paying, year-long appointments of lecturers in dramatic arts.

As part of his proposal, Brustein developed a list of ten courses, both lecture and practical, which should become a part of next year's course catalogue, pending approval by the Committee on Dramatics.