All the College's a Stage...

When Peter Sellars '80 was an Adams House sophomore he asked Adams House master Richard Kiely for permission to clean up a trunk room in the basement. Kiely gave the now prominent director free reign and Sellars redid the room. Thus Harvard's first basement theater, called "Explosives B" after an explosives factory sign that Sellars had found, opened.

Word soon got out about the new theater. It was cramped and dirty, but also innovative and exciting. The new performing area was only the first of many spaces which students have transformed into ad hoc theaters. This semester, about 40 plays have gone up and it seems every nook and cranny on campus hides a cast and crew. Kiely speculates that Sellars introduced the concept at Harvard: if a space can hold more than 20 people, it's a theater.

Kiely recalls that Explosives B "was quite successful. On some nights, people were lined up almost to the Harvard Bookstore waiting to get in." Sellars continued to discover unused and unknown spaces--usually in the bowels of Adams House. He directed Macbeth with three actors in a basement corridor and Antony and Cleopatra in the pool, complete with barge.

When the House Committee took over Explosives B for a VCR room, enterprising directors moved their shows through the tunnels to another small storage room which has since hosted many student productions. The sign on the door reads Pocket Theater, but the room is commonly called the Kronauer Space (K-Space), after Richard Kronauer, who served as acting master when Kiely was on sabbatical in China.

Since then, few semesters have gone by without a performance in the tiny space, which only holds about 30 people. This semester the space has hosted a work by Stewart Thomsen '83, The War Years, and Brian Friel's The Faith Healer. Says Laurence Thomsen '89, who directed The War Years, "It's an intimate space. My favorite part about it is that it's so stark. It creates its own atmosphere."

In addition to offbeat areas like the K-Space, students use more conventional spaces for productions. Many houses, such as Dunster, Cabot and Mather, host at least one production per semester in their dining halls.

Hillary Coller '89, who last semester produced Ray Bradbury's Pillar of Fire in the Dunster House dining hall says, "It isn't so bad. You have to move all the tables out and then put them back in, but other than that it's O.K." But Liza DiPrima '89, who this spring directed two Tom Stoppard farces, The Real Inspector Hound and After Magritte, in the same space contends, "It's the worst."

Junior Common Rooms are another popular choice with directors, especially in Quincy, Lowell, Winthrop and Kirkland. Some, like Kirkland, use a conventional proscenium stage whereas in places like Lowell the audience, not the actors, is elevated. In addition, this semester productions have been staged at the Holmes Living Room in North House, The Currier Fishbowl, the Union Performance Room and the Quincy Qube.

Leverett House can boast of being the only undergraduate house with its own theater space, the Old Library. After the house library moved from Old to New Leverett in 1960, the Arts Society won rights to the space. Says current Arts Society president Clifford S. Goodstein '88, "We're unique not only because we have our own space, but also because the place has an unusual look. It just doesn't feel like a dining hall or JCR."

Last semester, Eric Kaplan '89 unearthed a new space. He staged his original work Lunge/Grip in the basement of Mather House. "I liked the way it felt," Kaplan says, "creepy, spare and depressing." The atmosphere did have a price, however. "It smells bad," he says.

The great outdoors also attract the occasional brave thespian. Joe Giani '89 is staging Shakespeare's Comedy of Errors in the Quincy House Cage with additional performances outdoors. One performance took place last week in the Quincy House Courtyard and another is scheduled for this Sunday on the Boston Common. "It's an over-romanticized idea," Giani says, "but the idea of Shakespeare in the open air is still fun."

Andrew C. Watson '88, the president of the Harvard-Radcliffe Dramatic Club (HRDC) agrees. Last year he staged a travelling version of Gargantua in different house courtyards. "One important aspect of theater is that it is dangerous," Watson says. "Being outside heightens that danger. And besides, the audience got to throw Jello."

And then of course there is the Loeb Drama Center. Students have used the facility since it was built in 1960 and have shared the Mainstage with the American Repertory Theater since the company moved to Cambridge in 1979. Before 1960, students could use a space located where Grendel's Restaurant is now and Sanders Theater. In addition to the Mainstage, the Loeb has an Experimental Theater which hosts only student shows and the Agassiz Theater across the street is another performance space available mostly for orginal works.

Before the ART moved into the Loeb, there were "many more" student productions on the Mainstage, says Donald R. Soule, technical director of the Loeb. Now there are only two per semester in addition to the six Ex slots. Competition to direct in these spaces is intense; there were eight Mainstage applications and 29 Ex applications last semester.

Students producing a show on the Mainstage gain not only a certain amount of prestige but also a budget of $4500, as compared to about $350 for an average house production. While the Experimental Theater grants much less money--around $250--a slot there gives directors an opportunity to try out creative ideas without worrying about making a profit--all shows are free--or being reviewed--the Ex has a strict no-review policy.

Daniel Zelman '89, who has acted in three Ex shows and directed A Bunch of Little Mamet Things there last semester says, "The Ex is special because you don't have to worry about dealing with house drama societies. And, you don't have to worry about getting an audience. Plus, there's all the Loeb equipment."

But performance space at Harvard has yet to be exhausted. Harvard students will continue to find new spaces to explore. Kaplan suggests that someone should put on a show in one of the alleyways in the Square. And when asked about the most original use of space he's seen at Harvard, Soule cites a performance staged by Sellars at the Ex.

The audience lay on the floor and the performance took place above them on the lighting grid.