Drama Society Stages Comeback

After a lengthy hiatus, the Winthrop House Drama Society met last night to start planning for its first performance in seven years, a production of the well-known suspense thriller Deathtrap.

The Drama Society faded out of existence around 1995 after a storied history that includes the final Harvard performance of actor Matt Damon, Class of 1992.

Ira Levin’s Deathtrap will open on Dec. 5 in the Winthrop Junior Common Room, which is the same room where Damon performed Burn This with the society.

Ellsworth A. Fersch, a lecturer on psychology and nonresident tutor in the House, said he remembers Damon’s performance “generated such a crowd.”

Restoring the defunct society to its former glory became a priority for Matthew Baggetta, Winthrop’s drama and performing arts tutor, when he became a tutor this fall.

“I was heavily involved in theater as an undergraduate, and when I became a tutor I wanted to bring theater into the House environment,” said Baggetta, who plans to produce the society’s first play.

Not only is Baggetta the producer, he is also the sole financier of the endeavor.

“Most grant applications are due in the spring, and I didn’t become a tutor until the middle of the summer,” he said. “At the moment, I am looking into funding through the Office for Arts and I’m scrimping and searching.”

Financial support aside, Baggetta said the society’s revival has been met with great enthusiasm. Winthrop now joins a handful of Houses that have drama societies, including Adams, Cabot, Currier and Eliot House.

“The response has been fantastic,” Baggetta said. “The masters have been supportive, and the students are very excited.”

Auditions for Deathtrap were held last week as part of the Harvard-Radcliffe Dramatic Club’s Common Casting process. Many actors chose Deathtrap out of the nearly 20 shows available for auditions because of the witty script and captivating plot, said Thomas P. Lowe ’05, who will play a lead role in the show.

“The script really excited me,” said Lowe. “Even though I have a ton of lines to learn and it’s a really wordy script, the words just seem to roll off the tongue.”

Baggetta said Deathtrap marks the first in what he hopes will be a long series of shows performed by the society.

“I’d really like to see us do a show a semester,” said Baggetta.

Current ideas include a springtime “Shakespeare in the Park” series and a music review, Baggetta said.

Baggetta said he also hopes to expose society members to theater outside Harvard by attending professional productions in the Boston area.

He said the society will continue to change—for instance, they might not find their actors through Common Casting in the future.

“I would like to see the creation of some very specifically Winthropian events,” Baggetta said.

But Baggetta said he does not want to limit enjoyment of theater to those students in Winthrop House.

“One of the most wonderful aspects of drama is that the experience of theater is a fundamentally shared one...connecting people within the Winthrop community, the Harvard community, and the larger communities in which we are embedded,” he said.