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Bennett College
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FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 20, 1981
BENNETT COLLEGE, GREENSBORO, N. C.
VOL. XLll, NO. 7
Shakespeare and Milton
Topics in lecture
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Dr. O. B. Hardison, Jr., director of the Folger Shakespeare Library,
was brought to the campus by funds from the Andrew IVlellon Foundation Grant.
Year’s final mini course completed
The fourth and final mini course
for the 1980-81 school year titled
“Housing Needs in the 1980’s,” will
be held for two weeks beginning
Feb. 16 and ending Feb. 27, 1981.
The Home/Family Life Staff is
featuring this particular theme
due to the current lack of housing
in the United States because of
inflation.
Consultants appearing are: Mr.
Ledford L. Austin, Deputy Area
Manager, HUD; Dr. Marlowe
Shute, Realtor; Mr. Reginald
Whitsett, Assistant Professor, De
partment of Architectural Engi
neering, NC A&T; Mrs. Sarah H.
James, Assistant Professor, De
partment of Home Economics, NC
A&T; Mr. Clinton E. Gravely,
A.I.A. Architect; Mr. William A.
Streat, Jr. A.I.A. Architect, De
partment of Architectural Eng,i-
neering, Professor and Chairman;
Mrs Brenda Morris, Home Eco
nomics County Extension Agent;
Reverend Prince E. Graves, Pas
tor, St. James Baptist Church.
The final day of the Mini Course
will deal with Case Studies in
volving family housing problems.
Myra Jewel George
Dr. O. B. Hardison, Jr., director
of the Folger Shakespeare Library,
was the guest lecturer for two
sessions held on February 9, 1981
in the Henry Pfeiffer Science
Assembly.
The topic for the 8:00 p.m. ses
sion was “Shakespeare on Film:
A Diminished Glory.” The lecture
featured two main parts. The first
part discussed differences in stage
plays and movies as art forms,
while the second was an analysis
of how the differences show up in
specific films, specifically Olivier’s
Henry V and Zepherelli’s Romeo
and Juliet.
Hardison formed three postu
lates about the differences in stage
plays and movies. First, he said,
drama is intrinsically social but
films are intrinsically personal
and non-social. To attend a stage
drama, he explained, one dresses
up and goes in groups for the
main purpose of impressing and
interacting with others. “Con
versely,” he queried, “who ever
took a girl to the opening night
of King Lear to neck in the bal
cony?” Movie goers, he suggested,
seek experience not definition. He
concluded that stage drama was
a social medium while films were
a personal medium yet “both
Induction to be held
The induction ceremonies for
the Pi Gamma Mu International
Social Science Honor Society have
been postponed until March 3.
Pi Gamma Mu was founded at
Bennett in 1963 making Bennett
one of the first Black schools to
become a member. The goals of Pi
Gamma Mu are to promote inter
change between student members
and faculty members, and to en
courage student members to enter
graduate school.
The ceremonies are being de
layed to give border line students
and transfer students time to de
velop the necessary average or
eligibility. To become a member
one must be in the junior or senior
class, majoring in the social
sciences with an average of 3.0
or above. “The induction cere
monies were cancelled last semes
ter because only one student,
Sherrell Larry, was eligible,” says
Jackie Moyer, president of the
society on Bennett’s campus.
Mrs. L. Addo is the head of the
chapter at Bennett and there is
presently one student member,
Jackie Moyer. “The only reason
I’m the only member is because
the others graduated last year,”
says Moyer.
The new inductees are Elisa
Staley, Psychology; Sherrel Larry,
Political Science; Linda Love, So
cial Welfare, and Brenda Love,
also a Social Welfare major. Also
being inducted into Pi Gamma Mu
are two faculty members. Dr.
Marilyn Davis, Assistant Professor
of Political Science and Mrs. Re
gina Bowden, Director of Field
Studies.
Couple performs scenes
Feb. 24 bring a visit to Bennett
by British Shakespearean actors
Deirdre Barber and Arthur Kin
caid. They will be presenting
Flashes of Lightning, a series of
scenes from six Shakespeare plays
performed in costume, in the Ben
nett College Little Theatre, Feb.
24 at 8:00 p.m.
Kincaid and Barber, from Ox
ford, England, are touring on the
East Coast this academic year un
der the auspices of the Oxford
Area Arts Council. This will be
their third visit to the U.S. with
this program, which they have
also toured in England, Portugal,
Austria and Germany.
The show is an hour-long tour
de force which the actors devised
and designed themselves four
years ago. Beginning and ending
with a wooing scene, they trans
form themselves from Richard III
and Lady Anne through Hamlet
and Ophelia, Orlando and Rosa
lind, Macbeth and his lady, to con
clude as Petruchio and Kate,
through a series of lightning-swift
changes of costume and character.
Arthur Kincaid, who started
reading Shakespeare at five and
acting at eight, has two deg,rees
in English from American univer
sities and a doctorate from Oxford,
where, in addition to acting and
directing, he was President of
Oxford University Ballet Club
and performed in mime and dance.
One of his teachers was the well
known mime Lindsay Kemp. Hav
ing studied acting as a child and
worked in American professional
theatre, he did further study at
the British Theatre Association.
Among his Shakespearean stage
roles have been Hamlet, Macbeth,
Richard III and Ariel, and he has
appeared in a film of The Tempest.
He has led a double life as actor
and scholar, teaching English lit
erature and drama in universities
all ovr the world and publishing
scholarly books and articles. He
is interested in Browning as well
as Shakespear and has performed
some of the Browning’s dramatic
monologues. On stage a cheerful,
amoral villain as Richard III, off
stage he is a defender of the
historical Richard. He also swims,
rows and climbs mountains.
Deirdre Barber grew up in the
suburbs of London and studied
Drama and English at Hull Uni
versity in Yorkshire. After grad
uating she entered the professional
theatre, acting with touring com
panies and for BBC television.
Five years later she left the thea
tre for the dreaming spires and
became a librarian at Oxford Uni
versity, spending her spare time
acting, directing, designing and
writing plays.
She has played Portia and Ros
alind and particularly likes com
edy, modern as well as Elizabeth
an. Three of her plays and her
script for a revue have been pro
duced, and last year she was the
guest of the University of South
ern Illinois at Edwardsville for
the premiere of But Shirley Fair-
weather!, a play of hers which
two faculty members there had
turned into a musical. The work
will have its second airing at
Equity Library Theatre this year.
Offstage, Kincaid and Barber
are husband and wife, married
last summer on the last day of
their Oxford production of Rich
ard in. Most of their joint inter
ests are theatre-centered. They
enjoy going to productions at
Stratford-on-Avon, reading and
writing together and talking to
each other, particularly about
Shakespeare. On their last visit
to the States they became addicted
to playing Boggle. They have col
laborated on Shakespeare Drawn
and Quartered, a book of whim
sical cartoons illustrating Shake
spearean quotations, published
last year, and they plan to write
a thriller together.
forms meet fundamental needs.”
The second postulate argued
that drama is “intrinsically organ
ic” while movies are “intrinsically
inorganic.” Hardison explained
that drama is necessarily Aris-
totlean and non-stop proceeding
from beginning to middle to end.
“The objective,” he commented,
“is always to make the play work;
to present it as a unified, organic
work.” On the other hand, movies
are never continuous. He described
the filming technique of putting
brief scenes, or takes, together. A
film, he asserted, is the product
of contributions of different in
dividuals who do not work in har
mony, do not work together and
often do not even know each other.
The result, he said, “is a mosaic
of bits and pieces put together” to
appear organic.
The final postulate was that
drama is realistic; film is surreal
istic. Drama “shows the world in
front of you; the natural world,
rather than the world within you,”
he said. Films, he contrasted, have
a constantly changing angle of
vision as if the viewer is moving
around in space. They have a
“grotesque element,” he added. “A
scene which may be intensely
serious on stage,” he said, “is often
humorous or farcical on screen.”
The second part of the lecture
showed how these differences af
fect specific fimls. Of Olivier’s
script which bears the reputation
of being a faithful Shakespearean
adaptation, Hardison declares it a
“conversion into mosaic surreal
ism.” He cited a production of
Midsummer’s Night Dream which
starred Mickey Rooney as the
mischievous Puck and James Cag
ney as B'ottom. This play, he noted,
appealed to the “skin flick im
pulses” recalling a production 15
years ago which featured Titania
“wearing three bangles and
nothing else.”
Zepherelli’s Taming of the
Shrew, which Hardison called an
“apprentice work” placed too
much emphasis on the stars Bur
ton and Taylor, he criticized.
Zepherelli’s Romeo and Juliet,
Hardison asserted, “took liberties
with Shakespeare.” The dialogue
was superfluous, he claimed.
Shakespeare’s works, he stated,
are resistant to film techniques.
All attempts have made revisions
so drastic, he said, that the orig
inal play ceases to be of interest.
Hardison maintained that he does
not disapprove of films. He con
cluded, “There is an undisputed
glory of film shows. Some of the
glory of Shakespeare shows
through but it is a diminished
glory.”
In an earlier session at 10:00
a.m.. Dr. Hardison spoke on “Hee
for God Only: Milton’s View of
Women.” This lecture was basic
ally an analysis of Milton’s Para
dise Lost and his other tracts in
search of references to women.
Following this session, he attended
a luncheon in Bennett’s private
dining room.
Dr. Hardison was born in San
Diego, California on October 22,
1928. He received his B.A. and
M.A. degrees from the University
of North Carolina. In 1956, he re
ceived his doctorate degree from
the University of Wisconsin. He is
married and has six children.
Before becoming director of the
Folger Shakespeare Library in
Washington, D. C., Hardison
taught at the University of Wis
consin, the University of Tennes
see, Princeton University and the
University of North Carolina.
Described by Dr. Lynn Sadler
as “a great Miltonist and Shake
spearean scholar” and “master of
the classical, medieval and Renais
sance periods,” he is the author
of nine books and co-author of
six others. He is the editor of five
books; series editor of two more
and member of the editorial board
of several journals. His poems and
journals have been published in
numerous journals such as the
New York Times Book Review,
the Chronicle of Higher Education,
Esquire and The Southern Poetry
Review.
Dr. Hardison’s visit to the col
lege was made possible by funds
from the Andrew W. Mellon
Foundation and the North Caro
lina Committee for Independent
Higher Education, Inc. The pro
gram was a Spring Faculty Forum
with Mr. LeAnder Canady, Mrs.
Anne Gillespe. Mrs. Mary Hop
kins and Dr. Virginia Tucker as
facutly panelists. After his lecture
at Bennett, Dr. Hardison spoke at
Davidson College.
British actors Deirdre Barber and Arthur Kincaid performed excerpts
of Shakespeare in FLASHES OF LIGHTNING on February 24.