March 25
Page Two
PRESS
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EDITOR Susan Foard
BUSINESS MANAGER Betsey Guerrant
Value Of Theatre?
oreciated in the study than on the and many more the worst is to see
3^Tare beset now by grave suffe^^^
News Editor Mary Lu Nuckols
Asst. News Editor.... Sally Tyson
Feature Edito, .....Il....... Harriet Herring
Asst. Feature Editor Susan Hugne.
Asst. Business Mgr—Sara Lou Richardson
Advertising Manager ... Jo Ann Wade
Circulation Manager Becky Smith
Headline Editors...... Alta Lu Townes
Joanne Doremus
Copy Editor Barbara Altman
Faculty Advisor . ... Miss Jess Byrd
Managing Editor Elizabeth Lynch
Managing Staff
Sandra Gilbert
2>oed-
9h?
After the Phi Alpha Theta panel discussion of the values of the co -
lege generation, there were some objections expressed about the negative
interpretation put on self-interest. Some in the audience felt that t le
panel emphasized group or extra-curricular activities too muc i.
We see three stages in the development of the college student, which
no doubt every maturing person should pass through. Many students,
particularly in their freshman and sophomore years, exa t in ivi ua ism,
or getting what they want, whether from social contacts, studying, or
attending group meetings. This is a stage of taking in.
But, as the panel emphasized, no amount of accumulated knowledge
is going to be of any value until the student gives it back out This is
the second stage of college learning. Certainly music students and
practice teachers are given within their curricula the chance to test t leii
knowledge, to put it to use. But on the part of the other liberal ar s
majors, there seems to be a feeling that the classroom promotes only
written use of things they are learning. Only outside the classroom he
the opportunities to try out new ideas which in the groups surroun
us by talking and by leading extracurricular groups.
Obviously, the students feel the lack of vital discussion in classes.
This is not usually the professor’s fault, but the students’, who want to
collect as many notes as possible in each fifty minutes, to have some
thing concrete to study for exams.
Therefore there is a general custom on campus to use extracurricular
activities for the second stage of college development-giving knowledge
back out in an effort to find out how much our society will accept as
correct.
The third stage is an ideal one, which rarely exists. In this stage
the college student learns to be one and the same person no matter
what activity she is engaged in-in the classroom, on a date, or at a
club meeting. Her self-interest is combined with the knowledge she has
gained through experience to the point that she can be sure that her
decisions .vill be correct both for herself and others She rejects neither
her own desires nor the pressures of the groups around her, but manages
to strike a satisfying balance between them. This is when the college
student becomes a mature individual, ready to make an impression on
the society-at-large.
S. L. F.
Results Of Salem Survey
A survey to indicate what things or activities the Salem stu
dents consider valuable was passed out in chapel Monday. This
was done in connection with a panel discussion sponsored by
the Phi Alpha Theta Honorary History Society.
The poll was based on a survey of college students done by
Phillip Jacob in The Changing Values In College. Students
across the nation were asked to indicate first, second and third
choices of things or activities which would give them satis
faction in the future. The choice was among career, family,
leisure, community, national and international, and religious
affairs. On a national basis the students chose family, career
and leisure activities for satisfaction.
The Salem poll showed these results:
1st
An Open Letter To The Student
Body:
For almost two years now, one
question has been foremost in my
mind: what part should the theatre
play in a college such as Salem?
The answer seems ripped by con
troversy with the majority opinion
on a side which I feel is negative,
a side which subordinates the the
atre to an extracurricular “show
biz’’ whose sole purpose is to enter
tain (painlessly) the community
twice a year primarily through
laughter.
This opinion to me is puritanical.
Why ? Because for over three
hundred years since the latter part
of Shakespeare’s life, educated peo
ple, partly under the influence of
the Puritan theatre purge and
partly because they are insensed by
the w’ r e t c h e d interpretations of
masterpieces upon the stage, have
decided that “Drama is a minor
offshoot of the main stream of
literature and that “Theatre’’ is a
medium of entertainment largely
concerned with the “commercial ex
hibition of attractive men and wo
men.” It is this same idea which
presently wishes to confine serious
drama to the classroom and to de
mand therapeutic frivolity (a me
lange of Happy Anniversary, The
Reluctant Debutante, and No Time
for Sergeants) from the stage.
According to the recent Pierrette
survey, this is the theatre you
want, and certainly your theatre
should give it to you; however, I
should like to think that you would
demand more, that you would de
mand to see plays that have either
long outlived their authors or that
have the potential for doing so as
well as we can judge now. I will
not say that this type of theatre
is “good for you”, because everyone
knows that “a good thing for us”
generally means something that
proves painful and unpleasant (we
learned this in our childhood). I
would rather say that such drama
would touch you emotionally and
by so doing it would remain in
your mind long after you had for
gotten the- dates of the Battle of
blastings or the First Folio! How
many of you still remember Lau
rence Olivier’s Hamlet but have for
gotten Caroline Spurgeon’s discus
sion of imagery in the play ?
At this point I shall quote Ty
rone Guthrie, a man who is con
sidered “the most gifted director on
the English-speaing stage” and a
'man who graduated from Oxford
and received his first theatrical op
portunities with the Oxford Ex
perimental Theatre:
are Deset now
doubts about the ultimate impor
tance of studious, philosophic
ponderings, such as those of
Bradley, utterly divorced from the
exciting two hours’ traffic of the
stage.
Without a doubt, a thorough aca
demic study of any play is essen
tial to its complete understanding,
but no play was ever written to be
merely studied. It was written to
be produced—to be seen and heard.
Thus I appeal to you: demand a
living theatre that has a serious and
intelligent aim, a theatre that has
meat and not merely garnish.' You
can do this by actively participat
ing in your threatre, be in the
audience or in a cast or crew. And
with this in mind, my first chal
lenge is to say that you see The
Firstborn. Think of it not as a
bathrobe-clad extended Bible story
telling you a well-known old, old
story, but as the drama of a man
torn between conflicting loyalties.
The man’s name happens to be
Moses, but it could be Tom or Joe,
and though his conflict is between
his Egyptian childhood and his He
brew ancestry, it could be between
any man’s love and his duty. Great
drama is not restricted to time; it
is timeless.
This is the theatre—the living
theatre, and it is yours for the
asking!
Barbara H. Battle
by the people who have
- ^ ^ con
science and must share the
blame
of a corrupt government.
Miss Yarborough, maybe I have
been unfair for the above has ser
ved only to play on your emotions
Specificly concerning your article'
Did Fidel Castro name the govern
G'-'VLlll-
ment of the United States in the
munitions ship explosion, or was he
talking about sabotours like the
American whose plane blew up over
Cuba while trying to bomb a sugar
Cuban View Right ?
Dear Editor:
I would like to take this oppor
tunity to comment on the article
written by Miss Janet Yarborough
entitled “Cuba—Problem Neighbor.”
I know little or nothing about
politics or economics, but I did live
in Cuba under the Batista regime.
I did see the mutilated body of a
classmate as he lay in the street—
killed by Batista’s soldiers. His
crime, selling revolutionary bonds.
I did teach in a one room school
house where I had to buy the books
for my students because the money
for them vvms stolen by the govern
ment.
mill where 200 workers were at
work? The Americans who have
lost their property in Cuba, how
did they obtain the property in the
first place ? What did they pay for
their property ? When a country
needs more credit in another
country it must either sell more to
that country or buy less from it to
pbtain this credit. Cuba needs
American tractors and if we cannot
sell you more sugar, then we must
buy less products which can be pro
duced in Cuba or do without. li
the power to destroy the economy
of the United States rested in the
hands of the president of a foreign
country would not the United States
be a slave to that country? If the
Brazilians must sell their coffee to
the Russians because they cannot
find a market in the United States,
then we must find a market for
our surplus sugar also. Naturally
we are jealous of the United States,
but so is all the world.
Miss Yarborough, forgive me it I
seem ungrateful to this country, but
I am Cuban. There are, still one
room school houses filled with
hungry ragged children and people
with shame and humiliation in Cuba
today. But the children have hope
in their eyes and the people carry
their shame and humiliation with
pride for they know that a new
way of life is opening to them.
A Good Neighbor,
Elsa Hampton
Alumni—Alumnae?
Miss Yarborough, I hope you
never know the fear one feels when
you hear a siren in the night and
wonder who they have come for
now, or know the hopelessness of
trying to teach children who are
hungry and sick, who have never
seen an electric light, or had a pair
of shoes. That kind of life holds
no hope for man.
2nd
3rd
Career 21
Family 211
Leisure 2
National and International 1
Community 1
Keligion 39
Several students indicated that two or more of these areas
were of equal importance to them or that these areas were
connected. Some showed also a misunderstanding of what
would be included in the different areas.
70
48
13
6
36
88
62
9
64
18
80
30
Miss Yarborough, of these things
Leila Graham Marsh, alumnae
secretary^ submitted the following
lines on reading “Self-Evaluation
story in March 18 Salemite:
A PROTEST
Oh, Me! Oh, My!
Alumni—Alumnae!
Spelling in the Salemite
Gives a scholar shock and fright.
Surely proof readers in a college
Should possess a basic knowledge
Of Latin genders, male and female,
And not our eyes and ears assail,
Heed, oh heed, this plaintive wail.
Singular—plural . • Alumnus-
Alumni,
For He-man masculinity.
Feminine form. Alumna-Alumnae,
Describes the lady, sweetie-pie.
Oh, Me! Oh, My!
Alumni—Alumnae!
Drama is still academically' char
ted as a backwater in the main
stream of English literature. In
schools and universities the fact
that Shakespeare, Ben Jonson,
Congreve and Sheridan were men
of the theatre is still, over
shadowed by their status as men
of letters. And their works, as
well as those of other dramatists,
are still studied as literature. This
is, of course, a more convenient
and infinitely less expensive way
studying them. But it now
of
begins to be widely realized that.
as a method of extracting their
meaning, it has grave limitations.
University faculties who once
maintained the ridiculous paradox
that Shakespeare was better ap-
Mud,Mud,Glorious Mud Comei
Can Spring Follow Soon—Maybe!
By Susan Hughes
. . Mud, mudi glorious mud
! Nothing quite like it for
cooling the blood . .” Most of
the snow has melted, but in its
stead we have MUD. But mud
hasn’t really bogged us down
around the square. Life seems to
go on as usual.
Over the week-end ■ we had an
old friend with us. Nan Higdon
took time out between quarters at
the University of Tennessee to hop
oyer for a while . .. . And what a
distinguished guest we had Tues
day! David Rockefeller paid Old
Salem a visit and from all reports
was quite impressed. Irene Mc-
Kain’s John from Dartmouth has
been on campus this week, as has
Marilyn Shull of ’59 (she’s. eating
at the faculty table, no less!)
Marilyn has been teaching in Mary
land this year . . . Miss Battle has
her car, but she has something else,
too—the lead in the Little Theatre’s
production of Anything'’®
(Ethel Merman’s part) . • •
nice having the Home Manageffl
girls back in the dorms, isnf '
. . . The favorite pastime in «
dorms now is knitting
few bridge-players still holding
but there are an awful lo
afghans, sweaters, and |
lying around with knitting n®
stuck in them (now that mid-sew
ters are over maybe we can
them finished.)
Alta Lu Townes, Betsy Guerra
Peggy Huntley, Susan Deare,
Beck, Eleanor Fischel and
Karnes went to the NCE ^
vention in Asheville last wee .
interesting fact they broug t
is that Salem is the only sc
where Miss Student Teac
elected. Many of the schoo s
matically send the president
their SNEA chapter.
I. hesitate to say thut
has Sprung,” but here’s hoping-