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Volume Llll
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Salem College, Winston-Salem, N. C., Friday, October 22, 1971
Number 11
What Is The World We Live In?
The National Theatre Company
will present The World We Live
In, in Hanes Auditorium on October
28 at 1 :15 p.m. The production is
being directed by Barry Weissler,
producer of National Theatre Com
pany and Jack Scalici who also stars
in the program.
Man has faced many challenges
in his long history, but never one
so critical as the current challenge—
the saving of his environment. The
problem of ecology and its impor
tance must find its way into our
sensibilities. If we are sensitized
to the beauty-of our environment,
we will hopefully refrain from abus
ing it. The World We Live In is
a program of music, mime and story.
The four performers will trace the
development of man—his place in
the world and his relationship with
his surroundings — through the
major peaks of his history. With
the use of the poetic images of
pantomime, the emotional power of
music and the imaginative appeal of
narrative, we hope to awaken stu
dents to some of the wonder of
the world we live in.
The World We Live In joins a
nine play repertory of The National
Theatre Company, which is pro
duced by Barry and Fran Weissler.
The company is in its seventh year
of operation and tours its produc
tions to schools — elementary
through college—and as such is the
largest and most ambitious company
of its kind. The tours travel as far
west as Sioux City, Iowa and as
far south as New Orleans. There
are now seventy-five members in
the company.
Few producers can claim the ex
tent of activity of Fran and Barry
Weissler, a husband and wife team
from West Orange, New Jersey,
who presently have 9 shows touring
the Eastern United States under
the banner of National Theatre
Company. These 9 shows play to
an estimated audience of nearly a
million people in one season. The
audience age range is from 6 to 60.
And the National Theatre Company
is the most successful and largest
professional equity theatre troupe
to perform in schools and colleges.
This complicated yet efficiently run
organization is operated out of the
Weissler’s loft-like complex in New
York City.
Formed 6 years ago, the National
Theatre Company started its first
season with two classical plays
which toured high schools and was
seen by approximately 6,000 stu
dents. Now the 1971-72 season will
include Tennessee Williams The
Glass Menagerie; Two By Chekhov;
Sophocles’ Antigone; Passin’
Throug.h a musical and poetic pro
gram of Black history; Lincoln,
Kennedy & King, a musical tribute
to three great Americans; Mimika,
a classical mime program; The
World We Live In, a program on
Ecology and Environment done
through the medium of Mime and
Music; and two elementary school
musical adaptations; The Adven
tures of Tom Sawyer and The
Prince and The Pauper.
Each fully-staffed company con
tains Equity actors from practically
every major American theatrical
training and production center. In
addition to this, every company car
ries with it a full complement of
sets, costumes and lights, and every
production is designed to capture
and hold the attention of those stu
dents who usually associate bore
dom with their diet of cultural ex
perience. Study guides accompany
ing every production contain dis
cussion questions designed to chal
lenge a student’s critical sense and
broaden his appreciation of theatri
cal experience.