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THE COLLEGE NEWS



Page Seven





“Mrs. Collins Produced

May Fetes in England



Able Organizer and Director
Stands Behind Bryn Mawr’s
Great Festival

HAD CONCERT TRAINING





Behind the success of Big May Day
there stands an able organizer, and
behind the official title, Director of
May Day,’ lies a versatile mind and a

' charming personality that have given

many generations of undergraduates
their most delightful. contaet in col-
lege. Mrs. James. Chadwick-Collins,
known to the college at large as “Mrs.
C.-C.,” is now in her sixteenth con-
secutive year at Bryn Mawr and her
eleventh as Director of Publication.
This is her fourth Big May Day, her
second as Director in Chief of Bryn
Mawr’s biggest effort in production.
Her outstanding’ personal character-
istics is_her devotion to Bryn Mawr.
The Greene is her particular delight
in May Day, Robin Hood her favorite
play. ‘The dancing on the Greene is
Big May Day” is a familiar maxim
to all who have attended rehearsals
or chapel in a May Day year.

As an undergraduate at Bryn Mawr
Mrs. Collins was outstanding, espe-
cially in her chief interests, dramatics
and singing. She acted in every ma-
jor play given in the four years. of
her college career; a compliment has
been paid her -that her performance
as the Wife of Bath has not been ex-
ceeded by any piece of acting done by
a Bryn Mawr student. She was also
leader of the Choir and soloist with
the Glee Club. It is not surprising,
therefore, that she went on with her
singing with Fred Walker, of London,
Jean de Reszke, of Paris, and Lilli
Lehmann, of Dresden, and with her
acting-at the London School of Dra-
matic Art and with Mlle. Rostand, of
Paris. After her return to Bryn
Mawr she studied design at the Phila-
delphia School of Industrial Art.

In 1909 she was married to Captain
James Chadwick-Collins, of Dorset,
England, and lived for eleven years
in Dorset. Here she found herself in
the midst of political campaigning
and speaking, which she considers the
most exciting experience she has ever
had.. At this time, after seeing some
of the pageants put on in the country
districts of England, she also became
interested in pageantry. She took an
active part in the English Folk Danc-
ing Society, which Mr. Cecil Sharpe
was then organizing, and presented
one of the first pageants of folk-danc-
ing given in the south of England. In
May, 1914,, she put on another pag-
eant, larger and more elaborate, which
Captain Chadwick-Collins declares is
“the best thing she ever did.” From
this pageant she borrowed the “prog-
ress of Queen Elizabeth” and intro-
duced it into the 1932 May Day.

After the outbreak of the War, she
did war work, acting as Commandant
of Dorset 90 Detachment of the Brit-
ish Red Cross and as president of the
Dorset Guild of Workers which pro-
vided woollens for the troops, the
money for which came almost entirely
from her Bryn Mawr friends. -

In 1920 Mrs. Collins returned to
Bryn Mawr and a few months later
was asked by Miss Thomas to take
charge of publicity in connection with
the Summer School. In the following
autumn she managed the publicity for
the college. In 1924, when Mrs. Otis
Skinner was directing May Day for
the second time, Mrs. Collins acted
as her general manager. In 1928
she again managed May Day with
Miss Constance Applebee as Director
and Mr. Samuel Arthur King as Di-
rector of Plays. In 1932 she herself
acted as Director.

Mrs. Collins’ work has been greatly
extended during her fifteen years at
Bryn Mawr. After the resignation
of Dean Maddison in 1925, she was
asked by President Park to take
charge of the publications of the col-
lege and of the invitation list and,
after the opening of Goodhart Hall,
to be responsible for speakers. When
the Deanery was opened two years

’ ago, she was made Chairman of the

Entertainment Committee. Miss

Thomas, in her last speech summar-

izes Mrs. Collins’ work better than
anyone elsé can When she says, “I
should like to. mention some of the
administrators and: executives whose
devoted service has filled many of
these fifty years . her extraor-
dinarily able Director of Publications,



oa





Campus Yeomen Thirty-Six Years Ago



Robin Hood Cheers On His Merry Men in 1900.



Chouteau Dyer Has Had
Long Dramatic Cageer



Alunana of ’31 Returns Second Time
To Coach Three Plays



Chouteau Dyer, under whose direc-
tion Robin Hood, The Old Wive’s Tale
and St. George and the Dragon have
been produced, belongs to that class of
actresses, becoming rare these days,
who have no screen aspirations. After
a dramatic career of five years, her
interest lies in the acting and direct-
ing technique of the New York stage.

She was graduated from Bryn
Mawr in 1931, leaving behind a long
dramatic record. She took the part
of Starveling in A Midsummer Night’s
Dream in the 1928 May Day and
played with the Varsity Players in
1929-30 and 1930-31, acting as presi-
dent of the organization in her Senior
year. During her summer vacations
throughout her college career she
played with a stock company, the
University Players, of West Fal-
mouth. In the summer after her
graduation she both acted and coached
in Little Theatres of the Middle West.

In 1932 Miss Dyer went to London
and studied for two years with the
Royal Academy of Dramatic Art. Af-
ter her return to America in 1934 she
took her first job with the Shake-
spearean company which played in
the English Village at the World’s
Fair in Chicago.

In 1934-35 she had her first experi-
ence on Broadway when she played in
Merrily We Roll Along. Later she
worked with To See Ourselves and this
year had a part in Pride and Preju-
dice. In the spring of 1935 she com-
bined acting with drama work at the
Brearley School in New York City
and in the following summer played
at the Red Barn in Locust Valley,
Long Island.

Besides her part as an undergradu-
ate in the 1928 May Day, Miss Dyer
has had further experience with Bryn
Mawvr’s traditional pageant. In 1932
she worked with Samuel Arthur King
cn A Midsummer Night’s Dream,.As
You Like It and the Masque of the
Flowers and was in addition a valu-
able asset to the Property Committee.
This year her work has been entirely
new and extremely varied. Robin
Hoodg_ a purely narrative play, The
Old Wive’s Tale, a romantic type, and
St. George and the Dragon, a primi-
tive form of farce, have demanded
a versatility and broadness of scope
and interpretation which she has ad-
mirably supplied.

1932 REHEARSAL VERSION
OF TO THE MAYPOLE





To the Maypole let us on;

I have three corns and one bun-yon.

Walk, please, to the lower Greene,

Where your costumes won’t be seen.

These rehearsals, who can amend
them?

Five dollars fine if you don’t attend
them.

Round the Maypole let us on;

Sure, it’s my foot, but just step on.

Coming at you! Come, sweet lass,
Come and stumble on the grass,
Come and trip me on the Greene,
Where no lad will e’er be seen.
There alway from the break of day
All those dance who cannot pay ($5).
“Keep together!” Hey, sweét ‘lass,
Must you kick me as we pass?



a graduate. of Bryn Mawr, Caroline
Morrow Chadwick-Collins, whose in-
adequate title fails completely to indi-
cate the scope of her work performed
for nearly fifteen years*with the ut-
most devotion to her Alma Mater and
with the highest distinction.”.



Mr. Willoughby Trained
From Youth in England



Has Royal College Degree in Organ,
Choir and Harmony



When Mr. Willoughby’s mother,
who has come from England chiefly
to be present at May Day, hears the
tune Haste to the Wedding she may
realize that one of the sources for the
authentic version of this song is to
be found in an old manuscript. book
belonging to her father-in-law, a band-
master. Even when he was a boy, a
love of band music asserted itself in
Mr. Willoughby, who remembers slip-
ping off from school and trudging
miles to hear a band. Today he is still
interested mainly in this type of
orchestration.

During those same early years he
was progressing rapidly in formal
musical training. He was learning
notation from his sister“at the age of
seven, when he became a chorister in
the Ross Parish ‘Church in Hereford-
shire, where he lived. He was so apt
that the following year the rector of
the church gave him a small organ on
which he was occasionally permitted
to substitute for: the larger instru-
ment.

His advance was rapid and after a
few years’ experience in other
churches he was appointed, while still
quite young, organist and choirmaster
atthe Ross Parish Church. Mean-
while he studied under the late Dr.
G- Sinclair at Hereford Cathedral,
where he was appointed assistant
organist following three years’ ap-
prenticeship after the war.

Mr. Willoughby joined the Royal
Flying Corps in 1915 and was in-
valided out of it three years later.
During this period he spent most of
his leisure time in organizing musical
events.

Returning to Hereford in 1918, he
assumed many musical duties. Four
years later he obtained his degree in
London as an Associate of the Royal
College of Music in organ playing,
choir training and harmony, with the
special distinction of being the only
successful candidate in the first field
for that year.

In 1923 Mr. Willoughby visited
Philadelphia at the invitation of Mrs.
Willoughby, then his fiancée. He
remained as organist and choirmaster
of the Church of the Good Shepherd
in Rosemont. That September he be-
came an instructor at Bryn Mawr. He
was made an Associate in 1929 and
Assistant Professor in 1935.



Properties Manager
Is Nearby Resident

Miss Sherman Won Scholarship for
Industrial Art School





Miss Caroline Sherman, who is in
charge of properties for the 1936 May
Day, has lived all her life only four
miles from the college, in Wayne,
Pennsylvania. She attended the Rad-
nor High School in Wayne, and upon
her graduation in 1932 received a
scholarship from the school to the
School of Industrial Art in Philadel-
phia.

Always interested in art, especially
drawing and painting, Miss Sher-
man’s interests turned sharply, in her.
last year of high school, toward the
field of dramatic production. Conse-
quently she decided to center her work,
while at the School of Industrial Art,
around theatrical design. She studied
costume and stage designing, and
made model sets for numerous plays.

Every Undergraduate
‘Performs on Greene



Continued.from Page One *

Woman-Man-Woman >,

The Abbots Bromley Horn Dance
is done by six men, a fool, a hobby-
horse, a boy carrying a bow and’ ar-
row, and Maid Marian. A boy with
a triangle and a boy with violin pro-
vide the music. In Elizabethan days
Maid Marian. was'a man-woman, that
is, a man dressed to look like a man
dressed like a woman; Bryn Mawr of
necessity complicates that characteri-
zation, for the Bryn Mawr man-wom-
an is a woman dressed to look like
a man looking like a man dressed
like a woman. The man-woman is a
survival from ancient May Days when
the Queen of the May became Maid
Marian, and eventually, because of
the absurdity of the portrayal of her
character by a man, became a fool.
When a woman fool was later added,
the fool with the split personality
remained.

The fool carried a stick with a
bladder attached to it, but Maid Mar-
ian (Beware the woman!), carried a
ladle in which she collected money.
The boy with the bow and arrow used
it not as a deadly weapon, but as a
musical instrument, for he twanged
his stout bowstring in time to the
music. Even the hobby-horse had his
own private method of keeping time:
ke gnashed his jaws to the rhythm of
the dance!

Huge Horns Carried

Each of the six dancers bear a pair
of imitation reindeer horns. Those
used by the Elizabethan dancers
weighed from. eighty to ninety pounds
apiece (Bryn Mawr is doing the dance
on a slightly smaller scale), andthe
dance was naturally not a vigorous
gne. To add to the gaiety of the occa-
sion, the horns were painted, three
white and three blue; they were then
set in counterfeit wooden skulls from
which depended a handle about eigh-
teen inches long. When the dance
started, each performer seized this
handle with his right hand, balancing
his top-heavy burden with his left.

The Horn Dance probably origi-
nated at tribal feasts in connection
with sacrifices made to the gods, but
by Elizabethan times it had become a
celebration performed only on certain
set days, such as the Monday of Wales
week, the first Monday after the
fourth of September. Sometimes the
dance was given as a benefit perform-
ance on Sunday morning in front of
the church porch. All the coins scooped
up by Maid Marian’s ladle were given
to the poor.

Morris Dances Difficult

The Morris Dances have been an
important ‘and spectacular part of
May Day since their introduction by
Miss Applebee in 1924. The Morris
Dance was not, like the Country
Dance, done for the pure fun of the
thing; it was more of a spectacular,
ceremonial and professional dance
done by men alone.

The spectator will note that the
costume of the Morris dancers is far
more elaborate than the simple peas-
ant costumes of the Country dancers.
This is no mere whim of the cos-
tumers, but is quite authentic; for the
old-time Morris dancers had very spe-
cial and elaborate dancing dresses,
every detail of which was prescribed
by tradition.

The Morris is probably the most
difficult of the dances to master, for
its movements are large, strong and
vigorous, yet they must be executed
gracefully and without apparent
effort. The Country Dances, on the
other hand, are quieter and more



versity of Michigan, studying stage-
craft under Mr. Alexander Wyckoff,
play coach for the current May Day.
The eight weeks’ session, which_ is
usually divided among several dif-
ferent aspects of the dramatic art,
was spent by Miss Sherman entirely
on stage construction. She worked
on the construction, lighting, proper-
ties—in fact on the whole staging of
all the plays given at the university
during the summer period. Among
them were Othello, Merrily We Roll
Along and Moliere’s Le Medecin
Malgré Lui. :
Miss Sherman plans to return to
Michigan this summer, where she will
continue the work begun under Mr.
Wyckoff last year. Eight months of
next year she will spend at the Cleve-
land Play House, doing stage construc-



She spent last summer at the Uni- }tion and theatrical design.

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natural, for they are the expression of
the peasants who merely wanted to
enjoy themselves on some gay holiday.

Twenty-ninth of May is the first of
the dances done. by the whole college.
It has no-special significance and is
presented for its delightful general
effect, which requires the straightest
of straight lines. Gathering Peas-
cods was danced to celebrate the har-
vest festival, and Sellinger’s Round
was an exuberant religious dance sym-
bolizing the beginning of the world,
while many others, such as Old Mole,
Newcastle and Parson’s Farewell were ~
done for enjoyment alone. Parson’s
Farewell in particular is bubbling over
with good spirits; its saucy little bobs
and nods would warm the heart of
any parson,

New Sword Dance Adde

This year a new Sword Dance is
being instituted which is. known as
the Flamborough Sword Dance, from
the little village of Flamborough,
where it originated. It is peculiar in
having eight dancers instead of the
usual six and in that the wooden
swords are carried in the left hand.
All of the swords were originally
wooden except the leader’s, which was
genuine.

The dance was performed a few
days before and after Christmas and
also occasionally in the summer holi-
days. Visitors are warned to beware
as it was the old custom to grab an
outsider and hold him in the locked
swords until he payed a ransom.

Tumbling was an extremely popu-.
lar form of entertainment among the
Elizabethans; the jongleurs appeared
on every possible occasion, particu-
larly at fairs and May Days. The
contortionists were often unscrupulous
rascals who made use of every possi-
ble occasion to pick the pockets of
innocent bystanders. All ye revellers,
look to your purses!



Miss Grayson Blends
Traditional, Modern



Organized Bryn Mawr Player’s Club
When Student Here



Although her art has benefited by
her study of past tradition, Miss Hel-
en Grayson’s outlook is a modern ohe,
creative and definite. Executive as
well as artistic, Miss Grayson directed
the work on 800 May Day costumes,

a third of which were new and the rest
in need of remodeling. When she was
not in the May Day room supervising
assistant costumers, she was on one
of her mysterious trips to New York,
where she delved into the archives of
the Public Library for ideas for cos-
tumes, or into one of the tiny dark
shops of the Ghetto in search of inex-
pensive but rich-looking materials.

Miss Grayson was«brought up in
Paris, where her father was a painter,
and still retains a slight French
accent. She has always been in-
tensely interested in the theatre, not
only in the costuming, but also in pro-
ducing and acting.

When she came to Bryn Mawr in
1921, there were no theatrical organi-
zations such as Varsity Dramatics
or the Player’s Club. Since her pen-
chant for the theatre had materialized
after seeing a production of the
Theatre Intime at Princeton, she soon
afterwards organized a Player’s Club
at Bryn Mawr. In 1925 she gave a
play of her own, Pierrot and Colum-
bine, on Wyndham lawn. Katharine
Hepburn was asked to take part, but
being a freshman, she was going home
to give the seniors room for gradua-
tion.

After graduation from Bryn Mawr
in 1926, Miss Grayson continued to be 9
interested in dramatic production and
went into the American Laboratory
Theatre for*training in acting, direct-
ing and designing. During her last
season there she designed and executed
the costumes for their final produc-
tions: Chekov’s Three Sisters, Coc-
teau’s Antigone and Boeuf sur le Toit
(both of which she translated from 7?
the French). Later she produced and
costumed Poliziano’s Orfeo at the Casa
Italiana of Columbia University and
Ben Johnson’s masque, Oberon.

Three years ago Miss Grayson —
opened her own workshop on 6lst
street, where she designs and executes
modern clothes and period costumes.
Besides costumes for song and dance
recitals she has done from ene to all
of ‘the costumes in certain Broadway
produtions, among them Little Ol’
Boy, Dodsworth, Wife Insurance,
Gather Ye Rosebuds, Jayhawker and
Co-respondent Unknown.