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Page Four







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Erratic ii Nett, Dull Plot
Mark Hedgerow
Production

Specially Contributed by
Elizabeth Dowling ’47

“Girls in Uniform”, Hedgerow’s
latest_offering at the altar ~ of
drama is more of an insult than
a compliment to the presiding
Muse.

Christa Winslow’s play of
school life in the Prussia of the
30’s, anachromatically translated
by Barbara Burnham into colloquial
English of the 40’s advertises it-
self as “an authentic account of
the one-sided development of uni-
versal human interests which has
led so much of the world into what



“we now call fascism.” This is pos-

sibly what the author originally
had in mind but is most certainly
not what she has put into the
script. ;

The net result of her work
is complete confusion of idea and
nebulosity of theme. It is to be as-
sumed that Miss Winslow intended
to set forth evils of the Junker
might in its training of the chil-
dren in the principles of supre-
macy, self control and discipline.

In her - attempt - to do
this she ‘has focused the plot. on
Manuela, a fourteen year old or-
phan, and Fraulein Von Bernburg,
a teacher. Manuela being starved
for affection looks for love-from
the teacher and mentally imagines
her as being a foster mother. The
reaction of the sensitive girl to
the code of strictness and the in-
ability of the teacher to show fa-
voritism toward the student arc
the ‘two strands of continuity in
the play.

Given such a plot, one which was
apparently as boring to the cast
as the audience, it is unfair to
judge an actor’s worth by his per>
formance in it. However if the di-
rection and characterization had
been better defined the play would
have been clearer. Fraulein Von
Bernburg, Fraulein von Kester and
Mlle. Aralet carried the honors in
that they were the only persons
who created and maintained a
character throughout the perform-
ance,

Fraulein Von -Bernburg' used
expression and gesture with re-
straint and is showing a capacity
to sustain a role. Manuela _ dis-
played a keen. sense of timing and
an ability to make much of a sim-
ple line, but her acting rose and
fell with the curtain, reaching a
peak just before a scene ended and
then-recommencing stiltedly. The
general performance of the rest of
the cast leant toward over-char-
‘acterization and showed the hand
of a di r given to staginess.

The general confusion and poor
workmanship of “Girls in Uni-
form” sadly betrays the reputation
that the Hedgerow theatre has
maintained in the past. _



NANCY BROWN

Day Dresses

Sport Clothes
$16.95 — $45.00
Bryn Mawr Avenue

EAST 3
|NICHTERS:

_nd has _one distinction: it is the

‘tion takes us to Nantucket where







THE COLLEGE NEWS 4 y



="

er

Light Musical Comedy
“Girl From Nantucket”
Opens Season
——

By Dembow and Dimond
If you are pleasure bent
This show is heaven sent.
If your mood’s not funny...
Stay home and save money.

Girl from Nantucket opened at
he Forrest Theatre on October 10

rst musical of the Philadelphia
heatre season.

The book, written by the team
f Fred Thomson and Berne Giler,
1as a good deal of meat in which
vecast could put its teeth, but for

he most part this chorus and cast},
‘show evidence of being minus. an

ipper plate. Beginning on the
sidewalks of New York, the first
act gets off to a snappy start
which involves the adoration of a
spying house painter for a pretty
and young artist, the girl from
Nantucket. A clever scene transi-

we and the authors become en-
tangled with the local politicos. In
hope’ of. commissioning an
artist, Enrico ‘Nicoletti, they send
the notorious. sea-dog, James Bar-
ton, to New York in quest of him.
Barton, more than slightly inebri-
ated, mistakes Nickerson (Bob
Kennedy) for the famous artist and
Nantucket accepts him at his face
value. From then on the audience
s on its own to ply its way on a
cough sea of complications which
‘alms down before ‘the curtain
‘alls.

Redeeming Features
Although the first act will prob-

bly undergo a rewrite job before
treeting New York audiences, the

‘econd act is very redeeming. Not |’

mnly-do the actors feel more at
iome on the stage, but the musical
1umbers show unanticipated im-
drovement.

The choreography is well exe-
suted by Val Raset, and particular
eredit is due the two ballets, with-
dut which it would seem that no
modern musical is complete.. The
most outstanding scene in the sec-
ond act, in fact, is the ballet inter-
preting the excellent narrative
soem of the sea as embodied in a
woman.

Clever Sets
Unusually glittering costumes of
post war vintage and fast and fur-
ious changes of cleverly done sets
idd to the glamour of the produc-

.| many offices



sion,

And now, we close in the tradi-
ional theatrical manner. (Did you
snow that the last line of a show
s never rehearsed until the open-
‘ng night?). Fasa,~fasa, fasa.

4 7}

Send Some Flowers’







On Lantern Night
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AM Tha NE PNR wT DO ge ne







Changes Desired
For Point System

There has been much discussion
in the past year about the present
point system for regulating the
number of offices a person can

“hold-on campus. The complaint has

been that one person can _ hold
in pees
activities, with the result that* a
very small minority of the college
fills all the positions. The Under-
graduate Board hopes to arrange
a better system this year so that
the various offices include a wider
range of people. The present point
system-is posted on Taylor Bulle-
tin Board and anyone who has sug-
gestions concerning a new point
system should see Betty Coleman,
second Sophomore member of the
Undergraduate Association and
Chairman of the Point Committee.

Editorial About Orals
Criticized By Faculty

Continued from Page |

continues to progress by habitual
reading.”

Mr. Diez declared that the rec-
ommended plan. of two years study
as a substitute for passing the oral
has. been proved unsatisfactory
through the experience of other
colleges. It places the entire. bur-
den on the language department
which cannot fail 30 to 40% of its
students and is therefore compell-
ed to lower its standards.

Miss Gilman condemned the
false distinction between compre-
hension and translation, pointing
out that the ability to write clear
and comprehensible English is re-
quired of every student in ‘all her
college work. She did emphasize,
however, that the memorizational
character of elementary language
work belongs properly to the
sphere of the preparatory school.
Characterizing many of the ed-
itorial’s assertions..as_ ‘fwrong’”,
Miss Nepper pointed out that the
method of correction of the orals
is_such as to eliminate those pos-
sessing superficial. knowledge. She
drew attention to the plan in sev-
eral colleges of major and minor
languages, a greater degree of
knowledge being required in the
major than in the minor.

Agreeing with the general con-
tentions of the editorial, Miss Lo-
grasso pointed’ out the artificiality
inherent in permitting students to
wait until the fall of their senior
year to pass the oral while knowl-
edge of the language is supposed
to be a tool

a ———___

: Registration Begins

For Volunteer Work

Continued from Page 1

the League of Women Voters, the
International Institute, the Citi-
zens Council for City Planning, the
American Friends Service Com-
mittee, the Foreign Policy Associ-

tices Committee, and the CIO and
A. F. of L. unions.

Red Cross

The need for Nurses’ Aides is
even greater this year for work in
hospitals in Philadelphia and vicin-
ity. >

The Home for Incurables is a
nursing home for bed-ridden child-
ren and adults. The work is sim-
ilar to that of Nurses’ Aiding, and
involves entertaining children as
well as giving them evening care.



Valley Forge

Work at Valley Forge, a hospi-
tal for wounded veterans, includes
the teaching of Arts and Crafts.
Those skilled in leathercraft ‘or
other handicraft may after approv-
al serve as part of the recreation-
al program, provided they are will-
ing to devote at least five hours a
week, For unskilled volunteers,
lessons from the Red Cross are
compulsory before work in the
hospital.

Dancing classes will be held at
the V. F. Hospital every Tuesday
afternoon. Transportation will be
provided. For those who can stay
up on skates, there will be roller-
skating. parties on Thursday after-
noons.

Red Cross Canteen

There are plenty of opportuni-
ties for anyone trained in Red
Cross canteen work. Also, for those
who are interested, the cafeteria
at the Bryn Mawr Hospital needs
volunteers,

Relief

The most immediate need for
volunteer effort is the Feeding of
Surope program. Students will be
reeded this fall for the wrapping
of the collections of food and
‘lothes in the Red Cross work-
‘ooms.



ation, the Fair Employment Prac-=



Workshop Opens
For B. M. Plays

The Theatre Workshop, located
on the Baldwin School campus re-
opens this year, having been closed
during the war. Freshmen Hall
Plays. and minor. productions will
be held there, as they were before
the war, instead of in Goodhart.

The Theatre Workshop was open-
ed in 1989-as a memorial to Mrs.
Otis Skinner and to the, dramatic
work she did at Bryn Mawr and
Baldwin. Mrs. Skinner’s close as-
sociation with the two institutions
throughout her daughter’s stu-



dent days and her invaluable as- -

sistance in organizing dramatic ac-
tivities in both schools made such
a memorial peculiarly appropriate
Mrs. Skinner coached the Dramatic
Club plays at Baldwin for fivé
of the years her daughter was
there and in 1920 and 1924 she di-
rected Big May Day at Bryn Mawr,
from which all succeeding May
Days have been patterned.

the
building was converted into the
Theatre Workshop by the architect

Thomas Pym Cope, as a

Originally a stone barn,

joint
workshop for Bryn Mawr and
Baldwin. The workshop is divided
in half by a curtain, that part to
the north being reserved for the
College and to the South for Bald-
win. Each half seats 175 and the
entire room can be used by the re-
moval of the curtain.







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