THE SHOW GOES ON

Few extra-curricular organizations are invested with opportunities equal to that of the Harvard Dramatic Club, and for this reason it is to be hopped that yesterday's turnout of theatrical aspirants will provide material for yet another successful year.

As the production unit of Professor Baker's "47 Workshop," the Dramatic Club became noted the world over for its contributions to the English-speaking stage. When Baker left Harvard, the Club was expected to carry on its function, quite regardless of the fact that it no longer had University support and that those most interested in the stage were following Baker into the hinterland insead of coming here. Despite this handicap, the remaining members of the Club took seriously their task of forwarding the cause of progressive drama. By hard work not unmixed with inspiration, they contrived to make the Club self- supporting, to enlarge its membership, to direct into their offices a stream of unproduced plays from all over the country and, by producing the most significant of these, to focus attention on the dramatic trends of the day.

The importance of the Dramatic Club's independent status cannot be overemphasized. Too often the dogma of the classroom is able to stifle artistic progress, or the personal theories of one professor to influence those enrolled in a course. In order for there to be progress in art of any kind, men and women who are young enough to have grown up with existing social problems and whose judgment is unprejudiced must be given free reign to express their ideas.

The average undergraduate lacks the perspective to appraise the Dramatic Club correctly, and may thereby do it an injustice. It is not a Little Theatre movement; it is a serious enterprise to forward the drama, capable of exerting its influence far beyond Cambridge, and as it enters its twenty-ninth year it well deserves the notice of the student body.