Page 3
BOOKS By Calder M. Pickett Assistant Professor of Journalism
THE OFF-BROADWAY THEATRE, seven plays edited by Richard Cordell and Lowell Matson. Random House, $5.
Off-Broadway has become almost a cult in the past five years or so. Some New York critics treat an off-Broadway offering with the same reverence that some English professors give to anything published in a quarterly review. What Richard Cordell and Lowell Matson here set out to show is that off-Broadway is not only a healthy institution but one that has many roots in the past.
To name one, the Provincetown Playhouse. That was the institution which almost half a century ago offered the early plays of Eugene O'Neill. It seems interesting that one of the most sizeable off-Broadway attractions of recent years has been an O'Neill play, one which was only moderately successful when it appeared first in 1946—"The Iceman Cometh."
Off-Broadway today is represented by these seven plays. One or two of them may seem a bit avant-garde for some tastes, but the bulk of them makes up an anthology that should be on the shelf of all who are interested in a strong theater in America.
To name another predecessor, one which was commercial Broadway in location but off-Broadway in spirit, the Group Theatre. That was the vigorous group of persons who produced militant, proletarian drama—Paul Green, Clifford Odets, Sidney Kingsley.
Briefly described, the plays are these:
"Purple Dust," by Sean O'Casey. The old Irish iconoclast has here a drama that is a protest against the past, the church, the nationalism of the Emerald Isle. In its weaker moments it seems little more than a reprieve of "George Washington Slept Here." In its stronger ones it lashes out against phoniness, against those who would perpetuate a culture of nobility which is doomed to crumble like "purple dust."
“Ardele,” by Jean Anouilh. This is a comedy that has both savage and hilarious moments, known earlier as “The Cry of the Peacock.” Once again Anouilh describes the general and the mad wife of “The Waltz of the Toreadors,” and tells of the efforts of the general to keep his hunchbacked sister from marrying another hunchback.
"Dragon's Mouth," by Jacetta Hawkes and J. B. Priestley. The success of Paul Gregory's First Drama Quartette inspired the Priestleys to write this discussion among four persons, who are waiting aboard a ship to learn which of their number has contracted a fatal disease.
"Ulysses in Nighttown." by James Joyce. Verbatim from the celebrated book, this almost opaque drama has been taken by Marjorie Barkentin. It is the segment which concerns the wandering of Stephen Dedalus and Leopold Bloom among the sorid spots of nighttime Dublin.
"Career," by James Lee. Already this play has been given recognition seldom given off-Broadway—Hollywood is making a movie of it. It concerns the career of a man selflessly dedicated to the theatre, from 1931 to 1956, and of the compromises that he finds necessary for success.
"The Girl on the Via Flaminia," by Alfred Hayes. This may be the best-known of off-Broadway presentations (except for "The Threepenny Opera"), the harsh tale of an American soldier and a war-hardened girl who live their stormy affair in wartime Rome.
"Heloise," by James Forsyth. The celebrated story of Heloise and Abelard and their love is told poetically by a new playwright. Philosophical disquisitions enrich this story—comments on the church, on history, on moral values of eight centuries ago and now.
ICE PALACE, by Edna Ferber. Bantam, 50 cents.
Now in paperback is the latest Ferber novel, published early in 1958. It is a panoramic story, marred by an inconclusive and confusing ending, of Alaska, of an opportunistic pioneer named Czar Kennedy and another, with a different kind of dream, named Thor Storm. The two, friends yet enemies, also are the grandfathers of one of those magnificent Edna Ferberish heroines, who is named Christine, and who seems to symbolize the twin strains of the Far North. The sophisticate had better leave this alone, but those who recall the excitement of Oklahoma in "Cimarron," the north woods in "Come and Get It!" the Mississippi in "Show Boat," and Texas in "Giant" will find "Ice Palace," for all its occasional thinness of characterization, and its old-fashioned style, enjoyable reading.
—CMP
THE IDIOT, by Fyodor Dostoevsky. Bantam, 75 cents.
CRIME AND PUNISHMENT, by Fyodor Dostoevsky. Bantam, 50 cents.
It is a platitude by now to say that Dostoevsky is one of the two or three great novelists of the 19th century. Bantam Classics is to be congratulated for making these great books of Dostoevsky available to the general reader, and especially to the university student. The books are well-bound and the type, though small, is not difficult to read. "The Idiot," though not so well known as "Crime and Punishment," is also a novel of profound psychological significance—the story of Prince Myshkin, an epileptic, a wise and good character like Tolstoy's Pierre. The book also is a panoramic depiction of Russian society. "Crime and Punishment" is one of the best-known books in the world, the story of a man dogged by his own conscience as well as by his pursuer. But he is no Jean Valjean, tracked down by a merciless Jaert. Dostoevsky's Raskohlnikov is pursued by Porfiry, another kind of investigator, a man of perception and intelligence himself, no shadowy villain. In these books, with their portrayals of the conflict between good and evil in the Russia of 100 years ago, may be found the basis of today's psychological fiction, and such important pioneers in the field as Henry James, Joyce and Faulkner.
—CMP
Third Institute Held at KU for Math Teachers
The third Summer Institute for High School and College Teachers of Mathematics has drawn 91 selected mathematics instructors from 26 states and the District of Columbia to the University of Kansas campus, according to Dr. G. Baley Price, chairman of the KU Department of Mathematics and coordinator of the institute.
Dr. Price said the objectives of the institute are to improve the subject matter competence of the participating teachers, to strengthen their capacity for motivating able students to consider careers in science, to bring the teachers into personal contact with the scientists making up the faculty of the institute, and to affect greater mutual understanding and appreciation of each other's problems among both high school and college teachers of mathematics.
Financed by a National Science Foundation grant of $135,500, the institute runs concurrent with the University's regular summer session, from June 8 to August 1. Most of the teachers are receiving a stipend, covering living expenses and travel, which was made possible by the grant.
Participating teachers must enroll in at least two of six advanced mathematics courses offered during the institute, in the areas of statistics, modern geometries, theory of functions, abstract algebra, sets, and topics in high school mathematics. One part of the latter course consists of observing the Freshman Demonstration Class, a group of 30 ninth graders from the Lawrence School system who are being taught a special course in algebra.
Tuesday, June 23, 1959 Summer Session Kansa
In addition, 27 high school students, all of whom have completed the junior year, have come from throughout the United States to participate in the institute's Senior Demonstration Class. They are being taught two special courses, one in probability and statistical inference and a second in elementary number theory, which are normally offered to advanced college students in mathematics. Members of the Senior Demonstration Class are also attending on a scholarship basis.
Gaston to Give Address
Dr. E. Thaver Gaston, chairman of the music education department of the University of Kansas, will address the National Association of Music Merchants in New York City Wednesday, June 24. An authority on the influence of music on behavior, Dr. Gaston will discuss "Values of Music in Communication."
This is a repeat engagement for Dr. Gaston. He addressed the same association at its 1958 annual meeting in Chicago.
Zebus quite frequently sleep for many hours during the course of a year.
Just a Step Off the Campus for all your Beauty Needs
"Air Conditioned"
Corn's Campus Beauty Shoppe
12th & Indiana
Germ Warfare by Reds Likely, Says General
WASHINGTON—(UPI)—Congress was told Monday there is a "real possibility" the Russians would use germ warfare against the United States if a world conflict ever broke out.
Members of the House Science and Space Committee were warned that long-range enemy missiles could contaminate American cities with deadly bacteria.
Maj. Gen. Marshall Stubbs, chief Army chemical officer, told the group in a closed-door session that the Soviets already have "openly stated" that the next war will see the use of biological weapons.
The Soviets are conducting "intensive" research and development in chemical and germ warfare, the general said.
"Communist interested in these fields is not just limited to the Russians," he said, "but is also of active concern to Red China and the satellite nations."
Stubbs reported to the committee that Soviet army and navy training in chemical, biological and radiological warfare is "realistic."
"The civilian population is being
trained in defense," he said, "and the military and civilian equipment is of excellent quality."
One won't find a zebu living in a house.
Daily Special Still 80c
at
HAPPY HAL'S East 23rd VI 3-9753
live in our luxury flat
Here is quality, style, modern design. Truly America's Best Fashion Shoe Value, for the finest flat your money can buy.
White and Black Kid AAAA to B,to 10 $8.95
Town & Country Shoes Royal College Shop
837 Mass.