Saint Ursula Academy - Scroll Yearbook (Toledo, OH)

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0 Bit 0 Antigone and the Tyrant Stage Review By Ioan Riopelle '46 0 6 Page Twenty-six' OLEDOANS were greatly honored during the past season by the appearance of Miss Katharine Cornell, one of America's fore- most dramatic actresses, in Antigone and the Tyrantn. The play by Jean Anouilh, the French dramatist, came to the Town Hall Theater under the joint auspices of lifliss Cornell and Gilbert Niiller. It is a freely adapted version of the Sophocles tragedy and is a blending of Greek and modern drama. The play is presented in the Greek tradition against a background of plain drapery and with the Greek Chorus to provide the necessary details. Niiss Cornell saw the play in Paris while enter- taining American servicemen in Barretts of Wilia- pole Streety' and immediately decided she wanted to present it on the American stage, It was sche- duled to open on Broadway sometime after the Toledo performance. The st-ar plays the role of Antigone, whose two brothers kill one another over the throne of Thebes. Their uncle Creon, excellently portrayed by Sir Cedric Hardwicke, renowned actor of stage and screen, becoming king, orders Polynices left unburied as a traitor. Antigone decides, at the cost of her life, to bury him to give peace to his soul. She steals out to cover Polynices' body and summons Haemon, played by James Nlonks, Creon's son and her fiance, to bid him f-arewell. She rejects Creon's pardon, preferring to die in the tradition of her father, Oedipus. Antigone and the Tyrant provides Katharine Cornell with her fourth classic part since she became Americals only actress-manager in 1931. the past plays being Lucrece , Romeo and Juliet , and Herod and lWarianne . Miss Cor- nell, as Antigone, again proved her great acting ability in this stirring drama. REAT Sonu, a character novel by Edna Ferber, is a chronicle of four generations of a Seattle family, the Nlelendys. It begins in 1851 with ninety-two-year-old lVIadam Exact Melendy, the clear-eyed, stern matriarch of her family and cityg and ends with her great grand- son, Mike Nlelendy, the daring, quick-witted .boyz who is typically representative of this unpredict- able generation.

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The Hope of the World O RESTORE as far as possible the honor of the woman's and the mother's place in the home: that is the wiatchword one hears now from many quarters like a cry of alarm, as if the world were awakening, terrified by the fruits of material and scientific progress of which before it was so proudf' Such was the keynote of the speech given by Pope Pius XII, in a recent address to the Christian women of the world. It is intended to impress upon the young woman of today the important role which she has to play in the coming years. It would seem that his message is most fitting for us, as most of us will some day have the responsibility of raising a family. VVorld XVIII' II has been the source of many social evils. Its aftermath has been to turn ours into a mechanistic existence, taking mothers from their homes to work in factories, leaving the children to be on their own. VVhat kind of a society is their generation going to develop? There must be something we can do to prevent this. First of all, it will be our concern to endeavor to restore the sanctity of the family circle, to make everyone realize that God is the most important factor in keeping this so greatly desired unity. In recent years it has become very evident that home life has been almost discontinued. Klost amusemeuts tend to lure the family from the home. The importance of this phase of Catholic Action is self-evident. If we sincerely desire to help straighten the web in which the human family is entangled, we must start with the home. Pope Pius XII has placed a challenge before the women of the world. VVhether it will be accepted or rejected depends in great part on the good will of the hundreds and thousands of fine young Christian high school graduates-the fixture mothers of America. -BETTY CTERKEN '46 Clmff and Wheat HE secular press, in its own way, claims to give its readers the whole, unpre- judiced truthg yet many of us are forced to read between the lines. Are you, the Catholic laity, able to detect the falsities in every instance? Can you expect to find the truth in these Communistic and Free-Nlasonary controlled and edited papers and magazines, which strive to attack the Church either directly or indirectly? For example, when the Red paper in hloscow accused the Church in her designation of Cardinals, of a sort of political policy, she made the front page. However, in a dispatch from the Vatican defending this accusation, the article was quite minute and found in a most obscure corner of the same paper. You ask what can be done? VVell, read your Catholic literatureg discuss current topics with the Catholic view. Express your opinions to the editor. Surely, if the editors of our secular press were confronted with letters from our Catholic laity they could not ignore them entirely. The Legion of Decency, which was organized to curb the production of indecent movies, has been very successful. This is just one example of what can be done. VVe have Christ's own words for it that He is the Way, the Truth, and the l,ight, Yes, Christ is the Truth. He founded His Church on this Truth. Where could we find a better source for truth than this Church founded on Truth itself? The secular press molds the minds of easily influenced persons, who read nothing else and thus form their opinion along with those who are ignorant of the truth, or choose to believe what they wish. The Catholic press does give you the truth as it is and does not leave you in doubt. Page Twenty-live

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Leisu e 0 Great Son departs from bliss Ferber's usual procedure by dealing with the upper class, the very rich, instead of her usual portrayal of the more common homesteader. But her setting remains the same-the great expanding western plains of a young and lusty America. Nliss Ferber, writing again in her inimitable, natural-born style, has added another book to her growing list of best sellers. She has written not only of the roaring YVest but also of the llidvvest in So Bigng VVisconsin, in l'Come and Get It 3 and lllississippi, in Show Boatw, Her achieve- ment is said to have stemmed largely from the vitality and belief she has in the so-real people which she lovingly creates. While the novel does not reach the heights in good writing that her other writings have attained. it is nevertheless Edna Ferber, and that is well worth reading. S THE introduction points out, 'Alt is no ex- aggeration to say that the columnists and commentators have more influence than any other factor in molding the opinion of adult Amer- icansfl With this in mind the editor gives us a series of essays, originally printed in The Sign magazine. of fourteen prominent newspaper columnists and radio commentators in book form. This reviewer would classify the subjects of the sketches as Hfair, good, best . The best could legitimately include Paul hflallon, Walter Lippmann, Westbrook Peg- ler, Sumner Welles, David Lawrence, Raymond Swing, and George Sokolsky. John B. Kennedy- political scientists, statesmen and philosophers of history as well as commentators. Dorothy Thompson, Gabriel Heatter. H. V. Kaltenborn and Fulton Lewis, Jr., constitute the goodly These give the emotional public what they want' and the way they want it, more often than not, allowing the heart to lead the head. In the last class, Drew Pearson and VValter VVinchell carry on a twosome-one perhaps toler- ating but not trusting the other. The delivery is vivid, sparkling, and sincere-- the reading of which is a pleasurable experience. Great Son By Edna Ferber Book Review By Constance Durliat ,46 9 Q Holders of Opinion Book Review By Barbara Krabach 346 Page Twenty-seven