Bryn Mawr College - Bryn Mawr Yearbook (Bryn Mawr, PA)

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Drama THE spirit of reform in the theatre so prevalent in America in the winter of 1917-18 spread immediately to the progressive Main Line communities of Merion and Radnor. In Merion this spirit gave birth to the On the Square ' ' players. It is beyond doubt that the moral tone of the community was improved thereby. The first effort worthy of note was entitled The Dark Horse. The plot is more subtle than that of the ordinary run of plays, and the whole is written in the most exquisite verse. The climax comes when the soldier hero is unable to save the heroine from the base German spy because his trousers are stuck to the Dark Horse with wet paint. With great presence of mind our soldier boy rises to the occasion by stepping out of his trousers and performing the rescue efficiently in H. V. D ' s. Who can say that this sort of drama does not educate the taste of the community? In the initial performance the title role was played by Miss Frances Riker, her hair proving to be a most realistic tail. The sincere efforts of the players were rewarded by only minor successes during the next few months. In Prejudice the Puritan Maid the high-minded heroine refuses her lover because he can read only ten pages of German per hour, and con- secrates her life to the higher education of women. This play, in blank verse, was given for the famous Miss Sarah Taylor and her coterie. It was not appreciated. On the whole, these great pieces of dramatic art were above the heads of the laity. It was not until the On the Square players entered broader fields and gave their never-to-be-forgotten Birth of Meekness that their struggle to improve the dramatic taste of the common herd bore any fruit. Elizabeth Kales. A REVIVAL of the old English tradition was the contribution of the Radnor group toward a general public interest in higher things. On the fourth floor Young Lochinvar came out of the West clad technically super-correct, having his entire costume composed of athletic clothes. He rode all unarmed, and he rode all alone, for his good broad hockey stick served interchangeably for sword and horse. He stayed not for break, but boldly entered the Netherby hall to find his fair Ellen kissing a watering can. The leading parts in the other plays were Goggin as the lily white doe, who dropped her head in Lady Clare ' s hand and followed her all the way; and numerous bounding billows, whose loud waves lashed the floor beneath a sheet, and whose waters wild went o ' er Lord Ullin ' s daughter, and ended her stormy journey in a wicker rocking chair. The simple yet forceful settings for these classics was a note- 19

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jWp $eart Heaps Wp, WL )tn 3 Petjolb- - CRUSHES are bad, and happen only to the very young and the very foolish. Once upon a time we were very young, and the bushes on the campus were hung with our bleeding hearts. Cecil ' s heart bled indiscriminately. The rest of us specialized more, and the paths of Gertie Hearne, Dosia, Eleanor Marquand, Adelaide, Tip, and others would have been strewn with roses if public opinion had permitted flowers during the war. The type of person smitten was one of the striking things about the epidemic. For instance, our emotional Betty Mills spent many stolen hours gazing up at Phoebe ' s window. The excitable Cope y was enamoured successively of all presidents of the Athletic Association, and has had a hard time this year deciding where to bestow her affections. But there were some cases that were different from these common crushes. We know they were different, because the victims told us so. Only the most jaundiced mind could call by any other name than friendship Nora ' s tender feeling toward Gertie Steele, which led her to keep Gertie ' s room overflowing with flowers, fruit, candy, pictures, books, and other indispensable articles. (I always thought rather pathetic the story that once Gertie had been exposed to the measles and for a whole week could not be kissed good-night. ) We will all admit that only the purest friend- ship caused Marjorie to knit the shell-pink sweater and gallantly rescue V. K. ' s gown from the waste basket. The real thing in the way of passion was the aura of emotion with which Kash surrounded Sacred Toes. She confided her feelings to one-half the campus, and the other half was not in total ignorance, but Kash constantly worried lest it should leak out. Of course, all these things happened in our extreme youth. Elizabeth Godwin, Katharine Woodward.

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worthy break with the Belascan tradition of over ornamentation. Take, for example, their realistic Scottish lake, suggested by a single sheet, under which writhed one of the general utility of the company. In order to still the almost uncontrollable passion roused in the audience by these artless ballads, a series of morality plays followed, taken from the book of Cautionary Tales upon which Dean Taft was raised. The justification of this method of elevating the public has been admirably shown in the after life of the members of that company, for was it not here that Katharine Woodward first learned the art of fire-brigading in the denouement of Matilda Told Such Dreadful Lies, and what but the lines of Charles Augustus Fortescue, who did everything a boy should do, could have stimulated the self-government germ in Goggin ? Florence Billstein, Helen Hill. SHADOWY creatures in dim lit gardens Flitting about, all whites and greys, Such was the meaning I gave to ghosts, in My pure subfreshman days. Different now is my understanding College has taught me more things than one I asked for light on a certain subject, — Mother, they gave me the sun ! Helen D. Hill. 20