Dominican College of San Rafael - Firebrand Yearbook (San Rafael, CA)

Page 151 text:

A toutes, je dis grand merci, au nom de ces pauvres enfants, et au nom de la France. Soyez sures que notre Douce et Belle France sera toujours reconnaissante de ce geste genereux venant de nos bons amis d ' Outre-Atlantique. Odette Cadart-Loomis ' 47 DRAMA AFTER we gave Murder in a Nunnery, we thought ■ we had finished the last word in clever plays and that we never would find anything equally good. But the nineteen forty-six Shield Day play and Christmas play could hold their own, even with Murder in a Nunnery. It takes three things to make the drama suc- cessful in the college year: well chosen plays, talented and w ell-trained actors, and a competent instructor. We have been fortunate in meeting all three require- ments. In the first half-year the emphasis was entirely on plays, and in the second on musical productions. Mrs. Angela Grebel Sullivan, who has succeeded Hedwiga Reicher as instructor in dramatic art, was fortunate to find a group of interested students, who were fortunate to have her as an instructor. So quietly did play practice go on, that the plays have come off before we knew it (and we hear it rumored that the reading of plays in class is most impressive) . For the 147

Page 150 text:

connue de tous les San Franciscains, fit don a notre club de differents objets de valeur pour une loterie que nous organisames au profit de I ' institution dont je viens de parler. Nous recoltames une petite somme, qui vient d ' etre envoyee a L ' Asile des Freres de Saint Jean de Dieu, a Paris. Notre club desire maintenant s ' interes- ser au parrainage de jeunes orphelins fran ais. Par I ' intermediaire de Monsieur Gassion, dont la cordialite et la bonne humeur bien fran aises sont connues des membres du Salon , adresses et ren- seignements concernant plusieurs jeunes orphelins (dont les parents sont morts dans les camps de concen- tration ou furent fusilles, victimes de leur patriotisme et de la barbaric nazie) viennent de nous parvenir. Et le prochain projet a I ' ordre du jour du Salon est d ' organiser une collecte de vetements usages et d ' en- voyer des colis a nos filleuls et filleules, pour que Paques leur soit cette annee ce qu ' il etait avant la guerre, le jour des friandises et des gateries, qu ' ils trouveront dans les paquets avec des vetements et des chaussures, ce qui ne sera certes pas un luxe! Maisle secours materiel ne va pas sans I ' aide morale! Et nos marraines se reuniront pour ecrire des lettres ou elles mettront tout leur coeur, toute leur tendresse, grandes soeurs d ' Amerique pour ces malheureux petits fran ais qui souffrent la solitude et la misere. 146

Page 152 text:

plays themselves, the Shield Day play and the Christ- mas play have aroused universal applause. Both plays also aroused discussion. The first was more generally liked than the second, but the reactions to it were almost as interesting as the play itself. On the surface there is so large an element of com- edy in Ladies in Retirement that the tragic suffering of the main character, to many people, was lost. The situation is this: a woman of fierce maternal instincts loves her two half-witted sisters as a tigress her two cubs , and for love of them she murders her employer, a woman who has been her best friend. The two half- witted sisters furnish the main comedy, and to many of the audience their comic acting swept away all the other issues. To others their comic scenes were as pathetic as amusing. To some it seemed amoral, and to others it seemed a fine criticism of life, a moving and ironic representation of the futility and the folly of sin. Henri Gheon ' s Christmas in the Village Square was almost a shock to some of the audience who expected a traditional pink and blue Christmas play. A band of strolling gypsy players present the story of the Nativity realistically, but with moving tenderness. To the con- servatives their realism seemed irreverent, but to those who laid aside their preconceived notions of 148