The Rice Thresher (Houston, Tex.), Vol. 52, No. 21, Ed. 1 Thursday, March 11, 1965 Page: 3 of 10
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CARTE NOIRE
Players Shine In One-Acts
By LAWSON TAITTE
One-acts '65, an ambitious
production of five plays twice
each in four nights, demonstrat-
ed the breadth of skill and dedi-
cation to work that the Rice
Players can offer. The playbill
listed 56 of them responsible
for uniformly handsome staging
as well as strong acting and
directing.
The three longer plays es-
pecially were obviously in the
hands of directors who knew
what they wanted and got it.
Beverly Wehking directed
Georg Buechner's "Leonce and
Lena." The translation was
somewhat clumsy to work with,
but Miss Wehking produced a
tightly knit show distinguished
by great precision and a large
number of funny performances.
"No Exit," by Jean-Paul Sar-
tre, hopefully was not a major
factor, in last year's Nobel Prize
award. It has never seemed to
me, for one, a very good play,
Sounds
By JOHN DUNLAP
The Rice Symphony Society
under Dr. James O'Neil ran
its experiment in musical de-
mocracy Sunday night at the R.
M.C., and the results were lust-
ily endorsed by the Society's
largest audience this season.
Familiar works by Rossini,
Beethoven, Strauss, and Proko-
fiev were performed; and as
usual, the orchestra was able to
compensate for a certain lack
of ensemble discipline by put-
ting on an almost astonishing
display of individual talent.
O'Neil began the concert
with a spirited reading of Ros-
sini's "Barber of Seville" over-
ture. He showed good dynamic
sense throughout, and his play-
ers paid close attention to the
baton. Unfortunately, the Ros-
sini work makes extravagant
use of the tutti sound, which is
its faults being the strainings
of the plot and the stresses of
its very, very emphatic speeches.
These proved to be the faults
of Roger Glade's production.
There is a great shortage of
really good one-act plays; "No
Exit" is much better than most
and at least stage-worthy. But
the way to do it is surely not
to underline every word and add
exclamation points to the few
lines that do not already have
them.
Yet again Glade had admir-
able control of his actors and
possesses the most solid grasp
of techniques of the five direct-
ors. Blocking was meticulously
planned, and skillfully executed
by the four actors.
Garcin, Bill Seward, suffered
most from his director's ap-
proach; the lines are shrill in
the script and the part demands
restraint to make it bearable.
Seward gave his all, and his
all was too much.
the main department in which
the Society may tend to be
weak. In this performance, the
high moments were quietly pro-
vided by the wind section. Solo
work by clarinetist George
Bright and by trumpeter Nel-
son Hatt was conspicuously
good.
Strings Excellent
The second selection was Al-
legretto from the Beethoven
Seventh Symphony. O'Neill in-
terpreted the tempo marking
loosely, choosiing to conduct the
work in a slower, grander style
than is customarily heard.
'"Tales From the Vienna
Woods" by Strauss finished off
the first half of the conceit.
The orchestra rumbled through
the familiar old medley with
little difficulty, and in fact
sounded better than they had in
(Continued on Page 8)
The triple 'bill on March 6 and
7 again proved the wisdom of
the flayers' plan of training
their one-acts directors by using
them as assistant directors in
major productions. The direct-
ors of all the plays were new
at their jobs, but far more cap-
able than that statistic seems to
indicate.
It is rare in any production
not to have a single crippling
weakness, but each performance
in all five shows was far above
that level. This is largely the
directors' doing, and I look for-
ward to seeing what they could
do with some experience behind
them. I hope they get such an
opportunity soon.
The single strongest produc-
tion was that of "The Public
Eye," written by Peter Schaffer
and directed by Joe Parsons.
Here the director's control was
matched by rare discipline on
the part of three capable ac-
tors. The effect was tremendous.
Dr. John E. Parrish perform-
ed wonderfully a character part
that carried the play and the
evening. Tom Demetrician nev-
er strayed from a well-defined
character, and Gretchen Vik
gave a strong, graceful per-
formance as Belinda.
Colleges: Kindergartens or Communities?
(Continued from Page 2)
the past seven years made great
progress toward a civilized at-
mosphere; progress within even
the past three years has been
noticeable.
While recognizing the valid-
ity and necessity of these social
obligations, we do not feel that
the university or the college
should assume the responsibility
of protecting individuals from
the consequences of their own
choices. The official attitude to-
ward moral decisions should be
that, on the whole, students are
sufficiently mature and educa-
tionally motivated that they can
be trusted to make decisions for
themselves. Creating an atmo-
sphere conductive to that ma-
turity and educational motiva-
tion should be a primary goal of
the college.
B. RELATIONS WITH THE
COMMUNTY:
The actions of college mem-
bers will have poitical and eco-
nomic consequences within both
the university and the larger
community outside, and mature
students will take cognizance of
these consequences. Some con-
crete examples were the facul-
ty reaction to the behavior at
the slime parade skit (witness
the "Tired" Professor's letter
in the Thresher) and Will Rice's
inability to rent a motel for this
year's Pajama Party after last
year's incident.
'Filthy Speech Movement'
(Continued from Page 1)
by the total University com-
munity."
The reaction of educators and
statesmen around the country
was one of general support to
the resigning president of Cal-
ifornia's university s y s tem.
Governor Edmund G. Brown
commented, "I intend to do ev-
erything within my power to
see that he (Dr. Kerr) rescinds
his action of resigning as pres-
ident of the university."
Brown Denounces Filthies
"I think it's a terrible shame
tlmt a few thoughtless students
led by a handful of trouble-
makers can hurt the reputation
of the greatest university in the
world and cause its brilliant
president and a hard-working
chancellor to resign," the Dem-
ocrat governor contended.
Also speaking in Kerr's de-
fense was Dr. Buell G. Galla-
gher, the president of City Col-
lege in New York City.
Galagher had served a sev-
en-month term as First Chan-
cellor of California State Col-
leges in 1961-1962, but had re-
signed under heavy fire from
right-wing groups who accused
him of harboring Communist
sympathies. The occasion for
his speech was a meeting of the
Association for Higher Educa-
tion, an .affiliate of the Nation-
al Education Association, in
Chicago.
r
Dr. Gallager was quoted by
Ferrer as saying that Dr. Kerr
was the victim of an attack of
the "irresponsible far-out left.'
Colleges and universities have
defended academic free dom
against McCarthyism, the Ku
Klux Klan, the John Birch So-
ciety and other groups . . . Just
as surely we must be on guard
against the 'take-over' mentali-
ty of student groups'."
Galagher added, "In Californ-
ia, as in New York, as in Ala-
bama, indeed, wherever men ot'
conscience and good will are
confronted by the organized ef-
fort of contentious and angry
partisanship, the search for
truth is in grave danger.
"Within the groves of Aca-
deme this means that no man
is safe or secure. It means the
end of academic freedom and
the beginning of the reign of
unreason," Gallagher conclud-
ed.
Pitzer Awaits Facts
Rice president Kenneth S-
Pitzer, who was the Dean of
the school, of chemistry at Ber-
keley before accepting the Rice
presidency, told the Thresher
yesterday that he is "very much
surprised" at the resignation of
Berkeley Chancellor and Presi-
dent.
"My only comment," said
Pitzer, "is that I do not have
enough information yet to judge
what is going on."
Dr. Pitzer declined to specu-
late concerning the cause of the
resignations,, but added that he
would possibly have some fur-
ther comments when he had
learned more of the facts con-
cerning Kerr's resignation.
Noticeable among those alt-
sent in this newest Berkeley
"controversy was Mario Savio,
firebrand leader of the Free
Speech Movement among the
University students.
Having recently completed a
series of speaking engagements
in the East^ Savio was in Sel-
ma, Alabama, participating in
the planned civil-rights march
on Montgomery.
Savio did comment that there
would be future campus mass
demonstrations if the resigna-
tions of Dr. Kerr and Dr. Mey-
erson lead to suppression of stu-
dent political activities.
Savio is not enrolled in Ber-
keley this semester because of
the great demands on his time,
but plans to re-enroll next se-
mester.
The so-called "filthy speech
movement" is an outgrowth of
Savio's own Free Speech Move-
ment, although some estimates
held that it had been active for
only ten days and that less than
two dozen students were in-
volved, a rather low guess in
view of the 76 arrested last
week.
Meyerson Rakes Filthies
Dr. Meyerson also released a
statement commenting on the
As the Rules of Residence
state, "The en forcement of laws
never succeeds unless the mem-
bers of th community governed
by the laws individually respect
them and accept responsibility
for upholding them." Thus, ef-
fective regulation based on
widespread understanding of the
pressure involved and the
translation of the pressures
into standards of conduct. How-
ever, the college members' basic
rights as students: and citizens
should never be infringed upon
by considerations of community
reaction.
C. THE DILEMMA OF STU-
DENT GOVERNMENT:
At present, no one who runs
for a college office is very much
interested in matters relating
to rules and regulations; the
perennial hope is that problems
of discipline will not assume
such importance that they divert
one's attention from the con-
structive programs of the col-
lege.
However, • when either the
administration or the students
put pressure on the government
for change in the rules or en-
forcement procedures, the gov-
enment has essentially no means
of justifying one side's desires
to the other.
When the administration re-
quests rales or procedures which
do not seem necessary or de-
sirable to the college members,
actions of the "filthy speech
movement." He said, "The four-
letter word signs and utteran-
ces had a significance beyond
the shock impact."
He called them "the last
straw of contempt ... 1 share
the indignation of those that
wish that our campus be rid of
contentious and intolerant be-
havior."
The most recent developments
at Berkeley have brought to the
foreground still another com-
paratively unexplained aspect
of the pressure faced by the
university president. Early spec-
ulation had it that Kerr's resig-
nation was a result of his in-
ability to compromise the ac-
tions of the student right
groups with his own ideas for
the basic university plan.
It was then shown that this
was not the conflict at all; in-
stead, there was the deeper
problem of the friction between
the university president and
the administrative-faculty body.
It was to this faction, and not
to Savio's "angry young men,"
that Kerr was forced to yield.
But the strife-torn Berkeley
faculty h a d already shown
signs of support for Dr. Kerr
and Dr. Meyerson. Late Tues-
day night the Emergency Exec-
utive Committee, elected by the
1,500 faculty members of the
Berkeley Academic Senate, was
urging the two men to recon-
sider and remain in office.
the government is apprehensive
of being put in a position like
that of the Air Force Academy
honor system and losing the
popular support which is neces-
sary for the programs it con-
siders important.
On the other hand, acceding
to student demands (sometimes
made without knowledge of all
the relevant facts) would often
involve a default of the govern-
ment's obligation to the univer-
sity and weaken its effective-
ness in securing for college
members freedom from arbi-
trary university disciplinary
action. As matters are handled
now, the time spent and en-
thusiasm wasted in resolving
these conflict situations is the
real hidden cost of the present
system.
The administration and the
students have very seldom dis-
cussed the underlying objectives
of the rules and regulations;
such dialogue as now takes',
place centers around the letter
of the law. When, as has hap-
pened this year, most cabinet
meetings involve a discussion
of university-imposed rales, the
constructive programs of the
colleges inevitably suffer and
the students who should have
better things to be concerned
with are embodied in superficial
disputes.
1). PROPOSAL:
It should be officially re-
cognized that the college g-.>\ -
ernments can effectively en-
force only those standard.-; o1
conduct which the college mem ■
bers respect and assume 're-
sponsibility for. The basic
expectations the administration,
and faculty have of each college,
should be stated in a mature
form, leaving the specific im-
plementation to the college it-
sel f.
Because of this addfd re-
sponsibility, the colleges would
need to institute, method* i;'
maintain a greater degree . ,
year-to-year c o n t i n u i t: y
policy than is found at: present:.
Chronic ineffectiveness of a
particular college to discharge
its obligations should be re-
cognized not by the overruling
of specific actions l>v its*-court
but by placing the coll ego on
some kind of probation.
Other colleges should noi be
penalized for one college's mis-
takes. So long as the basic
expectations are met, each col-
lege would be essentially auto-
nomous i-n the area ot' regula-
tion of behavior.
The statement was signed
by Tom Schunior. WRC Presi-
dent '64-'65; Gary Thom,
WRC President '62-*63; G. L.
Winningham, Baker President
'64-'65; Jan Lodal, Wiess
President '63-'6t; William T.
McGregor, Wiess President
'64-'65; William H. Timme,
SA President '64-'65; Tom
Giesen, r-WRC President '61-
'62; Brian Lewis, WRC Court
'63-'6r>; Lawrence A. Yeat-
man, Jr., Hanszen President
'64-'65; Christine Keller,
Jones President '64-'65; and
Hngh Rice Kelly, Thresher
Editor '64-'6i) [ex post facto].
THE RICE THRESHER, MARCH 1 1, 19 6 5—P A G E 3
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Kelly, Hugh Rice. The Rice Thresher (Houston, Tex.), Vol. 52, No. 21, Ed. 1 Thursday, March 11, 1965, newspaper, March 11, 1965; Houston, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth244939/m1/3/: accessed May 5, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting Rice University Woodson Research Center.