The Rice Thresher (Houston, Tex.), Vol. 48, No. 29, Ed. 1 Friday, May 12, 1961 Page: 5 of 8
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FRIDAY, MAT 12, 1961
THE THRESHER
Five
'lolanthe' Presented;
Cast, Crew Applauded
Rice University revived one of
its happiest traditions through
the presentation of "lolanthe" on
the nights of May 7 and 8. In
the spirit of another pleasant
tradition recently renewed when
^ IhfRice Players performed "As
¥w Like It" on the same worthy
scaffold of Hamman Hall, the
production was a joint faculty-
student enterprise and was of-
fered free to an admiring public
that grew from a half house on
Friday to an enormously enthu-
siastic and nearly full house on
Saturday.
A story of transformation,
lolanthe whisks the bemused spec-
tator into a world half faerie,
half Arcadian—and wholly Vic-
torian, in the good and forgotten
sense of a world of institutions
that could be safely and delicious-
ly mocked precisely because they
were institutions.
PRIME CREDIT for the excel-
lent production is due to Arthur
Hall, who expertly directed an
ensemble of nearly thirty musi-
cians and focused the stage ac-
tion. Behind-the-scenes direction,
a major factor in any successful
performance, was handled by
Marge Pitkanen and Sue Thorp
(Mrs. Etaoin Shrdlu).
Walter Keith and Shirley Hall
competently sang and delight-
fully acted the leading roles of
Strephon and Phyllis. James C.
(Bud) Morehead, a lovable "sus-
ceptible" Lord Chancellor, tri-
umphed especially in the diffi-
cult "When you're lying awake"
and in his vaudeville skit with
Lord Tolloller and Lord Mount
Ararat. The comic pantomime of
Jack Conner as the Earl of Toll-
oller lent high rank to the en-
tire production, and Ronald Vince
as the Earl of Mount Ararat very
nearly stole the show with a
genuinely operatic voice projected
from a Mephistophelean visage.
OTHER MAJOR roles were ac-
ceptably carried by Ellen Sweet
as the surprisingly shrewish
Fairy Queen, and Dorothy Iliffe
as the title character whose re-
turn from banishment for marry-
ing a mortal motivates and sets
the dominant note of the plot.
Tom Brackett, in the mainly si-
lent part of Private Willis, was
converted by makeup and the
largest shako on record into a
g o o s e-stepping, seven-foot-tall
guardsman perfectly contrived to
bring down the house when he is
magically transformed by a tiny
pair of fairy wings cunningly
hung upon him by Jo Marie Holt
while he is stiffly pledging fealty
to his Queen. Miss Holt was the
spryest member of the Fairy
Chorus that furnished a general-
SMUGGLED FROM LIBRARY
ly lively background of song and
dance for the downstage action.
TAKING THEIR CUE from
comedy of an ageless lolanthe
with a grown son ("For she's sev-
enteen, and .he is five-and-twen-
ty"), the directors skillfully play-
ed up the contrasts inherent in a
cast composed of all degree of
maturity from bearded youth to
the sixth age of Jaques. The same
sense of pleasant paradox gov-
erned the costuming (by Clare
Durst): it was a mishmash of dif-
ferent styles in perfect keeping
with the olio nature of the op-
eretta.
A word of praise is also due to
the tasteful scenery executed by
the Architecture Department, to
George Williams for his helpful
program notes, and to Madith
DeZurko for filling a double role
as the fairy Celia and as the
underground gnome known as Co-
ordinator, whose indispensable
theatrical function is to make all
the stage a world.
—J. D. THOMAS
Faculty . . .
(Continued from Page 1)
presentatives of which will from
time to time meet with the Com-
mittee to provide denominational
representation in campus re-
ligious activities.
OFFICES IN THE chapel
wing of the Memorial Center
will not be available to religious
associations or their advisors
during the coming academic year
since the limited use of these
facilities will not justify the con-
tinuance of this policy in the
face of serious space shortages
during the coming year.
Participation of students in
the off-campus activities of their
various denominations is ap-
proved of and encouraged by the
University. However, very ser-
ious misunderstandings have
arisen from denominational use
of campus facilities and in the
future rooms will not be avail-
able for denominational or any
other type of religious meetings
not sponsored by the Faculty
Religious Committee.
Old Parchment Found/
Students Made Front
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—
The last Druid disappeared
from Western Europe fifteen
hundred years ago, and with him
went the whole body of Druid
tradition, superstition, mythology,
and history. Since that time large
numbers of organizations have
claimed the Druids in their lin-
eage; some have gone so far as
to claim some knowledge of the
ancient rites.
None of these claims was
taken seriously until a group of
students, gathered from far parts
of the world at Rice for the study
of Celtic cabals, came on a fold-
ed piece of parchment among
some old, unbound National Geo-
graphies.
THE GROUP SWORE an oath
of silence; their discovery was
cautiously concealed from Sarah
Lane until the manuscript could
be smuggled out of the library
in a false-bottom briefcase. The
parchment was unfolded in semi-
darkness onto a piece of formica
and covered with a clear plastic
sheet in order to protect it from
further deterioration.
Then the arduous process of
transcription, transliteration and
translation began. It took hun-
dreds of hours but at last the task
was completed. It was a record of
the Druid mistletoe ceremony as
it was practiced in well secluded
retreats by the last devoted ad-
herents of Druidism in the latter
part of the fifth century.
NEVERTHELESS, their dis-
covery could not be kept secret
long; they would have been dis-
covered had it not been for the
clever front organization they in-
stigated among a few undergrad-
uates with more ebullience than
sense.
While faculty members and the
Library Secret Service were busy
investigating the undergraduate
organization, the manuscript was
smuggled into Louisiana where
rumor has it, it was hidden for
several days in the LSU library.
Then in a series of sudden moves
it was sent north to Yale, and
thence by jet (concealed in a ship-
ment of top priority missile parts,
one source maintains) to a hiding
place in the Florida everglades.
The local group disbanded a
short time later, but they had
served their purpose. A spokes-
man for the original culprits
promised in a recent letter to
send a translation of the manu-
script to the library, but he has
not been heard from since the
invasion of Cuba.
—D. A.
Conservative Group
Organizes At Rice
During the past few months,
a small group of Rice students
has been holding informal study
sessions to inform themselves
on conservative policies.
To date, the study group has
brought in several speakers, in-
cluding William E. Loosey, a
retired trial lawyer for Texaco
and noted constitutional con-
servative.
The group, according to mem-
ber Boyd King, plans to be-
come a formal body at the end
of the present academic year.
It will begin active support of
conservative ca.nd i d a t e s for
public office and other activi-
ties next year.
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The Rice Thresher (Houston, Tex.), Vol. 48, No. 29, Ed. 1 Friday, May 12, 1961, newspaper, May 12, 1961; Houston, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth231182/m1/5/: accessed July 18, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu.; crediting Rice University Woodson Research Center.